If you would, open your Bibles
with me to Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4. Many of you probably
already know that Gary Holbeck had triple bypass surgery on
Friday, which was quite a shock to me. I saw him Wednesday night
and, I mean, he looked to me like the picture of health. And
by Friday, he's having triple bypass surgery. But the surgery
went, went very, very well and his recovery seems to be going
very well. The hospital has requested that
nobody send him any fresh flowers. They try to keep those things,
their allergens and that kind of stuff out of the room. And
as a good example, yesterday was going so well until he coughed
and felt like he ripped himself open, you know, and the pain
level got up and took some time to get that pain back under control.
They said you can send bouquets of candy and those kinds of things. I don't know if it was Tim or
Jason. One of them said you can send
all the candy that you want, you know, and Gary probably can't
eat, they will. So, but let's keep him in the
family in our prayers. And also remember Novi Sparks,
whose surgery is coming up towards the end of this month. All right,
Acts chapter 31, we'll begin at verse, or Acts 4, beginning
at verse 31. And when they had prayed, the
place was shaken, where they were assembled together, and
they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the
word of God with boldness. And the multitude of them that
believed were of one heart and one soul. Neither said any of
them that all 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 lands or houses
sold them, and brought 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 we'll end our
reading there. All right, let's stand together
as Sean leads us in singing our call to worship. Thou dear Redeemer, risen Lamb,
we love to hear of Thee. No music like Thy charming name,
nor half so sweet can be. Oh, let us ever hear Thy voice
in mercy to us, In our high priest we will rejoice,
the Lord our righteousness. By His own blood Christ sanctified
the law's exact demands. God's love provided in His Son,
salvation in His hands. Christ and Him crucified, our
theme, while in this world we stay. We'll cling alone to Him,
our life, when all things else decay. OK, if you would, turn
in your hymnal to song number 258, He Hideth My Soul. A wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Lord, a wonderful Savior, too. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock, where rivers of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock, that shadows are dry. In the depths of His love, And
covers me there with His hand. And covers me there with His
hand. He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up, and I shall
not be moved. He giveth me strength as my day. my soul in the cleft of the rock
that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love and covers me there and covers me there with His
hand. With numberless blessings each
moment He crowns, and filled with His fullness divine. I sing in my rapture, for such a Redeemer as mine. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, and covers me there with His hand, and covers me
there with His hand. When clothed in His brightness
transported, I rise to meet Him in clouds of the sky. I'll shout with the millions
on high. Behind of my soul, in the cleft
of the rock, that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, and covers me there with His hand, and covers me
there with His hand. For our scripture reading, turn
with me, if you would, to Hebrews chapter two. Hebrews chapter two. Therefore, we ought to give the
more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any
time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels
was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just
recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great
salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord
and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him. God also
bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with diverse
miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will,
For under the angels hath he not put in subjection the world
to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified,
saying, What is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son
of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower
than the angels. Thou crownest him with glory
and honor, and did set him over the works of thy hands. Thou
hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he
put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put
under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.
But we see Jesus, who is made a little lower than the angels
for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he,
by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. For it became
him. For it became him. It was right.
It was just. It was natural. was holy it became
him for whom are all things by by whom are all things in bringing
many sons of glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect
through sufferings for both he that sanctified they who are
sanctified are all of one for which cause he is not ashamed
to call them brethren saying I would declare thy name unto
my brethren In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto
thee, and again I will put my trust in him, and again behold
I and the children which God hath given me. For as much then
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy
him that hath the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. For verily, he took not on him the nature of angels,
but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore, in all things,
it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might
be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in
that he himself had suffered being tempted, he is able to
succor them that are tempted." We'll end our reading there. Let's pray together. Our Holy God, our Heavenly Father,
we pray that in this place this morning that your holy, hallowed,
and reverend name be glorified and lifted up here in this place
among your children this morning. We pray that you would cause
glory to be brought to your name as it ought, and that you'd send
your spirit so that we may worship truly worship in spirit and truth.
