It's good to see you here this
morning. Glad to be with you. We ask God's richest blessing
upon the message this morning. You take your Bibles and turn
with me to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. You're looking at verse 44 this
morning. Two things concerning the church. of God, Acts chapter 2 and verse
44. The title of the message is the
unity of the church, the unity of the church or church togetherness,
church togetherness. He said in verse 44, and all
that believed were together. and had all things common. Now, in the day in which we live,
we live in such a luxurious time. We have such things as vehicles
to travel great distances in short amounts of time. We have
luxuries like nice buildings. This morning I was able to remember,
by God's grace, to turn the heat up just a little bit. It was
cold. and comfortable now, I hope, that we have buildings and we
have things like this, we are able to communicate very rapidly. We can send an email and instantly
our messages are spread out just like that. We have phones and
computers. We send these things over the
radio and internet and have large amounts of tracks and books that
we can read. And millions have read and they
can read it all at one time. You don't even have to share
the book. I got a stack of books I was sharing with someone, you
know, while he was reading it, I couldn't. So but now we're
able to read all at the same time. Amazing what an age we
live in. By these means, the gospel has
been spread. over large amounts of area at
one time. We have the gospel preached in
places where even men aren't able to travel to. The gospel
is being translated into different languages even as we speak. Not
all languages have the gospel. That would be amazing to some.
is a work there in Papua New Guinea to where there are people
that don't have the Scriptures in their language. And there
are some men who are translating that Scriptures into that language
still. But with all these great resources
that we have been given, there's still no substitute for the church. None of these are the church. I have encountered many of what
people call groups in our day. And what they do is they have
their home, their family. They don't have a pastor. They
don't have someone sent of God to preach the gospel to them.
So what do they do? They grab a DVD or a CD and they put it
in and they say, well, now we're a church because we have a DVD. Well, friends, that's no substitute
for true fellowship. That's no substitute. One thing
about a DVD is, if you don't like what he's saying, you can
cut him off. I'm not going to listen to that guy anymore, and
I've seen people do that. They say, well, I'm going to
change pastors. Watch this. Push a button, they swap it in, they've
changed pastors. Without moving, without even
getting up and changing, just by the flick of a remote, they
can change their pastor. We live in such an age where
people have substituted these methods and means for the local
assembly of the saints of God. Remember, the source of all blessings
from the Lord come from His church. You know, the only reason this
world spins is because of you. You who believe. You who are
believers in Christ, this world continues to spin and everything
is working together for your good. God never gives me an explanation
as to how it's going to work together for your good, but it
is. It does and it will work together for the good of the
church. It is a great blessing, I believe,
to hear of others works. I love to hear of other work
and labor in the gospel. I'm glad for it. I'm glad to
hear of people who are committed to the labor of the gospel, the
great work that God is doing in different places. But if you'll
notice that the churches whose ministry is greatly used, you
will find that church, that body, is faithful to that church. You will find them faithful to
that local body. In other words, they're together.
They're working together. They're laboring together. If
the local church is to continue and the Word of God is to continue
in a local capacity, in a place, to proclaim the gospel, Then
we too must be together. We must have unity, unity of
message, unity of the Spirit, the bond of peace. We must have
the love for one another. These things bring us and draw
the church together. And by this, the work of God
is used. He uses us. to proclaim His gospel. Now, we can have all the truth.
We can have all knowledge. But if we are not together as
believers in Christ, if we do not desire to see others come
to hear the gospel in this place, the light will go out in this
place. The light will go out in this place. You remember the
church of Ephesus? How great were they? The Lord
says, I know your works. I know your doctrines. Good. I know that you have the truth.
I know you hate the people I hate. But I have one thing against
thee. Thou hast left thy first love. Love for Christ. is the breeding
ground for love for each other. If we don't have love for Christ,
we can't have love for each other. You can't love me unless you
love Him first. Unless He is the object of your
love and affection, you can't love me. The same is true because
we are sinners. The church will continue only
if it is working together. I say this with all true love
and sincerity. There are men of God called in
my life who will be used long after they're dead. I can think of multiple men that
God will, even after their death, their works will continue to
be used. Which one of us have not heard
of Charles Haddon Spurgeon? Which one of us have not read
his sermons and how he's been dead for hundreds of years? And yet here we are. We can still read what he has.
