The local assembly, its order

Turn with me to the book of Exodus chapter 27, Exodus chapter 27. I want to look, and I was actually wrestling between two subjects of what to take up at this point. And speaking to one of the brethren here, I think I received a little bit of light to go on this subject.

So, we're going to look at actually the subject of light. Light in terms of what the purpose of light that God has, why he has introduced such, why we need this, and the fact that it is not an optional resource, but an integral part of the very operation of the gatherings of his people. So, in Exodus chapter 27, we are going to look at the lampstand.

And this was vital in the tabernacle, and we'll look at that for a number of reasons why in a moment. Exodus 27 and verse 20. And thou shalt command the children of Israel that they bring thee pure olive oil, beaten for the light, the lampstand, to cause the lamp to burn always.

In the tabernacle of the congregation, without the veil or outside the veil, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order. Now that's the key word that we're going to be looking at in this message that I'm going to give. Order.

Divine order. And the light that is an integral part of that order. Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the Lord.

That's interesting. Every expression here is vital to grasp. Number one, there would be no labor in the tabernacle in the evenings.

You would have the morning sacrifice. You would have the evening sacrifice. And the priesthood would be functioning for the most part during the day.

And yet the lamp here is told to be burning from the evening until the morning. So that when the activity had ceased that was visible, the light was still burning. It was inside.

But really it didn't make any difference, did it? Because the lampstand was inside the holy place. And there were no windows inside the holy place. So they had no natural light.

It was darkness in that place. Apart from the light of the lampstand. So the light of the lampstand would be vital to shine as a luminary in that area so that they could see what they were doing, so that they could operate.

Notice as well it was before the Lord. Now the Lord can see in the dark. So why is it before the Lord? The priest needed the light.

But it was before the Lord. Because the Lord is observing ultimately how these men keep His word that He has given to them. That's what He was watching.

He was viewing to see how would these priests function. Would they carry out His word? That's why this begins with the Lord commanded. The Lord commanded.

And so it says, Notice as well the olive oil was pure. It was beaten. In other words, if you ever get those bottles, it says extra extra virgin olive oil.

And so it doesn't just say olive oil. But it's the finest. This is the beaten pure.

The purity of this olive oil is stressed. And the reason for that would be, there would be numerous reasons. But one of the reasons from a practical standpoint would be that this lampstand was a seven-branched lampstand with a center shaft.

So six on each side, a center shaft. Interestingly we're not given the height of the lampstand, nor are we given information about the base of the lampstand. But it was pure gold.

It was beaten out gold. And there would be pipes inside the shafts. And the pipes would allow the oil to run and to supply the fuel.

So that the light would burn. So if the pipes got clogged, if it wasn't pure, beaten, fine, clean oil, the light would flicker. The light would go out.

You see, the whole point is this. God not only wants continuance of the light, but he wants consistency in the light. So that the light wouldn't flicker.

It wouldn't flash. They would be burning brightly all the time. Now keeping that in mind, let's go over to Exodus chapter 40.

Exodus chapter 40 and verse 4. Remember that word, order. And thou shalt bring in the table and set in order the things that are to be set in order upon it. And thou shalt bring in, interesting, the first thing that's mentioned, the lampstand.

And light the lamps thereof. Verse 23. And he set the bread in order upon it before the Lord as the Lord commanded Moses.

Leviticus chapter 24. Leviticus 24 and verse 1 for connection. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Command the children of Israel that they bring unto thee pure olive oil.

Now this is for the children of Israel. They were to bring the pure olive oil. The lamps were to be burning.

The lampstand was to be burning in the holy place. But the people would bring the oil to the priests to burn. So the burden of supplying the fuel, as it were, the oil for these lamps, was upon the people.

So there's an integral link between the people and the priests. And that's exactly what God wants to show us. Because there's a tremendous link between what we are in our lives and what we bring as a people to how we function as a priesthood.

So that the light had to be supplied with the oil that the people brought. And of course the oil is a picture of the Holy Spirit. We know that.

The oil is a picture of that. Verse 3. Without the veil of the testimony and the tabernacle of the congregation shall Aaron... There's the word again. Order it from the evening unto the morning before the Lord continually.

It shall be a statute forever in your generations. Verse 8. Every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually. Being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant.

Now we're going to go to the New Testament, 1 Corinthians chapter 7. Now this word order we are going to find in the epistles seven times. Five of them, five of the occurrences are going to be in this letter in 1 Corinthians. So 1 Corinthians chapter 7, which is actually a chapter about marriage and relationships and so on.

