We need to get the girls and Floyd and Eddie,
all of them, to get a couple songs together and use different
voices, you know. Bruce Crabtree and I were singing.
We got one of them song books one day and we was up right at
his house and me and him and Joe was going through that, just
singing, having a big time. And Bruce was saying, now you
sang this part and I'll sing this part. Well, he'll start
off and I'll go on. Next thing you know, I'm saving
his part, too. He'll say, I told you, but I'll
save my part. I'm going to save like this.
You say that, and you know, next thing you know, I'm right where
he's at. So, you know, I think you've got to lead, and you've
got to follow, because I sure can't follow. But I want to bring a message. You know, last week we've been
dealing with this first persecution of the church, Peter and John,
in Acts chapter 4. He was dealing with this first
persecution, and because they had healed that lame man, God
had used them to heal that lame man who had laid at the temple
all of his life, you know, been lame all of his life, and laying
there begging money, begging, made his living begging outside
the temple. And they called these men in
and threatened them, and Peter used the opportunity to bring
a glorious, blessed gospel message that there's no other name given
unto heaven among men whereby we must. There's a people who
must be saved. We must be saved. Must be. There is those who must be saved.
And this is the one who saves them, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, they brought them in, threatened them, said, told them there in
verse 17 and 18 of chapter 4 here, says that, but that it spread
no further among the people that are straightly threatened them
that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. It wasn't
the healing that upset them so much, it was the preaching and
teaching of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of the dead
by him. And that's why they called him and commanded them not to
speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus Christ. Now let's
pick up verse 23 and read to the end of the chapter. 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, which hast made heaven and
earth and the sea and all that in them is. who by the mouth
of thy servant David hath said, Why did the heathen rage, and
the people imagine 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 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 before
to be done. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings,
and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak
thy words, by stretching forth thine hand to heal, that signed
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 Joseph, who by the who by
the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, which is being interpreted the
son of consolation, or son of comfort, a Levite, and of the
country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, and brought the money,
and laid it at the apostles' feet." Now, these men had straightway
threatened these great rulers, this Sanhedrin, the elders, chief
priests, everybody that was anybody. 70, 80, 90 people gathered here,
threatened these men, don't ever speak in his name again, don't
let us catch you doing it again. Well, if these disciples continue
to teach and preach the Lord Jesus Christ, when they said,
you judge whether we should obey you or obey God, it would be
considered by the authorities to be in contempt of court, their
court, their authority, their assembly. But if they remain
silent and listen to them, they're going to disobey God. They're
not going to do what God called them to do. Now, what do you
think they're going to do? What do you think they're going
to do? And you know the church. This is the beginning of the
church, the New Testament church. Started over there in Acts chapter
2. And as this New Testament church is starting to be built,
starting to be used, And God starts saving people, stretching
forth His hand. This is a model for us. A model
for us. And so many things about them
is a model for us. So what did they do? It says
in verse 23, in being let go, they turned them loose now. They
kept them in jail the night before. called them in and threatened
them and listened to what they had to say and threatened them
and told them that this wasn't going to happen anymore. And
being let go, now watch what they did. They went to their
own country. You know, birds of a feather
flock together, that old saying, you know. Life attracts life. Life attracts life. These men
went to their own country. They didn't go to the world.
They didn't go to get them a lawyer to help get us out of this mess.
They didn't go and call a business meeting, no. They went to their
own company. They went to the believers. They
went to those who were believers like themselves. And oh my, you
know, this is so true. You know, all of God's people,
whenever they're in trouble, whenever they've got heartaches,
whenever they're afraid of something, whenever they're confused about
something, the thing that they love to do is be in their own
company. Find comfort from it. Talk to
somebody about it. Find out what's going on. And
that's why they went to their own company. And when they got
there, they reported all that to chief priests and elders and
said other things. They sat down and rehearsed everything that
had been told. All the threatenings, who all
was there, what said who said what, and why they said it, how
they acted. They told the whole thing. And
they're talking about the chief priests now. They're talking
about the elders of Israel. They're talking about the rulers
of Israel. They're talking about the captain
of the temple, the one who came and got Christ that night when
he was in the Garden of Gethsemane. He is the third most powerful
man in the nation. And these are powerful people.
And they went right back to their own company. Gotta go to people that's like
me. Go to people that I enjoy being with. And oh my, here they
go. And I'll show you this. I'll
show you how they do. Look down here in verse 26. I'll
show you how the kind of people flock around their own kind.
