One of the most settling facts
to me, especially trying to labor in the Word and to bring the
Gospel and with you and I together as believers, one thing that
settles my heart more than anything else is knowing that the Lord
Jesus Christ is risen that He is ruling and reigning in this
world and in the midst of the church. Acts 2 verse 47. I want to look at this last phrase. And the Lord added to the church
daily such as should be saved. We'll divide this one statement
into four points. Let's look at these first three
words, and the Lord. The resurrected Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, is the head of His church. He's the head of
the universal church, meaning all of the elect of God throughout
all time in heaven and in earth. And He's the head of the local
church, the church where He's placed the candlestick, And he's
the head because God the Father entrusted to him to glorify his
name, to glorify the name of God in the salvation of a people
chosen and given to Christ. And the preeminent matter that
Christ came to accomplish was to manifest in person, in a visible
form to his people, the manifest glory of the triune God. And he came to where we are in
this great, great condescension of coming down to where we are.
of this one who is equal with the Father, equal with God, and
came down making himself of no reputation and literally went
from being the greatest to the least, which is the path we have
to follow. That's the path that his people
will follow. We'll go from thinking we're
the greatest in our flesh and in our minds, deceived in sin,
and we're going to have to be made the least. the least. But he did this, and the complete
and total fulfillment, the honoring and magnifying of the law of
God is the total, complete faithfulness with which he served the Father. and the love was from which he
served the father. We'll talk a little bit more
about that in the second hour, but it truly is the fulfillment
of the law, is what, in the manner that he accomplished the work.
The whole word of God had been declaring him from the beginning,
from the lambs that were slain in the garden to make coats of
skin whereby the Lord covered Adam and Eve. After the fall,
it was a picture of Christ. Abel's lamb was a picture of
Christ's coming, whereby he came to God and was accepted of God.
Noah's ark was declaring, Christ is coming. Judgment's coming.
Get in the ark. The high priest in the Old Covenant
is Christ, the prophet that Moses said, the Lord will raise up
a prophet like unto me. This is Christ the prophet. He's the prophet. He's the priest.
He's the lamb. And the scriptures tell us here
He is the Lord. He is the Lord because He completely,
totally honored the law in perfection, both in precept and penalty,
because He magnified the Father He highly exalted God in everything
He did. And God also has highly exalted
Him. And Peter stood up that day and
he declared here in Acts 2.34, he said, David is not ascended
into the heavens. David was the king of Israel,
and he said, David's not ascended into the heavens. Two things
here, one, David's not the king, and two, the throne of this king
is not in the earth, it's in heaven. David's not ascended
into the heavens, but he saith himself, the Lord said unto my
Lord, David takes his place beneath the Lord Jesus Christ. He said,
The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand until I
make thy foes thy footstool. By one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And God said, Sit here on my
right hand till I make your foes your footstool. Therefore let
all the house of Israel know assuredly, without a doubt, that
God hath made that same Jesus whom you've crucified, both Lord
and Christ. He's the Savior and He's the
King. He's the King and He's the Savior. How high did God
exalt Him? Look over to Ephesians chapter
1. Remember He said, before He ascended,
He said, all power in heaven and earth is given unto Me. Look
here in Ephesians 1, in verse 21. How high did the Lord exalt Him?
far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion,
and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also
in that which is to come, and 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. Why did the Lord do this? Look
at Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter one. And look there at verse 18. He's the head of the church,
the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that
in Him should all fullness dwell. So the first word we read here
when we read that the Lord did this. We know that our Savior
is our Lord. Our Savior is our King. Everything
in this earth is under His power and His dominion, and everything
in the church is under His power and His dominion. The same things
the Lord did when He walked this earth, our Lord is doing right
now from heaven's glory. It is no different. It's no different. It's really just as real as when
He walked this earth and ruled the winds and the waves below.
He's ruling right now from heaven's glory the same way. Alright,
here's the second word in verse 47. Added. Added. And the Lord added the apostles
and the disciples. The Scripture said, I'll smite
the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. And the apostles
didn't even have the power and the other disciples didn't have
the power to keep themselves assembled together when Christ
was crucified. Christ came to where they were
after He was risen and He reassembled them together. And look at what
it says in Acts 1 verse 3. It says here, "...to whom also
he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible
proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things
pertaining to the kingdom of God, and being assembled together
with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem,
but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have
heard of me." And the Lord Jesus Christ is doing the same thing
right now. He's showing Himself alive by many infallible proofs
in the Word of God, in His Scriptures, through the Gospel. He's being
seen right now with the eye of faith by all them that believe. Our Lord is speaking through
His messengers the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. And the
Lord Jesus Christ is assembling together with us. He said, where
two or three are gathered together in my name. This gives us some
idea of how they're gathered together, doesn't it? He gathers
them. It's not just that two or three
decide one day we're just going to get together. Where do you
get the heart to get together? Where do you get the heart to
come together? Where do you get the heart to be? We're gathered. Where two or three are gathered
together in my name. He said, there I am in the midst
of them. And he said, that it said there that He commanded
them. And that's what He does. When the Gospel goes forth, the
Lord Jesus Christ commands the hearts of His people. He speaks
into the hearts of His people. And He speaks effectually in
the hearts of His people. And He commands His people to
wait for the promise of the Father. They were waiting for the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit, baptizing the church into the Holy Spirit. We're waiting for Christ to return.