But it's interesting what he writes here. Verse 17. As he has written about a number of these relationships and so on.

Verse 17. But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called everyone, so let him walk. And so ordain, that is the word order, I in all the churches.

So again, this is the first reference to this word order, ordain, in this letter. It is associated with their personal lives and relationships. So the Spirit of God is drawing an intimate correlation between what they were in their private lives and relationships to the order that's going to be carried out in the assembly.

A very simple fact is this. If you are disorderly in your life, in terms of the things of God, you will be disorderly in the assembly. If there are disorderly lives in the sense that God is not at the highest order, if he does not set the tone of your life, if he does not set the tenor, the tempo of your life, the beat of your life, if he is not supreme, sovereign, highest, neither will he be in the assembly.

And that is what he's bringing out here. Whether the people are bringing the oil, whether ordain I in all the churches, and yet he's talking about personal lives? Now we're going to go to chapter 11. Chapter 11 and verse 34.

And if any man hunger, he's already been writing, saying that the Lord's supper is not a meal. It's not something that you come together to eat and so on. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come not together unto condemnation, and the rest will I set in order when I come.

Chapter 14 and verse 40. Let all things be done decently and in order. Chapter 15 verse 23.

But every man in his own order, Christ first. Christ the first fruit. Afterward they that are Christ's, that is coming.

Chapter 16 verse 1. Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. And we'll look at one, we'll look at Colossians chapter 2, just for two final readings. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 4. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you.

That's the idea there is cheat you. Lest anyone should cheat you with enticing words, draw you away. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.

He's writing here about assembly order. The interesting thing is Paul had never been to Colossae. So how did he know their order? How could he say I'm beholding your order? Because what he saw them doing in obedience was the exact same thing that every other assembly was doing.

There was an order that was consistent with every assembly, a pattern, if you will, that was given to each assembly that they were keeping. So Paul could say this. Now one final passage in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. 2 Thessalonians 3 and verse 1. Finally brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord... Notice, not the word of God.

Isn't that interesting? You say, well it is the word of God. Isn't that the same thing? Listen, if the spirit of God tells us it's the word of the Lord, it's the word of the Lord. And he's saying that for a reason.

The word of God is general. The word of the Lord is specific. The prophets, you remember, will say, the word of the Lord came unto me saying.

So when Paul is writing this, he is talking about that there is to be a response by the Christians to the word of God. Thus it becomes the word of the Lord. The word I'm preaching now, the passages I'm reading, it is incumbent upon every one of us that there be an obedient response to them.

That's why we read about the word of the Lord and his sovereignty. So he's asking them to pray that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified, even as it is with you. Now let's go down to verse 6. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, in association with his name, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.

For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us, for how we behaved not ourselves, disorderly among you. And as he writes this word again, he's going to emphasize the fact that a brother or a sister, verse 11, for we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all but are busybodies. So what does he mean by this disorderly walk? The word literally means to be out of step with the company.

Picture the most well-trained militia, the most impressive parade, and the bands are marching, and the soldiers are stepping, and they're coming down the street, or they're marching into battle, or whatever. And there's one soldier, he's on the side, and he's kind of going like this, and he's moving around. And you say, what is wrong with that man? It's almost ludicrous.

Oh, he knows what he's doing. He's out of step with the company. He's introducing something into that company which is not only out of step with the rest of them, it's disorderly, and it's actually bringing reproach upon the entire company, because while people look at that man, his association is with that company.

That's important for us to get a hold of. So I'll say something at the beginning of my message. If there is someone here, and you want to introduce... There probably isn't someone here, so I'll just... That's a good thing.

But if there is someone here who is seeking to introduce something that is either going to draw attention to self or detract attention from Christ, you are walking disorderly. Because you're out of step with the company. And that doesn't mean that God wants us all to be cookie-cutter Christians either.

There's a balance to this. But it does mean that there are things that we do, and it could be the way we talk. It could even be the worship that we give.

It could be the way we teach. It could be the dress we wear. It could be a lot of things.

But if there is anything that is seeking to draw attention to yourself that you are out of step with the company, you are in effect then walking disorderly. You're out of step. And that's important.

God's intention for the assembly. And we looked at collective gatherings. These collective gatherings we mentioned are linked with direction.