We pray that that you give utterance to our pastor and give him a
word, a word from you and that you give us ears to hear according
to your will and according to your glory. Father, we we would
ask that that you be with us both in this service and throughout
the week that we'd ask that you make us good, good stewards,
good, good stewards of all the things that you've blessed us
with. The material things are good stewards at our job and
in our homes as parents and as spouses, good stewards in our
community that we would show your love and that you'd make
us good stewards of these things that you've seen fit to bestow
on us. We pray that you'd make us good
stewards of the gospel, that you've seen fit to declare from
this place that you've seen fit to entrust us with your word
for all these many years, that you'd continue to make us good
stewards of your gospel, to declare your name in truth from this
place so that your will would be accomplished and sinners would
be brought to a throne of mercy in Christ because of who he is
and because of his work. We pray together that his name,
that Christ's name, continue to be declared from this place,
that this be a lighthouse in our community for our neighbors
and for our friends and for our family and for ourselves, that
we may come here and continue to hear according to your will.
We thank you. We pray for ourselves, for our
congregation, for those that are undergoing particular trials.
particularly of Gary, pray that you continue to be with him and
be with his family. We think of Novi and Destiny
and Deb, that you would put your hand on them, keep your hand
on them in mercy and kindness and strength, heal according
to your will. Father, we pray for them. As
we pray, you've given us a heart to trust your will. And in faith,
we pray that your will be done. We thank you for Christ and for
your justice and mercy meeting together on him and that you've
seen fit to reveal as you have. We pray that you can continue
to call sinners out of this world and out of our community according
to your will. We pray this thankfully in Christ's
name, amen. O Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder consider all the worlds Thy hands have made, I see the
stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art Then sings
my soul, my Savior God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When through the woods and forest
glades I wander, And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur And hear the brook and
feel the gentle breeze Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And when I think that God His
Son's bearing Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. Then on the cross, my burden
gladly bearing, He went and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! O great Thou art! When Christ shall come, with
song of acclamation, and take me home, what joy shall fill
my heart! Then I shall bow in humble in their proclaim, My God, how
great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! That song doesn't prepare your
heart to worship, thinking how great our God is, and by extension,
how small I am. I'm afraid something's wrong
with us. This is the last Sunday for a
while that Riley and Abby will be with us. They're headed off
to school. I always hate that. Oh, I hate that. It's necessary
to go get an education. but y'all come back. All right,
if you would open your Bibles with me to Acts chapter four. I've titled the message Believers
Have All Things Common. Maybe I should have entitled
it The Common Salvation, but you get the idea that believers
have all things common. This passage that we read to
open the service this morning is many times used by preachers
to teach and promote generosity in giving, that these people
sold everything that they had and gave it all to the apostles,
every bit of it. And I'm sure that there was a
generosity involved in doing that. Certainly a commitment
to the gospel, wasn't there? To sell every, I mean everything
that you have and give all the proceeds of it to the church. I mean, that's commitment. But
this is not given to us as something that we should copy, that we
should do. You know, the believers here
at Jerusalem at this time did this for two reasons. Number
one, they knew Jerusalem was about to be destroyed. They heard
the prophecy of our Lord that Jerusalem would be destroyed.
And so they figured, well, I'm selling out now while before
it's destroyed, while it's worth something, I'm selling out now.
They also thought that the Lord would return very, very, very
shortly. So they thought, well, I'm not
gonna need all this stuff. I'll just sell it all now and
give it to the apostles, because I'm not gonna need it. The Lord's
returning very, very soon. Well, we know that the Lord didn't
return, and we know that Jerusalem wasn't destroyed for a little
over 30 years from that point. And when the Lord didn't return,
and when Jerusalem was not destroyed immediately, why they were left
in poverty. And when persecution came, and
you know the story how the persecution came to Jerusalem, they're all
staying right there, and the Lord used that persecution to
scatter them out everywhere, all across the known world at
that time. And as they went, they preached
the gospel, but they went in poverty. because they sold everything
that they had. They gave it all to the apostles.
And when this persecution came, there wasn't time for them to
go get supplies and those sorts of things. So they left in poverty.
