well it's good to be here with
you it's very encouraging to see the numbers I know we're
small in number but nevertheless it's very encouraging to see
the numbers that have come from different parts of the country
it really is it's heartwarming in these days when you have to
look so hard and so far there's so few and far between those
that proclaim the gospel of sovereign grace I bring you greetings from
the little fellowship down at Nebworth. We're actually not
in Nebworth, we're in Datchworth, which is about a mile and a half
from Nebworth. But because we started in Nebworth... And the
church has the name of Nebworth Grace Church. We thought it's
too much fuss changing websites to change that. So although we
meet in Datchworth, which is another tiny little village about
a mile and a half from Nebworth itself, that's where we meet. But we bring you their greetings.
And it's good to be here. For various reasons, we're the
only ones that have come from there because of ages of children
and the distance involved and ages of some of the older ones
of us, et cetera, et cetera. Well, I want to turn your attention
this afternoon to the Book of Acts and Chapter 4. The Book
of Acts, Chapter 4. And we'll begin by reading from
verse 23. So, the Acts of the Apostles,
Chapter 4 and verse 23. And this is in the middle of
the account where Peter and John had been arrested, they'd healed
a man at the temple, they were hauled before the Sanhedrin,
the council, they were threatened, they wanted to do worse to them,
but they realized politically they would have a real struggle,
so they let them go. And when we start in verse 23,
we read these words, and being let go, they went to their own
company. and reported all that the chief
priests and elders had said unto them. And when they heard that,
they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said,
Lord, thou art God, who has made heaven and earth and the sea
and all that in them is, who by the mouth of thy servant David
has said, why did the heathen rage? And the people imagined
vain things. The kings of the earth stood
up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast appointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate
with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings,
and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak
thy word, by stretching forth thine hand to heal, and that
signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child
Jesus. 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 of one soul. 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 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 Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, which
is being interpreted the son of consolation, a Levite, and
of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, and brought the
money, and laid it at the apostles' feet. My text is verse 23, but we're
going to look at the whole passage. Being let go, they went to their
own company. Their own company. Their own
company. You know, back home, I have to
confess that there are times when, I'm sure others are like
this as well, I look at the numbers and I get downcast. And I look
and I think, Is it really worth continuing? You know, there are
others preaching on the internet. We could get their sermons. Is
it really worth continuing? And it's easy to get downcast.
We've got people that are moving away to the USA. We've got people
that are getting older. There are not many younger ones
coming in. Nobody new seems to be coming
in. We have our internet congregation, but it's limited. And there are
times when it's very easy to get downcast. And so I have to
make a confession. that I look around and I think,
well, there are other churches around. They call themselves
churches. They even have doctrinal statements that look on the surface
as though they're not bad. Let's have a look what they're
like. I mean, this really is true. If there is somebody within
reasonable distance of us to get to that is truly preaching
the message we believe here in this company, if there is somebody
within a reasonable distance of us, I'm telling you, we'll
pack up and we'll go and join them. Because why should we struggle
when there's somebody else already doing it? So I look around, and
I scout around, and I look at a place that calls itself an
evangelical church, and it's got reformed traditions, and
it's a Calvinistic basis, and it's got a statement of faith
that looks very, very good. Oh, let's listen to one of their
sermons. See what they're preaching these days. And I listen to it,
and it takes me very, very little time to conclude that there's
absolutely no way that we could have any contact whatsoever. You listen to what they preach,
it doesn't matter what the statements of faith say, listen to what
they preach and you find that there are no grounds for fellowship.
It's like this fledgling New Testament church in the days
of Acts chapter 4 having fellowship, finding a way of having fellowship
with the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin. It's a fundamental
conflict of basis and of purpose. Now here in Jerusalem at this
time, of course, there had been tremendous blessing. There were
probably about 8,000 souls or there about, it's a pure speculation
but it's a reasonable one, there were probably about 8,000 souls
altogether that were part of what is called here their own
company, that Peter and John went back to. This company, though
large by our standards, was nevertheless despised, it was persecuted,
it was threatened, but it was rejoicing in abundant life in
Christ, in the gospel of his grace. And they were united,
as we've read in this passage from verse 23 down to the end,
This one company was united. They were united in doctrine.
