My relationship with believers not in the assembly and unsaved — A.J. Higgins

The Bond Shared by Every Believer

2 Corinthians 6. Paul's second letter to the Corinthians in chapter 6. Verse number 11, 2 Corinthians 6, verse 11,. O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. Ye are not straightened in us, or narrowed in us.

We're not making you narrow, but you're narrowed in your own bowels or in your own affections, what you're going in for, what you love. Now for a recompense in the same, I speak as to my children, be ye also enlarged.

So you'll see what he is working on, narrowness versus enlargement or broadening. And then amazingly, he says, the way to be broad, the way to be narrowed, rather the way to be enlarged, is be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

Now most would call that being pretty narrow-minded. But Paul says, here's how to be broad-minded, here's how to be enlarged. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?

What communion hath light with darkness? What concord hath Christ with Belial? What part hath he that believeth with an infidel? What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God.

As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them. I will be their God. They shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord. And touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you and will be a father unto you.

And ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Now one final section, John's first epistle, 1 John, and chapter 3. 1 John, John's first epistle, chapter 3 and verse 16. Hereby perceive we love of God, because he laid down his life for us.

We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's goods and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his vows of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth, chapter 4 and verse number 12. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Now we could have read many other verses. We will allude to them, but for the sake of time, we have just looked at these two important sections of the word of God to help focus our thinking and to help as a scriptural basis for what we will look at.

I have two themes before me. One is our bond and its obligations, and the other is our boundaries and obedience. Now when we are speaking about our relationship to those who are outside, and that is an expression that Paul uses, I dislike myself.

We refer to how many outsiders attended and someone who was an outsider getting saved, something distasteful to me about that expression. But Paul does use the expression, them that are without. And so we are speaking about them that are without, and there are two categories, and then there's two subcategories.

By two categories, I mean those who are saved, have taken the position of being saved, but are not part of an assembly, and then those who are unsaved. And then the two subcategories for those who are saved would be individuals.

How do I relate with individual believers who are not in assembly fellowship? And then how do I relate with systems, groups, organizations that take the place of being Christian, but which are outside of the assembly fellowship?

So let me talk first of all about the bond and its obligations. The first thing that's obvious is that as far as every believer that you and I meet, wherever he is, wherever he goes, whatever he believes, even if there's wrong doctrine, there is a link that we share, it is the link of life.

If they are saved, we have the same life. We are linked in the same body. We own the same Lord. We are traveling to the same land, so that there is a kinship, there is a link that we have with every believer who owns the Lord Jesus as Savior.

Truly born again, there is a link that we share together in Christ. The result of that is, there is a love that we show. There's a love that we show. I do not think that John's epistle is narrowing the display of my love for other Christians that just, you and yours, those in your assembly.

And if they're not in your assembly, you're not to know. John is the family epistle, the family of God, and he is embracing every believer. And so I am to show a love for every child of God. Wherever he goes, whatever group she attends, there is to be a love shown because of that link that is shared.

That love, according to John's writings, includes sacrifice of my persons. We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Small B, not big B, small B, we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

Now, for the most part, few of us will ever be called upon to physically sacrifice our lives. But it does carry the idea of serving and caring and an interest. So there should be that, a sacrifice of our persons, a sharing of our possessions.

John mentions that as well. If you see your brother have need and you don't give, how dwelleth the love of God in him? If your compassion is shut up and you have no care for another Christian, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

So there should not only be a sacrificing of my person, but a sharing of my possessions with those that have genuine need and a surrendering of my priorities, of a care and an interest for other believers.

Sharing the Word of God With Believers Outside the Assembly

So there's a link we share, and there is a love that we show. And as a result of that love, then there is light that we should be shedding, light to shed. We have an obligation to every believer, every child of God, everyone who we have confidence in that is genuinely saved, to share with them the light from the word of God that God has given us.

I don't mean that we need to be preaching at believers constantly. And while assembly truth is dear to my heart, I don't think necessarily that we have to always be preaching about the fact that they're wrong where they're going and what they're doing is wrong and they need to be in the assembly.

