You're going to like this. You're
going to want to learn this. Brother Bruce Crabtree taught it to me. We sang it together. We're going
to try to sing it at his meeting next month. Very simple tune. Very simple. Just beautiful words. I hope I can get through all
of them. It's wonderful. Wonderful, merciful Savior Precious
Redeemer and Friend Who would have thought that a Lamb could
Rescue the souls of men Oh, You rescue the souls of men pray. You are the one we adore. You give the healing and grace
our hearts always hunger for. Oh, our hearts always hunger
for. Counselor, comfort, Spirit, we long your embrace
You gave us hope when our hearts had Hopelessly lost our way Oh,
we hopelessly lost our way You are the one that we pray You
are the one we adore You give the healing and grace Our hearts
always hunger for Oh, our hearts always hunger for Almighty, infinite Father Faithfully
loving your own Here in our weakness you find us falling before Oh,
we're falling before You are the one that we pray. You are the one we adore. You give the healing and grace
our hearts always hunger for. Oh, our hearts always hunger
for. You are the one that we pray. You're the one we adore You give
the healing and grace Our hearts always stumble through Oh, our
hearts always stumble through You don't want to learn that
much. That's beautiful. I could see all the churches
learning that and sing that as a chorus. On Brother Bruce. Acts chapter
1. Acts chapter 1. Something caught my attention
here and we want to look at. Acts chapter 1, verses 12-14. This is after our Lord arose
from the grave and they went back to Jerusalem, the disciples. Verse 12-14, Then returned they
unto Jerusalem, on the mount called Olivet, which is from
Jerusalem, Sabbath day's journey. And when they would come in,
they went up into an upper room where abode both Peter and James
and John and Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew,
James, son of Alphaeus, Simon Zelotis, and Judas, the brother
of James. And these all continue with one
accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the
mother of Jesus, and with His brethren, that is, our Lord's
earthly brethren. Verse 13 is the text, the title
and subject. They went into and they went
up. into an upper room. The upper room. After our Lord
ascended up, Scripture says, He ascended up,
His disciples met together in this upper room. And they're
all here because of Him. Every person in this room, Not,
well, I hope in this room, but in that room, every person in
that room was there because of Jesus Christ. They were there
together, praying, worshiping, fellowshipping together around
the Lord Jesus Christ. They were there because of Him,
because Christ came and lived for them. We talked about in
the first hour that Christ came, their Savior, their Covenant
Head, their Lord, their Savior came to live for them. And He came to die for them. Here's what Ephesians said, He
that ascended is He that first descended. He first descended. Christ came. He said, I'm from
above. You're from beneath. But in great
condescension, are you with me? I've lost some of you already.
Your minds are racing. I don't know where to leave.
I hope you're in this upper room. You must be a member of this
upper room. One of the old writers said,
never before has there been a symbol of a purer church than this group
right now. Everybody in there. one accord,
doing one thing because of one person. After that, tears and
so forth. Our Lord condescended in great
mercy and grace and love and compassion and mercy, condescended
to this earth, took upon Him this, became a worm. Our young people this morning
about worms, showed them some worms. Didn't you have some worms? Our Lord said that of Himself
in Psalm 22. He said, I am a worm. He became
a worm. He became a man. It was great.
He stooped very low to become a human being. We weren't worthy
of this. But He came to live, to die for
His people. And he arose from the grave,
he that descended, he went further than the grave, brother John.
He condescended, became a man, to live, to die. He was buried,
he was crucified, the curse put in the ground that was cursed
for our sake. Suffered death, which is the curse. And he was
put in the ground, dead, he died, but he went lower than that,
Kevin. He went through hell. Didn't
go to hell, but he went through hell on Calvary's tree for God's
people. So that's why Paul said, who
is it that ascended? It's him that first descended
into the lower parts of the earth. Don't ever lose your amazement
at that. And then he ascended on high.
where he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. He ascended up to the throne
of grace. And he led captivity captive.
And he gathered, and it said in Ephesians 4 there, he gave
gifts unto men. He gathered his people, those
that had escaped of the nations. Are you with me? And he put them all together
in an upper room. The church, I'm going to talk
about the church this morning. I'm going to talk about His people.