So that throughout his epistles, Paul often talked about taking
the churches, taking up a gift to give to these believers in
Jerusalem and had been scattered out of Jerusalem because they
were left in such poverty. This is not really something
that we're to emulate. You all know believers give.
Believers give an offering, but now don't sell everything you
got. There's a little bit of common sense that can be used
in this thing. And this is a good point to bring
up, a good time to bring it up. It's good for us not to know
or not to think we know when the Lord is going to return.
Because if we think, well, the Lord's gonna return tomorrow,
well, there's no need for me to go to the public worship service,
there's no need for me to read the scriptures, there's no reason
for me to pray, there's no reason for me to talk to others about
the Lord, because it doesn't matter, the Lord's returning
anyway. Not knowing when the Lord is going to return keeps
us useful, doesn't it? It keeps us living by faith,
not by sight. But when these believers, when
they sold everything that they had and gave it to the apostles
and they had all things common, that is a good picture of salvation,
isn't it? Every believer, they all Every
believer has all things common. In terms of salvation, I know
some have different gifts than others. We're all part of one
body, and one's the hand that's got one purpose, and one's the
ear that's got a different purpose. But as far as things that are
required for salvation, every believer has all things common. Every believer has been given
the exact same blessings. That's why Jude called it a common
salvation, because there are things that are common to every
believer. This is a common salvation because
it comes to us always in the exact same way, through the preaching
of the gospel. Verse 31 said, and when they
had prayed and the place was shaken where they were assembled
together, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Every believer
is is born again the same way by the power of the Holy Ghost.
He blows where he listeth, he blows where he wills, and he
gives eternal life to all of God's people in the same way.
He causes them to be born again in the same way through the seed
of the word of God. And it's the same spirit that
dwells in every believer. That's why my spirit can testify
with your spirit. We say the same things, we see
this, we agree, because it's the same spirit that dwells in
the hearts of every believer. And the Holy Spirit's not doing
one thing with this person, and one with this person, and one
with this person. What's the Holy Spirit doing? Pointing every
believer to the exact same person. He's pointing us all to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And if you're being pointed to
look somewhere other than Christ, It's not the Holy Spirit. Now,
it could be another spirit, but it's not the Holy Spirit because
the Holy Spirit causes us all to look to Christ. And it says
here that the place where they prayed was shaken. When the Holy
Spirit comes, you're shaken, aren't you? I mean, he shakes
you up. Now, it's not a physical thing,
but everything that you used to believe is shaken, so it falls
down. You're shaken, so you fall off
your high horse and the pedestal that you built for yourself,
and you're shaken. You fall in the dust before Christ
our Savior, begging him for mercy. That's the common experience.
Now, you know, the circumstances that brings it about might be
a little different, but that's the common experience of every
believer. And at the end of verse 31, it
says, they all spake the word of God with boldness. In the past couple of weeks we've
dealt with this word boldness. It means clarity. Every believer
clearly says the same things. We clearly believe the same things. We believe and we say the same
things about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We say the
same things about salvation, how Christ accomplished it all
for us, how he gave it to us, how he put it in us. We all say
the same thing about righteousness. Christ is my righteousness. I
mean, I want to live an exemplary life, and I mean, I don't want
to sin. Boy, I don't want to. And if
I could curtail that, that wouldn't be any of my righteousness. Christ
is my righteousness. Every believer says that. Every
believer says the same thing about eternal life. Every believer,
they have the same hope. The same hope, the same expectation. Our expectation is what Christ
promised us. It all comes from what the word
said. Every believer will say what
the word says. And you know, one might not be
as articulate as the other, but when you hear the word preached,
every believer believes it. It's a common salvation. We have
the same spirit that's in us causing us to believe the same
things. And verse 32 says, and the multitude of them that believed,
they were of one heart and one soul. And neither said any of
them that out of the things which he possessed was his own, but
they had all things common. Now, every believer has all things
common in Christ. We don't say any of this is my
own. None of this is my own doing. We surrender all that. We give
up all that, and everything that I have is all in Christ. It's found in Christ. It comes
from Him. And none of this comes from my
own works. Now, believers are not do-less
people, are they? No, believers work. They work
to serve and help. The Lord's commanded us to do
these things, but we're not putting any stock in them. We're not
putting trust in our salvation in those things. All of salvation,
it's all of Christ. It's all of his obedience. It's
all of his blood. It's all of his faithfulness.