We saw them, if you were following, we saw them united in prayer,
and they were united in practical care for one another. Now, I
don't believe I've got time to cover all of those things, so
I'm going to focus on the fact that they were united in doctrine. United in doctrine. Look at verse
32 with me. Turn to verse 32. And the multitude
of them that believed, were of one heart and of one soul. They were of one heart. They
agreed. They were of one heart and of
one soul. These believers, true believers,
do you find that you go around and you come across people who
are called Christians and you start to talk and it's not very
long before you find you are not of one heart. You are of
totally separate heart and of soul. And yet you travel the
world, if you do, if you ever do, and you come across people
you've never met before. And if they're the true children
of God, it doesn't take more than three or four minutes and
you're completely on the same wavelength. Completely on the
same wavelength. United in doctrine is the basis
of it. This is the thing that fundamentally
caused everything else to happen. So I've got six things in which
they were united in doctrine. On the basis of what we read
here, there's a lot of implication in it, but I think it's perfectly
reasonable implication. First of all, they were united
on the being of God, of who God is, and of how we know God. Look in verse 24. I don't know if you thought the
same when we read the passage before, you recall to mind the
words that our brother Ron prayed when he stood up to pray before,
it was almost exactly this, Lord thou art God who has made heaven
and earth, I think you missed out the C, but never mind, we'll
forgive you that, and all that in them is, Lord thou art God,
Creator, creator, and by implication the sustainer of all things. It's by his word, by the word
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he upholds all things. Isn't
this surely, you would say, what you're making a difference about
the God that they worship? Surely this is the God that the
Sanhedrin worshipped, isn't it? They worshipped the God that
was the God of the Old Testament who'd made all things. Wasn't
it the same as that? Isn't it the same God as all
of these evangelical reformed churches acknowledge? Are we
splitting hairs unnecessarily here? Isn't it in fact, some
might say, the same God as the Muslims worship? They worship
one God who they say has created all things. Look at verses 27
and 28. for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou
hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles,
and the people of Israel were gathered together, for to do
whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined beforehand to be done. This God that united them together
in their doctrine, this God is absolutely omnipotent. In stating that he is the one
that has created all things, absolutely omnipotent. These
are words that we can skip over so lightly. God has created all
things absolutely omnipotent, absolutely sovereign. Why did
they do what they did, the wicked things that they did? Verse 28,
For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. The God they worshipped is sovereign,
is omnipotent, absolutely, unchangeably sovereign, but He is the God
who is revealed in His Son. This is the one. The God who
is revealed in his Son. The one, it says in Hebrews 1
verse 2, by whom? The Lord Jesus Christ. By whom?
He made the worlds. By whom? And we understand these
things, not by science and other stuff like this, we understand
these things by faith, as Hebrews 11 verse 2 tells us. Omnipotent
God. It's what John Gill says that
this passage shows them here praying to his people's covenant
God and Father in the Lord Jesus Christ. The God to whom we can
only come by our Lord Jesus Christ. When I say that, lots of people
use the term Christ. They use the name Jesus Christ.
But which one do they mean? Do they mean the Christ of Scripture?
Or do they mean the idol of their own imagination? For there are
lots of Christ. Jesus himself said there would
be lots of Christ. Look at what they say. Which
Christ is it that they're talking about? The one of Scripture is
the one who has saved his people from their sins. This is the
God that they came to. This is the God that they prayed
to, that one whom they had walked this earth with. Some of them,
the apostles, in three years of ministry, they had walked
this earth with Him. They had seen Him ascend to glory.
This is the God to whom they're praying. For they knew, they
were there. Some of them were there, most
of them were there when Philip said to Jesus, show us the Father
and that will suffice us. And Jesus said, Philip, have
I been so long with you and you have not yet known me? He who
has seen me has seen the Father. This is the God to whom they
came. This is the one. There's no other way to come.