God directing His people in contradistinction to the world around them. God interacting with His people so that there's fellowship with that company. God desires fellowship.

That's why He made man. And interaction with a people that obeys Him and that gives Him His place as Lord is actually a pleasing thing to God. He desires communication.

So that He communicates through the local assembly and through such gatherings as were in the Old Testament. And He will do that in the future among His people too as well. But one of the great reasons over all of this that overshadows every one of these is distinction.

That there is a company that is distinct from what is around them so that they can make a clear evidence to the character of God in a world around them. You see, what happened was when sin entered this world everything changed. And not for the better.

The spheres changed. And what was once one universal sphere that God put His stamp on and said, it is good. But when sin entered into the world, that all changed.

And now the earth becomes the world. And the world has a distinctive sphere about it. Love not the world.

The world became the world systems that were in embryo form when sin came into the world. The seed for every world system was embodied in that single sin that began all things. And when that happened, Adam lost his dominion.

Satan now prince of the power of the air. God, in a way, lost His place. Can I say it that way? So that Satan is the God of this world.

In short, the world was plunged into darkness. In creation, God moved to dispel that darkness, didn't He? A different type of darkness. A physical darkness.

And God said, let there be light. And God introduced light into the creation. And when He did that, He dispelled the darkness.

But what God has been doing since the fall, a different kind of darkness came in. A moral darkness. A spiritual darkness.

And we learn about that from physical darkness. God gives us physical things to teach us about spiritual realities. That's the importance of your Old Testament to the New.

And so when it comes to darkness and light, God wants to make, because God is light, God wants to make a distinction in the world of moral and spiritual darkness of the realm of light. So that you are, as believers, children of light. And that the assembly is a fellowship of light.

That's important because there are those that are teaching that the local assembly is a fellowship of life. It's a fellowship of light. We are displaying light to a world of unbelievers.

Well, you say, well, don't we have to have life to do that? Yes, but the unbelievers don't have life. And the difference, the order is this. Light, life, love.

So that they will see light before they will ever get life. We are a fellowship of light. It is obedience to the truth.

Direction to the truth. Now, what does light do? Light does at least three things. The first thing is light dispels the darkness.

Light dispels the darkness. Darkness is not the presence of something. It's the absence of light.

Right? Nobody says, there's no such thing as a dark flashlight. I think there's dark light. They call it dark light.

But it's not black light. That's a misnomer. But there's no such thing as introducing darkness.

If you want darkness, what you have to do is take away the light. And if you take away the light, then you bring about darkness. Because darkness is the absence of light.

So, from a practical standpoint, if the devil wants to make this assembly, or the assemblies that are represented here, if he wants to bring darkness into that assembly, he has to take away the light. And taking away the light will be accomplished by a deviation, a disobedience to the Word of God, and a direction that is geared to self and Satan. Because, you see, you who were one time darkness, are now light in the Lord.

So when we introduce fleshly, carnal ways into the assembly, we are then taking away the light. And when you take away the light, you introduce darkness. That's why it is so important, brethren, to be reminded of these things.

Now, light does three things. I've got to move on quickly. First thing that light does is it dispels the darkness.

So we said that. So light comes in, dispels the darkness. We know God is light.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And so we are brought into, upon salvation, a sphere of light as well. So in other words, the light that we walk in and practice in the assembly is consistent with the very salvation that we have come into the good of.

Light dispels the darkness. Light defines the deeds, doesn't it? Light defines the deeds. There are farmers here, carpenters here, electricians here.

What workman works in the dark? You'd say, that's ridiculous. You can't. How can you see? No, that's right, that's right.

So it defines the deeds. If you're going to know what you're going to do and you're going to do it right, you're going to need light. And the brighter the light, the better.

You ever try reading in the dark? You can't really do it. It's not too good. You need light.

And the point is this. Try serving the Lord, and that's where we're going to go to with the lampstand. In the dark or in the twilight, you can't do it.

We need to see what we're doing. Light defines the deeds. But there's something else that light does.

Because we can get away. As individuals and as assemblies, we can sadly get away. And that's what happened, for example, in every one of these epistles almost.

That there is a getting away, a deviation, a moving away. Sometimes it's coasting. You don't really intend it, but you just kind of coast away.

And things drift. Sometimes it's intentional. And there are men that will introduce things to take the assembly off track.

To take it on a course that they want, rather than what God wants. And when that happens, whether it is intentional or unintentional, when that happens, light determines the distance. You're in a boat.

