The Assembly: Called out company - Fellowship (Part 2) — Frank Sona

Interpersonal Fellowship and Spiritual Friendship

So interpersonal fellowship now, just looking at this, basically the principles are the same, the realization of it, the meaning, the motive, the means, these are all the same. Is there a difference between fellowship and friendship?

Absolutely. Friendship can, you don't have to be born again to have a friend, but you need to be born again to have true fellowship. So it's spiritual. Fellowship is spiritual.

So would this, in Galatians, the next verse speaks about a burden. Would the brother that was overtaking the fault be burdened by the fault? He would be impeded. And then you share in that burden with him, knowing that you yourself could be tempted.

You're seeking to relieve him of that burden, not necessarily by carrying it, although that could be the case, but by showing him the weight of it. For example, Hebrews tells us about, well let's lay aside the sins, the weights, right, rather, the weights.

And so a thing could be a burden to someone that might not be good either.

And it may not be that it's really clear what the fault might be. Just going back to that for a minute, Franklin, to this detestable thing called a cell phone that hangs on my hip, let me say this. If you come to me in the break, not for laurels on my part, I will show you two texts that came this week.

Here's all it said, thanks for the encouragement. There were people that needed the lift so you could use it profitably for that.

I had been thinking about that because a lot of this that we're studying will be avoided if we are continually encouraging, loving, encouraging, helping one another. Our problem is I think we're all so busy and we're maybe into our cell phones too much or whatever you've been talking about.

So the point is I appreciate brethren who have a little foresight and sisters as well that can say, I see that this person is not going as well as they should be. Maybe they're missing meetings, maybe they're there all the time, but there's something that you can detect that's not right.

And when you can come alongside and just give that word of encouragement, whatever it takes, take them out Starbucks or whatever, he mentioned that one time. Take them out in a Starbucks, whatever it takes, help them over whatever it is they're going through so that there's not a continual downgrade that's going to take its place.

Self-Sacrifice and Daily Care for Believers

Oh, right here. This fellowship, what you and your brothers are saying, it has to be a sacrifice of self, personal and corporate. We have the love that we've been talking about. If we are sacrificing self, Paul says, I die daily.

When that sacrifice of self is helping you, you will see the need of your brother or sister and you will go to them. You will sacrifice yourself to go and meet that need. That is what love, that is what doesn't have that thought to have self sacrifice.

I remember something Murray said a couple of years, a number of years ago, he said, it doesn't matter who rings the till as long as the company makes a profit. And so really, we're all working together, right?

Sacrifice so that he will have his, his place.

Will my love for believers in the assembly increase if I pray for them personally each day? Absolutely. Depends on what you pray for them, yes.

David had a few imprecatory psalms, but yes, it does.

I was praying that Mr. Putin would get saved. And there's a sister, she's here and she came to me after that. I feel convicted. I was praying that he would have a heart attack. The fault is left so that we can apply it.

That was what Murray was saying. We can apply it. That's why we don't know exactly what it was, but could be just not walking in the spirit. That's another subject here.

One of the things too, we're just going to now get ready to move on to the next section, which is assembly fellowship. We're going to focus on that more now. But again, all these things spill over into, you know, what we are personally will spill over into the assembly.

And that's the important thing of having this first. But one of the things I was thinking, Tom, as you said that about, about, you know, looking at believers, keeping your eye on them, watching, caring.

Okay. And love the joy. David says, restore unto me the joy of my salvation. Okay. And you can't lose your salvation, but you can lose the joy of it. All right. And that is one of the sources of our strength of fellowship.

The importance of fellowship. Right. The joy of our salvation. So that when we believers, we should not be, you know, we should not be looking like we've all eaten lemons. I mean, we shouldn't be like, you know, downcast and down.

We have all the people in the world. I mean, look at the situation in the world. But what we have to look forward to. And I have to admit, I'm preaching to myself right now because, you know, it's easy to get down.

But think about, God is our Father. The Word of God is a living book. The Spirit of God lives in us. Christ is our Savior. We have more hope than, we have the only hope, not more hope than anybody. And yet we can lose the joy of our salvation because of.