He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to
the Father. You would come to God? You would worship God? You
would worship the God of the Old Testament? No man comes to
God, the Father, but by Jesus Christ. This is the way. This
is the basis of fellowship. It's coming before this God,
who is shown, who is manifested, for no one has seen God at any
time, but the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father.
He has declared Him. He has manifested Him. He has
made Him known. He is the one who is anointed
of the Father to preach the Gospel. Isaiah chapter 61. He is the
one upon whom the Spirit of the Lord is anointed to preach the
Gospel. When His people come and want
to see God, God says this, in the Old Testament, Isaiah chapter
42 and verse 1, God says to his people, Behold my servant. You want to know God? Behold
my servant. This is how you will know him.
Behold my servant. They believed that the God to
whom every knee shall bow, Isaiah 45, 22, 23, Look unto me, all
the ends of the earth, and be ye saved, for I am God and there
is no other. and then every knee shall bow
to him. This God to whom every knee shall bow, they knew, they
believed, they came before, they prayed to the God who is manifested
in Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ, that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow. This Christ, this Christ who
died, is our God to whom we pray. To whom our brother prayed and
we prayed with him. To whom this one company of believers lifted
up their voices to heaven. Our Lord Jesus Christ who died
is God. He is the God before whom we
come. He's the manifestation of the Godhead. The second person
of the Trinity. He manifests the Godhead to us. He is the one who purchased his
church with his own blood. Our God we read. Paul talking
to the elders at Ephesus on the beach there before he left them.
He says, shepherd the church of God over which he's made you
overseer. That church which God purchased
with his own blood. God purchased his church with
his own blood. He must be lifted up. Our Lord
Jesus Christ must be lifted up. This is our God. All the scriptures
declare Him alone. All of the scriptures declare
the salvation of God, that He is that salvation of God, that
He is God who is Savior. You know when Isaiah, when it
says, I am God and there is no other, do you know I'm sure the
Holy Spirit put that there to stress to us. Look at him. Behold
my servant. I am God and there is none other.
There is no secondary God, as some of the sects say. There
is no other inferior God in any way whatsoever. This is our God
and this is the God to whom they came. They lifted up their voice
to God with one accord, this one company, and said, Lord,
thou art God. Do these others preach this God?
Do they seek to come before this God in their worship, in their
declaration of the gospel? Is this the one that they seek
to preach, as Paul preached at Athens, Acts chapter 17? What
was he declaring? That this Jesus, this man, Jesus
of Nazareth, who was crucified and rose from the dead, that
this one is the Christ, is the Christ of the Old Testament Scriptures,
is the promised one, that God said he would come as savior
of his people. He is the one. And they were determined to know
nothing other except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Nothing else.
Nothing else. Listen to the preaching. Well,
don't listen to too much of it. Don't get too distracted. But
if you listen to it, you will not hear this. There will be
all sorts of other topics. There will be all sorts of other
subjects. Oh, there's much more to things
than this. I once heard a chap say about preaching Christ. And this was in one of these
reformed evangelical churches with such a name. And he said,
oh, do you know, I'm sick and tired of all of this preaching
of Christ. He said, we want to tell them about the glory of
God and the majesty of the law. That's the very point. There
are so many with that view. So many with that view. They're
not of the one company. They are not on the same wavelength.