You're in the middle of a body of water. And it's dark. There is no way you will know whether you are one mile or a thousand miles from shore if you don't have a light on the shore to tell you how far you are.

That's one of the purposes of a lighthouse. Tells you you're getting close. Warns you of the rocks.

So that light determines the distance. Light defines the deeds. Light dispels the darkness.

We need light. Now, that is another reason why Satan knows this. Oh, come on.

Your meals aren't getting you that quickly. I can see some faces nodding off. That's why Satan makes himself known as an angel of light.

You see, what I'm trying to do here, brethren, is I want to wrap these threads together. And I want to show you how these things interrelate. This is not something that randomly God is throwing out truth for us.

It is important that men know this. Overseers know this. People in assembly fellowship know these things.

Christians know these things. So when it comes to the light, then, Satan manifests himself as an angel. He appears as an angel of light.

And he throws himself as a substitute. And that angel of light, if he's listened to, can be taken into the personal realm. And you can do things that you will justify.

And you will actually rationalize that God wants you to do these things. And you will listen to, not God now, but you will listen to a cheap substitute. And you will have substituted a pseudo-light, because Satan appears as an angel of light for the real light.

And you can say that how I act, what I do, where I go. I know a man that he actually, one morning, he said, one Sunday morning he was missing, and I asked him the next week, I said, well, you know, we missed you. Where were you? Oh, he says, I went fishing with my brother.

I says, really? I said, why did you go fishing instead of the meeting? Well, he says, you know, he's not saved. And I prayed about it. And he said, and I really felt that God wanted me to go fishing with him because it was the only opportunity I had to speak with him.

So the gospel is more important than anything. I said, the gospel is very important. But the Lord gives us clear commandment.

This do in remembrance of me. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. And I said, the Lord will never contradict his word.

Never. God will never tell you to do something contrary to his word. The ends do not justify the means.

That's how the world operates. And who is the God of this world? Satan. So he can tell you in your heart, in your mind, yes, you do that, and it doesn't matter.

This is a one-off. It won't happen. And you know what? You start doing that, and you start opening that door, and I guarantee you, it won't close.

It will open wider and wider. I can give you scores of illustrations from the word of God. I don't have the time to do it.

Read your Bible. You'll find them. Of men and women that just opened that door a little bit, and soon it was flung open wide.

And some of them were gone, never to return. Alimelech is one of them. In the book of Ruth.

We're just going for a little while. Yeah, things are rough. God wants us.

God doesn't want us to be poor. And you know what? You can hear all the wheels turning. And actually, if we had more money, we could give that more to God.

And you can see all the little dominoes falling down of pseudo-wrong thinking. And you know what happened? He died in Moab. Never supposed to go there.

And the other people who really stuck it out, like Boaz and those, they were blessed. Sometimes it's in the realm of the pattern. Not just personally, but the pattern.

And you know what? We need to bring this into the assembly. And we need to bring that into the assembly. And you know what? We can't sing here.

There are poor singers here. So if we had a piano, it would really liven things up. And I think, you know what? God would not be upset if we had a piano.

You don't have a piano, so I'm not going to go there for that one. But there's a score of other things. What about some of the things from religious systems around? You know what? Listen, do not ever argue from the fact of the silence of the Bible.

There are people that say, the Bible doesn't say we can't do it. You know what the Bible gives us? It gives us a positive pattern. God gives us a positive pattern.

In other words, we see in the Word of God what we should be doing and how we should be doing it. And if you want to deviate from that, you know what? There's no telling where that train is going to go. There's no telling what station that's going to stop at.

Because it can just keep going. Listen, the Bible doesn't say a lot of things. But you want to introduce that, you're on a slippery slope.

God gave us just what we need. And it's not cultural, and it's not conditional. It's continual.

And God is telling us here. The other thing is, we can argue from the standpoint of precept as well. Now, let me just get into my passages here.

This order here. It's interesting. Seventeen times in the Hebrew, in the books of Exodus and Leviticus, is this word, order.

Order. And the first time we see it. In fact, the first time we see it is very interesting.

The first time we see it in the Bible is in the book of Genesis. Anybody remember? It's a very serious passage. It's a very moving passage.

It's a very lofty passage. Abraham has been told to offer his son. He's not going to rush it.

