It's been so long since we've
seen the sun and the stars. You make me feel as though I'm
walking across your land. I dream a dream that's so bright. I'm upset. Thank you, Sherry. All right,
open your Bible now to the Book of Acts, Chapter 2. Acts, Chapter
2. Acts, Chapter 2. I bet you know
we have been, we have looked at this a couple of times in
the past few weeks, and I was reading it again, and something
struck me here. And I'm going to build on it.
Verse forty-four of Acts chapter two, and two, three, and that's
verse, or a couple of verses. Acts chapter two, verse forty-four,
And all that believed were together, and had all things promised. All that believed were together
and had all things common. Same thing. Again, I like titles
and messages and titles which suggest faith and the title of
this message is In This Together or We're In This Together. All that believed were in this
together and had all things common. Look at verse 46. And they, that
is believers, to whom the Lord hath revealed himself, they continuing
daily with one accord, that is one purpose, one mind, one heart,
in the temple, place of worship, breaking bread, from house to
house, did eat their deeds with gladness and shameless heart. The believers there, and there
were many, Three thousand or more were all together as often
as they could be. And this was a wonderful time.
Just a happy time. They were all together, gathering
together in worship and fellowship around the gospel of Christ,
so different than what we have here. And there's nothing on this earth
quite like this. You know what? This togetherness
that believers have, there's nothing like this. This gathering
of believers is heaven on earth, is what it is. It's, as the psalm
says, a foretaste of glory divine. Because that great gathering
will be this in perfection. We're not going to be doing anything
different than what we're doing now. Except we'll be doing it
with a perfect heart. We'll be able to worship with
a perfect heart. And this is a preview of that
gathering. That gathering in glory. And
it's all because of the Lord's doings. It's time-dependent because
of the Lord's doings. And it was marvelous compared
to that. And we've had a little taste of it here. And it's just
marvelous in our eyes. We know it's the Lord's doings.
What it is, what happened back then was the great shepherd was
gathering his sheep into the foal. He was gathering his flock
together into the foal, the one who goes after the lost sheep,
who leaves the nine and nine and goes after the one, each
one, and brings them all into the foal, into the flock, into
the gathering, into the congregation. Now look at verse 16. This was prophesied. Peter said
this in verse 16 of his message. This is that which was spoken
by the prophet Job. Now look back at Job, which Brother
Edmund prayed to. This is what happened at Pentecost,
and guess what has taken place in our little city. was prophesied
as his song. I mean, that's a joke, but why
joke? David calls, and I really don't need to hear it. Look at Joel, chapter 2. Let's
just look at a few of these verses he read. Verse 15. The Lord said,
blow the trumpet in Zion. What was the trumpet? Now, this
is the call. This is the gospel call. This
is the trumpet that the preacher is commanded to sound for. Sound
it clear. Don't give an uncertainty signal.
But the gospel is that gospel trumpet which all the people
here agree on. Sanctify the fast. So that is,
they forsake worldly things in order to go and worship their
Lord. They put aside other enjoyments
and things in order to go worship the Lord. Call a solemn assembly
while the meeting and gathering of believers is an enjoyable
time, yet it's serious. It's a serious and solemn calling
on the Lord. And that's what we're doing.
Gather the people. Verse 16, look at it. Gather
the people. Sanctify the congregation. Assemble the elders. This is
the gathering of God's elect through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. See, this is the Lord's duty. He gathers His people. We're
bound to give thanks anyway. Go ahead. Everyone of us in here
are here because the Lord gathered us here. This is His gathering.
Read on. Gather the children. and those
that suffer the greatest, young and old, yet even the smallest
of the small. Some of the little children come
out of there. Some of the little children come out. We don't. Let the bridegroom go forth of
his chamber. Do you know what that is? That's
Christ. When the people are gathered
in his name, he said, I'll be right in the middle. And the
bride will go out and come out of her closet and to meet him. the Lord. Old and young, all
believing, striving to meet the Lord. Verses 18 and 19. Then
will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people. All the Lord hath come to pity
them. Verse 19. Yea, the Lord will answer He'll
answer the call of his people, say of his people, Behold, I
will send you corn, and wine, and oil, a feast, a very good
feast. He'll spread a table right in
the midst of our enemy. And this is at this most seemingly
dangerous of times. Why, we're enjoying a feast,
freedom. Corn, wine, and oil, and you
shall be satisfied very quickly. When God spreads the table, that's
the gospel table, his people are well satisfied. And they
won't be satisfied with anything else after that. Read on. And, uh, verse 19. And you shall
be satisfied, and I will no more make you a reproach among the
heathen, for you won't be with the heathen in their reproach
of me. Verse 21. Fear not, O man, be
glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do great things, or hath
done great things for us whereof we are glad. Verse twenty-three,
Be glad, then, ye children of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your
God. For he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he
will cause to come down to you the rain, the former rain, and
the latter rain. We've experienced that. 1 Corinthians 6, jump down
there. And you shall eat in plenty.