Second point. Second point. the Scriptures
as the Word of God. What united them together? It
was the Scriptures as the Word of God. Look at verses 25 and
26. As they're praying, as they are praying, what do they do?
They quote the Scriptures. Who by the mouth of thy servant
David has said, why did the heathen rage? And the people imagined
vain things. The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against It says in the Old Testament, his anointed, but here, they
quite rightly say, against his Christ. They're quoting Psalm
2. It's from this passage here that we know that Psalm 2 was
written by David. They, under the inspiration of
the Holy Spirit, tell us this. Psalm 2 was written by David,
and they're quoting that what's happening around them, the things
that they're experiencing, is exactly what God's Word says. Why were they feeling False religion's
opposition. Why were they feeling such opposition
from false religion? Answer? They turned to the scriptures. They saw that God who has spoken
is in control of all things and everything. He causes all things
to work together for good to those that love God who are called
according to his purpose. All things. He caused this. He
said, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determine
beforehand to be done, because the Scriptures had said that
that's what would happen. The Scriptures said it. Our sovereign
God has ordained that that's the way it should be. They're
doing exactly what God had said in His Word should be done. Why had God said that that should
be done? Why had God said that that should
be done? because of justice and because
of justification. If he had loved a people from
before the beginning of time, he must justify them. They cannot
be in any way guilty before his law, and yet he's a God of justice,
and so he must establish justice, and therefore he decreed the
way of salvation. And what the Scriptures declare
is that way of salvation. And they looked to the Scriptures.
Their view of the Scriptures was a very, very high view of
the Scriptures. Even in these days before the
Scriptures were completed with the New Testament, their view
of the Scriptures was very, very high. This is what we must have. This is what we must have. Their
doctrine and their gospel that they preached, this united one
company, their doctrine and their gospel was entirely in accord
with the Old Testament scriptures. This wasn't some new thing. Yes,
all things were new, in a sense, in that Christ had come and accomplished
that which the scriptures had spoken of. But everything in
the scriptures, nothing was changed. He came to establish everything
that was in the Scriptures. Their doctrine and their gospel
agreed with the Old Testament Scriptures. Now what did the
Old Testament Scriptures say about justice and justification
before God? They speak definitely about particular
redemption. Particular redemption from the
curse of the law by substitution. That's what they speak of. The
law is given to show what God requires. We see how far short
of it we fall, but yet there in the law, God gives the means
of substitution in picture and in type to show them what the
gospel is. And the gospel, they believed,
was in exact accordance with that law. so that they could
say to the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to
this word, there is no light in them, there is no truth in
them. And that should be our motto as well. This book is our
standard. Not the things that creeds have
done and established to twist it and change it, but what do
the scriptures say? What do the scriptures say? Have
you ever had the experience of having a conversation about a
doctrinal point with somebody who's come to disagree with you?
and they will roll out the writings of this man and that man from
times past. How many of them actually appeal
to the scriptures? How many of them appeal to the
scriptures? I remember once having quite a contention with some
people about the subject of sanctification and they were telling me I got
it completely wrong that Christ was our sanctification. Sanctification
was the work that we do to make ourselves fit for heaven and
the only thing they could quote was old writers. They couldn't
quote the scriptures to me. The Scriptures, as Don was pointing
out to us yesterday, everywhere, sanctification is that which
God does. Sets apart for His holy purposes. No, to the law
and to the testimony. And after this time, it would
go on as the New Testament Scriptures were added and completed as that
which is perfect, as James says, the perfect Word of God, when
that was completed, you know, the New Testament signs of the
signs of the apostles, that age was finished. But as it was being
put together, Peter wrote about the writings of our beloved brother
Paul. And he said, in which are many
things that are hard to understand, But in that process, he called
it the Scriptures, the Scriptures. They united together in the Scriptures. He, Peter, who had been on the
Mount of Transfiguration with Christ, with James and John,
and he'd seen things that it's very difficult to put into words,
it's very difficult to describe. He'd seen wonderful things on
the Mount of Transfiguration as our Lord Jesus Christ was
transfigured and changed before them, and yet Peter said, Despite
all of that we were there, but he said we have a far more sure
word of prophecy To which you do well to take heed the scriptures
they had a very high view of the scriptures now You say what's
this got to do with? looking around at those with
whom you would feel that you were able to have fellowship
on the basis of the gospel of grace. There is so much use these
days, even in these places that regard themselves as orthodox
and reformed, there's use of modern translations. Now, I'm
not saying that we keep to the King James Version just because
we love old-fashioned language and we love the these and those
of the King James Version, but because it's so accurate in its
translation. The caliber, the quality of the
men that produced this, even though it's hundreds of years
old now, has never been surpassed, not by any of the commercially
put together committees of the modern translations. And yet,
how many of these places, this place I was talking about, they
use the new international version as their pulpit preaching scripture.
