Acts chapter 2. We have borne witness to the
remarkable impact of the Holy Spirit coming upon these apostles
and the remarkable declarations of the character of our God. remarkable and succinct and very
clear declarations of who man is in this remarkable sermon,
this foundational sermon for the Church of God. And now we
come, as we close out Chapter 2, we come to see the impact
that this Gospel message had on those people. I'll start with
verse 40. And with many other words did
he testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves from this untoward
generation. Untoward means crooked, bent,
twisted. That's the best that man in his
religious zeal Even with a Bible in his hands, without the Lord
Jesus, that's the best that they can do, is be an untoward crooked
generation. Then they that gladly received
his word were baptised, and the same day there were added unto
them about three thousand souls. These are the verses I want to
look at, these particular things that happen in the lives of these
believers. And they, these 3,000 souls,
the ones that have been cut to the heart, the ones that have
cried out, what shall we do? the ones that had come to speak
to Peter. They had a temple, they had the
most remarkable infrastructure of religion there before them.
Temple and priests and Pharisees and Sadducees, a whole gamut
of religious activity, and yet these people are turned to a
Galilean fisherman and his band. They are the ones that gladly
received His Word. They were baptised and the same
day they were added unto them 3,000 souls. And this is how
they lived then, didn't they? And they continued steadfastly
in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in the breaking
of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul,
and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles." And it's
interesting, isn't it? When God repeats something, it's
always important. And it's amazing, isn't it? If
you look with me, He repeats what He's just said they did.
That all that were believed were together. That was the description
of their fellowship, wasn't it? All that believed were together
and had all things in common. That's what it is to be in fellowship. And sold their possessions and
goods and parted them to all men as every man had need. And
they continued daily with one accord. So they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and they continued daily with one
accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house. and did eat their meat with gladness
and singleness of heart. This is a reference to them participating
together in the Lord's Supper. That's what it is to eat their
meat, with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having
favour with all people. And the Lord added to the church
daily such as should be said. The apostles had borne witness
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And now... The Apostles give
us this witness of what happened in that early church. It is a
glorious thing to ponder that the church that was established
on that remarkable day of Pentecost is a church that's pure and free. I'm not saying that there weren't
going to be problems. Acts gives us many, many problems.
But people say, well, let's go back and look and live like the
New Testament church. And you'd have to say, which
one? Would you want to have the problems of the Philippians?
Would you want to live amongst the Corinthians? You couldn't
live amongst the Corinthians without blushing. Would you want
to live in the Galatian situation with those false teachers coming
in, slithering in like snakes and bringing something added
to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ? But here for this
brief period of time there are no false apostles. There is no false Jesus. There is no other Gospel. There is a powerful work of God
in the lives of His people. And it's reflective, isn't it,
that as we contemplate Peter's mother now in glory, that so
many of the things that are here Amongst this apostolic band and
amongst this church are the things that the souls of God's servants
and God's children are rejoicing in in heaven. They do the same,
brothers and sisters. They gladly, they eat their meat,
they think about the Lord Jesus Christ with gladness. What joy in heaven where He is
honoured as He deserves to be honoured. And again we see, don't
we, that the Lord, in verse 41, was added unto them about 3,000
souls, and just so people don't forget, at the end of verse 47,
and the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, added to the church daily
such as should be saved, or it could be rendered, the Lord added
to the church daily these saved, the Lord added to the church
daily those who were being saved. Saved people are added to the
church. The church is a living body of
a living God, isn't it? It is His body, He is the head,
we are the members. It's a vital body, it's a living
body. The church is likened to a tree,
is likened to a vine, and we've talked in the past about grafting,
but for grafting to work there have to be two living things
joined together, two living wounded pieces joined together. You can
stick on a tree as many dead sticks as you like and they are
just an encumbrance rather than an addition to it. There must
be a living union. There must be a vital life that
flows from the root into the branches for there to be life
and for there to be fruitfulness. The church is a living body. and living men and women are
made alive by the Spirit of God are grafted into it. They're
added to it, aren't they? There is in the lives of God's
people this living union which is what we bear witness to in
these verses. people say they belong to a church
and go to a church and then complain about what that church teaches
and complain about the things that go on there. God's children
are joined together. That's what these verses are
saying. They're joined together in fellowship. They are joined
together in the doctrine of the apostles. They are joined together
in the breaking of bread. It means the same thing to God's
children. They are joined together in prayers. The Lord adds to them. He added
to them in eternity. He adds to them in time. There will be a perfect number
of saved people. What does the scripture say?
