Why we assemble 9-10-23

None

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome the Blessings in Christ. I'mScott Roberts. Blessings in Christ is also
the Church of Christ preaching the Gospelwhere a Lord and Savior Jesus Christ of
he that believe with Annah's baptized shallbe saved. The Church of Christ.
The scripture and name Roman sixteen sixteen, Scriptural in origin Colossians one eighteen,
scriptural and doctrine First Timothy four sixteen, and scripture in practice James one and

(00:24):
twenty two. Our lesson today iscalled why we assemble? And according to
the world, you don't need tobe a member of the Lord's Church and
you don't need to assemble with thesaints on the first day of the week.
But we as Christians, we knowthat this is a false doctrine.

(00:45):
We not only have to obey theGospel plan of salvation become a Christian,
but as Christians we must serve Godfaithfully, and in living a faithful Christian
life, we do need to assembleon the first day of the week.
We see an example of this fromActs twenty and verse seven, and upon
the first day of the week,the disciples came together to break bread.

(01:07):
Paul preached unto them ready to departon the morrow, and continued his speech
until midnight. Also, when thechurch comes together on the first day of
the week, we not only cometo break bread and to partake of the
Lord's Supper and remembrance of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, but we
also come to worship God. Andwhen we come together on the first day

(01:32):
of the week to worship God,we must do it in spirit and in
truth. In John four in versetwenty three. But the hour cometh and
now is when the true worshipers shallworship the Father and spirit and a truth.
For the Father seek as such toworship him. God is a spirit,
and they that worship him must worshiphim in spirit and in truth.

(01:53):
So once again, our lesson isentitled why we Assemble, And there will
eventually be part two of this lesson, but for today we'll just go ahead
and listen to part one. Wehope that you enjoy the lesson and please
like us on Facebook. Thank you. Our lesson this morning is the importance

(02:14):
of assembling. And of course weknow that Christians on the first day of
the week, they come together,and they come together for the purpose of
worshiping God. And also for theLord's Supper. In the world today,
a lot of people would believe thatthey could be a Christian and just stay
at home. That's probably the waythe majority of the world believes. But

(02:38):
with the Church, the Lord's Church, not only do we become a Christian
by obeying the gospel planet of salvationand repenting of sins, confessing Jesus Christ
to be the Son of God,confessing our faith in Christ, and being
baptized in the water grave of baptism, but we also have the obligation and
the commandment to assn in the firstday of the week. When we see

(03:01):
the world today, people will cometogether when something is important, and especially
if it's important to their heart.In fact, just to note, you
know, we like sports a moment. I watched college football yesterday and they
if you watch the Penn State gamelast night, there were one hundred and

(03:23):
seven thousand people at that game.And I know, back from the days
when I would take that and landinto the high state games. When you
go to a football game, youdon't just show up to our and watch
the game and go home. It'san all day thing. When you're in
the middle of one hundred and seventhousand people. It's an all day thing.
Another example would be concerts. Youknow, we live in a day

(03:46):
and age where people will will spenda whole day and the crowds at some
of the good concerts are thousands ofpeople. And not only that, but
I can't believe what concerts cost now. And just to give you an example,
when Sally and I got married yearsand years ago, We've seen the

(04:09):
Eagles, which is probably one ofthe best bands, and it was twenty
dollars the tickets for twenty dollars tosee the Eagles. Now it's probably four
or five hundred dollars a ticket ifyou're lucky enough to get up in any
way, people will spend any amountof money for sporting people will spend any
amount of money for a concert.And just a quick note, I think

(04:31):
Jimmy Buffett passed away. And Iknow Doug really liked Jimmy Buffett and he
was one of the ones that wouldgo out to it used to be called
Legend Valley, but he was oneof the Everybody said Jimmy Buffett was going
to live forever, but he didn't, did he. I think he died
at like seventy four seventy five.But anyway, people will spend any amount

(04:53):
of money and will congregate together forsomething that is important to them. And
there's there's a lot of people thatclaim that they are Christians and won't assemble
in the first day of the week. So that's what we're going to look
at today. And of course themain verse we want to look at,
and this will be a two partlesson. I won't go too long today
and we'll make this probably a twopart lesson. But we see in Acts

(05:17):
twenty in verse seven that we seethe example of the early church here in
Acts that met together on the firstday of the week. And not only
did they come together, but theyalso came with a purpose. In Acts
twenty and seven, and upon thefirst day of the week, when the
disciples came together to break bread,Paul preached unto them, ready to depart

(05:39):
on the marra and continued his speechuntil midnight. So we see the example
here not only did the disciples cometogether with a purpose, but they also
came to break bread. And ofcourse that is holy communion, that is
remembering Jesus Christ. We're going tolook at that here in a minute.
And it says he continued his speechuntil midnight. And that is preaching.

