Interpreting the Bible — Norman Crawford

The Church, the Assembly, and the Power of Christ

I'd like to read with you, please, in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 16 of Matthew's gospel, and I'm reading in verse 13 of Matthew chapter 16. When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?

And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.

Chapter 18, please, and verse 15. Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother, but if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

And if he shall neglect, and that word is refuse, if he shall refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church. But if he refuse to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Again I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

I would like to read one more brief passage in Ephesians chapter one, please. Verse 19 of Ephesians one, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power? To us were who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.

And hath put all things under his feet, or in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. And may God bless to us the reading of his word.

The Ten-Night Study on Gathering Unto His Name

The subject in these ten nights I am going to call Gathering Unto His Name, and that subject is the subject of a book that I am now writing, attempting to write, as likely many of you know. Of course, the difficulty in writing a book is to try to find the time to do it, and time has been a very great problem.

But I have written nineteen chapters of the book, and in these meetings I am going to try to give you at least the main substance of what is written in the book. I cannot possibly cover all the material that is in the book, of course, but it is quite a different matter to speak on subjects than to write.

They are very, very different, so what is written will not be what I am speaking, but it will be the same truth, although expressed likely quite differently. But tomorrow night, if the Lord spares us till then, I hope to have an outline for each one who is present at the meeting, and therefore if I pass over material tonight that you do not grasp, if I give you titles or names or outlines that you are not able to put down, if the Lord is willing, tomorrow night I will give you an outline of the material for tonight and for the meeting tomorrow night, if the Lord will.

Now, we have read tonight two passages in the Gospel of Matthew and one in the Epistles to the Ephesians that deal with the subject of the Church and the churches. I have said that the subject that I am going to speak on, I am calling gathering onto his name.

Now, to give you a little idea of what I have before me, I would like tonight to speak on a scriptural definition of Church. And you'll notice that I didn't say the Church, because I would like to give you a scriptural definition of the Church, but I would also like to give you a scriptural definition of the churches, of local assemblies.

So, the correct title for what I am going to try to tell you tonight is a scriptural definition of Church. Tomorrow night, if the Lord spares us, I would like to give you a simple description of a local assembly.

And that is truth that is very precious to us, and it will be the truth that will be occupying us mostly in the nights to come. I would like to take up the following night significant distinctions between the body and an assembly.

And the reason that that truth is so important is that in Christendom, the two are confused, and often even in the writings of those who understand a great deal of the truth of gathering, scriptures that really apply to one have been applied to the other.

I have gone through some 70 different books that deal with the truth of the Church and the truth of a local assembly, and I have literally been astounded how many times brethren have used scriptures which are clearly speaking about the body of Christ, and yet they applied them to the local assembly and vice versa.

And it is of the utmost importance that we know the distinction between the body and an assembly. And even tonight in this meeting we'll be speaking on some of the distinctions between the body and an assembly.

So that will be actually the subject of the meeting, if the Lord will, on Wednesday evening. And then the following night I would like to take up what I have called a singular demonstration of a testimony for God on earth.

And of course that deals with what the assembly is and how it functions. And then I would like to take up the Lord's Supper, and I've called that the supreme declaration of the death of Christ. And then I would like to take up worship, the sincere devotion of believers as they gather together.

And then I would like to take up a sovereign display, that is, headship displayed in a local company. And then to take up the spiritual dependence of an assembly, that is, our dependence upon the Holy Spirit.

And that's a vast subject that deals first of all with the government of an assembly, and then deals with the gifts and the way they function, and then deals with the subject of priesthood and how the Spirit of God controls a holy priesthood in a local assembly.

And then there are a number of other subjects which should be touched on, and whether there will be a night to deal with them or not remains to be seen. But I would like to take up the gospel testimony of an assembly, and I would like to take up reception into an assembly, and I would like to take up traditions of scripture, and I would like to take up assembly discipline.

And if the Lord will, a subject that is very seldom taken up, I would like to take up assembly giving. Now that's a vast amount of material, and I assure you we will not be wasting time. We will try to cover the material as briefly as we can and as simply as we can, and yet as thoroughly as it is possible for me to do it.

Defending the Truth of Gathering Unto Christ's Name

Now why do we go back again and again to the subject of the Church and the Churches? Martin Luther on one occasion was asked why it was that he constantly returned in his preaching and in his writings to the subject of justification by faith.

And I think his answer suits exactly my position tonight in taking up the Church and the Churches, or gathering onto his name. Martin Luther said, in ancient times when a walled city was under attack, if the attack came at the front gate, the city did not muster its defense at the back wall.