Some of us, if we were told to do certain things, you ever have to go to the doctor and you don't want to go and you go, I just want to get it over with. I'm just going to go and get it over with. You go to the dentist.

Sorry. And you say, I just want to get this over with. Let me go.

Abraham didn't approach that. God said, offer your son. And Abraham didn't say, I just want to get this over with.

Son, come on. Let's go. Everything was focused in full obedience.

And it says, and Abraham claimed the wood. He cut his own wood. He could have given that to the servants to do.

Abraham, it says, laid the wood in order. That's the first time. In order.

First time in the book of Exodus. Oh, I know it appears another time earlier than this, in chapter 25, but it's a different word. Here the word means something else.

The word literally means, in Genesis 22 and here, in the book of Exodus, it literally carries the thought of order, or estimation, proportion, and value. So how you value something will determine the order you give it. You will be very careful about something that you value.

How much do you value the assembly? How much you value the assembly will be determined by how much you value the Lord himself, who has claims over you, claims over me. Because you cannot separate the two. We're not coming to church.

It's not that church is one thing and God is another. The New Testament, as well as the Old Testament in gatherings, clearly teaches that the place and the person were inseparably linked together. And that was unfolded by light.

And so when it comes to this light, I want you to think about this lampstand, just for a moment. The lampstand, when you have in this holy place, there were three sections to the tabernacle. The one was the outside, the outer court, and the furthest inside was the holiest of holies, right? But the middle place was the holy place.

Now, the holiest of holies, that only got used once a year. And the outer court, well, that got used every day, but it was by the common people. They came, they looked, the Israelites and so on, and there was the brazen altar out there.

But the holy place, that was the nerve center, the pulse of God's presence among his people on a daily basis, was in the holy place. That's where the priests functioned. That's where the table of showbread was.

And the table of showbread, you remember, there were 12 loaves of bread, right, on that table of showbread. And that was for the priest's food. So that's representative of communion.

They ate that. 12 of them. You know how big each loaf was? Take a guess.

We often think these were little loaves, little pancake things. Each loaf was anywhere from 10 to 14 pounds. Each loaf.

Yeah, look it up. And they were stacked, because the table wasn't that wide. And they were each linked with one of the 12 tribes.

So they were the food of the priests, 12 of them. So I'll link them with the 12 tribes. So you had the table of showbread.

You had the altar of incense. And the altar of incense, which had burning coals on it. And those burning coals, incidentally, were taken from the brazen altar outside, so that the priest would take them from the brazen altar, he would bring them into the holy place, he would put them on the altar of incense, then he would take his handful of incense, and he would put that on the altar of incense.

And the place would be filled with the incense. And then there was another thing. The lampstand.

And the lampstand stood over, and you know what the purpose of the lampstand was? Well, you say, well, the table of showbread, that was to feed the priests. They got food from that. They fed that.

Yes, that's true. And the altar of incense, they burned incense on that, and they were putting their handfuls of incense. What about the lampstand? The lampstand really didn't do anything, except for one thing.

It illuminated the whole holy place. The light of that lampstand lit up the holy place. So, it wasn't an optional resource.

It was absolutely necessary. Those priests could not function. They would not be able to serve intelligently, productively, fruitfully, if they didn't have the light in that holy place.

They would need that light. The light, see, you get the point? When it comes to the assembly, how are we to function? We're priests. How are we to carry out priestly duties? How are we to carry out, there's that word, order, if we don't have light? It is a fellowship of light.

And as we move in that light, we are intelligently giving God His due. We are intelligently and fruitfully carrying out our work. We are representing Him because God wants, in the holy place, in that sanctuary, 1 Corinthians 3. Ye are God's sanctuary.

Ye are God's temple. Revelation 2 and 3. Seven lampstands. Luminaries, lightbearers.

That's the purpose of the assembly. If you take away the light, you introduce darkness. And you know what happens? If you take away the light, that an assembly is to be, then you blend into, whether it's the religious or the moral, the sphere, the sphere of darkness that is part of all the world.

That's why when it comes to 1 Corinthians and other passages, you have the within and the without. You read those expressions. 1 Corinthians 5. The elder, 1 Timothy 3. Without what? Outside the sphere of the assembly.

The world around. In his business dealings, in his personal dealings, in his neighborly duties, on his street, wherever. He is to have a good report of them that are outside the fellowship.

That is one of the qualifications of an elder. It is one of the credentials and the criteria of an assembly that an assembly exists and forms a sphere of within. And so that a person who is walking disorderly, if that continues, is literally introducing.

