Acts chapter 2, and we'll be
looking at verses 41 through verse 47. The title of the message is,
What it means to belong. What it means to belong. There is much confusion today
and deception even among the saints of God as to what it means
to belong to the church, what it means to belong to the local
assembly of believers, and what is the purpose of the church.
What is the purpose? There is much confusion about
this. I have seen this in many examples. I know this to be true concerning
my parents at the time that they're going through. There's much concern
and confusion in that group of believers. I have no doubt that
they are believers in Christ. At least I know as far as I know,
as far as I can see. These are believers in Christ,
and yet. They are so confused as to what
the church is, they think that the church is the building. They
believe the church is some entity all on its own. But that's not
true. The church is not a building.
The church is not a place. You can meet in this building
or you can meet outside. It doesn't matter where you meet.
The church is not a place, but a people. A people. If we truly desire to understand
the meaning of what it is to belong to the church, then we
should go back to the first church. We should go back to the establishment
of the first local body of believers in Christ here in Acts chapter
2, verse 41 through verse 47. The Scripture says, then They
that gladly received his word and were baptized, and the same
day were added unto them about three thousand souls." The Apostle
Peter, after finishing his message at Pentecost, you remember how
the Holy Spirit was poured out in that day unlike any other
day that ever was before or after. There had never been a day like
this. There's only one Pentecost. Anybody tell you differently
is a liar. There's only one Pentecost. Only
one day of Pentecost that the Lord shed his spirit abroad among
all flesh. That was fulfilled on this day. The Apostle Peter preached the
gospel in all so that all were able to understand it. God the
Spirit gave them such power and utterance that even the Greeks
who did not speak Hebrew, or the Ethiopians, or whoever was
there in their own language, they all could hear and understand. They were able to understand. And after Peter had declared
how that Jesus was the Messiah how that Jesus, by His life,
obtained righteousness. By His death, obtained redemption. By His resurrection, obtained
justification for His people. All those things that God had
promised had now come to pass. And in the conclusion of His
message, He said, you know assuredly, now listen to me, if you get
nothing else, get this, know assuredly that Jesus This same
Jesus that I preached to you this morning, God has made Him
Lord and Christ. I'm not asking you to make Jesus
your Lord. He's already your Lord. Now,
whether He's your Savior, that's only by the grace of God that
any of us know Him as Lord and Christ. We made Him neither,
but we now know Him to be both Lord and Christ. by the power
of God, by the power of God. Now, when these people heard
this, something happened. Scripture says they were pierced,
pricked in their hearts. In other words, this message
was different because it had a profound effect on their very
soul. on their souls. The apostle Peter said unto them,
repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus
for the remission of sin. And they were pricked in their
hearts. And what was the response to
Peter's message? What was the response of these
who were pierced? Now, many of you will hear this
and you will not be pierced. But to those who are pierced
by the Holy Spirit, this is every one of our testimony. The testimony
of these saints here is the same testimony I have today. It is
the same testimony you have today. We were pierced. We knew we were
sinners and in need of a Savior. And we believed. We believed. And the Scripture says they were
baptized. We who believe were baptized. Because we wanted to. Because
we were commanded to. Because this same Jesus is our
Lord and our Christ. And He commanded us to. And we
were baptized. And as we were believing, as
we believed, and as we were baptized, so were they added to the church. They were joined together in
a local body of believers. They were joined, first of all,
to a mystical body. This is true. But you know what, nobody is
in the screen nowhere in the scripture does does the apostles
write to a mystical body to the epistle to the mystical body.
I don't find it anywhere in the scriptures. No, I find to the
church at Rome, to the church at Ephesus, to the church of
Thessalonica, to the to the Colossians. to all these churches. These
were local assemblies of believers. That's where the church mystical
is manifest in the church, local in the church, local. And then
they are added together. Now, what is it to belong to
the church? Well, first of all, in order to belong to a church,
you must believe. You must believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, the scripture says, first of all, notice what the
early church did. They gladly received his word. I gladly received the word of
the Apostle Peter, which was repent, repent. Repent, what does this mean to
repent? It is to me, it means that you
confess who you are. That's what it means. Confess
you are a sinner. Friends, the church is not made
up of holier than thou people. It's made up of sinners. Sinners. Sinners who confess themselves
to be sinners. Because I only preach to sinners.
