The fitness he requires is that
you feel your need. Anybody who truly has come here
this morning with a desire to worship God will. Anybody who
wants a taste of that manna, you're going to get it. I've
already eaten it. It's sweet to the taste. I've already tried this message
on, and it fits well. It wears well, as Brother Nyberg
said. This will be a blessing, I hope,
if the Lord blesses it. Here in Acts chapter 2, I hope you have a Bible. If not,
listen carefully as I read it. But here in Acts chapter 2, We learn as much or more about
what it means to be a true believer and what a true church consists
of more than anywhere, as much or more than anywhere in all
of the Bible. We learn that here. And I want you to ask yourself
in light of this portion of Scripture, I want you to be asking yourself
as we look at this and read this. Expound it to you ask yourself
am I one of these. Believers. Am I one of these
people who's described here. And ask yourself look around
you and see and ask is this God's church if it's not you need to
go somewhere else if it is not you need to find where God's
true church meets and meet there. As I said before, there are many
religious groups meeting today. Many, many, many. Far too many. Far too many religious
organizations and social clubs. Too few churches. Now, here are
the things that constitute or make up a true believer. and a true fellowship or gathering
of the church. Are you interested? All right,
look at Acts chapter two with me, beginning with verse forty-one.
Now, we stopped there. We've been going through Acts,
the book of Acts. It says in verse forty-one, Then
they that gladly received his word, or that is, the preaching
of Peter and the apostles. They that gladly received his
word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them
about three thousand souls." They that gladly received his
word. What was that word? You remember in the book of Acts,
Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost, Peter was not talking
about the Holy Spirit. Peter was not talking about the
gifts of the Peter was not talking about miracles and signs and
wonders in reference to himself. The people were talking about
those things when they first came. When they first saw these
men, Galileans, stand up and preach to them in their own languages,
men from all over the world. Those are tongues. That's true
tongues in the Scripture. Languages. And these people heard
these Galileans, these fishermen. from Judea, speaking in languages
they'd never learned or studied. And they were talking about that.
They were taken up with that. And then they saw the miracles
and signs and the wonders and so forth, cloven tongues and
fire and so forth. And they were talking about these
things at first. But when they left that place, or in verses
thirty-seven through forty, after they heard the message, after
they heard what Peter was preaching, they were no longer taken up
with the tongues and the signs and all that, were they? In other
words, what they heard was a message. They heard the Word of God. And
the Word of God is now, as it was then, the message of Jesus
Christ and him crucified. That is what the Holy Spirit
used to prick the hearts of those people at Pentecost. They heard
about a sovereign Lord, not some Jesus that men speak of now. They asked people, what will
you do with Jesus? They heard about a sovereign
Lord sitting on a throne in heaven who does what he pleases with
whom he pleases, and that they were in his sovereign hands to
do with as he pleased. And they heard that, and Peter
didn't ask them, now will you accept him as your Lord? No.
You better, you better bow down because he is Lord whether you
accept him or not. And the scripture says they were
pricked in their hearts about hearing this one high and lifted
up. Who does with men and women as
he pleases, not what they please, as he pleases. Sovereign reigning
ruling Lord, they heard that message. and how that he had
come to do a work for particular people, he got the job done.
And it wasn't up to us. He didn't do all he could do
and now it's up to us. He did all that there can be
done. That's what they heard. And they cried out, we want to
believe. What must we do? And Peter said,
believe. Believe. Trust Christ in him
alone. And it says, they that gladly
received this word, this message, This gospel, you remember Paul
said in Galatians 1, they'll come preaching another gospel,
which is not another but a perversion. Huh? You remember that? In Galatians
chapter 1, he said they'll come preaching another Jesus which
we have not preached unto you, which is not the Jesus Christ
of Scripture. And just because men are standing
up claiming to preach the gospel, we had better be like the Bereans,
and we had better search the Scriptures to see whether or
not the gospel they're preaching is the gospel of God. Whether
or not the Jesus they're proclaiming is not the Jesus of Scripture,
because there's another. And the gospel that Peter and
the apostles preached, and the only gospel there is, is the
gospel of God. The gospel of God's glory. Who
is getting the glory? You want to know the truth of
a doctrine of an issue? You want to know how to tell
whether or not something is so? When you hear somebody talk about,
let's say, election in the scriptures. All right? Let's take the word
election. It's used more than twenty-seven times in the New
Testament. All right? Look at it In reference to God's
glory, who's getting the glory? That's how you can tell whether
or not a doctrine is so or not, or what a man is saying about
God, about Christ, about the gospel. Is it giving God all
the glory, or is it giving man some of it? Is it sharing the
glory with man? Is the work God's work, or is
it a cooperative effort? Take the term election, okay?
Election, the scripture says in Ephesians 1, God hath chosen
us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and unblameable, unreprovable in God's sight, having predestinated
us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself.
