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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/frank-sona/the-local-assembly-introduction/
We're looking at the subject in these meetings, and we'll commence with this meeting, of the local assembly, the place where the presence of the Lord Jesus is. And this has been given to us in the New Testament clearly by His own words.
Now, we're going to look at a number of passages. We're also going to compare Old Testament with New Testament at times too, because this truth, while the body of Christ in its wide aspect and the local assembly did not exist in the Old Testament, yet there are consistencies throughout it, and even pictures in the Old Testament too.
So we're going to look at that first, Genesis chapter 2. Book of Genesis chapter 2, verse 8,. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. That's interesting. It's interesting every word in the Bible is significant, so we're given the direction.
So east is the rising of the sun. So He plants a garden in the east. That's not only for the good of the plants and so on, and they would get the most sun, but the other thing is that it's a spiritual book, keep in mind.
The Bible is a spiritual book, giving us spiritual truth. And so the rising of the sun, the importance of the sun in this garden, light in the garden, and also the sun is a picture of the light, the Lord Jesus.
And there He put, He put the man. Notice, He didn't simply tell the man to go. In other words, this was by the hand of God. He put the man whom He had formed, and out of the garden made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.
And it's interesting, not just to give you a little nugget here, if you go to chapter 3, we won't do that, and you'll see when Eve looked at the tree, she reverses this order. It says here that it was pleasant to the sight and good for food.
She said it's good for food and pleasant to the sight. She was thinking of herself first. This word is even different for pleasant there. The tree of life also in the midst of the garden, that's significant too, because the tree of life was literally what gave life to that garden.
It was the source of life for Adam and Eve. And where is it? It's in the midst of the garden. Not just in the garden, it's not just among the trees, but God tells us it's in the midst, in the center of the garden.
Again, a picture of the assembly, not just where the Lord Jesus is the very source of life and light, and He is in the midst of His people, not just among us, but in the center. He is the point of attraction, the absolute resource of our needs.
And the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Now let's go over to Exodus chapter five. I'm just going to touch on a few things. Exodus chapter five. I'm just going to give the center of the three of these for the sake of time.
Verse one, and afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, let my people go that they may hold a feast unto me. Now this is the middle of three demands of God for His people in Egypt.
The first one is that they're let go that they may make a sacrifice. The middle one is, you just read it, that they make a feast unto me and so on. So that there's, and the last one is that they may serve me.
So those three injunctions, commandments are given by God that His people would be taken out. Sacrifice, feast, and serve. Now let's go to the New Testament, Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16 and verse 18.
The Lord Jesus is speaking to Peter, as we're well aware, and I say also unto thee. Now that's interesting, and maybe we should have read the previous verse actually verse 17. And 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.
So he's saying, my Father revealed this unto you, what you just said. And the interesting thing is, and I say also. If you read that too quickly, you might miss the point of that. The point of that is this, he is putting himself on equality with the Father.
He says, my Father just revealed this to you. My Father just said this to you. And I say also to you, so that he is literally putting himself, this is one of those passages which revealed to us the deity of the Lord Jesus.
And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Chapter 18, chapter 18 verse 15. Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee.
So obviously we're beginning a subject where there's questionable behavior between individuals. If we were to move down the chapter, we're not going to do that for the sake of time at this point, but I will take this up in another night, Lord willing, or another meeting.
And now we go down to verse 20. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, two or three, there am I in the midst of them. The subject here is actually discipline in the church, what it has escalated to, the matter has become, there's a question of an individual who's in his stubbornness and refusal, will not listen to witnesses that have been brought against him in their testimony, and he refuses to bow to the authority, not of the individuals really, they're acting on behalf of the Lord Jesus.
That's why he says where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Now Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 2 for a final reading. Now it's interesting when you come to this passage, verse 1, and when the day of Pentecost was fully come.
So this is telling us, the Spirit of God is telling us that this is a full fulfillment of the Old Testament feast of Pentecost. It has fully come. There have been other days of Pentecost, but this one says it's fully come.