It's all of his mercy. It's all of his grace. It's all
of his love. It's all of his faithfulness.
I can honestly tell you, and every believer can honestly,
genuinely say this. I love the Lord. I love him. I love, I love the Lord Jesus
Christ. I love his gospel. I love everything
about him. But that love is so fickle. I
mean, a germ can just make me sick and just make me, you know,
or the wind can blow and I just feel my love is so cold and lukewarm
and just seems like it's non-existent. It's not my love for him. that
is any comfort to my soul, it's his love for me. Herein is love,
not that we loved him, not that we loved God, but he loved us.
And he sent his son to be the propitiation, the sacrifice for
our sin. That's the love that every believer
clings to and loves. I want to be known as a faithful
man. I do. I want to be known as a
faithful husband. I want to be known as a faithful
father and a faithful friend. I want to be known as someone
that's faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's faithful to you.
I want to be known. I mean, it's required of a steward
that he be found faithful. I want to be faithful. But that's just embarrassing
to talk about, isn't it? I find no comfort in my faithfulness. Oh, but I find comfort in the
faithfulness of Christ. We're saved by the faith of Christ,
that he's faithful to do everything that it takes to save his people
from their sin and to keep them and to present them before his
father, holy, harmless, blameless, undefiled. It's his faithfulness. That's what every believer, common
to every believer. And verse 33 says, and with great
power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus and great grace was upon them. Now it wasn't just that
they gave great witness that the Lord Jesus was raised from
the dead. It's what did that mean? What
does that mean for the salvation of his people? It means he justified
them. It means he put all of their sin away. He never could
have been raised from the dead if any sin was found on him.
His sacrifice put away all of the sin of all of his people. And if God ever lets you hear
that and believe that, it is because of great grace, isn't
it? Great grace. It takes great grace
to save a sinner like me. Great grace. And our God has let that gospel
be preached in this place and has let many of you hear it.
I mean, you hear and believe. Let that sink in for a minute.
How amazing is that? How amazing is that? I think about growing up and Then we had three services
on Sunday. We had Sunday school, Sunday
morning service, Sunday night school, Sunday night service,
Wednesday night service. And as far as I can remember
in my little boy brain, we never missed a service. And I would
sit there and Henry would be preaching. It is the most boring
thing in this world to me. I mean, I could think about anything
But what that man was preaching, what he was pointing out from
the word of God, I mean, what wasted time? And God let me hear. Oh, it's
a great grace, great grace that would save a rebel like that.
Aren't you thankful? That's a common experience of
every believer. Every believer says the same
thing. Move over, Paul. I'm the chief of sinners. I know
you thought you used to be, but now I'm the chief of sinners.
It took great grace to save me. And that grace got the job done.
Look at verse 34. Neither was there any among them
that lacked. For as many as were possessors of lands or houses
sold them and brought 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." Now, these people,
they sold everything they had, they brought them to the apostles,
and then when somebody needs something, they had this big
pot, and they said, okay, I'll give you some of this, and you
some of this, and that gives you everything you need, right?
You can pay your bills, you can buy food. They took it all out of
that one pot. That's the believer in Christ.
No believer is lacking anything that's required for salvation.
It's all been given to us freely. The Lord Jesus Christ gives his
people everything that we need. Everything. Everything that the
Father requires of us to be accepted in his presence, to one day be
in his heaven, Christ gives it to his people. But as you see
so often, this is just a picture. Christ is always so much better
than the picture in me. You know, the apostles, they
had this pool and they just gave everybody a little bit out of
that pool as they needed. When Christ gives to his people,
he gives every believer everything. He gives them all everything.
