Well, I mentioned in Sunday School
that today's message will tie in with the Sunday School message
this week and next week. As we look at a portion here
in Acts chapter 4, turn if you would to Acts chapter 4, and
we see clearly that the early church had everything provided by God's providence
to them. And just as the church was provided
for then, the church is provided for now. And I'm not talking
about a building. I'm talking, of course, about
the body of Christ. God always takes care of his
people, doesn't he? Always. And he's proven that
to us time and time and time again. But he was preparing the church
in this portion here and providing them the means and the ability
to go out into the world with the gospel. And the name of the
message is unity. Unity. And we're blessed. We're blessed that we have unity
within this body. We're very blessed. And God is so good to us, isn't
he? He's been so good to us. So good to us. Let's read Acts
chapter 32 to 37, or Acts chapter 32, what am I talking? Acts chapter
4, verses 32 to 37. We'll continue our study, finishing
the chapter today, and we're going to see a contrast. Today
we're going to see a faithful man, a man who sincerely gives,
and then next week we'll see a hypocrite. two hypocrites within
the body and we'll see what happens to them with Ananias and Sapphira. Look at this in Acts chapter
4 verses 32 to 37. And the multitude of them that
believed were of one heart. Now remember the Lord had added
three thousand on the day of Pentecost and then at the gate
called beautiful when when he had healed that man They added
another 8,000 was added to the church through the preaching
of the gospel and by God's grace. And it says here, they were of
one heart and one soul. Unity. Unity within the body. Neither said any of them that
ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they
had all things common. And with great power gave the
apostles witness of the resurrection. Remember they were ear witnesses
and eyewitnesses of the resurrection. They were ear and eyewitnesses
of Christ when he was upon this earth and also of the resurrection.
Christ didn't appear to everybody in the world. He appeared to
his people. He appeared to his apostles. And it says, and with great power
gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus. And that only comes by God's grace, doesn't it? By the
Holy Spirit of God. And great grace was upon them
all. God's grace is great grace, isn't it? Great grace. God's grace is great
grace. There's no other explanation
for it. Neither was there any among them that lacked, for as
many as were possessors of land, there were houses, sold them,
and bought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid
them down at the apostles' feet, and distribution was made unto
every man according as he had need. Remember I mentioned that
Dan is our treasurer, and Kathy helps him too, and that they're
entrusted with the money by God from this church. to take care
of it, and we thank God for you guys for doing that. But notice
here that they, just like we trust Dan and Kathy, they trusted
the people that sold this property and stuff, trusted it to the
apostles, and willingly gave it to them, right? And laid them down on, or for
the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down
at the Apostles' feet, and distribution was made unto every man according
as he had need. And Joseph, who by the Apostles
was surnamed Barnabas, which is being interpreted the son
of consolation, a Levite, into the country of Cyprus, having
land, sold it, and bought the money, and laid it at the Apostles'
feet. Now during our last study in
this wonderful book. We looked at verses, that was
two weeks ago, we looked at verses 24 and 31 of Acts chapter 4,
where we saw that God the Holy Spirit moved Luke to record one
of the prayers of the early New Testament church. And that prayer was recorded
for our learning, beloved, for us to learn. All that's recorded
here is for our learning, for exhortation, for to build us
up in the faith. The scriptures are for our learning
too, beloved, as we see that our beloved brethren struggled
with the same things we do. Same things we do. And this prayer
was recorded for our learning to give God's born again blood
washed saints some clear instruction on how we are to approach our
great majestic sovereign God. We come to him through Christ,
don't we? We come to God through the throne of grace, through
our mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are to acknowledge
that the Lord Jesus Christ is our sovereign creator. It is
he who created the worlds, spoke them into existence. We saw that
two weeks ago. In the first chapter of John,
in the beginning was the word, and the word was God, and the
word was, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with
God, and the word was God, and the same was in the beginning
with God. All things were created by him, right? He created everything.
Without him was not anything made that was made. He's the
sovereign creator. He's the great majestic God. He's the one who made the heaven
and the earth and the seas and everything in them. And we quote the Holy Scripture
when we do, we're to acknowledge that God is one who spoke through
these men who penned these words. This Bible is the word of God. It's the word of God. And it was by the mouth of David
we saw last week, or two weeks ago, that God said, why do the
heathen rage? And imagine the vain, people
imagine the vain things. The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ. We're to acknowledge that God is the one who gathered
those ungodly men together against the Lord and against his Christ. It was all according to the plan
and purpose of God that Christ went to that cross and died as
our Savior. Otherwise, we'd never be saved. And we're also to acknowledge
that God purposed all of that. He bought the pass for to do
whatsoever His hand and His counsel determined before to be done.
