The assembly defined, developed, destroyed, delivered — Frank Sona

It's a good thing when we have an exercise to pray. It's not what I'm going to speak on, but we need God and we need to pray. And I have thoroughly enjoyed conferences where there has been a real exercise, even of local men, not the preachers, but local men, to pray and lay hold on God.

We need your prayers and others need prayer. So it's a wonderful exercise and it is something that we are so often slow to handle. But 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and we're going to look at a few scattered verses before we get into what I would like to speak on.

The Cross Versus the Wisdom of the World

Verse 18, for the preaching of the cross, that is the idea of the word of the cross. It's not the normal word for preaching, but it is the idea behind the cross. It says, is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

This will be a recurrent theme at the outset of this letter. The power of God and the foolishness of men offset by the foolishness of what is called the wisdom of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

Let's go down a little bit further. Chapter 2 and verse 1, and I brethren when I came to you came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. So he didn't come armed with worldly wisdom, he did not come armed with that which would be an elevation of words, that's the idea behind excellency of speech.

But he came to them declaring the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now what's interesting, that's what characterized his arrival to them.

I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now following that he says, and I was with you. So Paul is giving us here his two-fold stewardship. A stewardship in the gospel that he was entrusted with and then a stewardship of ministry, declaring the mysteries of God as is told to us in the book of Colossians, the epistle to the Colossians.

And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Now he's going to go down through chapter 2 to give us three distinct and different types of men. We're not going to look at that, but there's the natural man, there's the carnal man, and there is the spiritual man.

And as he unfolds this chapter, chapter 2, he is explaining to them and writing to them concerning how revelation and inspiration and communication of the scriptures and why he came to them with that for that very reason.

Because they're building up what God is going to do in this world and in the lives of believers is independent and separate from the wisdom of this world. It is not the thinking of this world, it is the wisdom and the power of God.

And so he comes to them in the energy of the spirit with revelation from God. Now, chapter 3. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

I have fed you with milk and not with meat. Why? For hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able, for ye are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men?

And then he goes on to explain about the divisions that are occurring at Corinth. Verse, now let's go down to verse 8. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor, for we are laborers together with God.

God, or of God, ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest.

For the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss. But he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. Know ye not that ye are temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? Now this is collectively, he's writing to them collectively as an assembly.

In chapter 6 he will say this again, but now it will be the individual believer that is the temple of God, their bodies. This here now is that local body, the local company in Corinth. And he says this, verse 17, if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.

For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. Let no man deceive himself, now these are important words, listen to these, if any, no man deceive himself, if any man among you seemeth to be wise in this, and you'll allow me to translate that, this age.

He's talking now about this specific age that that assembly was part of and we are still part of today. This age is an age that is characterized by worldly wisdom. We have gone from steam power to atomic power and beyond in less than a century.

The technology, the advances, I know while they were not part of that time, obviously, still knowledge characterizes this particular age. And that's what he's writing. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.

For the wisdom of this cosmos, this world, is foolishness with God. That now, what he is saying is this, the wisdom of this age is specific to this time period, this frame. But the wisdom of this cosmos, which stretches back from the beginning and it will go to the future, he says all of it, all of the wisdom that characterizes this order of things, this cosmos, this world, all of it is distinctly separate and unuseful to God.

That's what he's saying. He's characterizing all the ages and then this specific age. Then he says, and this is how he supports that statement and how I will support it. For it is written, and he goes back to quote Psalm 94.

Psalm 94 was not part of this age. Psalm 94 was part of another age, a prior age, but it still speaks of the framework of wisdom that characterizes the world, the cosmos. It is written, he taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

And again, the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are vain. Therefore, let no man glory in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come.

Defining the Assembly

All are yours and ye are Christ's and Christ is God's. I want to speak at the opening session basically about four things using this passage and the foundation of this Corinthian epistle to speak about, first of all, how to define an assembly.

Second of all, how to develop an assembly. Thirdly, how to destroy an assembly. And lastly, how to deliver an assembly. How to define an assembly. Paul has brought the gospel to Corinth as he did to so many other areas.

It's always interesting getting a background for younger ones that study your Bible. It's interesting to get a background of the cities and the places that were linked with these various letters. They will give you an insight into the context of what's happening there as we heard this morning.

Corinth was a city that was very well known for trade. It was a harbor city. It was an isthmus itself and it actually had three harbors, three harbors. So it was very important for commerce and trade.

Some of these places were actually places where they had built an overland tram where you could bring smaller ships from one harbor over to the other harbor. So obviously, the Corinthians weren't big on separation.