Can I put it that way? I know I said that opposite, but he's taking away the light from what that company is to be. And as he takes away the light by walking disorderly, he is bringing in the sphere of the without. And God says, no, no, that's not how this sphere operates.

This is a sphere of light. And so you have that lampstand that was there. The other interesting thing about that lampstand, so the lampstand is not an optional resource.

It is vital. The second thing that I find is very interesting, we didn't read this, but maybe you caught it when I was just alluding to it in Exodus 27, that Aaron was responsible. So that while the priests had their duties, it's never ever said that Aaron's sons, you might infer that by reading, that Aaron's sons were also linked with the trimming of the lamps and maintaining the lampstand and so on.

Who would replenish the oil? Who would trim the lampstands? Who would keep the wicks clean? Who would keep that? But it specifically says that when it comes to the lampstand and the light that it shone in the sanctuary, that Aaron was responsible for that. Now when you have Aaron and his sons, it's a link to the people of God. When you have Aaron alone, it's a picture of Christ.

And Aaron is alone here. And what that tells me is this, ultimately, while testimony has been put into our hands to carry out, ultimately, it is in the hands of the Lord Jesus. And that's why in Revelation 2, he can say, repent therefore, else I will come and take away thy lampstand.

I will remove thy lampstand. Ultimately, he is responsible. You know, that's a good thing, but it's also a scary thing.

Because he's the one who walks in the midst of the churches. He's the one who sees what we're bringing into the assembly in terms of self-will, in terms of carnality, in terms of our personal ways, or what we're bringing into that assembly in terms of as children of light, what is consistent with that of himself in the sanctuary, our worship, our obedience, our desires to make him first, our willingness to submit. He sees all of that.

And so in that sanctuary, in that holy place, the priests received nothing from that lampstand apart from light. But it was absolutely necessary. Now, let me go to the New Testament for a second.

Because it's important to understand that this light is linked with the order of the assembly. Now when you go back to the Old Testament, I'll just, one more second, I'll just go back there for a minute. Everything that they did was consistent with order.

Okay? Whether you have the congregation itself, they were linked with an order that God had established. Whether it was the camp, that was linked with an order. You remember even the arrangement of the tribes, right? Three to the north, three to the south, three to the east, three to the west.

So that the order of the station of the tribes was linked with a specific order. When it comes to the coverings, the coverings, there were three families that were responsible for that. The Kothites, the Morarites, the Gershonites.

They were all responsible. They each had their respective duties. Only one of them could use wagons.

The other two had to carry everything on them. And the way they carried them, and what they were responsible for. The curtains, and the sockets, and the pillars.

Is God just saying, you know what? I just want to watch you work. No. Everything God does has a purpose.

Everything. And it's also a picture. So that when you come to the assembly, everything has a purpose.

And there's a divine pattern. But we need light to work within the framework of that pattern. To carry it out.

And if we fail, in testimony, if there is about us, that which is linked with a sphere of darkness in the world, in our behavior, in our attitudes, in anything, then what we are doing is we are removing light from the sanctuary. So the order in the assembly. When you come to order in the assembly, it's interesting, you have two types of order.

In fact, that's given to us in other parts of the Word of God. You have an assembling order, and you have an ascending order. When you have an assembling order, that's the idea where Christ will be in the midst of his people.

You have that in headship in 1 Corinthians 11. Christ is in the center. It's an assembling order.

That's one of the reasons why we can validate that 1 Corinthians 11 and the head coverings of the sisters is to be done when the assembly has come together. It's an assembling order. But we have also in the Word of God an ascending order, where Christ is at the head, at the top.

And that covers everything, because in all things, he might have the preeminence. So he's at the head. But when it comes to the people, the gathering of his people, it's an assembling order.

This word here then, now, and I want you to think about now in relation to, as we move through the Corinthian epistle, this order. And I'll end with that. You have the Gospel.

Chapter 1. There's an order in the Gospel. Paul says, when I came to you, there was no assembly plan as yet, but when I came to you, he says, I didn't come with man's wisdom. You know, it's interesting.

The most capable apostle that there was, in terms of the realm of intelligentsia and academia, sets all that aside in worldly wisdom, and says, it will not do anything to establish the assembly, to develop the assembly. He says, no, no. He says, I came not to you with worldly wisdom.