Not a bone of his shall be broken. We are bone of his bones and
flesh of his flesh. All of the members of Christ's
body must must be joined to him in vital union in this world,
and they must be saved. When were they saved, brothers
and sisters? We keep reminding people of when
people were really saved. 2 Timothy makes it so abundantly
clear that people shouldn't be talking about it in anything
other than these terms. He said, Don't be ashamed of
the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but be thou
a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. It was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. It's not by accident, brothers
and sisters, that you are joined together. It's not by accident
or by the wit and wisdom of men that we come to understand that
what the apostles declared to be the Gospel of God is truly
the Gospel of God. It is good news. It is good news. If it's not good news to you,
you haven't heard the news. It's good news to sinners, isn't
it? It's good news. It's interesting, isn't it, that
in all this remarkable sermon the only references to man are
their wicked hands, their crucifixion of the Lord Jesus and that they
are a wicked and untoward generation unless the Lord has worked in
their hearts. And when He has worked in their
hearts, when they've been cut to the heart, They gladly received
this word. They gladly received this word. There is in these verses, as
we've seen, and I just want to reiterate it again, there is
the issue of the weightiness of personal responsibility. We
do hold that God is absolutely sovereign in all things. He cannot
be God without being absolutely sovereign in all things. But
when Peter is saying to that multitude there, save yourselves,
save yourselves from this untoward generation, there is the reality
that there is a salvation from this wicked generation, there
is a salvation to this wicked generation. I'm sorry, there
is a salvation to this called out from this wicked generation.
And there is a personal responsibility, isn't it? There is a weighty
responsibility. There is an enormous weighty
responsibility on anyone who dares to speak in God's name
to eternity-bound sinners. There is a burden of the Word
of the Lord. We do wish and we seek the good
and we don't seek the harm of anyone, but when it comes to
matters of the Lord Jesus Christ, compromise is deadly. is deadly. Any compromise in
apostolic doctrine, any compromise in the witness that we have read
here in these verses, and they are just a summary of what's
written throughout the scriptures about our Lord Jesus Christ and
his responsibility, any compromise is deadly. We wish And we long
for fellowship with all the people that we come across. We long
for them to be joined in fellowship. We long for them to rejoice in
the rejoicing that we've had as our brothers and sisters have
been brought back to us again here today. And we rejoice in
others being added to us. But we cannot, we cannot, we
cannot compromise the gospel at deposit. Paul declares, doesn't
he, he says, he is pure of the blood of all men because he has
not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God. to declare all the counsel of
God. And that is Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. He says to those who oppose Him
and oppose the gospel, this apostolic gospel, they oppose themselves,
he says in Acts 18.6, they oppose themselves and blasphemed. And Paul's response to them was,
your blood be on your own heads. Your blood be on your own heads. I am clean. I am clean, said
Paul. The reality is that men will
be held accountable on the Day of Judgment for their response
to the true Gospel. The great sin, the great sin
which only the Holy Spirit can reveal, the great sin is the
sin of unbelief. That's what John 16.8 says, isn't
it? 16.9. When the Holy Spirit comes,
he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and
judgment of sin because they believe not on me. Unbelief is the great sin. not bowing to the Lord Jesus
as he's laid out before you in the Gospel. Men will be held
accountable on the Day of Judgment for their response to the true
Gospel. And men will be held accountable
to God on the Day of Judgment for their response to the opportunity
to hear the Gospel. These are waiting things that
are laid before us here. And the Church stands in this
world as a living, breathing miracle. The true Church is something
that God has founded, that God has sustained. He says that the
angels are encamped around us. He says that He's here present
with His people. And if He's here present with
us, proclaiming this Gospel, this Apostolic Gospel, then He's
not divided. It is weighty. There is, in Peter's
words, a heaviness. This is not about frivolity. The gladness that is the reception
of the Word is the gladness that comes in salvation, isn't it? The gladness that comes when
the Holy Spirit has brought that convicting work in the hearts
of His chosen people. It's that gladness. It's that
gladness that I have escaped hell. I have escaped the eternal
wrath of God. And it's all been done. by my
surety. It's all been done by my Saviour. It's all been done by my Redeemer. It's all been done, done from
the foundation of the world and done magnificently in time. It's a grace gift, isn't it?