I'm going to talk about this building. This building is not the church.
This building is the church house. This building is wood, hay, and
stubble. Alright? This building is not
going to be one stone left standing on another. One brick in this
building. It's going to fall down. Every building will. But
now, God's church, God's temple, God's tabernacle, God's people,
There are stones in his building, temple, his tabernacle, his dwelling
place. This is what I'm talking about.
Who I'm talking about? God's people. And it's always referred
to as an upper room. Upper room. They never assembled
in a basement. Upper room. Let me show you that
Mark chapter 14. Mark 14. I believe this upper
room where they met was where the Lord We've met them every
time before now. Same where He appeared in one
another place, He said, handle me. Touch, after He arose, handle
me. See, it's me. Handle me. And you know, we come
here to behold Him, don't we? Like John
said, that Word of Life, we've handled Him, we've touched Him,
we've laid hold on Him. to handle him, to lay hold of
him by faith, to see his glory, to hear his voice. Mark 14, look
at verse 14. He said, he gave orders, prepare
this room. He said, go in and say to the
good men of the house, the master saith, where is the guest chamber
where I shall eat the Passover with my disciple? This is where
he's going to eat the Passover with his disciple. And brethren,
he says, This is where we are eating the Passover this morning. In verse 15, He'll show you a
large upper room, furnished, prepared. They weren't to bring
a thing. All ready. Large. They all would fit in it. And
this man's going to lead them in, and they're make ready for
us. Christ said, I'm coming. I'm
going to be there. Us together, all of us, taking
apart the Passover together. That's His Church. That's what
we do here today. Is that why you're here? They
were all there of one accord. Why? Why were they there? They
were there because Christ sent them ahead of Him. They were
there worshiping Him, praying, calling on the name of the Lord. The Church of God, the Church
of Christ is called His Temple. It's called His tabernacle, His
dwelling place. Psalm 46 says God's in the midst
of her. God's in the midst of His church.
The Lord is. We read Psalm 84, didn't we? How amiable are thy tabernacles. The Lord has little tabernacles
all over the place. Little synagogues in various
cities. Just like he visited every little poor town all over
Galilee and preached in their synagogue. He's still doing it.
He's still doing it. He has these little tabernacles.
Oh, they're amiable places, aren't they? Huh? Don't take this place
for granted. Everyone that comes in here visiting
from other places, from other amiable tabernacles, they think
this is such an amiable tabernacle. They think we're so blessed.
They think everyone in this upper room is so blessed to be here.
Blessed of the Lord. Chosen of the Lord. Brought of
the Lord. Bought of the Lord. Gathered
of the Lord. Put in this place, this upper
room. Scriptures call it a high calling,
a heavenly calling, a holy place. Mount Zion is always called Mount, while Egypt is sea level. God's people left Egypt, the
slime pits, lower than sea level, to do what? To ascend up to the
Bethel. It's always said in Scripture,
whenever they went up to Bethel, it was up to Bethel, up to the
house of God. If I'd have had my way, I'd have
put this building on a hill like it's supposed to be. That's where
the church house is supposed to be. Nevertheless, if it were
down in a hole like it is, it's still set on a hill. This is
Mount Zion. This is His church that God has
lifted up above this world, taken out of the slime pits. It's a high calling, a heavenly
calling. You're in a heavenly place. You're
in an upper room. You left the lower parts of the
earth to come in this upper room. Yeah, I'm going to shout it. God forbid that we should take
this for granted. It ain't going to stay around. Got a little group in Kingsport.
You know, the Lord sent the gospel there. How blessed they are,
aren't they? Everybody's so enthused. Everybody's so ecstatic. Everybody's
so excited. Every gospel message they hear,
they're getting the gospel out in the community. Come here,
come here. We got the same thing. Don't be like Ephesus. Lose your
first love. Don't be like Laodicea. Go Luke
1. God's put us, these people, everyone
of them, James and John and Peter and Bartholomew, they thought,
oh, I'm so thankful to be here. Thank you, Lord, for dying for
me, for revealing yourself to me, for choosing me and bringing
me and putting me in this upper room with these lovely people,
these saints of God of whom the world is not worthy. Is that
the way you feel? As I said, every mention in Scripture
about the house of God, Bethel, the house of God, about Zion,
it's always, you go up, you always go up, you always ascend. Up out of the miry clay. The
Lord hath made us to sit together in what? Heavenly places. This is a foretaste of glory
divine. This is exactly what those same
people right there are doing now, but the room they're in
now is upper than this. Where they're at now, oh my,
is it a large room or what? They're as high as you can go
now. But, but, but, so are we. We're seated together with Him
in heaven. You say, I don't understand. I don't rightly either, but that's
what the Scripture says. But this is a foretaste of it.