(06:01):
That is the word of God iscommunicated. You see the word prophecy a
lot in the Old and New Testament. And of course many people mistakenly think
that that only means for telling thefuture, but it also means communication of
the Holy Spirit. It is God'sHoly Spirit revealing his will, God's will

(06:23):
for his people coming together. Andwe know that when we read the Bible
now the Holy Spirit of God's willis also communicated to us. But we
are commanded to assembol and we're goingto look at some of the blessings of
assembling as the church. And thefirst one I want to look at today,

(06:44):
of course, is the most obvious, and that is worship. The
Church comes together with the purpose andthe ability to worship. It is a
blessing everyone in this congregation that iswith me here today. We are united
in love, We are united withour belief, and we are of course

(07:05):
united in our faith. But theHoly Spirit brings us all together with one
purpose, and that is to honor, glorify, and worship God through Jesus
Christ. And Psalm sixty six inverse four, we see that God has
created all of us. You area living soul made in the image of

(07:26):
God. As James already pointed outvery well in his sermon on pets,
that animals are alive, but theydon't have a soul, and of course
when they die, they die,but man's soul goes on to eternity.
But you were created not for sin. You are not created to follow your
own interest, in your own desiresabove God's will. It's not wrong to

(07:54):
have our families and our job andto have good times with our family.
But God comes first. And youknow, I look at everybody in the
audience here this morning, and especiallyon the holiday weekend. You know,
if there was ever a temptation thatyou know, to ride motorcycles or I
think James was talking about a musicfestival or whatever, you know, it

(08:18):
would be a fun time to goto a concert or to ride motorcycles.
And there's nothing wrong with that.But God comes first. And if we
are not providentially hindered, we needto assemble and worship God. But this
invitation is available for all of God'screation. And Psalm sixty six and verse
four, all the earth shall worshipTHEE and shall sing unto THEE. And

(08:41):
they shall sing to Thy name.And not only is it an occasion for
us individually, but Christians have theadvantage and the blessing of coming together and
worshiping together. It's so much morejoyous when we can express our greatest love,
our greatest desire. And not onlyhave we made that commitment to worship

(09:05):
God on the first day of theweek, but we do it together.
It is a family occasion, andall of us in this audience, especially
those that have lost loved ones,and everyone here has lost loved ones,
that you remember those times, thosefamily times when we could be together and
listen to this. The most importantthing that we did then, and the

(09:28):
most important thing we can ever do, is to worship God together. And
that's what James had mentioned in hisannouncements this morning, that you know,
we want to do it in heaven. That's someday we're going to worship together.
Lord William duter ought to be sixteen, Verse eleven, thou shalt rejoice
before the Lord, thy God,thou thy son, thy daughter, thy

(09:52):
maid servant, thy manservant, thelevite that is within thy gates, the
stranger, the fatherless, the widow, that are you in the place which
the Lord that God had chosen tohis name there. So not only do
we have the blessing of worship,but we come together because we assemble not
only to remember Christ, but toworship God. And John four twenty three

(10:18):
through twenty four. We see thatthis event is not a personal experience.
It's not an event for us toentertain ourself and to have a social action
with our community and our neighbors.You know, you can tell it's a
holiday weekend. We've had I thinkthree different neighbors at our house within the

(10:39):
last few days. And my neighbor, Justin brought his little baby over and
she's just a little doll baby.But it is wonderful to have a fellowship
with our neighbors. But Christians alsocome together with that beautiful fellowship. And
it's not a time for entertainment orself fulfillment. It's a time to worship

(11:00):
God and to put Him first.And God says that we must worship Him,
but we must do it in spiritand a truth. John four twenty
three through twenty four. The hourcometh and now is when true worshipers shall
worship the Father in spirit and atruth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship him. And you see thatwhere it says He seeketh us to worship

(11:22):
him. Isn't that a beautiful verse? God created us, and he seeketh
his creation to come to Him andto express joy, to express thanksgiving,
to express praise, to express lovethat he seeketh. He seeketh that relationship
through Christ, that we could nowbe adopted sons of God. Also in

(11:46):
John four, verse twenty four,God is a spirit, and they that
worship him must worship him in spiritand in truth. As a faithful Christian.
In order to be pleasing to God, we must give him all the
love, praise, devotion, dependence, reverence, and glory to God.