He doesn't have to divvy it up so you get a little part and
you get a little part and you get a little part. Every believer gets everything. They get all of his righteousness. They get all of his, the forgiveness
of their sins. They get all of life, eternal
life. He doesn't divvy up his love
to the, you know, how to divide it out among his children. He
gives all of his love to all of his children. All of his children
are perfectly accepted. It's not like, well, this one's
doing better. So, you know, I'll accept them more. I've given
this one more responsibility in the church. I want to accept
them more. Every believer is given all of God's love and all
of his acceptance accepted in the beloved so that every believer
Can come into the presence of our savior come before his throne
of grace and receive exactly what you need in every time of
need Every time you don't have to feel like I want every believer
in this room to never feel that. I hope you've never felt this
way. And if you do, don't ever feel this way again. Well, somebody,
you know, somebody else, you know, you know, they're God's
favorite child. God loves them more than me.
And, you know, I'm just, you know, they're they're getting
the best things from God and I'm just getting the scraps. It's good for us to feel like
other believers are better than me. But every child of God receives
everything that God has for a sinner, and Christ gives it to us all
freely. It's a common, we have all things
common, so we all have the exact same righteousness, we all have
the exact same holiness, we all have the exact same standing
with God. It's all things common. Now I
thought, what are some things that the scriptures tell us that
every believer has? I know different believers have
different gifts. But there's some things in regards
to salvation, the salvation of our souls, there's some things
every single believer has that are common. First look at Ephesians
chapter four. Ephesians chapter four, verse
four. There's one body. There is one
body of Christ, and every believer is part of that same body. We're part of the body of Christ. There's one body. There's one
universal church. There's not these churches scattered
around all over here, and you know, so, you know, we're different. There are different local churches
spread all over the place, wherever it's got to put them, but there's
just one church. There are different places. They're
from different ages. There's a church on earth and
in heaven, but we're all one. We're one body. Christ is the
head, and we're the body. Now, just a minute ago, I talked
about great grace. How much grace did it take for God Almighty
to put you in the body of His Son? Oh, it's great grace. And since we're in The same body. We're part of the same body.
Take care of one another. Don't be biting and devouring
and tearing one another down and being hateful to one another.
We're part of the same body. Take care of one another. People
that are biting and devouring and harming their own body, they
put in a padded cell somewhere. I recently was at a doctor's
office and I guess it's something they got to ask you all the time
now, you know, they say, Are you thinking about hurting yourself? I'm like, no. I love myself too
much to hurt myself. But I ask her. Finally, I just,
you know, so many people ask me this question. I said, what
would you do if I said yes? And she said, well, we got a
place to put you. If somebody's hurting him, we're part of the
body of Christ. Don't harm his body. Take care
of it. These people, this is the body
of Christ. Take care of them. We're in one
body. Next, Paul says we have one spirit.
I talked about the Holy Spirit a little bit earlier. There's
the same Holy Spirit that caused every one of God's people to
be born again with the same life in the same way. The Holy Spirit
is all pointing us to the same person. The same spirit lives
in all of us. And what is it that he's doing
for his people? He's teaching us. And what, how's
he teach us? The Lord said, he's going to
take the things of mine and show them to you. He's teaching all
of his people, the things of Christ and pointing us all to
Christ. There's no special revelation
that, that the Holy spirit is going to give anybody. A few
years ago, I got a email from, from a man that we used to, I
guess you'd say we're friends or friendly or acquaintance or
whatever. And I got this email and he said that the Lord revealed
something to him that hasn't revealed to anybody else. And
it's up to him to teach the whole world. You know, I thought, Oh,
this is a problem. The Holy Spirit's not teaching
you something different. He's teaching me. He's teaching
us all Christ. He's pointing us all to Christ. Then Paul says, there's one hope.
