Our scripture reading this morning
is the 130th Psalm. If you'd like to read along with
us, Psalms number 130, and this is the word of the Lord. Out
of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplications. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness
with thee, that thou mayest be feared. I wait for the Lord,
my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth
for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning. I say
more than they that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope
in the Lord, For with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him
is plentious redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from
all his iniquities. Amen. I'd like to ask you to
turn in your Bibles this morning to Hebrews chapter 10. I'd like
to begin this morning by echoing the words of our dear brother
Fred Evans. He began Wednesday night service down here in San
Diego with these words. It is my prayer, my prayer, that we are here this
morning to see Christ. That we have come here today
to receive a message from Him. Not from John, not from Fred,
but from God. That should be all of our prayer.
We're here to have a message. Lord, what would you have for
me today? That was a great message on Wednesday
night, but that was Wednesday night. What do you got for me
today? You see, between then and now, I've had to walk through
this valley of the shadow of death, through this world that
we all live in, just as you have. One of the brothers in San Diego
said this to me. seven days a week, all the hours
of the day. And he says, God's given us such
a wonderful, wonderful thing by the internet. We can go and
listen to somebody on Tuesday night. We can go and listen to
another on Wednesday night. We can go and hear another message
on Thursday night, on Friday night, and then again on Sunday
morning. He goes, I need to hear a message. I need to hear my
Lord's word over and over again. I echo His words. I need to hear
it. I need to be where God's Word
is preached. You all know my story, how the Lord brought
me here. And I've shared with you many
a times on how I kept coming back. Were you going back to
church again next Sunday? Yeah. Why? I don't know. And it's been that way for 23
years. I can only tell you that I am
here because my Lord has brought me here. You're here this morning
because the Lord has brought you here to hear from Him. I go through the Scriptures and
I read this and I read that. I say, Lord, what would You have
me bring for Your sheep this morning? And sometimes, He doesn't
tell me until the last minute. In fact, more cases than not,
I don't usually have a message until early Sunday morning. Folks, it's my prayer for you,
my prayer for each and every one of you, is that God will
speak to you this morning, not me. That our Lord has brought
you here to hear from Him. to hear of Christ, to see Him
in the Word preached. Our Lord did not bring me here
to go out into the yonder world and preach the Gospel to others. I'm thankful for men who do.
I'm thankful for men who leave their churches behind and can
come here occasionally and preach for us, preach to me. I'm thankful
that we could go out and spend two weeks and hear other men
preach. But that's not what the Lord
has brought me here for. The Lord has brought me here
that I would preach to you, to those who He would bring through
these doors out of this area, to those who He would draw on
the internet to listen to this church, to this little place
in the woods. The message of Christ and Him
crucified. To preach His gospel to those
that He sees fit to bring here, that they might feast on Him.
Folks, we were created for fellowship. You know, some may say, I wasn't,
and they like to be alone by themselves. That's so rare, though. We hang out together with those
of like mind, don't we? That's what we were created for,
to be together. We were created for fellowship,
for coming together in like faith, God-given faith, faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Are you in Hebrews chapter 10?
Look at verses 19 with me if you would. Having therefore,
brethren, Boldness. Boldness. That means without fear. That
means stand up. Don't cower down. Stand up with
boldness and enter into the holiest of holies. Enter into the holiest
by the blood of Jesus. But by a new and living way,
verse 20, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that
is to say his flesh. In that old temple of the old
days, there was this big heavy veil that hung across in the
inside of the temple. And I don't remember the exact
description of it, but I remember it was supposedly it was so thick
that you couldn't even hear anything through it. Definitely you couldn't
see anything on the other side of the veil. And on the other
side of that veil was the mercy sheet, the holiest of holies.