Friendship, Fellowship, and the Danger of Cliques

So, Frank, just before you move out of there, friendship versus fellowship. Are you thinking like friendship is more based on personality likenesses? Fellowship is more a spiritual doctrinal light? Yeah.

And I'm thinking also because I think sometimes we, in our circles, emphasize the importance of our fellowship with other believers based on friendships. So that what happens is there are cliques. And not only cliques that we have, but then we also, the other side of the coin is, we will ostracize others.

And that's not right either. We need to include, it needs to be, the fellowship is inclusive.

There's one word of, sorry, keep in mind this. Be careful with your friendships. But you do not have to be as careful with your fellowship. Okay? Now, that doesn't mean there are believers that maybe are walking disobedient and you're going to enjoy fellowship with them.

You're not. We're being taught that very clearly. But our friends, and we can't come down just too, too hard on them. Because remember the word Jesus said, you're my friends. Yeah. This is my beloved.

This is my friend. Fellowship, true fellowship should produce friendship. Exactly.

Between those believers. So I don't have to like you, but I do have to love you. But you are my friend. Moving on. So now we're going to look at assembly fellowship. We're going to really focus on that for the last 45 minutes of this Bible reading.

Universal and Local Assembly Fellowship

And I'll just make a few distinctions. Because when we speak, the word of God does use, at times, the word church for the entire body of Christ from the day of Pentecost until the rapture. Regardless of location, regardless of association, as long as people are believers in this dispensation, they are part of the body of Christ.

Now, this is a little different. So I'll just give you four distinctions that might help all of us to keep in mind between what is local and what is universal. We'll say the wide aspect versus the local aspect.

So number one, the foundation is different. The foundation of the body of Christ is formed upon the apostles, the prophets, we were told that. It's Christ himself, right? So that's the foundation. And there was one time that foundation was laid once.

That's it. But there are local churches that are planted. And they come into existence at different times in different localities. And the foundation of those, as 1 Corinthians 3 tells us, is the gospel.

The preaching of the gospel in that locality. Souls are saved. The spirit of God works upon them in conviction. And conversion. And he draws them to Christ. But then he further draws them to Christ in the gathering center.

So the foundation is different. One foundation versus many foundations as opposed to in different times. The other thing is the duration in terms of the body of Christ which began on Pentecost. It will exist forever.

It will never cease to be. Amen. And it will be completed one day. But it will never cease to be. It's eternal. Whereas local testimonies have come and they have gone. And so they have a time-limited existence.

The location. Apart from the book of Acts, early in the book of Acts, all believers were in one location. And now they've been scattered throughout the world. And some are not even in the world. They're in heaven.

In fact, most are in heaven. So we have the location of a local church. You'll remember that Paul writes to the saints who are at Corinth, at Philippi, and so on. Seven churches in Revelation are written to specific locations.

Seven letters. Whereas the location of the body, it's spread. It's spread from here to heaven as well. And then lastly, the population is different. There are some that have never broken bread. They have never remembered the Lord.

They have never been part of a local assembly. It doesn't mean they're any less in the family. And they're any less in the body. But they're not in the local assembly. So the population, the people, are different too.

So those are just four basic distinctions as we look into this subject. So we want to look at now a collective company, called out company, assembly fellowship. And we can look at, I just mentioned, the basis of it, the beauties of it, and then the boundaries of it.

So we can touch on that. What is the basis of this company now? Is it salvation? Or is it something more?

Something more. The Apostle's Doctrine. The Apostle's Doctrine. Because of the fact that they continue steadfast in the Apostle's Doctrine and the fellowship. The idea is we don't have fellowship just because we all like the same kind of things.

And a fellowship is not related to our likes or our dislikes. The fellowship is related to the Scriptures. And the Apostle's Doctrine, as they have taught him, that's the reason why, sad to say, there is a great gulf in many ways between denominationalism and the assembly, the way we gather.

Because we try as much as possible to stay as close to the Apostle's Doctrine as possible.

I would say that, maybe just to make a little, I know what you're saying, rather than the way we gather, but maybe the way the New Testament teaches. That might be better. One important aspect of that, too, is we do not agree to have fellowship.