And that word hope means an expectation. Every believer has the exact
same expectation. I expect to be saved by the blood
of Christ. I expect that. I expect to be
redeemed by the power of his blood. I expect that however
long that Lord has left me, you know, at the time on this earth,
I expect that he's going to keep me by his grace. And one day,
I do, now I expect this. I expect to awake and look into
the face of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory and be made just like
him. Now, I recognize those are huge
statements. And I would not dare have that
expectation or make those statements publicly. Wouldn't dare believe
it. except God promised it. And God's
made the exact same promise to every believer. Now, it's not
presumption to believe what Christ promised us. It's not presumption. Somebody said, well, that's all
for presumptions of you to expect a waking glory. Not if Christ
promised it, it's not. It's actually wrong to not believe
it, isn't it? Look at Titus chapter, hold your
place there in Ephesians. Look over at Titus chapter one. Titus 1 verse 2, in the hope,
the expectation of eternal life. Now, why do you have that expectation? Which God, that cannot lie, promised
before the world began. But hath in due times manifested
his word, he's made it known to his people through preaching,
which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our
Savior. It's not presumption to believe
the promise of God, that you find in his word, that you hear
preached in his gospel. There's one hope. Every believer
has the exact same hope. It's not to have a bigger mansion
than somebody else in glory. It's to be made just like Christ,
to be with him and worship him face to face. What a hope. What an expectation for the future. Every believer has the same hope.
And then Paul says, there's one calling. There's just one calling. We're all called to the same
place. were called to Christ. Every believer is equally called
to Christ. They're equally elected in Christ.
They're equally loved of God. They're equally redeemed by the
blood. They're equally sons and daughters. One is not better
than another. And how can they be? We're all
there by grace. We're all there by the exact
same great grace. How can one be better than another?
We're not. We're only there for Christ's
sake. We're only there on his merits. So we're all equal. Another believer
is not more loved of the Lord than you. They're all the same. There's one calling. And there's
one Lord. The same Lord is over all. He's governing us all. The same
Lord loves all of His people. The same Lord redeemed all of
His people. And every believer worships the
same Lord. I don't care where you find them.
Every believer worships the same Lord. They can be in different
places, in different countries, speak in different languages,
with different customs, but they all worship the same Lord. And
when you hear Him preached, you know Him. And when you hear somebody
else preach, you know that too. You know that that's another
Jesus. But when someone preaches Christ, they preaches the Lord
to you, you know him. Because you don't just know him
in your head. It's not just facts that you
know about him. You know him in your heart. There's one Lord
and every believer bows to him and worships him. Then Paul says,
there's one faith. Faith is the gift of God, and
God gives every believer the exact same faith. And that faith
is to believe the same person, the same person. Peter calls
it like precious faith. Every believer believes the same
things regarding salvation, that it's all in Christ. You might
not be able to articulate it as well as someone else, but
when you hear it from God's word, you believe it. You believe it
because God gave you faith. Every believer believes the same
things about themselves and about the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's
unfeigned. It's unfeigned faith. If God's
given you faith in Christ, You know you're not playing games
here. You're not just putting on this outward religious veneer
of faith. In your heart, you know it's
unfeigned faith. I really do trust Christ. I really do. I trust him with
everything, with all of my salvation, all of my soul, all of my eternity,
all of my body, all of my life here. I trust him with everything. I really do. That's amazing. I mean, that's amazing. And if
you're a believer, you could say the exact same thing. Now
you might not always tell it when you're watching me from
the way I act, but I believe the Lord Jesus Christ. I really
do. Then Paul says, there's one baptism. Baptism is immersion. That's
what the word means. Every believer is baptized, immersed
into Christ, into him, so that when the father sees his people,
he doesn't see Christ and like his people, like, you know, little
dolls, you know, they're inside of Christ, these little things
that, well, I got to accept them because, you know, they're in
my son. He doesn't see Christ and his people. All he sees is his son. loved like his son, accepted
like his son with as much joy as he has joy in his son, because
all of his people are baptized, immersed into Christ. And in water baptism, every believer
is confessing the same things in water's baptism, aren't they?