We saw that earlier in our study of this wonderful book. And we're to acknowledge his
protecting hand upon his people, upon his church, upon his preachers,
upon his blood-bought servants. We're all servants for Christ,
aren't we? The preacher's a servant of the church, and we're all
servants for Christ. And how many times has the Lord
protected us, even individually, that we didn't even know, oh
my, protected us. And we're to pray that our sovereign
Lord would grant us preachers that boldness to speak his word. I thank God for y'all praying
for me and for the other, pray for the other grace preachers
too. Oh my, we need prayer. We're just sinners saved by grace
preaching to other sinners and telling you where to find bread.
Salvation's only in Christ, in Christ alone, it's nowhere else. Let's read verses 32 and 35 again
and note the blessed unity of our brethren, what they had in
Christ. And again, this only comes to
pass by the work of the Holy Spirit. We can't try to force
unity, it won't work. But God, the Holy Spirit can
work in the body of believers and grant unity. Can two walk
together except they be agreed? That's why it's wonderful to
sit with our brethren and talk about the great things that God
has taught us that Christ did and what God did for us in eternity. That's why we get fired up, beloved.
That's why we get that joy in our hearts. Because the Holy Spirit's wrought
that in us. Do you know I never wanted nothing to do with the
Bible until I was in my thirties and the Lord saved me? You know
what? It was just a book, paper and
ink. But now it's the most blessed book I've ever read. And I keep reading it and more
stuff keeps coming. Is it true for you too? It's
wonderful, I'll tell you. Let's read this. Let's read verses
32 and 35 again. And the multitude of them that
believed were of one heart and of one soul, neither did any
of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own,
but they had all things common. And with great power gave the
apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great
grace was upon them all, neither was there any among them that
lacked for as many as were possessors of land or houses, sold them,
and bought the prices. of the things that were sold
and lay them at the Apostle's feet and distribution was made
unto every man according as he had need." Now something to think
about too. This is amazing. I was reading
something and this just shows us God's sovereignty. I checked
and tried to look and see when they presumed the book was written. It's anywhere between 62 and
69 AD. Well in 70 AD, beloved, Jerusalem was was torched and destroyed by
the Roman Empire, Titus. You see God's sovereign hand
at work? You see? You see him preparing
the church? See him preparing the church
to go out and go forth with the gospel? Some of the, one commentator,
I think it was either Gil or Hawker, said some of those folks,
their houses might have been destroyed in 70 A.D. We have
no idea, do we? But isn't it amazing how our
God works? Isn't it incredible? And this was a special one-time
thing, this is not... I was reading one of our preachers,
and he brought it out wonderfully. He said, this isn't something
that, you don't have to go sell your houses, and this happened,
and I believe this happened because it's the birth of the, it's the
believers going out, and they had need, and it was God just
providing, like he provides for you and I, and provides for the
work here, as the message goes out. It's incredible. And take note again in our text,
the first thing the Holy Spirit directs our attention to in this
passage is the attitude of grace amongst the people. There's unity. There's unity within the body.
And again, that only comes from the Holy Spirit of God. There's
grace. Love and action, as you said
earlier, Dave. Love and action. It's being manifested by what
they're doing here. It says there, the things which
he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.
Neither said any of them that out of the things which he possessed
was his own, but they had all things in common. They were just
selling their stuff, right? God was moving them to do that.
But again, it's all provision for the church, beloved. It's all provision for that message
to go out. And remember, in that 70 AD,
right? What happens when you put your foot in the fire? Where
do the sparks go? Out they go, right? Oh my. Believe in hearts that are gracious
hearts. God's people are gracious. They're gracious to one another.
They're gracious to other people. It's just, Scott Richardson,
I like what Scott used to say, he said, if you're a believer,
it's gonna leak out. You're going to be gracious to
other people. You will be. Because it's the Holy Spirit
working in us. And we'll give Christ all the
glory. We won't want to take any glory. We'll give it all
to Christ for what he's done for us. And the person who's born again
by the Holy Spirit of God... Now, I imagine you're like me. We struggle with selfishness,
right? All of us do. But we're not like we were before,
were we? We're not. We still struggle
with sin just like everybody else, but think of this. We're
not just looking out for number one now. Now we seek the furtherance
of the gospel. Did you ever think in your wildest
imagination, sister, that we would be sold out for the gospel? that we would want to see the
furtherance of the gospel? That was the last thing on my
mind as a teenager and as a young man. But praise be to God, God
intervened in my life. Did he intervene in your life?