I only preach to people who have a need. Repent. Because you can in no
wise please God by your works. That's what it means to repent. Please don't be confused about
repentance. Repentance is not turning away
from one particular sin. When have you ever fully repented
from any one of your sins? No, repentance is turning away
from every thought and every action that you would suppose
to be pleasing unto God. The Apostle says, I counted,
and I do count, all my righteousness to be done. So he counted it,
and he still counts it. He still accredits nothing to
himself. This is what it is to repent,
to turn away from self, to turn by faith to Jesus Christ. If you are turning away from
something, you are turning to something. I am turning away
from my works and turning to His works. I am turning away
from my sacrifices and turning to His sacrifices. That's what it is to repent.
If you don't believe on Jesus Christ, you would never repent
from yourself. You would never repent from your
own works of righteousness. Repentance and faith are one
in the same. You can't have one without the
other. You can't say, I believe and still turn to your works.
You can't say, I believe on Christ and still hold to your own works. And yet you can't say you turn
to Christ and not repent from turn away or turn to Christ.
You must turn to him by faith. The scripture says, let the wicked
forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him
turn, let him return unto the Lord. True members of God's church
trust Jesus Christ as all their righteous. True members of God's church
are sanctified, are satisfied only with the imputed, imparted
righteousness of Jesus Christ. Have you believed on the Son
of God? More importantly, do you believe
on the Son of God now? I've seen many people who have
believed in the past and stopped in the present. Well, if they've
stopped believing, it's because they never believed to begin
with. They never repented. Have you believed on the son
of God? Then know this assuredly, that you are a member of his
body. You are a member of his mystical
body. You know, one day I'm going to see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
And we'll worship together. But right now, Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob are in heaven. They're not here. So I worship,
therefore I worship with you. I believe on Christ now, and
you who believe on Christ now, we worship together. We come
together to worship in faith, believing on Him. And we continually
receive Him gladly. I continually receive Jesus Christ
gladly. This message is something that's
ever new and fresh to my soul. It's something I always have
need of. I always have need. Secondly,
to belong to the church, you must be baptized. The scripture
says, And they gladly received his word and were baptized. Peter said, Repent and be baptized. This was the result of his message
that they believed and were baptized. Again, there's much confusion
about baptism and its place in the church. Baptism is not just
an option, but a necessity. It's not an option, but a necessity
in order to join the local assembly of believers. Now, baptism in
no way is part of our salvation. In other words, you can be baptized
all you want to. Actually, you will go somewhere
else, Gil just got the water bill. It was really hot. You know, you could be baptized
all you want to. You can be dunked in the water as many times. I
don't know. I don't know how many professions of faith I made
or how many times I may have been baptized. I really don't
know. But baptism is not salvation, it has no part in salvation,
but it is a direct result of salvation. See, faith and obedience
go together. You can't have one without the
other. Faith and obedience. Be baptized, the Apostle said. Jesus Christ commanded his church,
go you into all the world preaching the gospel, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We baptize God's people, God's
believers, this is to immerse That's what the word means. It
means to immerse. All who believe on Jesus Christ
are baptized, not for salvation, but because it is the commandment
of our Lord. It is the commandment of the
Lord to be baptized. The Apostle Peter in this text
says, Be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ. Again, nothing but confusion. It's very simple. This means
by the authority. In other words, I'm going to
baptize, I baptize believers because of the authority given
by Jesus Christ, not because it's fun. Not because it's something
that we're just, you know, we want to set ourselves apart to
be Baptist. We want to make our mark in this.