His work had continued even after he had passed. But yet there
are some men that God has called to preach that they will soon
be forgotten. That's OK. There are some men
who God calls to preach that you or I never heard of. They
were called to preach to their people, to that general assembly
they were given for that short period of time. And then after
they were gone, no one even knew they existed. But Christ, he
knew. That's all that mattered. They,
men of God, do not seek fame, do not seek fortune. We do not
seek to do anything but to serve God and our generation, to preach
the gospel to whomsoever God gives us to preach. To us who preach the gospel,
we seek only to promote the Lord Jesus Christ. In 2 Corinthians 4, verse 5,
the apostles said, we preach not ourselves. The scriptures are true that
when a man is called to preach, he will not promote himself. This is not what we do. We do
not promote ourselves. In Proverbs 18, verse 16, it
says a man's gifts will make room for him. I'm so thankful for Brother Moose
Parks, who was pastor here before I was. He weeded out all the
things he did. He did such a great service to
me. He probably doesn't even know, but he weeded out all those
old those calls that used to come in. He calls from the seminary
and they don't call us anymore because he'd finally They finally
got the point. But he kept receiving calls about
men wanting to preach. They didn't want to come and
hear the gospel, they didn't want to come and sit and have
unity and fellowship with God's people. They had one purpose
in mind. They wanted to practice. They wanted to practice and they
wanted to use his pulpit to practice in. And he told them time and
time again, no, no, no, no, no, no. When God gives a man a calling
to preach, he don't have to worry about it. He'll open that door
for him. And he will give that man an audience to preach and
to hear. God gives gifts unto men to preach. And these gifts may vary. They may vary. Go to 2 Corinthians. Chapter 10, 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 10. The apostle Paul, anticipating
what others are writing about him, they said, For his letters,
say they, are weighty and powerful. But his bodily presence is weak,
and his speech contemptible." That's what they thought of the
Paul. They said, oh, his letters are bold, but when you see him,
he's just a little scrawny guy, and he's weak. Let section 1 think this, that
such as we are in word, by letter, when we are absent, Will we be
indeed when we are present? For we dare not make ourselves
of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves. But they measuring themselves
by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. Friends, I do not and must not
compare myself with another man that is called to preach the
gospel. That is so unwise. And it is unwise for you to compare
me to someone else. It's unwise. We don't compare
ourselves among ourselves. We who preach do not and must
not compare ourselves to other men. And this is a great temptation,
is it not? Are you not tempted? I am. I
find my own speech contemptible. I don't listen to my messages. I do it for a purpose. I can't. I find my own speech contemptible. But we don't compare ourselves
or measure our amount of faith by the gifts of the others, and
so the church. Believers in Christ here at this
local assembly, don't measure yourselves among other works,
other labors of men. Don't envy the works and labors
of other men. We are to dwell together in unity. We are to dwell together with
what God has given us to do. We are to be busy about serving
our Lord and Savior and not so concerned as to what others are
doing. To compare men with men is just
carnal. Paul says you're carnal. If you
compare me to Apollos, you're carnal. That's carnal way of
thinking. God keep us from such sin as
to say, I'm of this man, or I prefer this man. But who are preachers? Who are we? We are servants. We preach not ourselves. We are
servants of you, servants of God, for Jesus' sake. What do we preach that unifies
the church? What unified this local church
in our text? In Acts chapter two, we read
that it was the gospel message, it was the doctrine of Jesus
Christ that caused these people to be in unity. Let me get back
to my text. Look at this. in verse 41, "...and
they gladly received his word and were baptized, and the same
day were added to them three thousand souls." Listen, "...and
they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, and fellowship,
and breaking of bread, and in prayers." You want to know how
a church is unified? It is to continue to be faithful
to the gospel of Jesus Christ. To be faithful. to continue in
the doctrine that is given to you. To be faithful. What do we do? We preach Jesus
Christ the Lord. All who are called to preach
are given the same message. Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Paul said, I determine not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So many people love that song. I love to tell the story of Jesus
and his love. And they'll sing it. And then
some man will stand up and start talking about their family or
about marriage and about this and about that. And anything
but the story of Jesus Christ. Friends, this is what unifies
us. the man Jesus Christ. The head of this body is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the sum and substance of
His message. We preach His person. That unifies
us. He who is God-blessed forever
has also been made man so that He might be our kinsman-redeemer. He is in union with us. He is
a man. He knows what it is to be a man. We preach that He condescended
to men of low estate. We preach Jesus, the God-man
mediator. We preach Jesus Christ. who is
prophet, priest and king. We preach that he is the only
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And this
brings us together because we are all sinners in need of mercy. Do you still need mercy? Because I still need mercy today. The more I grow in the grace
and knowledge of Christ, the more I see my need of mercy. And if I need mercy, and you
need mercy, that draws us together around one object of mercy. Jesus Christ is the source of
all mercies, of all forgiveness of sin, of
all righteousness, He brings us together. Why are we together
this morning? Why are we here? To give praise
unto God for His blessed Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Our Lord. We preach that salvation is of
the Lord. We preach that Jesus Christ is
risen from the dead and He is Lord. A preacher once said this. He said,
you cannot have Jesus as your Savior if He is not also your
Lord. A lot of people like Jesus to
be their Savior. They just don't want Him bossing them around. They don't want to be told, Lord,
now that you saved me, just leave me alone. Leave my personal stuff
alone. You're stepping on my toes. No. If you don't have Jesus as Lord,
you don't have Him as Savior. God's church is unified in this,
is that we have one Lord, one Savior. And He rules us in every
aspect of our life. We should be doing all things,
all things for His glory. If you sweep the floor, it should
be for the glory of God. If you pick up the trash, it
should be for the glory of God. whatsoever you do, it should
be unto the Lord in everything. Everything should be unto Him.