And you can get that from this letter. In addition to that, it was a city that had been known what it was to be rebuilt. They were destroyed in 146 BC by a man named Mummius, rebuilt in about 64 BC by Caesar.

And so at this time frame now, they have risen. They have become what they are now, as Paul writes to them. They were known for their artistry. They were a people that were known for canvas, for paintings.

Unfortunately, they were not known for their convictions. They were also known for paganism, heathen deities. Aphrodite was one that was well known there. Poseidon, the god of the ocean, had a great place among these people.

So they were a tremendously aware group. They were a group that had various endeavors, various approaches, various openings to the life and the world around them. And the gospel was brought to them. And everybody was interested in Corinth, but so was God.

And as God now establishes an assembly, a testimony to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, using this little man, Paul, to preach the gospel, to come in. A man who was among the top men of the learned intelligentsia of the day.

Academically, he was out there, versed, verbal, able, capable. And yet when he comes into Corinth, he says, I determine not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. He was not depending, nor was he bringing in, nor was he delivering to them worldly wisdom that was all swept aside.

And he comes in there with the testimony of God. What a message. So how do we define an assembly then? Well, we could ask the apostle first. And the apostle will tell us that an assembly is the strongest anchor for truth.

He writes to Timothy, as we were hearing earlier in that epistle in chapter three, that the assembly is the pillar and ground of truth. It is that which is raised up to God, and it is that which is anchored firmly in the truth of God.

It is that safety deposit box, as it were. It is the place where truth is revealed and revered, because the truth of God is there in an assembly. If you were to ask the apostle how to define an assembly, there would be three factors that would come in mind to him.

The first thing would be that there would be the element of conversion. The element of conversion. He says, those things that were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. He says, this is what's important.

This life, this truth, this that God has established. Let me ask you something. How important is the assembly to you? As we look around at a world that is so large and in charge, so a world that is so towering above us in knowledge, in power, in communication, in media, we can lose sight of the fact that God's assembly is the most important thing on the face of the earth.

It is a place where God communicates truth, reveals himself, his son, his word in the collective gatherings of the saints. You would have to ask him something about the cost of it as well, not just his conversion, but the cost.

Because here is a man, and it cost him dearly to be part of that little company. They were after him. The Jews lying in wait. How many times was he beaten? Was he bruised? Was he battered? Was he bobbing on the top of the water?

Thrown in the deep? Shipwrecks often. I mean, Paul was a person. If I saw Paul and we were going to the same place and there was a ship and we had to take, I would wait for the next ship, okay? Because he always got involved in shipwrecks.

It cost him something. I wonder, is there a generation maybe here that I'm speaking, and really, you've lost the aspect or maybe never had the aspect of what it has cost to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And maybe because of that, not intentionally, but because it hasn't really cost you anything, that testimony, it doesn't mean as much to you. Well, I can't help it that it didn't cost you that much, but I am hoping and praying that before I get through with my message, and along with what else you will hear and have heard, that you will get a little insight into how God views the assembly, and you can see a little bit of his investment in this company.

You could ask the apostle that and he would tell you it's the strongest anchor. You could ask a man who comes in to Corinth, and he is unlearned. And you're gonna ask him, what does the assembly mean to you?

And he will say it is a place, now, not only of the strongest anchor, but of the highest appearing, the highest appearing. He may have been a person that was high on social level, we don't know. But when he comes into that assembly, now listen to this, he did not have opportunity to get to know these people.

All he had to depend on was what he saw at the moment when he came into that company. And he says this, it says, falling down on his face, he will worship God and acknowledge and report that God is among you of a truth.

He will say this is the place, this assembly is the place of highest appearing. God is among you. How did he know that? If he couldn't get to know them, what would the first impression, because we're not told that this man has come again and again and again.

We're not told that he was hobnobbing with the Christians, that he was going into their houses, that he was meeting them. How did he know? How would he be able to define this assembly in Corinth with all their problems, personal problems?

There would be a note of reverence. There would be the aspect of respect. There would be the truth of God that would come in into his soul. That this is the place of the highest appearing on earth. This is the place where God makes himself known through his people as they gather.

What a tremendous thing. And we can ask the Lord Jesus how he would define the assembly. And in Matthew 18 and 20, he makes it very clear. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

And he says that the assembly, defining it, is not only the place of the highest, the strongest anchor, and it's not the place of the highest appearing only. It's the place of the greatest administration.

The greatest administration, where he is Lord. And that's what it means to be gathered to his name, to honor his authority. Defining an assembly? Well, we can go a little bit beyond this as well because there are various metaphors in our New Testament, pictures, illustrations of the assembly.