I mean, how can you base anything on that? Think, for example,
of just one example where just one word is changed. Faith of
Christ is changed to faith in Christ. Just glibly, just without
any Um, hesitation whatsoever. They, they turn it around. So
you say, well, what's so difficult about that? Why, why all the
hair splitting over one little word? Because if you change faith
of Christ into faith in Christ, you make faith a work that the
sinner does in order to be credited with righteousness. Whereas if
it's faith of Christ, as the original says, it's the work
that Christ has accomplished and finished in the salvation
of his people and what you find that they do is they twist the
scriptures to fit a false view of man and what would seem more
reasonable to man and therefore this is the thing that we're
going to adopt and that's why they adopt it third point the
nature of man the nature of man. This one company, they had a
united view, they were of one accord, they were of one heart
and of one soul. They knew what the nature of
man is. I may be stretching the the use of this passage uh...
in in making this point but i think it can be easily upheld from
from other places in the scriptures but look at verse twenty nine
and now lord behold their threatenings and grant to thy servants that
with all boldness they may speak thy word behold their threatenings
they knew what the natural man was they'd been around a few
weeks before at the time of the crucifixion they'd seen the crowds
the natural man with their palms on Palm Sunday and their cries
of Hosanna and they'd seen that and they'd seen four or five
days later crucify him crucify him they knew what was in the
heart of man they knew their own hearts they knew what they
were like by nature they knew that man was totally depraved
all totally depraved totally What does the scripture say?
The natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God.
They're foolishness to him. Neither can he know them. The
natural man. The people outside, all around
us, everywhere we go. The natural man cannot receive
the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him. He's
dead in trespasses and sins. We all were by nature, Ephesians
2.1, dead in trespasses and sins. You remember Ezekiel's vision,
Ezekiel 37, the valley of bones and they were dry bones. They
weren't just dry, they were very dry bones. They were long dead.
There wasn't the slightest vestige of a sinew or trace of blood
on them. They were dead. And that, that, that is actually
a picture of the whole house of Israel, the whole elect of
God before they hear the gospel and believe it. That's it. That's
what they're like. And all men are the same, for
there is none righteous, no, not one. And yet, we try and
appeal. to the reason, the reasonableness
that is in the natural man. That if only we present things
in a certain way, don't do it just quite how the scripture
says. We don't need to talk to them about that doctrine at the
moment. Let's not scare them off with that sort of stuff just
yet. Let's kind of, what should we do? I'll tell you, I got a
leaflet through my door. from a local church that we used
to be associated with. And they said they're having
an evangelistic campaign. And so they gave us one of their
leaflets. And basically it said, are you lonely? Do you lack friends? Do you want to come and join
a nice friendly group of people who call themselves Christians?
We happen to be leaving God and we have a good time together
and we have a good social life and good events go on and sure
we're going to make you welcome and happy and we'll be able to
tell you about the things that a man called Jesus did. So it
went on. Everything to do with what the scripture declares about
salvation and the true gospel of grace was hidden and adjusted
and twisted and a shroud was put over it so that nobody would
be offended and run away when they saw that. No. No. We need to understand what man
is like in his nature. We need to understand what man
is like. Man did not like to retain God
in his knowledge. And the God he didn't like to
retain is the scriptural God. Not the idol God that all men
and women are very easy to create in their own hearts. No, he didn't
like to retain the God of scripture in his knowledge. No. No. They knew that the only thing
that could break in to those stubborn, hard hearts, just as
John Bunyan knew it when he wrote his Holy War. Some of you will
have read that. You know, he pictured the heart
of man as an impenetrable castle wall with strong gates and, you
know, all of the buffetings of reason for religion, they just
bounce off. They just don't have any effect
whatsoever. No, it was only Holy Spirit power that could break
open the heart of a Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. You
know, when you think what he was intent upon as he went on
his way with his mission, and how the Lord stopped him, stopped
him dead in his tracks, actually overcame him. It was Holy Spirit
power that did this. It's not scheming in order to
convince people, not at all. They cannot receive it. It's
foolishness to them. But it's knowing this, that by
the foolishness of preaching the truth, by the foolishness
of preaching, the foolishness which, well to the modern man
it's the idea of standing up like this, but I think particularly
it's talking about the specific message, that which is foolishness. to the rational man out there
that which is foolish that God is pleased to save those who
believe because it's the Holy Spirit's work to break down those
barriers Acts 13 48 and when the Gentiles heard this they
were glad and glorified the word of the Lord and as many as were
ordained to eternal life believed that's why they were ordained
to eternal life the Holy Spirit came The Holy Spirit broke down
the barriers. The nature of man. We understand
the nature of man according to the Scriptures. And what we do
about it? What do we do? How do we overcome
this issue of dwindling numbers? We don't try to overcome it.