Salvation is by grace and not by works. Salvation is by sovereign
grace and not by the will of man. And salvation is a salvation
that causes people to rejoice in God being declared as He really
is. God's children have bowed to
God. And when they bow to God and
are made to surrender, to quit fighting God, put up the white
flag, and they are then gathered together. See, there's no disputation
in this sermon. These people gladly received.
These people, having been cut to the heart, they turned to
Peter. and not to that religious world.
To save yourselves from that untoward generation is to save
yourselves from Judaism, to save yourselves from all of what you
thought was honouring and righteous to God in your religion. It's
to be taken out of that. to have that exposed to you for
what it really is. See, it's only God who shows,
by His grace and by His Spirit's work in the lives of His people,
the utter emptiness of religion. the utter emptiness of religion
that denies the character of God, the utter emptiness of religion
that puts something of the work of salvation in the hands of
man, that somehow allows for man to sit on his throne and
consider himself the judge of our Lord Jesus Christ and his
people. But here we have, in these verses,
we have some clear statements from God the Holy Spirit. And
as I said, they are repeated for us. We have what the Church
is. It's a fellowship, isn't it?
It's a fellowship. It's a joining together. It's
being bonded together by a force outside of ourselves and bigger
than ourselves and more powerful than ourselves and more glorious
than ourselves. It's a doctrinal fellowship.
They continue steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. So all
Christian fellowship, all true Christian fellowship, is built
upon the doctrines of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It
is a fellowship of brothers and sisters in the Lord. Believers
are men and women who are united in the Lord Jesus Christ. They're
united in Him as He's declared in the Scriptures. They're united
in Him in what He's doing in this, amongst His people in the
Church. They are of one accord. They
are built together. A spiritual house built together
by Him. They are built together in love.
They are built together with the singleness of heart. They
have one purpose. We want to hear from God and
we want for God to be glorified. We want to hear God speaking. It's a spiritual fellowship of
worship, isn't it? The people gladly received the
words, they gladly submitted to baptism, and they assembled
together to worship God. It's the most remarkable gift,
isn't it, that God gives salvation and gives the joy of worship. And they are a praying fellowship. They pray in private. They pray
in public. They are praying fellowship.
They are acknowledging again and again their dependence upon
God. He needs to do it. Without Him
we can do nothing. Which is why all of His true
churches throughout time have not appealed to the flesh of
men at all. we appeal to God to work into
the hearts of these people. One thing that needs to be said
as we look at these four aspects of this fellowship is that these
lists of characteristics are itemised to give clarity of understanding
and to bear witness, a comforting witness in the lives of these
people that this is actually what they experience and it's
what God's children have experienced throughout time. We must remember
that in these lists they are divided up in a sense to give
clarity of understanding, but they are united in one reality,
aren't they? It's just like the fruit of the
Spirit. If you have one, it's the fruit of the Spirit. If God's
Holy Spirit has given you one of His fruit, He's given you
all of it. It's the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, these
people that say that they agree with the doctrine, that God's
servants proclaim, but they don't want a fellowship with them,
is to deny the Spirit's work in the hearts of His blood-born
children. To have so-called fellowship
in a church with those who open and despise the doctrines that
we claim to believe and are revealed so clearly in the Scriptures,
to have fellowship with those churches is to say that you really
don't believe them at all. that they are not really important
to you. The doctrines of the Gospel are
life and death to believers. They are our comfort, our rest,
our peace, And by God's work in the hearts of his people,
they do, as Acts 2.42 says, they continued steadfastly. To be steadfast is to be strong. They continued strongly. They
continued persevering. They continued to be devoted. They continued to be steadfastly
attentive and they continued to give care, unremitting care,
all those are what that word means. They continued steadfastly
in the Apostles' doctrine. They were firm. They knew that
the Apostles' doctrine is a description of the Lord Jesus Christ and
description of them, and it's a description of Him straight
out of the Holy Scriptures. And to turn from that was to
turn from the very One who had saved them out of all that religion. Colossians 1.23 says, If ye continue
in the faith, grounded and settled, be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel, which you have heard, and which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven, where I call and made
a minister." God's ministers are made by God to proclaim the
Gospel. Peter, who preached this sermon
in his last letter, he was so anxious to remind these people,
to continue to remind them of what he had proclaimed to them
on that day and what he had proclaimed throughout the rest of his life.
