I am going to read a passage
of scripture from Acts chapter 4 that describes the early church. And I've actually entitled this
message, Church. Now, the only way we can properly
get an idea of what church is, is not contemporary things that
are going on today, but what was the church like in the New
Testament? The early church, that is what
church is. Beginning in verse 31 of Acts
chapter four, and when they had prayed, The place was shaken
where they were assembled together. That's what church is. It's where
the saints assemble together. The word means a called out assembly. And they were all filled with
the Holy Ghost. And they spake the word of God
with boldness. That's what's going on in the
church. And the multitude of them that
believed were of one heart and one soul. That is the church. Those who believe and they're
of one heart and one soul. Neither said any of them that
ought of the things which he possessed was his own. but they
had all things common. Some people have tried to make
this redistribution of wealth, put everything in a common pot,
but kind of make that a law and a rule, but they were doing what
they wanted to do. Verse 33, and with great power, gave the
apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. That's what
goes on in church. And great grace was upon them
all. Every true church member has
great grace upon them. 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
to every man according as he had need." Now, what a thrilling
description of the early church. And I want to repeat, if you
want to know what church is, don't look at what's going on
today. Don't look at the buildings and
the programs. If you want to find out what
church is, find out what it is in the Bible. And then you'll
know if what you're seeing is a true church. Now, and when
they had prayed, this is where this begins, when they had prayed,
the people of God are praying people. They know their complete
dependence upon the Lord God for all things. And they prayed. Now, what was it they prayed
for? Look up a couple of verses. Verse 29 of Acts chapter 4. And
now, Lord, behold their threatenings. You see, these men had been incarcerated
for preaching the gospel. They'd been threatened to not
preach any more at all in the name of the Lord Jesus. And the
church says, behold their threatenings and grant unto thy servants that
with all boldness they may speak thy word. That's what they prayed
for. Not deliverance from trials,
not deliverance from persecutions, but that even in spite of these
persecutions, they could with all boldness speak God's word. Now, what is it to speak boldly?
Very simply, it's to speak without ambiguity. You know, a lot of
times preachers preach in such a way as you can take it in two
different meanings and keep parties that are Opposed to each other,
keep both of them happy by the way you state things. For instance,
I hear preachers who believe that Christ died for the elect
say things like, well, Christ died for those who believe. That's
a true statement, but that's compromising the truth of his
laying down his life for the sheep. Bold preaching, it doesn't
mean loud and strong voice preaching. It means you're clear. We have
an example of this in Acts chapter four where Peter says, if this
day we'd be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man,
by what means he's made whole, be it known unto you and to all
the people of Israel that by the name of, if he would have
said Jehovah, everybody would have said, well, that's what
we believe too. Everything's fine. And that would have been
true if he would have said by the name of Jehovah, that would
have been true, but it would have been a compromise of the
gospel. You see, you can say everything
that's true and leave out what needs to be said. That's how
error disseminates itself. That's how it gets out, saying
something that's true but leaving out what is critical. He said,
by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified,
whom God raised from the dead, even by him that this man stand
before you whole. This is the stone which was set
at naught of you builders, which has become the head of the corner.
Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved. And when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John, they perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men, and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with
Jesus. Now, they prayed for boldness,
and what happened, verse 31, and when they had prayed, the
place was shaken. Now this is just like what happened
in Philippi where God caused an earthquake to open the prison
doors, the place was shaken. And what this is a reference
to is the power of God, the power of God in the gospel, the omnipotence
of God in the gospel. Now God does in the gospel what
only God can do. He can make something to be that
wasn't. and he can make something that
is to be no more. Now that's omnipotence. God made
me to be what I was not. He made me holy. And he made
to not be what is my sin. He made it to be no more. That
is the mighty power of God. Only God can do that. The place
was shaken where they were assembled together. And don't miss this.
