Good morning. We're going to
open this morning's service with hymn 62, but just a reminder
between the hours, make sure you get a bulletin because we
will sing the hymn on the back of the bulletin the second hour.
So let's all stand together. Hymn number 62. Crown Him with many crowns, the
Lamb upon His throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem
drowns all music but its own. Awake, my soul, and sing of Him
who died for thee. and hail him as thy matchless
king through all eternity. Crown him the lord of love. Behold his hands and side. Riches, loves, and visions. in beauty glorified. No angel in the sky can fully
bear that sight, but downward bends his wandering eye at mysteries
so bright. Crowned Him the Lord of life,
Who triumphed o'er the grave, Who rose victorious to the strife,
O'er those He came to save. His glories now we sing, Who
died and rose on high, Who died eternal life to bring, And lives
that death may die. crowned him the Lord of heaven,
one with the Father known, one with the Spirit through him given,
from yonder glorious throne. To thee
be endless praise, for thou for us hast died. Be thou, O Lord, through endless
days adored and magnified. Please be seated. You'd like to open your Bibles
with me to Acts chapter 6. Acts chapter 6 is where we're
going to be this morning. This first hour. Acts. Chapter 6. If you look with me
at verse 7. And the Word of God. increased. That's our hope. That's our prayer.
The word of God will increase that it will grow and that we
will grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that God's word will have free course among his people. That's the that's the message
this morning this hour. So, um, If you are available
in the morning at nine o'clock, our pews are scheduled to be
here at nine o'clock in the morning. So we have to get them off the
semi truck and into the new building. The carpet is down in the new
building, most of it anyway, and the painting has been finished. Thank you, Bert. So the more
folks we can have to help unload those things, quicker it'll go. So I want us to have prayer before
we begin. And most of you know that our
daughter Jennifer is having a procedure done at Mayo on Tuesday of this
week. So we're hopeful that it will
be successful. and removing a large tumor off
of her liver. So if the Lord enables you to
pray for her, we appreciate that very much. All right, let's,
also Hugo and Zobi have been sick for three weeks, four weeks. They finally got tested last
week. They don't have the results back yet. So Hugo told me last
night that he was feeling better, but Zobi wasn't. You know, Hugo's
had some real serious health issues, so I'm thankful that
he's feeling better. But remember to pray for Hugo
and Zobey as well. All right, let's pray together.
Our merciful Heavenly Father, we come before the throne of
grace with confidence that the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished
everything necessary for our acceptance before thee. Lord,
you've told us to come boldly. And so we come with that boldness,
with that confidence, with that faith, Lord, looking to Christ
and trusting that he was successful in putting
away all the sins of your people and that he was successful in
establishing eternal righteousness on our behalf and that that he
is successful now as our reigning sovereign and advocate interceding
on our behalf. And Lord, we come into thy presence
in his name. And we ask, Lord, that you would
send your spirit in power and that you would enable us to to
see him more clearly. To rest our hope in him more
firmly. To believe upon him more truly.
Lord, we ask for those who are strangers to your grace that
you would call out your lost sheep, bring them into your fold,
change their hearts, give them the gift of repentance and faith,
and provide for us, Lord, the rejoicing of seeing the word
of God increase along your people. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Acts chapter six. Let's read these verses together.
In verse one, and in those days when the number of the disciples
was multiplied, there rose a murmur of the Grecians against the Hebrews
because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then
the 12 called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said,
it is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve
tables. Wherefore brethren, look ye out
among you seven men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost
and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business. But we will
give ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the
word. And the saying pleased the whole
multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the
Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicornor, and Timon, and
Parnanus, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, whom they set before
the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands
on them. And the word of God increased, and the number of
the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great company
of priests were obedient to the faith." The church in just a very short
period of time had grown to at least 6,000, perhaps more, right
there in Jerusalem. And the Lord had called out men
from all different walks of life and they were adjusting themselves
to one another as they were rejoicing in what they were hearing about
the Lord Jesus Christ. I've thought recently over the
past few weeks that it's particularly beneficial for us right now to
be studying the book of Acts. We're at a new junction in our
in our pilgrimage as a church and. And it is it is profitable. I pray for us to see what some
of the challenges were in the early church and that the Lord
would would teach us and provide for us in in this time for the
Word of God to continue. to increase. The Lord has been
faithful to keep us together for 25 years and we are in no
less need of his grace and we are no less vulnerable to that
which would compromise the word of God increasing now than we've
ever been. And so I was thinking that the
church has always grown from persecution. Any persecution
that comes from without is beneficial to the church. Sort of like a
country is united together whenever they are threatened or attacked
by a foreign enemy. But the one war that almost destroyed
our nation took place in the late 1800s, mid-1800s, the Civil
War, the Civil War. And that's true in nations. It's true in families. A family
will unite together if it feels threatened from without. But
what will destroy a family is conflict from within. What will
destroy a nation is conflict from within. What will destroy
a church is conflict from within. And it's not the conflict. It's the distraction that that
conflict has in keeping us from being faithful to prayer and
the ministry of the word of God. It threatens the increase of
God's word. And so I pray this morning that
the Lord will encourage us, that he will rebuke us and correct
us and grow us in his grace and keep us mindful of that one thing
that is needful. The one thing that is needful
is the preaching of the gospel and the growing of his word in
our hearts and among his people. The word of God increased. Let me say this, what we have
in the Lord Jesus Christ together supersedes any differences that
we might have otherwise. And if the Lord keeps us faithful
to preaching his word, then those things that would distract us
from that will will find their proper place
in obscurity. And that's my hope. There was
a conflict. There was some murmuring taking
place in the church. And all of us are very adept
at murmuring, are we not? Things don't go our way, we murmur.