I set that all aside. He says, I came preaching Christ, and him crucified. I came with the highest learning, the best learning, the only learning that counts when it comes to the things of God.

I came to you with the word of God. And so he brings the Gospel before them. Then, building.

When it comes to building in the assembly. Chapter 3, we have an order as well, of how we're to build. And so there's wood, hay, and stubble.

There's gold, silver, precious stones. And it's interesting when you have those three things, the gold, the silver, and the precious stones, the things that count. Let me ask you something.

What would you build into your house? If you were building a house to live in, what would you put into it? I've got some good hay for sale. You want to buy it? You'd say, who would want to put hay in their house? Right. So why would we put it in God's house? Why would we want to build that into the assembly? Because of two things.

Number one, it won't build that company up. It will be a deterrent, an attraction. And number two, if I were to build that into, I'm going to be accountable for that.

And I'm going to suffer loss. So there's an order for that. There's an order for building.

And incidentally, it's interesting. We read that passage when we go back to the Old Testament. And this shall be a statute forever and to your children.

So let me ask you this. What value have you placed for your children to show your children of the assembly? Because our children will only pick up on the value that we place on God's assembly. And if we introduce and we say, well, you know what, it's okay.

You can do your sports, and you can do this, and you can do that, and you can do, oh yes, the school is doing that. You know what we're saying? That's more important. But if we say and live, this is eternity in view, my son.

My daughter, I'm living. I know you may not understand it, but I'm living for a different world. This world is going to be destroyed.

This world. They may look at you, whether they're saved or unsaved, but you pass that on, that this is eternal, and that this is what counts. I often think about those people with the tabernacle and parents that put into a calf their gold and their silver, and they wasted what they had.

And when the time came to build the tabernacle, they had nothing. You know what they did? They put it into a world and a thing that they wanted. And when the time came, it was all destroyed.

Never lasted. Teach our children the value of these things. And even then, even then, it's no guarantee that we're going to keep them.

But at least you will not stand before the Lord with regret. Or you will not come to the end of your life with a change of direction then, when you realize, I wasted my life. I should have done this.

I should have done that. Because you see, regret won't only be there, it can be here too. In terms of relations, in terms of discipline, in terms of the Lord's supper, the Lord's table, we have order all on display.

Discipline, as we looked at that, discipline takes many forms. Whenever we talk about discipline, we seem to always think of the extreme, the putting away from an assembly. But there are many times, cases of putting away from an assembly might not be necessary if a course had been changed at the beginning.

For example, there are younger ones here, so I'll say this. Don't you ever, if saved, don't you ever date unsaved people. It's disobedient, and you're opening the door, not only to displeasing God, but to possibly wasting your life.

It's an unequal yoke. And the other thing that's important, there's even an order in relations, as he gives us here, that they were to marry only in the Lord. I may be moving out a little bit from assembly truth here, but I think it does relate to it, so I'll bring it in, in this way, and you'll see in a moment.

In the Lord does not mean saved and unsaved. In the Lord is deeper. In Christ is salvation.

In the Lord is submission. And so he tells them, you're to marry, but in the Lord. In other words, just because you're saved, and just because the other person is saved, doesn't mean that that would be a good match, a good fit.

The other person could be carnal, disobedient, and I have met women that have been in relationship with a man and you know what they said? Well, I can help him. You know, I think, yeah, I know, but you know what? You know what they are? They're fixers. And they want to fix someone.

You don't marry a person to help them. You marry a person so you will help each other, and that you will be able to together, be yoked together, to live a life that is fruitful to the Lord. That's what it means in the Lord.

And if you do court a person who has very little interest in the assembly, who sees it as possibly a social venue, a place where you can meet a boy or a girl, a place where you, and it is that too. Conferences, other places, but if that's the reason, and people see it as a social place, and just a place where we can, well, my family's here, and you don't see that the Lord is here, and it doesn't affect your behavior, and it doesn't bring in reverence, and it doesn't bring in respect, and holiness of life. Because that's what the assembly should do, because of who we are and who He is.

Be ye holy, for I am holy. And the one in the midst of us is the Holy One. Even the demons recognized that when Christ came.

We know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of Israel. Sad to say, some of us as God's people don't know who He is at times. And so if that is the case, and that's the way a relationship starts and it continues, I will tell you this, you will be of no help to the assembly.

And not only that, you will set a poor example for others to follow. And that is very important, because we are all living examples. The assembly is a place of identity, not identity crisis.