It was shaken where they were assembled together. There's something
supernatural about the saints meeting together. Now, I know
I'm preaching on TV right now, but it's a whole lot better to
be in a live worship service where the gospel is being preached
and God's people are meeting together. He promised, where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst of them. And God does not promise his
special presence anywhere but in public worship. So if you're
someone who watches this and you could be coming to services
and you're not, it's wrong. It's just wrong. God promises
his blessing in public worship where two or three are gathered
together. And really, you worship privately the most in public
worship. That's where you hear from God
through the preaching of the gospel. So this special blessing
was where they were assembled together. Don't forsake the assembling
of yourselves together as the manner of some is. Don't do that. God has promised his presence
where two or three are gathered together in his name to hear
his gospel. And they were all filled with
the Holy Ghost. And what was the evidence of
them being filled with the Holy Ghost? And they spake the word
of God with boldness. God answered their prayer. They
spake the word of God, not man's words, not man's opinions, but
the word of God with boldness. And then we read in verse 32,
and the multitude of them that believed were of one heart. and
of one soul." This is the unity of God's church. There's true
unity between those who believe. The multitude in them that believe,
they believe the gospel, were of one heart and one soul. I'd like to read a passage of
scripture from Ephesians chapter four. Paul says, I therefore
the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith you were called. with all lowliness and meekness,
with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There's
one body. And that's speaking of the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know men make different denominations
and so on. You got Protestant and Catholic
and Baptist and Methodist and Presbyterian. All that's man-made.
There's no truth in it. There's nothing in the scriptures
about that. There's only one body, the body
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the church of the living God. There's
one body. And there's one spirit. The reason
all believers are believe the same thing as they've been taught
by the same spirit and they have the same spiritual nature, being
born of the spirit. Even as you're called in one
hope of your calling. There's only one hope. Listen,
my hope of being accepted is because that everything that
God requires of me, he looks to his son for. That's my hope.
That's the hope of every believer. Christ only is the hope of every
believer. There's one Lord, the Lord Jesus
Christ. There's one faith, the faith
of God's elect, the acknowledging of the truth, which is after
godliness. There's one baptism, believer's baptism, baptism by
immersion. The Bible doesn't recognize any
other kind of baptism. There's one God, the God of the
Bible, who reveals himself exactly as he is in Holy Scripture. And
there is one Father of all. He's the Father of all who believe
this. who is above all and through
all and in you all." Now that is the truth regarding the unity
of the church. They were of one heart and one
soul that speaks of their oneness with Christ and one another. And back to our text in Acts
chapter 4 verse 32, it says, neither said any of them that
ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they
had all things common. Now, in the early church, everybody
sold what they had and laid it down at the apostles' feet so
distribution could be made to everybody. Now, was this commanded
by God? No. Was this a good idea? I admire the love behind it,
but was this a good idea? No, because of this, Paul, for
instance, said to the church at Thessalonica, if any man won't
work, neither let him eat. people would take advantage of
this. And they would think, well, if I become a member of that
church, I'll have all my needs met. I won't even need to work.
So I don't think that this was necessarily a good thing for
the church to do, although I admire their love. But I know the acts
of the apostles are the acts of men. The acts is inspired. There's no error in it. But the
men working in acts made plenty of errors. I can show all kinds
of them from the scripture. For instance, the very first
act of the apostles was a wrong act. When they had Matthias to
be an apostle, they cast lots in order to figure out which
one they thought should be the apostle, which one God would
have. The Bible never tells them to do that, and there's always
only been 12 apostles. Paul took the place of Judas.
There were not 13 apostles, so we know They didn't do everything
right as far as what they did, but I commend their love. And it says, you think there
were millionaires who sold everything they had and they had all things
common. And I know that in cults right
now, that the preachers of cults will expect the same thing out
of their members, to give everything to them and so on. But be that
as it may, let's think about how they had all things common.