Or if the attack came at a back corner of the city, the soldiers of the city were not lined up at the front of it. You see, the defense always is mustered where the attack is being made. And Satan has so successfully attacked the truth of gathering in our time, so that much precious truth that was paid for dearly, godly men and women, with the word of God before them on their knees, learned the blessed truths of gathering unto the name of the Lord Jesus Christ alone, and paid a great price for it, personal price.

Oftentimes family turned against them, and friends, society rejected them, and they were looked upon as being oddities. But they bore that reproach gladly for the name of Christ. And today we are in great danger of losing a great heritage that has been given to us.

It must be preserved, if there is to be collective testimony preserved for God, until the Lord Jesus comes back again. So the attack is being made, and the defenses must be mustered where the attack is being made.

Now tonight we have read in Matthew chapter 16, some very well-known verses regarding the church that the Lord Jesus said he would build. And that's a remarkable statement of the Lord Jesus, most familiar to you I am certain.

I will build my church, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Before we even look at the subject of the church that the Lord Jesus will build, we have to look at how we interpret the Bible. I know you have heard me speak about this at times, perhaps briefly, perhaps on another subject.

The Need for Sound Biblical Interpretation

But it is necessary today to give a restatement of how we interpret the Bible. And I know there are many people who never think of that subject, but it is vitally important, and I'll tell you why. There are some who tell us that each has his own way of interpreting Scripture.

And to kind of strengthen their case, they say even great theologians do not agree on many passages of the Bible. So every person is more or less left to themselves. And this is why there is such a great variety of opinion on a lot of passages, or on a lot of practice even.

This is why in Christendom you have all kinds of organizations and systems that profess to be going by the Bible. Because after all, the Bible is a very difficult book, and everybody must do the best they can to interpret it according to the light they have.

But you know, people who talk like that, oftentimes it winds up with a far more serious conclusion even than what I have said so far. Because it kind of finishes up like this, that really we should never be very dogmatic about what we think the Bible teaches, because after all, we could be wrong.

And really none of us have the ability to be absolutely certain that what we are saying is truly based on the Word of God. I don't think you think that, but many do. And those that you meet from time to time will have ideas like that, that the Bible is a kind of a book that you can almost make say anything you want.

Now the Bible is not that kind of a book. You can be sure if God conveyed his mind to man, if God was revealing his will, he would do it in language that man could understand. And then of course the Holy Spirit of God is the divine teacher.

For not only do we have inspiration so that the Word of God is God-breathed, but we have illumination so that the Spirit of God is able to impress upon our hearts the meaning of that which is written.

And I hope every one of us tonight have a longing desire to know exactly what the Holy Spirit said, and what he meant when he said it, so that we know the meaning of Scripture. All of us are aware that much preaching and teaching that is done is not really the meaning of Scripture.

Much that is given is really application, and application is good. I am not here to tell you that you should not apply the Scriptures, because the Spirit of God applies the Scriptures. And absolutely there should be application of the Scriptures.

No application should ever be given unless the true meaning of the passage from which the application is being made is understood. You should always understand the meaning before you give any application, and no application should be ever given that is not in keeping with that meaning.

But the first thing, the absolute primary thing in reading the Bible, is to read it clearly and to give the sense, and to cause people to understand the reading. How do we do that? Well, there are what we know as laws of interpretation.

In the theological world they call that subject hermeneutics, but whatever they may call it, that really doesn't have any great meaning to you tonight. The fact is that there are principles by which the Bible is interpreted, and I'm going to try to tell you some of those principles that apply to our subject.

I'm certainly not going to cover all the grounds of the principles of interpretation, but there are certain principles of interpretation that have a great meaning when we apply that meaning to the Church and the churches.

It was Miles Coverdale, the man who first interpreted or translated the Bible into the English language, the very first English translation, it was Miles Coverdale who said that when you read the Bible it will greatly help you to understand Scripture if you mark not only what is spoken or written, but of whom, to whom, with what words, at what time, where, to what purpose, with what circumstances, considering what goes before and what follows.

And that's one of the most concise statements of biblical hermeneutics that I have ever read, because each of the points that he covers is of vital importance if we're going to understand the Scriptures.

Now of course the principles that Miles Coverdale mentions are really principles for understanding almost anything, but they have a very particular meaning when we're trying to understand the Bible. Now the very first law, it's the last law that Miles Coverdale mentions, but it's the very first law of importance to us, and that is the law of context.

The Laws of Context and Relevance

And it is of the greatest importance to understand that you never should interpret a single statement of the Bible out of its context. There are times when the Spirit of God may do that. He may take an Old Testament passage and he may take it out of its context, but after all he is the author of the Scriptures, and he has the right to use his words in a different way if it so pleases him.