We have fellowship because we agree. So that's the difference. We can say, I don't see it your way, but you know what, let's just agree to disagree. No, no, no. We have fellowship because we do agree.

Can two walk together except they be agreed? So that would be the basis of it, right?

Acts 2 and the Apostles' Doctrine

So in Acts chapter 2, before you get to Acts chapter 9, is it just gospel hall theology that there is a chronology here? Or is this what the Bible teaches? That's a big question. Acts chapter 2 and verse 41 and 42.

See, this is what I'm hearing today. I don't want to say from the younger folk, but maybe people that haven't studied these things. Well, that's just your interpretation of it. We are not here today to give you gospel hall theology.

Thank God gospel halls most follow the word of God. We're here to get down to what the Bible teaches. And there is a right and there is a wrong. So take the very simple thing you have from Acts chapter 2, 41, 42.

You'll hear this commonly spoken of, closed table, open table, or control table versus open table. What does that mean? There are Christian groups out there that will allow you to break bread before you are part of that local assembly, if it is a local assembly.

That would be wrong, dear child of God, according to the word of God, because everything springs from the apostle's doctrine and flows from that. It's not that it comes later when we all get to know one another.

No, that is what the Bible teaches. So that will become more evident as we move. So you probably see where I was coming from with my comment. So submission to the apostle's doctrine. If there is a oneness of heart amongst the people of God of submitting to the apostle's doctrine, it will produce one thing.

Absolutely. One form of fellowship. Absolutely. And one pattern for fellowship. Paul wrote to Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 1. I had it here. Hold fast that form, that pattern of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

So the words from the apostle, he was to hold it fast as a pattern. And if that company, if that fellowship is formed by submission to the apostle's doctrine, we are to hold that fast. And it will produce one thing, one kind of fellowship, a local assembly fellowship.

What do you suppose the apostle's doctrine was at Pentecost? It was verbal. Paul wasn't saved. We have the written word. But I think likely a lot of it would be more to bring them out of Judaism. Bring them to the occupation with Christ.

I'm not bringing it down. But what I want to bring out the point, Frank, is that most denominations still have law. It's not all grace. They have a separate priesthood and so on. And they have music and things that shouldn't be in the New Testament.

Clergy and a laity separation and that type of thing.

So if you leave the assembly, what are you going to? You should consider. We know a couple that left an assembly years ago. And they finally came back. But they said we've lost our children and our grandchildren.

They don't hear the gospel.

The plain simple gospel. Yeah, I think verse 42 is retrospective though. I think it would be impossible to say that at that point because there was no doctrine in the sense of development of it. Luke is writing it 30 years later.

And he's looking back and saying this is exactly what they did.

That they did continue steadfastly. But teaching was given as it was needed. That's right. By the prophets, by the apostles. But don't forget the Lord was with them 40 days. Yeah, but not then he wasn't.

No, I'm taking this right to the very day when this thing was formed here in Jerusalem. The Lord had been with them for 40 days teaching them. Now do I not learn a very simple principle from the Old Testament?

When God gave the pattern for the tabernacle structure in the Old Testament, was it ready to go day one? Yes, it was. It was all laid out for Moses. It wasn't some wobbly calf that I heard of last night that was trying to walk.

God was in it. God had the rules. God had the priesthood. And she was ready to go. I've had people try to tell me the only doctrine they knew back here was just the gospel. Christ died and that was it.

I simply do not believe that.

No, what I'm trying to say is that I think it's even more important to look at it after the fact than before the fact. It's one thing to say this is what I'm going to do. It's another thing to say this is what I've done.

And I think that's what the Spirit of God is telling us. This is what they did. Okay, because this is what they had. So he's telling us they actually followed the apostles' doctrine. And by this time in 65 A .D., whatever, many of your epistles were already written.

So that would add further weight and credence to what they were doing. They weren't going on their own ideology. They weren't coming up with bright first century ideas. They were adhering to what was written at the time, and they agreed upon that.

The danger, I know you're not going down that road, but I've had someone try to tell me that, well, it wasn't until they got to Acts 20 that they discovered that you could only break bread the first day of the week.