There are at least ten of them. Paul uses five himself, five different metaphors. He is going to use some in this very chapter, which we have already read in chapter three, a tilled field, husbandry, a temple.

So we've defined the assembly. It's a place where the greatest appearing, the strongest anchor, the greatest administration is all revealed in this company. Now as Paul writes to the Corinthians, he's going to tell them how to develop an assembly.

Developing the Assembly Through the Cross and Spirituality

As he tells them that, he reminds them of when he came among them. What he denied and what he delivered. What he denied was worldly wisdom. What he denied and refused was the thinking of this world. Thinking that relies upon contrivance, convenience, compromise, pleasing everybody, majority rules, all of this type of thinking.

The appreciation and vindication and vaunting of self that the Corinthians were so used to, that people, we all do. He says that, you want to develop the assembly? That all has to be refused. All has to be put away.

And he says, I'll tell you what has to be delivered, though, is the testimony of God. That's what has to be here. The message of the cross. We preach Christ, he said, and him crucified. Why? Because it is the power of God.

It is the wisdom of God. It signals the death of self. It does not vaunt self. It elevates Christ. It shows what has been put to death by God and what is very much alive to him. Developing an assembly.

He goes through chapter one. He reminds them of their calling. If you read that chapter carefully, five, six times he brings before them their calling. Their calling. Brethren, we have been called of God.

The highest calling on earth. Live up to it. Display it. In reverence, in respect, in recognition of who has called you. It seems that in the very first chapter, if you were to take the time to read it, that they had lost sight of their calling.

Of what they had been called from. Who they had been called by. What they had been called to. And if we lose sight of our heavenly noble calling that has separated us from a world to him. Because separation has two sides.

You can emphasize separation and you still miss the boat. You can emphasize separation and live a monastic lifestyle that never speaks to your neighbors. That never wants to spread the message. Never wants to reveal who you are to a fallen world so that they can see.

We can be separated from and not separated to. So there's two sides to that. They were to be a people that were separated from their old lifestyles. The way they lived. What they were shrinking and going back into.

What had simply tried to call them back into it. Because they had lost sight of their calling by God. Brethren, let us not lose sight of the high heavenly calling of what God's assembly is to be. And so he tells them how to develop it.

He says spirituality, chapter two, is the key to development. Spirituality, you know what that means? Simply means submission, control by the Holy Spirit. That's why Paul writes about walking in the spirit, praying in the spirit, worship in the spirit.

Spirituality, that can be possible, he says. But he says that will only come in the measure that we heed his communication, that we bow to his truth, we submit to it. He brings in three types of men then in chapter two.

The carnal man, the natural man, the spiritual man. The natural man is the unregenerate man, the unsaved man. The person who has not the spirit of God. Unable to comprehend, unable to register divine truth.

Dead in sins and trespasses. He is the natural man. The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit. Nicodemus is a perfect example of this. As the Lord Jesus speaks to this man, and he says, how can these things be?

And the Lord Jesus says, art thou a teacher of the Jews, and you don't know these things? They just couldn't get through. They couldn't, it was like a wall was there. That's the natural man. The spiritual man is the man that is controlled by the spirit.

It's the very tempo and tenor of his life. That he is seeking God's will, seeking God's word. In communication, in communion with God, the spiritual man. But then he says, talks about the carnal man. And the carnal man now, unfortunately, carnality.

Carnality isn't something that we drift in and out of. I think there's possibly a misunderstanding of what carnality really is, or being carnal. The word comes from a word which means the flesh. And so, while being in the flesh is a position of unsaved people.

The Christian is not said to be in the flesh. But the flesh is in us. And in the level, not that it comes and goes, but that it waxes and wanes. That is the measure of our carnality. We can allow fleshly impulses to control us, to drive us, to motivate us.

Fleshly thinking to dictate our decisions, whether that's personal or in the assembly. We can, and this has come in, in terms of the religious world around us. The social media. We hear, we listen, we're bombarded, we buy into it.

It affects us, sometimes it even affects us subliminally. Without even realizing it, and we are affected by it. And the big problem is this, carnality hinders the work of the spirit. Carnality is a barrier.

And so Paul writes, as he speaks to them, he says, I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal. He says, you're babes. He says, you're infants. And as he speaks to them about this, he's reminding them that they needed to progress.

Now, this is not a natural development. This is not natural stages like we have in the life of a person, as they go from a baby to then a little older adolescent. And then they go to a mature person. No, no.