We just do what God has said. Faithfully proclaim the truth.
Faithfully. We don't appeal to the flesh
with gimmicks. We preach the gospel of His grace. And on that
they were united. Fourth point. Salvation as God
reveals. Look at verse 33. Verse 33. And with great power gave the
apostles witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Witness
of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The resurrection
of Christ speaks powerfully of salvation accomplished. Salvation
that's finished. Salvation that's done its work. As Paul later wrote in Romans
4 verse 25, Christ was delivered for our offenses and was raised
for our justification. Let me break that down a bit
more. Christ was delivered as a substitutionary sacrifice to
make satisfaction to the justice of God for the sins of our, who's
our? The elects, the people of God.
He was delivered for his elects' offenses. Their sins. He who
knew no sin was made sin for us. He was made sin. He was loaded
with that sin. He bore that sin in his own body
on the tree. He bore it. He bore its penalty.
He bore its guilt. and you read the Psalms and you
read where the Psalmist is crying out, my sins have overcome me, I'm overcome by great floods.
It's Christ. Yes, it's the experience of the
Psalmist in his particular situation, but he's speaking the experience
of Christ. When his father forsook him at
that moment on the cross, when he bore the sins of his people,
he turned his face away. This is what they believe together. There's Job's question, which
is asked more than once in the book of Job. How shall a man
be just with God? What was their view of this?
How shall a man be just with God? This company of believers,
this company, their own company, this company of believers believed
that Christ came to make just with God the specific people
the Father gave to him before the beginning of time. That's
what they believed. I'm sure they did. They believed
clearly that Christ came to make his people just with
God. Matthew wrote, you shall call
his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. He
didn't come as so many that sound plausible, he didn't come to
make salvation possible for any who will, he didn't do that.
He didn't come to provide redemption, now this is often quoted, this
is often held, He didn't come to provide redemption of enough
value to pay the sin debt of the whole world should they choose
to believe the gospel. I've heard that so much. He didn't
do that. He didn't do that at all. He
specifically came to save his people from their sins. He specifically
came to lay down his life for his sheep. That's who He came
to save. He came to give His life a ransom
for the many the Father gave to Him. He came to lose none
of the multitude, that fixed multitude, but a multitude nonetheless
that the Father gave Him. A redemption that becomes effective
when the sinner believes is no redemption at all. Because why?
It depends on the sinner's will, and that robs God of all the
glory, and it leaves God unjust. For if indeed Christ has died
for the sins of everyone that ever lived, and then God requires
those sins at their hands again if they don't choose to believe
the gospel, that's not justice, because the debt has already
been paid. Ah, they say, they say, these others, they look
and they say, ah, that's the issue. We see where you stand
now. We can see that you're hyper-Calvinists.
You see, we believe that we're commissioned to evangelize the
world. So did this company. So did this,
their own company. They believed. They not only
believed it, they'd heard it from the Saviour's own mouth.
Go into all the world and preach the gospel. Go into all the world.
They knew that that was the case. Commissioned to go and preach
to a world of sinners without any distinction. Knowing that
scattered among them is a world of God's elect that He so loved
that He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever should believe
in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. And so
We preach to any that will listen. Any. We don't put barriers up.
