Turn with me, if you would, to
Psalm 133. Psalm 133. Verse 1 says, How good and how pleasant it
is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Isn't that wonderful? How good and how pleasant it
is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Hold your place right
there and go with me to Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13 verse 1 says, Let
brotherly love continue. Let brotherly love continue at
all cost. Let brotherly love continue. The spirit of brotherly love.
Fight for it. Fight yourself for it. Protect
it. Pray for it. I love verse 2. It says, Be not forgetful to
entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels
unaware. Brotherly love. Go back with
me over to Psalm 133. Verse 1 says, Behold how good
and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment
upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard,
that went down to the skirts of his garments. Now let me just
tell you what that means. Back in Exodus, the Lord made
a recipe for an ointment. He told Moses how to mix it. And he called it holy ointment.
And it was to be made after the art of a perfumer. It smelled
good. It was a sweet-smelling savor.
What do you think that represents? That represents the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. A sweet-smelling savor. The Lord
said, Make this ointment. And then the Lord said, Thou
shalt anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them, and that
means pronounce them clean, that they may minister unto me in
the priest's office. And we sing a song that says,
consecrate me now to thy service, Lord, by the power of grace divine. Let my soul look up with a steadfast
hope and my will be lost in thine. Well, right here it says in verse
1, Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
in unity. It's just like that precious
ointment, that sweet-smelling savor to God. Upon the head that
ran down, upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, the high priest,
the one that made sacrifice. that went down to the skirts
of his garments. It flowed down to his skirts. I've thought about our Lord.
When He comes back, He's going to have a whole train of people
with Him. All that oil started at the head, and it flowed all
the way down to the skirts. Verse 3 says, As the dew of Hermon,
and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion. God gave great victory to Israel. He gave them cities. They went
out. God said, I've given you a land,
and you're going to take this land. And I'm going to give you
those cities. And they went to war, and God
gave them cities upon cities upon cities. Sixty of them I
read in one place, and they said not to mention the small towns
around them. Blood was shed for Israel. You don't have to turn, just
listen to this. This is Isaiah 43 verses 3 through 7. The Lord said, I am the Lord
thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for
thy ransom, Ethiopia and Sheba for thee. Since thou wast precious
in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. Therefore
will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. I'm going
to physically give people for you. Fear not, for I am with
thee. I will bring thy seed from the
east and gather thee from the west. I will say to the north,
give up, and to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from
far and my daughters from the ends of the earth, even every
one that is called by my name. For I have created him for my
glory. I have formed him, yea, I have
made him. Blood was shed for Israel, and
blood was shed for Israel, until they reached the promised land.
All the doors were opened. All the way was made. They didn't
lose one battle. And they finally made it to Zion. In verse 3 right here says, As
the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains
of Zion. When they got there, there was
just dew on the grass. No more bloodshed in the fields.
Peace. Peace. Verse 3 says, For there
the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. Now because of that, because
of that sweet smelling savor of Christ and the victory that
he accomplished, Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren
to dwell together in unity. Now with that sweet fellowship
in mind, let's go over to our text, Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. We're going to begin in verse
39. I want to begin reading from verse 37. Let's read to the end.
Now, when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and
said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren,
what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent,
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and
to your children, and to all that are afar off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many
other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves
from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received
his word were baptized, And the same day there were added unto
them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of
bread and in prayers and fear came upon every soul. And many
wonders and signs were done by the apostles and all that believed
were together and had 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, praising God, and having favor with all
the people. And the Lord added to the church
daily such as should be saved." Sweet fellowship in Christ. Isn't
that nice? The reason these people were
brought together was one reason, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the whole reason they were brought together. The thing that this
people had in common, the one thing they had in common, was
the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter told them the truth about
their sin against God, and then Peter told them the gospel about
the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. and the payment for
all that sin. And it stabbed their heart and
they said, what shall we do? And Peter said, receive the knowledge
of who God really is and be immersed into Christ. And that's what
every one of God's sinners has had happen to them. Every single
one. They're all in Christ. Every
single one. Now verse 39 says, For the promise
is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call. The promise is
to you and to your children. I am so thankful for that. To
you and to your children. Just because the Lord has had
mercy on us, does that mean He's going to have mercy on our children?