He's saying, where you are now, he says, you're carnal, you're babies. He said, I couldn't even feed you with spiritual food because you're unable to take it. He's telling them now, as he's writing to them, this is not how you develop an assembly.

He says, this is how you destroy an assembly. The fact that they were carnal was standing in the way of their own development. And it wasn't by gross sins. It wasn't by things that they were ashamed of.

He's going to address that later on in chapter five, chapter six. It was just the lifestyle that they embraced. It was just the wisdom and the thinking of the world that they were being swept away with.

That, my brethren, is carnality. And it was taking the assembly out to sea. It was destroying God's assembly. And Paul writes this for them to wake up. And as a matter of fact, we can be in great danger when we don't emphasize spiritual needs of the assembly, when we overemphasize physical needs of the assembly, physical needs of the believers.

The Spiritual Diet Required for Growth

When we do that, the assembly is headed for disaster. It's interesting, when he writes these things, he talks about the wisdom of this age, the wisdom of this world. So what does he do to address these issues?

Number one, he says their diet needs to be emphasized, their diet. I don't think, I know, Brody makes fun of me. I go downstairs in my little dresser, and I have all these supplements up there. And I still get colds, and I still throw out this muscle and that muscle.

And we live in a day and age when we're so aware of organics, supplements, healthy foods. We go into the stores, you look at the shoppers, they're looking at the labels. How many carbs, how many grams of protein, how many calories?

We're so aware of what we eat, our diets. Are you, dear Christian, are you that interested in your spiritual diet? Do you look at the labels of things that you're taking in, what you're feeding on? The time you're spending doing this, doing that, in contrast or comparison to the little percentage of time that we actually spend meditating on the word of God, taking in things, speaking to God in prayer, getting on our knees in his presence, he says, you are yet carnal.

And as he reminds them, he's reminding them of their diet. And if they didn't grow out of this, they would never go on. They were actually embracing what has been called Christianity light, if I could put it that way.

Christianity light, just a light diet of just a here and there, a little snack, but there was no substance. Now I hear people say, and I've heard this, they say, you know what? We want simple ministry.

We don't wanna go into all this doctrine. We don't wanna, do you know why they say that a lot of time? Listen, it is a cop out often, because God has given you the spirit of God. He wants every single one of us to enter into the deep things of God.

He does not want any of us to be shallow, surfacy believers. He wants us to live above the level of mediocrity. But there are so many believers, and they're just living mediocre Christian lives, not entering into the depth of the truth of doctrine.

And subsequently, it is enabling them to live carnal, shallow lives. Isn't our Lord Jesus worth more than that? Isn't our Savior more deserving of that from you and from me? Doesn't he deserve that the sacrifice, not only the fruit of our lips, but even the inner thoughts of our minds, the depths of our heart?

And so as Paul writes to them, you can sense the burden in his heart. He's going to warn them about being babes, babies. Paul holds them accountable for not growing. I want you to think of just several things he says about them.

He says, number one, he said, when you're carnal, he says, you're self-centered. As you read through the epistle, they were self-centered. Everything revolved around them. How prevalent that thinking is, and that is a carnal believer.

Think about a baby. Isn't that true of a baby? Their whole world is them. Everything revolves around them. Their needs, their wants, it's all about them. Their wants are predominant. Listen, you want to make that assembly that you're in a better place?

You want to be a better believer? Sacrifice your wants for the needs of others. Live for others. If there is a word that we so often read about Christ, it's this, others, others. Even his enemies had to say at Calvary, he saved others, in the recognition that here was a man who lived for others.

How different the assembly would be if the first other would be our Lord, and then every other would be others, and then the last other would be this, another. They were babies. How about a baby is dependent on others for their needs and food, right?

A baby is sitting there and he wants the bottle. Feed me, feed me. Listen, dear child of God, if you are looking down at the assembly because you don't get enough teaching or food there, you have missed the idea of God expects you to study and feed yourself as well.

Now he does expect that there should be teaching, expositional teaching. The word of God being taught from this platform. That is maybe what we're lacking today too in some of our conferences. Men get up and there could be any passage ever and just kind of ramble on and say something.

But if it's Christ-centered, scriptural ministry, food for the people of God, that is what we need. But do not get all of your food nor expect to get all of your food from this platform. You know what happens?

You're only eating twice a week then. Now eating twice a week would be pretty good for some of us, okay? But for us as believers, it's not good at all. Every day, babies are dependent for their own food.

Don't, they're dependent on others for their own food. Don't be a baby. Thirdly, short attention spans. I'm already, I'm looking at that clock, I know. And I know conferences where they, let's give 25 minutes to, you know what?