And one day out of every year, not every day, but one day out
of every year, the highest priest would go in
there with blood and sprinkle the blood on the mercy sheet. of what it was for Christ to
come to this earth and shed His blood for you and I. A picture
of what it cost for you and I to spend an eternity with our Father
in Heaven. A picture of what it cost for
the One who has loved us from before the world was. And it was His flesh is what
that was a picture of. But that flesh has been opened
up since the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross and shed His
own blood for us. We come boldly to that mercy
seat now. Right now, coming before the
Lord Jesus Christ and crying out, Lord have mercy on me. By
a new and living way which He hath consecrated for us through
the veil, that is to say His flesh, and having a high priest
over the house of God. Jesus Christ is our High Priest. He's the intercessor. Just as
the High Priest in that day would go into the holiest of holies,
for who? For himself and for the people. Christ went into the holiest
of holies for His people. Verse 22, let us draw near with
a true heart and full assurance of faith. having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water,
let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering,
for He is faithful at promise, and let us consider one another
to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the matter of some is, but exhorting
one another and so much more. as you see the day approaching.
Mike and I were talking about that earlier, just a moment ago. As we see the day approaching.
You know, today is one day closer than yesterday. That's the day approaching. Our
Lord spoke of the last days. You know what that is? That was
from the day our Lord was born until right now. Could be tomorrow, too. That
could be the end of all the last days tomorrow. I don't know.
None of us know that. And I'm thankful. I'm thankful,
because we would find some way to say, oh, you know, I don't
have to do that right now. I'll do that later. Procrastinate.
That's my problem. I procrastinate. Some of you
probably don't understand that. Folks, the day is coming when
every one of us will stand before Jesus Christ God Almighty on
his throne. And we're going to have to answer.
We're going to have to answer. Lord, I know I'm evil in the
flesh. I stand in your son and in him
alone. I stand in Him. I need to be
around that. I need to be reminded of that
at all times. You know, I told a story. I heard
this story some time ago. I believe it may have even been
Pastor Gene. There was a pastor of a church and a man who had
been attending the church for many years. Faithful man. Loved
to hear the Word of God. And one day he just stopped coming.
One day he just... Still wasn't there. The pastor
looked down and he was no longer in the seat over there. And another
Sunday went by, he wasn't there again. Another Sunday went by
and he still wasn't there. So finally the pastor went to
the man's house. Knocked on the door and the man
opened the door and said, hello pastor. Would you like to come in? Yes,
I would. And he came in and he sat down,
there was a nice fire going on in the fireplace, and he sat
there. The man waited for the pastor
to speak, the pastor didn't say a word. After a while, sitting there
quiet, just listening to the crackle of the fire, the pastor
reached over and he grabbed those tongs, you know, that hang by
the fire there, and he reached in and he grabbed a piece of
coal. He pulled it out and he set it
on the brick over here, outside of the fire. Sat there for a while. Instead
of watching the fire now, they began to watch that little piece
of coal. And it started to grow dark. The fire was going out in it. It became cold and hard, like
a piece of coal is. That's a piece of coal's nature,
to be cold and hard. And then gently, the pastor reached
over with those tongs again. He picked that cold, dark piece
of coal up, and he put it back in the fire. Within minutes,
it started to turn red hot again. The pastor got up and left. As he got a few feet away from
the door, the man opened the door again up and he said, Pastor, I got your message. I'll see
you next Sunday. God's people need our Lord every
minute of every day. We are surrounded by the things
of this world. Why did I have to leave my home
every Sunday and come here to this place? Because it's cold. And it's dark. And when John's out there in
the world, he gets just like it. Cold and dark. I need the fire of my Savior. I need to hear Him. I need to
hear a message from Him to me. I need to hear of His saving grace
to this one who can turn cold just like that. Now I'd like you to turn over
to the book of Acts if you would please, Acts chapter 2. I have another confession. I've been troubled. Troubled with coming together and wondering,
Lord, is this even what you want me to be doing? Am I just taking advantage of
what God has given me to live here in the woods? Or has God
got me here for some other reason? Am I here to preach the gospel?
