Turn back in your Bibles to that
second chapter of the book of Acts again this morning. I want to read the last verses of this second
chapter, beginning at where we left off there in verse 41. Then they that gladly received
his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto
them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of
bread and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul,
and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all
that believed were together and had all things common. And so
their possessions and goods imparted them to all men as every man
had need. And they, continuing daily, with
one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to
house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
praising God and having favor with all the people. And the
Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. My message this morning is a
question, and my question is simply this. Are you a member of the church? I hope you notice that I did
not say, Are you a member of a church? and that I did not even ask if
you are a member of this church. But I am simply asking, are you
a member of the church? Many have said, and I know in
one sense rightly true, salvation is not in the church. Not in what the world calls the
church. And certainly it is not in a
denomination or an organization. And most definitely not in what
Rome calls the church. But in another great sense, salvation
is in the church. And that is as the Bible defines
the church. The word meaning literally, a
called-out assembly. That's what the church is, a
called-out assembly. But I say it is in the church
because the church, as we see it in Scripture, is in an inseparable
union being one with the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a bond,
an inseparable union between Christ and the church. It is likened in this way, that
the church is the building and Christ is the foundation. I never read that and I never
think about that, that I don't remember one day when Betty and
I were leaving out of Waverley Station in Edinburgh, Scotland. And we got the first glimpse
of Edinburgh Castle. And it looked as we got closer,
literally it looked like this, that the stones that made up
that castle literally rose up out of the stones upon which
it were built so that they both appeared as one. The church is this building and
Christ is that inseparable foundation. The church is the bride. And the Lord Jesus is that bridegroom. And of that relationship, it
says that they are one flesh. And then the church is likened
to a city. And Christ is said to be the
light thereof of that city. And most especially, the church
is said to be a body, and that Jesus Christ is the head. Those that are in the church
are said to be members of that body. Paul says, "...and he hath
put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over
all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of
him that filleth all in all." The church is the fullness, the
body of Christ who is the head of the body. For Christ is the
head of the church, and He is the Savior of the body. We are
members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. And so we have
this union between the head and the body, and that head is Christ,
and those in the church are members. of that body. And we find that
the church, as it is expressed here in this book, has not only
a mystical sense of which it is spoken, but also a local sense
in which it is manifested wherever the Lord's people are gathered. and the Bible, the Word of God
tells us just exactly what the church is. And Luke tells us,
or rather shows us, what the church is by showing us what
the early church was. Whatever that church was in its
essence, That's what the church is in every following generation. And this is what we see in these
verses that are before us this morning. And the first thing
is that the church, the true church, is rooted in sound truth
and doctrine. Look at what it says here in
verse 42, the first part. It says that they continued steadfastly. They continued steadfastly in
the apostles' doctrine. In other words, their doctrine
was the same as the apostles' of God. And God used them, according
to what we read in Scripture, to set forth and establish for
the church in every age following that doctrine, or that truth,
that gospel, upon which the church is not only founded, but which
is in every hour the doctrine of the church. It is the apostles'
doctrine. And amazingly, the very thing
that men seek to minimize in our day, what they say is for
the sake of unity. In order that the church can
be more united and get along better, the very thing that they
seek to minimize for the sake of unity, these are the very
things that really unite the true church of God. And while so many claim to be
a part of the church, the very doctrine of the church, the very
gospel of the church, shows to be a very strange thing to them
as it was in this day. Turn over in this same book to
the seventeenth chapter, Acts chapter 17, and listen beginning
in verse 18. It says, Then certain philosophers
of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him, that
is, Paul the Apostle. And some said, What will this
babbler say? and others some, he seems to
be a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto
them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him, and brought
him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine
is whereof thou speakest? For thou bringest certain strange
things to our ears, we would know therefore what these things
mean." In other words, the very doctrine of the apostles, the
very foundational truths of the church, even as early as Paul
began to preach them to men, they found them to be strange
and new and something unheard of. And the doctrine of the church
is in every sense both a head doctrine and a heart doctrine. And I hear men always trying
to warn on the one hand of ours being only a head doctrine. And then others, on the other
hand, warning against it being only a heart doctrine, a felt
doctrine. But what I find in this book
is, wherever you have true doctrine, it is a heart doctrine, and wherever
doctrine is known in the heart, it is absolutely true doctrine. Why? Because it's about the truth. It's about Christ who is the
truth. And that heart faith that I hear