No, not necessarily. Verse 39 says, The promise is
unto you and to your children and to all that are far off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call. That's who he's
going to have mercy on. All that he calls. In order for
them to be called. They have to hear his voice.
And in order for them to hear His voice, they have to be under
the sound of the preaching of His message, the preaching of
His Word. Faith, that ability to receive
the call and respond to the call, faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God, which is Christ. That's Christ, the
Word of God. Faith comes by hearing Christ,
hearing who Christ is, hearing what Christ did, hearing where
Christ is now. The Lord God said, tell your
children about this. Tell your children about it.
Turn with me over to Exodus 12. Exodus chapter 12. Verse 21. Then Moses called for all the
elders of Israel and said unto them, draw out and take you a
lamb according to your families and kill the Passover. And you
shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that's
in the basin and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the
blood that's in the basin. And none of you shall go out
at that door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will
pass through and smite the Egyptians, and when he seeth the blood on
the lintel and on the two side post, the Lord will pass over
the door and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto
your houses to smite you." The blood was on the door. What did
the Lord say? I am the door. He said blood is going to go
on that door. And when I see that blood on
the door, I'm going to pass over the door and I will not suffer
the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. And
you shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and
to thy sons forever. And it shall come to pass when
you become to the land, which the Lord will give you according
as he hath promised that you shall keep this service. And
it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you,
What mean ye by this service? That you shall say, It is the
sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, who passed over the houses of
the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians and
delivered our houses, and the people bowed their heads and
worshipped." Children, girls, The reason that we have bread
sitting right here, you know how we do this every now and
then? The reason why we have bread sitting right here, and
the reason why we have some wine sitting right here, is because
this is what the Lord God told us your parents, who believe
His Word, this is what He told us to eat and to drink, to remember
that Jesus Christ was sacrificed for us. That's why we do this. The Lord Jesus Christ became
a lamb and God killed Him instead of us. God killed the
Lord Jesus Christ instead of us. And that's something to be
very happy about. Very happy about. It's something
to be very thankful for. This means something. What we're
doing up here, it means something. This is the Lord's Passover.
It's the Lord's Passover who passed over all of God's people
because of the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. That's the only
reason. The body and the blood of Jesus
Christ. Now let's all go back over to Acts chapter 2. Verse 39 says, For the promise
is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many
other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves
from this untoward generation. Can we save ourselves? We all know we can. No verse
of Scripture contradicts the rest of Scripture. No verse.
If we find it, then we don't yet have the correct meaning
of the verse. The reason that their hearts were pricked is
because Peter just told them, we've been reading it all along
here, Peter just told them salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is
in His hand. This is what Peter's telling
them right here. He's saying this world, the people of this
world, are untoward. Save yourselves from this untoward
generation. Now, if you take out the letters
UN, you have the word toward. Toward. This generation is untoward
Christ. That's what he's saying. This generation is not looking
to Christ. This generation is not seeking
Christ. They're not coming to Christ.
The word means warped. Winding, it means perverse, crooked. Men and brethren, what shall
we do? Don't follow them. Don't follow
them. Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. Their conversation is not on
Christ, and it's going to bring you down. Save yourself from
that. Save yourself from that. I thought
about this. If you really want to have a
distraught and downcast day, if the day is going too well
for us, and we'd like to just change it and have a distraught
and downcast day, Have a lot of conversation with people who
are not looking to Christ. It'll do it every time. They'll have you looking to yourself.
They'll have you looking to the politicians. They'll have you
looking at the crime in the world. They'll have you looking at the
lust of the world. But they will not have you looking to Christ.