God chose a people before the foundation of the world, put
their names in the Lamb's book of life, sent Christ down here
to die for them, to pay the penalty of their sins, to give them the
righteousness he that he established as a man, that perfect life,
I compute it to them, go back to heaven, pray for them, send
the Holy Spirit to round them all up, and every one of them
that God chose is going to get to heaven. Now, who gets all
the glory? Did you hear me ask man anything?
Did you hear me say man's got any part in that, huh? You say,
what about faith? What about it? Ephesians 2.8,
by grace you say through faith. Where's faith come from? That's
not of yourself, it's the gift of God. Who gets the glory for
faith? God gets the glory. All right, you take election,
what they're saying today about election. They say God voted
for you, the devil voted against you, now you cast a dividing
vote. God's getting the glory out of that? No, I've got just
as powerful a vote as God Almighty. And so does the devil. So who's
God and who's not? I'm just as much God as God is.
Satan is just as much God as God is, if we all have equal
power and say in the matter. You see what I'm saying? How
do you know if a doctrine is of God or not, if the doctrine
is the doctrine of Scripture or not? Who's getting the glory? I got off track a little bit
there, but it needed to be said, didn't it? They that gladly received
his word were baptized. All right? What is necessary
that we must believe? to be saved. In order to be called a believer,
I just answered the question, didn't I? In order to be called
a Christian, a disciple, a son of God, what is necessary? Sam,
what must we believe that God said? What must we believe in
order to be called a believer? Everything God said, right? You
either believe or you don't. Is that simple enough? If I'm
a believer, I believe all God said. Everything. Well, I don't understand this
election. I don't rightly understand it completely either, but I believe
it. Right? What about predestination? I
don't fully understand that, how that God predestinated and
determined all things before the foundation of the world.
Ain't nothing going to be changed. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning. God hath purposed it. He'll stand.
It'll not change one iota. God is not a man that he should
repent. God will work, and who shall let it? Nobody can change
a thing. But God determined all things before the foundation
of the world, and yet I'm responsible? Yet, he tells me to pray and
he'll do something for me. I don't understand that, but
I believe it. Right? I believe it. They that
gladly received his word were baptized. They received the word
gladly. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 talks
about a people that did not receive the love of the truth. Turn with
me. OK? Turn over there with me.
Second Thessalonians, chapter two. All right, I don't want...
Now, like I say, if you don't have the Bible, you're going
to have to take my word that I'm reading from the Bible. And
I am. I am. Second Thessalonians, chapter
two, talks about a people who heard the gospel, who heard the
word, such as things I've just been saying to you, and didn't
receive them. They didn't love it. Look at
verse 9, it says, Satan with all power and sign and lie and
wonders and all deceivable of unrighteousness in them that
perish, because they receive not the love of the truth that
they might be saved. And for this cause God shall
send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie. And
this is what we're seeing today, because they receive not the
love of the truth, or Some of what I've already been saying
is very clear in the truth of God Almighty. God, God sends
strong delusions, signs and lying wonders. Are you reading the
same thing I'm reading? Did you read 2 Thessalonians
2, 11? Dan, did you read that? That's what it says. You're my
witness. Rick Williams, did you read that?
Is that what it said? God shall send them strong delusions
that they should believe a lie? That they all might be damned
who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness,
or whatever it is they made up, but were bound to give thanks
to God. Brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning, this is verse thirteen, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you through sanctification of
spirit and belief of the what? The truth. They that gladly receive God's
word, all of it, whatever it says, they gladly receive it.
You mean God elected a people? Praise God Almighty for electing
a people. You see, I don't deserve to be
elected. You mean God loves somebody?
They don't have a problem with God not loving everybody? Ain't
nobody worth loving. In effect, God would love anybody.
A believer says, you mean God loves somebody, and that somebody
could be me? Yeah. Praise God Almighty for
his love, sovereign love. He ought not love anybody, but
thank God he did choose to love some people. The Bible plainly says, Sam,
that God didn't love Esau. I don't have a problem with that.
I don't have a problem with that at all. Esau was an ornery character,
but so was Jacob. I tell you what amazes me is
that he loved Jacob. I don't wonder why he didn't love Esau.
I wonder why he loved Jacob. Why did he? Just because he decided
to do so. You like that? You love that?
If you know anything about yourself, you do. And they that gladly
received his word, they believe it, the gospel of God's glory,
the gospel of Christ's preeminence in all things, the gospel of
God's sovereign grace. Scripture is alone. We believe
what this book says alone. I'm not interested in what the
seminary professor says and how he twists and perverts the Scripture.
Peter said in 2 Peter 3 that days that are unlearned and unstable
do rest the Scripture. Twist it. Do rest the Scripture. It's their own destruction. They
add to it. They take away from it. They
make it say what it doesn't say. They make it not say what it
does say. The gospel of God with scriptures
alone is our rule of what we believe. Grace alone. This Bible
is grace alone from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. Grace alone, isn't
it? Salvation is by grace alone,
not and works. Grace, grace, grace. Either it's
grace or it's works, right? If it's grace, it's no more works.