If the Lord will give you a little blessing this morning, if the
Lord will prepare your heart like He did this morning, if
the Lord will put you in His Spirit on this day, the Lord's
day, God's day, in God's house, with God's gospel, God's Word,
with the light of His shed, He'll give you a little foretaste of
heaven, and you won't want to leave here. You know good and
well these people, when the Lord came, they didn't want to leave.
Does this have to end? Upper room. Upper room. A large upper room. I thought about over in Luke
14, the Lord told, He was angry. He was angry with those that
didn't come to the supper of His Son. He was angry. They all
began with one excuse to make excuses. I've married me a wife.
I've got land. I've got this. I've got that.
And He was angry. And God's Son is celebrated today. God's Son is exalted on this
day. God's Son is glorified on this day. God's Son, of whom
the world is not worthy, is worshiped and glorified on the Lord's Day.
Wherever His people meet, every time, they worship the Son for
coming to this despicable place, this present evil world. They
worship the Son. And those that don't worship,
cry. Those that don't come, don't know Him. Those that say, I'm
not interested, I have better things. Better? Better things
than Christ? I'm not interested. God says,
I'm not interested in you either. So He says, here's what He says
in great mercy. Listen to Him. Here's what the
Lord of Heaven says in great mercy. Go out into the highways
and the hedges. Go to Mabscot or some low place
like that. Go to Grimley, Virginia. Seek
them, search them, find them out. The lowly ones, the unworthy
ones. Bring them in. My place is going
to be furnished. My room is going to be full.
And they did that. They came and they brought them
in. And one of the men said, but Lord, there's still room. There's still room. The gospel
is still being preached. This is a large room. His church,
his temple is a large room. It's his heart. He has a largeness
of heart. It's his church. There's a people,
there's a number of the sands of the sea and the stars of the
sky. It's a large room. And there's
still room. Anybody interested? I thought about Noah going out
to find those animals. You reckon, do you reckon, that
the lowest dog, an old cur dog walking along, if he'd have just
said, hey, Noah, can I come? Do you reckon he'd have had him? Asked. You receive, you have to receive
because you haven't had. Rahab's church, Rahab's church,
the church of Rahab, was on a high on a wall, wasn't it? Those spies
she hid says they were up on the roof. She's not hiding them
down in the basement like she's ashamed of. She's got them up
on the roof. Esteem them highly for the truth's sake. That's
everyone that loves the gospel and those who preach it. They
esteem them highly for their work's sake. Elijah, Elijah the
widow, the widow had Elijah stay with her and she put him in the
loft. She slept downstairs, I guess,
on the couch. And the Lord raised her dead
son through that man. Elisha, his successor, Elisha,
there was a man and a woman, husband and a wife, that they
loved him so, they esteemed him so highly, they built a little
room, a loft, just for him to stay in every time he came there. If you read it, it says he had
a bed, a table, a chair, and that's it. That's all he needed. And they fed him. There that
the Lord fed them. They put him in a loft where
their son died too. And every one of our children were
born dead in trespass sin. They took that dead son and took
him up into that loft where that man of God was and laid him on
his bed. And you know that man of God
came and fell on him and the Lord gave that son life. And
if God's going to give your son or your daughter or your mother
or your father or your husband or your wife, He's going to give
them life. He's going to do it through a
man of God, through the preaching of the gospel in an upper room. That's a fact. That's a fact. Who's in this room? Look with
me who's in this room. Verse 13, they came to the upper
room where abode both Peter. Now, after the Gospels, he's
called Peter. The Lord never called him Peter.