We put messages on the internet. We make them public. We advertise
them. We make them known. Any that will listen. We preach
to any and all who will listen. And we sow, we try, we aim with
God's help to sow true gospel seed and trust God to give the
increase. Trust Him to do His work. This
is salvation that gives God the glory. So much of this other
doctrine that sounds plausible is actually Arminianism dressed
up in Calvinistic clothes. There's a Calvinistic veneer
exterior on it, but when you delve down into it, it's exactly
the same as the Arminian's free will gospel. No, they had that
view of salvation. Fifthly, the Holy Spirit's ministry. the Holy Spirit's ministry. Christ
had promised them the comforter. In John 16, Christ had said to
them, they didn't want him to go, but he said, I must go, because
if I go, I'll send the comforter to you. This is what you need.
You need the comforter. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere
with his people. He said, you need the Holy Spirit
to teach them all things in difficult situations. He said, the Holy
Spirit whom I give to you, He will remind you of all these
things. He will take of the things of Christ and show them to us.
And they'd experienced His work firsthand. They looked to Him
to give boldness in verse 29. Lord, give boldness that we may
speak Your word. Give Your servants boldness.
Where's that going to come from? It's the Holy Spirit. It's the
comforter's ministry to give them boldness to speak his work,
to do signs of gospel authentication. Verse 30, by stretching forth
thine hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done
in the name of thy holy child Jesus. Of course, this was the
first century before the completion of scripture. There were these
signs of the apostles, signs of authentication. The Holy Spirit
did these things. To exalt, verse 31. And when they prayed, the place
was shaken, and they were all assembled together, and they
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they all spake the
word of God. I'm sorry, I'm missing the point at that point there.
To exalt Christ. Yes, that's right. Stretching
forth thy hand that signs and wonders may be done in the name
of thy holy child Jesus. And to fill them, that was it,
verse 31, is to fill them with his power as they go about doing
their work. To give them power in the preached
gospel, verse 33, and with great power gave the apostles witness
of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon
them all. with great power. When they preached
it was with great power. Why was it with great power?
Because the Holy Spirit came upon them. The Holy Spirit anointed
them. The Holy Spirit blessed those
words that they spoke and accomplished his purposes through it. Now
we don't expect the acts, signs of the apostles today uh... any
more than we would expect the manna to come down from heaven
you know as when the when the children of israel walked through
the wilderness and they were provided with manna from heaven
for forty years we don't expect that today i don't i don't think
even i don't think even the charismatic movement would expect to have
manna come down from heaven well in the same way we don't expect
those signs of the apostles because why? because the scriptures finished
What more can he say than to you he has said, you who unto
Jesus for refuge have fled? No, the Holy Spirit's ministry,
they depended entirely on the Holy Spirit's ministry. This
wasn't some optional add-on. This wasn't something that super-believers
had. This was something that all believers
had. For if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his. All are baptized by one Spirit
into that one body. This is how they came, by that
one Spirit, into that one body of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
depend entirely on the Spirit to anoint the preaching of His
Word, to make alive dead sinners. We can't persuade them. In their
natural state, they cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God.
To irresistibly call them. As Don said last night, if you're
gods, if you're ordained to eternal life, you won't be able to resist
Him. He'll get you. He'll come and He'll get you.
To call Christ's sheep. to make them willing in the day
of His power to hear His voice and to follow, to lead His church.
They didn't go about setting up denominational structures
and all sorts of things like that. They looked to the Holy
Spirit to lead His people, to anoint His people. And then finally,
they had liberty in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 34.
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 There's some remarkable
behavior described there. You think that some of these
people had come from the crowds that would have been baying for
the crucifixion of Christ. The ones who on the day of Pentecost
when Peter preached were pricked in the heart. This is some of
these people who are now sharing all things together, making sure
that nobody has any lack. Those that in these particular
circumstances had goods and possessions sold them that there might be
an equitable sharing. This is remarkable behavior.