He wants them to be mindful. He wants to stir up your pure
minds by way of remembrance. that you might be mindful, 2
Peter 3.2, mindful of the words which were spoken before by the
holy prophets and of the commandments of us the apostles of the Lord
and Saviour. And therefore he finishes this
letter, his last words to the church is, therefore, beloved,
seeing you know these things before, beware, lest also you,
being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your
own steadfastness. It's one of the most grievous
things that I've had to bear witness to is to, and I trust
it's for a season, is to bear witness to where people have
gone when they have left the fellowship and left the steadfastness,
where they have gone. where they have gone in compromise
of the Gospel, where they have gone in compromise of things
that they once held dear and would have proclaimed passionately. The yeast grows. It's imperceptible
at the start, but the yeast grows and people move inexorably away. Hebrews talks about them drifting
as if a boat has just somehow just been untied from its mooring
and it drifts down the river and they find themselves in a
place where they are, in terms of what they proclaim, unrecognisable. It's a grievous thing, brothers
and sisters. It's a fearful thing. No wonder the apostles are warning
again and again about turning from apostolic doctrine and turning
from apostolic fellowship. Steadfast. What a great description. How much How much do we want
to be steadfast friends to our brothers and sisters? How much
do we want to stand alongside them and stand firm with them? Norman Beth just saw Owen the
other day. What a remarkable testimony.
89 years old now is Owen and we can't think of him without
smiling. in remembrance of how much he encourages us. Eighty-nine
years, he stood fast, hasn't he? He stood fast, and family
have opposed him. Stood fast, and the church community
in that town have opposed him. Stood fast. Stood fast when the
sin of his own flesh would cause him to find comfort in all sorts
of other things. How and why has he stood fast? He stood fast because God's at
work in him. God's people will stand fast. Not stand fast because of their
own strength, but they stand because of him. We are kept,
brothers and sisters, we are kept by the power of God through
faith. And how much encouragement it
is. to have brothers and sisters
standing fast. So that's what this fellowship
is about, isn't it? We are saying as we come through
the door, we stand together with this apostolic declaration. and
you come into church, you come into this fellowship week by
week and you carry a burden of things in your lives about which
I don't know, some of which you can share. We come into these
times of worship with burdens on our hearts that we can't share
with anyone. They are so deep and they are
so painful. We come into this fellowship
with burdens that are niggling away. God's children, God's children
have pain, God's children have cares. that the rest of the world
know nothing of, because our cares are about eternal souls. Our cares are about those who
in a heartbeat must meet the Lord Jesus Christ in judgment. And yet we come, those of us
that God has made steadfast, we come and our presence is an
encouragement to stand together I love how Moses, and I've quoted
this often, and I trust that the Lord will continue to lay
it on our hearts. Moses said to the Lord in Exodus
33.15, he says, Go not with me, carry us up not
hence. If your presence doesn't go with
me, I don't want to go any further. I don't want to go any further
in this task that you have laid before me. I don't want to go
any further in this journey that's before us. That's interesting,
isn't it? The verses preceding it, are
great, great verses. Listen to how Moses prays. He
says, Now therefore I pray thee, if I have found grace in your
sight. Moses has found the most remarkable
grace, haven't he? Here he was, a man 80 years old. He found grace to be saved from
Pharaoh's murderous intentions. He found grace to be rescued.
