The Local Assembly

I'd like to touch a little bit on a few seeds concerning the local assembly. 1st Corinthians, please, chapter 1 and verse number 2. 1st Corinthians, chapter 1 and verse number 2. Unto the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Jesus Christ Jesus, called to be saints with all that in every place, call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and theirs. Chapter 4, please, and verse 17.

For this cause I have sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved Son, unfaithful in the Lord, who shall bring you unto remembrance of my ways which be in Christ as I teach everywhere in every church. Chapter 14, please, and verse 33. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.

We know the Lord will bless what we have read. My exercise would be to drop some seeds of truth concerning the local assembly. When I applied for the Nexus card to make it easy to get into the land of Canada, it required an interview at the border.

The American lady was quite friendly to me, and the Canadian gentleman was quite unique. So he asked me a question, and if there's any Canadians here, we have no problems, I assure you. He says, why do you want to get the Nexus card? And I says, well, I travel to different local assemblies, local churches, and I sometimes teach the Word of God, and it'll make it a lot easier at the airport, and it'll make it a lot easier going across the border.

He says, why would an old man like you be going to those churches to teach? I says, that's very simple. The younger ones know the doctrine of the church yet. Well, that may not be a true statement, and there might be younger ones here that know way more than I know, and God bless you, and I appreciate that, but I just want to look at a few of the seeds in the Word of God that we might be grounded in the Word of God, that we might be grounded, that this is the way and the walk therein.

Notice 1 Corinthians. It's often called the charter of the church. There is more local church teaching in the epistle of 1 Corinthians than any one epistle found in the Word of God.

69 times, if my arithmetic is right, it could be wrong. I don't always use a computer for my information. You would find that the word Lord occurs.

He is the head of the church, which is his body, but he wants the place of Lord in the local assembly. Gospel occurs 13 times, together occurs 12 times, come together comes four times, and we find love occurs 16 times what love is in chapter 13. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 says, in every place are all the churches.

So as I read this, I find that I have a divine blueprint from God telling us how to meet, how to gather, how to conduct ourselves for the honor and the glory of the one who loved us and gave himself for us. If we're to read in 1 Timothy chapter 3 in verse 15, it says that thou knowest how thou mayest behave thyself in the church of God, house of God. The assembly is not my assembly.

It's not your assembly. It's the Lord's assembly. I have the privilege to say at Chad's house.

Suppose he was gone for a few days, and I thought it would be really nice to put the easy chair outside and sit down in the sun, but I don't bring it back in, and today's rain kind of made things a little damper. He might say to me, John, what's going on here? Well, I really thought it would be nice to put the chair outside and you didn't get it in either. No.

Well, do you not realize this is not your house? We do not have the right to change what's found in the Word of God. We have the privilege to practice and carry out to show love to the one who loved us and gave himself, the principles and the precepts that are found in the Word of God. We find seeds in the gospel.

We find practices in the book of Acts, and we find teaching in the epistles, as we well know. And so as I weave through the Holy Bible, book divine, precious treasure, yours and mine, I will find divine instruction from the Word of God of how we're to gather and how we're to meet. In my college days in New York City, it's a gospel hall there downtown, I listened to a man by the name of T. Ernest Wilson once.

He wrote a book, Angola Beloved. I watched him walk into the audience, a gray-haired man, and I said to myself, that man knows God. He says, an assembly is a clear pattern of a warm, healthy, happy fellowship among autonomous local assemblies following the same outline pattern in the Word of God.

Error does not become truth because it is widely accepted. Truth does not become error because it stands alone. We need to base what we do, how we do, on the Word of God.

I didn't have the privilege to grow up in a Christian home, and where I was saved used to be a hall and it changed. I wrestled for a year and a half. The difference between the open table, the church which is his body, and the local assembly, and how to meet and how to gather, I guess I'm a slow learner.

There are clear truths in the Word of God. Our path, our practice, must be based on the Word of God or it's of no value at all. The Lord at Supper is a local assembly event.

It's not for the church which is his body. It's those that are in that assembly or those that can come with a letter of commendation or those of the same like doctrinal principle that are known amongst us have the privilege to come and remember him. We are not received to the breaking of bread.

We are received to the local assembly, to the privileges and the responsibilities of the local assembly. Sometimes in some assemblies when one is being received for the first time, the elder will stand and say so-and-so is being received into the assembly to enjoy the privileges and the responsibilities and the joys and the sorrows of the assembly. There are joys in the assembly.