They're confessing When we baptize someone, they're confessing,
I am such a rotten sinner. I am so vile and guilty and dead
in sin. The only way that I could possibly
be saved is that the Lord Jesus Christ took my sin and died for
him. Was buried and he rose again
because he put my sin away. That's the only way that I could
be saved. And this is my confession. This
is my only hope of salvation. That when Christ died, I died
in him. I was baptized in him, I was put in him, so when he
died, I died. He died for my sin. When he was
buried and lay in the tomb, I lay dead and buried in him. And when
he arose from the grave, I arose to new life in him, and I can't
die again, because I already died in Christ. I already died
to God's justice once, and that's my only hope of salvation, that
I'm in Christ. It's the only way God can accept
me. That is so obvious if God's given you eyes to see. There's
one baptism. Now look back at page Ephesians
1. Here's another thing that's common to every one of God's
children. We have the same election. Verse
3, Ephesians 1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places. Now, where are they? They're
in Christ. According as he hath chosen us,
elected us in him, in Christ, before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before him
in love. Every believer confesses the
same electing love. It's the only way I could possibly
be saved, is if before he created anything, God, by his own will
and his own purpose, chose to save me. It's the only way. Because after I was born in Adam,
this is what I can promise you. I never would have chosen God.
Never. Not unless he chose me first.
Not unless he gave me life and called me to Christ. And whenever
we talk about God's election of a people, I know that the
world makes this seem like, oh, you're talking about something
so mean and hard, this mean God that they would not save people
that want to be saved. That is not what scripture teaches. If there's anybody, any sinner
that wants to be saved on God's terms, God will save them. Now,
it's God that put that in them, but unless God chose us first,
we never would have been saved, and that's his electing love.
that Almighty God has the capacity to love a sinner like me. To
love sinners who would never love Him, who would never choose
Him, God chose to save them anyway. They never would do anything
to deserve it. Before or after conversion, they'd never do anything
to deserve it. But God chose them anyway. God elected those
people into salvation anyway, and He put them in His Son to
be their surety before the foundation of the world. Now, if God did
that before the foundation of the world, God chose you into
salvation before the foundation of the world, let me ask you
this question. Is he gonna change now? No, sir. He'll never change. And here's
why. God elected all of his people
into salvation for the same reason. It's according to his will, not
our will, according to his will, so that his son would be glorified. You see that in verse five? Having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the
praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted
in the beloved. God chose a people to save so
that his son would get all the glory for doing it. Now, if God
saves you, is he gonna get all the glory for doing it, or are
you gonna get some of it? God will save every sinner if
his son can get all the glory for doing it. And God will never
cast away one of his people, ever. Even though we deserve
it, he'll never do it because that would take away the glory
of his son. That would mean his son died for you, but we ended
up finding out his blood wasn't enough to redeem you. That his
righteousness, his obedience wasn't enough to make you righteous.
If Almighty God chose to save you, he's gonna do it. because
he sent his son to be sacrificed in your place and he'll not allow
his son to lose any of his glory. Now doesn't that just take all
the pressure off? That's such good news. It does not depend
on me in any way. It all depends on Christ. Now
I could rest in that because I know something about who he
is. And every believer has the same redemption. Paul says in
verse seven, in whom we have redemption, through His blood,
the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, the
redemption price of every one of God's elect. God chose those
people. He chose to save them. But now,
their sin had to be paid for. Justice has to be satisfied.
So God sent His Son in the flesh to pay the redemption price,
to satisfy justice for them. And the price is the same for
everyone. every one of God's elect. It's
not like, well, this one over here just committed a few misdemeanors
and this one committed a bunch of felonies, so the price is
greater for this one than this one. The price is the same for
every one of God's elect. It's the sacrifice of the person
of Christ. His whole person, body and soul. He made his soul an offering
for sin and the price was the same for every one of us. Every
one of us. And the example that I can think
of is this. The thief on the cross and Saul of Tarsus. The
thief on the cross and the apostle Paul. That thief never did one
thing in the service of God's church. He never witnessed, he
never preached, he never wrote an article, he never attended
a worship service, he never went and helped someone in need. He
didn't do one thing. He couldn't, he nailed to the
tree. All he could do is wait to die
with this expectation that that very day he's gonna be with Christ
in glory. Now, how was that thief saved? Purely by the grace of
God, wasn't he? purely by the grace of God, purely
by the blood of Christ, purely by the obedience of Christ because
that man never did one thing that could have contributed to
his righteousness. It's all of Christ. Isn't that right? Well,
what about the Apostle Paul? The Apostle Paul gave his entire
adult life to the preaching of the gospel. Traveling the world
around, being beaten and tortured and aided and ultimately made
a martyr and killed for it. I mean, he went everywhere. He
wrote the lion's share of the New Testament. I mean, this man
wrote the lion's share of the New Testament, the word of God.