And here's what I want to deal with. Every believer has all
things common. It's not just talking about material
goods. You see, Christ Jesus is all
to me. If you're a believer, Christ
Jesus is all to you. And that means we have all things
common. We read in the book of Jude of
the common salvation. Now the word common means that
which is peculiar to the few as opposed to that which is general
to all. Common is general to all and
every believer was saved the same way. We have all things
common. You see if you're a believer and I'm a believer it's because
God in his sovereign glorious purpose chose us to be saved
in Christ before the foundation of the world. We have that in
common. All the elect love election.
And we have this in common. Christ came and kept the law
for me. He did that for every believer.
Every believer was in him. And Christ died for me. and put away my sins and caused
them to not be. And he was raised for me. When
he was raised, I was raised. He ascended back to the right
hand of the Father for me. We experience the same salvation. Christ does it all. It's the common salvation. All believers were redeemed by
the blood of Christ. We have that in common. All believers
were justified, made to be not guilty by what Christ did for
them in their behalf. All believers are regenerated.
They've been born of the Spirit. All believers have faith and
repentance. All believers believe heaven
will be to behold his glory and to be just like him. We have
all things common. The common salvation. And Paul spoke to Titus of the
common faith, the faith that all believers have. Do you know
every single believer? I don't care what country they're
in. I don't care what continent they're in. Every single believer
looks to Christ alone as their only ground of salvation. They
don't look to anything they've done. They don't look to their
experience. They don't look to their good
works. They don't look to their faith and repentance and their
sincerity. They look to Christ alone as
everything in their salvation. They all believe that Christ
is all. Now, for Christ to be all to
you, you're going to have to be nothing. If you're something,
he can't be all to you. But if you're poor in spirit,
you have nothing to bring to the table, nothing to recommend
you to God. That means Christ is all to you. And all of God's people have
that in common, the common faith. We all believe that he is all. We all believe that the Bible
is the inspired word of God. We all believe that all the scriptures
speak of Christ. We believe that the only understanding
of any doctrine is as it's understood in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every
believer is just like that. We have all things common. Now
let's go on reading. Verse 33, this is the church.
And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus. Now this is the primary message
of the church. With great power gave the apostles
witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the
gospel is meaningless without the resurrection of Christ. If
Christ was not raised from the dead, that means he's still dead.
That means you and I can't be saved by what he did. But Christ
was raised from the dead. And Paul said, Oh, that I may
win Christ and be found in him, that I might know him and the
power of his resurrection. Now, with great power, they gave
witness to the resurrection of Christ. Now, what does that mean?
Yes, we believe that Christ was physically raised from the dead.
But we know why he was physically raised from the dead. He was
physically raised from the dead because the sins that he died
for were put away and the justice of God demanded his resurrection
because of the success of his work. You see, when he was raised
from the dead, all of God's people, everybody he died for, all of
the elect, all who believe, they were justified. He was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. You know
what that means? That means right now I have no
guilt before God. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? God justified them. Who is he
that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
that's risen again. Oh, the power The redeeming power
in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins. The only way I can look upon my sins are as forgiven
sins because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think
of the satisfying power of his resurrection. God was satisfied
with what he did and it makes God satisfied with me. God looks
at me and he sees nothing to disapprove of because I'm perfect
in Christ Jesus. That's the gospel. God is completely
satisfied with me to this extent. He's going to say to me, well
done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou in the joy
of thy Lord. And if Christ did well, I did well because I'm
in him. That is my hope. God is completely satisfied with
me because he's completely satisfied with his son. And that's the
only place I get any satisfaction. You know, this thing of the resurrection
is so closely tied to faith. If thou wilt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. I believe in my heart
that God raised him from the dead. I know why he did it. He
did it because he was satisfied with him. Oh, the power of his
resurrection. The power of his resurrection
is such that it's going to make me stand on judgment day, perfect
and holy without fault before the very throne of God. Now that
is powerful. This great power comes from,
let's go on reading, verse 33. And with great power gave the
apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace. was upon them all." Now, the
only kind of grace there is, is great grace, mega grace, the
grace of God. Grace, or you say, through faith,
and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Great grace was upon them. Now, let me tell you three things.