I think that we share with them the word of God, that we share with them Christ. And that as opportunity allows itself and as questions arise, to share with them the truth of being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.

We owe believers the word of God. We owe it to them. That's our obligation, it's our duty. We are to be a blessing to others. I hope this doesn't come across, and I fear to say it lest it come across as sounding as though we are the people and wisdom dies with us.

I don't want to sound that way at all. But when you get talking to some believers who gather in other circles, some of them are starved, starved for the word of God. And the simplest thing that you have gotten, you may sit in a ministry, you know, this and think, boy, it's boring.

This is just so simple and so fundamental. And can't you give us something good and deep? Sometimes the simplest of things that you've gotten in a meeting and you, they think it's a treasure. I can remember sitting in a home with a number of Christians who weren't gathered to the Lord's name and just a question came up about the gospels.

And I just said what every Christian knows from kindergarten, that Matthew presents to us the gospel of the king. And that's why there are certain things there. And Mark presents to us the gospel of the perfect servant.

And that's why you see certain things there. And Luke is the perfect man. And John is the son of God. And one of the people there just sat absolutely dumbfound. You may have thought I had just given him the greatest exposition of the gospels he had ever heard.

And yet, children growing up in our Sunday schools get that every Sunday sometimes. They're starved for truth. Share the truth of God with them, feed them. And when you fed them, they'll want more. And you may well be able to land a big fish someday.

So we have then a bond with its obligations, a link that we share, a love that we show, and light that we should shed. I remember someone once saying to me, and I think it's valuable, never condemn a man, never judge a man for what he is doing.

Now, you don't understand what I mean when I come to the end here. Never judge a man for what he is doing until you have given him more truth yourself. Had I been raised in some big stained glass window church with a big choir and a nice organ and wonderful atmosphere, you know that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you go there and nice.

I doubt I would have ever been gathered out. I am such a sentimental creature by nature that it would have taken a tremendous insight from God to be, I am so thankful that I was spoon-fed the truth of the word of God and never was enmeshed in systems like that.

I would have had a difficult time leaving it. And so be very gracious and feed believers, give them the truth before you're quick to write them off because they gather in some other means. So there is a bond and its obligations.

Fellowship as Agreement in Divine Truth

Let me hurry. Let me talk, though, about boundaries and obedience. It is not now a matter of a link that we share or love that we show or a light that we shed, but there are limitations and there is loyalty.

So let me talk about the nature of fellowship, a narrowness we need to avoid, and a necessity for care. The nature of fellowship. What you're saying is that we share a same link with these believers who gather elsewhere.

Well, then I guess what you're saying is just open the doors, let everyone in. Isn't, they're saved, they're going to the same land. Why not just invite them in? Just forget this business of separation.

Let me just leave you with something. If there's one thing you can take from this meeting, take this one concept. What is the nature of fellowship? Fellowship is not something we agree to have. Fellowship is something we have because we agree.

Now, there is a world of difference in those two statements. Fellowship is not something we agree to have. It is something we have because we agree. In other words, when you agree about something, then you have fellowship.

Fellowship is not a compromise. Well, you believe this and I believe this, but let's just bury our differences and we'll come together. That's not fellowship, that's compromise. A fellowship is not convenience.

Well, you know, it's the closest place to go on Sunday morning, and I've got to walk or I've got to take public transportation. And it's just so convenient to go to that little gospel hall. That's where I'll go and I'll join them.

No, that's not fellowship, that's convenience. Fellowship then is not compromise, it's not convenience. And just in case, just in case it ever should come into your mind that I think I'll go to that gospel hall because those people are so nice.

And they would be nice companions and friends to have. And I just feel so good when I'm with them. Fellowship is not companionship. Fellowship is conviction and commitment to truth that is held. So again, fellowship is not something we sit down and agree we're going to have.

So it's not a matter that so and so goes there, and they have those teachings. And we have our teachings here, and we'll just agree to allow them to come and have fellowship with us because we don't want to create problems, no.