Look, dear child of God, that is making God just unaware of what he's purposing on this earth. God is a God of order. And go through the Old Testament, you will discover that. God has a purpose, and he makes it very known.

And as you said, brother, verbally, the written word of God did not come until later. So Paul would remind Thessalonians, a very young assembly, do you not remember I told you about the Lord's coming?

So he went verbally. The written word which we have now, okay, that is completely compatible with what was being taught then verbally. Absolutely. By the apostles. Amen.

Now it's written down. It's codified. Amen. Would you want to say something about baptism? It would be part of the apostles' doctrine. That's very important, isn't it? Baptism by immersion.

Yes, it was a distinctive baptism as well from John's baptism. So even time-wise, it was different. Yeah, John's was a baptism of repentance. This is a baptism that actually identified yourself with a risen Christ, one that was beyond that.

So yes, and that's the first step of identification.

Wasn't there an element of repentance in baptism in Acts chapter 2?

Yeah, that was a little bit distinctive though.

Right, because it was entirely Jewish at that point. And that nation had just crucified their Messiah. Yeah. And to receive Christ, there was a disassociation from the action of the nation. Amen. And that was expressed in their baptism.

Sorry, we're going to have to move on. Just to clarify that point, you don't think that there was Gentiles that got saved here? Because you've got quite a list there. They were proselytes. They were Jews.

They were those. Yeah, it was Jewish. Gentiles that had adopted a Jewish mode of living. Well, for all intents and purposes, they were those. You have the Samaritans brought in under the ministry of Philip.

And Cornelius in Acts chapter 2.

Those are distinctive outlines. But these were Jews that came for the feast. Yes. They were there for the feast of Pentecost. This was entirely Jewish.

So we're looking at the Jew, the Gentile, and the Church of God? Or are we looking at the Church of God?

I just think there were both Jews and Gentiles saved on the day of Pentecost.

Could we say something about the Apostle doctrine? It's singular. Later on, there's going to be doctrines of men. There are going to be doctrines of demons. Doctrines of strange doctors. So it's very important to realize that there's only one.

That's right.

It's one cohesive unit. That's it. Okay, so I can see because of the time, I'm going to have to manipulate a little bit here. Okay, so we have the basis. We already have that. And again, people are called out.

So it's distinctive. It's not on the basis of salvation. And the other reason we know it's not on the basis of salvation, I think this is very simple, very clear, is that you can be put away from the church.

That's right. You cannot lose your salvation. That's right. You can't. You're eternally secure. So again, the total, the basis of it is totally distinct in that sense. Now, maybe while we're looking at that, I'm going to just skip ahead to go to reception.

Reception into Assembly Fellowship

So when a person is received to the assembly, they are basically in agreement with what they see. And we can look at, let's go, we have two examples. I'm just going to read them quickly. Let's go to Acts chapter 9.

So we want to make a little bit of a switch. Acts chapter 9, we're going to look at Saul. And verse 27, just very quickly. But Barnabas took him. Here's Saul. Verse 26. And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples.

Now, that is literally the word for glue. He glued himself, okay? But they were all afraid of him and believed not that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, that he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus, and he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem.

So now here's Saul's case. Let's go over to Acts, sorry, 1 Corinthians 14. We can draw from these two passages. 1 Corinthians 14. And it's interesting, the subject matter is tongues and their abuse of tongues.

And so that it got to the point where a person couldn't even agree, because he didn't understand, to simply say amen. At what? At the giving of thanks. So that the basic feature of being saved, to be thankful, is negated.

They couldn't even understand it. So now he goes on. This is something that they can understand. And that's the point here. So now in chapter 14 and verse, let's go to verse 16 just for connection. Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say amen, at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understands not what thou sayest.

So there's this room of the unlearned. It's not a literal room, but it's literally the place of the unlearned. Then he says, let's go down to verse 23. If therefore the whole church be come together into one place.

Again, signifying that this is a distinctive community and company from the body. This is complete in itself. It's the whole church. Not every believer everywhere. And all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned or unbelievers.