But we have no such right. So that you never interpret a single statement of Scripture out of the context. And the context, of course, as you know, is what goes before and what follows after. And always in the understanding of the Scripture we obey that law, the law of context, first of all.

There would not be many of the cults existing today, at least not pleading verses from the Bible to support their teaching, if they had recognized the law of context. The second law that is of the greatest importance in understanding the Church and the churches is the law of relevance.

Now this is the way the law of relevance works. God's Word was given at one time. Oh, I know it was given over a period of many hundreds of years, likely 1 ,600 years would compass the writing of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

But I mean it was given by God in its entirety. It was a faith once for all delivered. And the Scriptures, when they were completed, contained what God would have us know about divine truth. And it has no improvement.

You cannot possibly make it better. Adding to it is a sin that the Bible condemns in its very closing verses, and taking from it is equally a greatest sin. So the law of relevance just means this, that the Word of God was given at one time for all time.

And let me tell you what that means now in the subject we're looking at. We should never say, well, in the days of the New Testament, it was the normal thing for all believers to be baptized and to be gathered with a company of believers in a local church, in a local assembly.

And they all met in that scriptural way. Whereas today, believers are scattered everywhere. You have all kinds of organizations and systems, and you have believers in many of them. And so we can hardly apply what's in the New Testament to our conditions today.

But you see, that's denying the law of relevance. That's as much as saying the Word of God was sufficient for those early days of testimony, but it's not sufficient for today. That's like saying God did not know what was coming, and therefore we have to find other things to guide us now.

Surely God must have understood that there would be these great organizations formed, and that men would band together and make great ecclesiastical systems. Surely God knew all that, and therefore God expects us to, no, he doesn't do any such thing.

Because we should never take the present confusion and Christendom, with Christians divided up into sects and systems, we should never take that confused mess and put that back into the Bible, and try to use the present circumstance as a tool to understand what was written in the New Testament.

Therefore we take the New Testament as it is written, and we believe that God knew everything that would come, and he gave us guidance for it all. And he never once mentioned any of these great organizations and systems, except in a bad way.

So we believe that the Word of God has been given to us to the end of time. How do I know that? Well, the Scripture tells me that very, very clearly. When Paul was writing to Timothy, he said all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for correction, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, complete, fully furnished unto all good works.

Nothing missing, it's all there, nothing lacking. So the law of relevance just says that what was written was not only written for that time, it is written for our time. Be very careful of people who tell you that the culture of a certain time meant that women wore head coverings, but our culture today is different.

The Word of God was not given to a culture. The Word of God was given to God's people for the ages. It applies as much today as when it was written. That's the law of relevance. The law of positive pattern is a very important law in understanding assembly truth, because what is given to us in the New Testament is a positive pattern.

Whenever a blueprint is being drawn for a building, it tells what should be done, not what should not be done. And I've often used this as a crude and simple illustration. When the blueprint was being built for this building, it did not have written in the middle of this floor plan, no stairwell should be put in the middle of this auditorium, no such thing.

It wasn't needed. You don't have to put into a blueprint all the things you should not do. What you put into a blueprint is positive facts that should be carried out, and when those positive facts are carried out, then everything is right.

So what we have is a positive pattern of truth in the New Testament. The law of total mention is very important to us. You see, the law of total mention means that there are truths in the Bible that occupy a lot of space.

For instance, there are 2 ,163 references in the Bible to the coming again of the Lord Jesus. Now that's interesting, isn't it? 2 ,163 references to the Lord's return. That occupies a great part of the Bible, because those references are not just a word, those references are passages of the Bible.

And it's amazing how much of the Bible is given to that subject. It must be very important to God. The law of total mention is very important when you consider that there are 21 verses to tell us how the heavens and earth were created, and there are 38 chapters to tell us how the tabernacle was to be constructed.

How can you account for that? 21 verses that describe the flaming suns in the universe, and all that we know in this physical creation, and 38 chapters to describe a little tent out in a desert that would have been most unattractive to see from the outside, were a wandering people gathered around to worship Jehovah.

Why did God give so many chapters about that tabernacle? You know the answer. Every word of it honors his glory. God loves to speak of his Son. He loves to give glory to the Lord Jesus. And so when God gives a great deal of mention to a subject, that law of total mention means that that's a most important subject.

Now you'll easily see how that applies to the Church in the major themes of the entire 27 books of the New Testament. So whenever you're thinking of a subject in the Bible, does that have a large place in the Bible?

If it has a large place in the Bible, you can be sure that that is a subject of the greatest importance. Then of course there is the law of plain sense. You wouldn't hardly think we would need this to think, but we do need to say it.