The fulfillment of that day, according to Leviticus 23 and what it pointed ahead to, was fulfilled right here. Now interestingly when you have this, then you have the 120 here mentioned, and they speak in tongues.
You do not have the speaking of tongues in connection with the 3 ,000 that are later saved in this chapter. You do not have the speaking in tongues, and I'm saying this just as an aside, because the speaking of tongues is so prevalent in the charismatic movement today in many churches.
So you don't have the speaking in tongues later in terms of the 3 ,000. You don't have the speaking in tongues when it comes to the jailer. You don't have the speaking in tongues when it comes to the 4 ,000 that are saved later on in the next chapter and so on.
The only time you'll have it again is when you come to again in Cornelius in Acts chapter 10 and so on. So why in the very beginning of this chapter? Why in chapter 10? Because the Spirit of God is showing us that the Jew and the Gentile are brought in on equal footing.
Now there's more than that, but it's significant that it does not occur in other passages. Chapter 19 is another one, but very sparsely. I think it's significant that it's not a qualification for an elder.
It was a gift that was in the first century, and it is no longer in existence. So we read of this. Now let's go down to verse 41. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about 3 ,000 souls.
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. And there you have the statement concerning these people that were saved and what they came into.
A lot of people don't know what a Christian is. They think a Christian is someone who's not a Jew or or a Muslim or one of a number of other religions. And supposedly we live in a Christian land. That is not true either.
We do not live in a Christian land. But there are Christians, real Christians. And of course the Word of God, we have to come to the Word of God to tell us what a real Christian is. You can't go to the world around us.
You can't go to the religious systems because they think a Christian is just a church member. The problem is this. Not only does the world not know what a Christian is, but subsequently along that same stream of truth, the world doesn't know what a church is either.
So we cannot go to the places around because there are as many places as there are faces. And if you wanted to make your own church, you would be able to do so according to the laws of this land. And yet another one could spring up.
I think if I remember correctly, back at least when I went to school, I remember one of the courses I took was Religions in America. And at that time there was a book written by Martin E. Marty. That book, Religions of America, said there were at least 300 different denominations in the United States.
300. So you can't go to the world to find out what a church is. So we go to the Word of God because it's His church. And that's absolutely important. And you go to the Word of God to find out, well, what do we do in this church?
And what does it consist of? And because it is His church, and now if we take that as a funnel down, the church is His, and therefore the members in the church are His too. You belong to Him. So we need to know then, how can we act?
What do we need to do? What is our behavior, our attitude? What are the actions? What are the features of this? And so we come to this great subject. It's interesting how little people know of it too.
I went to school in Iowa, and I remember having that same course I was telling you about. I just took it as an elective. And I have a biology degree, so I have nothing to do with that. But I remember my professor, he actually became the dean, the academic dean, Jerry Richards, of the school.
And one of the things when we first started that class, he said, I would like to know just a little bit about each student. He says, so tell me, he said, a little bit about the place where you go and you attend in church.
So I wrote out where I was. And I got my paper back, and it wrote a little note on it. He says, very interesting. He says, come and see me after class. So I went up to him, and I said, Dr. Richards, I said, you wanted to see me?
Here's my paper. I said, was there something wrong? No, no. He says, no, really. He said, tell me a little bit more about this. He said, for example, he says, when did your group start? So I said, Acts chapter 2.
So he says, no, no, come on, really now. When did you start? No, I says, I'm serious. Acts chapter 2. So I said, Dr. Richards, I said, where do you go? So he says, well, I go, and he named his denomination.
I think it was Methodist, actually. And I said, well, when did your group start? And he told me it was right around maybe the 1600s or something like that. I said, wow. I said, we've got a little bit of time on you, don't we?
I said, you know, 1600 years, a difference. I said, why'd you wait so long? So then we engaged in a conversation, which was quite interesting. And he was open. He said, this is very interesting. I said, listen, we try to go strictly by the Bible.
