Assembly fellowship

I'd like to read with you again in 1st John chapter 1, where it was read from yesterday. 1st John 1, verse number 3. John writing says, that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that she also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. That you may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

Acts chapter 2 please. Acts 2 and verse 41. Then they which gladly received his word were baptized and the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls and they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in prayer and the breaking of bread and in prayers.

My exercise this afternoon is to speak to you about fellowship. John as he was the one who spent time at the breast of the Lord Jesus Christ and was called the disciple whom Jesus loved. As he writes many years later after all of that, he could say truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

Notice if you will, it's our fellowship. John marveled at that, that he could have that relationship and share that which is so wonderful with the Father and with the Son. And he says also that it is our fellowship, present tense.

It's not something that once we had and we lost or can't lose. It's impossible to lose this fellowship because it's a family fellowship. It's that that we have because of trusting Christ as our Savior and entering into the family of God.

And then he goes on and he says it's our fellowship, it's truly our fellowship, which is ours and it's not something that we shall have, but it is something that we enjoy presently. But I would like to speak to you on another fellowship, and that's where I like to spend most of my time today, and that is of a local assembly. I don't know if you've ever had the experience like I have, meeting Christians somewhere out and maybe on a bus, on a plane, at work, at school, and you enjoy a certain fellowship, that fellowship that we have, that is ours with the Father and with the Son.

The fellowship of knowing that we have the same Savior, we have the same salvation, and what a joyful experience it is that you're able to share these few thoughts together. And then all of a sudden, the person interjects a question, and asks you, what denomination do you belong to? Do you speak in tongues where you go? Ever have that happen? What did that person just do? He just broke the fellowship. You were enjoying the fact that you had the same Savior, you appreciated the fact that we have the same salvation, and you agree with the fact that there is salvation in none other, for there's none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

None other name under heaven. He is the only Savior. We all agree with that, but when it comes to gathering and where we meet and how we meet, sad to say, Christendom has gone into many different directions.

To ask you, what denomination do you belong to? It is as if that's the way it should be. It's become an accepted thing. It's become as that it is the right thing, because it's so predominant.

But I'd like to tell you, especially our young believers today, it's not the right thing. God does not want us to meet under any other name other than the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has made it very, very clear that where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

Why is it so clear that neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved? Why is that so clear to them? But when it comes to understanding where I should go, why do they have troubles that there's only one place and only one name to where we should gather? It's the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's the way God would have it. Don't settle for anything less, because that is what brings glory and honor to God and to His Son. You see, to put another name other than His name and meet it under that name is to say that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is not enough.

Those of us who are married, when our wives, or when we married our wives, we'll put it that way, most the time they take our names, and that means that they are identifying themselves with us. They've left their family name, their other name, to take on our name as their husbands. What would happen if someday you come home and your wife suddenly says to you, you know, honey, I appreciate the name you gave me when we got married, but I want to put another name on there.

I want to call myself Mary Jane Smith Rodriguez, or whatever, and she takes on someone else's name. Would you be happy? I think not, because it's so unnecessary, and it's not the name that she should have. And so it is with you and I when we gather to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You know, to be part of an assembly is the highest privilege in all the earth. It really is, because you're not just coming to a club. You're not just coming into even a Christian organization.

You're coming into fellowship, and that fellowship is based not on the opinions of the elders, nor is it based on the opinions of the people, nor is it based on your opinions. When you come into the assembly fellowship, you are saying that I agree with everything that the assembly stands for. I accept it's a mutual reception into the assembly.

You are received into the assembly, and you receive the assembly. And what is that mutual reception that you take on? It is saying that I agree with what God says in His Word on how we should gather. It's not a case that we are gathering together and saying, well, I like you, and we get along together, and we enjoy coffee and donuts together.

That's not fellowship. Fellowship is based upon the Word of God. Everything we do, just as Moses built the tabernacle, everything he did, he was shown a pattern when he was in the mountains.

He was given instructions exactly how things should be done, and Moses had to follow that pattern. He had to do exactly what God said, and he had those around him that helped him. Everybody worked together, and when the product was finished, God manifested His pleasure, and what was done by His presence, His glory that filled that tabernacle.

What made that tabernacle different than any other structure in the world in that day was the presence of God in the midst of His people. His glory made it a special place. That is the same as it is in the assembly.