I think of headship, the order of headship. I think of gift, when it comes to gift there. I think of ministry.

And so again, every single passage is fraught with order. And the rest will I set in order, so that He's bringing before them, He says, let all things be done decently and in order. So is the assembly a place of order? Absolutely.

What order does it display? An order that is saturated by light. A sphere of light. Order that displays and communicates divine truth.

Order that displays the fact that it is not me, and it's not about me and what I want. So that I'm not drawing attention to myself. I'm not... It's not about me.

It's all about Christ. It's the highest standard. I think of when Isaiah saw the Lord, high and lifted up in that temple.

And the place shook. The holiness of God was on display. What it must have done to him.

The Lord Jesus Himself says, these things spake Isaiah when he beheld His glory. Isn't it interesting when you come to 1 Corinthians 14 now. Now there's not an Isaiah, but he's an unlearned man.

And in 1 Corinthians 14, an unlearned man comes, and he's looking at the assembly. And it says this, He is convicted of all. He is judged of all.

And thus are the secrets of His heart made manifest. And falling down on His face, He will worship God, and it report. He'll report.

You know what that means? He'll see it then, and He'll tell it there. And He'll tell it, God is among you of a truth. He will come out, and He will say, I saw God.

How often does that happen? Maybe we better question, how much light are we showing? Maybe we better ask ourselves, is the Holy One really here? And am I reflecting that holiness of life? You know what holiness means? You know what it means to be holy? It means to be set apart. It's really the root word of saint. It means to be distinctive from this world.

God did that to you the moment you were saved. He made you a saint, a holy one. And for some reason, we often think, well, I'm so glad I'm saved, and that's the end.

You know what? It continues, and it is displayed, not only in our personal lives, but it is displayed collectively when we come together, but in a little different way. It's a higher standard. When we come together, I will end with this.

People say, well, you know, I don't want to be hypocritical, and I'm going to be the same when I come to the assembly as I am all the time. Really? If you don't recognize the distinctiveness of God's assembly, and you have that thinking, you haven't grasped what the assembly is. Paul ends in chapter 11.

Did you catch that when he said, what? Have ye not houses to eat and drink in? In other words, your homes are one thing, the assembly is another. When you come together, there are things we do when we come together, what God has designed by a fellowship of light to beam out to the world what we are and whose we are. The headship that is displayed right now in this company, you don't display that in your home.

The women with their heads covered, and your long hair. You know what? There are couplets. I may be going into that one night, but there are couplets of truth that you go through the Corinthian epistle, and one of them is the hair and the head covering.

The hair has been given in creation. The head covering has been given for the congregation, and they are complementary one to another. God gave you that to display an order in this world that was done at creation, before the fall.

That's why God says, doesn't even nature itself teach you. He's going back to nature as God intended it. Even nature itself teaches.

But then he talks about, but in the congregation, and there's the head covering. What about the Lord's Supper? You can't do the Lord's Supper in your house. I don't mean it.

You know what I mean by that. I mean, I know there was the church in his home. I don't mean that.

But I'm saying, as just a family in your home, Sunday morning, if your family wanted to stay home and break pregnancy, we know what to do. We can do this at home. Or maybe you're on a cruise, or maybe you're on a holiday, or you're on some vacation, or something, or you're away.

We can break bread here. We can do that, right? No, you can't. Because the breaking of bread is an integral part of assembly testimony.

And it's when you come together. Listen to the words of 1 Corinthians 14. If, therefore, the whole church become together, that's the difference between what we can do as individuals and what we do as an assembly.

It is a sphere of light. And as such, the Lord's special presence is in the midst of his people. Far different than it is when we are not in the assembly gathering.

And there is a dignity, and a display, and a testimony of a sphere of light that is different from the darkness of this world. Now I'm opening a segue for my next message. So let's pray.

Father, we give thee thanks for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank thee for the one who has come into the world of darkness. He could say, I am the light of the world.

We thank our Father for how we have been now entrusted, now that he is gone, with bearing light for him, not only individually in our personal lives, but collectively in a distinctive way as well. We thank thee for the uniqueness of God's assembly. And so we do pray that what we have opened up to thy, thy word to thy people might stay with each one, each of us, impressing our hearts with the reality of the presence of the Lord Jesus, of the design and desire of God, and of what we are and whose we are, in this sphere of light.

We ask these things, giving thee thanks, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.