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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/joel-portman/assembly-just-a-place/
We also realize that the truth of separation has an impact upon assembly testimony. What we are individually will ultimately influence what an assembly is collectively. That is, the assembly, as the believers are gathered together unto the Lord Jesus Christ, that their character, their practices, their interests, their desires, their purposes will always result in the kind of conditions that are developed in the assembly itself.
And so it's so important that you and I recognize the principles that should control in our lives so that we might have that corresponding desire, and recognizing as well the responsibility we have and how it will affect others.
So we're noticing that in a positive way, separation is very important in relation to our fellowship with God as our Father. Since he is holy, we are to be holy as well. It affects our spiritual condition and how we get on in relation to making progress in the spiritual life.
And then as well, it affects our testimony as it has to do with our interaction with the world. Now that's all in the context of what I have in my mind, and that is simply to try to give some of the reasons why we do and practice certain things as believers, and also why we do not do other things.
Let me tell you what's in my mind in doing that, in approaching it that way, and that is that I'm not so old that I can't remember what I was thinking at the stage when I was like some of you younger people are here today.
I remember going through the process of searching to try to know, is there a solid biblical reason why I should do this or why I shouldn't do that? And even in relation to the assembly, is that really the place where God wants me to be?
I would judge that almost everybody in assembly fellowship, in some measure or another, goes through a process like that. It's one thing to know that this is what has been taught me, this is what my parents believe, this is what I'm surrounded by in my associations, but it's another thing to get that truth, whatever it might be, deeply embedded in your own heart and have a definite appreciation of it so that it stands you in good stead to give you a solid foundation and stabilize you.
I remember a time when I wasn't sure just where I ought to be. I was really searching the Word of God and waiting upon God to determine, in some way making clear to me, was I where I should be according to the Word of God and according to God's will.
Because I was afraid that if I made any sudden moves, it would always be a disaster, it would probably be a great mistake, and so I simply waited, waited, waited, prayed and read until I knew for sure just what God wanted for me.
I think that's a very good exercise for anyone, especially younger believers. Take time to search the Word of God, asking God to show you the truth of His Word because that's what will last through your entire lifetime.
Also in relation to the truth of the assembly, it troubles me greatly to see believers that some of them have gone on an assembly fellowship for many years and all of a sudden they're left. And I could relate a number of cases of that that cause great distress over in our area, great problem, not problem I should say, but sadness in our hearts.
And it's amazing to me sometimes the kind of church gatherings, shall we say, where these people end up. I find it hard to believe. I had a promising, lovely young couple in our assembly in Maryland that decided to leave and they ended up in a large charismatic place where they speak in tongues and all the rest of the stuff.
And I wonder how can you be satisfied and be happy in a place like that if you know anything about the Word of God. And so that's a danger that we face in our day. And the day that we live in is in some measure discouraging to the hearts of God's people.
And if we don't have the assurance that we are where God wants us to be, doing what God wants us to do, maybe not in the degree that we ought to do it, then of course we have a tendency to go somewhere else.
Now I don't want anyone to get the idea when I speak on this that we are in any way measuring up to the standard of the Word of God. I don't believe that. I think, brethren, it's a danger if we think that we are the people in the sense of having everything nailed down and doing everything right.
I'm not saying that in a critical way. I'm just saying that because it's reality. That we are not what we ought to be. Now what I'm concerned about deeply, and I don't mind telling you this because I think it's a great problem that inevitably historically develops over the period of time, and that is we are in danger very seriously of slipping into a pattern of doing things that may be right, but without the heart and without the right spiritual state within us.
That is, you know, that's really what the Pharisees were doing. They were going about what was right, but for the wrong reasons altogether. And I trust that we might recognize the need to stir ourselves up internally, spiritually, personally, because this world that we live in has a degrading effect upon our lives in a spiritual quality.
It has the effect of intruding into our thinking and working itself in so insidiously that we don't even realize it. That we become more and more conformed to it outwardly because we've been conformed to it inwardly.
So we need to be very careful. The thing that God emphasized, I believe in his word, is more than outward doing certain things or conforming to certain things which may be right in themselves, not saying they aren't, but without having the proper exercise of heart.
When I look at Deuteronomy, that's where we're going to read, but in Deuteronomy I believe, above all things, it's not a repetition of the law the second time, even though we have the law the second time in it.
I take it that if you look at Deuteronomy very carefully, God is tenderly appealing to his people that he might reach their heart, that he might find in them a responsiveness, that they would do those things because of a genuine, fervent desire to please him, because of a love for him, not just simply as an external observance.
And again and again he appeals to them. He says, oh, that there was such a heart in them that they would long for this, and ultimately, of course, prophetically in that song of Moses at the end, he anticipates the failure that was going to take place.
God help us, brethren, that we don't maintain the proper state inwardly before God enjoying that relationship and able to continue in faithfulness to him. So in looking at this issue of why we do things and why we don't do things, I want to say, first of all, the first thing I'd like to talk about tonight is why do we believe that the local assembly is the only place that God's word teaches for his people to be.