Fellowship exists because we already agree about something. And so when a person takes their place in an assembly, it's not because they think you are the sweetest group of people they can find in the town of Waukesha.

And it's not because you're the most convenient location. And it's not simply for the idea at all that, well, we'll just compromise. Even though I don't agree with all these people say, I'll just fit in now.

It's because you agree about divine truth. Not just about Christ as Savior, but Christ as Lord. Not just about Christ as your substitute, but Christ as your sufficiency for gathering as an assembly. That we gather in his name.

We recognize his authority. We look to him as the source of all of our gifts and all of our ability. And that is why we meet together in assembly fellowship. So that it is not now simply a matter that because you are saved, then you're welcome to come and go as you please.

You can come here and remember the Lord and go somewhere else next week. There's really no agreement there, is there? That's just convenience. And so there is a need then to recognize the nature of fellowship.

Avoiding Spiritual Pride Toward Other Believers

But now there's a narrowness that we need to avoid. And the narrowness we need to avoid is very simply, relative to individual believers, that because a person goes somewhere else is not a reflection upon how spiritual they are or how spiritual I am.

There are godly believers elsewhere. There are godly believers who go to other places. There are spiritual men and women who are linked with other systems and do not gather as we do. It is not my business to sit back and say, well, they can't be that spiritual.

No, it's my business to seek to be as godly as I can be. And just remember in the days of Elijah, Elijah had a very dangerous mentality. I alone am left. Do you ever have the I alone mentality? I'm the only one and no one else.

God says, Elijah, first of all, I want you to recognize there's an Obadiah. Yeah, he may be in the wrong place. And he may be doing things that seem to be opposed to my purposes. But he still belongs to me and he's still doing what he can do relative to those prophets.

And Elijah, not only that, but there's a young man down there by the name of Elisha. If you're from Ireland, it's Elisha, but we call it by the right name Elisha here. So forgive us, we haven't been able to educate you boys yet.

But there's Elisha here and he's a young man down there and he's laboring and he's exercised about the work of God. Elijah, you're not the only one. Not only that, Elisha, but believe it or not, there's not just one here and one there, there's 7 ,000 there.

So it's not mine to begin to develop that I alone mentality relative to individual believers, but what about other denominations? That is God's business, not mine. God can use, can bless, can save souls wherever he chooses to.

He has saved souls. In fact, if you want to know how the Reformation began, he saved the Martin Luther in the Catholic Church, okay? That's where he saved the Martin Luther, in the Catholic Church. He has used priests to save individuals and then bring them out of it all together.

God is sovereign. We can't sit back and say, God can't save there and God can't bless there. Listen, what kind of father would it be who would starve his children to death, just because they weren't gathered as he wanted them to be gathered?

God can feed his people where he chooses to, by what means he chooses to. It is not my place to sit back in judgment upon other believers, other organizations. It's mine to obey the word of God as closely as I can.

It's mine to be faithful to truth God has revealed to me. It's mine to recognize that this is what God has said in his word. I have to obey it. What they do is their business. They answer to God themselves.

And if God chooses to bless, that's his business. God could bless a Hagar and an Ishmael. God could pick up a wicked nation like the Babylonians and bring them up against Israel to judge Israel. And Habakkuk struggled with that tremendous problem.

How is it God could actually use ungodly people? Because God's sovereign, because God chooses to, because God doesn't need me to tell him how to run his universe. God is absolutely sovereign. So while what they are doing, I could not do, where they are going, I cannot go.

It is not mine to sit in judgment on others. It's mine to judge myself. I have enough difficulty judging myself as far as the word of God and keeping short accounts with God. And so as far as a narrowness to avoid, I do not judge other individuals.

I do not judge other systems. They can do as they please. I judge myself. And it is mine to make sure I am following the word of God to the very best of my ability and as faithfully as I can in keeping with his truths.

Careful Association With Individual Believers

But having said all that, there is then not just the nature of fellowship and a narrowness to avoid, there's a necessity for care. There is a necessity for care even with individuals. Now what do I mean?