(12:07):
How do we give glory to God? We put him first and we love
him. And on the first dayof the week, if we are not
providentially hindered, if we are notout of town on commitments, if we
are, if we have the abilityand capacity to worship, we need to
come together and to worship our God. In worship, we put God first

(12:30):
in our life and we give himour life, for there would be no
life without worship. There would beno reason to live without worshiping our God.
God fills the universe and He alsoneeds to fill our hearts, our
life, our faith, our joy, our meaning, our fulfillment, for

(12:54):
there would be no life, nohope, no reason to live without our
Lord and savior is Christ. Wemust give reverent worship, obedience, praise,
humility, subjection, and in allconsuming love to the Father's Son and
the Holy Spirit. You might heara child that might say, well,

(13:15):
I have to go to church,and my parents make me go to church.
That's not the attitude that a Christianhas. We want to go to
church and that is the most importantthing that we will ever do. And
we want to have a good life, and we want to have a family.
We have loved ones, but weput God first no matter what.

(13:37):
In Matthew Ford verse ten, Jesussaid, get thee hint Satan, for
it is written thou shall worship theLord, thy God and him only.
Shout out, serve and worship toGod. We have an own overwhelming sense
of nearness to the majesty and gloryof God. We come near to God

(13:58):
and we bow down. How importantis that to come and bow down at
God's throne. We realize that weare His sanctified obedient children and Jesus Christ
lives in our hearts. By faith, we receive spiritual strength. We are
renewed when we come to worship.And Philippians four in verse thirteen, I

(14:20):
can do all things through Christ,which strengtheneth meme and first John four and
verse four. You are of theworld, or you are of God,
little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in
you than he that is in theworld. So it is because Jesus Christ
is within our hearts. We yearnfor God. We yearn to worship,

(14:43):
and everyone in this audience will filluplifted when we come together and worship God,
because that's what Christians do. Wecome together and we worship God.
I don't want to turn this intoa lesson of worship, but once again
this is it's important for Christians toassemble on the first day of the week.

(15:05):
Another reason why we assemble on thefirst day of the week is we
want to remember Jesus Christ and whathe has done. Did you know that
Jesus Christ was God manifested in theflesh, and he is not only God.
The glory of God and the expressimage of God. We see in
Hebrews Chapter one but he is alsobrings us the express image and the glory

(15:31):
of God. Turn if you wouldto Claustians chapter one, and that's one
of the best descriptions of Jesus Christ. That he is the image of God,
and he is on the right handside of God and god fully manifested
to us, and he lives inour hearts by faith. He is our
high priest. He is the Alphaand the Omega. He is the creator

(15:54):
of all things, whether there bematerial, physical, or spirit. Jesus
Christ is the creator of all things. Colossians one, starting in verse fifteen.
This is talking about Jesus, andonce again we worship to recognize that
Jesus is God Colossians one, inverse fifteen. Who is the image of

(16:18):
the invisible God. Listen to this, the firstborn of every creature. Now,
a lot of people would look atColossians one fifteen and say, well,
he was the first one created.No, Jesus Christ was never created,
because we see in Genesis chapter onethat he was with the Father and

(16:38):
the Holy Spirit from even before timeitself. When when it says that Jesus
Christ is the image and invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, that
means listen to this. He isabove creation, he is before creation,
that he is the creator, thatGod created all all things through his precious

(17:00):
son, Jesus Christ. And healso said that there is no one coming
to the Father but by me orby Jesus Christ. Verse sixteen Colaussians One.
For by him we're all things createdthat are in heaven, that are
in earth, visible and invisible.That's physical, material, and even spiritual

(17:23):
were created by Jesus Christ. Whetherthere be thrones, dominions, principalities,
powers, all things were created byhim and for him. So don't you
see when we come to church,we are recognizing that Jesus Christ is the
reason that we are a Christian andwe will remember what he has done for

(17:45):
the rest of our life. InVerse seventeen, listen this he is before
all things, and by him allthings consist. So that means without Christ,
there is no life or no reasonto live. Our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ is the blessed son ofGod. He is the essence and
fullness of our Christian faith, theheart of the Gospel and the Christian message.