So there's a distinction of the two. Will they not say that you are mad? But if all prophesy and there come in one that believeth not or one unlearned, but he is convinced of all, he is judged of all.

And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest. And so falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth. So basically you have four things here, maybe five. You have he's convinced of all, so you have his conviction.

You have his submission, falling down on his face, he's submitting. He will worship God, there's adoration. And then he will admit that God is, report that God is among you of a truth. That's revelation.

And then there's transmission. He'll report this. So that it has the desired effect. This man has seen these things as a spectator. So now, what is he being, this reception is then on the basis of what?

We can be clear of two things. It's not on the basis of salvation. And it is not on the basis of the breaking of bread or to the Lord's supper. Because there are those that they affect if some come even during the week to assemblies.

And they have a letter. They will not read their letter unless it's Sunday morning. What we're doing is we're actually practicing against what we're preaching. So we need to take these things in consideration.

It's interesting in what you read in Acts chapter 9. That Saul assayed to join himself. And that word, that verb is constantly he was coming back. It seems like he was coming constantly. And observing what was going on there in the assembly of Jerusalem.

And it was his desire to be there. And I think that desire sprang from what he learned in the Arabian Desert. When God revealed his son in him. And the point was that he was, once he had learned the truth of gathering.

I believe that was revealed to him at that time. There was no other place he could go. So he continued to come. And then the brethren, they were afraid of him. It's the same verb. They were at the same tense.

They were constantly afraid about bringing him into the assembly. So there was a desire on one side. And then there was a caution on the other side.

So Frank, do you believe that Paul was in assembly fellowship in Damascus? Before going up to Jerusalem? I do. I've wondered that. I believe there's some words here. Look at verse number 28 where the context is Jerusalem.

You have that lovely preposition with them coming in, going out. I'm in Acts 9. Sorry, Acts 9. And then if you go back to verse number 19 of Acts 9 where the context is Damascus. Then we'll solve certain days with the disciples.

There's another clue in verse number 21. Context is Damascus. Them which call on this name. What did you read in 1 Corinthians 1? Them which call on the name of the Lord Jesus in every place. So what this shows us is just because he was in the assembly in Damascus, that didn't give him automatic right to be part of the assembly in Jerusalem because there's a different government in Jerusalem as opposed to Damascus.

So you will see that consistently through the Word of God. So there was a caution exercised at Jerusalem. Absolutely. But then he was received, and he was with them coming in and going out. There was an ongoing steadfastness about that fellowship.

So there is a verbal commendation for him here. Yes. As they're afraid of him. So we can see that today. And I'm not putting away or putting down letters in any sense, but there are times when I know that they can be emailed or whatever, but it's nice when there's brother.

Listen, I know this brother, and there's a verbal commendation. As your brethren have pointed out, rightly so. It's not receiving to the breaking of bread. I think it is a delightful thing when it is a weeknight meeting.

Somebody comes in. I may know him. Half the saints don't. Announce at least he's here and tell him if he's a letter, read it, or give the verbal commendation. Welcome to fellowship of the assembly. Then that man is expected to participate.

Is that not a meeting of the fellowship? Sure. Sure it is. It's not just as much. Sure it is. We're demeaning that meeting by doing that, actually.

I noticed in the verse you read there in chapter 14 that it said, the whole church came together. Yeah. So it's important that all should be at every meeting if possible.

Letters of Commendation and Assembly Government

So just two things maybe to discuss. I know I'm going to get ahead. I'm going to kind of scrap this because we're going to have to move around, but we're on letters. Letters of commendation. So there are times, for example, Paul was public enemy number one.

He had gone. I have no doubt he went knowing the location of assemblies. They are public testimonies. They are lampstands. He knew where they were, and he went with letters, and he hailed men and women, and he actually, I believe there were times he could have even went to assembly gatherings and to break up that because he despised them.

So he knew. He was exposed to what assemblies were, not just what believers were, but what assemblies were, and he probably likely saw those in direct conflict with the synagogues and what the Judaism represented.

So that being behind it, they would have been afraid. They would have been cautious. It would have been only care to be careful for their own. But there are times in which a living commendation is actually more beneficial than a written commendation.