Because the law of plain sense is a very excellent law in understanding difficult passages. For instance, there are people who have taken an obscure passage. What is obscure to them? A difficult passage.

For instance, Acts 2 and 38, which are the words of Peter to the Jews there on the day of Pentecost when they said, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized for the remission of sins.

There's another verse like that, it is Acts chapter 22 and verse 16. And here's what people do with those two verses. There are at least two major denominations in the United States who take those two verses, and with those two verses they interpret every gospel text in the New Testament.

And there are hundreds of them. Every clear verse, a verse like John 3, 16 is interpreted in the light of Acts 2 and 38. Now that is nonsense. You never take a difficult verse and use that verse to interpret all the plain, clearly understood verses of the Bible.

Very obviously the law of plain sense would say that you take the clear statements of the Bible and you use those clear statements of the Bible to explain what might be difficult to you. And of course the law of plain sense comes in in many other ways.

You take the plain sense of a scripture, the clear sense of it, and if that clear sense makes good sense, don't look for any other sense or it will be nonsense. And that's why people come up with such fanciful interpretations of verses.

They can find the strangest things in verses, no one else can see them in them, but they've seen these very strange fanciful things because they've ignored the law of plain sense. And if God is revealing his mind, if God is making known his great counsel, and he's using words to do it, and he's the father of all language, then why would he not give us plain sense?

So the law of plain sense is common sense as far as I can see. There is of course the law of grammar. The whole idea of grammar to some people is that that's how you interpret the Bible. But I would have to say that the laws of grammar are very, very important.

But the laws of grammar must give place to these other laws. And I have listed these laws in their importance in understanding the scriptures. When I say the law of grammar is important, you'll understand that when you read the epistle to the Galatians.

For in Galatians, you have the fact that a word is a singular, the word see in the promise to Abraham, that it's a singular and not a plural. And had it been a plural, the Spirit of God points out that it could not have had the meaning it had, because that seed is Christ.

So that's the law of grammar. In other words, whether the word is a singular or a plural has a tremendous difference to its meaning. And from that I can learn that I should understand clearly the language that is being used, and why the Spirit of God chose to use those particular words in those particular parts of speech.

And that's why it's such a diligent study and a lifelong study. And I have learned, of course, in my own little life, that it is far too short to learn the Word of God. These laws are not something we invented.

In other words, what I have told you so far has solid scriptural basis. I hope you know that. It isn't a matter of some clever people saying, here's the way you understand things, and they've invented some kind of an artificial framework, and then they bring this whole theory and they superimpose that on the scriptures, and they say, here now, here's the way to understand it, and if you use our key, if you use our method, you'll get the right understanding.

That is not what I have done. You know what I've been doing? I've been actually giving you the way the New Testament interprets the Old Testament. In each one of these laws that I have tried to point out to you, what I've been doing is telling you exactly how the Holy Spirit of God has interpreted Old Testament scriptures.

For we have many, many examples in the New Testament of how the Old Testament is interpreted. For instance, Matthew 1 and 23 interprets for us Isaiah 7 and 14. Too bad modern unbelievers, that's what they are, who deny the virgin birth, did not see that Matthew 1 and 23 is the Holy Spirit's interpretation of Isaiah 7 and 14.

Because in Matthew 1 and 23, there's no problem whatever. It's a virgin that conceives and bears a son. And in keeping with the promise of Isaiah 7 and 14, it gives a literal sense of a literal virgin, and a miraculous conception, a supernatural birth.

And the New Testament interprets the Old Testament according to these very principles that I've been trying to tell you. When Matthew chapter 2 and verse 6 interprets Micah chapter 5 and verse 1, it does it in the most literal way.

It says there's a village called Bethlehem with 20 families in it, and it's the birthplace of our Lord. So the New Testament does interpret the Old Testament according to these principles. And we learn from that how to interpret all scripture.

The Laws of First Mention and Progressive Mention

There is a law that affects us now tonight in what we have read. It is called the law of first mention. And the law of first mention is important because Matthew 16 is the first mention of the church that the Lord Jesus would build.

And it hadn't yet been built, it was still future. And Matthew 18 is the first mention of an assembly. And that law of first mention has very great meaning for this reason, that the first mention of a truth in the Bible, the very first time a truth is mentioned.

For instance, the first time the Lamb is ever mentioned in the Bible. Where is that? Some think it's Genesis 4, but it is not Genesis 4, for no Lamb is mentioned in Genesis 4. The first Lamb that is ever mentioned is mentioned in a question asked by Isaac of his father.