If it's works, no more grace. Which is it? Which is it? How do you say it? Salvation
by grace. I like that. Boy, do I like that. I'm working,
yeah, but I'm not trusting my work. Christ alone. These are summaries of what we
believe here. Scriptures alone, grace alone,
Christ alone. I'm like that woman that's caught
in the act of adultery, cast at the feet of Christ. I've been
caught by the law of God. I'm guilty before the law of
God. And they asked Christ, what do you say? That's what I'm asking
him. He said, that's where I come
to every day at the feet of Christ and say, what do you say about
my case? I've been caught, I'm guilty,
what sayeth thou? He said, I don't condemn you.
There's therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ, those
he represented. Christ alone. Is that good enough
for you? You like that? I see some smiles. Boy, I do. If you're in Christ
and you get to the thrice-holy throne of God someday, you're
going to like it. You're going to be singing it through all
eternity, Christ alone. What do you do? How come you're
here, son? How come you're here, woman?
What did you do to deserve to get here? Nothing. Christ did
it. What gives you the right to be
here? I've got no right at all. I'm here on His rights. He said
I could come. He said, Come to me, I'll take
you. I came to him. Here I is. Oh, I'd gladly receive that,
don't you? And when I hear about this, and anybody that hears
this, that salvation's in Christ alone for all guilty sinners,
like Brother Joe prayed. Here's water. What hinders me
from confessing this Christ? I believe. But I do believe if
I get to heaven it will be solely by the death, burial, and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the life, death, and resurrection
of Christ sitting at the right hand of God, interceding for
sinners like I am, an advocate who never loses a case. If my
only hope before a holy God is in a righteous Christ representing
me, then all my sins are gone, not because I atone for them,
but because he shed his blood to cover them. Here's water I'm
getting in it. I will tell everybody, hey, this
Christ is my Christ. There's no other hope for me,
but Christ alone. And when he died, I died. When
he was buried, I was buried. When he arose, I arose. Now, the life I live, I live
by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me." Are you glad you received that word? Have you been baptized? This is one of the things, one
of God's Two commandments ordinances right. One is the holy is the
Lord's table which is another confession of Christ is more
long is more personal communion with Christ after you've been
baptized right but that in that the way God ordained for us to
publicly confess him. Didn't say anything about coming
down and shaking the preacher's hand. Don't do that. Preacher
gets the glory that way. Right? Who's getting the glory
for all these multitude of people walking down the aisle? Who's
getting the glory? Billy Graham, Jimmy Schweikert, Jerry Falwell,
you name it. They're getting the glory. God's
not getting the glory. No, it doesn't say anything about shaking
the preacher's hand. Doesn't say anything about a mourner's bench,
an altar down front. What does it say, Terry, about
an altar? Who's the altar, God? Christ is our altar. We kneel
before him. He said we go home and get in
our closet and pray to the Father in heaven, which is hereth in
secret, and he'll reward you openly. And then you'll come
running and say, I don't want to get in the pool. God saved
me. Don't come down here to be saved.
I don't see any blood. I don't see any cross. Do you?
I don't see Christ down here. I see him up there. And that's
where you go. You go to the throne of God.
You go to Christ, who's on the throne. Save me, Lord! And when
he does save you, then you'll come down. Let me in the pool.
Let me in the pool. Fill that, fill her up. I'm getting
in. I'm getting in. Have you been
baptized? Huh? Here's water. What doth Henry?
We've got all kind of water. We got enough water. Brother
Henry, you're a deacon. We got any water left in the,
in the well? It's not dry? We got water. Anybody believe this Christ hadn't
confessed him openly, publicly? We got water, we'll fill her
up, and we'll put you in. I don't care how big you are,
we'll get you under it somehow. We'll get you up somehow. Right? If it takes five of us.
You believe this? They that gladly received his
word were baptized. Right? And the same day, it says,
were added unto them about three thousand souls. And here is the
meat of my message and I've already spent half my time. Verse forty
two. And this is where I got the title
from a message from. A gathering of believers. Look
at verse forty two. Now this is what. This is what
constitutes a true church. I just told you what a true believer
is right. You gladly receive his word.
That's more than just head. Doesn't that mean more than just,
well, I believe that since you proved it to me, I guess it says
that, so I've got to believe it. Oh, it's more than that.
It's gladly receiving. It's a love of the truth, he
said. A love of God is God. A love
of God is God, don't you? I don't want to be God. I don't want my decision to amount
to nothing. John, do you? Do you want anything
to depend on your decision? Do you want anything to depend
upon your faith? Huh? Just a little bit on your
faith? Why? Because tomorrow you might
not have any, right? You believe today is Sunday.