I said, we're not perfect. But what we do is we have to go because it's his church. And that was an interesting segue into other conversations that we had. When you come to the Word of God, ask yourself the first question.
It's good to ask why. Why? Not in a challenging way. Not that you're coming to God and saying, you know, well, why did you do this? No, that's not the why. That's not the way to ask why. Some of the greatest discoveries that have ever been made in the realms of science or medicine and technology have been asked by men who asked why.
Not because they were challenging things, but because they were impressed by the order and the design that they saw that was not only repeatable, but discoverable. And it wasn't based on their hand or what they had done, but it was based on laws that were in place by a majestic and powerful, really, creator, whether they acknowledged him or not.
So when we ask why, you learn. Why do we do this? Why does God have us do that? And there is an appreciation gained. When you come to that in the Bible, that's good to ask in anything. When you come to the offerings, why did God have them offer a burnt offering?
Why did he have them offer a meal offering? So these things will expand your appreciation, your understanding of the Word of God, your grasp of truth. It will enable you to develop as a believer, because that's vital.
That's what God wants for you. If you have no interest in developing as a believer, in growing, in maturing, in obeying, you really need to question whether you're saved or not. Either that or you're far from God.
Because to think of the massive cost that the Lord Jesus paid to save you, so that you will never perish, how could you not ask, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? In fact, when you ask that, sincerely, you are acknowledging his lordship.
And when you do that with other believers, you are then acknowledging fellowship. And that's a tremendous thing. God looks down from heaven to see his people who are gathered together, who want to obey him collectively as a testimony.
So why the assembly? Well, in every dispensation, God has had his meeting places. Meeting places where not only he would meet with his redeemed people, but where he would make known his mind through them, his will known through them.
And even his character would be made known through that company. When you go back through your Bible, there are different times you can see it through. At times he's done it through one man, in Adam, that was his desire.
Sin thwarted that. He moves on then to a man, to a family. And then you have Noah. He moves on through a nation. And you have Abraham and the children of Israel. And God is making known his mind and his will through them.
And then there's the tabernacle. And you move through, and you have the temple, and you have the throne. And God establishes a king. And that king and that people were to be distinct from the nations.
And so he's making known his will and his mind through them. And then you come to the New Testament. And you have the Lord Jesus. And he's taking out of the world a people for himself. And then you have little companies, where these people who are redeemed, they have been now brought into something different, something unique.
And they have been given a charter that expresses the mind of their Lord. It's called the Apostles' Doctrine. And that was begun, and that is so significant, that we have that in chapter 2 of Acts, because that's when the church began.
And it is the one time where you have the universal, if you'll allow me to use that word, I know people find fault with that word, the universal church. But for the sake, I'll tell you this the first time, and then I'll keep using it throughout it.
When I speak about the universal church, while that word is not in the Bible, it refers to the body of Christ. The body of Christ that began on the day of Pentecost, and will be complete at the rapture of the church.
Every single believer, regardless of affiliations, associations, regardless of attitudes, everyone that is truly saved is part of that body, wherever they may go, wherever they may attend. They may have never joined any type of church.
They may have never even been baptized, although baptism is an evidence of salvation. But there are some that, if they haven't been that, but they're saved, they're in the body. Now that's distinct and different from the local church.
And that's what I want to get into a little bit. Salvation begins the whole thing. A person is saved. Without salvation, God does a work in someone, in salvation. When you are saved, there was a day in your life, and I trust that I'm speaking to everyone here, and you're saved.
If you're not saved, you are a part of nothing of God. There is no link with God. You are part of a world that's condemned. You are outside of the sphere of anything that I'm speaking about. And the wrath of God abides on you.
But if you're saved, there was a day in your life when you were. And that day, that salvation represents not only a day, it represents a delivery. When you were delivered from this present evil world, when you were delivered from perishing, and it was a great thing that you were delivered from that.