How the world needs us, how the people needs their people. You shall eat in plenty and be
satisfied. And this is who you'll praise.
You'll praise the name of the Lord your God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, that hath dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall
never be ashamed. I hope those who believe will
never be put to shame. Verse 27, and you shall know,
you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am
the Lord, and you're God, and there is none other. I am me,
and my people, you're my people, and you'll never be ashamed.
Never be ashamed. Never put to shame. And this
is in verse 32. Verse 32, it shall come to pass.
This is what is quoted by the Apostle Paul in Romans 10, as
well as Peter and Pentecost. It shall come to pass that whosoever,
young or old, whosoever, male, female, Jew, Gentile, whosoever,
shall call the name of the Lord shall be delivered. Whosoever
seeks his face, whoever repents, whoever calls to him, shall be
saved, shall be delivered. For in Mount Sinai, that's the
church, and in Jerusalem, shall be delivered, just like the Lord
said. And why are they called? Because
they're the remnant of the Lord. So what the Lord did, did He
cause? Gathering His people together.
He said He would do it long before that. Gather the people. Gather
them out of the gathering by the gospel coming. This has always
been the way in which the Lord has brought his people to himself,
brought them into the church. Nothing else, nor the means,
other than the preaching of the word. This is the power of God. This is the numinous, the dynamite,
the life-giving power of God. And he gathers up, this is a
shepherd's hall, and every one of his sheep, every one of them,
shall hear this gospel talk, and they'll be gathered together
with the saints at the rift. Look at Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. And the
Lord is right now gathering his elect together. We're seeing
that in our meetings. Reviving his work in the midst
of the years. Ephesians chapter 2. And then
we're going to dwell here the rest of the time. Ephesians chapter
2. I want you to see this and you'll
rejoice at this. the things we have together in
Christ. How the Lord has brought us together
is what we have together. All right? Now, I talked about
sheep, and I talked about gathering together, or the Scripture tells
us. This is the nature of sheep. This is sheep's nature. Sheep
must gather with other sheep. It's their nature. They need
together, they must gather. They need it for comfort, they
need it for safety. Sheep are what we call gregarious
creatures, that you get the word congregate from that, that gregarious. That is, they flock together.
There's no such thing as a wild sheep. No such thing. There's no such thing as a solitary
sheep. A sheep cannot last any time
at all, five seconds. They're easy prey. I've been
around sheep farmers, and they tell me they're subject to so
many maladies, so many illnesses, that they will just die of the
five seconds they've gone through. So there's no such thing as a
wild sheep or a solitary sheep. Sheep must have a sheep. Now
listen to this. This is interesting. The very
word sheep, the very word sheep is both singular and plural. That's by design. That's no mere
accident. That's no mere coincidence. As
a matter of fact, every clean animal that was on that ark is
both singular and plural. Cattle? Elk? Deer? Whatever parts of a woman
choose to put, considered clean by God, is both singular and
plural. Do you understand the significance
of that? That's why I'm denying it. In other words, she is a
person, singular person, yet they must have a view. Is there
a way to explain that? Now, a ghost can't stand alone. And there's ghosts. So you see. But not sheep. Sheep must have
other sheep. Now, the church. That's where we get the word
church, don't we? Now, there are many individual
churches, aren't there? There are many local churches,
if you will. They all make up the church. We're all together. One flock,
one fold. I love that passage in Luke 12
where he says, Fear not, little flock, it's your father's good
pleasure to give unto you a kingdom. Look at chapter 2 now. Now look
at all these things we have together. Look at what we were in verses
1 through 3. And you had the equipments who
were dead and trespassed unseen. In time had you walked according
to the course of this world. You did what everybody else did.