But we're commanded to wait, wait in Jerusalem. Jerusalem,
there is a picture of heavenly Jerusalem, a picture of the church
of God. Wait wherever He's gathered you together. Wait there just
as they waited for the return of the Lord. And He commands
this in the hearts of His people and only He can give this desire
and this willingness to assemble. Men can't give it, He gives it.
He does it. The Lord Jesus sends forth His
messengers just like He sent Peter forth there. The Scripture
says, He that descended is also the same that ascended far above
the heavens. And He gave gifts unto men. He
gave some apostles and some prophets and evangelists and pastors and
teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Peter had
just stood by a fire warming himself by fire, and a woman
kept saying to him, aren't you his disciple? And he kept denying
it, denying it, denying it. And now Peter stands up in the
same place where he just saw his savior crucified, dragged
through the street, hair plucked out of his face, spat upon, mocked,
beat, nailed to a cursed cross. And now He stands up right there
in the midst of these people. This One who denied Him and fled,
He stands up now right there in the midst of these people
and He says there in verse 23, Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. You fellows didn't do anything
that wasn't determined before to be done. Ye have taken and
by wicked hands you've crucified and slain Him. But he said to
him, even though it was determined before to be done, it doesn't
excuse your wickedness. You did it. Whom God hath raised
up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible
that he should be holding of it." He stood up and declared
this gospel right there in that place, and others with him, others
with him. God, this, the Lord added, the
Lord, He adds, He gathers together, He adds, He gives grace in the
heart. Look at, look at verse 33 there. He says, 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 you now see
and hear." He said, this risen same Jesus, He has shed forth
this which you now see and hear. All these folks preaching the
gospel to you in your own native tongue, He's done this. This
same One has done this, Peter said. And the Lord added, look
there at the end of verse 41, And the same day, they were added
unto them about 3,000 souls. He did the same one who shed
forth this work. He did the adding. Look over
at Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4. He adds increase
to his body by adding individually to each member in his body. He does this through the Spirit
of God. Look at Ephesians 4 verse 7. Unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Look down
at verse 16. From whom the whole body fitly
joined together, He assembles them, He gathers them together,
fitly joins them together, and compacted by that which every
joint supplies, according, how does every joint, every member
supply something to one another? According to the effectual working
in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto
the edifying of itself in love. It's through him adding, through
him giving the increase. One plants, one waters, but it's
God who gives the increase. And he'll receive all the glory
for that. Alright, here's the third word in our first, verse
47. The Lord added to the church. The church is His body. The church
is the fullness of Him. Fullness of Him that filleth
all in all. Now, if there's one member of
His body that's not brought in and added to the church, our
Lord Jesus Christ is not complete. Do you think this world is going
to end? Do you think that global warming is going to take over
and the world is just going to fall into chaos and the iceberg
is going to melt in the sea and there is not going to be any
time to plant and sow and reap and all these things and everything
is just going to go into chaos before He saves that last one
that was chosen of the Father and redeemed by His precious
blood? Do you think that this world is going to end before
He calls the last one into His body? Absolutely not. No way. He's upholding all things
by the word of His power. He has been from the beginning.
He has throughout time. And He's holding it together
now. And that's the word of His covenant promise that He will
glorify the Father in the salvation of every last one for whom the
Father gave Him. And that's what He's going to
do. That's exactly what He's going to do. The church. He said, this is the Father's
will which has sent me. that of all which He's given
me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the
last day. And He said, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them,
and they follow Me. How in the world are they going
to hear His voice when He's seated on the right hand of the Father?
They're going to hear His voice through Peter, who He sends forth
to stand up and to preach. And He's going to work this work
of grace in the hearts of His people through Him. And He's
going to know them, effectually know them, effectually enter
into their hearts and speak life into them through the Holy Spirit
of God and create something that entirely was not there anymore.
A new man who has eyes to see and ears to hear and feet to
follow after and hands to work with. He's going to create this.