The kings of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered
together against the Lord, against His Christ. Back up there in
verse 27. Pontius Pilate, Herod, the Gentiles,
the people of Israel gathered together. People liked their
own kind, what they got in common, what they got in will and mind
and heart. And these people had their hearts
and minds was against God and against Christ, so they gathered
together to be against Christ. In fact, it said, Herod and Pilate
had been in enmity before, but when it come to crucifying Christ,
they became friends again. They joined together. They said,
this is the thing to do. And so they rehearsed everything.
Now, look what happens. And when they heard that, when
they heard that, here's all these saints, I don't know how many,
there's a whole bunch of them, and they rehearsed everything
that happened, told everything that happened, and oh my, well,
what did they do? Well, I tell you, let's see what
we ought to do about this. Let's get a committee together
and have them decide how we ought to deal with this situation.
We'll call us up. We'll call us a committee, we'll
put somebody at the head of it, put somebody as a second person
in charge, and they'll go out and they'll decide and they'll
investigate this situation, see what we've done wrong, and tell
us what we've done wrong so that the next time this won't happen,
we'll know what to do the next time, what to say and what not
to say, so that we won't get arrested again. Call the denomination of your
elders together and say, what would the denomination have us
to do now? No, no, no. No, they began to
pray. They went to the Lord. They went
to God. They went to Christ. They went
to Almighty God. And when they heard that, they,
they, they, I don't believe all of them prayed
at the same time, but they were all in heart and will and purpose
and accord together. And that's what it says. And
they lifted up their voice to God with one accord. One accord,
one in spirit. And here's how this is, what
they've done. First of all, they started praying to God as He
is. As He is. First they said, first word out
of their mouth, Lord! God! Sovereign, eternal, immutable. And their prayer was so scriptural,
so scriptural. You'll look in here and see that
what they were praying with was the scriptures. And then not
only did they acknowledge God is sovereign, you're almighty,
you're God, you are God, that's what they said. You're God, there's
no one like you. You're God, you're the great
I Am. You're God with all power. You're God with all authority.
You're God who called us. Now watch this. And then they've
not only done that, but they said, He's Creator. They were
against you as God. You're the one who made this
heaven. You made the heavens. When we stand out at night, we
see the heavens. When we look at the clouds of the day, we
see that you're what you made. And we see this earth, it's the
one that you made. and all the sea and everything
that's in them. You made it. You made it. A man can say he believes in
God and be an evolutionist, but a man can't be a Christian and
be an evolutionist. There's a big difference. Lots
and lots of people say, I believe in God, but also believe that
that's not God's way of doing things. You can't be, you can
believe in anything. But you can't be a Christian
and be an evolutionist. Huh? Can't do it. Can't do it. No, no, these men knew that.
They started dressing as God, as the Creator, as the Sustainer,
as the One who made this world and upholds it by the Word of
His power, who measures the waters in the hollows of His hands.
And oh my! And then they started using His
Word, and they said there in verse 24, And verse 25, Who by
the mouth of thy servant David hath said? They started talking
about God's Word. Let's see what they're talking
about. Look in Psalm 2 with me just a minute. This is the psalm
they're using. This is the psalm they're praying.
These men and women knew the Scriptures. They understood the
Word of God. They prayed scripturally. They
prayed They address God as He is and use His own word to talk
to Him about, and use His own word as arguments for themselves
and against the world. And oh, when we talk to God,
and we start addressing Him as He is in the scriptures, start
addressing Him as He addresses Himself. And that's why they
say, stretch forth your hands. I don't have a hand, but He says,
stretch it forth. In other words, we want your
power to come. And oh, here's what he's saying,
and they quote it almost verbatim while they're praying. Why do
the heathen rage? Oh, the heathen raged. And you
know who the heathen was? The Pharisees, the Sadducees.
They were the ones raging at Christ. They were the ones that
said, we'll have no king but Caesar. They were the ones who
said, this man blaspheme, make yourself God. This is the man
who runs around here, says he's going to set up a kingdom on
this earth. This is the man who said, Derek, destroy this temple,
and in three days I'll raise it up again. Oh, they raised,
and the people imagine a vain thing. It's a vain thing to set
yourself against God. It's a vain thing to be enraged
against God. It's a vain thing to have your
anger against God. You know that man who shot all
them Amish girls here last week? He left his suicide note, and
he told his wife, he said, I hate God. I hate Him. He's one of the few in this world
that ever owned up to it. But he said he went into eternity.
And you know why? He's as mad at God right now
as he was the minute he left this world. Just like that. He's
still mad at God. Still hates God. And guess what? What a vain thing. Did he hurt
God? Huh? Did he change God? Did he change his nature, or
his holiness, or his power, or his purpose? No. Then watch what he says here. And the kings of the earth sent
themselves. They all got sent, you know.
