Acts 1. Dwayne Iams' father,
Buddy, passed away yesterday morning. And there will be a
viewing Tuesday at 11 o'clock at the 13th Street Baptist Church
in Ashland, Kentucky. And the funeral will be at 1. So everybody remember him and
that family. Acts chapter 1, verse 14. These all continued with one
accord. I've entitled this message, One
Accord. These were all of one accord
and one mind. They heard the Lord pray this
for them. Look in John chapter 17, just a few pages back. In his great high priestly prayer
for his people, neither pray I for these alone,
verse 20, neither pray I for these alone, but for them also
which shall believe on me through their word. He's talking about
me and you. I'm not just praying for the disciples. I'm praying
for every believer. all of God's elect, that they
all may be one. As thou, Father, art in me, and
I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world
may believe that thou hast sent me, and the glory which thou
gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as
we are one, I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made
perfect in one, that the world may know that thou hast sent
me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Now this is Christ's
prayer for his church. And understand this, all of God's
people are of one accord. Look in Acts chapter two, they're
now experiencing what Christ prayed for them. I love that
Psalm, behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren.
to dwell together in unity. Look in chapter two, verse one.
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all
with one accord in one place. Look in verse 41 of the same
chapter. After Peter preached on the day
of Pentecost, then they that gladly received his word were
baptized. And the same day, there were
added unto them about 3,000 souls, and they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship. And in breaking of
bread, and in prayers, and fear came upon every soul. And many
wonders and signs were done by the apostles, and all that believed
were together, and had all things common, and sold their possessions
and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need,
and they continuing continuing daily with one accord in the
temple and breaking bread from house to house to eat their meat
with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having
favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church
daily such as should be saved. Look in Acts chapter four. After they had heard about. Peter and John being released,
verse 24, and when they had heard that, they lifted up their voice
to God with one accord. Now remember, this is the early
church. They had not, this was just a few days after the cross,
this sermon of Pentecost where 3,000 people were saved. They
had not been saved very long, yet look at what unity was between
these people. They lifted up their voice with
one accord. and said, Lord, thou art God,
which has 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 the 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. Now this is the prayer
of the early church. Look at the understanding they
had. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant unto
thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word. They prayed for the boldness
of the men in preaching the gospel of God's grace. Now, they were
with one accord in their prayers and in their supplications. Now,
prayer. God does what he's going to do
through the prayers of his people. He's going to inspire you to
pray. That prayer that's true prayer that you prayed didn't
come from you. It came from his spirit, inspiring you to pray
about something. If he's going to save somebody,
he's going to inspire you to pray for him. And oh, how earnestly
you're going to pray. He works through the prayers
of his people. Now, he inspires them, he answers
them. I heard somebody once say, I
believe in prayer. I don't so much believe in prayer, I believe
in the God who answers prayer. I believe in the God who ordains
prayer. I believe in the God who uses
prayer. Our prayers, not much to them.
As a matter of fact, there's not anything to them. The only
way they can be accepted is if Christ takes them and presents
them before the Father by His intercession. Somebody says,
I really prayed. Did you now? I don't know whether you did
or not, but I know if you did and if your prayers reached the
ear of the Father, it's because Christ presented them. and made
them acceptable. Otherwise, they couldn't be accepted.