They just won't do it. Save yourself from that. Save
yourself from that. The wisdom of this world is absolute
foolishness. Save yourself from that. Don't
listen to them. Don't listen to them. How do
we do that? Our Lord said, come out from
among the people and have sweet fellowship with believers in
and around the Lord Jesus Christ. Centered on Christ. Look at what
will happen if we do. Verse 41 says, Then they that
gladly received His word were baptized, and the same day there
were added unto them about three thousand souls. Those that the
Spirit called, those that the Spirit convicted, those that
the Spirit convinced, they were baptized into Christ. Spiritually,
literally, baptized into Christ. God's Spirit did the work, and
then He calls those people in obedience to God's command to
confess the work. Verse 42 says, And they continued
steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, and in fellowship, and in breaking
of bread, and in prayers. They continued in the apostles'
doctrine. We are doing the same thing. We're doing the exact
same thing. You remember whenever the Lord
told Peter, Peter, you're a stone. And whatever you say is going
to be bound in heaven. You remember that? The Lord knowing, I'm going to
put all the words in your mouth. I have no idea what Peter said,
other than what's written in this book. Right? The Apostles
doctrine, the Apostles teaching, the Apostles words, they're not
the Apostles, they are Christ. They are the words of Christ.
But we hold to them as the Word of God, and that's what they
were doing. Verse 42 says, they continued steadfastly in the
apostles' doctrine and fellowship, it says. They
continued in fellowship, sweet fellowship in Christ. That is
an evidence of life. It's an evidence of life. John
said this, this is A sad truth, but this is what John said. This
is 1st John 2.19. He said, They went out from us,
but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that
they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. Isn't
that sad? Could any who leave the fellowship
of Christ, and I'm not talking about these four walls. Just
to be clear on that, I'm not talking about these four walls.
I'm talking about fellowship of Christ. Could any who leave
the fellowship of Christ be prodigal sons? Could God bring them back? I hope so. I pray so. If they are, God will bring them
back. Bring them back into this fellowship. Verse 42 says, they
continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship
and in breaking of bread. obeying the ordinance that Christ
commanded. Before our Lord left, He gave
this ordinance, and they continued in it. In just a moment, we're
going to break this bread and remember His broken body, broken
for us. And we are breaking the spiritual
bread right now. This bread, the Word of Christ. He said, I am the living bread,
the heavenly bread. And when we open this book and
feed on His Word, and if we're satisfied by His Word, we're
breaking bread. Verse 42 says they continued
in doctrine, they continued in fellowship, they continued in
breaking of bread, and they continued in prayers. I want to encourage us, I really
want to encourage us more and more to pray for each other. I want to encourage us to pray
for each other. Our Lord said, ask and you will
receive. Ask and you will receive. I pray
that this congregation would follow the example of this early
church. They met together for prayer.
They continued in prayer. I pray that God would absolutely
give us to prayer. completely given to prayer. Try
to remember every soul in this congregation and pray for them. Every single soul from the youngest
to the oldest. I wrote all this down and as
I was writing it down I wrote the word youngest and I thought
about Ballard Coffee. We have a member of this church
who is not born yet. Pray for that little boy. I'm
being serious. Pray that God would give him
a safe entrance into this world be with his mother, something
serious is coming up. Pray for them. Pray that God
would lead him and guide him and cause him to bear the yoke
in his youth. Pray that God would save him
while he's young. Pray that God would give him a believing wife
and give him believing children. And pray that God would use him
in whatever way he sees fit for the furtherance of the gospel.
Pray for him. And go right on up the list and pray for these
children. And pray for our loved ones.
Right on up to the oldest. Pray for them. Pray for them. May we be absolutely given to
prayer. Given to prayer. Verse 43 says,
And fear came upon every soul. That's my prayer for this congregation.
That's my prayer for everything I just said. Lord, please don't
leave one behind. I had a lot of time to dwell on
this and think on each of you. Lord, don't leave one of us behind. There's not one child in one
family that we won't leave behind. Don't leave one of us behind.