What makes the assembly unique from all the other gatherings that are around us, the denominational names, even the places that say, well, we're non-denominational, all these other places, what makes it unique? It is here where we recognize the Lordship of Christ in the midst of His people, and we submit to His Word and to His will, and we seek to obey everything that is written for us, the principles that are laid out for us in the Word of God. And so fellowship is a very important thing in the eyes of God, and it's an important thing in the eyes of those who gather in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember, we think of the importance of it, remember Jacob that day in Genesis chapter 28.

He goes and he lays his head upon a pillow, and he begins to dream, and what is this dream? Well, he sees a ladder. Well, this is not just an ordinary ladder. This is a ladder that is linked with heaven and linked with earth.

It is a ladder where God is standing at the very top of it. And so as he sees all of this, he recognizes that God is in this place, and he says this is a dreadful place, even though at first he didn't recognize it. But there was something about this place that was dreadful.

It means it was awesome. It was unique. It was different than any other place.

And what made it unique? What made it unique was this, that it was a place that was linked with heaven, and heaven was linked with that place. Matthew chapter 18 gives us something similar. He says the things about that are agreed upon in earth are agreed upon in heaven, and what is agreed upon in heaven is agreed upon in earth.

And he brings out before us in chapter 18 of Matthew in verse 20, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. How is it that we take on and are sure that he's in our presence? When the assembly is linked with heaven, and when heaven is linked with the assembly. In other words, what we are doing is carrying out God's Word on earth, and that's what brings pleasure and joy to God.

Later on in Genesis in chapter 35, Jacob is on his way back, and he knows where he's going. He's going back to the house of God. He's going back to Bethel, but then he gives it another name.

It's called another name, I should say that. It's El Bethel, God of the house of God. In other words, he recognizes this is all of God, and it's all for God.

Nothing for men, nothing for our own personal pleasure. Beth, El Bethel, God of the house of God. Come over to the New Testament, and you have 1st Timothy in chapter 3, well-known verses to us, verses 15 and verse 16.

And Paul writes to Timothy there, and speaking about the believers there in Ephesus, that they might know they ought to obey themselves or behave themselves in the house of God. And he realizes that when you're in the house of God, there is the need, there is the must, because the word ought means must. How you must obey yourself, behave yourself in the house of God.

It requires obedience to the word of God. It requires unity and harmony in the things of God. And you think of that, will you not, as you think of that house of God? What is that verse linked with? It's linked with the Son of God.

Verse 16, great is the mystery of God. God manifested in flesh. And then he describes to us that which he sees in the Son of God.

And what is the purpose of all this? I believe it's this, that the house of God, the assembly of God, is a place that reflects the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is he who is in the midst of his people. And so the only thing that the world can, only place the world can go, really, to see Christ in all that he is, is to the house of God, to the assembly.

And so to be in fellowship, to be part of the assembly, is to be a part of something that is very special to God, and it should be a very special to you. That's my exercise this afternoon as I speak about the assembly fellowship. You may be in the assembly for many, many years.

Maybe you just recently came into the assembly. I don't know. But I hope that we never lose sight of the importance of this place, and what it should mean to me, and what it does mean to God.

So fellowship in the assembly, and what it means, and how it is so important. You know, another thing about fellowship is that it's something that really, it is based around the Word of God. That's what we have in these verses that we read together in Acts chapter 2 and verses 41 and 42.

There are three things that he says in verse 41 that only need to happen one time. There is the reception of the Word of God, or salvation. They gladly receive his Word, and let me just say quickly that Peter has been speaking in this chapter, and he has been speaking to them of the wonderful works of God, and he's explaining to them how they were guilty of crucifying the Lord of glory upon the cross.

Those very people that clamored for his blood, not but 50 days earlier, or a little bit more than that. And here he is at the day of Pentecost, 50 days from the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as he speaks this powerful message guided by the Spirit of God, it says that their hearts were pricked. They were realized, they were under a conviction of the awful deed that they have done.

They realized that they were guilty before God. You see, as you preach the gospel, the only way in which God can convict the sinner is when the sinner realizes how sinful his sin is in the sight of a holy God. And that's what they realized, their sinful condition in his sight.

And when they were under that conviction of sin, they gladly received his word. They were saved by God's grace. But then after they were glad to receive his word, they were baptized.

Salvation is a one-time experience. Baptism is a one-time experience. And then it says, they were added unto them 3,000 souls.

Reception into the assembly is a one-time experience. In other words, it is God who gathers you, where two or three are gathered together. The way in which that is written is this.