But they were in one accord in this thing of prayer and in this
thing of supplication. Supplication simply means needs. You know, if we're believers,
we have the same needs. I'm not talking about a new car or a
new house. I'm talking about I need mercy. I need grace. I need Christ. I need the gift
of faith. I need boldness in order to preach
the gospel. I need his blessing. They were
in one accord in this thing of prayer and supplication. Now, there's a great emphasis
put on this in the scriptures, believers being of one accord,
of one mind, believing the same things. You see, if we're believers,
we're not believers who believe differently. We're believers
who believe the same thing. All believers believe precisely
the same thing. You see, they've been taught
by the same spirit. They've been taught the same
gospel. They've been saved the same way. And they believe the
same thing. These believers were of one accord. And how beautiful that was when
God worked so mightily through the fellowship of these believers. Now I want you to look at the
emphasis placed in the scripture on this. Turn with me to Philippians
chapter 2. This is a very important subject. Verse one, Philippians two, verse
one. If there be therefore any consolation
in Christ, any encouragement, any solace, any refreshment,
if any comfort of love. Are you comforted that his love
is to you, doesn't have anything to do with any loveliness in
you, but that it's as you are in him? Comfort in his love. Fellowship of the Spirit. If
any bows and mercies, fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded. That's being of one accord. Having
the same love. Being of one accord and of one
mind. Now, being of the same love,
I love this thought. Richard, if my wife loves you
more than she does me, we've got problems. That's obvious,
isn't it? But if my wife loves Christ more
than she loves me, I couldn't ask for anything more. I'd be
so happy. The same love. Every believer
has the same love. I want to love Christ more than
I want to love you. Now, I want to love you. Don't get me wrong,
but I want to love Christ more than I love you. He is the object
of the believer's affection. The same comfort. Look, let,
fulfill ye my joy, verse two, that ye be like-minded, having
the same love, being of one accord and of one mind. Let nothing
be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind,
let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every
man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. You have the mind of Christ.
You say, is that possible? Sure it is. Paul said, we have
the mind of Christ. Every believer possesses the
mind of Christ. You know what that means? We
think the same things he does. You know, he knows. that all
the fullness of the Godhead dwells in his body. You reckon he knows
that? Of course he does. We know it
too, don't we? He knows he gets all the glory
and salvation. You know who else knows that?
Every believer. We share in his mind. He knows he's all. We know he's
all. We have the mind of Christ. We think the same things he thinks. There's so many scriptures with
regard to this. Now, here's something that's very sobering, talking
about all believers being of one accord. This accord can be
compromised. And that's a very sobering thought,
but this accord This unity can be compromised. Turn back to
1 Corinthians 1. Paul says to the church of Corinth
in verse 10, Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing. that there
be no divisions among you, no schisms, no differences, but
that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and
in the same judgment. For it has been declared unto
me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe,
that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every
one of you says, I'm a Paul. I learned the gospel through
Paul. And somebody says, well, I learned the gospel through
Apollos. And somebody else said, well, I have Cephas. And then
the real pious ones say, well, I have Christ. I didn't hear
any man. It was just Christ who taught me the gospel directly. So Paul asked this question,
is Christ divided? Are there divisions in the body
of Christ? Are there different denominations?
I think denominations are so foolish. They're completely man-made. You don't find anything in the
Bible about denominations. Well, I think they're important.
No, they're not. If they were, they'd be in the Bible. It's
a man-made division is what it is. That's all it is. Is Christ
divided? Absolutely not. Was Paul crucified for you? Or
were you baptized in the name of Paul? Verse 14, I thank God
that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should
say that I baptized in my own name. And I baptized also the
house of Stephanus, and besides, I know not whether I baptized
any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach
the gospel. That's my purpose, to preach
the gospel, not with wisdom of words, not trying to package
it in such a way as to make it more appealing to the flesh,
to try to get people to believe. Look in chapter three, verse
one. Paul says to the church at Corinth,
and I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but
as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I fed you with
milk and not with meat, for hitherto you're not able to bear it. Neither
now are you able, for you're yet carnal. For whereas there's
among you envying and strife, divisions. Are ye not carnal
and walk as men, walk as unregenerate lost men." That's the way you're
walking with these things. Now, I think of the sad story
of Paul and Barnabas. Read about it in Acts chapter
15. These were the Apostle and Barnabas, but they had a contention
about Mark. And the scripture says they departed
asunder in anger. They just split up. I'm not having
anything to do with him. I'm not having anything to do
with him. And this division was wrong. As a matter of fact, Paul
ends up saying regarding Mark, bring him to me before he's profitable
to the ministry. But he and Barnabas split up
over this. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
four. You see, keeping this unity Keeping
this spirit of unity takes effort on our part. It's only by the
grace of God, but it takes effort on our part. You say, well, there'll
be unity. I'm gonna do my own thing. God will overcome. No,
he won't. Look at Ephesians chapter four, beginning in verse one. I therefore
the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation or the calling wherewith you were called. Now what is
this worthy walk? With all lowliness and meekness,
with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring,
giving every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond
of peace. And how's that done? By walking
in lowliness, true humility. A just estimate of yourself.
