There was certainly an assembly or congregation in the wilderness,
as mentioned by Stephen. Acts vii. 38; but this congregation or
assembly in the wilderness was the nation, or the national assembly
of Israel—fleshly Israel. It consisted of the fleshly descendants of
Abraham, as described in the language of God to Abraham, “Those born
in thy house,” or the Jews. This congregation or assembly, the nation
of Israel, or the Jews, was not the church, or body of Christ, but,
as a body, it rejected Christ, persecuted him and instigated putting
him to death, persecuted his followers and the church he established.
Those of whom the church on Pentecost was composed came out of that
old persecuting church, abandoned it and “were added to them”—to the
apostles and the one hundred and twenty brethren—the new church—the
one the Lord said (Matt. xvi. 18), “I will build.” “On this rock I
will build my church”—the “one new man” (Eph. ii. 15), “to make in
himself of twain one new man, so making peace.” “Man” here is used
figuratively, and stands for _church_, and one _new_ man is one
_new_ church. It is not the perpetuation of an _old_ church, Adamic,
Abrahamic, Mosaic or any other, but to build _one new church_ was what
the Lord intended and accomplished.
The matter now is, not to be a descendant of Abel, nor of Abraham, nor
Jacob, or Israel; nor to be of any particular line of flesh and blood,
but to be born again—born from above, born of God. “That which is born
of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
This new church has a new basis of membership, not in the flesh but
in the Spirit, not in being born in the family of Abraham, but in the
family of God, not in the first birth, but the second birth, not in a
birth of the flesh, but a birth of the Spirit, not founded in natural
generation, but in regeneration, not children of God by blood, but “all
the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”
This church in which we are “all the children of God by faith in
Christ”—by virtue of a new creation, a birth of water and of the
Spirit, is not the one in the wilderness, nor any other church,
congregation or assembly found before Pentecost, but it is the one the
Lord said, “I will build,” but which was not built when the Lord said
this; the one _new_ man, or _new_ church which the Lord made of the
twain, or the _two_, the Jews and the Gentiles. This is the “one body”
into which all were immersed in the time of the apostles—the body
of Christ—the “temple of God,” in which God and Christ and the Holy
Spirit dwell. To be “in Christ” is to be in this _one body_, to be “in
the kingdom of God,” “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit,” to be in union with the Father and with the Son, with
the whole family in heaven and on earth. To be in this one body brings
us to all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This
is the body or the church that Jesus loved, and for which he gave
himself, that “he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of
water by the word”—“the church of the living God, the pillar and
support of the truth.” It is “the building of God,” established
“according to his eternal purpose” to “the intent” that “to the
principalities and powers in heavenly places may be made known by the
church the manifold wisdom of God.” See Eph. iii. 10.