(18:11):
Jesus Christ is not only the headof head of the Church, but
he is also our high priest onthe right hand side of God. He
is the person that God fully becamea man. So he is fully God,
and he is also was fully Man. His precious blood on the Cross

(18:33):
was shed for our sins. Pauldescribes Jesus as the image of the invisible
God and the firstborn of every creature. By taking human nature, Jesus brings
the image and glory of an invisibleGod to lfe. He is the fullness
of God, the glory of God, the express image of God. The

(18:56):
fact that Paul calls Jesus the firstbornof creation does not mean that Jesus was
ever created. It means that heis superior to all creation. In fact,
he is the creator of all things, and all things were created by
him and for him. Jesus existedas God before he was born in Bethlehem.

(19:18):
He existed as God with the Fatherand the Holy Spirit before anything that
was ever created. So you see, when we come to church, we
recognize that Jesus Christ is everything tous in our heart. Nothing physical or
spiritual on earth or the entire universecan exist without Jesus Christ. How many

(19:44):
of us got to see the supermonI don't want to go into a scientist
science lesson. But anyway, wehad what they call a supermon and I
guess it only happens a few timeswhere there were two full moons and all
August. But they said that themoon that happened last week wouldn't happen again

(20:06):
for fourteen years. And I wasall excited. I was going to take
Mom out, and it was teno'clock. I'm like, don't go to
sleep, don't go to sleep,And we were all excited and I had
a walker and I went outside.It was cloudy, so you didn't get
to see it. But the funthing was the next day I did get
to see it, and Mom wasalready asleep. But you know, the

(20:26):
Lord created that. And how manypeople will go on vacation and talk about
the beauty and Landon was he'd clownclimbed Mountain Zion and Utah or something and
he's got a big story about it. But anyway, he was talking about
how beautiful the rocky mountains were,and I guess in Utah you can see

(20:48):
for a one hundred miles and Iknow Montana's like that too, But you
know what, God created that throughhis precious Son. So once again we
glorified Jesus Christ as God. Anotherreason why a symbol on the first day
of the week. And this ismy favorite part here, and that is,
of course the Lord's Supper. AndI've heard a lot of lessons about
the Lord's Supper, but that issomething that is exclusive to Christians. The

(21:15):
world cannot participate in this religious feast. Did you know that the Lord's Supper
was ordained for public worship on thefirst day of the week. Sunday is
the Lord's Supper? Turn if youwould to First Corinthians, chapter eleven.
Once again, this is something thatis central to Christians, and this is
what Christians do, and this ispart of our worship. We cannot take

(21:40):
this lightly. This is something thatwe do on the first day of the
week, and this has to becentral to our worship because this is not
only fulfilling Christ's commandment, but weare doing this in remembrance of Christ.
The world wants to remember Christ bydecorating a tree on December twenty five and

(22:03):
saying it's his birthday, and Eastereggs and Easter bunnies, and you know
what does collared eggs and chocolate bunnieshave to do with the birth of Christ.
What does singing to a tree saying, Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Holy
Christmas tree, What does that haveto do with Christ? We partake of
the Lord's supper because he commanded itus too. And on the Lord's supper

(22:27):
we are remembering the Son of God. We are remembering Christ. First Corinthians,
chapter eleven, starting in verse twentythree. For I've received of the
Lord that which I've delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same
night in which he was betrayed,took bread, and when he had given
thanks, he breaken and said,take eat. This is my body which

(22:48):
was broken for you. This doin remembrance of me. And the same
manner also he took, and thesame manner all so he took, he
breaked the bread and said, takeeat, this is my body which is
broken for you. This do andremember some me. In verse twenty five,

(23:11):
and in the same manner also hetook the cup when he had supt
saying, this is a cup ofmy New Testament, of the New Testament
in my blood. This do yeas oft as ye drink, and remembrance
of me, for as oft asye to bread and drink this cup.
Ye do show the Lord's death tillhe comes. So ordained is for public
worship on the first day of theweek, Sunday is the Lord's Supper.