You feel pretty good today. It's Sunday. Everybody does.
Monday morning comes and you have to get out in Sodom. And
people are cussing God and carrying on. You find all this fill in
your head and you don't have much. Then what? Then what? My hope is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Not in my faith, not in anything.
Not in anything. He says in verse forty-two, so
though they, they, those that gladly received his word, they'll
come back to hear it again. That's what this means. They
continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine. All right,
last Sunday I preached five points, basically, six. I kind of masqueraded
them a little bit because, you know, I didn't say T-U-L-I-P,
did I? But those of you who knew them
well, you knew exactly what I was saying. I watched a man with
Don Fortner sat right down here and he took notes. I thought
what? Why is he taking notes? Well he knows he's the heart.
He knew every scripture I was going to turn to. Why? Well you come right back where
you started and you tell it again. Don't you? Tell me about this
sovereign God. Preach him again. Why you believe? You've heard that before. I want
to hear it again. Right? Tell me about this sovereign
God. Lift him high up. You mean high? High! All-sovereign, just as sovereign
as you can preach him. That's my God. And it says they
continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. Steadfast. You know, listen to this. The
term steadfast, you know what it meant? What it meant, I looked
it up in that original Greek word, and I'll not pronounce
that to you. I'm trying to impress you with
my Greek. Kids that live in Greece speak more Greek than I do. Three-year-old. It says, the word steadfast means
to be earnest toward something, to be constantly diligent or
attending to all of the exercises or following closely after something. Now that describes a true gathering
of God's people. They continue steadfastly in
the apostles doctrine. They diligently attend to, what
did you say again? I didn't understand that, what
you preached this morning about the covenant. Tell it to me again.
It talks about the glory of God. Let's discuss this again, I didn't
get it all. Would you come back again tonight, if I was going
to preach on 2 Corinthians 3, those verses? Huh? I didn't feel
like I did a very good job. I'd lost some people in it. Would
you come back again? Would you steadfastly come back
and sit and listen to it again? Maybe the Lord had opened something
else up, something new. It says the apostles' doctrine.
They continued in that doctrine of Christ. The Scripture talks
about doctrine over and over and over and over and over again.
The doctrine of Christ the doctrine of grace the doctrine according
to the godliness the doctrine of God's sovereignty election
particular redemption finish the finish redemption doctrine
of the Holy Spirit preserving grace. Brother Todd preached
on. Irresistible grace. Ring to it
that irresistible great the doctrine And you can wrap all that up
in this one document. Christ is all. Christ is all. Christ is all or he's nothing
at all to you. Right. My pastor preached or
taught a school of young preachers years ago. And. He one of his mottos in that
school was this. He said this to all the young
men. In other words, we had to love, believe, love, and ascribe
to and preach what we call the doctrines of grace or you couldn't
be in that class. There's no room for popular opinion. This is no room for debate here.
We're not in the debating business. We're in the believing business,
right? And he had a motto that said
this, to determine a. There are you. In other words we talk about
to look it's just a I forget what what the word is when you
English ladies would know or me and. Abbreviations for five
doctors total depravity. You don't have a problem with
that do you know if you know your own heart you know you're
depraved non-righteous non-unconditional election. limited atonement or better word
for it is particular redemption. In other words, who everybody
Christ died for is saved. Wow. I don't just believe that,
I love it. My whole soul rests upon the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You got a problem with that?
God's got a problem with you. Tula, terminate. Irresistible grace. Boy, I don't
have any problem at all with that. The Holy Spirit's got his eye
on me, he's going to have me. I like that. I like that. There's days I don't have my
eye on God. There's days I'm not thinking
about God. Thank God he's thinking about me, and he's going to have
me. My maker is my husband, and he'll
never forget me. Well, you might forsake your
second child, the son of your womb, but God says, I'll never
forsake you. Those he chose, those he loved.
P stands for perseverance of the saints. Sam, you ain't going
to quit. If you're one of Christ, you ain't, I'm using that word
because I want to, you ain't, for emphasis, you ain't going
to quit. You like that, Sam Parks? If I wasn't a regular, just a
Baptist, I'd shout right now. I like that. I love that. That's my only hope, people. My only hope. God says I give
unto them eternal life or they'll, well, they might. There's a possibility
they'll perish. If they don't keep on keepin'
on, he said, they'll never perish. Oh, I just choose to believe
God, thank you. I don't choose to believe Reverend
so-and-so, because his denomination doesn't believe in once in grace,
always in grace. I believe once in Christ, always
in Christ. That's where I'm going to stand
until the day I die. on the rock. Rock-solid promises. And they continue, the Scripture
says, steadfastly. You just heard it. Some of you,
amen, something you've heard for the umpteenth time. Haven't
you? You've heard this so many times.
You've heard, if anybody hears me this morning for the first
time, you'll hear everything I've been preaching since I started.