And the answer that was given to that question is the truth of the Lamb in its simplest, most concise form. Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a Lamb for a burnt offering. And that's the very first mention of the Lord Jesus as the Lamb.

I know that there was a Lamb that evil offered. I know that well. The New Testament tells me that in Hebrews 12. But the first mention is Genesis 22. And the very first mention gives us many, many truths about the Lamb.

You can enumerate them. He is to be God's provision. In fact, he is to be deity. He is to be offered as a sacrifice. He is to feel the night. He is to be in the fire. All those things are mentioned in the first mention of the Lamb in the Bible.

Now, the first mention of a subject doesn't give us all the truth of the subject. But the first mention of the subject gives us the truth in its simplest. To use a word that has been coined quite freely in this regard, in its embryo form.

It is still to be developed. But here's the first mention of it. And in that first mention, you have all the vital features. So the law of first mention is very important in Matthew 16 and Matthew 18.

There is another law that is important to us that is the law of progressive mention. In other words, a truth can begin with a very simple statement and then throughout the scriptures that truth develops.

Prayer is a good example of the law of progressive mention. Because you have prayer mentioned by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 5 or Matthew 6, ask and you shall receive. Now, is that all the truth about prayer?

What if a person was reading that passage and they said, ask and you shall receive? Why? That's it. That's the whole thing. No, that's not the whole thing. And you go all the way through the New Testament and you learn all those other things about prayer, asking in his name, asking according to the will of God.

And as you come to the, finally to the close of the epistles, 1 John chapter 5 gives us a statement about prayer that seems to be perhaps one of the most important in all the Bible. If we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.

And we know that we have the request that we ask of him. So you see, the truth of a progressive development of teaching is most important in the understanding of scripture. So I'm sorry to have taken so long with that, but I hope that it will have some influence on us.

Because throughout our study of gathering unto his name, we will try to apply those laws of interpretation. So we are not left to ourselves to say, this is the way we do it. We are bound to understand the scripture according to its own laws.

Scripture is interpreted by scripture, not by anything else. Now, there is a scriptural definition for church. Church is a wonderful word. The English word may not be so wonderful, but the Greek word from which it comes is one.

As you know, it is the word ekklesia. And ekklesia is made up of two words. And to translate those two words into the simplest English form would be to say outcalling. So church means outcalling. And that's the simplest way to say it.

I know there are those who say it's a call to people and so forth. That's all right. That's not exactly in the word, but that's what we understand by it. But what is in the word itself is simply outcalling.

So how is that word used in the Bible? That to us should be very, very important. It is used 115 times in the New Testament. The word church is used 115 times. 111 times it refers to the church which is his body or to a local assembly.

And the only way we can know whether it is referring to the large spiritual aspect, the church which is his body, which the Lord says in Matthew 16, I will build, either it refers to that or it refers to a local company.

And the only way we can know which is by looking at the context. There's the law of context. You always understand the use of a word in its context. And so whenever we have the context to guide us, we will know clearly whether it is speaking of the body or whether it is speaking of a local company.

The Biblical Meaning of Church and Churches

And the word church in the New Testament has those two meanings. And in a spiritual sense, it only has those two meanings. But I said there were 115 mentions of the word church in the New Testament, and that is right.

In Acts 19, the word church is found three times. And in Acts 19, it is called in every one of those three cases, assembly. But it is not an assembly of believers. It is actually a municipal assembly in the city of Ephesus.

Now it's tragic to me, I have often thought this and often wondered about it. Wouldn't it have been a lovely thing if the King James translators had just reversed themselves? Wouldn't it have been nice if every time they came across the word ecclesia, they had translated it assembly?

Except in those three cases in Acts 19, and then they could have called that whatever they wanted. But they didn't do that. They translated the word 111 times, they translated it church. In fact, 112 times they did.

Because the one other occasion is in Acts, in the preaching of Stephen, you'll likely remember in Acts 7. And Stephen speaks of the church, which is in the wilderness. It is the only time the word church ever applies to Israel.

But don't get alarmed, because that exception only proves the rule. Israel is not the church. But it's easy to understand why the Spirit of God through Stephen spoke of that company out in the wilderness as an outcalling.

You can understand that, can't you? They were brought out of Egypt, they came to a gathering center, they were God's testimony in that day. And so they are called an outcalling there in Stephen's address in Acts 7.

But in every other case, now 111 times, the word church has one of two meanings. It is either the body or an assembly. That's the two meanings of the New Testament. Now listen, this is what is so important.

No other use of church is in the New Testament. It never means a building. And it would be ridiculous, as all of you know, to call a building a church, because in the New Testament you read about the ears of the church, and you read about the health of the church, and you read about the rest of the church.