That's what humility is. A just estimate of yourself.
What's a just estimate of yourself? That you're the chief of sinners
and saved only by the grace of God. That's a just estimate of
yourself. And you're to look at others. You know yourself
better than other people do. We ought to esteem others as
better than ourselves every single time. And that's what he's talking
about, this humility. You walk in humility, meekness,
knowing that God is the first cause behind all things and whatever
he sends my way is him sending it my way, therefore it's good.
Even if it's painful, it's good because it's him doing it. With
long-suffering, long-tempered, forbearing one another. You know
what that means? That word's a good word. It means putting
up with one another, overlooking one another, putting up with
one another in the one another in love, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Now here's
the unity of the Spirit. There's one body, the church.
There's one Spirit, God the Holy Spirit, even as you're called
in one hope of your calling. There's only one hope. There's only one hope. Now listen
to me carefully. The only hope I have is that
Jesus Christ died for me. Well, everybody has a hope then.
No, they don't because He didn't die for everybody. He died for
those who believe. He died for His elect. He did not die for
those the Father gave Him. And if you tell me that He can
die for somebody and they can wind up in hell because they
didn't do whatever it is they're supposed to do to make what He
did work for them, you've taken away my only hope because my
only hope is that Jesus Christ died for me. There's one hope. Let's go on reading. Verse five,
there's one Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, the sovereign of the
universe. There's one faith, the faith
of God's elect. There's one baptism, not two
or three, one baptism. Baptism by immersion, one God
and father of all who is above all and through all and in you
all. Turn back to Romans 15. I know
I'm having you to look at a lot of scriptures, but I want to
see the importance of this thing being one accord and one mind. Verse five, now the God of patience
and consolation grant you, and this is the only way it'll be,
is if he grants it to us by his grace, to be like-minded one
toward another according to Christ Jesus. Now let me tell you exactly
what that means. That means when I look at you, I look at you
as somebody who's in Christ, somebody who God is pleased with.
somebody who's justified. I'm to look at you as Christ
looks at you, and you're to look at me as Christ looks at me. That's what it is to be like-minded Verse six, that you may with
one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, wherefore receive you one another as Christ also
received us to the glory of God. Now, when the Lord teaches us
to pray, what is the first word in the disciple's prayer? our Father. Not my Father, but
our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. We pray with all of God's people.
When it says they were all in one accord, they were all in
true agreement. They were all of one mind. And that is what is conveyed
in what we confess. Confess means Literally, to speak
the same thing. Now if I'm confessing Christ,
I'm confessing the same thing you're confessing if you confess
Christ. And if one of us have a different confession, a different
belief, one of us are not confessing Christ. Because the confession
of Christ is always the same with all of God's people. We
believe the same things. Now I'm gonna read you something
that somebody said about this thing of being one accord. And
the reason I wanna read it is it says words that I don't even
know what they mean. And I don't mean that in a bad way, but it's
a musical example and it talks about pitch and tone. And I got
to think about it, I don't know what pitch means or what tone
means. I mean, I'm totally ignorant when it comes to music. I love
to listen to music, but you can ask my sister, Sherry, when we
took piano lessons when we were kids and they had that musical
theory and I was, oh, I was so, I hated it. I didn't care about
it. Didn't know what's up. That's the way I am about this
kind of stuff. But still I think this is good.
Listen. One man said the word helps us. One accord. The word helps us
to understand the uniqueness of Christian fellowship. It's
a compound of two words meaning to rush along and in unison. The image is musical. A number
of notes are sounded, which while different, harmonize in pitch
and tone. And like I said, I don't know
what that means, but maybe you do. I sort of know what it means. I know intuitively, but if you
ask me to give a definition, I couldn't do it. But it says
they harmonize in pitch and tone as the instruments of a great
concert under the direction of a concert master. They sing one
song, so the Holy Spirit blends together the lives of the members
of Christ's church to sing one song, the gospel. Different people,
different notes, yet one song. Now while there is diversity
in the body and people who in some respects are very different,
very different. Lynn tells me different is good.