Now, that's not an uncommon question, because I remember hearing Brother Maxwell when I was a young man and he used to preach repeatedly that the only thing that is taught in the word of God where God intends his people to gather is a local assembly, gathered in the Lord's name, and carried on in the New Testament pattern.
And I would sort of internally scratch my skull and I would say, now wait a minute, are you so sure about that? Because I wasn't sure about that. And I remember hearing him say that many times when I was a young man.
And then I've heard another man that has said that, I've heard him repeat this many times and I believe it's true as well, but he has said that God never intended for many different things to be in one place.
He intended that there should be one thing in many places. You know what he means. God never intended there should be many different kinds of gatherings of so-called Christians of one area. But he intended that there should be one kind of gathering in many different areas.
And I see that in the New Testament as well. So the question we want to look at first of all is why do we believe that? Because I may be addressing a young person tonight, and you're saying in your mind, how do you know that?
And how can you say that? What's the difference? Why is it any different so far as a gathering that might be evangelical and fundamental and active and carrying on an active program of seeking to reach the lost, administer the needs of people and many different things like that.
Listen, I've been there and have done that. I know what that's all about. I know about such places because that's where I've been at one point in my life. No need to go into that. But I want to emphasize there is a reason why we believe that.
And let me just read first of all from the Old Testament pattern, and I know it's the Old Testament. We're not going to build doctrine in the Old Testament. We do see an example. But in Deuteronomy 19 times God speaks about the place.
And almost all of those times he speaks about the place which the Lord by God shall choose. Now notice in chapter 12, there's six times you find that expression in chapter 12, and I won't read them all.
But notice he says in verse 5 of chapter 12, but unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose, out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come, and thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings and all the other aspects of their sacrificial worship before God.
Six times you find that expression in this one chapter. So God was right at the very beginning, before they ever entered into the land, instituting for them the fact that even though they were going to be living in diverse parts of the land of Canaan, some on the east side of the River Jordan, some to the north, some to the south, God says there's going to be one place where I will put my name, and it was God's choice where it was going to be.
There was no possibility of them choosing that for themselves. God indicated his choice very clearly. That wasn't always Jerusalem, but eventually it was. You know that first of all there was Gilgal, and there was Shechem, and there were different places where the tabernacle was pitched, but ultimately when it came to the time that David, the purchase was made of that threshing floor of Aramah, the Jebusite, and there is where the temple of God was built in the days of Solomon.
That was the place that God says, that's where I place my name, and that's where I want you to come with all your worship. Prior to that it was simply one place. It was one place when the tabernacle was at this location, or one place when the tabernacle was at another location.
In other words, there was only one gathering center. That was the unifying center for the people of God in that day. God drew them all together on one ground, onto one place to worship in one particular manner.
You know that whenever they got away from God, they always got away from the place. You remember the days of Jeroboam and Rehoboam, that Jeroboam decided that going to that place was going to cause problems for my kingdom up here in these ten northern tribes.
So he issued another two places, not one but two. They weren't the places that the Lord had chosen, they were the places that he chose, Bethel and up in Dan. But the point I want to make is that in the entirety of the Old Testament, looking at that as a picture, an example, God only had one place for his people.
Only one form of worship for them to be involved with. Only one center where the priests were to function, and where their worship was to be concentrated. One place, it was his choosing. And you know very well that when God brought them back from the land of Babylon, and all that it spoke of, he brought them right back to the same place.
God always brings his people back there. So without elaborating that, let's look at the New Testament and ask the question, is there anything in the New Testament teaching besides a local assembly of believers simply gathered to the Lord's name in a particular place?
You know very well that the word church in our Bible is a word that is translated from a Greek word that really means a calling out or an act of God to call people out. I'm adding to it in that sense, but nevertheless, it is a sense of responding to a call.
Congregating together. And being in a condition where I am responsive to the word of God and responsive to the will of God and seeking to do what is for his pleasure. What I find striking in the New Testament is very simply this.
And that is that God only teaches. That is the only thing that is taught in the New Testament, isn't it? In fact, if you come to 1 Corinthians with me please, in chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Now some of these are hard to get within the space of time that we have, hard to get scriptures that we can read that are absolutely clear because you almost have to read a great amount of the word of God to be able to develop this.
But notice, Paul is writing to the assembly in Corinth. He's giving them teaching, correction, instruction in what they should do and how they should behave, how they should conduct their meetings. Chapter 11, 12, and 13 has to do with the assembly meeting, how it's to be carried on.
Chapter 5 has to do with the moral conduct and practices and all these other teachings that are contained in these 16 chapters in 1 Corinthians, I believe, form the essence really of the doctrine that has to do with the local assembly.
But notice what he says in verse 2 of chapter 1. He's writing under the assembly of God. That's always the local assembly. Which is at Corinth, that's its location. To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, that is their position insofar as God is concerned.
They're called saints. They're designated as saints as a result of calling. And then in the following part of the verse he says, with all that in every place, call upon or invoke the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, that is their Lord and our Lord.
I won't read them all, but if you were to read 1 Corinthians with reasonable care, you would notice this, that Paul repeatedly makes it very clear that the teaching that he is giving to the saints in Torah is the same teaching he gives in every other church.