Aren't you thankful? Oh, we were on that broad road
to destruction, weren't we? He's taken us and put us on a
narrow path. Christ, the way, the truth, and
the life. And now we worship him. We who
were rebels, now we worship him. Now we praise him. We who cursed
him, now praise him. That's a miracle. That's a miracle,
beloved. But that's what God does to his
people. We're no longer as selfish as we were or self-centered as
we were. We're not self-seeking anymore,
are we? Now we seek his righteousness. We seek the things of the kingdom
of God now, don't we? When we didn't even think about
that before. I'm looking at miracles. And
I don't mean some charismatic yo-yo thing. I'm not talking
about that. I'm looking at people who've been changed by the grace
of God in Christ. Isn't that amazing? Oh my. And I'm just one sinner telling
other sinners where to find bread. And you love to hear it, don't
you? I love to hear it. Tell me more about Christ. Don't
tell me about what I gotta do. Don't tell me about this and
that. Tell me more about Christ. Tell me more about what He's
done. The work's already finished. Just look and live. And by God's
grace, we look and live, don't we? Oh my. And God's people are grateful
and thoughtful and generous. And we serve Christ now. We live unto God and we die unto
the world, don't we? An old preacher friend used to
say, he says, once you hear the gospel, it ruins you for everything
else. You're no good to the world.
You're no good to religion. Because you just want to worship
Christ. Oh my. Turn if you would to Matthew
chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10. This is brought
forth in these words of the Master. God incarnate in the flesh. we're starting verse 34 Matthew
chapter 10 we read the verse 39. Beloved, we lose our life
for Christ. We just want to serve him now. Isn't that amazing? Look at this. Think not that I am come to send
peace on earth. I'm not come to send peace but
a sword. For I'm come to set a man at variance against his
father and the daughter against his mother and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law You know, when the Lord saves a person,
you find out even your family members sometimes turn against
you. Right? Well, there it is. The
Lord comes with a sword. And a man's foes will be they
of his own household. He that loveth father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh
not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me."
Look at this. He that findeth his life shall
lose it. Oh my. Our life's not our own
is it? What does Paul write? We're bought with a price aren't
we? We're bought with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
that findeth his life shall lose it. And he that lose his life
for my sake shall find it. We have eternal life in Christ
Jesus our Lord. Oh my. Let's go back to our text
in Acts chapter 4 there and these early disciples show by example
that their faith was not for material gain. You know you hear
these these fake preachers on TV and they're saying send me
your money and I'll give you, there'll be a seed harvest and
you'll get more money. All they're after is people's
money. They're just stealing money from people's wallets.
That's all they're doing. And I mean the whole bunch of them.
And if they're not stealing money from somebody, say, I got a book,
you gotta get it. You gotta get this book. Well, just more money,
right? God's preachers, we're not in
this for gain. You know that. You've met several
of our brethren who preach, and we're not in this for money. If we wanted money, we could
go out in the world and get a job and make more money. But that's
not what we want. The Lord has called us to preach
the gospel, and he takes good care of us, just as he takes
good care of you, right? All of God's people are taken
care of by the Lord Jesus Christ. My. And faith seeks not temporal
riches, because they're just temporal. They're gonna be gone. We can't take a, now somebody
could put a penny or $100,000 in the coffin with us, but it
wouldn't be long if somebody found out there's $100,000 in
my coffin, somebody would be digging it up, right? We can't take nothing with us.
Nothing at all. So faith doesn't seek temporal
riches. God-given faith loves not the things of this world.
They're just passing away, beloved. I'll tell you what, everything
you see is passing away. Youth passes away, doesn't it?
Everything you see and everybody you see is gonna pass away. Everything
in this world is just temporal. Everything. But God's eternal. And in Christ, who's God in the
flesh, is eternal life through his shed precious blood. And
all who believe upon him, by God's grace, have eternal life. Isn't that wonderful? For our light affliction, Paul
tells us that our life is a light affliction. Paul was whipped
five times, 39 stripes. Five times! Most people don't
live after 39 stripes. And he calls it light affliction. He calls the suffering we go
through in this world just light affliction. Turn with me if you
would. This is amazing. Just a few verses.
2 Corinthians chapter 4. He says it's for our light affliction. It's just light. It don't feel
like light, does it? But you know what? I'll tell
you what. In light of what Christ suffered,
our afflictions are nothing. There's something to us, right?
They're real to us. They're real. They're absolutely real. And
we go through them. And they're hard. But in light of what our
Lord went through to redeem us, they're light afflictions. Look
at this. 2nd Corinthians chapter 4. Oh my. Let's look at, start in verse
six, we're gonna read a little bit. For God who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Now, God's doing all the work
there, isn't he? It's all him. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. We can't save ourselves. It's
impossible. We are troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in
despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed.