The Lord gave him his name. The Lord gave him his name. He said, Thou shalt be called
Peter. But the Lord always referred to him, Brother John, as Simon. The Lord always referred to him
as Simon. Son of Jonas. I guess to remind him where he
came from. Remind him who chose who. Who changed who. Who brought
who. Who bought who. Simon. He kept
calling him Simon. But after the Lord died and arose,
he's called Peter. Peter. Simon Peter is first mentioned. Simon Peter is first mentioned. And he's perhaps the worst of
all these disciples. Oh yeah, you'd ask him, he'd
tell you. Before the Lord went to the cross, Peter stood up
in pride. He exalted himself above his
brethren. He said, they may leave you,
not me. The Lord said, Simon, Satan hath desire to sift you
like we, and you're only hope, Simon. Your only hope is Me. And I'm going to let Him have
you. And He's going to bring you so
far down that you think you'll never get up. And you're going
to think you're not in the kingdom. You're going to think you're
lost. You're going to think you're not one of His disciples. You will deny Me. Simon Peter,
who had all that pride and all that self-boasting and all that,
A little maid, a pretty little girl, just reduced him to nothing. And he denied the Lord, cussing,
reverted right back to that old cussing sailor that he used to
be. The Lord took his hand off of him
for one moment. The same thing would happen to another. And
old Simon Peter, when the Lord arose from the
grave, he mentioned one name. He told the angel. Go tell my
disciples. I'm alive. They all forsook me. Go tell
my disciples." And Peter, not Simon, Peter, rock. Peter didn't think he was a rock. He knew he was a Simon. But God
said, Go tell him. And buddy, when the Lord sent
that, when they finally saw they were out fishing, remember? And
when he saw the Lord for the first time after he arose from
the grave, he couldn't get to him fast enough. It's the Lord,
Peter. Who's there? Who's in this upper
room? Are you a silent? No? One of the first things Peter
said in his epistle was, we're kept by the power of God. Simon Peter was there. Praying, worshiping, he's the
most grateful, one of the most grateful persons there. James, John, look at it, verse
13, James and John, Andrew, Andrew, Simon's brother, you know, James
and John, they were brothers. Oh, what a blessing. His brother was a believer. Andrew. James and John, brothers. Like
you and Deborah, Teresa, sisters. You know what mercy it is that
the Lord saved anybody? You know what? He said, out of
every kindred, out of every family, I'm going to save one. One. Mercy. And the Lord revealed
Himself. I don't know which one of you was first, but it doesn't
matter, does it? Last to be first, first last. But when the Lord
revealed Himself to you, oh, thank you, Lord. Thank you. Thank
you. And then He revealed Himself
to your sisters. Double mercy. Oh, Lydia, the Lord saved her
whole house. Oh, the house of Mahan has been
so blessed. The house of Stonica. Oh, my! The house of Parks. Do you realize how blessed? But
I'm here to tell you that man behind you is your brother. More so than your blood. Yes sir, that's why Peter wrote,
Peter wrote, see that you love one another as brethren. Not
going to be any kin in glory. All kin to Christ. All blood
kin in Christ. Love that brother like your brother.
That's who the Lord loves. That's who the Lord came to die
for. Might not be your blood kin, but He came for that fellow.
Love him. Love her. Forgive her. To the
Lord forgives. Dare we not love the one that
our Lord loved? Dare we not forgive the one our
Lord forgave? If we don't, He won't forgive
us. Brothers. The Lord saved some
brothers. It ain't over yet. Your brother
Robin may be sitting here one of these days. Wouldn't that
be wonderful? You're here though! in the upper room with Simon. We'll sing, won't we? We'll pray
while they're praying. Thank You, Lord. Thank You for
coming and living and dying and bringing me. Thank You for revealing
Yourself to me. Thank You for putting me in Your
Kingdom. Thank You, Lord. What a high
and holy calling this is. I'm showing my missing tooth.
I don't care. I will abase myself further like
David in that ephod before that one you showed yourself today.