spoken of and that the Bible talks about is that heart faith
wherein Paul says, with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Now, in the book of Matthew,
recording that which was said about the Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
it says this, And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these
sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine. Have you ever heard people say
things like this? We don't really need doctrine. What we need is Christ. Or why
talk about doctrine, these sayings, when it only divides us? But that is exactly what Christ
set forth. In Mark 1 it says, And they were
all amazed insomuch that they questioned among themselves,
saying, What thing is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority he commanded
even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him." They said, He's got some new
doctrine. As a matter of fact, our Lord
responded to them in John 7 like this. He answered and said unto
them, My doctrine is not mine, but him that sent me. They preached. He preached this
doctrine. And in Acts 5, just a little
later from now that we've been reading, It says that they were
warned when they went about preaching the gospel, "'Did we not straightly
command you that you should not teach in his name? And behold,
you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring
this man's blood upon us.'" You see, the church The church
which Paul describes, as I record it on the front of every bulletin
that I print, the church is said by God to be the pillar and ground
of the truth in this world. It's rooted in sound doctrine. In Acts 13, it says, the deputy,
when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine
of the Lord. When Paul closes out in Romans
16, it says, Now God bethanked that you were the servants of
sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine
which was delivered you. It's not simply a social gathering. It's not a place to meet and
just do whatever one wants to do or to follow some contemporary
form. It's based on this belief in
and this proclamation of sound doctrine. That is the report
of God. He says, Now I beseech you, brethren,
mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the
doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them. He tells us in
the church, he says, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves
with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons,
or if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. He said those things are contrary
to the very gospel, to the very truth and doctrine that is the
foundation of the church. When Paul writes to Timothy,
he encourages him and says in this way, he says, if you will
put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be
a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of
faith and of good doctrine. It isn't a loose-fitting, unorganized
body. It isn't that we have to go out
and make a big confession of faith or establish a creed that
some man has set forth. We believe the truth of God's
Word. And I know that's the claim of
almost every religion in this world. But that proves to be
untrue when they What they say is taken and weighed in the light
of this Word, weighed in the light of sound doctrine, when
then it is found to be not the truth at all. Paul said, till I come, give
attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Take heed unto thyself
and unto the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing
this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. Let
the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor,
especially they who labor in the word and doctrine." What
is that? That is the gospel. That is the
things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Those are the things
that are written concerning God Himself, who He is, and what
He's done, and Christ, and what He's accomplished in His death. He says, preach the Word, be
instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering and doctrine. I remember when I was growing
up, hear preachers say that they were going to preach from a text.
And that is exactly what they did. They read a text of Scripture,
and the more they preached, the farther that they got from it.
It had absolutely nothing to do with what was said in that
passage. The church is rooted and founded
in the truth of this Word, and that's the reason that we preach
the Word and study the Word and come together week after week
to learn what God says. He says all Scripture is given
by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. It is the doctrine of God. And it is most especially the
doctrine of grace, which is the doctrine of Christ. Now, how important is it? Well,
John, when he writes in his epistle, that little second epistle, so,
so brief, but in the midst of that he says this, he says, if
any man, Have not the doctrine of Christ. He said, don't receive him into
your house, and do not bid him Godspeed. But here's the second thing.
The church. The church is likened to a family. It's rooted in sound gospel doctrine,
and it is here in Scripture also likened to a family. Look down
in verse 44. And all that believed were together
and had all things common. In other words, the church Those
that make up the church on this earth, they have all things common. And I'll tell you what that means.
That means they enjoy a relationship that is far above and far superior
to and that will last ages longer than even the closest natural
relationship. Sometimes I speak to family members
and I speak to friends out in the world and there is one thing
that keeps haunting me in the back of my mind. I try to be
as nice as I can and as friendly as I can and speak concerning
the things that we have in common, but I realize that we don't have
much in common. They're not interested in the
things of God. They're not interested in living
in this world based on what is written in the Word of God. They may be more religious than
anybody else that I know. But they're not interested in
the things of grace. They're not interested in glorifying
God. They're not interested in any
of these things. And although the Lord's people,
they may have many natural and physical and various differences
of all kinds, but they have the same heavenly Father. Do you remember what Christ said?