Is that what I'm here for, Lord? Am I all alone? Am I alone in
this world? Our pews are empty. Friday night, sometimes it's
just Kathy and I and two others. I murmur against my Lord. I highly recommend you go to
Sermon Audio and listen to Fred Evans a week ago today. preaches on the murmuring of
Christ, and I heard that message, it spoke to me. Every person God has desired
to be here today is here. Every one of you are here because
of Him. Everyone who's here online is
because of Him. Kathy and I are here because
of Him. We come together in a like mind.
That was why I had to come. That's what I needed to be here.
I wish I could have told you that. And I'm thankful that today I
can tell her that. Why do I have to be here next
Sunday? Because this is where the Lord wants me. I want to be where He is. I like
hearing the gospel preached. It blesses me as I walk through
this world and I see the flesh that I'm in and I see the worm
that I am before a righteous God. And I see the grace and
the mercy my Lord has for people. For His people. We come together
in a like mind with hearts that love His Word. We love Him because
He first loved us. We come together to worship and
to give praise to the Lord of glory. Allow me to read these
verses. I've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. I want
to read to you real quick before we go into the Book of Acts. In Romans 15, 6, we read this,
that ye may be with one mind and one mouth. Glorify God, even
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 13, 11,
Finally, brethren, farewell, be perfect, be of good comfort,
be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace
shall be with you. Listen to this, folks. Listen
to these words. Philippians 1, 27, Only let your
conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ. that whether
I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs,
that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together
for the faith of the gospel. Philippians 2, verse 2, fulfill
ye my joy that ye be like-minded, having the same love of one accord
of one mind. And then finally, in 1 Peter
3, verse 8, Peter writes, finally be ye all of one mind, having
compassion one of another, love as brethren, pitiful and courteous. Will you read with me in our
text today in chapter 2 of the book of Acts? Let's begin, if
you would, at verse 37. Now when they heard this, they
were pricked in their heart. and said unto Peter and to the
rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent,
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and
to your children and to all that are far off, even as many as
the Lord our God shall call, And with many other words did
he testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves from this untoward
generation, this crooked generation. Then they that gladly received
his word were baptized. And the same day there were added
unto them about 3,000 souls. And here's my verse. Here's the
verse of our text today. And they continued steadfast
in the apostles' doctrine and in fellowship, and in breaking
of bread, and in prayers. I've titled this morning's message,
The Apostles' Doctrine. What is The Apostles' Doctrine?
It says they continued steadfastly. That means they continued weekly,
almost daily. How many ever times a week you
want to say it is, it's continuing. It's not doing something and
then going off for a month or two, doing something else and
then coming back and worship again later. I know of a man, no, none of
you know him, who professes to believe the
Lord Jesus Christ and all that the Scriptures teach us of Him.
who professes the same things you and I profess. Yet he attends no church at all. He doesn't worship at any congregation
with anyone. I fear the man deceives himself. Who's the great deceiver? Who's
the greatest of all deceivers? You think it's the devil? I deceive myself better than
anyone else. Think about the last time you
justified something you were doing. Oh, I play golf every week because
I need to get away and just not think about things. You get my
point? Do you understand what I just
did? Why do I play golf every week even though it's so frustrating?
Because I'm justifying myself. I'm deceiving myself. I do it
because I like the things of the world. I enjoy it. And every one of us have something
in this world that we enjoy, don't we? And I don't care how
you put it, you're justifying it no matter what you say. We
justify ourselves by what we do, and that's the deception
we put in our lives. That man I told you about is
deceiving himself, thinking that he is worshipping God, walking
around, and just believing. What is the Apostle's Doctrine?
It's going to be very clear that this man is deceiving himself.
The Doctrine means it's a teaching. What is the Doctrine? What is
the teaching? What is the message? Let me first show you what it's
not. Mark your spot in Acts. We're going to come back to that
and go over to the book of Jude. What is the apostles' doctrine? What did the apostles teach before
the people? What was their message to the
people? This is what it's not. Look at
the book of Jude, chapter 1, verse 1. Jude, the servant of
Jesus Christ, the brother of James, to them that are sanctified. Now here he is preaching to them. He's preaching, this is one of
God's ministers, preaching to the people. What is their message?