And by God's grace, thirty years from now, I'll be preaching the
same thing. If I'm not, Joe Park, What's your name? Henry Sower?
Stan Anderson? Hugh Deakins? Get rid of me.
You hear me? You have my permission right
now. You have my commandment right now. Get rid of me, buddy.
And find you somebody who's seeking, who's searching, who's standing,
who's standing upon the old paths, where it is the good way or the
good news, and walk in that. Hear him. Right? All right. I'm telling you. Get rid of me. And it says that they continued
steadfastly in apostles doctrine. If you, the scripture says, if
you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, be not moved away
from the hope of the gospel. I can't understand why anybody
would want to be moved away from this gospel. Can you? Can you
Rick, can you, for the life of you, can you understand why anybody
would want to be under the law? Why anybody would have But they can say, I did this,
and so and so didn't. So I'm going to get me a crown
in heaven. I'm going to get me a yo-yo, a lot of toys, and my
cabin's going to be bigger than Joe's. I'm going to be thrilled beyond
understanding just to bumble and to look on his face. Anyone
who leaves this gospel never believed this gospel. Anyone who leaves this gospel
never believed this gospel. Anyone who believes the gospel
loves the gospel and stays with the gospel, stays with it. To
whom shall we go? Where are you going to go? Henry, if you leave here, where
are you going to go to hear what you just heard this morning?
Do you love what you just heard this morning? Where are you going
to go, buddy? You'll go, you'll find, you'll
search, you'll drive long ways if you have to, to hear this,
won't you? We have people in here that drive
40 minutes one way to hear this gospel. Terry, right? The Berry, others. Why? Aren't there churches, so-called,
up and check? Well, there's one on every corner,
isn't there? You drive a hundred yards, you're
going to bump into one. They're not preaching this or
that. Or you'd go there, wouldn't you? If there was a church right
next door to us people that's preaching this, I'd be fine with
me if you'd go there. It really would. It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter. Does it? Building doesn't matter.
Congregation doesn't matter. People? This gospel matters.
This gospel matters. They continued steadfastly in
the apostles' doctrine and look at it, fellowship. You just break
that word down. Fellowship. Fellows in the same
ship. Fellows in the same ship. Scripture
says, truly our fellowship is with the Father and his Son.
Fellows in the same ship. What ship are you in? Fellows. Huh? Anybody know what ship we're
in? Somebody say Ark? Christ! Noah's bunch were the only ones
that saved, weren't they? Noah and his family? Eight souls?
Why? They was fellows in the same
ship. And that Ark, the Scripture says,
is her Christ. Fellows, are you in Christ? Is all your hope, your trust,
your salvation in Christ? We're on the same boat. You're on the same boat. Had
to buy the float. That floats my boat. Does it,
you? Huh? Lifts up my heart. Floats my heart straight up to
God on Thanksgiving. Huh? Just cause I'm in the borough. God put me in there. Like he
did Noah and his family. Right? Noah found grace. So did
I. So did I. Brothers and sisters,
we're in what the Lord called his father's business. Remember when Christ said, I
must always be about my father's business. We're in the family
business. Let me put this so that a child can understand.
The Church, God's people, God's sons, behold what manner of love
the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God. That's what believers are called, sons of God. Ed, we're in the family business. We're in the Father's business.
We're always about the Father's business. That's what steadfast
means. We're always about the Father's business. They continued
steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine, preaching the same
thing. Fellowship? What are we doing this morning?
Playing church? Go someplace else. I'm serious. We ain't here to play church.
That's the reason we don't have a choir. That's the reason I'm not dressed
up like a woman and throwing water in your face. I'm making
fun, why? It needs to be made fun of. This
generation's being thrown a curve now, and thinking because you
look pious and act... Why are you here? John chapter
3, or John chapter 4, the Lord said, The Father seeketh those
to worship him. The true worshipers worship the
Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to
worship him. Right? And what we're doing here this
morning is worshiping God. We got any reason to worship
God? Should I stand up here and thank
you for coming here this morning? Huh? I'm telling you people,
I'm not splitting hairs here. This is blasphemy of the worst
sort. The preacher's standing up today thanking sinners for
coming before a holy God who's here to bless His Son, to save
their soul, thanking them for coming and thanking Him. Thank
you so good to have you here. We're so pleased you're here,
Roberta. Give Roberta a hand for coming here and thanking
God for mercy. Is that blasphemy or what? We ought to think there
ought to be a fight for the front row. I'm telling you the truth,
right? We are really proud of you, you
know, in the front row. You don't worship God today?
Oh, it's not so much for me. Houses and land and some children,
healthy children. My child's not in the cancer
hospital. I've got freezers full of meat. I've got cars, houses,
land. Thank God! You going to be there tonight? I'll be there
too. Going to be there Wednesday?
How about Wednesday and Tuesday and Thursday and Friday? Huh? We've got reason to praise God.