There are times in the assembly when there are sorrows and it is a fellowship of believers together. When you come into 1st Corinthians chapter 1, as we know, it deals with the breaking of bread and it says in there let a man examine himself and so let him partake. What is the context there? It's not the man that came off the street, God bless him for coming, and says you know to the dear elder at the door, I have examined myself and I want to break bread.

The context is those in the assembly. Four times in that chapter, when you come together, when you come together. And so God is desiring that we rightly divide the word of truth.

That's why there's letters of commendation. You would remember the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 9, he has said to join himself, he was not received the first time and he was not just received by the recommendation of his brother. He attempted, he attempted as the rendering found in the Word of God.

When we deviate from the path found in the Word of God, it's dishonoring to God. When we deviate from the path found in the Word of God, we will lose reward at the judgment seat of Christ. God is not the author of confusion.

I wouldn't want to offend anyone. It doesn't matter what I think and it doesn't matter what you think. I don't want to be disrespectful.

It matters what the Word of God teaches us. And so God has given us a pattern. During the Vietnam War, I was an aircraft mechanic as a civilian.

Well familiar with calibration 707s, 747s, and the helicopters that were used. Went into construction to have more time for the things of God. Calibration, alignment was essential and God is desiring that if we are out of calibration when it comes to the things of God, that we would get it recalibrated by the truths that are found in the Word of God for his honor and for his glory.

The breaking of bread is a tremendous privilege. I remember the first time I sat back in the breaking of bread and the hymn was given, Abba Father, we approach thee in our Savior's name. I'm a lad in high school and the tears flow down from my face and I says, John, you silly fellow, you knew from God you should have been coming here for a few months and you didn't because you didn't want the opposition in the home when you got here.

And I realized on that occasion, this is where God is and this is where I belong. And shortly I was received, 1963, in the 10th grade. It's sweet every Lord's day.

It never gets old, it never gets stale, and it's where he is. The theme in the breaking of bread I want to suggest is Christ. We come with an exercise to attempt to tell the Father the beauties that are found in his Son.

I've got a small hand, I can't span a basketball. Some of you could carry two in one hand maybe, I don't know when I shake hands with you. God wants us to come with just a little fruit that's been picked, silently and audibly, sisters silent, brothers audibly, to thank God for his well-beloved Son.

When we come into the local assembly, we would find that the sisters are to be silent. The sisters are just as valuable as the beloved brethren. We find that the sisters are to have their heads covered and we find long hair taught in the Word of God.

What God is doing in the local assembly is putting in order what was out of order in the garden, where Eve took the first role and then Adam was dragging his feet, you might say. God is setting in order, beloved sister, what was out of order in the garden, and he's setting it order in the local assembly. The power of attraction in the assembly, well I know it wouldn't be me, my wife is always telling me, you look sloppy and your hair is messy, and I tell her there's not enough to keep it in place, but the power of attraction is the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he is the magnet that draws us unto himself, and he is the one that makes us have a desire to go. I read one time about a sister called Granny, and the younger saints went to her and said, Granny, can we ask you a question? Yeah. Well, we notice you have aches and pains the way you walk, but you're at all the meetings of the assembly.

Oh, she says, I'm so thankful I can be. We don't go to all the meetings. Can you tell us why that is? She says, it's one very simple thing.

Your feet will follow where your heart is. If your heart is where his is, your feet will follow. The prayer meeting is one of the most vital meetings of the assembly.

We need God. We need power. We can boldly come before the throne of grace to find grace to help in time of need.

If you've never had problems in your life, you let me know. I'd like to meet you, but I know that's not the case. An assembly meeting, assembly prayer meeting, is one of the most important meetings in the assembly, because we need God, and we need the power of God, and we can't function without God.

Or you could just have the years going, maybe, but it really wouldn't be any value at all, would it? And so I want to suggest that the prayer meeting is very valuable. I'm not going to get into the subject of reception in an assembly, really, but a proper scriptural reception in an assembly prevents many problems for the individual received and for the local assembly. When you come into chapter 14, we find the room of the unlearned.

It's at least 92 times. My arithmetic could be wrong, and you brethren that are more skilled on numbers and all could help me. It's an actual physical place, and we find there one sitting back, and he says, God is in you of a truth.

I suggest that when one finds out that God is in you of a truth, he's perhaps ready for the local assembly. We don't just get received through the breaking of bread. I remember we used to live in Jervis, Oregon.