What is their teaching? He's preaching to the sanctified,
those who have been sanctified by the Lord God Almighty, those
who have been made holy, not in what they have done, but by
the Lord Jesus. That's what it says, by God the
Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Mercy unto
you and peace and love be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave diligence
to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for
me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should be earnestly
content for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. This is why we need to come together
as often as God gives us the opportunity to be exhorted, to
exhort one another, to be content for the faith which was once
delivered unto us. And then he goes on to tell us
why. For there are certain men crept in, unawares, who were
before of old. They crept into the church. People
didn't notice it. George, sitting over here in
the front pew. Contently, earnestly listening
to everything that's being said. Smile on his face, enjoying what
he's hearing. Yet he's never experienced grace.
And you and I wouldn't know it. And he was ordained to be in
that pew by God Almighty. Ordained. For there are certain
men who have crept in unawares who were before of old ordained
to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our
God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord
Jesus Christ. These men who were ordained of
old to come into the church unawares, turning the grace of our God
into wickedness. That's what that word lascivious
means. evil. Taking the grace of God and mixing
it with works. Taking the grace of God and saying,
that's okay, yes, you can have Jesus Christ as your Savior,
but you've got to do this too. You've got to get in that water
of baptism. You've got to come down to the
front of the church and say a prayer. You've got to accept. You've
got to make a decision today to change your life around. They're
turning the grace of God. God's grace is this. He's done
it all. Everything has been supplied
to us by Him. Even when I shook my hand in
His face and said, You shall not rule over me. You're mine,
John. I will have you. I didn't come to the Lord kicking
and screaming. He made me willing. Just as He
has made each and every one of you. I'm willing to be here. I'm desirous to be here. But it's only by His grace. Can we ever see the depth that
our Lord has for us? If you can't see it in what I
just said, how about this? He gave His only begotten Son
so that you would live. so that you shall live eternally
with Him, so that I will praise my Lord
forever. Oh, for that day to come when
I'll praise Him perfectly like He is. What is the doctrine, the teaching
of the apostles? Well, it's not coming in and
trying to mix in grace It works with grace. It's not trying to
come in and bring the yoke of the law down on people. Folks, the law is good. I have
such a desire in my heart to be a true follower of my Lord
and Savior, but I know I'm not. I know I can't. I want to keep fighting the good
fight. I want to keep looking to the prize. And the only way
to do that is to have faith in the One who's fulfilled everything
for me, the One who's fought that fight and won the fight
for me. What is the Apostles' Doctrine?
It's the same message God's preachers have preached since the fall
of man. Paul wrote these words to 1 Corinthians 1, verse 23,
but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block,
and unto the Greeks foolishness. You know, let me turn over there
real quick and read that completely. I've only put that one verse
in there, but I'm going to read the whole thing. 1 Corinthians
1, verse 23. You've got to read the whole
thing, John. You can't just read part of it. You've got to read
it all. But we preach Christ crucified
unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness,
but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ,
the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Oh, oh how... We preach Christ. What is the
Apostle's Doctrine? It's the same message God's preachers
have preached since the fall of man. 1 Corinthians 2, verse
2, it says, For I determined not to know anything among you,
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You remember the story. Our Lord,
after He had arose from the dead, was walking on the road to Emmaus
with two disciples. They didn't even know who He
was at the time. The greatest preacher of all time was walking
right alongside of two men doing what? Preaching himself. You say, well, how do you know
that, John? It says so in Luke 24, 27. And
beginning at Moses. Remember, the New Testament wasn't
finished yet. Beginning at Moses. The very
beginning of the Old Testament. The very part that says, in the
beginning. Beginning of Moses and all the
prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things
concerning himself. What is the apostle's doctrine?