as a baby and grace to be rescued as an older man when he had witnessed
those other Jews killing each other. He had found grace for
40 years in the wilderness. He had found grace to meet the
Lord Jesus. He had found grace to go back
and be God's servant, to bring the people of God out. And here
he is after Mount Sinai and after all the tragedies of the Golden
Car, he says, if I had found grace in thy sight. There is
a real and deep and abiding humility in God's children. See, to be
a disciple is to be a learner, and to be a learner is to be
someone who is to be taught. If I have found grace in thy
sight, and listen to what he says, if I have found grace,
show me now thy way, show me now thy way, the Lord Jesus Christ,
that I may know thee, There is no knowledge of God without the
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, that I might find grace in thy
sight, and consider that this nation is thy people. The true
Israel is the Lord's heritage, it's his chosen people. And the
Lord said to him, My presence shall go with thee, and I will
give thee rest. That's where steadfastness comes
from, isn't it? Moses in the face of all of that
opposition was made by God to be steadfast. They were steadfast
in fellowship, they were steadfast in the apostles' doctrine. It
goes on to say, one of the wonders for those who have the responsibility
of preaching the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is that we
are caused to rest on promises. One of the greatest promises
that I rest on is that Lord Jesus said again and again, several
times in the Scriptures, and they shall all be taught of God. They shall all be taught of God.
They'll be taught by the Lord. They'll be taught about who He
is. They'll be taught by Him. They
will be His sheep, as He calls them. He is the Chief Shepherd. They hear His voice, and they
follow Him, and the voice of a stranger they will not follow. He says, why? Because they don't
know the voice of strangers. They hear one voice, his people. They hear him. That's what church
is about. We want to hear what God has
to say. See, Peter was commissioned,
wasn't he, by the Lord Jesus on the shores of Galilee. He
says, feed my sheep. You feed my lands. They don't
belong to Peter. The church doesn't belong to
a person to control it and manipulate it. The church is Jesus Christ's
church. He bought it with his blood.
They are his by creation. They are his by redemption. They
are his as his gift from his father. They are his betrothed
bride. They are his bones. They are
his body. They are his blood-born children. They are His redeemed wife. That's why the Church is built
upon the foundation of the Apostles and the Prophets, with Jesus
Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone, Ephesians 2.20.
It's built on this foundation of apostolic declaration of who
God is. They continue. The Lord Jesus
said to the Jews, there were some Jews that acted as if they
believed on him, and he said, if you continue in my word, then
are you my disciples indeed. and you shall know the truth,
God's disciples, and the truth shall make you free." So this
is the work of the Holy Spirit, isn't it? To be the teacher of
his church. To build His Church upon apostolic
testimony and to continue what He builds it on is what He grows
it with, and what He builds it on and what He grows it with
is what He comforts it with. We are comforted, brothers and
sisters, by the glorious, glorious declarations of our Redeemer. And that's where our comfort
is, isn't it? Our rest is in who He is and what He has done. The Lord Jesus prayed, didn't
He? In John 14, I will pray the Father, and He shall give you
another comforter, that He may abide with you forever, even
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive. The religious
world cannot receive Him. The pagan world can't receive
Him. And it can't receive him because it seeth him not, neither
knoweth him. So these people had three years
of seeing the Lord Jesus and they didn't see him. They didn't
see him. They had three years. The people
of Nazareth had 30 years of knowing him daily, seeing him in their
village daily. And he says they didn't know
him. They didn't know him. And then he says, but you know
him. Why do we know him? How do we
know him? John 14, 17, why? Because he dwells with you and
shall be in you. That's how we know him. He dwells
with us and He shall be in you. He says, I will not leave you
comfortless, I will come to you. Yet a little while the world
sees me no more, but you will see me, because I live, you shall
live also. At that day you shall know, you
shall be taught by God, that I am in my Father, and ye in
me, and I in you." I don't have time to explain that, but there
are passages in the scriptures about which we can turn our little
brains upside down and inside out and mangle them trying to
understand. There are so many passages like
this which are just astounding in their depth. I can't explain
it, and I can't understand it, but I can rejoice in it, brothers
and sisters. And I can gladly receive it,
because he said it, and he cannot lie. And whatever he said is
true, whatever he says about the future will come to pass.