And not only is it a delivery, but it's a display. Your life is to be a display of God and of salvation, and what he can do with an individual in this world that all around you is condemned. Salvation changes everything.
Baptism followed that. That's why I read Acts chapter 2. They were saved, then they were baptized. And when they were baptized, there's actually six different types of baptism. Six different aspects of baptism in the New Testament.
But I want to look at Believer's Baptism. Because in Believer's Baptism, it is a mark of, we speak about life and death in the world. When you talk to people, they talk about life and death. It's a matter of life and death.
When it comes to baptism, God reverses it. It's a matter of death and life. Because what baptism is showing is this, I've died with Christ. I was crucified with Christ. Baptism is literally, the first part of baptism is going down into the waters.
And when you go down, you remember your baptism? I love seeing a baptism, because I always relive mine. Baptism's a great thing. Why is it the first step? It's interesting, it's the first public display, of the Lord Jesus.
His baptism. Up to that point, he had been in the shadows. 30 years. Oh, God had received glory and fragrance from that life, every moment, for 30 years. But in that moment then, he steps forth. And the first step, the first public obedience and display, is in the baptism of the Lord Jesus.
He's identifying himself with his people. That's why John says, why did you come to me to be baptized? I need to be baptized by you. Now, that was a different baptism. It was the baptism of John. It was the baptism of repentance.
But the mode was still the same. And there was some meaning that was still attached. It was identification with. And the Lord Jesus was identifying himself with a nation. But when it comes to believer's baptism, what you did, and what a person is doing, is he is identifying himself with a Christ that the world has rejected.
With a Christ that now has risen and ascended. And you have made a statement, that I live. Because the first thing is you go down into the waters. That's burial. The next thing is you come out of the waters.
That's the part everybody wants to see, right? Especially the person who's going down. Well, the thing is this, that's really what God wants to see too. Oh, God desires the death of that person, obviously, because he can do nothing with that person until they die.
God doesn't work with living sinners. You know why? Because sinners aren't alive to God. They're dead. And when they go down into that, they're showing this. We've died down to this world. Now we're coming up alive.
Christ living through me. So that's the first step of identification. Now, that's absolutely vital. And I probably got to the assembly and time's almost gone. But I want to say this. If you do not display the truth of baptism, the first step of obedience in your life, you will never be able to display any further truth in your life in terms of Christian living or the assembly.
That's why it's the first step. Because a person who says, I'm going to do what I want to do, is of no use to God. A person who says, I like to do this, I like to go here, I like to go there. And I know, you know what?
It's more, this is about me. I'm going to show what's about me. This is what I like. This is what I'm going to do. As long as the big I is you, he won't be the big him. And that's what the assembly is all about.
It's about Christ. The Lord in the midst of his people. And if a person isn't willing to bow to that, then they should not be received to that fellowship. Because that fellowship of that local church expresses that.
It's not that the person, listen, it's not that the person has to know everything. Who knows, who here knows everything? But there is an attitude of submission. An attitude of willingness to learn and obey.
An attitude that says, what whatsoever he says to me, I want to do. I want to add to this company, because this company reflects him. And when you go through that, that's why I began with the garden. The purpose of the garden was that the Lord God planted a garden.
He planted. And when you come to that word, planted, the idea in that word in the Hebrew is the idea of something that's fixed, something that's fastened, something that's permanent, that has parameters, boundaries, because the Lord did make that.
He created the whole world. Genesis 1 and 2 is the creation account. And while God made the stars and he spoke them into existence, and God made the seas, and God made the animals, he did a further work.
So while there was a finished work when it came to creation, there's a further work that he does in the garden. And he places man in that garden and showing purpose. And that he put man there with those boundaries and the parameters, because obviously when man sins, he's able to drive him from the garden.