We feel like we're not getting our fair share, we murmur. And
that murmuring threatened the health of the church because
it was a distraction for the apostles to have to deal with
it. And so in the wisdom of God,
they dealt with this sin, and that's what murmuring is. They
dealt with it by relieving the apostles of any involvement in
it so that they could give themselves continually to prayer and to
the ministry of the word. And the word of God increased
and the church grew in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's my hope. I don't think
there we're going to be completely without murmuring, but I pray
that our focus will be so clear on why we're here that those
things will not become a distraction to us, and that the Lord will
teach us to be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one
another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven us. When the disciples asked the
Lord, Lord, teach us to pray, what was in that prayer? Lord,
forgive us our trespasses, even as we forgive those who trespass
against us. So this ministry of prayer involves knowing his forgiveness and experiencing
his forgiveness with each other. We hear a lot today about prejudice
and the prejudice that exists in the world today and particularly
in our culture was not near as blatant and obvious as it was
in this culture. The Jews referred to the Gentiles
as dogs. The Gentiles hated the Jews.
And now the Lord's calling these people together and giving them
a unity in Christ that causes them to put aside all those differences
that had divided them for so long. Might the Lord be pleased to
do that for us. Psalm 133, turn with me there,
Psalm 133. Verse 1, behold how good and
how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. When was the last time your right
hand got angry at your left hand? When was the last time you kicked
yourself? You know, you don't, your body
and members of your body don't fight against each other, do
they? They, they work together in unity with the head. And, uh, so it is with the body
of Christ. It is like the precious ointment
upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard,
and went down to the skirts of his garment. That's where the,
that's where the oil drips off the skirts. of the garment of
the Lord Jesus Christ. I think about that woman with
the issue of blood. who crawled through the crowd
and thought, if I could just touch the hem of his garment,
that's where the oil of gladness, that's where the spirit of, this
oil is a picture of the spirit of God, the anointing, the Lord
Jesus Christ as the anointed one, as the Messiah, as the Christ,
has the spirit of God coming down his beard and down his garments
and drips off the hem of his robe and God's people, are like
that woman with the issue of blood. They're on their hands
and knees and they're hoping and praying and believing that
what they need, what they need is not recognition among men.
What they need is that blessing that can only come from Him.
And if all of God's people have that spirit, then there's unity,
isn't there? There's unity. I was talking
to somebody this week and they were asking me about how we do our prayer meetings
and how we structure them. And I said, well, as he said,
well, you know, the church is called the house of prayer. And
I said to him, well, first of all, prayer is a very, very personal
thing. The Lord told us when we pray
that we go into our closet and close the door and we pray in
secret and our father, which hears us in secret will reward
us openly. It's very personal. And prayer
also is a work of the Spirit of God in the heart. We can't
organize prayer meetings. This is a work of the Spirit
of God that enables us to come into the presence of God and
to pray. I said, as far as the church
being a house of prayer, If the people that are there listening,
quietly listening, do not have a spirit of prayer in their hearts,
they're not gonna hear anything. So while we're expounding the
scriptures and while we're preaching the gospel, God's people are
given a spirit of prayer, hoping that the Lord will speak to them.