No, we do it because this is what was commanded of us, of
the Lord Jesus Christ, to be baptized. We baptize all who would confess
and believe on Jesus Christ. I don't believe in sending you
through a course or a class to make sure you're ready to be
baptized. That's not for me to determine. If a person confesses
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as all their hope and
righteousness, he says, be baptized. Now, is it my responsibility
if they're not saved? No. Am I going to be hurt or
hindered because they made a false profession? No. Scripture says that they were
baptized, they confessed, because baptism is the only confession
of faith publicly. There's no coming to the front. There's no altar call in making
a profession of faith. I'm never going to say, if you
believe in Jesus, come down here to the front. You'll never hear
me say that. If you believe in Jesus Christ, be baptized, every
one of you, by the authority of Jesus Christ, I tell you.
And we do this because it's a picture. The Lord Jesus Christ gave us
two ordinances. Think about how wicked men are
that they would instead of those two ordinances, they would either
elevate them higher than Christ or they would make them lower
than they actually were intended to be. Baptism is a confession. When we stand in the water, we
confess, we identify with His righteousness. That He was the
Righteous One. When He came into this world,
as we come into the water, He came into this world, into the
sea of trouble, into a multitude of persecution and difficulty. We identify with Him in that.
He is all our righteousness. When we are immersed in the water,
we identify with His death, how He was How he bore our sins in
his own body on the tree. Notice this. I think this is
interesting. Go over to Psalm 69. This is wonderful. See this
as if you would see someone being baptized, confessing the Lord.
See how that they identify with his death in Psalm 69. These are the words of the Lord
as he was Dying, this was the words of his soul, his heart,
as he was dying on the cross. He said, save me, O God, for
the waters are coming to my soul. I sink down in mire where there
is no standing. And I come into deep waters where
the floods overflow me. You see how the Lord was immersed
under the wrath of God for our sins. That's what baptism pictures. When we immerse under the water,
what we are identifying with is that Jesus Christ bore our
sins and the wrath of God for our sins. And as we come out
of the water, we identify and testify to everyone that Jesus
Christ is risen from the dead. As He was buried in the tomb,
so were our sins buried away from the sight of God, never
to be seen again. And now we are risen, washed
in His blood. We are risen with Him. New creation. New creation. Can you see how
it pictures? This is what it was meant to
do. It was meant to picture. And friends, all who believe
on Christ will confess Him in baptism. They will. There are no secret believers.
There are no secret believers. You hear of Joseph of Arimathea
and Nicodemus. These two men believed on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and they said secretly, But you know what?
That secret didn't last long. It got out on him. It got out
on him. You see, Joseph could not but
help to give his tomb for the Lord Jesus Christ. Nicodemus
could not help but testify by burying this one that they condemned,
by burying him, that he was a believer in Christ. And these two men
lost everything in confessing that. And so will you who believe
and are baptized. You will lose everything. Now, the thief on the cross,
people say, well, he wasn't baptized, he was nailed to a cross. Of
course, he wasn't baptized. He would have been had he could
live long enough. He would have been. It wouldn't
have been secret. As a matter of fact, it wasn't
a secret that he believed that that man next to him was God.
It wasn't a secret. He confessed that Jesus was Lord,
even in the moments of his death. All who truly believe will be
baptized. Therefore, the Scripture tells
us in Mark 16, verse 16. Flip over there. Look at this.
Mark 16 and verse 16. Let's begin in verse 15. And Jesus said unto them, Go
ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not and is baptized not Did it say
that? No. He that believeth not shall
be damned. Do you see how salvation and
faith and baptism are all intertwined? But he that believeth not, you're
not going to be sent to hell because you weren't baptized.
The only reason you will be sent to hell is because of your sin
and unbelief. But he that believeth and is
baptized. You see, they're synonymous with each other. In the early
church, you wouldn't you wouldn't hear that. Oh, are you believe
on Christ? Were you baptized? What do you
mean? Of course I was. Anybody who
believes obeys the command of the Lord and is baptized. This
is a confession of faith and identification with the church
of Jesus Christ so that we gladly we who are part of this church
gladly believe and we were gladly baptized. in the name of Jesus. Thirdly, to belong to the church
is to continue steadfastly. Let's go back to our text. Verse
41 says, They gladly received the word and were baptized. And
the same day were added about three thousand souls, and they,
the three thousand souls, continued steadfastly. Friends, this idea, this church,
according to Scripture, everyone who believes and is baptized
will continue steadfastly committed together. Steadfastly committed. To belong to the church is to
be committed to the church. They who believe continue steadfastly. There have been many who have
professed faith and been baptized who say they have joined the
church, but they have since left the assembly of the believers.