Christ. Sovereign grace. Grace that he sheds upon his
people under no merit unto them, but because of his Son, our Lord
and Savior, and only because of him. The clothing of Adam and Eve
with the skins that's spoken of in the beginning of Genesis
was a picture of God covering the sins of His people. Remember
Adam and Eve? They tried to cover themselves.
Remember that? I can do this. I'm naked. All my nakedness is now exposed. I can cover myself. No, you can't.
No, because He who sees all sees right through it. He's going to look right through that
self-righteousness that you think you have. That, oh, I'm a good
person now. I quit smoking. I quit drinking.
I quit doing this. I'm doing all the things God
tells me to do in the book now. That's not good enough. You can't
do it perfectly, and it must be perfect. That's why the blood
of Christ is so important to each and every one of us. We
know, don't we, that we can't. We know that there is no righteousness
in this flesh. We have no confidence in whatever
we think, whatever we do, whatever we feel. All of our confidence
is in Him and what He has done for us. God's preachers, God's
messengers, they preach who gave Himself and saved His
people. We preach that God was manifest
in the flesh. God humbled Himself and became
the servant of us, the servant of men, the servant of His people. He got down on His knees and
washed the feet of every child that God the Father had given
Him. Does your feet need washed? Mine
does. over and over and over again. We preached that God was manifest
in the flesh. We preached that the blood of
God was shed upon a cross a little over 2,000 years ago. The perfect
blood of God was shed upon the mercy seat who is God, who is
Jesus Christ Himself. And that blood was sufficient
to pay our debt We are washed clean in His sight. Go back to your text in Acts
chapter 2. We preach that God laid down
His life and by His power He took it up again. Death could
not hold Him. We expound from the Scriptures
the things concerning Him. I hear preachers who go out They
spend their whole amount of time that God has given them, and
God has given them this time, by the way. He's sovereign God
of everything. He's sovereign God over those
who don't even know that He's God. He says, I'm not the God
of the dead. That means that they don't know
that He's God. He's actually God of everything.
He says, I'm God of the living. to you and I who have been given
life to see the truth of His Word, to see the love for His
people, to see the blood that was shed for our sakes, to see
His grace in saving us. He is God. We expound from the Scriptures
the things concerning Him. Peter gives us this message right
here in verses 22-24 of Acts chapter 2. Ye men of Israel, Hear these words. Now why didn't
he say ye men and just leave it at that? I'm sure there were Jews
and Greeks and Gentiles alike in those that were surrounding
him. Why didn't he say, just stop
right there and leave it at that? He says, of Israel. Hear these
words. God only speaks to His people.
And this is God Almighty speaking to you and I. Israel, hear these
words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs. Nobody
could ever do the miracles Christ did. Even the apostles hadn't
had the ability to do it yet. God gave him the ability, finally,
but it was him who went out and started the miracles. Nobody
had ever seen that kind of a miracle before. Nobody had ever seen
a hand that was withered all of a sudden become whole. Nobody
saw a man who's dead and been buried in a tomb, the rock rolled
away, come floating out of that tomb. How else could he have
come out? He was still bound in his burial clothes. God said,
remove the stone. The light shined in. The light
of life shined in upon that dead body, giving that body life. So when Christ said, Lazarus,
come forth, just as he said to each and every one of us. Now, I didn't hear those words
audibly, but I heard him preach to me when I sat right there
in that pew. John, come forth. done wonders and signs, which
God did by Him in the midst of you. As you yourselves also know,
Peter goes on in verse 23, Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel. Who determined it? God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. That's who determined
it. That's the counsel. God doesn't
need you and I to counsel Him. Where were we when He created
everything? Isn't that what he said to Job? Who do you think
you are? I'm the one who created everything,
is what he says. I didn't need you. God doesn't
need us. Oh, it just burns me up to hear
people say, Christ needs you to come to Him today. Won't you
come to Jesus now? He needs you. Exactly. How laughable! God doesn't
need us, which makes His grace so wonderful. He doesn't need us, Mike, but
He wants us! And what He wants, He gets! Because
He's God! Oh, that just blessed my heart
to know that the Lord, who is made by His determinate counsel
and foreknowledge, ye sons of Israel have taken
by wicked hands and have crucified and slain." Did you know who
crucified the Lord Jesus? You and I did. He didn't go to
that cross for all the sins of the world. Those reprobates that
were there at that day when He was crucified, they all went
to where they're supposed to go. He went to the cross for us.