that are always true about the grace of God. First, God's grace
is sovereign. He said, I will be gracious to
whom I will be gracious, and I'll show mercy on whom I will
show mercy. What that means is if you have
grace, it's because he decided to give it to you. He didn't
respond to you. He didn't think you deserved
it or anything like that. It's not. He simply as an act
of his sovereign will decided you would have it. And if you
have it, you know, it's that way. If you don't have it, you
might not like that. But if you have it, you know,
it's because God gave it to you freely as an act of his sovereign
will, because he's God. God can do that. God's grace
is always sovereign. God's grace is always free. Absolutely
free. There's nothing you have to do
to get it. There's nothing you have to pay
for in order to have it. It is absolutely free. It's free grace. If you put one
work in the scheme of salvation, it's all of works. But grace
is always free. And God's grace is always saving. God doesn't offer you grace.
God doesn't make grace available to you. God saves you by his
grace. God's grace is always saving. By grace, you are saved. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love, wherewith he loved us even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace,
you are saved. I've heard preachers talk about
common grace, the common grace of God. There's no such thing
as common grace. God's grace is great grace, and
it's always saving, it's always sovereign, and it's always free. Now let's go on reading about
this church, this early church. 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, they did
this literally. The men who had houses and land
sold those houses, and all the money was put into a pot. And
money was given to everybody as they had need. And as I said,
you can imagine how many people wanted to join up because they
thought, well, we could make, we won't have to work. People
just give us money. And Paul answered that by saying,
if a man won't work, neither let him eat. But let's talk about
this thing of no lack. Everybody in this church, everybody
in the true church, everybody in the body of Christ has no
lack. You see Colossians 2, 9 and 10
says, In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead in a
body, and you are complete, lacking nothing in him. are fit, if you're
a believer, you're fit right now for the kingdom of heaven.
There's nothing you're lacking. Somebody says, well, I feel lacking.
Well, if you're a believer, you're not lacking. You have the righteousness
of Christ. You have the grace of God. You
have acceptance in the beloved. You have a holy nature. And that
nature is not going to become more holy when you get into heaven.
The difference is going to be you're no longer going to have
this sinful nature that you have to deal with. but there is no
lack to anybody that is in Christ Jesus. I love that scripture
in Psalm 23 verse 1 where David says, the Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want, I shall not lack anything because my shepherd
is the Lord. You see in this church, No one
had any lack. And look at this last phrase,
verse 35. And they laid them down at the
apostles' feet, and distribution was made unto every man according
as he had need. I never want to leave. Luke 9,
11. He healed them that had need
of healing. David said on at least 10 different
occasions, I'm poor and I'm needy. Now, David was vastly wealthy,
but yet when he spoke of himself, he said, I'm poor and I'm needy. I don't have anything to bring
to God that he could accept, and I have great needs. I don't
want to be like the church at Laodicea, rich and increased
with goods and have need of nothing. And Christ said, I'm going to
spew you out of my mouth. I am needy. Being a sinful man, I
need God to freely choose me and decide to save me as an act
of his sovereign will. I need that. I need to be elected.
I need Christ to keep the law for me and I need Christ to die
for my sins and put them away. I need the grace of the Holy
Spirit to give me life. I need him to give me a new heart.
I need him to give me faith. I can't come up with faith. I
need him to give me repentance. I can't come up with repentance.
I need him to preserve me all the way to the end. I'll follow
away if he doesn't keep me. Oh, I have great need. And I never want to leave that
position of great need. Now, this is the early church. This is the church that I want
to be a member of. We have this message on DVD and
CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberpring. God
will be pleased to make himself known to you. That's our prayer.
Amen.