Should we be thankful, praise and God? We're bound to give
thanks to God, brethren, beloved of the Lord. For you, Henry Sword,
that you're not trying to make another buck down at the gas
station, but you're here worshiping him. People got their stations
open on Sunday. Why? Man is their God. You see what I'm saying? They
continued, who? They that God never ceded his
word, baptized, believe and trust the Lord. Love it! They continued
steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. Tell me that again.
And fellowship! I used to have a bunch of friends.
I called friends. I've got nothing in common with
those guys now. Oh, when I hear that, hey, you
going to preach the gospel this morning? Todd Nyberg was coming
through. You heard him preach. A choice
preacher of the gospel. I said, preach to me. I need
to be, I get tired of preaching. People, I get tired of preaching.
I'll be honest with you, I get tired. I need to be preached
to at times. And I sat there on the front
row and I could have, bless my heart. If he'd come back through, I'd
sit right there again. Preach to me again. Preach the
same message. Wouldn't you? Why? This is my father's business. It's my business. I'm in the
family business. Where's So-and-so today? He ain't
in the ship. He's jump ship. He's made shipwreck
of the faith. He ain't in the business. He's
in business for himself. She's in business for herself.
She loves herself. They don't want to praise God. They want to have pleasure. They're lovers of pleasure more
than lovers of God. We need each other, people. We
need each other. Do you need, number one, do you
need this gospel? Do you need what you're hearing this morning?
If not, I'm going someplace else to somebody that needs it. I
believe there's some people that need this. I look out there in
faces of people that are just smiling, and yes, that's, yes. In faces of people that are here
all the time. Why? They need it. Don't they? Granted, there are times we come
here because we're supposed to. What will so-and-so think if
I'm not there? Bless God and he overrules that, doesn't he?
And he gives you a blessing anyway. You get a Wednesday night after
working real hard all day long, you don't feel like going to
church. I don't either. There are plenty of times I don't. What if I didn't show up? My
uncle's in town. Let him go to hell. I don't go
worship God. Right? Why am I here? If I'm not here, Brother Rick,
because I love you and I love God and want to preach the gospel
and want you to believe it, get your mother pastor! Right? Why are you here? You want to
be here. You need to be here. You need to hear this gospel
again. And you need one another, whether we know it or not. We
need one another. We encourage one another. We
exhort one another. We help one another. You know
you need to be accountable to one another? Paul said in Ephesians 5, we
submit ourselves one to another. Right? Do you remember reading
that? I didn't write the very verse
down. Believe me, he said that. That
we submit ourselves one to another in the fear of the Lord. If you
don't have anybody to be accountable to, or anybody to look after
you, I'll tell you how you'll become.
You'll become, you'll be a loner. If you don't like to be around
people, God's people, you'll be a loner, you'll become a hermit.
You've heard of a hermit, haven't you? A little man or woman sits
up in a cabin all by herself and counts her money or whatever
she does, you know, or he. A little hermit, you'll be mean,
you'll be cantankerous, ain't nobody want to be around you,
you'll be selfish, you'll be crappy. Now, you know, when I was preparing
this very point, listen to the Lord's Providence, I was trying
to find something here to say about death. My daughter called
me on the phone. The phone rang just when I got
to this fellowship, and I was trying to come up with how we
need each other and how we've become a loner. So she called
me on the phone and said, Daddy, hate to bother you. I'll be honest
with you, Hannah, I was busy and I didn't want to be a bother.
But you call me and I'll always listen to that voice. Yeah, that's
what that's like the father stopping what he's doing to listen to
his children. He'll always will. Always. I say, what is it, honey? She said, Danny, I got me another
hermit crab. Hermit crab? Here I am studying
for a message. You did? And I took an in. Yeah, my other one was lonely.
You see, my other crab, she's got, you know what a hermit crab
is? It goes in this little, it's a little crab. It goes in a shell. Carries that shell around with
it all the time. She said, yeah, my other one wasn't coming out
of the shell. He needed a friend. I said, thank you for calling.
I had my illustration. We'll become like an old hermit
crab. A hermit and crabby. I've seen it. I see it happen
to people. Hold up. And he'd come out, and it takes
people to bring him out of that shell. Right? We need one another. We need
one another. Oh, boy. Continuing. Now, look
on. I wanted to finish this. Will you hear me? Will you say
with me? It says, it continues, fellowship
and breaking of bread. Now, that's the Lord's table.