He creates reality by speaking. He creates reality by speaking. and he that has my commandments
and keepeth them, he it is that loves me, and he that loves me
shall be loved to my Father, and I will love him and will
manifest myself to him." He's in the business of revealing
himself to his people and revealing himself to be in his people through
the preaching of the Gospel. And Judah said unto him, Novus
Gariat, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself unto
us and not to the world? Jesus answered, If any man love
me, he will keep my words. He will hold on to my words. They'll be dear and precious
to them. And my Father will love him, and we will come unto him
and make our abode. with Him, how secure, brothers
and sisters, are you in the Lord Jesus Christ. What remarkable
security are in these promises from our Saviour. He that loveth
me not keepeth not my saying. The word which you hear is not
mine, but the Father's which sent me. These things have I
spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter,
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name,
he shall teach you all things. Everything you need to know for
life and godliness in this world will be taught by Him and bring
all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.
He shall teach." The apostles had perfect, perfect doctrine. They were taught by God and we
have no reason to move a tiny millimetre from it for a nanosecond. It is. It is God Himself who
speaks to His people through the preaching of the Gospel.
It's God Himself. He's the author, isn't He? He
is the preacher and He's the subject of it. The essence, the
substance of the Gospel is peace and pardon and righteousness
and salvation. And the apostles received it
from the Lord Jesus Christ, who received it from the Father.
And they taught it again and again. So Peter, with many other
words, did he testify and exhort. So that's why it's called Apostles'
Doctrine. It's interesting, isn't it? It
came from the Father to the Son. It comes from the Son to the
Church. It comes from the Holy Spirit,
empowered into the hearts of God's children. So it's more
than just some doctrine. It's life. It's life to believers. And it doesn't matter, they'll
continue steadfastly in the Apostles' Doctrine, and it doesn't matter
what the opposition is, as we go through Acts we'll see that
the opposition intensified and intensified, and it continued
despite the remarkable apostolic witness, despite the remarkable
fact that again and again and again the Old Testament Scriptures
were open, and there everything that was done by the Lord Jesus
Christ was promised and fulfilled by Him. and yet they remained
in opposition. I love how Paul described it.
He says, this I confess, that after the way they called heresy,
after the way the religious world calls it heresy, To be a saved
person in an apostolic church under apostolic doctrine, you
have to be considered a heretic by the religious world around
you. That's exactly how they considered the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's exactly how they considered the apostles. That's exactly,
at the end of their lives, how they considered Paul, after all
of that testimony. After the way they call heresy,
They call it heresy. It's not heresy. So worship I
the God of my fathers. And how do you worship the God
of my fathers? Believing all things that are
written in the law and the prophets. That's why this is called apostolic
testimony. Now it is this faithful deposit
in the hands of the church. It's in the hands of the Church,
but it's guarded by God the Holy Spirit. He has guarded this apostolic
deposit throughout time and He will guard it and ensure that
it is declared until the Lord Jesus comes back in glory. The
Church of Jesus Christ is doing perfectly well in this world
always, brothers and sisters, because of who is the head of
it. and all of God's servants and
all of the Lord's people gladly receive it. It doesn't come from man, it's
come from God. Peter probably, as he went into
that room before the Holy Spirit came upon them in tongues of
fire, he probably didn't have a clue what Joel was talking
about. When you read so much of the Old Testament, if you're
like me, there are times when you look at it and you think,
I don't know what this means at all. But I know it speaks
about the Lord Jesus Christ. But when the Holy Spirit had
come upon Peter, he knew exactly what Joel was talking about.