I'm not saying it shouldn't accompany each other or compliment one another, but if someone knew someone and you had confidence in that person, they called ahead. The other side of that is this. It is sad when letters of commendation are used as permission slips or they are used to penalize individuals just because we don't want them going somewhere else or we don't want them doing it.

That way we're in fellowship with. And I think we can do that too. That is not the point of a letter of commendation.

Just on that point, scriptural authority for a letter of commendation. One example you'll find in Acts 18, Apollos, the case of Apollos, when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren, the assembly in Ephesus, the brethren wrote exhorting the disciples to receive him.

And when he went there, he was received and he was a big help to them.

So there's one example. Romans 16 would be a letter again to Phoebe. 2 Corinthians 3 would be a reference to the Apostle Paul himself. As he could say, need we letters of commendation as some of you.

Now in Romans, an objection might be raised in chapter 14, or chapter 15 rather, verse 7. Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God. And the argument is put up that to be received to the fellowship would be just on the same basis as we have been received by Christ to the glory of God.

No mention made of a letter. But your contexts are different. Romans 14, Romans 15, and Romans 16. In our English Bible, receive, receive, receive. Romans 14 and 15 is a different Greek word than Romans 16.

The grammar is even different, Romans 14 and 15, than 16. And the contexts are different, dear child of God. The context in Romans 14 and 15 is that personal eating of meats, the reception, I'm not to judge you because you don't have steak, and I have steak, right?

Where you come to Romans 16, it's a completely different story. The sister's traveling, and she's going from one Islamic to another. So I'm going through that quick, but I feel a need to emphasize again.

Thank God for the practices of the gospel halls that I'm aware of. But dear child of God, they're based in the word of God. It's not fanciful thinking. This is what the Bible teaches, and that's what we seem to be missing today, where we start to, no, no, just let the Bible speak to you, and you will find out this is what's in the Bible.

So Romans 15, those believers were already in fellowship together. They were to receive one another in unity. They were already in fellowship. Chapter 16, it's Phoebe moving to Rome, and there's a need for a letter.

If chapter 15 was just being received just because you're a believer, right, with no letter involved, then why would you have chapter 16 where he writes a letter?

But you receive them into your heart, and you can receive them into your home. If you want another H, you can receive them into your hall.

So the simplest way to really put it is that one is intra-assembly fellowship. The other is inter-assembly fellowship.

And good to keep in mind, even those that don't want to look up the different word that is used, it's lambano and decame are the two different words. One is the formal word. The other is the informal.

That's why when you come to chapter 15, wherefore receive you one another, okay, that's the informal word, or philemon, verse 12, receive them, it's the informal. But come to Romans 16, what's it say?

In the Lord. Lordship. Lordship. So there's your formal word that is used. So a different word is used. So whenever you see reception in the Lord, that makes the distinction. One other point for overseers, those making the announcements in the assembly, someone comes during the week, don't be afraid to say, listen, so-and-so has called us and knows this brother and his wife, and we're receiving them.

Let the saints know the grounds on which you're receiving them. Absolutely.

Initial Reception, Agreement, and Continuity

So getting to these things now, we need to move on, brethren. So we've got reception to it, so let's incorporate just some of the points that we've all discussed here. It could be on the basis of there's initial reception, and that initial reception is based on continuity.

It's not trying out the assembly like you would try on a sweater, try on some clothing. Let me see if I like this. Let me see. Basically, a person is in fellowship before they are in the fellowship. Amen.

So that they are observing and they are agreeing, and they say, I want to be part of that, because this is what the Word of God says, and this is where the Lord Jesus is. That would do away then with what happens years later, or maybe not so long later, where individuals come in and say, you know what, we have to change this assembly.

We have to change our practices. We have to do, did you lie? Did you come under false pretenses when you came initially into that assembly? Because you should have been saying, I agree with what they're doing, and I want to join in the fellowship of this.

But now if I see something, I want to change that. That would be a good question maybe to ask when people are being received. What would you want to change in this assembly when you're being received?

Might be an interesting, you know, you might have some interesting comments.