Oh, they rolled up their sleeves, they all got together, and they
got sent. And the rulers, they got together and they took counsel.
How many times do you say they took counsel? When they might
take him and how they might take him. Psalms 2 and verse 2. And
against the Lord, they took counsel against the Lord. Not only that,
but against his anointed. Oh, here's what they said. We'll
not have this man reign over us. We'll not let him take, you know,
our Lord says, you know, that he's going to take the kingdom
from them and give it to somebody else. He's going to take the
winepress from them and give it to somebody else. That's not
so. I tell you what, let's do this.
Break their bands asunder. Oh my, we're not having to reign
over them. Cast their cords from us. Well, what did God do? He that saith in the heavens,
What does he do? He laughs. Two places in the
scriptures it talks about God laughing. God shall laugh. You talk about God having a sense
of humor. This laugh here is not like you and I talk about.
Just having an induration. Just absolutely saying, what?
How foolish. How foolish. Did not upset God
at all. In all my, in spite of that,
look back here in the last, down in verse six. They set themselves
against God, set themselves against His anointing, had Him crucified. And yet, look what God said. Laughed at them. Yet, yet, though
you are against Me, yet though you rage, yet though you imagine
vain things, yet you took counsel against Me, yet you rose up against
Me, yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion. And I will
declare the decree The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son,
this day hath I begotten thee." Oh my, so they're praying, and
they're praying, and they said, Who by the mouth of thy servant
David, back over in Acts 4. David was a prophet. David talked
about this a thousand years before Christ ever come. A thousand
years before the Lord Jesus Christ was made and beseeded David.
And that's what he said in there in verse So the kings of the
earth stood up. Rulers got themselves together
against the Lord and against His Christ. If you're against
Christ, you're against the Father. If you're against the Father,
you're against the Son. That's what our Lord said. He
that honors the Father, honors the Son. He that honors not the
Father, honors not the Son. That's what He said. And oh my,
for of a truth! And this is what's going on.
Now they're praying, they're talking to God. For of a truth
against thy holy child Jesus, that one that ye sent in the
flesh, Jesus, that one that ye gave him his name, Savior, for
he shall save his people from their sin, whom thou hast anointed,
that's the one they was against, your anointed, against the Lord
and his anointed. Here's the Kings. Herod, king. Pontius Pilate, ruler. With the Gentiles, And the people
of Israel, all the priests, it was the priests that stood outside
and talked, got the people stirred up, when they said, let me, Pontius
said, Pontius Pius said, I'll turn Moravius loose, I'll keep
Moravius and let Christ go, I'll find no fault in him. They stirred
him up, crucified, crucified, crucified. And they were gathered
together, they got together, this multitude. Well, what in
the world was they doing? What was they doing? What was
this madness? What was this imagination? What was this raging doing? God
said, I sent my King on the holy hill here in spite of you. And
what's this? What were they doing? They didn't
do whatsoever. Your hand and your counsel predestinated,
forenamed, determined before it could be done. I got in my
margin here. It says in the New International
Version, it says, for to do whatsoever you decided to do." That's weak,
ain't it? Oh, that's awful. God don't make
decisions. God makes decrees. And you know
where He made His decrees? Before you and I got here. And
after you and I are gone, His decrees will still be in effect
and still be enforced. And oh, that's what they're saying.
And oh, they're acknowledging His sovereignty, acknowledging
His purpose. We now understand that when they
took your son, when they took the Lord Jesus Christ, when they
took Him and gathered together against Him and nailed Him to
a tree and lied on Him, they were doing what you determined
before to be done. They were fulfilling your will.
They were, this is the way He was pleased to save sinners. And now watch what they say.
And now, Lord, now, O Lord, listen to the threatenings. Those men
threatened us. They threatened Your people.
They threatened us. Listen to the threatenings. Now,
they say, Lord, protect us, preserve us. Don't let them hurt us. No, no. You know what they said? Grant
unto thy servants. Give to us that with all boldness
they may speak God's Word. You listen to the threatened. You just give us boldness. You
give us freedom of speech. You give us courage to just do
nothing but preach Your Word. Let them threaten to just give
us boldness, give us freedom, give us a fearlessness to stand
in and speak your word. They didn't say, Lord, kill those
men. They didn't say, Lord, protect
us from those men. They didn't say, Lord, those
men are going to hurt us if you don't stop them. They didn't
say, Lord, the church is going to go out of business if you
don't deal with these men. No, no, no, no. They didn't ask
God to do anything except just listen to what they say. And
give us from boldness freedom to speak your word. And they just got through telling
them, don't you do that! That's exactly what they're praying
to do. Huh? That's exactly what they're praying
to do. Now, watch this. How are you going to do that?