I'm not so sure, but just like me. We all know better than that,
don't we? While people are different, different
tastes, different likes, different dislikes, still there's true
unity in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are of one
accord. Now, what are we in agreement
about if we truly are in one accord? Well, you got to begin
here. Every believer is in one accord
about this. The Bible is the Word of God. Now, somebody says, well, I don't
agree with that. Well, me and you are in one accord
then. Everything we believe comes from the Bible. The Bible is
our only rule of faith and practice. The Bible claims divine inspiration. All scripture, 2 Timothy 3, 16,
all scripture, Old Testament, New Testament. When he was writing
this, the New Testament canon had not yet been completed. He
was speaking specifically of the Old Testament scriptures,
but he's talking about all scripture is given by inspiration of God. All scripture. Why do you believe
what you believe? Because it's what the Bible says.
What you believe about God, regarding God, regarding Christ, regarding
God the Holy Spirit, is seen in your attitude toward this
book. This book is, as it claims to
be, the divinely inspired Word of God. And when I preach, All
I ask you to do is look and see if what I'm saying is according
to the Scriptures. That's it. I don't have any other appeal.
It's what I'm saying according to the Scriptures. We believe
that God is as the Bible declares Him to be. Holy, sovereign, all-powerful,
absolutely just, immutable, independent, omniscient, omnipresent. We believe
God is as this word declares him to be. And we believe man
is as this word declares him to be. I really believe that
when God looks at this man, apart from Christ, he sees someone,
as he said in Genesis chapter six, verse five, and God saw
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Do you not really believe that
about myself? Do you? I really believe. The carnal mind is enmity against
God, it's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can
be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
I believe what the Bible says about man, what it says about
me. But most especially, I believe what the Bible says about salvation.
It's in Christ Jesus the Lord. All that God has for the sinner,
all this holy God as the Bible describes him to be, all he has
for the sinner is in Christ and for Christ's sake. I believe
that. We're all in agreement concerning
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's God. I don't know of anything I get
more pleasure out of saying than this. Jesus is God. I love that. Jesus is God. He's the creator. He's the one who brought the
worlds into existence. He's the one who controls everything. The God of providence. He's controlling
you right now. He's the God of salvation. Salvation's
of the Lord. And when we talk about salvation
being of the Lord, that means your salvation is not in your
hands. It's in His. Your eternal destiny is determined
by Him and you have no control. You know I like it that way.
I like it that way. We're all at agreement regarding
the person of Christ. And we're all of one mind concerning
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. We say with Paul, God forbid,
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The only thing, now remember
who Paul is. Paul was used to write scriptures. Your glory
in that, Paul, no. Paul was used to establish churches. Your glory
in that, Paul, no. Whatever there was about Paul,
he said what things were gained to me, those things that I used
to count as positive and in a plus column, those I counted loss
for Christ. Yea, doubtless I count all things
but loss, but garbage for the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all
things and do count it but dumb that I may win Christ and be
found in him. Now here's where every believer
is in complete agreement. There's not a shadow of difference.
My only hope, and the only hope I want, is found in what Christ
accomplished on Calvary Street. When he said, it is finished,
my salvation was finished. And my salvation was finished
before I was even born. That's how little it has to do
with my works. I wasn't even around when my
salvation was accomplished. I was in the mind and purpose
of God, but I wasn't around. Yet when he said it is finished,
my salvation was accomplished. The scripture says all the works
were finished. Hebrews 4.3, all the works were
finished from the foundation of the world. Now I know people
can turn that around and say, well, you're saying people don't
have to believe the gospel. You're saying people don't have to repent.
You're saying people don't have to come to Christ. Anybody hear
me say anything like that? I'm not saying anything like
that. If you're saved, you will believe,
you will repent, you will come to Christ. That's part of being
saved. But it was accomplished outside of my personal subjective
experience. And that lets me know that it
has absolutely nothing to do with my works. And you know,
all of God's people say to that, Amen. Amen. We believe that completely. We're all at perfect agreement.
Jesus Christ is all. There's no discord here. There's
no lack of unity here. We all believe that Jesus Christ
is all. Now what's that mean? That means
He's all that God is. That means He's all to God. That
means He's all in this book. This book is written to testify
of Him. He's all in every doctrine. Any
doctrine there is, He's the sum and substance of it. He is all. He's all the God. He's all that
God requires of me. He's all that I have. Somebody says, Christ is all
we need. No, He's all you got. He's all you got. All you need,
yes, that's true, but that's not the right way to say that.