They have since gone away for some reason or another. Could be any reason, but these are false. professors,
because they continued not with the church. To simply profess
our salvation does not mean that we are saved. Anyone may profess,
but truly believers continue. They continue by faith. Continue
to do what? First of all, they continue steadfastly
in the apostles doctrine. They continue to listen to the
same message. They continue to hear the same
message of Jesus Christ and him crucified and risen again. You
cannot go through the book of Acts and see any other message
than this message of Jesus Christ and him crucified and risen again. They continued steadfastly to
hear the gospel. John says this about men who
profess and go away from the church. They went out from us. Now, he includes himself in that,
doesn't he? He said they went out from us
because they were not of us. Had they been of us, They would
no doubt have continued with us. The Apostle Paul says the reason
for heresies, the reason for heresies. Is to separate the
goats from the sheep. That's the reason for heresy. To separate The true, those who
truly believe and are true members of the church from those who
are not. Go over to 1 Corinthians chapter
11. See this for yourselves. 1 Corinthians
chapter 11. See the reason and cause that
heresy still exists is to separate, to divide. Oh, don't say that. People, people, you don't want
to say anything divisive. Really? My Lord Jesus said, I
came not to bring peace, but a sword. And what was a sword? It was the Word. It was the truth. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Look at verse 19. The Apostle said, For there must
be also heresies among you, that they which are proved may be
manifest among you. You see, there's a reason for
heresies so that it shows who are true believers and who are
not. There always will be goats among
the sheep. There always will be tares among
the wheat. There will always be the false
believers and the true. Well, how do you know who's who? Well, sheep only follow the shepherd.
Goats will follow anybody. Anybody's got some kind of food
and they don't care what kind of food it is, they'll follow
them. You see men coming in and say, oh, that sounds good. And
then they turn over here and say, oh, that sounds good, too.
And this sounds real good, too. And they're just all over the
place. Goats. Goats. The sheep are only content to
feed where the shepherd leads them. And where does he lead
them? Only to the gospel of God's sovereign
grace in Christ Jesus alone. That's the food that the sheep
eat and they will not eat another food. Will not eat another food. They
will continue steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. Here at this local body, at this
church, we believe and we preach Jesus Christ and have no confidence
in the flesh. If you want confidence in the
flesh, you'll have to go somewhere else. We don't preach that here. You'll have to join yourself
someone else. We don't do that. If you want a kudos, you have
to go somewhere else. There's no confidence in the
flesh, not here. Our confidence rests in Jesus
Christ alone. My salvation is in a person I
know whom I have believed. And I come to worship him. That's what it is to believe
or to be joined to the church, it is to constantly desire to
hear. We who are joined to this church
are content to hear the truth of our condition and sin. And
we're content that Jesus Christ is all our righteousness. You
want to hear anything else? I know. I have no intention of
preaching anything else. Jesus Christ is all my hope. And you who believe, you rejoice
with me. You continue with me in this.
We continue together. But all who fall away from the
gospel of God's grace are only manifest to be liars. Second of all, to be a part of
this church, to be a part of the assembly of God, we must
believe, be baptized, continue steadfastly in the Apostle's
doctrine, which is the gospel and Next, we would fellowship,
continue in fellowship. Look at that in your text. That's
the next word. They continue steadfastly, apostle
doctrine and fellowship. Spend most of my time on this
this point. Every believer in Christ is baptized,
will continue in fellowship. And this word fellowship. is
a very interesting word. This word fellowship has to do
with commitment. Commitment. This word means partnership. In a very real sense, it means
the same as a husband and wife. commitment, a union together. They continued in union, in agreement,
in partnership, in commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ. This word to participate, to
communicate, and from the root word, this means to partner What
does it mean to belong to a local church? It is to be joined together
as one. That's what it means. We who
believe and are baptized join ourselves together in the local
assembly as one person. As one person. All of you who are a member of
Redeemer Baptist Church, are never to take this union lightly. The early church never took the
union of believers and the assembly of believers together lightly.