Give us this boldness. Oh, stretch forth your hand.
Oh, Lord, there's so many people out here in misery. sickness
and affliction, and to prove that Christ is who you said He
was, and that they crucified the Son of God, and that they
guilt you of that, stretch forth your hand to heal, to heal, like
you did that lame man. Heal, and that signs and wonders
may be done. All signs Multitudes being converted,
multitudes being healed, the dead being raved, and that's
what the apostles were used for. They were used to establish the
church by signs and wonders. And that it be done by the name,
not by our holiness, not by our power, not by our righteousness,
but by thy name, by the name of your holy child, by the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what they told him when
they said, By what name or authority did you do this when they had
that lame man standing there at that hill? And you know what? The first word out of his mouth
was, by Jesus of Nazareth, this man stood here before you. So
Lord, just keep on doing what you're doing by the name of your
Son, by His power. And oh, so look what happens
now. Verse 31, And when they had thus prayed, and when they
had prayed, the place was shaken. Oh my, I believe the building
actually shook. When it says it was shaken, I
believe the building shook. You know, the mountain shook.
I mean, it was a trembling, it was a shaking, and God came down
in such power. You know, when God came and Isaiah
saw His glory, the Scripture says that the post of the temple
trembled and shook. And I tell you what, when God
really truly comes in a place, it will shake things up. You know that Peter and Silas
was in jail, and God shook that place up and opened the doors.
And the place was shaken where they were assembled together.
Not only that, but they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.
This is the third time of the filling of the Holy Ghost. They
were all filled on the day of Pentecost. Simon Peter was filled,
and John was when they preached to the crowd here that day. And
here they're all filled with the Holy Ghost. And watch what
happened when you're filled with the Holy Ghost. They spake the
Word of God with boldness. That's all they asked for. Well,
God gave them what they asked for. They asked for boldness,
God gave them boldness. They wanted freedom to speak
His word, He gave them freedom of heart, mind, and will to speak
their word, and they spoke it with boldness. And I'm telling
you, beloved, see that little thing that's right there over
verse 31, that's a new paragraph, starting a new paragraph. So
they're out now, the place has been shaken, they're filled with
the Holy Ghost, they're out preaching. And the multitude of them that
believed, what's this now, I love this, were of one heart. One heart. One heart. What does that mean, one heart?
That means they were emotionally, emotionally bound together. They
were in love with one another. And one heart means the turkey.
Paul says, my vows are enlarged towards you. My heart is enlarged
towards you. My heart's already big towards
you. But when I think of you, it gets bigger. And that's what
these people were so emotionally bound together. They were so
bound together. And I was thinking about that
today, and I'll just give you an illustration. Y'all remember
when Tim James, I was thinking about going over to Cherokee
this week, when Tim got that news that he had that spot on
his lung? And, oh, you know, when you heard it, it just felt
like somebody hit you right in the stomach. You know, I just, oh,
I just, I started crying. And I said, and I started praying,
Lord, there's so few preachers, so few of your people. Oh, God,
have mercy. Have mercy on him. Do something
for him. Don't let the, oh, Lord, you
do what you will, but we certainly don't want to lose him. You know
why? Our hearts. Our hearts. When you hear about one of the
brethren being sick, Todd or Henry or me or you, when we hear
about it, our hearts are turning. And then when he called and found
out that it wasn't cancer, but that it was some dust on his
lung, I cried again. Because I was so relieved and
so thankful. It's one thing to say God when
you're scared. It's another thing to turn around
when the news changes and say, Lord, I bless you. You can't, you know, that's got
to be something besides nature to cause you to do that for a
man that you're not around all that often. Ain't that right?
And that's what these folks, these folks are about emotionally
in their heart. They're committed to the same thing. And not only
that, but they, it says they were of one heart and of one
soul. Oh my, one soul. That means they were in the same
mind. They were thinking along the same lines. You know, they
all praying together. They're all asking for the same
things. They're all sitting there saying, Amen, Amen. Yes. I don't know who was doing leading
in prayer, but whoever leading in prayer and guiding them through
it, then everybody else will say, That's right. Amen. Lord grant that. And oh my, and
they had that one soul. They were thinking along the
same lines. And I'll tell you this, they had the same theology. They never once believed God
was sovereign. They never once believed God created the heavens
and the earth. They never once believed that all these people
had gathered together against Christ. They never once believed
that God Almighty had determined this to be done beforehand and
the predestinating purpose of God. They never once believed
that God would come and take care of them and enable them
to preach His gospel. And oh, I love this, and neither
said any that all of the things which he possessed was his own.