And this unifies us. Because that should be for me
too. Everything I do should be as unto the Lord. We preach Jesus
Christ the Lord. And the cause of our preaching
this gospel is for your sake. We preach not ourselves, but
the Lord Jesus Christ and are your servants for Jesus' sake. We are your servants for Jesus'
sake. Why? That you might believe. That you might believe. The Apostle
John wrote in his book, in his epistle, his gospel, he said
many other things did the Lord Jesus Christ. That if we were
to write them, the volumes could not contain them. He said, but
these were written that you might believe. Well, pastor, you're preaching
to the choir. We've already believed. Well,
your faith that you had is no good. You need faith now. You need to believe on Christ
now. Your past faith is worthless. Your future faith is worthless. You must believe on Christ now. And then we believe and we are
together in faith. I believe now and you who believe
now. We're together. We're in union. And the body functions when we
have faith. Believe now. Trust now in Christ. Our purpose is that men believe. Our purpose is that God's people
be fed. Are you fed? Are you fed by the
gospel? It is my heart's desire to bring
the gospel in such a way as to prepare the best meal that I
possibly can for you. Now, whether you have an appetite
for it or not, I don't know. But we are called to do this
so that we might have unity of the body. We are given for spiritual
growth, edification, stability, protection against the deceivers. We preach the gospel to the body
so that it might increase. We are to nourish God's body
by the sincere milk of the Word. Pray for me, because I desire
to preach sincerely to you, and not only with sincerity, but
truth. I want both. I don't want to
tell you the truth without first, knowing it myself. You know, when I prepare a message,
I preach to myself first. If I don't. How can I preach
and expect you to receive? Pastor is a gift to his people,
to God's people, for the preaching of the gospel A church is made
to see our union with Christ and our union with each other.
Every believer in Christ is part of the body of Christ and He
is our head. We are all chosen by the Father.
We are all redeemed by the Son. We are all born again of the
Spirit of God. We all have the same righteousness. Now, I know everybody thinks
that Cook's righteousness is better than mine. But it's not. Everybody thinks he's probably
a better person than I am. But your righteousness is not
better than mine. It's the same. We have the same righteousness.
It is the righteousness of God. There's no excelling above one
another in a church that is together. We don't go around promoting
ourselves. What we do is we preach the gospel
It draws us together. It draws us together. And we all being the same body,
yet we all have different functions in the church. We all have different
functions. The hand is not the foot. The
foot is not the mouth. We all have different gifts. And having different gifts, we
are to use them for the furtherance of the gospel
in this place. What place? Wherever you are. Because wherever you are during
the week, I'm not. Isn't that right? I'm not with
you all the time. But wherever you are, You should
be using whatever God gifts God has given you. Go to 1 Corinthians, chapter
12. 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, verse
25. That there should be no schism
in the body. But that the members should have
the same care one for another. For whether one member suffer,
all members suffer with it. Or one member be honored, all
members rejoice with it. Now are you the body of Christ
and members in particular. Now look up this word particular.