These are things that Christians suffer. Who's keeping us from being,
not being destroyed? Amen, sister God. God's keeping
us from not being destroyed. My. Always bearing about in the
body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always
delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh
in us, but life in you. We, having the same spirit of
faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have
I spoken, See, we can only speak about what we believe. If a man's never been saved,
he can't preach. I can't stand up here and tell
you about something that hasn't happened to me. The Lord saved
my soul. So I'm going to tell as many
people as I can about that. And I'm going to tell you that
eternal life is only found in Christ. The forgiveness of sins
is only found in Christ. All that a sinner needs is found
in Christ. in Christ alone. There's no other hope outside
of Christ. Oh my. Always bearing about,
verse 10, the dying of the Lord Jesus that life also of Jesus might be made manifest
in our body for which For we which live are always delivered
unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then, death worketh
in us, but life in you. We, having the same spirit of
faith, according as it is written, I believed and therefore have
I spoken, we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that
he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up. We're going
to heaven only because the head of the body rose first. That's
Christ, right? If Christ didn't raise from the
grave, none of us would rise up to be in glory with him. But
praise God, he did. Knowing that he which raised
up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall
present us with you for all things are for your sake that the abundant
grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound, that means abound
in the Greek, abound to the glory of God. Our praise is to abound
to the glory of God. See, in religion, they glory
in man and what man can supposedly do. We glory in what God's done. He saved my soul. I couldn't
save myself. He did it all. The work's already
finished. I preach a finished work. It's
already done. Salvation's already being accomplished,
right? Aren't you thankful, Travis?
Amen. What a blessing. It's already
finished. It's already done. For all things are for your sakes
that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many
redound or abound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint
not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is
renewed day by day. Look at this. For our light affliction, oh my, aren't you glad that the
Lord's with us? For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, do you know our lives are like this in the
eyes of the Lord? One day is like a thousand years
to the Lord. How much is 70 years or 80 years
or 90 years? It's just a blip. It won't even move it, will it,
Brother Dave? Won't even move the measuring thing. My oh my. Long time for us, right? But you know, your life could
be over in 25. Your life could be over at 29.
Your life could be over at 10. We don't know when it's our time,
do we? Oh my. Oh my. It's appointed on men
once to die. Every one of us is going to die.
Are you going to die in your sins? Are you going to die as
Christ as your Savior? I pray that God will give you
grace to trust Him, to rest in Him, to cast yourself upon Him. My, oh my. And we who believe,
we've been showing grace in the eyes of the Lord, haven't we? And again, we pray as this message
goes out, like we always do, that God would use it for His
glory, to build up His people, and to save the lost. to draw
on his lost sheep, because he got lost sheep out there still. He knows where they are, but
we don't have a clue, do we? No, no, no, no. But he knows. Our light affliction, which is
but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory. Well, we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal. This stuff's all temporal. That's
what the scripture's telling us. It's all going to go away.
But the things which are not seen are eternal. Christ is eternal. I'm trusting in someone who I've
never seen, but by God's grace, I believe him. I believe he came
to save my sins, save me from my sins. I believe he bore my
sins at Calvary's Cross. He did it all. He cried, it is
finished. It's done. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, and all who look to him by
faith, God-given faith, shall be saved. Shall be saved. He's able to say, you know, some
folks say, oh, you don't know what I've done. Oh, I've just sinned so much. I've just sinned so much that
I don't think God will forgive me. You know what that's called? Self-righteousness. That's what that's called. That's
self-righteousness. The scripture declares that God
can save to the uttermost those who come to him through Christ. Right? And if anyone feels like that,
come talk to us, a bunch of sinners who God saved by his grace. Because I can tell you what.
My sin might be blacker than yours. God saved my soul. Brother Dave, did we even imagine
that God could save us when we were in the depths of our stuff? Just dead. We didn't have a clue. And yet God knew we were one
of his. And he saved our souls. Amen. He knows his sheep. He can get
every one of them. Someone says, I don't know if
I'm a sheep of God. I don't know if I'm one of God's elect. Are
you trusting Christ? Well, yeah? Then you're one of
God's elect. Right? My, oh, my is wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. God-given
faith also seeks the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Now we seek the things of Christ, don't we? We used to seek the
things of our own. Now we seek the things of Christ.
Now we seek His righteousness. Who's God's righteousness? Someone
tell me who God's righteousness is. Amen. Christ. It's Christ. He's the righteousness of God.
He's the one who the gospel reveals. And the gospels reveal the righteousness
of God. That's Christ. We find out we have no righteousness.
We find out we're just a bunch of hell-deserving sinners. That's what we are. And even
after we're saved, we'll still tell you, we're a bunch of hell-deserving
sinners. But by God's grace and mercy,
he saved us. And it's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. My oh my. Faith in Christ produces
an attitude of grace in the heart of those who have experienced
the grace of God by being born again by the Holy Spirit of God.