Fellowship is something we have because we agree. And so at college, high school, in the workplace, in the neighborhood, you hear of so-and-so who professes to be a Christian. And you know, especially if you're in some isolated place, and you're all alone, and you're the only Christian.

The thought of another Christian is so tremendous, but there's a need for care because their doctrines, their lifestyle can begin, if it's not in keeping with the word of God, can begin to have its influence on you.

Now I'm not suggesting a holier-than-thou approach. I hope have already underlined the need for care there. But just a need to be careful because other believers can influence you. And if there is a lifestyle or if there are teachings and doctrines which are wrong, it can bring you into difficulty.

But more than that, not just the influence, but the implications of association. Just think of this scenario for a minute. Maybe some of you have been there. Here you are at work. You've been the only Christian in the business, in the shop, in the store, in the school, and you have for years worked to maintain a good testimony.

And you have a good testimony. People know what a Christian is like. And into the shop, business, school, hospital, whatever it is, comes a person who is saved. And finally, there's somebody else there that can stand with you in testimony, and you feel relieved.

And it all seems so good for a while, both of us now. I'm not an oddball all by myself. I'm not the only one in the world who says they're saved. Here's another person. And you feel so relieved to have someone stand with you in fellowship and in testimony, until all of a sudden, things begin surfacing about that person.

And you find out their life isn't quite so six o 'clock, straight up and down. You know what I mean? There's a lot of inconsistencies. There are things they do that you've been telling others you don't do because you're satisfied with Christ.

You don't need the world. And they come in and talk about the movies they went to, and the weekend they spent away with their girlfriend. And all of a sudden, your testimony's compromised. What you have struggled for, what you have labored to develop, what you have sought with the fear of God to build before all of the unsaved, now your testimony's compromised.

Now that doesn't mean again that you take a standoffish, holier than now approach. It does mean that you approach it with great care. I think the principle that Paul espouses to Timothy relative to oversight is a broad principle that is wise for all of us.

Lay hands suddenly on no man. Don't become identified too quickly. Just allow things to surface. Allow someone's character to be evident before you lay hands suddenly on them as a fellow believer. Again, great care needed.

Assembly Fellowship and the Lord's Supper

But what of groups? Not just individuals, but what about my relationship with groups? What about identifying myself with a group that is unscriptural? Now, I've already been saying it's not mine to judge others.

It's not mine to pass judgment upon different groups and say they're all wrong. But I do have this. Would I be free to go there? Is the word of God carried out? Is all the truth of God given its scope?

And if it's not, then I am not free to go there. I cannot identify myself with something which is unscriptural. There would be an inconsistency, wouldn't there, in my actions. Now, we don't have time to look at it.

1 Corinthians chapter 10, you can look at it for yourself, when Paul is speaking there of the bread which we break. He speaks about the cup which we bless is what he speaks of first. Is it not our communion, our participation, our sharing together in the blood of Christ?

When we take that cup, we are confessing before God and angels that every blessing we have as believers, every blessing comes as a result of blood shed for us upon Calvary. Nothing else, that's it. That's the ground of every blessing.

But he says when you take the bread, there's two things that you are professing. He says, first of all, when you take from that bread, is it not our participation in the death of Christ? So that when I take my portion from that bread on a Lord's Day morning, what I am confessing is that when his body was given at Calvary, he was dying in my place, my participation, my part in the death of Christ.

But then he says there's something else you're confessing as well. For we being many are one bread, one body. That as you partake of that bread, what you are confessing is that you are one with every other believer in that company who was partaking of that bread.

This is your fellowship. This is your sphere of fellowship with these believers. Now, how can I claim fellowship here on the basis of what we agree upon, and then fellowship over here when they disagree with over here?

I mean, it's just an absolute impossibility. You can't do both. You can't have fellowship with two things which are opposed. Or you might say, why are they opposed? Please, for young believers, I know these meetings are not billed as assembly principles, but let me at least establish this.

That a scripturally gathered assembly is not a place where they have a little more of the truth than that place down the street that gathers totally differently, not a matter of different amount of truth.