That's the only other thing other than baptism that the Lord commanded
that we do. Right and I've heard people violent
bird said to me and she said you know you repeat yourself
all the time you know every time that we have the Lord's table
you said that's the sweetest service I've ever been. She says every
time. But I'm glad I'm glad that those
who are in on it the Lord's table. It's a sweet time and the Lord
commands it and in those who do not attend it for whatever
reason are in direct disobedience to the I knew a man who never once partook
of the Lord's table, and he is no longer on the sound of the
gospel. As long as I've known him, he never once partook of
the Lord's table. He's not here. They continued steadfastly in
apostles' doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and in
prayers. Let me say this about the supper,
the Lord's supper. You miss this supper, you'll
probably miss the marriage supper of the Lamb. This separates week
to you you won't be there. It's all part of faith. It's
all part of faith. You come, you know, remember
me. Oh, Lord, I do. I want to. And
it says in prayers, look at it, verse forty two, continued steadfastly
in apostles doctrine and fellowship, breaking a bread in prayer. Brethren,
pray for us. You read that hymn. Brethren,
we are meant to worship. I don't know what number it is.
But he said, pray for us. and the holy manna will come
down. Pray without ceasing. Brethren,
pray for us. Pray without ceasing in everything but prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known
unto God. God forbid Samuel said that I should sin against him
and cease him to pray for my brethren. Do I think on the things
of Stan Anderson and Sherry Anderson? Do I think of them? Well, I'll
pray for them. Do I love them? I love my daughter. I love my
wife. I pray for them. Well, I'll pray for him, too.
Brethren, pray for us. Paul said, you help together
by your prayers for us. Believe me, I desire more than
anything in this thing of preaching. Other than your presence, I desire
your prayers. Your prayers. And like I said,
oh, we've got a lot to pray about, don't we? Do we have anything
to pray about? Do we have any trouble finding something to
pray to God, to thank God about? That's what prayer is, chiefly.
If I sat you all around the table right now and asked you, what
do we have to be thankful for? Could you come up with anything? We ought never to stop. And prayer takes us out of ourselves,
selfishness, and sets our mind and our heart on God. It gets
us out of our little problem, you know, out of our shell, or
consumed with our own little problems, doesn't it? And get
to thinking on the things of God, what God has done for us.
And think on things of others, too. You know, there's nothing
God delights more in than intercessory prayer. I'm telling you, I'm
giving you a secret in prayer here. The Lord prayed for others. And the father always answered
his prayer. Go. Verse forty three says fear came
upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
Fear of God. Fear of sinning against God. Fear of missing out on the blessing.
Wonders and signs. You know, Christ said one time,
the scripture says that Christ did not many works in Nazareth,
his hometown. because of their unbelief. And
maybe we don't see the Lord's hand here for that very reason. It says, They
saw many wonders and signs. I tell you, it's a wonder. You
hear this pipsqueak up here preaching. You're looking at a miracle.
You're looking, you're experiencing, you're hearing a miracle and
a wonder. It is to me. I'm a believer at
all, much less up here in this pulpit. Look at this, go on. All that believed were together
and had all things common and sold their possessions and goods
and parted them to all men or women as every man had need. They were all together. Now,
once again, this is true discipleship and fellowship. They were all
together. A true church. A true church. They sold their
possessions. They had everything together.
They all had all things common. This is not talking about communal
living, people. No. Get that out of your head. It's
not talking about communal living. Nowhere in the Scriptures does
it imply or command of us that we to live in the same... It
doesn't even imply that there, that they live in the same house
together. No. What it was they had the same purpose the same
man same heart same goals whenever somebody had a need a soul peace
property John had a house Peter had a house going on. It's not
just talking about communal living and don't hang up right there
leave me so. The apostles are Lord himself
did not. Tell us the sale our homes and
all live in one house, we wouldn't make it. He knows our nature. It wouldn't last. Rick, you'd
be out here in a minute. And I would, too. Whoever the
king of the hill would be every morning. That's just our nature
now. It sure is. We wouldn't make
it. Whether they had all things in purpose, heart, love, mind,
faith, whatever a need was there, they sold. Whatever there was
a need. And the spirit of that still
is today, or should be, within all of God's people. I go over to visit. I was over
to Williams's the other night. They have us over all the time,
and I appreciate that so much. I don't feel worthy of it, but
I sure am thankful. I enjoy being in your house,
but I hope you feel the same way about my house. But when
he says, when people say, come on in and make yourself at home,
do you mean that? I take people literally. When
they say, where's your refrigerator? It's my home. Do you mean that? I do. I don't know if you do or not,
but I know you do. My house is your house. My house
is your house. Is your house my house? That's
what the spirit of this whole thing is talking about. Right?
Huh? That can't be said by everybody
in here. Because some never open their
homes to others. But keep it back to themselves. And I recall
just a chapter later where there was a man and a wife that kept
something back to themselves. You remember that and I since
fire. Listen to this. Listen to the
parable of the. Talent over Matthew thirteen.
It says that God gave talent some five some three to one one
man one talent. You remember how the one man
had one talent one thing he could do and he married it. You remember
the story don't you. The Lord came back. He said this
in that the end of that chapter, he said, Whosoever hath to him
shall be given. Do you resent somebody having
a lot of things? Well, if they use it, if you're
ever in there and enjoy it, why would you resent it? Huh? Right? If God gives somebody a lot of
things, if he uses it on God's people, why would you deny the
man that? And we have a little bit and we hoard it to ourselves.