It means allotted. Each one of you who are a member
of the body of Christ, you are allotted a place. I'm sure that my fingers did
not choose to be fingers. They were allotted their place. You who are members of this body
are allotted your place in particular. God specifically has designed
you for that place in the body, allotted you your gifts. Believers, this ministry does
not belong to me. It belongs to us. If you think that I am the only
one that should be witnessing of Christ, something is wrong
with this body. This is our ministry. This is our church. And we have been given a place. Use what God has given you. How are we to witness the gospel
in this place? if we ourselves are not faithful
to this place? Do you expect that others are
going to just one day pop up and say, you know what, I'd really
like to go to church with you? You know, that just sounds good. I think I'm just going to get
up and go to the next door neighbor and I'm just going to say, hey,
I want to go to church with you. How many times has that been
done? If done, it's very rare. If it's ever been done, it's
rare. We must be witnesses. Witnesses. Believers who are faithful to
the body and to the ministry of the gospel are beautiful to
their pastor. Have I been faithful to you? Believe me, I ask myself that
question more than you do. Have I been faithful to you to
preach the gospel to you? Then follow me. And we'll go together. We'll
be together. And we'll work together for the
sake of the gospel. I'm going to use the illustration
in Scripture, the demoniac of Gadara. You remember how this
man, he was out in the tombs cutting himself. A wild man lost
his mind. Nobody could tame Him. Nobody
could chain Him. He had a legion of demons in
Him. And the Lord Jesus Christ delivered Him from that. He had
cast out that legion of demons. And they had ran with the swine
down the hill. And then the people heard about
it, and they came out to see what had happened. And they saw
this man who had lost his mind, this man who chains couldn't
hold. He was sitting, the Scripture
says, and in his right mind. You would think that people would
have said, man, wow. Instead they said, well, depart
from us. We don't want you even in our
coasts. And Jesus gladly got on the ship. You know what that
man did? He got up and he was following
right as close as he could behind the Lord, ready to get on the
ship to go with Him. Wouldn't you think that'd be
the best thing? Wouldn't you have wanted to go
with the Lord? I would have. The Lord said something to him. He said, go home. Go home and tell your friends
what great things God has done for you. I imagine that pierced his heart.
I imagine it broke it. Why would you want me not to
go with you? I don't understand. But in obedience, he went back
home. And who knows the multitudes
of people that the Lord converted under his ministry? I don't know. Believer, if we are to dwell
together in unity, it's not just in this one building. We must
take the message we hear from this place and take it outside
the door And go home and tell what great things God has done
for you. Will you be ridiculed? Yes. Will you be hated? Rejected? Shunned? Yes. Oh, but what about one? What
if one would come in here? Would that not be worth it all? I like when David said, come
with me and let us go up to the house of the Lord. Let us go. Go home. The gospel is preached
here in this place. Go home and tell your friends
that the gospel is preached here. Go home. Witness. Tell how great things the gospel
of Jesus Christ has done for you. Believers, let us as a local
body not boast outside our measure. We're not here to boast of the
labors of others. We're here to just simply boast
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We're not to rely on other men's
labors either. Because the labor of the gospel
is successful in one place, we're not to rely on their success.
God has given them their success. Pray that God give us success.
Pray that God give us unity like that. And we together must labor as
God has given us our portion. Now, we may have a small portion.
That's okay. Don't despise the day of small
things. The Lord has given us this ministry.
Should we not labor together in this ministry? We should.
If the light is going to continue in this place, we must labor
together. And secondly, we must have all
things common. These people sold all they had
because the church was in such an impoverished condition. But this teaches us something.
That we must support the ministry. If the gospel is going to go
forth, we must support the ministry. How? Whatever God gives you to do. Believers must give, not just
monetarily. Matter of fact, that's the easiest
thing to do, isn't it? It's easy to put that in, but
also our time, our love, our effort, our life. Our life. What are we here for? Believer, listen to me. I don't
want to play church. I'm not playing. This is for keeps. I'll be here until the Lord takes
me home or he takes every one of you away from me. I'm dedicated my life to this
ministry. And if I'm the only one, shame
on us. Shame on us. As I've committed myself to this
ministry, so should you. The Lord doesn't request it,
he demands it. If any man hate not his father
and his mother, and his sister and his brother, and yea, his
own life also. He cannot be my disciple." Friends,
this is an all or nothing principle here. You're either all in or
you're not in at all. God's people are all in. We're all in. Praise God. What joy it is when brethren
dwell together in unity. Joy. When we center ourselves
around the Lord Jesus Christ and his service, God will use
and bless our labors. Don't think so small of what
God has given you. And don't envy what some large
thing God has given someone else. Do what God has given you to
do. Be content. Are you content? Am I content with such things
as I have? May God give us grace to do that
so that we might be together. I want to be content with you. I want to labor with you. I want
to serve with you. I love you. You are my family. You are my
friends. May God give us grace to grow
closer together. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.