It's not a matter of the quantity of truth. It is a different character altogether, totally different, different foundation. Totally different foundation altogether, gathered alone to the name of the Lord Jesus.

Every denomination, now don't stone me for this, but just listen. Every denomination that exists says that assembly fellowship is wrong. Or you might say, I never heard them say that. That's what it means.

If they're right, then we're wrong. If it's right to be gathered to a particular doctrine such as baptism, if it's right to be gathered to a particular man such as Luther, if it's right to be gathered to a particular character of government such as the Episcopus or the Presbytery, if they're right, then we're wrong.

And if we're right, then they're wrong. If it's right to take no name, if it's right to be gathered alone to a person, if it's right not to have a clergy over a group of people, if it's right for sisters to be covered in silence, if we're right, they're wrong.

But if they're right, we're wrong. Now, you can't live in both camps. You can't have one foot in that camp and one foot in this camp. You can't have fellowship with two opposed groups, but make a choice.

Am I gathered to him or to something else? Fellowship, the need then for avoiding inconsistency, incompatibility. Now, don't go to 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and begin at the beginning and apply it to not being linked with a denomination because there are many believers in denominations, many.

Thank God for every one of them. And there are many who are seeking to walk by the light they have. But it does say this in 2 Corinthians chapter 6. When it gets past the individuals, light and darkness, Belial and Christ and so on, it says, touch not the unclean thing, the unclean thing.

So while I may not separate from believers who are in those systems, I do separate from the system, totally different. Concept is different. I separate from that system and have nothing to do with it because it is not honoring to God, it is unclean.

The Limits of Denominational Fellowship

And then there is an impossibility, and that's the reason I don't frequent. Now, I don't want you to put this to the test because I don't want you going. But here's the impossibility. The Lord Jesus said, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.

Making disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have told you, and so on. I will challenge you to find a denomination upon earth where you are free to teach all things.

You might go there, and there might be a lot of truth taught. There might be wonderful expositions of the scripture taught, but there comes a point where they say, you can't teach that here. Teach women's head coverings, you'd have the women in revolt here, we can't teach that.

Teach about women being silent, you don't know how powerful they are here, you just can't teach that. Teach about no paid clergy, teach about the multiplicity of oversight to lead an assembly. No, no, we can't have that here.

You cannot teach all the counsel of God. Somewhere, sometime along the road of being linked with a system like that, there will come a compromise of divine truth. Now, I'm not saying we're perfect. We have blind spots as believers, we have blind spots in our assemblies.

I'm the first to admit that. And we do need grace from God and help from God to honestly approach the word of God without blinders. But I am thankful for this, that all the word of God is available for us to teach.

And if ever I were to be somewhere, even if it were a professing assembly, and they were to tell me, listen, you can teach anything you want to, but you can't teach this here, then I would have to say, thank you very much.

I'll see you perhaps sometime in the distant future in heaven, but this isn't the place for me. All the word of God, able to be taught to all the people of God in the fear of God. So there is then the impossibility and the eventual compromise that is given.

Meeting the Needs of the Unsaved World

Now, let me hurry because I just want to touch on my relationship then with unbelievers, with the unsaved. We could speak about my character, our character as believers, salt and light. The salt that restrains evil, the light that reveals evil, as part of my responsibility, my character, my concerns.

Let me just again give you a way that I think of it and a way that is helpful to me. And I think we need to be very, very careful here about the dangers that we'll come to in just a moment. But here is the issue that I put to myself.

Am I going to the world to have my needs met, or am I going to the world to meet its needs? You see the difference? Do I have to go out there to that world to have my needs met? Do I need what they need?

Do I need the sports, the entertainment, all that the world has to offer that it offers its own? Do I need that to meet my needs? Or do I see a world that has tremendous need and I go to it? Now the reason that's important is because two believers could do the same thing, and their motives are different.

One is worldliness and one is not. Let me just give you an illustration that may seem very, very simple, okay? I could have my neighbors in for a meal, for a cookout, for a barbecue. My goal is to get to know these people so that I can present the gospel to them, so that I can build a bridge that hopefully will enable me to see them influenced for good.