We're not who we used to be. We're new creatures in Christ
now. Faith unites the people of God,
doesn't divide them. True God-given faith unites the
people of God. What we looked at this morning
divides the people of God. Pride. Thinking one's better
than the other people. Right? There's nothing so contradictory
than a proud, self-righteous, arrogant professor of Christ. Because God's people are made
to be humble, made to have gentleness, right? Made to cling to Christ,
given faith to believe on Christ, who's the one object of our faith. Is Christ your all in all? Was
he before the Lord saved you? But he is now, right? Oh my. And God's people are truly one
in Christ. We're family. We're family, beloved. Do you know what we are? We're
a family of sinners saved by the grace of God. Isn't that
amazing? We're a family of sinners saved
by the grace of God. And our hearts love one person
above all, and his name is the Lord Jesus Christ. And remember
that love is a free of the spirit, so that's not a love that comes
natural to us, because in our natural state, we do not love
God. Before he saves us, we do not love him. As a matter of
fact, we're running as far away from him as we possibly can.
But I'll tell you what, what does a shepherd do? He goes and
finds his sheep, doesn't he? And I heard one person say, you
know that crook in the sheeps, in the shepherds, I don't know
if this is true, but I read it and I thought it was really neat,
that he just puts out in the neck of a sheep and just gently
pulls them towards him so he can pick them up. What does the shepherd in Luke
chapter 15 do? He puts that little sheep on
his neck, doesn't he? He carries them all the way home. God's gonna carry us all the
way home, beloved. So we're united in being devoted
to one cause, which is the kingdom of God and the furtherance of
the gospel. We seek the will of God. We have
one ultimate, dominant, theme which is to bring glory to God
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Right? He gets all the glory. He gets
all the praise. He gets it all. My oh my. So the church is filled
with the Holy Spirit of God. And the apostles preached the
Word of God with boldness. And God was honored. He was honored. He was glorified. And may every
congregation that's truly the Lord's, may we imitate that.
May we give God all the glory and all the honor and all the
praise. And the church was filled with the Spirit. Again, the apostles
preached the Word of God. And we've seen they went to God
in prayer. And remember, when we go to prayer,
we're approaching the risen, exalted God-man. We're approaching the King of
Kings and the Lord of Lords. We get to speak to Him. And He mediates for us by the
grace of God. And we know Romans says all things
work together For good to them that love God, and people usually
stop there, but no, there's more to that passage. It says to them
who are the called according to his purpose. God calls his
people according to his purpose. If you're saved and you're a
believer, it's according to God's purpose. Isn't that wonderful? That's wonderful. My, and in
today's study, we will see, we will look at Barnabas a little
bit, in a little bit, who sincerely gave to the church, and then
next week we'll look at Annias, and Annias and Sapphira, who
were hypocrites in the church. They did it, you know why they
did it? Look what we're doing. Look what
we give. I love we have a little box in
the back. I love that. We don't pass the plate around
anymore. Wasn't that the most awkward thing when the plate
went around? You just put whatever you want
in the box. Have you noticed I have never
preached on tithing? And Lord willing I never will
because it's not in the New Testament. God loves a cheerful giver, right?
Give whatever he puts on your heart. That's it. My oh my. It's just incredible. Look at verse 32. And the multitude
of them that believe were of one heart and of one soul. Neither
said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed
was his own, but they had all things in common. So in a very
brief time, our sovereign Lord, he died at 8,000 and another
3,000, right? So that's 11,000 more saints
added to the church. And then plus the 120 that were
originally in the upper room. We see in this wonderful verse
that the multitude of them that believed, they were of one heart. They were of one heart, one soul. They were united together in
Christ. We come here because we're united in Christ, aren't
we? We desire to hear about Christ,
but we're united in him. I wonder how many things we'd
have in common outside of Christ. I used to, we had a fellow that
attended our church in Oregon. You guys would have loved him.
His name was Paul, an old German guy. He could fix anything. But
you know what he said to our little group? He said, well,
before the Lord saved me, I wouldn't have wanted to hang out with
any of you like this. He goes, because we don't have
nothing in common before. But he says, but now? Now? Oh,
we have lots in common now. But isn't that the truth, though?
Isn't that the truth? You all wouldn't have wanted
to hung out with me before I was saved. Dave, maybe. Yeah, we
would have, yeah. But not many other of you would
have wanted to. Oh my. My. And look what the Lord's done.
Look what he's done, beloved. Look what he's done in our lives,
in the work here. It's amazing. So we're united
together in Christ. We see here there are one heart
and one soul. They're there for the furtherance
of the gospel. And they preach Christ, and they
preach His resurrection. The foundation of the prophets,
remember, is the redemption and resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ. In the Old Testament, it speaks
of Christ. Through all the sacrifices, it
all points to Him, and Him alone. And we are to earnestly contend
for the faith which the Lord Jesus has given us. And it's
the responsibility, too, of every believer to keep that unity,
right? To not get caught up in things, but to keep that unity. Oh my, the unity of the Spirit,
which is the bond of peace. And God's born-again, blood-washed
people, we're a close-knit family, sometimes even closer, for me,
and I've talked to several of you, for you, too, closer than
what we have with our own kin. My brothers, they don't want
nothing to do with me since the Lord saved me and made me a preacher. And it didn't just start because
I'm a preacher, it started just because the Lord saved me. Is
it so for you? Now slowly they start talking
to you again, but they don't ever want to mention what, they
have never asked what's going on down here. Isn't that amazing? I've told them, but they've never
asked. Oh my. It's amazing. Look at verse 33 here. See, these people, these beloved
saints, they had their eyes set upon the fact that our God is
a sovereign God, that he's in control Oh my, so let us do what
Paul says. Set your mind on things above.