He said to those pretty much ragtag believers, He said, I
go to my Father and your Father. They had all things common. Our Father, which art in heaven,
He taught us to pray. We have the same elder brother. We are brothers and sisters together
in God's family. And we are, by that union I mentioned,
we are in the same body, members of the same body, and it says
that one evidence of our being his children. He
says, we know we've passed from death unto life because we love
the brethren. It's a family relationship. He says, by this shall all men
know that you are my disciples. in that you love one another. Now, we have natural relationships
in which we love of a kind, but this is a spiritual love, this
is a spiritual affection that we have one to another simply
because of their relationship to God in Christ. Listen to what Peter says. Seeing ye have purified your
souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned, genuine
love for the brethren, See that you love one another with a pure
heart fervently. He says, Be ye all of one mind,
having compassion one of another, love as brethren. Be pitiful, be courteous. They had all different kinds
of backgrounds. No doubt in a place like Jerusalem,
some were from this area, some were from that area, some were
from this country, some were from another country. But they had all things common. No matter what they had to do,
whether it was work or family or whatever, their heart's desire,
first of all, was toward Christ, and their interest was in those
who were His people. That's the church. It's not just
another social club that a person's a member of. It's not a fraternity
that somebody is a member of. It's a family. And not only that,
but also the church, as such, has fellowship with God. It has fellowship with the living
God. It has real, actual fellowship,
communion, if you will, with God. Now, is this statement true
or not? He says, for where two or three
are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Well, the one who is the truth
made that statement. And I'll tell you what that doesn't
mean. That doesn't mean that wherever any group or bunch of
people gather together, supposedly in the name of Christ, that He
is obligated to be in the midst. What that says is literally this,
where two or three have been gathered together have been gathered
together by the only one who gathers the church, which is
the Spirit of God." He said, I'll be in the midst. I'll be in the midst. You can't
build a church. I just hate that term when it's
expressed by men. We're church builders. establishing
churches and such as that? Absolutely not. Christ said,
I am the builder of the church, and the church as such has fellowship
with God. Turn over to 1 John chapter 1. 1 John chapter 1, this is the apostle
John expressing it so clearly and so plainly. He says, "...that
which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our
hands have handled of the Word of Life." Capital letters, Word
of Life. That's Christ. He says, "...for
the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness,
and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father,
and was manifested unto us, that which we've seen." and heard,
declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with
us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with
his Son, Jesus Christ." He said we've touched, we've
seen, we've heard that eternal life that was with the Father. Who can that be but Christ? And he says, not only that, he
says, we have declared Him unto you that you may also have fellowship
with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His
Son, Jesus Christ. How can we have fellowship with
God? If you ever stop and think about
who God is and who we are and what God is and what we are,
how could we ever have fellowship with God? And yet, that's what
the church does. We have fellowship with God through
that one Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. We have fellowship. We are brought into His presence,
the Apostle says, through the veil by the blood of Jesus Christ. We have fellowship with God.
We are counted, he says, among those that call upon the name
of the Lord. And that simply means that we
have fellowship with Him, that we worship Him in the only way
that He can be worshipped by such as we are, and that is through
the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're brought into His holy presence. through and by the righteousness
of His dear Son, which God has imputed to us." In Hebrews it
says, "...seeing then that we have a great High Priest that
is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast
our profession, For we have not a high priest which cannot be
touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points
tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need." We have fellowship with God. And not only do we have fellowship
with God as the church, but the church assembles to worship God. God's people have a need to worship
Him. If you look back at our text
there in that 46th verse, It says, "...and they continuing
daily with one accord in the temple." If there is one thing that characterizes
the church, especially here in the book of Acts, it is the fact
that the church assembled. Remember when I said that the
church That word means a called-out assembly. Well, of all these things that
characterize the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, right in the
name itself, and here in the evidence in the book of Acts,
is that the church always assembles. Paul, if he be the writer of
Hebrews, says in Hebrews 10, let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised. And let us consider one another
to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching." We assemble to worship God, and
as we assemble to worship God, There is an encouraging, there is a strengthening that
takes place among the body. You know, I used to hear people