In fact, he mentions that a number of times. He says in chapter 11 that we have no other practice than all the churches of God. And so Paul is emphasizing the fact that the teaching that applies and that he is giving to them in this particular epistle is teaching that has its effect and is being carried out in other gatherings as well.
And you know that in the New Testament, while there were variations in the character of the people, likely variations in possibly their meeting times and different ways that they carried out their meetings to a certain extent, yet there was an overall continuity, there was an overall conformity in terms of the practices that they carried out.
So that you have in the word of God the instruction that is given us, so it indicates to us very clearly that there was common practice, there was common doctrine upon which that practice was based. And if you look for other things outside of the simplicity of such an assembly gathering that has been formed by the work of the Spirit of God through the preaching of the gospel and in which they are being guided by elders in the assembly and served by deacons and where there is a priesthood of believers and all the other truths that we believe are important, that is all you find taught.
That is also all you find practiced in the New Testament assembly. Now if you read Christian literature outside of assembly writings, you run across expressions like these, the primitive church. And that really is an expression that indicates that in the writer's mind that was a very rudimentary, very, very early kind of form of church gathering.
You know, it's just the beginning of it. As if to say that was only a beginning and what is developed out of it is an expression of progress, expression of making things greater and grander and much more effective in so far as testimony today.
The only trouble is that the primitive church is all that we have taught in the Word of God. There's nothing else that's taught. And you know, there's nothing indicated in the New Testament that makes it in any way suggestive even that the changes that have taken place over the period of years in church history have been for the better or in the mind of God as being part of his purpose.
God predicted them. We find them being predicted in different ways, in different parables in the New Testament as well as in, of course, the letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3. But nevertheless, the primary fundamental teaching of what God expects for a local assembly gathering, that is all that's taught.
And anything that's changed away from that, of course, is adding to or taking from what the Word of God teaches. So then the issue comes up in a person's mind, well, what about things that are not directly addressed in the Word of God?
Does the silence of scripture indicate that that particular thing is all right? We need to understand that God teaches by silence, by the fact that it's not mentioned as well as by the fact that it is.
There are many things that are being introduced into church gatherings today and even into some assemblies, and they weren't absent from the society of the days of the New Testament. They were part of the everyday life.
They were existing in terms of what they did in their normal lives, but they were not brought into, they were not a part of the practice of a local assembly. So just because something is not mentioned and there's no direct injunction against something doesn't mean that God indicates that that's all right to begin doing that.
In other words, what our desire really ought to be is to recognize that we are responsible to maintain the testimony that was instituted and was established by the Word of God from the very beginning.
When I look at a local assembly in the New Testament, I believe it was characterized by two things. It was characterized by its spirituality. It was a spiritual place. It was a place where there were believers being controlled by the Spirit of God to participate and to enjoy the fullness of what that fellowship involved.
It was also a place that was marked by simplicity. Simplicity. And you know the human mind just simply detests simplicity when it comes to many things. Organization and the development of a hierarchy of authority and all the other things that have developed over the years have only been the result of a degeneration and a departure from the practice of the New Testament.
Of the New Testament. So, after much searching on my own part, I came to the point where I had to say, Mr. Maxwell, you're right. I don't know if you'd say that he's right or that I'm right in that respect.
But I really do believe that if you search the Word of God yourself, you'll come to the same conclusion. That there's no room in the Word of God in the New Testament whatsoever for all the things that have come in.
And I don't want to enumerate them. I'm not interested in going in an elaboration over these things. It wouldn't be profitable anyway. The thing is, if we want to know what God really desires for us to practice, let's seek to study this book and examine just what God has taught us.
Because there's sufficiency there to meet the need of his people until the very end of church testimony in this period of time. Now, that could be developed more. You could look at other passages. You could look at the fact that in Matthew chapter 16, the Lord Jesus speaks about building his church.
One church. That's the body of Christ, of course. On this rock I will build my church. Well, when you come to chapter 18, the expression of that church is a local assembly. Of believers two or three having been gathered together in my name, the Lord Jesus says, that's where he says I will be.
I am in their midst. Isn't that very similar to the language of Deuteronomy chapter 12 and verse 5? He says, that's where I will be. God says where I place my name is a place where I will be. So it's true in the New Testament as well that you and I can enjoy a blessed sense of the presence of the Lord Jesus as we seek to gather in that simple way.
I need to mention the fact that in Matthew chapter 18 and verse 20, at verse two or three, having been gathered in my name, that word in my name really signifies that those believers are seeking to express subjection to the authority of the Lord Jesus.
It's a place where his will is supreme and his word is the only guide to controls. So I hope that you'll gain something from looking at that. It's a large subject that could be looked at probably in more detail, but I firmly believe in my own mind after being in relation to an assembly and being in fellowship in the assembly for a large number of years and searching this truth out for myself because I've never been one that could just simply swallow something because somebody said so.
I've always been one that wants to make sure for myself and I always encourage that for other believers as well. That became established in my own mind despite the fact, brethren and sisters, we have many failures and I'm not trying to minimize that.