Set your mind on Christ. And don't ever believe when somebody
says, you're so heavenly minded, you're no earthly good. I don't
know who came up with that, but that's one of the worst sayings
I think I've ever heard. Do you sin more than you want
to? I do! Do you? Yeah! Do you want
to be sinless? Oh yeah! But I can't! Because
I'm in this body of flesh! But I sure can't wait to that
day when we get home to glory and when we don't sin no more.
What a day that'll be! What a day that'll be! Oh my! My oh my. And their love for
Christ was demonstrated by what they're doing here in the text.
And it all comes about by God's amazing grace. Remember that
too. This is not natural for them to be selling their homes
and giving all the money. That's not something people in
the world do, is it? Oh my. And remember, they grow into
a large family of believers. Look at verse 33. And this has
to do with preaching the gospel. And with great power gave the
apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great
grace was upon them all. Well, they were given great,
great grace, either in a powerful way, John Gill says, either in
a powerful way, with great fervency of spirit and great enthusiasm
and love for the Lord Jesus Christ and love for one another. See, the love that we have in
Christ, which is the fruit of the spirit, is not natural to
us. It's not natural to us. But we see here that the apostles
were witnesses. Again, they were eyewitnesses
of what had occurred. And the resurrection of Christ
is one of the fundamental articles of our faith. The Sadducees believed
there was no resurrection. But you take away the resurrection
of Christ and we have no salvation, do we? And the whole reason that God
raised Christ from the dead was for our justification, the scripture
says. To show that God was satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ
in our room and place. And that'll make a sinner say
hallelujah, won't it? Oh my, it's wonderful. So they, we saw in our text two
weeks ago that they, rather than obey man, they obey God. Because
they went back to the group and they told them all about what
happened and they just, we see here, they continue to preach
Christ and the resurrection, which they were told not to do
earlier in this chapter. But again, we fear God. And that's not in a slavish way,
that's in a reverent way. Reverent fear of who he is. And the preaching of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ is the ordained instrument that our
Lord uses to deliver his chosen people from the power of darkness.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. How shall
they hear without a preacher, right? And how shall he preach
without being sent? Oh, my. And I've been thinking
about this. I did something this week. There's
a local guy in here, and a friend of mine goes to his church. And
so I downloaded, you know how I do that. I listen to people,
listen to somebody. I downloaded this guy's message.
And for seven minutes, I had to shut it off. He talked about
himself. And you know what came in my
mind? You know what comes to my mind,
beloved? For we preach not ourselves, but Christ crucified. I may mention things that happened
to me, but I'm going to trumpet Christ to you. I'll tell you
that. I'm going to give him all the glory. Because I'm a zero. I'm a nothing without Christ.
Right? Oh, my. So the preaching of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ is the ordained instrument that God
uses, again, to deliver his people from our sins. And also to have
us grow, to become spiritually mature. He uses the preaching
of the gospel. And we see here that the apostles
were greatly encouraged as they witnessed his sovereign power
at work in adding a multitude to that little group. In such
a short period of time, 11,000 saints! And being encouraged, they wax
bold, and what do they do? They just continue to preach
Christ and His resurrection. Because that's what's most important. Right? My, in God's grace, as we saw
in that text in Corinthians, it's abounding grace. It's grace
given to hell-deserving sinners through Christ Jesus, our Lord.
And it's all because of his, his, his, his perfect sin atoning
work on Calvary's cross. I contributed nothing to my salvation. Did you? Just my sin, that's right. Just
for what Christ had to die for, that's what we contributed. And praise God, we are saved
by the pure, free, sovereign grace of God in and through the
Lord Jesus Christ. Man, it is finished. It's already accomplished. It's
already done. What's that mean for us? We just
look and live, don't we? And the only way we look is because
we made willing in the day of God's power and given faith to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Right? Because we were dead. We were graveyard dead, beloved,
spiritually. He made us alive in Christ. It's wonderful. Now let's look
at verses 34 and 35. Neither was there any among them
that lacked, for as many as were possessors of the land or houses
sold them, and bought the prices of the things that were sold,
and laid them down at the apostles' feet, and distribution was made
unto every man according to his need. And again, Mar bought this.