Matter of fact, their lives were in danger every time they did
it. Every time they manifest themselves
together, there was no guarantee that the Roman soldiers would
not break down their door and come in and drag them to the
Coliseum and kill them, and many of them did. What would keep us from gathering
together in unity? What would keep us from this
fellowship? Whatever it is should be cast aside as nothing. As nothing. commitment is so
great that the precedence of this, the preeminence of our
assembly is to be set above everything else in this world. Everything. The Scriptures tells us in verse
44 of this text that. And all that believed together
were together and had all things come. Had all things come. Is that that really what we are
testifying of here at this church, do we have all things common?
We should. Nothing I have is my own. It's
yours. That's how committed we are,
we should be. To this fellowship. That everything
I have is each of yours and everything you have is mine. That's how common it should be.
We should have everything, our burdens, our griefs, our sorrows,
our sufferings should be shared among the brethren. The burden,
the responsibilities of this church is to be shared among
the brethren. We each are to take what we have,
and we are to use it for the service of Jesus Christ. What
do you have? What gifts do you have? Every
one of you has been given a gift. I don't know what it is. I know
that my calling is to preach the gospel. Believe me, I don't
see this as a great, overwhelming gift. I don't believe I have
been gifted as some other men. But I am what I am by the grace
of God. And you are what you are by the
grace of God. Whatever it is you've been given
is by the grace of God. We are committed, therefore,
to use whatever God has given us for the service of God in
the local assembly of believers. You may be blessed to give. If
that's what God has given you to do, give. You may be blessed
to To change this lightbulb over here. Now that lightbulb's been
out a while. So if you want to, you've got
the ability to change the lightbulb, do it. If you don't have the
ability, J.D., don't get up there and change the lightbulb. I didn't
tell you to do that. So I don't want you getting hurt. But I
want you to know what your gift is, what your ability is. That's
something God gives everyone. He had led captivity captive
and did what? He gave gifts unto men. For what?
The encouragement of the saints. To encourage one another in the
unity. in unity and in worship. Believers have all things common. And because of this, we are to
act as one body and realize that all we say and do is not done
in a vacuum. What you do to each other or
what you do To me. Know this, it has a profound
effect on every one of the Saints. Let me illustrate this. What
would you think if I just said, well, I don't think it has anything
to do with me, I'm just going to leave. I'm a pastor here,
but yeah, I just feel like I can I can find a better job. How
would you feel? Would that not affect you? Would
you be hurt? You bet you would. You would
be hurt. You would be thrown into great
confusion. Well, know that each one of you
has the same profound effect on each other. If you're not here, don't think
that other people wouldn't notice. I notice. I put a great deal of time. And much effort in study. And when people are lax. To come
and worship with me, I feel it. I can't help it. I try not to
show it at times, but it hurts. Friends, I go through just the
same things you do every day. Your troubles are not different
from ours. Everyone thinks that their troubles
are the greatest. There's nobody that doesn't.
Because it's happening to us. But yet, all of our troubles
should never be in the way of our worship. This would affect everybody because
our union is everything, affects everything
that we do, whether good or ill. What would cause us to dissolve
such a fellowship? What would be the reason for
that? Can you think of one? The only
thing that I can think of is if I stop preaching the gospel. If I stop preaching the gospel,
by all means, don't stay. But what else? Well, that depends on how highly
you esteem the church of Jesus Christ. I put it in the bulletin
this morning. In 2 Corinthians 4, verses 8-12,
it talks about this. Paul says, "...always bearing
about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ." Who believed? Don't you realize
that we are bearing about the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ
daily? That we are putting off this
old man constantly, the things of the flesh constantly dying? Does that sound pleasant? You think the Apostle Paul was
in a pleasant place when he wrote this? No. No. Why are we doing all this dying?