I'll be more vile. Why are you here? Your choice? Your decision? Your works? No. Jesus Christ. The world full of people out
there in religion and trusting themselves, trusting their works,
trusting their baptism, trusting their preacher, trusting this,
trusting that, going to be cast out someday. Here we are, this
little flock in an upper room, which the world has disdain for, saying, let's cast their cords
from us. Let's get rid of them. This little upper room of people,
the whole world wanted them dead. Wanted them gone, but the Lord
is a shield. One little room full of people,
unarmed. The whole world wanted to do
away with them. Couldn't touch them. They know
where they are. They're in the upper room. All
you have to do is go. There they are. Barge in and
take them. The Lord says, nope. The gates of hell are not for
me, I guess. Is this good or what? The upper
room. I'm so thankful to be here. I
wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I'd rather be a doorkeeper. Your dad used to stand right
back there, didn't he? A doorkeeper. Greeting everybody
that came in. Greeting everybody that left.
Happy with that big old grin on his face. He had some tooth
missing, didn't he? He didn't care. Why? He would rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of God than to dwell in the First Baptist Church of
heresy. There's a million members. All
about money and man's glory bringing people in and making a name for
themselves. Not in the name of God, not for
the glory of God, not for the glory of Jesus Christ, but for
their own glory. Christ said that over and over
again. But He has His people a remnant
according to the election of grace that Christ came and died
for and revealed Himself to, revealed the truth, revealed
Christ in them. They love Christ. They love His
glory. They love His gospel. They love His salvation. And
He puts them in an upper room. They're singing about Him. They're
praying unto Him. They're worshiping, they're fellowshipping
around Him. And that's my last point. Who else is there? Look at verse
13. It says, there's James and John
and Andrew and Philip. Oh, I hope there's another Andrew.
You reckon there's room for another Andrew? A couple of Andrews? I believe
James Andrew's in there. I think he's in there forever.
I know he is. You reckon there's room for another
Andrew? That's a large room. Thomas. Thomas is there. Thomas is there.
Anybody here know Thomas? Thomas is there. What about old
Thomas? Thomas was full of doubt. Thomas said, I don't believe.
I don't believe. And I won't believe. He shows
me. And while everybody was meeting, Thomas was somewhere with somebody
doing something. What was he doing? I don't know,
but it wasn't worth it to him. And he just got in worse doubt
and worse fear and worse unbelief and just groveling. And somebody sent word and said,
the Lord's alive. And he said to go and he's going
to meet with us. So Thomas came. Thomas came. And the Lord, that first person,
that first person, the only person he mentioned by name was Thomas. Be not faithless, but believe
in that. Reach hither your hand. Lay hold
of me, Thomas. Look at this. Thrust your hand
into my side. This side was This side was pierced
for you. Out of it came blood and water
for you. Your sanctification, your justification, your salvation
was all in me. Thomas, look at my hands. These
hands were nailed to that tree. He made a curse for you, Thomas.
Thomas, lay hold of my side. Thomas, look at my hand. Look
at my feet. Thomas said, My Lord and my God, I'll never
doubt you again. He hit his knees. Thomas is there. He's so happy to be there. When
it's all over and everybody's leaving, Thomas said, I don't
know if I want to leave here or not. Last time I wasn't here,
I got in real trouble. Thomas, we're meeting next week.
I'll be there! Upper room. Who else was there? 14 says, the women. The women. What women? Can you name one
of them? The women. The same women were
with Him always. One in particular. What was her
name? Anybody? Mary. Mary Magdalene. Out of whom the Lord cast seven
devils, a harlot, a streetwalker, a whore. She had sold her body. As low
as you could get. Now she's as high as she can
get. Almost. Yeah, she is. She's in the upper
room. She was a straight walker. Now
she's in the upper room. Mary Magdalene. Oh, man. One Mary, and it says Mary the
mother of Jesus. There were two or three Marys.
Mary, you've got a good name, you know, a real good name. Stephen,
you've got a great name. Thomas, James, on and on. But Mary, the mother of Jesus,
former virgin, she's not, she wasn't a virgin after she had
Christ. She had other children, because it says his brethren.
She had other children. She did not remain a virgin,
unlike Catholicism said. She had other children. But Mary
was a chaste virgin when the Lord put Christ in her. Mary
was a chaste virgin. The Lord, she was a righteous,
a just young woman. Very young, maybe 18 years old
or younger. And she was upright and chaste
and virginal, okay? The Lord saved her as a vessel,
a borrowed womb, like the borrowed tomb. The Lord chose her, not
because she's better than anybody else, but He just chose her.