He's all you have. He is all. Is He all you have? Would you plead anything else
before the Father but Christ and Christ alone? Well, if you
can, you don't have any accord with me. We're not a one accord.
We believe two totally different gospels, and one of us is believing
a false gospel. We're a one accord regarding
Christ being all, and we're all, every believer is at perfect
agreement, one accord that salvation is by grace. And you know, I can cut to the
chase on this, because that's a word that every religious person
would use. Oh, I believe in salvation by
grace. Sure I do. So I can cut to the chase. What
do you believe about divine election? That will tell what you really
believe about grace. is God, by His grace, sovereignly,
unconditionally, choosing a sinner before time began in Christ to
be saved, and saved they must be. If you don't believe that, you
don't believe grace. If a man doesn't preach that,
that man does not preach grace. Election is the G of grace. If
you take away the word G, what do you have left? Race. We're
only the fittest win and survive. I don't want anything to do with
anything like that. Salvation is by grace. And every aspect
of salvation from election, from justification is by grace. It's
an act of His grace. Redemption is by His grace. The
new birth is by His powerful, efficacious grace. Being preserved
is by His grace. Being glorified is by His grace. And we're all in agreement with
that. Every believer. Salvation is by grace. And every
believer has the same evidence of salvation. And it's very important. Listen real carefully. What is
the evidence that you're saved? I'm different. I'm different
than I used to be. I used to be a real rounder,
and I used to take drugs and all kind of terrible things,
and now I'm different. I've changed. I've straightened
up. I now go to church. I now want
to hear the gospel. I'm different. I seem to not
have the trouble with sin I used to have. I seem to just be a
better person. I believe God's really done something for me.
Can't you see? If you think anything like that, you're blind as a
bat. God's never done anything for you. You don't have a holy
nature. Because if you had a holy nature,
you'd know better than that. You wouldn't think such foolish
thoughts. The only evidence, now, don't get me wrong, I'm
all for a changed life. But the only evidence that God
has done something for you is that you look to Christ only
as everything in your salvation. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. What is the evidence that God
has elected me? I look to Christ. Right now,
He's all I have. What's the evidence that God
has justified you? All I have is Christ. What is
the evidence that Christ died for you? All I have is Christ. What is the evidence that you've
been regenerated? All I have is Christ. Faith is
the evidence of things not seen. And we all are at perfect agreement
regarding who gets the glory and our salvation. No discord. No Praise to human
merit to jar this beautiful sound, not unto us, not unto us, but
into thy name. Give glory for thy mercy and
for thy true sake. The very thought of us getting
any glory in our salvation nauseates us. Every believer feels that
way. He gets all the glory. We all have the same desire to
win Christ, to be found in Him and to be perfectly conformed
to His image. That is our great desire, to
win Christ, to be found in Him, so when God sees me, all He sees
is Christ, and to be perfectly conformed to His image. And we
all want everybody to hear and to believe this message. Now,
I realize not everybody will believe this message, But everybody
should. This is a faithful saying. And
it's worthy of all acceptation. Everybody ought to receive this
as the best news they've ever heard. That Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners. Of whom I am the chief. Everybody ought to rejoice in
that. I know everybody won't. but everybody should. All of
God's people are of one accord in all of those things. And if someone jars this melody
and says, I don't believe that, then you can't say you're one
of God's people. If you're at one accord with him, and if I'm
at one accord with him, we'll be one accord with each other,
won't we? will believe the precise same thing. May the Lord always
give us this one accord to be like-minded of the same mind. Only the Lord can give us this,
but what a beautiful thing it is. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that you would deliver
us from anything but being of one accord with thy word, with thy son,
with thy gospel. Lord, grant us this like-mindedness. Cause us to endeavor to keep
the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace with all humility
and meekness and long-suffering. and for bearing one another in
love. Lord, we ask that you would cause
us to be of one accord at all times, and we ask that your gospel
might go forth from this place in the power of your Holy Spirit,
and that many men and women, boys and girls, might be brought
to bow the knee and to trust thy blessed Son. In his blessed
name we pray. Amen.