Nothing wrong with that, I think very commendable. I think nothing wrong with having unsafe families see how a Christian family lives and how a Christian family carries on. But then I could invite that family over for a barbecue because really, I want to get to know the neighbors and I want to be included in all their events.

And they've got a pool and they have pool parties. And I'll do it in the fall, so it doesn't look like I'm looking for an invitation. But I hope they remember next spring that I really like to be invited to their pool parties and have a good time with all the neighbors.

So the same act, the same thing that you're doing, one is going to the world to meet the world's need. The other is going to the world to have my needs met. One is absolute worldliness, the other is seeking to honor God.

Separation From the World Without Isolation

So then, what really is my concern? Is it to meet its needs or have my needs met? Do I need what the world needs? We could take a great deal of time talking about the logic of separation. What I mean by the logic of separation is the very attribute of God, and Him is no darkness at all.

How can I have anything to do with darkness when I am linked with a God of light? The attributes of God, the activity of God. You begin, hardly has the ink dried on the first verse of Genesis before God begins separating things.

And he begins in Genesis chapter one, light from darkness, land from sea, and God is constantly separating from there on. Separates people, separates nations. God is a God of separation. It's his very activity and character.

The logic of separation, the language of separation, we read of it in 2 Corinthians chapter six, didn't we? The language of separation. We could consider as well the living out of separation. In my heart, in my home, in my hand, and so on.

Different spheres of separation, what it means to be separate from the world. We would caution on the limits of separation. The limits of separation. That separation was never intended to be isolation.

Never intended to be isolation. There is a very thought-provoking, is the best way of putting it, thought-provoking comment that was made, and it's this. When the Lord Jesus prayed his high priestly prayer, the words aren't actually found, but we reconstruct them and put them together.

We are in the world, but not of the world. Now, you know what that means. Location-wise, we're in the world, but character-wise, we are not of the world or like the world. Someone has said that we have turned that around.

That we are not in the world, but we are of the world. And you know what that means? We've kind of isolated ourselves, but now we're doing everything that the world does, but we're doing it amongst ourselves.

So we've got Christian ballet. We've got Christian theater. We've got Christian dance. We've got Christian rock. We've got Christian sports. So that everything that the world has, we have. Only we kind of now do it among ourselves in kind of an isolation.

We need the same thing the world needs, but we've dressed it up. And we put that little word Christian in front of it. Now everything's fine. So that now we are like the world, but no longer in the world.

We've reversed what God intended. God intended us to be in the world as far as our location, but not like the world as far as our character, not far as our needs or concern. So there is the limits of separation, and then there is the liberty that separation brings.

Separation opens up a door for me. We read together in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 that the Corinthians, because of their broad mindedness, were becoming very narrowed, very limited. Now Paul says, for a recompense in the same, here's how you are to be enlarged.

Here's how you are to be broadened, really. He says, first of all, be separate. He says, do you want to know and enjoy God as your father? Or you might say, I thought God was the father of every believer.

Absolutely, no question. But not every believer enjoys what it means for him to be father. Father means that he's going to take care of me. He's going to meet my needs. He's going to satisfy me. Now if I need the world for my satisfaction, I will never know the satisfaction that comes from him.

And so he says, come out from among them and be separate, and I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters. So it brings me into a sphere of the enjoyment of fellowship with God.

But then it brings me into a sphere of usefulness. Just very hurriedly, you recall, don't you, in Daniel's day, when Daniel refused the portion of the king's meat. And he said to the master of the eunuchs, was it Melchizedek, prove thy servants now for ten days.

Just put us to the test for ten days and see what we're like. You remember what it says afterwards? It says at the end of those days, they were examined, and certainly their countenances were fairer than all the others.

And then it goes on to say that in all matters of wisdom and knowledge, Daniel and his friends were ten times better. Ten days of separation, ten times greater usefulness. Just a coincidence? Just a play on numbers?