You did what others did. Freedom. According to the prince
of the parlier, you, like them, were taken captive by him at
his will. Spirit does not work within the
children of disobedience. You and I were children of disobedience. Among whom, also, we all had
our conversation in time past. in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others." In other words, before
we were partners in crime together. We were together with this world. in our hatred of God, in our
rejection of Christ, or we're not. We're together with this
world. But salvation is to bring them,
bring His people out of them, save them from this unfortunate
generation, to sanctify them, to draw them out of them, to
choose them out of them, to pluck them as a brand from the harvest. Verse 4 says, but doubt, and
we were partners in crime together, cronies in crime and sin, but
doubt. This is his word. Who is rich
in mercy, he has a lot of it. For his great love for which
he loved us, even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us
together with pride. Here's the first thing we have
together. We're quickened together. We're quickened together with
Christ. We're brought to life. The word
quick means life. And our Lord said, My word is
quick in His life. That's what our Lord said Himself.
He said, My word is spirit and He is life. And what is this
word? Christ is that work. He said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. And so our Lord himself,
through the preaching of the gospel, reveals himself in us
and to us, therefore giving life. We're brought to life in Christ.
That's what that's saying, we're quickened together with Christ,
brought forth from death unto life by one thing, by the gospel. That's his quickening power.
The gospel is the power of God in salvation. The gospel is the
word of life, the gospel of Christ who gives life. The gospel preached
and applied by the Holy Spirit is life. Life from the dead. Now, it says we're quitting together. Though each of us hear the gospel
individually, and we do, we must, this thing of salvation is between
the Lord and the sinner. Like the woman caught in a filter,
the Lord had everybody throw out, and he kept her. Like the
man who was blind, he took him by the hand and let him out of
the can. like the man who was dead and had a speech impediment.
He took him by the hand and laid him out, and the devil came first.
However, collectively, we hear this gospel together sometimes.
There were three thousands of Pentecostals. Now this is the
power of the Lord's Word, and yet the personal There were 3,000
people there, but each one of them individually thought, he's
talking to me. He's talking to me. They were
freaking together. You heard the gospel, I heard
the gospel, we hear the gospel together, for two or three are
gathered together. That's where I'm going to be.
And that's where he quickens with the preaching of the gospel.
With Christ. We're given life with Christ.
Look at the next thing, verse six. And he hath raised us up
together. Raised us up together. Now the gospel, the first thing
the gospel, the Word of God does, is it abases us. It breaks the
heart. It brings us down in repentance,
to say that we're nothing, to bow to the feet of the Lord in
repentance, asking for mercy. But after the gospel brings us
down, in whom the Lord abases, whoever's faithful, he raises
up. He raises up the sinner. to the
place of the sun. He raises them up. The gospel,
Isaiah 61 says, gives beauty for ashes. The gospel gives joy
for morning. The gospel gives praise for heaven. Psalm 145, 14 says, the Lord
raises up all. Tell me about that. Now man was created upright.
Man was created upright, and sin brought him up. But God was
manifested in the flesh, and He became sin for us. He was
brought up that we might be raised up. He raises up all as He bowed
down, all who were bowed by sin, and all who bowed in need of
Christ. He will raise them up. Hannah said this, he raised up
the poor out of the dust. She said, he lifted up the beggar
from the dunghill to sit among princes. And that's the next
thing, okay, the first thing. He had raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in a crowd of people. Now there were many public instances.
Many harlots and thieves and murderers have sat with Christ
then, and they do so now. Many. They say that being in
derision, while this man received the public, he was a sinner.
Did he do a good thing? Yes, he does a good thing. In
that way. What they say in derision, we say in praise. He sits with
sinners. Sinners get to sit with him.
Those who want saddle or doe here, And maybe he's going to
enjoy it. He raised it up, set it at the
king's table among the princes, with the very princes' pieces.
Now, listen to me. I want you to listen to this.
Why he said, we're seated with Christ. This is wonderful. They
sit, they sit, because everybody here is sitting with me. Everyone here is resting. You're resting in your life.
When you're seated, you're resting. Right? When you're seated, you're
resting. And all believers are seated
in Christ. They're resting in Christ because
the work is finished. The old Testament High Priest
never sat down. There was no chair in that temple.
No chair. His work was never finished.