Again, actually the book, they presumed the book was written
anywhere from 33 A.D. to 62 or 64 A.D., that's what
it was. And again, the city of Jerusalem
was soon going to be overtaken in A.D. 70. Gutted. By Titus. So marvel at how God
works. Caring for his church, providing
for his church. At this time, and we know even
in the future, right? Many have sought out to crush
the Church of Christ and have failed. Our God is not to be trifled
with. He did not be trifled with. And note in verse 32 that they
had all things common. They were not obliged to do this,
to be that way, but what they did here was a free, voluntary
action of their own. God moved upon them. So it's
not binding on others, nor indeed is their practice to be imitated
in the direct manner in which they did it, because this was
for a particular case. This was providing for the church
to be able to go out. Isn't that amazing? When the
Jerusalem would be destroyed, out they could go. Provision
was already made. Brother, like when you were moving,
remember? Lord just took care of it all. Gave you more than
what you were expecting to get. He's so amazing. He's so incredible,
our great God. Oh, and many of those who were
true followers of Lord Jesus Christ, we see were not poor.
In verses 30 and 35, we see they were possessors either of land
or houses, but they didn't consider what they possessed to be their
own. They believed and acknowledged,
as all believers do, that not only were their possessions gifts
from God, but everything they had belonged to God. We believe
that, don't we? They have the same faith we do,
beloved. Everything I have, God gave me. Everything. My oh my, it all belongs to Him.
And their love for the Lord Jesus Christ was not just proven by
their love for others, but it was proved by what they had done
for others as well. No one told them to sell their
possessions. No, it's the love of Christ that
constrains God's saints. The word constrain means to compel. You know, people say, oh, if
I believe like you believe, I could go out and do whatever I want,
and Scripture says the love of Christ constrains us from sin. It means, it means compels us
from sin. To preoccupy. What are we preoccupied
with as believers? Amen, sister. Christ! We're preoccupied
with Christ now. We used to be preoccupied with
all the things we could get and things we could do, and now we're
preoccupied with Christ, aren't we? Isn't it wonderful? Oh my. I'll tell you what. Not that
we don't think upon other things, but he's the one with the preeminence
in our life, isn't he? Oh my. I'll never forget my son. He said one time, You and dad
don't, mom, you and dad don't get worked up about nothing.
I said, well, we know who's in control. He says, things going on in the
world, you're just like, okay, yeah, it's just part of God's
sovereignty at work. But God has to give you that
grace, doesn't he? That comes from the Lord, that don't come
from us. What little hair I'd have would
be gone if I wasn't saved with what's going on in the world.
But I know God's in control. He's in full control right now
even, isn't he? All the stuff we see going on,
He's in absolute control. I can pillow my head at night,
sleep like a baby knowing that our King's in control. And if
I don't wake up that night, if I go home to be with the Lord,
I'm in His hands. Isn't that wonderful? Why? We can have the peace that passes
all understanding, beloved. Through Christ Jesus our Lord.
And our text tells us that those who sold their possessions bought
the prices of the things that they sold. They laid them down
at the apostles' feet and distribution was made according to need. My oh my. And these guests were
free. Voluntary sacrifices of love.
Again, no one told them to do this. No one told them how much to
give. No. See, the thing we're going to
see that was the problem with Ananias and Sepharis is that
they held back. And they said they'd given everything. Oh my. They just wanted to look
good. my oh my. Notice again verse
35, and they laid them down at the apostles feet and distribution
was made unto every man according as he had need. They trusted
the apostles with the finances. And God's true servants aren't
greedy men, not greedy men. They only took what they needed
to sustain themselves and everything else was distributed as was needed.
Look at Jonas here. Look at this guy named Barnabas.
We know Barnabas. We're going to learn a lot more
about Barnabas. Barnabas is a faithful man. Look at this. And Joseph,
who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, which is interpreted
the son of consolation, the Levite, and of the city of Cyprus, having
land, sold it, and bought the money, and laid it at the apostles'
feet. Whatever he got for it, he just gave it to them. Again,
again, this is a one-time thing that happened. These passages
have been so misused. People trying to, preachers,
false preachers trying to get money out of people. It's awful. But in these two
verses of the Holy Scripture, we're introduced to a certain
man by the name of Barnabas. We're going to learn more about
him. He's a faithful man. And he didn't know it. Think
of this too. He didn't know he was going to
be called to preach. As far as we know, he's not called to preach
yet. He's just a believer who's laying down what the Lord put
on his heart to do. He has no idea that he's probably
gonna use some of those funds down the road as a preacher.
Or maybe the church at Jerusalem might give him some money to
go off and go with Paul. He had no idea. No. No. But he was quickly recognized
by the apostles as a faithful man. So much so that they named
him Barnabas, which means the son of consolation. He brought
comfort to God's people. He brought comfort to God's people.