He did all these things. The Lord took him to the seventh
heaven. He saw glory. He said, I can't even tell you
what I saw. This man was so greatly used of God. How was he saved? The exact same way the thief
on the cross was. purely by God's grace, purely
by the obedience of Christ. All the effort that Paul put
into preaching the gospel and going where God would have him
go didn't contribute to his righteousness one whit. It's all the obedience
of Christ. It's all the blood of Christ
that washed his sin away the same way it did the thief on
the cross. And the same thing is true of you and me. We're
redeemed by the exact same price. The price is the same. And Christ
paid it for us. He paid it for us. We are all
equally sinners in Adam. Wouldn't you agree with that?
Every son of Adam. We're all equally sinners in
Adam. Equally fallen, equally dead, equally rebellious, equally
sinful. We're all equal in Adam. And
every believer is equal in Christ. Equally righteous, equally justified,
equally accepted, equally loved. It's common to every believer
of every age. I don't care where you find them.
So in closing, let me ask you this. Since all that's true,
every believer has all things common. It's only what Christ
gave us. We didn't earn any of it. We
didn't earn anything extra. We can't earn anything extra.
It's all what Christ gave us. Now, how in this world can we
ever be puffed up against anybody? How's that even possible? How
can we look down on any other believer? I mean, really, how
can you look down on any unbeliever? Because there we'd be, except
for the grace of God. You can't. Because everything
we have, Christ gave us. Christ gave us. Hopefully, that'll fix our wagon
on this thing of being so harsh and judgmental about one another. But let me just leave you with
this and reiterate this because I think this is something that
will be such a blessing and comfort you are to take home with you.
God gives every one of his children everything that he has. It's
not like an inheritance where, you know, you got two kids, so
they gotta split it, and each only gets half. If you got 10
kids, they each only get a tenth. I mean, you're not getting very
much, are they? Christ gives all of his children everything. So when you leave this place
this morning, if you trust Christ, you're complete. You're filled
up, so you cannot receive anything else from Christ. You're perfect
in Him. That's a common salvation and
I thank God for it. Alright, let's bow together.
Our Father, how we thank you for such a full, complete, common
salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. We can't even begin to start
to thank you for such great grace to be made whole, complete in
our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I pray that you would
apply your word to each heart here this morning and cause each
of us to leave here believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Give
each of us this gift of faith, faith in Christ, to trust him,
to rely on him, to find our all in all in him, to find our hope
and expectation in him and him alone, and cause us to be a help
and encouragement one to another, to not tear one another down,
but to be a help and encouragement one to another. Father, it's
in Christ's sake, for his name and his glory we pray, amen. Okay, Sean. If you would turn in your hymnals
to song number 353 and stand as we sing Leave It There. 353. If the world from you withhold
of its silver and its gold, and you have to get along with meager
fare, just remember in His word how He feeds the little bird. Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. Leave it there, leave it there. Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. If you trust and never doubt,
He will surely bring you out. Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. If your body suffers pain, and
your health you can't regain, and your soul is almost sinking
in despair, Jesus knows the pain you feel. He can save and He
can heal. Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. Leave it there, leave it there. Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. If you trust and never doubt,
He will surely bring you out. Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. When your enemies assail and
your heart begins to fail, don't forget that God in heaven answers
prayer. He will make a way for you and
will lead you safely through. Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. Leave it there, leave it there. Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. If you trust and never doubt,
He will surely bring you out. Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. When your youthful days are gone
And old age is stealing on And your body bends beneath the weight
of care He will never leave you then He'll go with you to the
inn Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. If you trust and never doubt,
He will surely bring you out. Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there.