When you were received into the assembly, yes, you had to come under the conviction that this is where I want to be, and you asked for reception, and the brethren interviewed you, and if they were happy, they were able to receive you as the assembly. Not the brethren receiving you, the assembly received you. That should be a one-time experience that will never, you'll never repeat again, and you'll never leave the assembly.

God does not make mistakes. It is God who brings you into the gathering. He's the one who gathers you into the assembly.

I was thinking of Naomi. Naomi was a privileged person. She found a good husband.

She had two children. She lived in Bethlehem, Judah, house of bread. She had a lot going for her.

But then there was a drought. There was a famine, and something took place in Naomi's family. Could you call it an itch? An unsettledness? Dissatisfied with the place where she was? The house of bread wasn't enough.

It wasn't satisfying as once it did. Naomi and her family left the place of God's blessing. They went down among the pagans, among the heathens, and you know the story.

After losing her husband, after losing her two sons, she comes back to the house of bread. Her name means pleasantness. Ah, but when she came back, she was in great bitterness.

And as she comes back, she says, I went away full. But Naomi, I thought you said that there was a famine. I thought you left because there was nothing happening here.

You weren't satisfied here. I thought that was the reason why you left. Ah, she probably would have said, yes, that was the reason why I left.

But after I left, I realized that I was really full. And what I went to was terribly empty. I left the place where God put me.

And now I come back with a heart full of bitterness. And you know, she didn't put the blame on somebody else. She says, I went out.

And while she was out, she said, the Almighty has dealt with me, dealt bitterly with me. And then she says, the Almighty has afflicted me. I have no idea whom I'm speaking to this afternoon.

But I wonder, is there anyone, and you're contemplating leaving the assembly, and you have all the reasons why you should leave. And as you cite it up, you can justify yourself in each one of those reasons. May I warn you, kindly, I have talked to many of the people of God, many people who have left the assemblies.

I'll give you, cite one incident. A young man, so promising, a lot of potential. He became discouraged.

One time he asked a question in the Bible study, and he was cut down for it. Shouldn't have been, but he was. There were people that he felt were not being kind or friendly or loving to him.

And his wife was like, she wasn't real happy either. And they came to the day when they decided, we're not going back. It's over.

Several years later, he came to our house, and he said this. He said, Tom, whenever you meet anyone who is ready to leave the assembly, please tell them for me, the worst conditions in the assemblies are far better than the best conditions in Christendom. He said, I've had to find out the hard way.

I wish I never left. Now that's just one example, but it can be repeated over and over again. I don't know if there's anyone here, and you're like Naomi and her family, and you're thinking about, you know, things aren't going as good as they should.

Ah, brother and sister, instead of considering about leaving, consider about how you can put more into the assembly. Think about how you can become a greater contributor to that assembly where you are, that you are a part of. They need you, and you need the assembly.

And maybe you will be the turning point. Maybe you will, by God's help and God's blessing and by your much prayer, you'll be the one who, maybe a couple years down the road, you'll look back, the Lord be not come, and you'll see how God turned it around because you became exercised, and you wanted to see the assembly grow and prosper. So don't be a Naomi.

Don't go out full and come back empty. You think of other ways in which people leave the assemblies? You know, the assembly is a place where the doctrine of the Apostles doctrine that we read about is guarded very carefully, and because it is guarded, when a person falls in a moral sin and they commit a sin that needs to be judged on the part of the assembly, it is the responsibility of the assembly to put that person out of the assembly. The most difficult thing, the most difficult meeting of all the meetings in the assembly, is the meeting of having to put somebody out of the assembly because of immorality.

And yet, it is the responsibility of the assembly to preserve the fellowship, to preserve the dignity, the holiness of that place that God calls His house. And I think of the words of David as the news started coming back to him of the battle, and he heard of Jonathan, and he heard of Saul, and David lamented over and over again there in chapter 1 of 2 Samuel how the mighty have fallen. Ah, brethren and sisters, may God preserve us each one until He comes, or until He should take us home.

The fellowship of the assembly is so vital, so important, so much something that we all need, and it's something we should all cherish, and we should all love. You know, I wanted to read a passage, if I might, about the virtue of the assembly, the importance of every member of the assembly. If you will, to go to 1 Corinthians and chapter 12, please.