Oh my. So they recognized the gift that
was given to him. And again, our Lord had ordained
Barnabas to be a preacher, but he didn't know it. I didn't know
when the Lord saved me that he ordained me to be a preacher.
I had no idea. I have no idea. You ask Donny
Bell, he says, I have no idea. You ask one of the grace preachers,
well, I have no idea. Just love the Lord and want to
tell other people about him? My oh my. And Dave, what you said about
the cake mix, man, you gotta make up a message on that for
us, about the cake mix. The Lord was working in Barnabas'
life, preparing him to go into the ministry, and he didn't have
a clue. He had no clue at all. No clue at all. And you know,
all of God's preachers think upon this. Barnabas was ordained to be a
preacher, but like all God's saints, he was a sinner who was
delivered under the preaching of the gospel, who was delivered
from his sins. And all of God's preachers, we
all come out of the same sinful camp as everyone else, as everyone
else. We're just a bunch of sinners
saved by grace. And now we're telling other sinners
about someone who can save anyone who comes to him by faith. Oh, my. In all the redeemed of
the Lord, we're just sinners saved by grace. You've heard
me say many times, there's not a pitcher's mound a little bit
higher for the preacher at the foot of the cross. Where are
we? Level ground, beloved. Sinners saved by the grace of
God in and through Christ Jesus our Lord. Blood-washed saints. And I don't believe any of God's
preachers, when we first come to Christ by faith, are even
aware that we're ordained by God to preach the gospel. I had
no clue. I know Donnie didn't have any
clue. But like Barnabas in our young Christian life, when we
manifested a genuine love for the Lord Jesus Christ, just like
any other believer would, right? And just like Barnabas, God's
preachers mature into faith, the same way all of God's saints
mature into faith. How do we mature into faith?
Through the preaching of the gospel, right? Through the preaching
of Christ. I can get up here and tell you
50 ways to, let's just throw something out there, to walk
in righteousness, but I'd be lying to you. Do you know how we walk in righteousness?
In Christ. There's nowhere else. Outside of Christ, my righteousness
is just like filthy rags. Is yours? But in Christ, oh,
praise God, all our sins are forgiven. We're clothed in that
perfect, spotless righteousness of Christ. It's wonderful. And God himself is the one who
trains and equips his preachers and his people. And he does this
under faithful preachers who proclaim the gospel. I preach,
but God the Holy Spirit has to take those words and apply them
to your heart, beloved. And encourage you and build you
up, just like he did for me in the study. Because I'm a saved
sinner, saved by grace, and I need to be fed. Do you? And do you
like clover instead of straw? Cheap fruit. Clover. Here's the clover. Here's the clover, beloved. Preaching
Christ and Him crucified. My. And Barnabas clearly revealed
here that the things of the world meant nothing to him. Nothing
to him. That Christ is now the preeminent
one in his life. sold his land, bought the money
to the apostles, being concerned for the well-being of God's saints
who were in need. And we see he placed himself
under the authority of the Lord's apostles, trusting them as spiritual
leaders. Again, I'm not sent here to lord
over you. No. No. I'm sent here to preach the gospel
and to be a fellow soldier with you. Right? That's what I'm sent
here. And by the grace of God, I'll
faithfully preach Christ to you. Because that's what we need in
this world. And Barnabas, very early in his
walk again, ministered to the spiritual needs of others and
had God-given gifts. He wasn't a hypocrite. He expressed
his true genuine faith for the glory of his Lord Jesus Christ,
our King, and he was not, he didn't do this to draw attention
to himself. Next week we're gonna see two
hypocrites who did those things to draw attention to themselves. We don't give, we don't serve
to draw attention to ourselves, do we? We serve because we love
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we do the things we
do. My oh my. Next week again we'll look at
two hypocrites as opposed to Barnabas here.
Barnabas had true faith, genuine faith. He sought the glory of
God and he didn't want to draw attention to himself. Oh may
God, may God our great God and Savior bless the preaching of
his word to build up the saints of God and to draw lost sinners
to Gracious, gracious Heavenly Father,
thank you for your word. Thank you for taking your people
from darkness into light, the light of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We had no idea we were even in the darkness, but all that darkness
was so great. But you, who are greater, shone
in our lives. By the regenerating power of
God, the Holy Spirit, we were born again and given faith to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And now, Lord Jesus, we cling
to you. We thank thee for thy great sacrifice,
your substitutionary work, dying in the ruined place of sinners
such as we. O Lord, use this message, we
pray, as it goes forth out into the internet. Use it to draw
in your lost sheep. and use it to build up your people.
And we'll give you all the glory, honor, and praise, because you
are the only one who's deserving of it. We love you only because
you first loved us. In Jesus' name, amen.