So there was a distinctiveness about that garden, Eden, compared to the area around it. It really would fit in with the within and without. I know there's a number of things I'm saying now, but I'm dropping these terms so that when I say them later on, they won't be so unfamiliar.
The New Testament teaches a within and without of the local assembly, within the fellowship and its boundaries, and outside the fellowship. And so that garden shows that. It's interesting that the first Old Testament prophecy, the first Old Testament, I will, concerning salvation, is stated by God.
Concerning the coming seed. And he talks about how that he will, he will bruise Satan's head. And it's just as significant that the first New Testament statement about the assembly comes from Christ. I will build.
That's talking about the wide aspect. I will build. So God built. God builds. Now, when it comes to this garden, when it comes to this place, I just want to notice a number of distinctions, and I'll end with this, between, because I didn't get anywhere where I want to do, between the distinctions between the wide aspect and the local aspect.
Because if you do not understand the difference between the two, it will result in confusion. There are places that gather on the basis of the one body, that everyone is allowed as long as they're saved, and some aren't even questioned if they are saved.
In other words, that's between you and God. It's not between us, not our problem. If you're not saved, you know, that's your issue, and you better be careful. And so, you know, we're just, you know, let it, let a man examine himself, and so let him eat, and so it becomes, in their minds, the people who are in these places, it becomes a matter of individual responsibility.
The Bible doesn't speak about that. There is individual responsibility. But God has established the aspect of the fellowship and gatekeepers for that, doorkeepers, very similar to doorkeepers that were in the temple.
Why did God have doorkeepers? Why did he have gatekeepers? To care. Why did God establish shepherds over the sheep? To look out for, to care for the sheep. It was to be a burden on their hearts. They were to be those that oversee the sheep.
So you have that same truth in the New Testament. When it comes to the wide aspect, it's different as to its foundation than the local assembly. The wide aspect, there's one foundation. It began on the day of Pentecost, and everything following the day of Pentecost moved forward.
There will never be another building. There will never be another beginning beyond Pentecost. That was the start of it. And the Spirit of God came down, and there were people that were baptized. They were immersed into the one body, and they became inseparably linked with Christ, his body.
And this foundation was laid on the day of Pentecost. It tells us, in fact, the foundation is laid in also in linking with the apostles and the prophets in the book of Ephesians. If you read Ephesians carefully, in fact it's so obvious even if you don't read it carefully, you can see it.
The truth of Ephesians is the one body, the one body of which all believers are a member of, and the middle wall of partition that was broken down between the Jew and the Gentile, and these two entities becoming one.
There you go back to the Feast of Pentecost, the two loaves that were lifted up by the priest there, the high priest, and so you have the idea of those two loaves, two, Jew and Gentile, and a testimony to the truth of God that two are becoming one.
That foundation happened once. When you come to a local church, well, I don't know when the assembly here began, but when it began, obviously before it began, before it commenced, there was no assembly, therefore there was no foundation.
But the moment it began, there was a foundation. And what was that foundation that had been laid? It was in the gospel, and it was in Jesus Christ. First Corinthians 3 tells us that. And the gospel was preached, and souls were saved, and the same spirit that convicted individuals in the gospel and brought them to Christ is the same Holy Spirit of God that acted upon them in conviction and drew them to Christ in the assembly.
He is the center, he is the gathering center, and so different as to their foundations. And there are local churches that can cease to exist somehow. The seven churches in Revelation, they are all non-existent today.
And so while there was a foundation, there is nothing today, which means the foundation is gone too. But when it comes to the universal church, the body, it will never be destroyed. It will never cease to exist.
I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. It's different as to its foundations. It's different as to its location. For the first time, God had established something, and the only time this would happen, when that universal church would be seen, was on the day of Pentecost.
After that, the believers were disseminated. The 3 ,000 that you read of on the day of Pentecost that were saved, the church at Jerusalem did not exist of 3 ,000 people in fellowship. I remember someone asking me, how big was the loaf of bread that they had to bring?