But the scripture says when Christ By himself, urged Arsene, entered
into that holy place by himself, with his own precious blood,
and obtained eternal redemption for his people. It says he sat
down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. The work was
finished. Nothing left to be done. He rested
from his works, as the Lord did. He's the Lord Arsene. And we
are seated. We're not bowing. We're seated.
We're seated. And just like the animals and
doves aren't, they were all... What did the animals and doves
aren't do? They eat and rest. Eat and rest. And the Lord has made us sit.
Notice it said there, He has made us sit. He made us sit. Like Psalm 23, He made it thus
to lie down and bring pain. Somebody said it's one of the
hardest things. It's almost impossible for someone
to completely rest in Christ alone. The Lord has to make you
do it. He has to make you lie down.
Like an old dog, like a wild deer dog, which you get. The
first thing you want to teach that thing is what? Sin. And sometimes it's a hard lesson.
He wants to run and tip and tap, but he'll run into trouble. And
the best thing that that master can teach him is to sit by my
feet. That's the wisdom of the commandment.
He's the one. Sit. If the dog runs before you,
he'll run out and pat the car. He'll run into trouble. But if
you sit and stay right by the master's side, he's at a much
safer place. He made us to sit, paid us to
sit. And it says sit together. He
made us to sit together. The Lord could take a lion and
a lamb and make them both sit together in peace. different personalities from
all walks of life and bring them together and sit them in Christ's
name. Like that demon turned son, where
did you find him? Seated. Clothed in his right
mind. And the next thing is seated
in fire. Not only in fire breath, but
in his mind's equality. You can probably sit down. The
man back there is 6 foot what? 4? 3? 4? 2? The man back there
is 6 foot 9? There's nothing. He's a dog.
He's a tall peasant. Their mom is over 6 feet. This
person might be short. I don't want to embarrass anybody.
I wish I was sitting down there. Well, the man over there is 5
foot, or maybe he's 5 foot. Y'all look the same height. Y'all are the same. Equal. It's an equality when
you're single. Think about David's table. King
David's table? David had at that table the mightiest
men on the face of the planet. He had a list of captains. If
you want to read something good sometime, read about David, the
exploits of David's mighty captains. Joab and all those fellas. Read
about it. They slew thousands, I didn't
say it. He had a mighty captain seated at his table. He had his
son Solomon. Oh, Solomon, he had seated at
his table. He had his beautiful wives, Abigail
and so forth seated. And there was Mephibosheth. And
there was Mephibosheth. Who's Mephibosheth? He's the
same as Joab at that table. He's the same as Solomon at that
table. Everybody seated at the same table. It implied equality. all seated, all accepted in the
delivery, and all have been brought there by the king himself." Verse
21. The next time, go to verse 21.
You don't want to go down to verse 21. So he's wicked us together,
raised us up together, sat us down at his table together. Verse
21. "...in whom in Christ all the
building is fitly trained together." See that? Verse 21, chapter...
Didn't they train together? As in genre, this is... Well,
look at verse... chapter 4. Look across the page. Chapter 4, verse 16. He says,
from whom that is Christ, the whole body is fitly joined together,
as in joinery, as in first-class, high-quality carpentry. They
used to call real fine carpentry years ago, and still do, joinery,
because it was all done by hand, and it was done by a master carpenter. And Buddy, when he'd make those
dovetails and those various joints and put the gluteal and put them
together, they are not coming apart. What the master carpenter
would feel is, if they joined together, they were joined together
and there were no gaps by the master carpenter. And whatever
the master carpenter feels, it will never fall. If the joinery's
good, if the joinery's good, And it's fit in the joint. It
will never fall. And not one stud, not one rafter,
and not one joist will come out of that building if it's done
right. And Christ our Head, our Master
Builder, on His temple, now except the Lord build a house, may labor
in vain to do it. But he who hath built us, or
joined us together, he fitly joins us together. We're all
members of his body, and not one whom Christ hath saved is
not one of Israel's. Every one of the children of
Israel came out of Egypt. Every one of them. Every one
of them. Now look at chapter two. It says
in verse twenty-two, And in Christ ye also are built together for
the adoration of God through the Spirit. We're all built together. This works. Now, we notice this
in Philippians one. Now, he that hath begun a good
work in you will perform, will finish it, will perfect it when
Christ cometh. We're being built up on this
most holy faith. We're not yet perfect. We're
growing in grace and knowledge of our Lord. We're being built
up, and if you're built on that foundation, which is Christ's
law, you will indeed grow up under the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ. Not one of us is perfect yet,
but right. Even Paul said that. I have arrived,
he said. I haven't yet attained what I'm
doing, but we're being built up on that foundation. Build
it together, we're growing together. Because we're all seated together,
we're all joined together, we've all been raised up together,
quickened together. And what is it that builds us
up as well as quickens us? The same thing, the gospel. We're
built up, we're perfected, we've grown in the duration and knowledge
of our Lord and in His image, day from glory to glory, until
chapter one, and I'll close with this. Chapter 1. Until that final top song is
played, which is a revelable play, you know, with a shout
of grace unto it. And that's what we're all going
to shout. That's what all of Jerusalem is going to shout. Grace. We're saved by grace. And verse 10 says in the fullness
of time, He's going to gather together. in one, all things
in Christ, most of which are in him. ...of God, and the dead, and
Christ, and the last birth, and we which are alive and remain
shall be called up together. with them in the class, to meet
the Lord in the area, and say, oh yeah, we have a big one. With
the whole class. And together. All of us. None
of us. All freshmen were counted for.