And I said, as far as public prayer is concerned, yes, the
scriptures are clear that when we gather together for public
worship, that one man is to voice a prayer on behalf of the whole
congregation, calling upon the Lord's blessings and reminding
us why we're here. It's called a call to worship. But as far as having structured
prayer meetings, we don't do that. That was something we did
in religion, but we don't do that now. Why? Because of the
very reasons I just gave. The apostles gave themselves
continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word that
the word of God might increase. So this, uh, this spirit of prayer
that God gives us is to, is to sit humbly at the hem of his
garment and pray for the, for the oil of the spirit of God
to, to drip off, if you will, onto us and to bless us with
his grace. Look at we're there in Psalm
133, look at, uh, as the do of Herman and as the do that descended
upon the mountains of Zion for there. The Lord commanded the
blessing, even life forevermore. Now that's the blessing. The
blessing is the blessing of life. Spiritual life. The soul that
sinned shall surely die and you and I have got a sin problem
and if God doesn't give us life. So this this prayer and the ministry
of the word is for the purpose of eternal life. that we might
have life. And this is where the Lord said,
this is where the dew comes. This is where the blessing is
given, where the gospel is preached. And we are not going to let anything
distract us from that. Why? Because we are desperate
for life. We're desperate for it. If we
don't have life, we've got nothing. We don't have Christ. Christ
who is our life. When he shall appear, we shall
see him as he is and be made like him. Romans chapter 12 verse 9 says,
let love be without dissimulation. In other words, without hypocrisy,
don't pretend to love one another. Ask the Lord to give you a spirit
of grace and a spirit of love for one another. And these murmurings
will not distract us. Let love be without hypocrisy,
abhor that which is evil, cleave unto that which is good, be kindly
affectionate one to another with brotherly love and in honor preferring
one another. preferring one another, might
God give us that? If the word of God is increasing
and God has given to us a spirit of prayer, then we will esteem
one another more highly than ourselves. And rather than looking
to take advantage or get an advantage, we'll be glad to take that lower
place, like the woman with the issue of blood. Turn with me
to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter 4, beginning in verse 1, I therefore
the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith you are called with all lowliness and meekness
with long-suffering for bearing one another in love, endeavoring,
endeavoring, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the
bond of peace. This is a spiritual work. And Satan will stir up dissensions
among us. And the gospel will be compromised. And then the church will be destroyed
and all will be lost. So it was in the wisdom of God
that these apostles said, you know what? Whatever we need to
do over there, you all do it because the ministry of prayer
and the ministry of God's word is the only thing that unifies
us. And look what he goes on to say, for there is one body,
one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of us all
who is above all and through you all and in you all. That's
enough. That unifies our hearts together
in that which is important. But unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore
he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive
and gave gifts unto men. What is the gift? It's the gift
of the spirit of God. And the Spirit of God causes
us to do what? He causes us to look to Christ.
When the Spirit, when it is expedient for you that I go away, for if
I go not away, the Holy Spirit will not come. But when he comes,
when he comes, what's he going to do? He's going to convict
us of our sin, not our brother's sin, our sin. Because we believe
not on him. Lord, my problem is my own unbelief.
of righteousness because I go to my father. I don't have any
righteousness. What do I have to complain about any accusations
that a man makes against me? What do I have to murmur about
not getting my fair share? If you knew how bad I really
was, you'd have worse things to say about me than that. My
righteousness is in the heavens. My Lord is seated at the right
hand of God. Of righteousness because I go
to my father. And of judgment, Because the
prince of this world is judged. The Lord Jesus Christ defeated
Satan. He defeated the works of the
devil. He conquered the grave. He put away sin. And every man
is given this gift, the gift of the spirit of God. Look at
verse nine. Now that he ascended, what is
it but that he also descended first in the lower parts of the
earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far
above all the heavens that he might fill all things." He's
talking about the condescension of the Lord Jesus Christ. When
he left heaven, was born of a woman, born under the law, and was cursed
by the law when he bore our sins and died. And now God has given
him a name that is above every name. He has ascended back into
glory and has taken his rightful place. And he goes on to say,
and he now gives to his church apostles and prophets and evangelists
and pastors and teachers. We have the apostles and the
prophets right here. We don't call men apostles and
prophets anymore, except for the ones that God chose to write
in his word. But now he has for his church
evangelist and pastors and teachers. For what? Look at verse 12. For the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying or the building
up of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the
faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect
man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Be therefore no more children
being tossed about by every wind of doctrine. In other words,
hold to that which is sure, that which is fast, that which is
true in Christ. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
1. 1 Corinthians 1. Verse 10, now I beseech you. Now that's the Apostle Paul saying,
I'm begging you. This is of utmost important. I beseech you brethren, by the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing
and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly
joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. Now,
how can that be true of Hebrews and Grecians? How can that be
true of so many people that come from so many different experiences
and have so many different opinions about things? Only if they've
been given the spirit of God to believe on Christ. And that,
as I said before, what we have together in the Lord Jesus Christ
supersedes any differences that we might have. And right here
at the very birth of the New Testament church, thousands of
believers are coming together and they're having to share a
lot of things together. And already there's conflict
and there's murmuring. And the apostle said, you appoint
some men to handle that. We've got to give ourselves continually
to prayer and to the ministry of the word that the word of
God might increase. Cause that's why we're here.
We're not here to feed the Grecians and the Hebrews. We're not here
to make everybody happy. We're not here to, we're here
for the salvation of men's souls. And that's only going to happen.