make a statement which is true in a natural sense. No man is
an island. That's true. But how true it is in the spiritual
sense, because the Lord's people assemble to worship Him, to break
bread, to assemble around the ordinances of the Lord's table,
to assemble around the confessions of those that the Lord is pleased
to save in baptism. to assemble around and worship
Him, it says, in prayer. And they heard the word that
the apostles preached, and they praised Him. That's what verse
47 says, praising God and having favor with all the people. And then it shows also that the
church bears a witness to this world. It bears a witness to the world. As a matter of fact, it's described
as the light of the world. That just means truth. The only
hope in this world, the only light in this darkness. The only
truth is the church of which Christ is the head. He's the
light. But he describes the church as
the light of the world. Our Lord said, All power is given
unto me in heaven and in earth Go ye therefore and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. The Church bears a twofold witness. On the one hand, we bear a witness
to the truth of the gospel. We speak that which God says
about himself. We set forth, as he does, that
one way in which a sinner can be saved, that one way in which
God can be just and yet justify a sinner in Jesus Christ, we
bear witness to the truth. And we bear witness by a conduct
that is in harmony with the truth. We bear witness by adorning the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in what we say and also in what
we do. And as the church in this world
goes, oftentimes persecuted, oftentimes rejected and despised
by men because of our association with Christ, yet as the church
moves in this world, the Lord does something. And look down at that last verse,
verse 47. Praising God and having favor
with all the people, and the Lord added to the church. daily
such as should be saved. Now, I have never added to the
church one soul, and neither have you, and neither
has anybody else except the Lord himself. Now, men add lots of
people to their roles. They add lots of people to their
denominations and to their church membership roles and such as
that. But only the Lord can add to
the church. And He does so daily as it has
pleased Him. And He adds such as should be
saved. Now, do you ever think about
that? Who should be saved? Well, everyone that he purposed
to save should be saved. But more than that, everyone,
now listen, everyone that Jesus Christ died for, Everyone He
went to that cross and before divine justice paid their sin
debt and suffered the burden of their sins in His own body
on that tree. Every one of them should be saved. And they will be saved. That's who He adds daily. Maybe
not here. Maybe not in another place, but I have all ideas somewhere. When he calls out that people
from among all nations, A people out of every tribe and kindred
and nation and tongue, a people here and one there, as he scribes
in Scripture, he adds to the church daily, such as should
be saved. And then the last thing is this,
the church continues in faith. Verse 44
says, And all that believed. They are all that believed. That's
not to say that everybody that gathered with them and professed
faith in Jerusalem, that they were a part of the
church. You read in the book of Acts,
and you read in the epistles, you read of Hymenaeus and Alexander
and various ones, that it says they made shipwreck of the faith. But all those in the church,
all that believe, they continue in the faith. They worship God. They rest all
hope in that sound doctrine of the gospel. They're not guided
by feelings and emotions, but they rest in the unchanging truth
and promises of God in Christ. They fellowship with God. They
love one another. They bear witness to the truth,
and they continue in the faith. Christ is the object. There are
a lot of people who get disappointed. Away they go. I've never been
disappointed in Christ. They find something better, they
go. I've never found anything better
than the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, those whose names are
on this robe, which, by the way, is called the Lamb's Book of
Life. They were written in the indelible
blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world from that time, never to be erased. They believed. They followed
the Lamb. with us wherever He goes. And they can all sing that old
hymn. I love thy kingdom, Lord, the
house of thine abode, the church our blessed Redeemer saved with
His own precious blood. See, it's not, am I a member
of a church. It's not even, am I a member
of this church. It says, am I a member of the
church, which is his blood-bought body, who loves Christ, has been saved
completely by the grace of God in Christ. who has an interest
in Christ, and only hope in Christ, and continues with it. That's the church I want to be
a member of. No one's ever been put out of
that church. No one's ever been missing in
that church. It's his body. And he's the head. And as long
as the head is safe in heaven, the body is safe on earth. Our Father, this morning we give
you thanks for the church. for him who's the head of the
church. We give you thanks and we give
you praise and honor and glory for the church that Christ built. We pray, Lord, that you might
be pleased in these days to use the preaching of your
gospel to add to the church daily such
as should be saved. Get all honor and glory to yourself. Call out each one of your sheep. Bring them by all the twistings
and windings of your providence to be under the sound of the
gospel. that you might reveal to them
what you've done for them in your grace in Jesus Christ and
him crucified. Lord, we love thy kingdom. That church that our blessed
Redeemer purchased with his own blood, may we be found among
them. And may we have fellowship with
you in Jesus Christ our Lord. For we pray in his name. Amen.