May nobody in here be indifferent to the gospel. That's my prayer. Fear came upon every soul. Let's
start praying for that. Save us all. Our Lord can. He
can. He is able. Verse 43 says, Fear
came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by
the apostles, as God said they would, to prove the word. Verse
44, And all that believed were together and had all things common. We're together, aren't we? We're
together. We're not divided. We're only
looking to one thing. We may have a difference of opinion
every now and then. I might want the wall painted
this color. You might want the wall painted that color. But
we're together, aren't we? One thing. We're looking to one
thing. We're looking to Christ and Him crucified. That's what
we're all looking to. We're together in Him. We have
fellowship in Christ. Verse 44 says, They had all things
common, and they provided for each other too. Verse 45 says,
They sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all,
as every man had need. That's what God's people do.
Because of Christ and Him crucified, that's what God's people do.
We've already seen it here. You all have already given so
much to me and us. I don't even know what to say.
I don't even know what to say. You've given everything we need.
Absolutely everything we need. You've given to each other. Money
has been passed around. Sometimes it's a helping hand.
Somebody needs something, everybody piles over. Sometimes we offer a shoulder
to cry on. Sometimes we offer a listening ear. Sometimes it's a verse of scripture
just to bring somebody up. I've been young and now I'm old. I've never seen the righteous
forsaken. I've never seen a seed begging bread. That's comforting,
isn't it? Never. Sometimes it's a car. I drove over here in Brandon's
car tonight. Tony needed my truck, so Tony has my truck. Or maybe
Jared's driving it. Brandon needed it the other day,
so I drove Brandon's truck. And last week, Tony needed a
truck, so Sam gave Tony Sam's truck. And a couple of weeks
ago, I saw Brandon pull up in Dickie's truck. All things common. Really. All things common. Why? It's because of this sweet
fellowship in Christ that we have. That's why. Christ has
given me all things. And we're about to remember what
all He gave me. How could I not give to you? He gave me His body. He gave
me His body. He gave me His blood. He sweat
drops of blood for me. How could I not give to you?
Verse 45 says, They sold their possessions and goods and parted
them to all men as every man had need, and they continuing
daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from
house to house. Wherever they could meet, whenever
they could meet, they met. They met. We meet in this house. We meet at your house. We've
met at your house, we meet at your house. We meet together
anytime we can. Sweet fellowship. And it says,
verse 46, 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. One of the commentaries, I read
somebody on this, and he said there was a big difference in
the classes. back then. You know, to be rich
is to have a really nice car in America, and to be poor is
to have a not so nice car. But everybody has a car. Well,
back then, the rich were very rich, and the poor were very
poor. But they met house to house,
house to house. This man might have served filet
mignon. This man might have served by any sausages or whatever,
but house to house, house to house. I give whatever I have.
I give whatever I have. Verse 46, continuing daily with
one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house, did
eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. We're
just here for the fellowship in Christ. We're just here to
talk about what Christ did for us. Verse 47 says, praising God
and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to
the church daily such as should be said. You know why we have
sweet fellowship? It's because we have one desire.
We want to praise God. We don't want to praise ourself.
We all want to praise God. Every soul there knew, I'm not
here because of Peter's message, not here because of Peter's preaching.
I like the guy, but I'm not here because of Peter. I'm not here
because of the miracles. I'm not here because of those
cloven tongues. I'm not here because of any of that stuff.
I'm here because of Jesus Christ. I'm here because Christ chose
me. Christ bought me. Christ brought
me. And Christ is keeping me. That's
why I'm here. I'm here because Christ brought
me here. He's keeping me here. Verse 47 says, The Lord added
to the church daily such as should be saved. Salvation is of the
Lord. It's all of the Lord. Thank God
for our Lord. Thank God. Now all who believe
on Him and in Him, let's Take this time to remember Him. Okay? Remember the Lord's Passover.
His life for ours. His life for ours.