It's always about Him. It was a declaration about Him. It comes by divine empowering. its impact on the hearts of chosen
sinners is by the presence of God in them and He gives them
ears to hear and He gives them eyes to see and He gives them
a heart that is warmed by the love of God. God's children continue in apostolic
doctrine. The things that Peter has spoken
here concerning the Lord Jesus Christ are things that God's
people rejoice in. We rejoice in the fact that God
is absolutely sovereign and Peter declares the absolute sovereignty
of God. We love the fact that God has
a determinant counsel and a foreknowledge. We love the fact that our great
Redeemer reigns and He sits on the throne of this universe.
We love the fact that redemption is finished, accomplished, and
all of His blood-bought children must be brought to Him. They
continued steadfastly in the apostolic doctrine, the question
that we have to ask whenever we have opportunity. Are those
who profess to believe, do they gladly receive the apostolic
testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ or do they find it repulsive?
It grieves my heart when people find it repulsive, but it grieves
my heart even more when people will not even examine whether
it's true or not. They take fast hold of instruction,
don't let her go, keep her for she is thy life, says the wise
man. And it's good to be reminded,
people are put off by that word doctrine. The word doctrine just
means teaching, brothers and sisters. We've heard who the
teacher is. And it's good to be reminded
that every aspect of doctrine says something about the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all about his character. And those who are moved away,
they're actually not moving away just from some knowledge of a
person. They're actually, according to
Paul in Galatians 1.6, he's marvelled that you moved away from him.
You're actually not just moving away from some characteristic
you don't know, you're actually moving away personally from him. Because everything in this book,
every bit of teaching, is about him. It declares something about
him. People find the doctrine of election
offensive. And people say, well, you must
sort of hide it away from God's people. You must hide it away
until people are sort of grown up and mature enough to be able
to cope with such serious doctrine. It was laid as a foundation in
the early church that God is an electing God. But you cannot
deny election. and deny the very character of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It is his name. God the Father
gave him that name. You can read it in Isaiah 42,
Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect. To say anything about
election is to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ. To say anything
about divine predestination, to deny it in any way at all,
is to deny Him. He is the predestinating one. To deny particular redemption
is to deny who He is and what He's done, is to deny the fact
that He is God. And as God, He knew exactly what
He was doing and He doesn't do anything without a purpose and
He achieves His purpose. To deny the sovereignty of God
over all things is to deny Him, to deny Him personally. It's not just something to be
tossed around. I grow to find it offensive that
people want to have debates about doctrine. He's in the room listening
to you. Don't pretend that he's some
object to be discussed. The Holy Spirit goes on, this
is Isaiah 42 verse 1. I have put my spirit upon him
and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. And he shall
not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the
street. He won't go around begging. A bruised reed shall he not break
and a smoking flax he shall not quench. I speak often to bruised
reeds and smoking flaxes. as a bruised reed and a smoking
flax myself. He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. And I love how verse 4 in Isaiah
42 describes him. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. He shall not fail in anything
that is ever purposed, nor shall he ever be discouraged. He is
not discouraged now, brothers and sisters, for the joy is set
before him. He endured the cross and scorned
the shame of it. He shall not fail nor be discouraged
till he has set judgment in the earth and the isles shall wait
for his law. That's the fellowship, isn't
it? That's the fellowship that Paul rejoiced in. That's the
fellowship that the apostles rejoiced in. That was the fellowship,
this apostolic testimony was the fellowship that caused them
to receive gladly his words. Paul spoke to the Philippians,
he said, I thank my God in every remembrance of you, always in
every prayer of mine for you, all making requests with joy
for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day till now. All fellowship, all true fellowship,
all meaningful fellowship is gospel fellowship. And it's good to note that this
fellowship is what church is about, isn't it? See, it was
the church that was empowered by the Holy Spirit to be sent
to proclaim the message of salvation wrought by the finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the church which bears witness
to the historic witness that was before people, that they
had witnessed. It's the church that bears witness to what the