And He's going to know them. And when He does this, they're
going to follow Him, He said. And He said, and no man's going
to pluck them out of My hand. In our day, you have one of two
things. You have folks who won't commit
to the church of God and won't give who serve self-serving,
self-motivated, who won't be committed to the work. That don't
affect me at all. That doesn't bother me at all. Or you have people who are covered
about much serving, so much so that they minor on the majors
rather than majoring on the minor, or they major on the minors and
minor on the majors. That doesn't bother me either.
You know why? The Lord's church is not going
to hell in a hand basket. The Lord's church is exactly
where it should be, functioning exactly how it should be, functioning
exactly with all provision, even as it was from this day right
here. You know why? Because the King of heaven and
earth, the head of the church, is doing the work in the midst
of His church. And He's not ever failed and
won't ever fail. Not ever. Not ever. He's given us one thing
to do. When He calls us and adds us
into this body, into this church, He's given us one thing to do.
There's various things, measures that people can do to contribute
to this one thing. This one thing, this one rallying
point, this one charge He's given us is to hold up the ark. To hold up Christ the Lord. and
he'll dry up the Jordan. He'll do the work. That's all
Peter did that day. He stood there like Moses. And he stood up and he began
to preach the gospel of Christ, just like Moses held up that
staff that day when they were fighting against Amalek. And
as long as that staff was held up, Israel prevailed. But when
Moses began to grow weary, and that staff began to weaken, his
hands weakened, and that staff was brought down, Amalek prevailed. And so you know what they did?
His brethren took a stone. And they set him on that stone. That stone's a picture of Christ.
We gotta be settled on this foundation. This is where we're gonna get
our strength. This is where we're gonna get
our stability. This is where we're gonna be able to wage this
war. And then one got on one side
and one got on the other, and they held up his hands so that
he could hold up that staff. And Israel prevailed. All of
us here are put into the body, added to the body, those that
have been regenerated and called and increased by the measure
of grace by Christ the Lord, given jobs to do. Wherever you are,
wherever He's put you, whatever you have a talent for, whatever
He's given you the ability to do, He's given the ability for
us to strengthen each other, for us to collectively be compacted
together, supplying what every other joint in the body needs,
so that we together, collectively, can do this one thing, and that
is hold up the gospel of Christ. And as that gospel went forth,
the Lord called out 3,000 people that day on the day of Pentecost. If the ax is sharp, the gospel,
if it's sharp, If it's going forth with boldness and clarity
and not sounding like something to you and then something to
you and something to that one back there and something to this
one up here so that anybody can take it and go home and it means
something different to everybody. But if it's set forth in clarity
and in truth, The Lord does rebuking, He does
chastening, He does turning, He makes alive, He increases
with grace, He fills our spirit with new life, He edifies all
through the Word of the Gospel. That's where the majority of
the work is done. But if the axe is dull, It takes
a lot of work, a lot of pounding and a lot of hard hitting to
try to make a tree fall. Well, look here now at the last
word, verse 47. And the Lord added to the church
daily, such as should be saved. Is there anybody here who is
a sinner? They're hard to find. Very hard
to find. Me and I'll talk to you about
everything under the sun, and you'll never hear them say a
word about what a sinner they are. Anybody here need mercy? Listen
to this. Now is the accepted time. Today is the day of salvation. Well, I've got tomorrow. Maybe
not. Maybe not. Well, I've got this
afternoon. Maybe not. You got right now. You got right
now. Call on the Lord while He's near.
This is something I know for a fact. The Lord added to the
church daily such as should be saved. You know what that word
saved means? It means made whole. The Lord added to the church
daily such as should be made whole. Who should be made whole? Everyone that the Father has
everlastingly loved by His free, sovereign prerogative to choose
whom He will and pass by whom He will. God's God. If you don't
like Him being God, I've got news for you. He's going to win.
He's going to win. He's going to win. Those Christ
has purged with His own blood and made righteous by what He's
done alone. That's who should be made whole.
and every one of those shall be made whole." Every one of
them. You remember how that Martha,
I mean the woman with the issue of blood, how that she said to
herself, she said, if I can just touch the hem of his garment,
I shall be made whole. And the Lord looked around and
He saw her and He said, daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith
has made thee whole. Whole. and everyone that touched
Him was made whole from that very hour. Contrary to popular
belief, me or you or any preacher or any church is not going to
share in any glory of having sanctified and made holy Christ's
people. He's going to get all the glory
for that too. Every bit of the glory for that too. that He loved
the church and gave Himself for it, that He might wash it and
purge it and present it to Himself, a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing. And He's going to do that. He's
going to do just that. And He's going to receive all
the glory for having done it. Every bit of it. Made whole. You know what that means? That
means the moment the believer dies, Our spirit is going to
go to be with the Lord immediately. And as far as I can read in this
book, and I'm just telling you that it ain't in this book, there's
nothing that's going to have to be done for your spirit to
go and be with the Lord. Because that new man is created
after the image of God, created in righteousness and true holiness. We're going to grow in grace.
