Responding To The Gospel

And going through these passages, this sermon, this sermon that Peter preached. And I remind you that Peter is not preaching out of his own mind and will. That Peter has just been anointed with the Spirit of God.

He is filled with the Holy Ghost and Peter is communicating a sermon. And we will see later on, but this sermon was just a part of what Peter had to say. There's many other words he exhorted them with.

But God has given us this, this exhortation here from Peter. And the Holy Spirit is doing something here in this message. I believe He does something in every message.

He has a purpose. But in Peter's words here, there is a purpose. And the purpose here is to lay the foundation for the church.

The purpose is to plant that solid rock that we talked about, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that purpose is seen here in verse 36. And I've talked about it already before.

But in chapter 2, verse 36, Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. I'm sorry, I've got to get this on here. That Jesus is both Lord and Christ.

Now this is the very foundation of church life. And as a matter of fact, that's absolutely essential for you to believe that Jesus is both Lord and Christ. You might remember, and I'll go back and read it for you if you've forgotten, but in Matthew chapter 16, Jesus asked Peter something.

And Peter's going to be the fulfillment of this very thing here in the sermon at Pentecost. In Matthew chapter 16, when Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say thou art John the Baptist, a human. And some say Elias, another human.

And others, Jeremiah, are one of the prophets. These are all humans. And he said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Now Peter says this, Here's who I think you are.

You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. You are Christ and you are deity. Christ and Lord, those two.

And Jesus says, Blessed are you, son, because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father, which is in heaven, He's revealed this unto you. And I want to say this to you. If you believe this morning with all your heart that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, I can say with the authority of the Word of God, Blessed are you.

Blessed are you. And then Jesus goes on to say this, You're Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. And a lot of people, the Catholics have a lot of heart, they misinterpret that one.

Upon this rock is referring to somehow Peter. You're the rock and you're the first pope and I'm going to build my church on you, Peter. But no, the context there is this.

What you just said, Peter, I am the Christ, the Son of the living God. Upon that rock, I am going to build my church. That is the cornerstone.

Christ is the cornerstone and I'm going to build my church on that rock. So when the Holy Spirit comes down and fills Peter, Peter's testimony is Jesus is Christ and He is Lord. And upon that rock, we're going to build a church.

And if you want to be in that church, God's going to give you the Holy Spirit, prophesied by Joel, and He's going to pour it out upon you. And so this sermon, yes, it converted many people, but this sermon was a foundational sermon that the Spirit of God was moving upon Peter to lay the rock, the foundation that Christ, who is Lord of all, He is the very cornerstone of this building. And so if you picture the book of Acts as the Lord building His church house, Acts chapter 2 is the Lord is laying the cornerstone.

He is Christ and He is Lord. And that's why everything that we do needs to line up with the cornerstone. When you build, you want to understand you lay the cornerstone and everything is lined up with the cornerstone.

So the Lord, He is the cornerstone. And He is building His church. And we are a part of His church and His eternal kingdom.

And so here in this message we're going to read, after the message there are going to be many people converted. This is the day of Pentecost. It's sometimes called the Feast of Firstfruits.

And so the Lord is bringing in the firstfruits of His church, the firstfruits of His kingdom. So just picture this house is being built. The cornerstone is being laid.

The apostles and prophets are the foundation. And then you and I are the structure going up. And I believe we're getting to the end of the building.

And maybe you and I are all the steeple at the top there, the last piece on this building. I don't know if the church has a steeple or not in heaven. So let's go down through this.

I'm going to read starting in verse 37. I'm going to read the passage and then we're going to go through it verse by verse. Verse 37, Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

For the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward, or this crooked, perverse generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

We're going to stop right there, and we'll finish up the chapter next week. But let's take a look at these verses. This is the response that this sermon brings from the people who are listening.

Maybe five thousand. I don't know. It must be a huge crowd of people that's nearby.

Peter is maybe on a housetop, or the others are preaching along with him. But many people are hearing the message, and they're getting converted. So let's start here in verse 37, and see if we can learn some things from these passages.