Sometimes you cannot develop something in 25 minutes. And that puts a muzzle on preaching. Now, now listen, other brethren, I'm not giving you license to go way far above this. But I'm just saying, we need to be reasonable too.

And I wasn't looking over there for a reason. I'm just, I look like this, okay? But when it comes to short attention spans, babies have that. They move from one thing to another. They're more, they're more, their attention span, they're more interested in motion than meaning.

Give us something full of motion. Give us some, give us some bling up there. We want something new. Razzle and dazzle us with some new novel teaching. Something that nobody's ever heard of before. I guarantee you, you get something that nobody's ever heard from before, it's wrong.

Another thing with babies, no sense of value. No sense of value. I guarantee you, if there's a baby here, and if you put a $50 bill in front of them, and a nice shiny ball of aluminum foil in your other hand, they're gonna go for the aluminum foil, okay?

They have no concept of value. The Corinthians had no concept of true value. And when you go in for this world and its thinking, and you spend your time with fellowshipping in that world. Your friendships are in that world.

Young people, who are your friends? Who are your associates? What do you disclose? What do you reveal? How much time, where do you go with friends that are in school, or maybe in that job, or whatever?

You know what you're doing? If you do that, your sense of value is down. You're esteeming them more than the people of God. What about the assembly? Do you study to bring something to it? Do you come with a burden in the prayer meeting?

Is there an exercise that when it comes Sunday morning, you are going to come there to worship? Because you can't hold back. You've got something that God has given you, put into your heart, and you can't wait to tell him, because that is the highest occupation you can do.

No sense of value. And how about demanding? That's another way to destroy an assembly. Just be demanding. Want your own way. I can say that. I have known assemblies where there have been leaders in that assembly that have literally killed it, because they are so self-controlling.

They are so demanding. They just want their own way. And it doesn't matter what the people are interested in, or care about, or the feelings of those people. It's my way or the highway. That's carnal thinking.

That will destroy an assembly. Care about the needs of others. So he gives them the warning. How not to destroy it now. And I'll end with this. How to deliver an assembly. Who sets the value on these things here that we're going to read about?

Delivering the Assembly Through Proper Building

Well, spirituality, building into the assembly, construction. Who sets the value? God does. And when God tells us the value of these things, we need to listen. He has given them the key to the assembly's deliverance in these first three chapters, as he makes his way on to the rest of the epistle.

What he's going to show them here as he gives them the key is this. The assembly is in a state of emergency, if we can put it that way. And he tells them not only how to preserve it, but how to bless it.

So number one, the builder must be viewed properly. The builder must be viewed properly. Verses five through nine, chapter three, he says, we are laborers together. I know the text says with God, but the idea is actually of God.

It's not that we're all just working together with God. It's that God is over us. He's the one that's building, really, and we're just moving along. God gives the increase. So how the builder must be viewed properly.

So there must be togetherness in the assembly. Unity, workers together, stressing relationships. Not control and not competition. That's another thing that destroys assemblies. And there was that in Corinth.

Competition. Is there competition in your assembly? Are you jealous of other people? Do you want to be the one known for this, and when it comes time to do that, you're going to be the first one up? And when it's at a conference, you're always the first one up?

Because it's almost like a competition. Well, if nobody else is going to do it, I'm going to do it. Wait on God. Look to him. The togetherness in an assembly. The tasks in an assembly. Paul is going to remind them, as they undertake tasks, he's going to remind them, number one, they were different.

They were all different. One planted, another watered. Not every one of us does the same thing, but we're all put together. God saved you for a reason, and he puts you in that assembly for a reason. So that there could be a unity and a togetherness that would be all expressive for his glory.

The assembly should be a place where the Lord Jesus feels at home. Can I put it that way? Where he feels at home. You remember when that dove came down and rested on the Lord Jesus? The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, is comfortable to rest there on him.

Well, if spirituality is the key to developing and delivering an assembly, then it must be the place where the Holy Spirit is able to move freely. And able to, that the Lord Jesus will feel at home, house of God.

They were different, they were dependent, dependent on God. So the builder must be viewed properly, the building must be viewed properly. And I'll just end with this, because my time is up. My time is really gone.

He brings before them, he says, do not deceive yourself. That's at the end of this chapter. He says, it's sad when people deceive themselves. You know, it's sad when Satan, who is the great deceiver, deceives people.

But you know what's just as sad? When you deceive yourself. When we justify, when we rationalize the things that we're doing that are carnal, and hurtful, and not spiritually empowering. Self will, my will, my way, my desires, my family.