So that we might manifest the Lord Jesus Christ. The purpose
of the church is to preach the gospel. So that when we are suffering,
we may by our suffering witness that Christ and His grace is
sufficient. We have all things common, and
this fellowship of believers is held in such high regard it
should affect everybody around us. You who come from Henryville,
and I know that Zach and Andrew come from a long way, what do
you suppose that says to everyone around you? Are they not confused? Are they not confounded as to
why? You would do such a thing. You have your witness. You have
your witness. That our fellowship around this
gospel, that Jesus Christ. Is first above all else. That's what it means to join
the church. That's what it means to belong to God's people, is
that we continue in fellowship. We are to leave off all the lust
of the flesh and carnal desires for worship. Now, personally,
I've seen and experienced what it is when men have thought lightly
of the worship of God, and it's never ended well. Let me ask
you, do you think everything just kind of ended real well
for Lot? You think Lot intended to end
up where he was? Absolutely not. We don't want that. I don't want
that for you. I pray that you would not want
that for me. So to be a member of this church,
it is to mean that we are committed to give all we have to the fellowship
of Jesus Christ, to give to the fellowship of this assembly for
the preaching of the gospel. I notice this. See, I lost my place. It's all
right. We are to see that work, family,
activities should all be second, a distant second to the worship
of God. And if we do not set these worldly
things second to the fellowship of the gospel, the assembling
of ourselves together, it shows an utter lack of love and reverence
for God. Notice that in your text here.
It says they continued in reverence. They continue to fellowship,
breaking bread and prayers and fear. Fear fell upon them. To be a
part of a local church is to reverence God with godly fear. We are to reverence Christ above
all else. And when we fail to come together
and worship together, If we fail to exert oneself to
this fellowship, then it shows an utter contempt
for the Word of God. Do you realize that I am your
bond slave? Have I not given all to come
here to preach to you? What have I left? What have I
not left? Have I been unfaithful to you? I do this out of reverence to
God. Because if I did it just based
on what you would do to me or I would do to you, there would
be no faithfulness. But I reverence God first. And in reverencing Him, I commit
all I have to you. I give you all I've been given.
Now, I know that there are times that we are hindered from worship.
Don't think that I'm not aware of these things. A lot of that,
every time I bring that up, I know that there's a defense mechanism
in us that wants to I don't want, you know, I'm not trying to give
you an opportunity to give me reasons why you would forsake
the assembling of yourselves together. It's not for me to
receive reasons. I don't have a little box over
here for reasons as to why you leave or forsake the assembling
of ourselves together. I know there are times that we
are hindered. We are at times hindered, but
this should never be the norm. It should always be the small
exception to the rule. Now, we have had bad, bad weather. Now, friends, that's an exception
to the rule. I understand that. I mean, the
roads are glassed over with ice. Nobody says that you should get
out on the roads and kill yourself. I mean, that'd be suicide. But I'll tell you what. What
if the roads rise over and your job said you had to be there
the next day? Well, I got to be there. Well, then you set
priority. You said that this is a priority
over the fellowship of the saints. It is what it is. And so when we are able, we should
be here. Out of reverence for God and
respect and reverence for each other, because It affects whatever
we do affects each other as a member of this church. Next, when we come to fellowship
together, we come because Christ is here. Is that not our testimony? Do you believe that? When Scripture
says where two or three are gathered together, Jesus said, I am there
in your midst. What would hinder us from being
in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ? Is there anything we would set
above him? Let us therefore forsake all
and follow Christ. To be a member of this church
is to forsake all and follow Christ. We who believe on Christ and
are baptized according to his decree know our place in his
body. Let us see then the gifts that
God has given us and use them for his service. This is what
it means to belong to the church. Do you belong to this church? Then let us rejoice and fellowship
together in unity. One thing about I love about
our assembly, and I've seen many, is that God has been gracious
to give us unity here. A spirit of humility that I've
seen is not in some places, and we should not take that for granted.
We should always remember, if we are part of this church, we
are also a part of each other. and being a part of each other,
we are a part of Christ and we should reverence him above all
else. That's what it means to belong. I pray that God will
bless this to your heart. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer. Eric, would you lead us in prayer,
brother?