That's only going to happen if the gospel is preached and if
the gospel is blessed by the spirit of God. You remember when
the Lord raised up the prophet Ezekiel to preach to the dry
bones? And the scripture says that those
dry bones are the whole house of Israel. So here's a picture
that God gives to us to see ourselves as bleached, dry bones left in
the desert after a major war, after a conflict. You see, we
raised our fists to God in our father, Adam. We raged war against
God and we died. We lost that war. And the Lord
raised up the prophet and he said, son of man, can these bones
live? Can these bones live? And what
did Ezekiel say? Lord thou knowest, if they're
gonna live, you're gonna have to make them live. They can't
give themselves life. They can't give each other life.
And so what did the Lord say to Ezekiel? He said, prophesy. Preach the gospel to them. Dry bones? Yep. Yep. And the bones started coming
together as the prophet preached the gospel, didn't they? Bone
came to bone and sinew and muscle. And now the army is being raised
up out of the dust. And yet there was no life in
them. You see, that's what happens
in religion, isn't it? In religion, men put on the outward
appearances of being alive when really they're spiritually dead.
And so the Lord said to Ezekiel, prophesy to the wind, call upon
the spirit of God. That's prayer. And that's the
ministry of the word. So both things had to happen.
Prayer and ministry of the word. You cannot separate one without
the other. Well, prayer without the ministry
of the word is just emotionalism. And the ministry of the word
without prayer is nothing but legalism. And so when the prophet
called upon the wind, the spirit of God, That's the same wind
that blew on the day of Pentecost. That's the same breath that God
breathed into Adam's nostrils when Adam was made from the dust
of the earth and there was no life in him. And that's the same
wind that God has to blow toward us. And we pray. We pray, Lord,
send your spirit. Send your spirit and anoint your
word. Otherwise, what we're doing here is just, well, it's just
religious formalities. It's religious formalities. And
when the Spirit of God came, there was life. There was life. Romans chapter 16, verse 17,
mark them which cause divisions and offenses
contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them. That's what God says to me and
you. That's the way we're to treat somebody who comes into
the church and starts trying to divide people. Mark them and
avoid them. Don't participate. Don't lend
them a sympathetic ear. Don't get involved in that kind
of murmuring. There's too much at stake. Too much at stake. It always
involves the tongue, doesn't it? Turn with me to James chapter
3. This is good for us, brethren. This is a good thing for us to
consider. Good thing for us to believe. You know, the solution to murmuring
is the gospel. But more times than not, the
best thing for you and I to remember to do is just stop talking. You
know, we could just stop talking. Things would probably get a whole
lot better, wouldn't they? Look at James chapter 3, look at verse
8. But the tongue can no man tame. It is unruly, full of deadly
poison. Now that means that you can't
tame your tongue, and I can't tame mine. The tongue can no
man tame. It is full of deadly poison.
Well, if I can't tame my tongue, but God's telling me to tame
my tongue, what do I do? What God requires, God must provide. Lord, you're gonna have to tame
my tongue. You're gonna have to shut my
mouth, You're going to have to give me grace to speak encouraging
words to my brethren. Therewith, bless we God, even
the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made after
the similitude of God, out of the same mouth proceeded blessings
and cursings. My brethren, these things ought
not so to be. Doth the fountain send forth
the same? sweet water and bitter? Can a fig tree, my brethren,
bear olive berries? Even a vine figs? So can no fountain
both yield salt water and fresh. But who is a wise man and endued
with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation
his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying
and strife in your hearts, you see, there's the problem, isn't
it? It's always, it always is a heart problem. It's not a behavioral
problem, it's a heart problem. Out of the heart proceeds the
issues of life. The mouth speaks what the heart
believes. If you have bitter envying and
strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth.
This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual,
and devilish. For where envying and strife
is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that
is from above, God has made him to be our wisdom. The wisdom
that is from above, that's Christ, is Pure, first pure, then peaceable,
gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and of good fruits,
without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace of them that make peace. The only way we're going to make
peace is through prayer and the ministry
of the word. that the word of God might increase. It's the
Prince of Peace that gives peace, isn't it? It's Christ we need
to hear about. He's the solution to everything,
everything. Go back with me to our text. Verse four, but we will give
ourselves continually to prayer. Notice prayer comes first. You
can't minister the word until you ask God to show you his word. And to the ministry of the word.
In verse seven, and the word of God increased. That's my prayer
for us, for this church. The word of God will increase.
in each of our hearts, and that the Lord will extend it outside
of us to those lost sheep that still are to be brought into
the fold. Particularly, I'm thinking right
now about our children and our grandchildren, that the word
of God will increase for them. Without that, Nothing else matters, does it?
All right, let's take a break.