We had a little five-acre place, and it was in the 70s. Linda had two sisters in from Vancouver, and they're chatting after the meal in the little home with our four little children, and she says, you know, I grew up in the Christian home, and my sister gave me some coaching how to get in the assembly because I was really nervous about being interviewed by the elders. So she says, when you're interviewed by the elders, just tell them, Matthew 18 and 20, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst, and I want to be there.

She says, that's what I did, and I was brought in the assembly. And she says, it was years later I really learned the truth. This is where the Lord is.

The pattern, the path found in the Word of God as we gather unto him outside the camp. Salvation is illumination from the Word of God of what the Lord Jesus has done on the cross at Calvary, and could I suggest that coming into the assembly and finding we gather unto him, we leave all systems and sects behind. I left the religion I grew up with my mother behind.

I left the man that had a robe and called himself a reverend behind, and the stained-glass windows and the big brass pipes with an organ choir singing. It was all left behind once I got saved, and I didn't want to go back, and I wouldn't want to join hands with anything like. I'm outside the camp.

I gathered unto himself. I trust that you beloved ones here, and you dear young ones here, it was thrilling to hear the testimonies and chat in the hallways, have got a real solid grasp. This is not a place.

This is the place where he has placed his name. The function in the assembly, which should be a hundred percent harmony, where the saints dwell together in unity, there the Lord commandeth the blessing. I'm often asked the question, well, how can we have unity? I says, you couldn't get a simpler question.

Well, give me the answer. If I attempt to follow the Word of God, and you attempt to follow the teaching of the Word of God, and my beloved brethren in the rows a little bit further back attempt to follow the teaching in the Word of God, 98% of the time we're going to be on the same page. We do not have the right to interject what we think, and don't just take what you've seen.

Be like the Bereans. Search the Scriptures daily to see whether these things are true. Valuable to buy the truth and sell it not.

Fellowship is sharing, it's partnership, it's laboring together. Fellowship is not considered just companionship. Fellowship is not maintained by compromising the truths of God.

Fellowship is on the grounds of what we believe from what the Word of God says. The mystery of fellowship, the center is His Son. Obedience to the Scriptures will bring one to the assembly, and obedience and a warm heart will hold one in the local assembly.

You can't reverse the order and expect it to work out right. There's a beauty of fellowship. The grounds are what we believe.

Our scope of fellowship is other autonomous assemblies of like doctrinal principles. We would never want to send our younger brethren or other brethren to a place where they would go, where they would see what is taught something different than the Word of God and come back confused. There needs to be care and caution that where they go, the doctrines they see practice, the principles they see practice, will coincide with the teaching of the Word of God.

Well, some places say they're in assembly and they got an open table. Others have a musical instrument. Others head coverings are not really required.

It's just up to you to do what you want. I'm not going to get into what is or what isn't, but we have a pattern in the Word of God, and I would not want a fellowship. I would not want to go.

There's plenty of places to go that are on a scriptural path, and neither would I want to send a younger one to a place that I know is not practicing the truths of the Word of God, because God is not the author of confusion. Fellowship is not what you and I believe, but it's fellowship on the grounds of what the Scripture teaches. It's not in man's heart to direct his steps.

The local assembly has a within and without. When we are received into the local assembly, it's for the privileges, the responsibilities, no moral sin, no undoctrinal error, you might say. Fellowship is reciprocal.

You are receiving that assembly, the principles, the precepts, and the teachings, so when you come in the assembly, don't have a desire to change it. That will only cause friction. Would we receive where we would not go? Would we send one to where we would not go? Agreeing on the doctrines of the local assembly must be based on the Word of God.

How can assembly be maintained? The greatest way to maintain an assembly and build up an assembly and bind an assembly is by solid doctrinal teaching. Oh, it's nice to have a picnic. It's nice to have a dinner or a social time of a dinner or something, but the work of God is maintained by the Word of God.

The local assembly is not a place for family discounts or standards to change because it's family. The blood test is a big test. I had to go to the doctor the other day.

I don't like to, and I hate it when they poke me with a needle because my veins are so deep they can't find them, so I'm like a porcupine, but the blood test is, will we hone the Word of God for all our families the same, all our friends the same? We're here to please the Lord, not to please one another. No local church has a controlling board. Each local church is autonomous and responsible to the risen head.

Our convictions must come from the Word of God. That's a fast view of some of the principles and the precepts that are found in the Word of God, that the local assembly and local assemblies might be built up, they might be strengthened, they might be encouraged, and there might be a younger generation realizing this is the way. Walk ye in it for the honor of the glory of the one who loved us and gave himself for it for his name's sake.