But do you notice, this is the point, there's not the slightest
hint of law constraint in any of it? Not the slightest hint
of it. What is it that constrained them? The love of Christ constrains
us. The love of Christ. It's the
love of Christ that constrained his people to loosen their grip
on the world and the things that they possessed and set their
hearts on things above and lay up treasure in heaven. This is
what happened. Acts 15. In the council of Jerusalem
in Acts 15. where the question is asked,
the Gentiles are coming into the church, do we lay upon them
the obligations of the Mosaic law? Do we say that they've got
to be circumcised and that they've got to obey the Mosaic law? And
the conclusion of it all is very, very simple in that letter that
they wrote, a very simple exhortation. I'll summarize it, I'll paraphrase
it a little bit, I'll use a little bit of license to paraphrase
it. Basically he says, avoid things that needlessly will provoke
Jewish hostility, Avoid things to do with idolatry, even though
he said that there's nothing special about meat sacrifice
to idols, but yes, you've got liberty to do it, but just be
careful about how you do it so that you don't cause any offence
or you cause anybody to bring false accusations against the
truth. Absolutely avoid sexual immorality,
of course. but enjoy the liberty of Christ. This is the message that this
people had together, this people that's described as their own
company. The liberty that is in Christ Jesus, that Paul was
later to write to the Galatians, stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ has made us free. And likewise, the epistles
later, this must have been their view. Can you give me one example
where The regulation of behavior is ever argued for by appealing
to the law. Not a solitary one. Never in
the epistles. It's always appealing to Christ.
The love of Christ. You want to make people give?
Show them what Christ gave. Don't tell them that the law
requires a tenth of them. Show them what Christ gave. and then
let the Holy Spirit motivate them to do that work. They had
this view of liberty in Christ. They saw that Christ had fulfilled
the law. They saw that Christ was the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believed it.
They saw that there was a new law written in the hearts of
believers. Peter himself at that very Council of Jerusalem in
Acts chapter 15 He says, now therefore why tempt ye God to
put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers
nor we were able to bear? And this is an acid test of those
that are of our own company in the gospel. Do they want to bring
you under bondage of law works, under the bondage of working
for progressive sanctification? If they do, they're not of this
company. They're not of this company.
They enjoyed liberty and freedom in Christ. They were of one mind.
They were united. They were united in doctrine.
And they were united, therefore, in prayer. And they were united
in practical care. God's Spirit united them in prayer. God's Spirit put it in their
hearts, as he did with David. Put it in their hearts to pray.
God says, via Ezekiel 36-37, God will be inquired of, of the
house of Israel. Why will God be inquired of,
of the house of Israel? Because he's determined to do
it for them. For to do it for them. Their prayer was brief. It was powerful prayer. The place
was shaken. It was powerful prayer. Those
prayers ascended up. We see John's vision in Revelation
8, verse 4. Those prayers are ascending up
before the throne of God. And religion, this religion,
oh, it makes such a thing of its prayer meetings. Oh, such
a great big thing. We may not agree about doctrine,
but at least we can all get together and have a prayer meeting. We
can all come together on the basis of the one common denominator
that we can all get. Who are they praying to? Which
God is it that they're praying to? This was the very first point.
Who is the God that they were praying to? Oh Lord, our God.
You know, when they come before Him, God with one accord, they
said, Lord, thou art God. Who is the God that they come
before? They come before thinking that they can twist God's arm.
They come before Him thinking that they will be heard for their
much speaking. but of this company, this one company, all their meetings,
all our meetings, our prayer meetings, when the gospel is
faithfully preached and Christ is lifted up. But it also resulted
in practical care. What was it that loosened their
grip on their own possessions? What was it? It was the gospel
of Christ's redeeming love. And having seen it, and experienced
it, and felt it, It loosened their grip on the things of this
world, so that they were generous-spirited. The people of God are generous-spirited.
There was not law constraint. You see, orthodox religion, it
accuses God's people of being hyper-Calvinists. And what automatically
goes with that is it accuses them of being antinomians. But
the love of Christ constrains his people to live according
to gospel precepts. how blessed it is to enjoy fellowship
in our own company. And I know we're small and I
know we're scattered, but it still is a joy to come together
and to be with people who rejoice in the truths of scripture declared. Amen.