(23:34):
The Lord's Supper is the sole religiousfeast peculiar to the New Testament. Faithful
Christians regularly, reverently and faithfully partakeof this feast and loving memory of Jesus
Christ, remembrance of the body andthe blood of Christ. So when we
partake of the Lord's Supper, wedo three things. We show the Lord's

(23:57):
death until he comes. We dothis in remembrance of Jesus and his perfect
sacrifice for us. And we dothis until Jesus comes. We not only
partake of the bread and the fruitof the vine, which are the body
and the blood of Christ, butwe also show reverence thanksgiving for Jesus Christ

(24:18):
and what he has done, hisperfect sacrificed, and our relationship we have
in Christ as adopted sons of God. This is a way of memorializing and
remembering Christ. So we see whenwe assemble, we are worshiping and spirit
and in truth, we are rememberingand acknowledging that Jesus Christ is the king

(24:41):
of the universe and the head ofall things material and spiritual, on the
right hand side of God. Andwe give glory to his name. But
when we partake of the Lord's Supperto remember Jesus Christ's son of God,
his descent from heaven, he gaveup the glory of heaven. You be
the son of Man. He wasnot only the son of God, but

(25:03):
he also became the son of manto shed his blood and become the perfect
sacrifice for all the sins of allmankind for full atonement and reconciliation of man
to God. We went from enemiesto God to now adopted sons of God.
It is to show forth Christ's deathon the cross of Calvary, to

(25:26):
declare his death, and to publishhis death. So we commune as his
family. We commune because we areall family, regardless even though that we're
not perhaps physical or blood family onearth, but we are blood family through
the blood of Christ. And lookaround you. This is the family we

(25:48):
will be with for eternity if weare faithful unto death. And I couldn't
be more happy because I love everyone of you with all of my heart.
To declare his death to publish it. It is not only done in
complete remembrance of Christ and what hehas done and suffered, but also to
commemorate, to celebrate his glorious condescensionand grace in our total redemption. We

(26:15):
declare his death to be our life. And it is perhaps the most important
thing we can do is to rememberChrist our reason for living, another reason
to glorify and to think and toworship God. We declare our Lord to
be the origin, that genesis andspring of our entire life. We glory

(26:37):
and fulfill our life and relationship inChrist. By declaring his death and perfect
sacrifice. We show forth his deathand we bring it before God as our
accepted sacrifice and ransom, and toset it in the view of our faith
that we have in our Lord andSavior, Jesus Christ. So another reason

(26:57):
that we assemble on the first theweek is that we come to worship.
We come to declare the glory ofGod, and we also come for the
Lord's supper. So it is veryimportant in our Christian life that we attend
and we express our worship to Godand we put him first. And this

(27:22):
is what Christians do. We cometogether to encourage one another, and we
also come together to show our faithfulnessto God. We've got a few more
minutes here, so we will continueto show why Christians assembled on the first
day of the week. Faithful,faithfully assembling with the Saints, we show

(27:42):
where our heart is. Where isour heart? Will we put God first?
Every Christian must come to understand theresponsibility of faithfully assembling with the Saints,
attending all the services that we canif we are not providencial hindered,
giving importance to the responsibility and theprivilege of worshiping God. Next, we

(28:07):
show our love where is our heart? When we assemble, Not only are
we commanded. Not only do weremember the Lord Jesus with the Lord's Supper.
Not only do we worship God andSpirit and in truth, but we
come together as the Lord's family andChristian faith, showing our love for God

(28:30):
and love for each other. Firstof all, we show love for our
physical family Ephysian six. In versefour, all you fathers, provoke not
your children with wrath, but bringthem up in the nurture and the admonition
of the Lord. We are nourishingnot only ourselves but our children. And

(28:51):
assembling we show them the importance andthe value of worship and also fellowship.
We are giving them the most valuablething we can ever give them by teaching
our children. On the first dayof the week. Christians come together and
you know it's not easy. Ithink while even we have one here,
but a lot of the churches wouldalways have a nursery and Christians come together

(29:17):
and when there's really young ones,you always have a place to take the
kids if they're misbehaving, Mom cantell you they're In my early days of
Westwood, I think it was Pamwhich was the daughter of Gary Burton.
Pam Burton and during church she wouldrun around and get into all the women's
purses to get go and what shegot older, she would probably do