But He had her be a pristine, white virgin for Christ to be,
not without sin, but for Christ to be born in, okay? Alright,
but the other Mary sold her body. sold herself to every man that
wanted her. And now, here they both are. One. They're both here. They're the
closest sisters that could possibly be. Mary Magdalene and the former
Virgin Mary are inseparable sisters. Why? Why? Who made this one to differ? Who let this Mary do that? Who
prevented this Mary from doing that? They both knew. They both
knew. It was the grace of God. The sovereign grace of God. The
sovereign purpose of God. And now they're both there, bested
friend, inseparable companion. They're both there because of
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And they both esteemed the other
better than themselves. Mary, the former virgin, said,
she thought, I'm not worthy of being with Mary Magdalene. You remember the story of Boaz
bringing his bride-to-be in? His mother's Rahab, remember?
Boaz's mother's Rahab. And you know what happened. He
brought in Ruth. You know, he met this Moabite
maiden and was going to marry her. And he brought her in to
meet Rahab. And Ruth didn't know anything
about Rahab. But she heard much about her.
Boaz spoke very highly of his mother. So did everybody else. And Ruth came in and said, oh,
Miss Rahab, I've heard so much about you. She said, I'm so grateful
to be a member of this family. I'm so grateful to be here. I'm
not worthy to be called your sister-in-law, Miss Rahab. And
Rahab thought, honey, you just don't know. You just don't know. They're all here, people, if
you're in the body of Christ, if you're in the church of Christ,
if you're in this upper room. You're there because Christ chose
you. You're there because Christ died
for you. You're there because Christ lived for you. You're
there because He sent His Holy Spirit to find you. Oh, Mephibosheth,
are you here? You're there because the Son
of David sent the strong gospel to fetch you. What are they doing? Oh, they're all doing that. His
brethren. That's something, isn't it? The Lord's brethren. He had
brothers and sisters, at least four, five, six or more. His
brethren. They didn't believe Him, did
they? At first. Remember that? We just
looked at that. They didn't believe Him. They rejected Him. They
thought, He's beside Himself. What's wrong with Him? That's
our brother Jesus. What's wrong with you? They do now. They do now. Why? It takes great power to
convince an agnostic, doesn't it? My brother's an agnostic.
My brother's one of those wise and mighty and noble, isn't he?
Going to take the same grace to reveal Christ to him as it
did this prodigal son. Same grace. Anybody have smart
brothers and sisters? Our Lord's, they were there.
What were they doing? Let me close. It says they all
continued with one accord. There was no divisions. Can you
imagine being part of a church where there's no divisions? No
schisms. Nobody's mad at anybody. Nobody's
upset over anything. Nobody's there with a bitterness.
Nobody's there with a root of bitterness. Nobody's there with
any, I don't like that person. They were one accord. That's
why that old writer said this was probably the purest meeting
of the church ever in the history of the church. Paul wrote of
this over and over again. He wrote to the Corinthians.
He said, I hear there's schisms among you. He said, I hear you
like this preacher better than that preacher. He said, Paul
didn't die for you. Apollos didn't die for you. Christ
died. We're all a bunch of nobodies,
a bunch of nothing. We're all sinners saved by grace.
He said, this is carnal. He went on and on again. This
is karma. It's supposed to be spiritual. Why would you have
anything against your brother? This is who Christ died for.
He said, let us all be of one mind and one accord and one spirit. Like these people. Undeserving,
unworthy to be in the upper room, unworthy to be there. Told you
about, you know, what if those animals on the ark, what if one
of those animals growled at another one on that ark? Huh? What if a dog or cat went
by? I don't like cats. What do you
reckon Noah would do? Huh, Catherine? What do you reckon
Noah would do? You're here because I chose you. You're here not because you deserve
to. You're here because I brought
you here. Now you go over there and you
kiss that cat. And don't let me ever see you
acting like that again. Or you're going to be the first
to be sacrificed with the unclean. One accord. They were all there
with one accord. One note. Singing in perfect
harmony. One note. What key were they
in? I know what key they were in. I know what key the song
of Dower at Worthy is in. Middle C. Why did somebody, where
are you Jeanette? Somebody just somewhere in the
beginning said, let's put notes on the piano and we'll tune the
whole piano to one note. What do we call it? Seriously. The light is cast
in the lab. Some fellow said, let's call
it Middle C. And all the notes are going to
be tuned with that one. And if they're out of tune, get
them in tune. We're here with one chord to
ring, one chord to sing, one song to sing, one note, sweetest
note of seraph's song, sweetest name on mortal tongue. The name
of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that
He's Lord to the glory of God. Christ. Christ Middlesex. One accord with prayer. What
are they praying for? Prayer and supplication. What
are they praying for? They're praying for the preacher.