All of us. Father gave His name. All the
children. To all these elders. And He said, come with one of
us. We have something special. And
we have it together. This is good. Together. Nothing
like it. The Lord is alive now. So we
have to remain there. And we have to be together. All right. Tonight Brother Ron
Pandy has requested to confess to the Lord as a believer in
baptism. And he and his wife wanted to
be known that they're a part of this, they did, with this
congregation, members of this congregation. And he had confessed
the Lord before, and now Ronald's confessed. He told me that, well,
he's been hearing the gospel for a good while now from my
pastor. And he told me, especially after
that message, you've heard some of it, on the land before the
fire, he said, I don't believe my next word today. And he said,
I must confess to Christ tonight. So if you rejoice in that, say
amen. Amen. All right. So Brother Robert,
you'll go over there. We'll sing a song in closing.
Turn in your blue book again. And your blue book is number
345. Now, you might have to sing the
verses together. You have to sing the first verse
and then the second verse as a chorus. You'll get it as you go along,
okay? The first verse will be the verse,
and then the second will be the chorus, and then the third, and
then the fourth, the chorus, and so on. You'll get going as
you go on. Brothers and daughters, come
up and lead us into it. Number 355 in the Good Book. All right? Go ahead. Yes, that's
it. That's it. Number 355 in the
Good Book. If you don't have that, You don't have to do this one. I think I can read it. The new books, those new books
are a real shame. We've got some of those older
books and they're not in there. All right, let's sing another
song. That's it. That's all worth singing. That's
all worth singing. All right, 440 more. 440 more. This thing has a green
book. Number 440. All right, you can take your
seat. Next. I am free. of the people's joy. Let us sing
in praise of Him who made this life of ours. Love, love, and
love will take the life that is mine. God is with me. God is with me. When I'm in trouble, God is with
me. God is with me. God is with me.
When I'm in trouble, Oh, my heart is here, my dear,
and you hear my plea. In this special presence here,
everything is free. Love's no lie, the answer's true,
there's no doubt, there's no harm. Oh And nothing else could help love
within me. Love within me. Love within me. And nothing else
could help love within me. Oh, do you think that God's our
Father? Do you not feel His grace? He will answer all your troubles,
all of your angry days. He will answer all that's weak,
all that's in our way. Why should they? Why should they be? Why should
we be? When are we going to help? Why would they be? Why should
they be? Why should we be? When are we going to help? Christ is your only hope. This is the gospel that you have
been given. This is your family. Father Ron
Fannin, in obedience to the divine command of Christ Jesus our Lord,
And upon your profession of faith in Him, I baptize you, my brother,
in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Okay, let's stand, please. Brother Ron Frayland, if you'll
please, this is a prayer for tonight. Our Father, we praise
you for this night. We praise you for this gospel. Let's hear our brother preach
once again, the sincerity of the truth. We thank you for this
brother of ours that you've called to come and confess to you the
Christ. Thank you for all the blessings of this life you've
given us in your Son. And most of all, Father, we thank
you for your Son. For in Him we are complete. We
want for nothing, we have everything. We pray you will continue to
bless the Word and preach from this place, bless your people
here. Lord, continue to have mercy,
continue to grace upon our souls. We ask and praise you these days
in Christ's name for this day. Amen.