But they had all things common. Oh my, when they all ate, they
all ate from the same pot. That's what it's saying. They
all ate from the same table. They considered everything they
had to be everybody else's. That's what our Lord said. He
says, you know, no man has forsaken all things. He'll have a hundredfold
in this A life and a multitude of the next. How many fathers
do we have? How many mothers do we have?
How many brothers do we have? How many sisters? How many children? All these children are my children.
They really are. I feel that. I hug them and I
love them. And that's the way you feel. How many beds can I
sleep in? How many meals have I got to
eat? And I go in your house, This
is yours, as long as you're here, it's yours. What do you want
to eat? And that's the way it is. Ain't
that the way you do people? That's why he said, heaven and
all. No, this is not mine, it's sour. And that's the way they
were. And with great power, verse 33,
and with great power, gave the apostles witness. This is what
they said, don't you dare do. They went right back at it, Drew.
Oh, they went right back. They said, don't you do this
anymore! And with great power, gave the
apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. This same
Jesus whom you crucified, God has made Him both Lord and Christ. This stone which you set it,
now God has made Him the head of the corner. And I love this.
And great grace, great grace, was upon all of them. I'm sure folks were spying out,
you know, sitting around spying on them. They'd just get up and
go to preaching. And neither of these folks had everything
so much in common. And you know, in this unity that
they had, this common that they had, this unity here was not
a unity of conformity. Whoever won is exactly alike.
No, no, it wasn't that. I remember our Lord prayed for
unity. I prayed that they may be one as we are one. When we
was in the military, we just got a picture back there, everybody
had to wear the same uniforms. Everybody had to be just alike.
They wanted you to be one. A unit is one. Everybody had
to be alike. Dress alike. March alike. They want you to think alike.
They want it all the same. Your foot lockers were the same.
The colors of your covers on your beds were the same. Your
shoes were the same color. Your hat was the same color.
Everything was the same. When you sat down to eat, everybody
ate the same thing. They didn't give you a menu.
You'd sit here on your own. That's not the way they done
it. Well, that's not what this unity was about, this oneness,
this commonness. They had all things in common.
It wasn't that. And it wasn't an organizational
unity. For everyone's forced, because
we're in the same denomination, to believe the same thing, use
the same literature, support the same things. No, no. No, no, this unity here is by
the Spirit of God. And they all had it. And these
men preached the gospel. And now watch there in verse
34. Neither was there any among them that lacked. You know, that's
what the Scriptures told us over in I think it's 2 Corinthians
chapter 9. They that had much gave, and
those who lacked, Those who didn't have much didn't lack anything.
Those who had much didn't want for anything. Everybody, and
neither was there any among them that lacked. They saw people
that was poor, people that couldn't afford things, people that didn't
have things, and seemed to become a believer. The Jews would disown
you. They'd put you out. You'd lose
your jobs. They'd take you home. They'd do a lot of things against
you. For as many as were possessors of houses or lands 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 to..." Now, this is what I like, as he had
me. Thought it had no meaning. He didn't get anything. Pushing
out of need. They didn't get in line, you
know, like when they give them commodity jobs up here in town.
Folks don't run up there and get in line, you know, and get
something. No, these people here, they didn't
go get in a line. I believe that people, when they saw somebody
with a need, that somebody comes and they'd go over there and
take care of that need. They'd take care of that need. If it
was a food, if it was a sick child, if it was a widow, whatever
it might be, they took care of it. And oh my, these folks shared
everything. They were rewarding the work,
and they was all so generous in it. And Joseph, who by the
apostles was surnamed Barbas, being interpreted the son of
consolation, and everywhere he went, boy, he consoled people.
He was a son of comfort. He was a Levite. He was one of
the Levite tribe. He was one of those who served
in the temple, and of the country of Cyprus, and had him land,
sold him, and brought the money, and made it at the apostles'
feet. There's a lot of poor people, and this is the way that they
took care of the poor back then. This is the way they took care
of those that was in great need. So we see the way they worshiped.
They went to God in prayer. They went to their own company.
People gravitate to one another, and they used scriptural prayer,
and then they was one, and they all went out. They were power,
preached the gospel. Chapter 5, verse 1. This is going
to start a whole other way of looking at things. Everybody
else is giving their thanks freely, gladly, thankfully, to be a blessing
to the saints who didn't have much, didn't have anything, really. Then there were some who came
and sold a possession, and they said, we're going to keep that
part of it, life to them. And then you see the first time
You see hypocrisy and lying and deception and how God deals with
it.