Verse 37 says, Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart. When they heard that they had just crucified the Lord and the Christ, they were pricked in their heart, and they said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Now the magnitude, I think I've shared this already, but the magnitude of their sin has just been laid upon them. Consider this, there may have been many individuals, Jewish people in Jerusalem, who stood at the cross, can you imagine this, and blasphemed the Lord, who stood at the cross and cursed Him, who stood at the cross and mocked Him, even stood there and spit at Him.

I mean, there are probably some people who are there who saw all of this, and now they're coming to grips with the reality that that One who I mocked and ridiculed and spat upon is the Lord and He is the Christ. And God is opening up their eyes to the magnitude of what they just did. Fifty days prior.

And you have to believe that many of those who are at the Passover, they're still here, fifty days this feast has been going on, and they're there and they realize that they have crucified their Messiah and they have crucified the Lord in a human body. The Bible says they were pricked in their heart. They were pricked in their heart.

And that word pricked means to goad. Have you ever had animals? You have a goad? You want to direct animals, you just kind of poke them. It's a goad.

It's something that's painful. It's not lethal. It's just painful.

But this idea of pricking, pricking, it's like, ooh, ooh, that hurts. And I hope sometimes you sit in the congregation and you listen to the Word of God and you sit there and say, ooh, that hurts. Ooh.

That's called conviction. Conviction. And conviction is a good thing.

If you don't have conviction, that means your conscience must be seared. Your conscience must be very hardened. But we ought to have conviction.

God ought to speak to us. And it pricked our hearts. And so they were pricked in their hearts.

Do you remember Saul? And what Jesus said to Saul of Tarsus as he's on the road to Damascus, this great light shines, and the Lord says to Saul, how long are you going to kick against the pricks? You get the picture of some shepherd trying to prick an animal to move forward, and the animal's just kicking. Not wanting to go. Just kicking against the pricks.

And how long, Saul, are you going to kick against My conviction? I've been trying to convict you of your sin and of your unbelief. How long are you going to kick against the pricks? Now here's an amazing thing, and I encourage all of you, you have children maybe you were praying for and others that you're praying for, but Jesus taught His disciples to pray for those that persecute you. So I'm sure the early church and those disciples prayed much for Saul of Tarsus.

He was the greatest persecutor that the church had. And they often prayed, God, God, would you please save Saul of Tarsus. How many times have those people prayed? This guy is persecuting us.

You ought to pray for them to persecute you. Lord, we ought to pray for Saul of Tarsus. And you know what was happening with Saul? Because the people were praying for Saul, God was goading him.

God was pricking him and convicting him, answering the prayers of the people of God. Now I'm one who believes that God doesn't override the human will. And so God doesn't force people to make decisions in that regard, but the Lord certainly gives influence.

And He pricks. And He goes. He encourages people in the right direction.

And Jesus said to Saul, how long do I have to prick you like this? When are you going to stop kicking against me? I've been pricking and pricking. These people are praying for you, and I'm pricking you to move in the right direction. Now I want you to be encouraged here.

Do you know when you pray, I believe this, and I think we can take this to heart, when you pray, God brings conviction. Say, I'm praying for my daughter. I'm praying for my son.

I'm praying for my uncle or my aunt. I'm praying for them to be converted. I'm praying for them to get their heart right with God.

According to the Bible, the Lord is working. He's not going to override their will, but He's going to be trying to influence them with conviction. And so as you pray, God is going to bring conviction.

And by the way, it can make people very uncomfortable. I've heard people say this, stop praying for me, I'm getting too uncomfortable. There's too much pressure on me.

Would you stop praying for me? And I believe that. That God's people praying caused the Lord to move into the hearts of individuals. And God can make it difficult for people.

He made it very difficult for the prodigal son. He brought on the environment of famine and the guy down there eating the husk of the swine to eat and he was a miserable man. And it brought into the place of repentance.