for our sins, to pay our debt. Verse 24, whom God hath raised
up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible
that he should be holding of it. Now I want to jump over to
verse 29 and read A couple of verses there. Verse
29, Peter goes on to say, And men and brethren, let me freely
speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and
buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore,
speaking of David being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn
with him an oath of him, you know what David said in his final
last days? The very last words David said on his deathbed was
this, even though, even so it be not with my household. And
I may not be saying those words exactly, but to that point, even
though, even though it be not with my household, you have made
a covenant with me. God has made a covenant with
his people. That's a promise that his people
shall be saved. That's what David believed. That's what we believe, isn't
it not? We believe that His promises are good. We believe that what He says
He will do, He will do. Because we believe Him to be
God. Therefore, being a prophet, and
knowing that God hath sworn with an oath unto him, that of the
fruit of his loins, of the fruit of David's loins, according to
the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. He's seen this before. David
saw this in his day. He spake of the resurrection
of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell. This is the
resurrection. This is what we just read about a moment ago.
By the determinant of counsel ye have taken by wicked hands,
and have crucified whom God hath raised up, having loosed the
pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be
holding of it. That's what that's talking about.
Seeing this then. He's seeing this before. Speaking
of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in
hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. Now go back to verse
26. David rejoiced. Therefore did
my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover also my flesh
shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,
neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to seek corruption. Thou hast made known to me the
ways of life, that shalt make me full of joy with thy confidence. Now, go on to verse 32. This Jesus, says Peter, hath
God raised up. And therefore, this Jesus hath God raised up,
whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore, being by the right
hand of God, exalted and having received of the Father, this
is the gospel. This is the message. This is
the message of the apostles. This is the message of every
one of God's preachers. What was the message of the apostles?
What is it we are to stand for? What is it we're to stand steadfastly,
continue in, in the apostles' doctrine? This Jesus hath God
raised up, wherefore we are all witnesses, verse 32, therefore
being by the right hand of God, exalted, and having received
of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed
forth this which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended
into the heavens, but he saith unto himself, The Lord said unto
my Lord, Sit thou in my right hand, until I make thy foes thy
footstool. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus,
whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ. This is the message
that we seek. This is the living water that
God's people thirst for. We need Christ, Christ, Christ. We need His grace, grace, grace. Practical godliness, practical
godly living is desired. I know ministers who spend hours
a week on TV preaching practical godliness and I never hear the
word of grace from them. Practical godliness didn't save
anybody. Grace does. Mercy does. I told you this when the Lord
brought me here, and I asked you if you wanted me to be your
pastor. I said, I'm not coming here to teach you how to be good. You know. Every one of us know. Should I not do that, pastor? Don't hand me that. You know
whether you should or not. Little kids know the right from
wrong. We're born with it. When Adam and Eve took of the
fruit of the tree, the knowledge of good and evil, it was passed
on to all of us. That's why they saw their nakedness. They saw they were naked before
God because they were worms. We see that we are naked before
God and unable to do anything pleasing in His sight, but God,
who is rich in mercy, wherewith He gave His Son for us. Salvation
is the message needed. Now read our text again, if you
would, verse 42. And they continued steadfastly
in the Apostle doctrine, and the fellowship, and in the breaking
of bread, and in prayers. And I'll make this quick. We
come together in fellowship. Notice it doesn't say, coming
together and just reading the Word of God by yourself. It says,
come together in fellowship. I began this message by talking
about those of us, those who can't be here, those who aren't
here, a man who says he has a profession of Christ, but yet doesn't worship
anywhere. Continue in the fellowship. What's
next? Breaking of bread and prayer. Listen to this, if you would,
and I'm running a little long, but I'm sorry, I gotta get this
message through. What kind of activities does
your church have? Notice that we don't have a band. We're not throwing some kind
of play. We're not here to entertain children. What kind of activities does
your church have? Don writes these words. He says,
when people go around church shopping, as they often do, they
seldom ask any question about doctrine. He says, I suppose
they presume that all churches gave up doctrinal distinction
long ago. And for the most part, they would
be correct in such a presumption. But one question they almost
always ask is, what kind of activities does your church have? Most preachers
and most churches realize that people like an activity of some
kind. They like to be entertained.