We're going to grow in knowledge of Him. We're going to grow in
love. We're going to grow in fruits of the Spirit. But we're
not growing in holiness. Those born of the Spirit of God
are holy. They're holy. Chosen of God the Father, redeemed
by, washed by the blood of Christ, sanctified by the Spirit of God.
They're holy. They're holy. Nothing else to
be done to be made holy. They're holy. Fit, whole to go
with and be with God right this moment. Right this moment. Do
you have loved ones that you desire to be made whole? Well,
this is our comfort. Everyone that Christ is redeemed
shall be made whole. Just keep on inviting them to
come, keep on giving them sermons on CD, keep on giving them tracts,
keep on giving them good, faithful, plain material that will show
them that God is God and Christ is Lord. And if they're His,
He'll bring them and He'll save them. You'll save them. Alright,
here's the thing to remember now. First of all, if you've
been made whole, you've confessed Christ and believers' baptism,
you've joined yourself with this local body, what do you do? What do we do? Verse 44, here's
what he worked in his people. All that believed were together. They were all of one mind. It
was settled. And they had all things common.
They knew where they came from. They came from the Lord. They
knew that everything they had, they received from Him. And when
we have one Lord, we know we have all things common. And sold
their possessions and goods and parted them to all 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."
Where was that singleness of heart? Where was that gladness
from? They knew, the Lord, I'm declaring
to you today. And that makes the heart glad,
and that makes the heart single, single, with one motive, one
method, one message. for him. Praising God. Oh, you folks give too much emphasis
on Christ and Him crucified. You don't praise God. It pleased
the Father that in His Son should all preeminence dwell. And what
I've declared to you today is that which glorifies God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. They're one.
They're absolutely one. No division. And they had favor
with all the people. with all the people. You think about that. I mean,
we don't go very many more pages and we see Peter and John being
thrown in prison. We don't go very much further.
We see Paul being beaten and thrown in prison. You mean they
had favor with all the people. They had favor with all God's
people. through this sovereign Lord reigning
in the hearts of His people. They had favor. And if He gave
them favor with the enemy, it was because He turned their hearts,
the enemy's hearts, whether so ever He would, to give them favor. Philippians 2.12, the Lord, Paul
said this, Work out your own salvation. Everything that God
has done for you, in all your daily affairs with each other
in the church, in all your daily affairs in this life, work out
your salvation. It just means as you go about
your daily life as a believer. Work out your salvation with
fear and trembling. If you got something that needs
to be planned on, do it with fear and trembling. If you got
something, a decision that needs to be made, do it with fear and
trembling. Why? For it's God which worketh in
you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Now what should
that do? What will that do in the hearts
of his people? Do all things without murmurings and disputings.
I don't have to try to force you to do anything. Not going
to. And all of murmuring and disputings
over. Why? Because I serve a sovereign
king. If he came and put away my sin
by the sacrifice of himself, I'm not worried about what he
can do in the heart of a little ant. that you may be blameless and
harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked
and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world."
What's that one thing we're doing? Holding forth the word of life. All right, here's the second
thing. If there's anybody here who for the first time finds
themselves believing on Christ, who want to be under the dominion
of this sovereign King, who does good to His people, who robes
them in His righteousness, who crowns them with His crown, who
imparts to them all the blessedness that He's accomplished for them,
He performs it in them through His Spirit. If you find yourself
believing on Him, what should you do? Acts 2.37 Now when they
heard the gospel, they were pricked in their heart, and they said
unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren,
what shall we do? And Peter said unto them, Repent. Turn from all your former refuge,
all your former ideas and vain imaginations of who God is and
how He saves, all your former righteousnesses, everything that
has become dung to you, repent from it. Turn from it. And be
baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for
the remission of sins. That word for means because of.
If you see a poster and it says, Jesse James is wanted for murder,
that doesn't mean he's wanted in order to commit murder. It
means he's wanted because he's already done it. That's what
this word for means right here. Baptized because your sins have
been put away. Confessing it's already done.
It's accomplished. and you'll receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost, this sealing of the Spirit of God whereby
He continually makes you heart glad and single for Christ. And
then you commit yourself to the church, join the church and commit
yourself to the work of holding forth the Word of Life. And together
we do this trusting and knowing this glorious fact, the Lord
shall add to the church daily such as should be saved. Amen.