Scripture says, he that hath, whosoever hath, to him shall
be given. You have something, you share it with God's people,
you cast your bread upon the water, you're going to get bread
and bread and bread. And I ain't talking about seed
faith like Richard Roberts. I'm not telling you, send me
a hundred dollars, God will give you a thousand. Not at all. Not
at all. I'm just telling you what the
Scripture says. Cast your bread upon the water, whatever God
gives you, use it for God's goal, He'll give you more. You give
great grace, He gives great grace. You cannot give God. Right? To him that hath, to him shall
be given. That he that hath not, from him shall be taken even
that which he has. Boy, that's powerful, isn't it? Isn't that powerful? God measures us with the same
bushel we mete out to other people. He measures that we don't have
little, we have little faith. We'll be faithless. He won't
get any more. We're stingy with what we got.
We won't get any more. We're merciless. We won't receive
much mercy. We're graceless. We won't get
a lot of grace. That's just the way it is. And it says in verse
46, they continued daily with one accord in the temple. Seven days a week they met together. Let's say it continued daily
in one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to
house. They visited one another. They
visited one another. And they did eat their meat with
gladness and singleness of heart. Gladness and singleness of heart.
Praising God. Look at verse forty-seven. And
I'll quit. Praising God. Like I said, we
We shouldn't have any problem finding a reason to meet together.
God's people aren't looking for an excuse to miss church. No,
no, no, no, no. Not at all. Praising God and
having favor with all the people. They live peaceably with all
men as much as possible. They live lives that are exemplary
lives before the community and so forth. gladness, thingness
of heart, praising God, having favor with all the people," and
it says, "...the Lord added to the church daily, such as should
be saved." The Lord added. I don't want a member of this
church. We're not out looking for members of this church. We're on the trail of God's sheep.
Now, if one of God's sheep will hear his voice, I want them here.
They will be here. They'll be where God's voice
is, but I don't want to know the church member. I don't want
to know the church member. There are too many of those,
aren't there? There are some true worshipers and believers.
Oh, yeah, we're looking for those. Fathers seek as such to worship.
Yeah, he finds them and brings them. And it says they continued
with gladness and singleness of heart. They that received
God's Word were baptized, continued steadfastly in Apostles' doctrine,
fellowship, breaking of bread, prayers, had all things together,
all things common. One big happy family. There should
never be a rumble in this congregation. Never. Should there? Not a one. One big happy family. If we're
about the Father's business, we'll be a big happy family.
We'll have trials and affliction, but it won't be from within. Only when false brethren sneak
in, creep in unaware, and stir up strife and division is there
trials from within. We'll have heartaches and troubles
and people will get sick and death will happen, but that's
what God has ordained, but there won't be strife and division,
discord among the brethren. We'll be one big happy family.
When somebody dies and I preach their funeral, we'll send them
off to glory. We'll celebrate. We'll miss them, but we'll celebrate.
One big happy family. And this is a story. This is
not fiction. This is real. And we're going
to live happily ever after. Right? One big happy family. And they
live happily ever after. Is that you? Do you find yourself
in that group of people, huh? Can you? At least the roots,
at least the workings of that in you,
huh? Do you find a little bit of that? Do you? Huh? Do you find a little bit of that
love for gospel and things? Do these things cheer your heart?
Do you at least want to have these? Do you have desires toward
these things? Welcome brother and sister. We're going to meet tonight.
We're going to continue tonight. Steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine
and fellowship. If you can make it, I just think
you ought to. Brother Joe, what was that last
number? What was that? 188. Would you come up here and
dismisses and lead us in the thing in one eighty eight one
hundred eighty eight. If you had noticed the words
to that song, we sang earlier. Come, we that love the Lord,
let our joys be known. Join in a song with sweet accord,
and thus surround the throne. Had those refused to sing, who
never knew our God, but children of the heavenly
King. You got anything to sing about? Why is your face down
like that? Did anything I say have good
news to you? I catch myself smiling and laughing
like this all the time from the pulpit. It's a bad habit. I'd
like to get out of it. I hear it on tape. But I don't like to look out
there after I preach the good news. Children of the Heavenly King,
it says, may speak their joys abroad. You got something to
sing about? Well, this is the same tune as 188. It says, I
love thy kingdom, Lord, the house of thine abode, that the church,
our blessed Redeemer, save with his own precious blood. You love
this place. You love these people. You love
this gospel. You can sing a song. Stand with me. Let's sing the
first and the second and the fifth stanzas. First, second,
and fifth. I love thy kingdom, O the house
of my love, O the church of my Redeemer, safe with him, O precious blood. I love my dear Joe John, his
home before these lands. Here as we have fooled our blind eyes and played the fools of
man. Thank you, and you're dismissed. You. you