They like to do something. So the preacher in the church
is gladly complied to that. Whatever it takes to draw a crowd
and keep people happy. You know, I get advertisements
all the time, John. Just call this number, and we'll
help you grow your church. We're going to get to that in
just a second. I'm going along. I know. Bear with me, please.
Whatever it takes to draw a crowd, goes on and on, and keep the
people happy, they will do. They'll have ball teams, puppet
shows, movies, social programs for every age, and concerts,
which the church of the 20th century provides for an activity
for its members. In the New Testament, they had
another kind of activity. We just read in Acts chapter
2, 41-47, they continued in the apostles' doctrine. They continued
Christ in Him crucified. Fred Evans kept saying this over
and over and over again as we were sitting there, just keep
preaching Christ. Well, what about this stuff? Just keep preaching
Christ. The rest of it will all work itself out. That's all we
need, folks. Christ. But that's everything,
isn't it? Is that your everything? They continued in the Apostles'
Doctrine, fellowship of the saints, the observance of the Lord's
Supper, unity of the spirit, joy in the praise of God, and
the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. Don writes this, he says, I like
those activities, don't you? Next Friday night we have services
at 7 p.m. Christ will be our message. Next
Sunday morning at 10 a.m. we have Bible study. Guess what
the message will be? Christ. Next Sunday at 11 a.m. we have
services. The message is going to be Christ. We all know right from wrong,
I don't need to tell you, God has written His law on the hearts
of all men. We all have tasted the knowledge
of good and evil, but I ask you, have you tasted grace? Has God
made you see the worm that you are? Are you the beggar in the
corner, begging for mercy, or are you the prideful Pharisee
standing up saying, thank you, Lord, I'm not that? Look at verses 42-47 of our text
and I'll bring it to a close. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of
bread and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul. Now that's not a fear of punishment. That's a reverential fear. That's
looking to the Almighty. That's looking to Him who has
all power from somebody who has none. And many wonders and signs were
done by the apostles, and all that believed were together,
and all things common. And they sold their possessions
and goods and partners and all to men as every man had need.
And they continued daily with one accord in the temple, and
breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with
gladness and a singleness of heart." What was that singleness
of heart? Praising God. That's what it said in verse
47. praising God and having favor
with all people. And the Lord added to the church
daily as such as should be saved. We all have been brought together
with the same gospel message. We come as one with the apostles
declaring this, thou art the Christ, the son of the living
God. I don't just say that with these
lips, I say this with my heart. He's the Christ, the son of the
living God. And the Lord says unto you and
I, blessed art you. Blessed art thou. For flesh and
blood have not revealed unto thee but my Father which is in
heaven. And then he says this, upon this
rock. The rock of Christ, our Savior,
upon Him. You can stand on this. You can
grasp a hold of this. This is something worth holding
on to. He's got a hold on you and won't
let go. Upon that rock, He says, I will
build my church, not John, not some that we're going to do to attract
more people into the church. Preaching Christ. Preaching Christ
and Him crucified. God will build His church. Those
that should be saved. That's what it said. Praising
God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added
to the church daily such as should be saved. And the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. This is the one accord whom he
has called the doctrine of grace. For by grace are we saved through
faith, a gift of God, not of works. Blessed we should boast.
Amen. Thank you for allowing me to go along on that, folks.
I hope it was a blessing to you.