You see, the assembly is something that it's like an organism, not when there's harmony, it functions smoothly. I was coming up here Friday afternoon and driving up, I'm not sure what the road is, but going to the Van Mills, and as we were coming along, we saw these big tractors. Now you got to remember, we're city slickers, okay? And we saw these huge tractors, the double four wheels, you know, two wheels on either side, and our little Sebastian, he was looking at them, and as we go by, and he said, wow, he says, I feel like the little guy on my Legos, you know, I feel so small in comparison to those big tractors.

But as we came almost to our destination, we saw this huge tractor, and I don't know what he was pulling, well I do now, but I didn't at the time, pulling this great big planter, and I understand it's 48 rows at one time, now to a farmer, that's awesome. When I was a boy, we, we, I farmed out in Phoenix, Arizona, and we had a, I had a little case tractor that I drove in, and when we did planting, we had four buckets in the back, and we filled them up, and we'd go down the row, and when they get down the end of the row, you fill them up again, and you came back. That's about how good the technology was in those days, but now it's become very technical, and I was, I was talking to a couple of the brethren about it, and they were telling me how it's all lines up with, I'm not telling you anything you don't know, but anyway, all of these GPS's and, and, and everything, and you just sit there, and the machinery works, everything works automatically.

Why? Because somewhere's on that tractor, there's a little box, and it's the brains, and that little box is sending out all the messages, and everything is working in harmony, everything is working together for a finished product, and so it is with the assembly. It's not a little box, but it's the Word of God, and it is the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in our midst, and as we follow Him, and as He directs, everything is going to be working in harmony, but it wasn't that way in Corinth. Now, if I was writing, if I was the Apostle Paul, and writing to the believers in Corinth, I would have dealt with the big things first.

I would have rushed over to chapter 5, and I would have said, listen, there is immorality in that assembly, you got to deal with it. I would have jumped over to chapter 10, and I would have said, listen, there is, there is idolatry, mixing holy things with idolatry, we got to deal with this, but the Apostle Paul, guided by the Spirit of God, he went to the big thing first, and it was disunity in the assembly, and I would imagine if one little thing goes wrong with that box, and that planter out there, the whole thing breaks down, it stops. You know, fellowship means partnership, and as you work together, it's seen in Luke chapter 5, when those men, those fishermen working together, they were fishing.

Can you imagine, they used oars in those days, and they're rowing along, four on one side, let's say, and four on the other, and one of them all of a sudden decides, I'm going to go the other way. He starts rowing opposite of the others. What happens? There's a clash of the oars, and I'm sure the others can overpower him, but oh, how it's hindering the work.

They've lost sight of what they're supposed to do. They're supposed to catch fishes. They're in it together.

Brethren and sisters, we're supposed to honor God in the assembly. I'm not here to, for, that I can be happy, or I'm not here to do what I want to get done. I'm here to honor my Lord, and sometimes things happen that I don't like, and things I might have to do that I wish I didn't have to do, but I hope I'll do them, because he asked me to do them.

And here we find in 1st Corinthians chapter 12, he uses a human body, and he says, really, the assembly has body-like characteristics. But notice how he speaks. He says this, the body, in verse 14, is not one member, but it's many.

He says there's diversity in the body. Dear brother, dear sister, you are vital to that assembly where you belong, where you're part of. You're vital to it.

You're not just there to warm in a seat. You're not there just so that the brethren don't call you on Monday morning on their cell phones and say, where were you yesterday? You're a vital part of it. You wouldn't think about leaving your right arm at home.

You couldn't if you wanted to, but you wouldn't think about it. You wouldn't think about taking your liver and leaving it in the drawer at home. No, you come as one.

You're vital. Every part is vital. And then, so there is the diversity in the assembly.

And he goes down in verse 15, and he starts talking about the different members, and he starts with the inferior. He says, well, the foot can't save the hand. I am not.

I'm not necessary. And then, just for sake of time, he goes down in verse 20, and he gives the other side. He says, but now are there many members yet one body? He kind of flips the other side of the coin.

The first time it's one body with many members. Diversity. But now it's many members with one body.

Unity. And so he's stressing the importance of unity. And then he goes on and says, and what he says in verse 18, God set the members, every one of them, in the body as it hath pleased him.

Listen, when it's that way with your physical body, it is that way when it comes to the assembly and its body-like characteristics. God sets it there. Can you think of building a body better than this? Than yours? Wonderful Creator we have.

He made us just the way He wanted us to fit in this environment that He has put us. And listen, he says, none of those members, whether they be the major ones or the superior ones or the inferior ones in our estimation of things, none of those members, in verse 21 he says, can say, I have no need of thee. Two times over.

No one can say, I have no need of thee when it comes to the assembly members. And then he says in verse 22, we are all necessary, even the ones that seem the most feeble. Oh how vital, how important you are to the assembly.

Fellowship. The importance of it and how we need the assembly. I would like to just spend just one or two more minutes before I sit down.

When it comes to fellowship in the assembly, you have noticed, I know you have, that there is, in the breaking of bread meeting, there's a section in the back or on the sides and then there is a circle. And in that circle or in that square, there's a table and upon that table there's a loaf of bread and a cup of wine. And you might ask yourself the question, why do they do that? Why is it that they have this place? Well, you know, since I'm in Corinthians, maybe I'll just take time to read it.

Chapter 14. Why is it that there is that difference? Verse 16 says, and just to get the points, he speaks about a person who is occupying the room of the unlearned. And then in verse 23, he speaks about the whole church.

And again he speaks about the unlearned and this time he introduces the unbeliever. In verse 24, he speaks about the one that believes not and the one who is unlearned. Three groups of people.

There's first of all those that are in the assembly, the whole church, and that's the way God expects it to be on every meeting, everyone. And you'll be challenged about coming into the assembly. Can I take one moment to tell you a quick story? There's a young lady that came to our assembly after being sitting in the back for quite a while, observing, reading her Bible, praying, exercised about whether she should be in the assembly or not.

And she came to us a while back and she said, I'd like to be part of the assembly. She said, I observed it, and she said, this is the place God wants me to be. It was a joyful thing to receive her into the assembly meetings.

Man, she wasn't in the assembly about a month. And her boss came to her and says, listen, you are going to have to work on Sundays now. She came to us in tears, and she said, what do I do? I don't want to lose my job.

It's the best job I've ever had, and it's so close to home. I don't even need a car. In Los Angeles, that's a miracle.

What do I do? I said, I can't tell you what to do. All I can do is pray for you and tell you what the Bible says to do. We did.

She prayed about it the whole week before she had to meet her boss again. And she went to her boss and she said basically this. I am very sorry, but I have an appointment every Sunday morning with someone who is more important to me than my job.

And if it means being fired, that's how important it is to me. Boss says give me a week to think about it. Next week, she met her boss, expecting the worst but hoping for the best.

And her boss says, I understand. If that means that much to you, then I can trust you. And she still has her job today.

It doesn't happen that way every time. But you'll be challenged. How much does this fellowship mean to you? How much does the assembly mean to you? Here we have a group.

The first group is the whole assembly, met together, those that are in fellowship. And then there's those who are unlearned. They have nothing wrong with them.

They're perfectly good. They're Christians. We love them.

We appreciate them. Maybe there's some here today and you're in that category. Fine.

We have some at home that are that way. But that's the reason why there is a place for the unlearned. Because the doctrine of the Word of God must be protected.

The assembly must protect it. And you have to understand that this is what you're going to enter into when you get received into the assembly, if you are received. That you are receiving the assembly and all that it stands for as much as the assembly is receiving you.

And you can't be received into something you know nothing about. And I want to say this. Every one of us here that are in the assemblies, we had our time in the backseat too.

If we want to call it the backseat, I don't like it that. But anyway, if you want to call it the backseat, we had our time there too. And I want to tell you this.

I remember when I was a young boy saved in the backseat watching. And in the breaking of bread and eating, I worshipped the Lord just as much back there as I do now that I'm in the assembly. It doesn't stop you from worshipping the Lord if that's where you are.

Don't be playing games with your computer or with your cell phone. Listen, you're to be worshipping as well if you're saved. And then there are those who are not saved.

And of course, obviously, they should not be in the assembly, though they're there visiting. Well, why only is it in this one meeting? We don't do it here. We don't do it in the gospel.

Why only in the breaking of bread? Well, you have to go to chapter 10, and I won't take the time to do it. But there in chapter 10, it tells us that the breaking of bread, that of the cup that we bless, it was mentioned this morning in worship. And the actual breaking of bread, that bread that's on the table, that on a Sunday morning, in chapter 10, it represents the unity of the believers in the assembly.

That's what it means. In chapter 11, it represents the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a symbol of his body.

But in chapter 10, it's a symbol of the unity of the assembly. And for that reason, it is only in the breaking of bread meeting that we have that difference, because there is a symbol. There is that which shows that there is really a unity, there is a true fellowship among the believers that gather to his name in this particular assembly.