Scriptures had said about Him and had now been fulfilled. It's
the church that declares the character of God, His determinate
counsel and full knowledge. It's the church to which believers
who are cut in the heart are turned by the Holy Spirit, they
are turned and added to that 120. It's the church that God
grows. It is biblically a nonsense to
think that you can survive without the fellowship of the Church. You cannot. It is as simple as
that. The Lord added them to a fellowship. If you can manage without church
fellowship, if you think you can manage without church fellowship,
then you must necessarily say that everyone else can manage
without church fellowship. And you must then necessarily
say that church is irrelevant. That is not what this book says,
brothers and sisters. This is the one place where God
has promised to get glory for his son. It's a glorious fellowship. It's a fellowship that is a doctrinal
fellowship. It's based on the truth about
who we are, the truth about our Saviour, the wonders of redeeming
love. It's a bond, isn't it? It is
being united together. And that's why John speaks so
much of it, isn't it? that that we have seen and heard
we declare unto you that you also may have fellowship with
us." The apostles were wishing for the brothers and sisters
to have fellowship with them. Doctrinal fellowship, but closer
fellowship as well. And truly our fellowship is with
the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write
to you that your joy may be full. And he speaks of God. He says,
He is in the light. We have fellowship with one another.
If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship
with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses
us from all sin. He speaks a bit later on, doesn't
he, the fact that there is love in this fellowship. We love Him
because He first loved us. If any man say, I love God, but
hates his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother
whom he has seen. How can he love God whom he has
not seen? There is in God's blood-born
children a deep fellowship. It's an abiding fellowship. We've come to Him. We've come to the Lord Jesus
Christ. We've come into His presence.
We've come to His family. I'll just read very in summary
form, some of the glorious things it said about where we've come.
In Hebrews, there is that warning that we are not to forsake assembling
together, but there is an extraordinary encouragement in Hebrews 12,
22. You've come. This is where you've
come in fellowship. You've come to Mount Sion. You've
come to the city of the living God. You've come to the heavenly
Jerusalem. You've come to the innumerable
company of angels. You've come to the General Assembly
in the Church of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven.
You've come to God, the Judge of all, and the spirits of just
men made perfect. That's where you've come to.
And where else have you come to? Hebrews 12, 24. And you've
come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant and the blood
of sprinkling, which speaks of better things than able. God and you come to Him. No wonder
the Christian fellowship is extraordinarily special, which is why when they
come together they are breaking bread. And the bread is called
in 1 Corinthians 10, it's the cup of blessing which we bless.
Is it not the communion? The communion of the blood of
Christ, the bread which we break, is it not the communion of the
body of Christ? They were celebrating His work. They were celebrating His redemption. They were celebrating His resurrection
and His glorious pouring out of the Holy Spirit. They were
celebrating as they met together gladly in each other's houses.
They were celebrating His work on their behalf. And they were
a separated people. He separated them. Paul goes
on to say, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of
devils, and you cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and the table
of devils. There is, in the fellowship,
there is a gathering and there is a separation. And they were
a praying people. Finally they were praying. They
prayed in private and they prayed in public. They had much to pray
about, but almost all their prayers were prayers of thankfulness,
were they not? Prayers of thankfulness and prayers
of pleading. Thankfulness. Thankfulness that
the Lord had looked upon them in mercy and in grace. And as I said earlier, they are
repeated, isn't it? 244. They all believed they were
together. They had all things in common. They continued daily with one
accord, breaking bread from house to house. They broke bread. Their communion in the Lord Jesus
and remembrance of His death was a normal part of their daily
lives and did eat their meat with gladness and singleness
of heart. And I'll close with those wonderful
words out of Ecclesiastes 9, it says in verse 7, Go thy way,
the redeemed in the ransom of the Lord, go thy way, eat thy
bread with joy, drink thy wine with a merry heart, for God now
accepteth thy works. The works of God's people are
the works of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in union with Him and
communion with Him and because of that we are in union and communion
with one another and the saints seek heaven and the saints scatter
throughout this world. Until one day we'll all be joined
together. Let's pray.