There weren't 3 ,000 people in that one assembly. Those people had left. They were disseminated. They were there because of the Feast of Pentecost. And they were from all different nations. And when they were saved, then they went back to their places.
And they went back with teaching that they had never had. And they went back with a Savior that they had never had. And there were testimonies that sprung up all over. Later on, Thomas is going to go as far as India.
Other people will go here. And assemblies will be planted and brought up. So when it comes to their location, the universal church, there are some members here. Most of the members are in heaven. But when it comes to the local church, we read about the church at Corinth.
We read about Ephesus, Laodicea. These are the churches of God in the plural. You do not read about the churches when it comes to the wide aspect of the body. So they're different as to their locations.
This church, I'll use that word, assembly, in stout here, is a complete entity, distinct from other churches gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, other assemblies. And so your fellowship and the number here, you can be seen in your entirety.
You can be, not that you are often, but you can be at least. But when it comes to the universal church, you can't see it. I can't see Peter. I can't see Paul. They're in it. I can't see other believers.
I can't see believers right now who are in other continents, in other countries. I can't even see them back home. I know they're there, but my brethren are back home in Cambridge, Ontario, but I can't see them.
But when it comes locally, it's in one location. They're different relations. Different relations. When it comes to the body, Galatians tells us there's neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, bond or free, male nor female.
So there is no distinction of sexes in the universal church. We are all, can I put it this way, one homogenous whole that make up the body. It would be like a body of water. It would be, in fact, if I were to take this glass of water and I were to go out, I could use different examples, the Mississippi River, because you're familiar with that.
But if I were to go out to the ocean and I were to pour this water and say, this is you as a believer, here you are. And I pour this into the ocean and I say to the believers here, okay, now go find this glass of water.
You'd never be able to find it because it would become so inseparably linked with that vast body of water. It would be impossible. And yet it becomes one with that body of water. So in the same way, when you were saved, you became one, part, indissolubly linked, inextricably attached to the body of Christ.
And you now are part of something that will never be destroyed. But when it comes to the local church, there's a day when you had to join them. When you were saved, you knew nothing about what happened there.
You never knew you were added to the body. There were no feelings. There was no commitment on your part. It was all done by the Spirit of God. But when it comes to the local church, it's a decision. It's a commitment.
And there are people that they can leave. They can leave that assembly. And they join that assembly. We read of the Apostle Paul, Acts chapter 9, he assayed to join himself to the disciples that were in Jerusalem, so that he made a conscious decision to join those people.
In fact, they didn't even want him to join. They took Barnabas to vouch for him. Barnabas became a living letter of commendation. So you can leave that assembly. You can die, and now you're not a member of the assembly, because you're now in heaven, the local church, but you're still a member of the body.
You can be disciplined. You can be put away from that assembly, and therefore you're not a part of it. See how it cannot be on the basis of the one body, this fellowship that exists locally. So they're different as to their durations as well.
One will exist forever. The other will cease to exist at the rapture of the church. But why does it exist? It exists for Christ. I had We can appreciate going on the cost of this local assembly. How much did it cost to save you?
Cost the Lord Jesus everything. Precious blood was shed, pain, agony, suffering. How much did it cost him to establish this assembly? Same cost. Acts chapter 20, Paul is speaking to the Ephesian elders.
He said, the church of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own. He is telling those men there that the price for this assembly that I am putting, that God has put into your care, cost him as much as the salvation of your soul.
And how we value the assembly will be particularly linked with how much we value the price that the Lord Jesus paid for us. May God impress upon our hearts the value, the importance, the significance of the local assembly.
And we have just begun this journey. Let's pray. Father, we do give thee thanks for thy goodness. We thank thee for the Lord Jesus. We thank thee for this great subject. What a vast subject. We confess we've hardly scratched the surface.
Help us to communicate thy word and thy truth to thy people. Help them, we pray, to take it in, to have opened ears and willing hearts as we commend ourselves to thee now in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen.