What Is The Assembly?--Part 1

“I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven” (Matt. 16:18, 19 NASB Update). “What Is The Assembly?” is our subject today and for the next several weeks.

In the midst of all the “winds of doctrine” blowing today, it takes a sincere desire and diligent study of Scripture to recognize God’s assembly. One must be taught exclusively by Scripture, therefore rejecting all man-made dogmas, opinions, and traditions of various religious groups. In a world where more than 20,000 religious denominations exist, one is forced to ask the question, How many qualify to be called the assemblies of Jesus Christ? This question calls for other questions. Does Jesus Christ add His sheep, when they are regenerated, to false assemblies?

“Children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen; from this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know” (I John 2:18-20 NASB). The main purpose of the Gospel of John is how to be saved. The main purpose of the first epistle of John is that you may know that you are saved. Note how many perfect tense verbs there are in the five chapters of I John. In I John 2:18, “children” refers to the children of God, not professing Christians.

Scripture teaches there are false christs, a false gospel, a false spirit, and a false church. Paul said to the Corinthians, “But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully” (II Cor. 11:3, 4 NASB). John said to the angel of the church in Ephesus, “I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan” (Rev. 2:9 NASB). Those added to the assembly in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost were “passive,” which means they had no choice in the matter. They were acted upon by the Spirit within them; therefore, as they were baptized, all that mattered to them was the fellowship with other believers.

There is another important question: Can God’s truth become obsolete (outmoded, or out of date)? True theology is relative to the Word of God. Thus, it is occupied in continuous, attentive, and obedient listening to the Word of God. Listening, unlike remembering, is always a thing of the present. Therefore, theological questions must be relative, not to the times, but to the eternal truth of God. That is why Christ told the unsaved Jews, “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day” (John 12:48 NASB). This is the same message, the same old message that is always a new message. Recently, a parent who had several children who were not Christians stated the following: I am a Christian, and I am thankful for that. I have the responsibility of bringing up these children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and subjecting them to the teaching of God’s word on important issues, whether they are Christians or not. I can’t save my children or be assured that they will go to heaven. However, I may be able to save them from an awful judgment if I teach them things, and they abide by the teaching. They will not be as sinful, and their judgment and punishment will not be as great. There are degrees of punishment in hell, as well as degrees of reward in heaven. Proverbs said, “Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6 NASB). This does not mean that he will become a Christian.

This is timely question: Does not every believer have the right of private judgment? Private judgment must never be interpreted to mean unrestrained license. Private judgment must be controlled by the contents of Scripture, grammatically expressed. Some abuse the true concept of private judgment by saying, “A man has the right to be in the wrong.” That really brings up a serious question. Has man’s accountability to the Great Lawgiver been abrogated? Every person is responsible to God. What about philosophy? Paul said, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ” (Col. 2:8 NASB). What about conscience? Luke tells us about Paul’s statement before the Council (Sanhedrin). “And Paul, looking intently at the Council, said, Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day” (Acts 23:1 NASB). Conscience, to the Christian, is the practical judgment that one makes of himself and of his actions―what he should and should not do, and what he has and has not done―with reference to the judgment of God. However, the conscience is not so powerful that it cannot be made subservient to passion, self-interest, and abuse.

Conscience is the soul’s glass and the understanding’s light. The very term conscience imparts that there is some law by which conduct is tried and the error or rectitude of it is determined. Hence, the conscience void of offence toward God means a conscience is clear of transgression. In Acts 24, Paul was charged with the crime of leading people astray by his preaching and conduct. In view of this charge, the apostle said, “…I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men. Now after several years I came to bring alms to my nation and to present offerings; in which they found me occupied in the temple, having been purified, without any crowd or uproar. But there were certain Jews from Asia―who ought to have been present before you, and to make accusation, if they should have anything against me. Or else let these men themselves tell what misdeed they found when I stood before the Council, other than for this one statement which I shouted out while standing among them, For the resurrection of the dead I am on trial before you today’” (Acts 24:16-21 NASB).

God-called men are not orators of acquired words, but witnesses of revealed facts. Paul knew he could not get human justice from religious Jews, but he was determined to state the facts. He went so far that he touched the subject of capital punishment. He said, “If then I am a wrongdoer, and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die; but if none of those things is true of which these men accuse me, no one can hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar” (Acts 25:11 NASB).

True believers, who are students of Scripture, know they are at a disadvantage today. Many of the so-called lawmakers are revealing their hatred for the God of the Holy Scriptures. They hate the eternal Son of God who is the way, the truth, and the life. Furthermore, they cannot take the statement, “No one can go to the Father except through Jesus Christ.” It is wonderful to see that long-continued hardships and human injustices did not sour Paul’s spirit. God ordains such trials for the manifestation of Christian character. Paul did not let Christians of those last days down, because he manifested the same certainty, dignity, and defense of Biblical principles before the human courts of his time. Paul put the law in its proper place. As for the temple, he honored it as the great type of God’s eternal purpose. As for Caesar, the emperor had no subject as loyal as the apostle who rendered to Caesar the things that belonged to Caesar. What more can one ask of its citizens?

Christianity is not a product of God and man. There is no greater task for Christians than that of destroying a man’s faith in his own religion. It is easier to argue a man out of anything other than out of his religious creed. He has often given up his home, friends, and life for his creed. Pride, policy, and fear bind many religionists to their own creeds. The purpose of Holy Scripture is to dispel ignorance, correct errors, and remove opposition.

Before leaving this particular mood of thinking, something needs to be said about the manifestation of the spiritual life. The spiritual life is not to be measured by being orthodox in some human creed. There are many heretics who are profound theologians in their particular religions. It is not how much knowledge one has concerning his religion, but what does he believe? It is not how regular one is in his attendance. The Scribes and Pharisees were faithful in attendance. Is it measured by an attachment to some particular minister? The answer is no, because Herod heard John the Baptist gladly (Mark 6:20). Is it conviction of sin? No. Simon believed and was baptized (Acts 8:12, 13), but he had not repented (Acts 8:21-23). The following statement was on a church marquee: “Jesus alone can save the world, but He cannot save the world alone.” That is nothing but confusion twice confounded.

In giving spiritual life to the elect, God needs no help and neither does He use means in any creative act. Birth is neither the cause nor the beginning of life itself; it is the manifestation of life. James said, “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be, as it were, the first fruits among His creatures” (James 1:18 NASB). In God’s work of illumination, conviction, conversion, and sanctification, the Spirit uses the Word as means; but in the initial working of making alive (quickening), God uses no means. Life always precedes birth, because the natural man is passive in regeneration. The natural man is not asleep; He is dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1).

It is inconsistent to teach that life comes by the grace of the sovereign God, and then contend that one must meet what is called the terms of the gospel. The terms are to believe what one is not able to hear and confess what he has never heard. The Scriptures teach that the sinner cannot “come to Me [Christ]” (John 6:44), “hear My [Christ’s]word” (John 8:43, 47), and “understand them [spiritual things]” (I Cor. 2:14). The sinner is dead spiritually. “Can” and “cannot” are used in a different sense respecting spiritual conduct from what they are when speaking of physical things. To say “one can do better” means he could if he would, but it does not mean that he can do that which he has no disposition to do. It is proper to say the student can make better grades if he would try harder, but he cannot love God if the love of God has not been poured out in his heart. Physically, the Christian can and does sin; but spiritually, the believer cannot live in sin (I John 3:6, 9).

An unregenerate person cannot be born of God by his faith in Jesus Christ. Scripture teaches a person is passive when he is born of God. “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born [has been born, gegennemenos, perfect passive participle nominative masculine singular of gennao] of the Spirit” (John 3:8 NASB). The statement “who has been born” is the translation of the inflected form of the verb gennao. The perfect tense is completed action with continuing results or completed action with a resulting state of being. The passive voice represents the subject as being acted upon by someone else. This is what the informed believer would call “eternal security,” because God always finishes what He starts (II Tim. 1:9). Therefore, Paul said to the Philippian saints, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6 NASB).

Assembly meetings are for the purpose of giving direction to the private life of believers, but they also must give guidance for the correct observance of our corporate life. One cannot talk about the authority of Scripture for his personal life, and ignore what it says about his assembly life.

The Christian must have a “rule” by which he seeks to live, and Scripture alone can give that rule. Thomas Goodwin said he had a rule by which he lived. When it came to major Biblical principles, he would not compromise. He stated that if one rejects some doctrine of an established religious denomination, he becomes an outcast. On the other hand, if he takes what is scriptural from many denominations, he will be criticized by all the denominations, because he will not conform to any man-made denomination. The fact is that the dissenter becomes an enemy of all man-made denominations. However, he pleases God because he seeks to become conformed to revealed (objective) truth.

Studying the works of the Puritans, plus a few sound doctrinal men of God subsequent to the Puritans, motivated me to publish the pamphlet HONORING THE TRUE GOD. The first paragraph in the introduction plus the twelve named Man-Made Doctrines are convincing enough to demonstrate the apostate condition of our times.