Peter's about to get up and preach to him. James and John and Andrew,
they're going to preach to him. They need to hear preaching.
They need to hear it. They live on it. The Lord's gone. Mary Magdalene
sat at His feet and heard the best preacher on earth. And you
did too. She needs to hear preaching,
good preaching. And so Peter and the rest of
them got up. They were sent by God. They were
men of God. How shall they hear without a
preacher? And God, Christ sent these preachers of the gospel.
And boy, what did they preach? Who? They preached Christ. And Mary Magdalene said, yes,
sounds just like my Lord. She said, They preached prayer,
they prayed for the preacher, they prayed for each other, they
prayed for each other. I've said thousands of times,
well, hundreds, that you cannot get mad at somebody you're really
praying for. Oh, Lord of hosts, turn us again,
us again. Oh, Lord of hosts, and cause
Thy face to shine, we shall be saved. Forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us. Give us this day. Bless us. Lord, if you don't
bless me, bless us. Bless them. They were praying
for mercy. They were praying for grace.
They were praying for wisdom. Lord, we got to go out in that
world. They were praying for courage. They were afraid. Weren't they afraid? They had
enemies all around. They were praying for courage.
They were praying for unity. They were praying for love. You're
praying for love, you love. If you're praying for unity,
you'll be united. If you're praying for your brother, you love him.
That's what they were praying for. Supplication. Supply us. Supply us. We're poor and needy. We can't
supply anything. He's the God of all grace. Supply
us. Supplicants. They were supplicants. Supply us with every need. Supply
us. They were in the upper room. Now, let me read this to you
again. I am in one. Are thou a tabernacle, O Lord
of hosts? My soul longeth. Yea, even fainteth
my soul, my inner being, my whole man, my inner man longeth to
worship with God's people. Fainteth. I'm going to faint.
I'm going to die if I don't hear Christ preach, if I don't be
with God's people. Oh, my heart, my desire, my flesh,
my body. I need my body washed with pure
water. Sparrows found the house. Oh,
there's some young ladies who have their young there, found
a nest for herself, and there lay her young. The Lord will bless that. Oh,
how blessed are they that dwell in thy hand. They will be still. I read that
right. They will be still. Praise Him
today. Pentecostal religion with all
this going on. Somebody said, the less you have
on the inside, the more you have to have on the outside. An empty
drum makes the loudest sound. God's people sit still. They
stand still and behold the salvation of the Lord. Their strength is
to sit still while a man opens his mouth, opens the Word of
God and declares their strength. declares their salvation, declares
their hope, their salvation, declares the Lord Jesus Christ
in Him crucified. And they sit still. On the inside,
they're bubbling. On the inside, they're standing.
On the inside, they're shouting. On the inside, they're running.
But they're sitting still, praising Him. And they will be still praising
Him. They will always be praising
Him. Right now, in glory. in that upper, upper room. There
sits Mary. There sits Simon. There sits James and John. There
sits Thomas. There they sit. There they sit
together with one accord. They're not praying though, but
they're singing. And they're, oh, they're all
so thankful. So thankful to be there. I hope. I hope God has shown you what
a heavenly place this is. Pray for us, brethren. Pray for
us. 188. I hope you can sing these
words as never before. He says, I love thy church, O
God. For her my tears shall fall.
For her my prayers ascend. To her my cares and toils be
given till toils and cares shall be other." That's this place
right here. So let's sing it from the heart,
number 188. It's all standing. I love thy kingdom, Lord, the
house of thine abode. The church shall bless, redeem,
and save with His own precious blood.