And so as parents, our heart is to pray for God to bring conviction and to goad and to bring a prick to the heart of our children or to others that we're praying for. God, would You make their life miserable? Bring a famine into their land and cause them to come to their senses and to repent. And so that's what's happening here.

They're being pricked. I'd love to have been there. I don't know, they're probably weeping.

Oh my God, what have we done? Oh my God! And they're probably tearing their clothes. We've crucified the Lord and His Christ. And it was brought on by the Spirit of God.

You know, we need more of that in church. You want to pray for something, pray for that here in the church. Conviction.

Conviction of sin. Oh, that we're not able as a people to sin and not care. But that sin brings the fear of God into our heart.

Conviction. Well, they had it. Well, people who have this conviction, they cry out and they say, men and brethren, what shall we do? Here is the heart of someone who is truly under conviction.

Okay, I'm done. I'm doomed. I'm convicted.

What should I do? What do I do? And I go through the Bible and I see a number of times that that happens. You know, that Philippian jailer comes to Paul and Silas. He's under conviction.

The whole thing is just shaken. By the way, did you hear this? Haiti had another massive earthquake just a few days ago. Another earthquake got in Haiti.

That poor country. I mean, God is trying to shake that place. I tell you, they ought to fall on their face and cry out to God for mercy.

What shall we do? The Philippian jailer, he comes to Paul and Silas and he falls down trembling. And his words were, what must I do to be saved? What do I need to do? Saul on the road to Damascus, when he meets the Lord, his first response is, what would you have me to do? To do, to do, to do. What must I do? Human nature, when human nature is under conviction, what do I need to do to get out of this mess? I'm doomed.

I'm under conviction. What do I do? Well, to me, as I thought about that, that heart, and I know I had that heart. Trust I still have that heart.

That heart is crying out this. Lord, whatever it takes, what must I do? What must I do? And it's a heart that's saying, I want to be under submission and authority. Just tell me what to do.

You know, Saul, when he met the Lord, he said, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm blind. Just tell me what to do. The Lord said, I'll tell you what to do.

There's an Ananias going to come lay his hands on you. And he'll tell you what to do. But you know, I believe that when a person truly is under conviction and they come to the Lord, they come to the end of themselves, they come to Jesus and they say to Him, Lord, what do You want me to do? Right? What do You want me to do? And if the Lord says, I want you to preach the gospel the rest of your life, they say, I'll do it.

If they want you to be a martyr, they say, I'll do it. It doesn't matter whatever you want me to do, I'll do it. Because I've come to the end of me.

It's a good place to be. I hope you've all been there. What must I do? There was no, what must I do, and I have stipulations.

What must I do under certain conditions? It's just, what do we do? Well, Peter responds to them here, and maybe this is a confusion for some people. It says in verse 38, Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now someone says, why not believe? Why doesn't Peter say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? I mean, he told the Philippians and Jeter, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

It didn't mention repentance. Now here he mentions repentance and baptism and mentions nothing about belief. Is there two different Gospels? No, there's not.

Here's the answer. They had just been told, they just crucified the Lord Jesus and who He really is. And they're saying in their heart, Oh, I believe it.

What do we do now? Belief was already there. And he said, okay, repent and be baptized. Now the Philippian jailer, he had repentance.

He came trembling. And he didn't know the Lord Jesus Christ. He wanted what Paul and Silas had, and he said, what should I do? They saw his trembling heart, and they said, just believe.

Believe. You're already at the place of repentance. Just believe.

And they baptized him the same night. So if I had someone coming to me and they're trembling and they're saying, Oh God, I'm a wicked sinner. I want to get rid of this sin.

What do I do, Brother Jerry? I don't have any hope. Well, I've already seen their repentance. It's already there.

So I point them to Jesus. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou shalt be saved.

And you know I can preach a message and teach people about the Lord Jesus, and they say, I see who Jesus is and I believe in my heart. What should I do now? Well, repent. Turn from your sin.

And we'll baptize you. So it's not a different message. It's people who have different conditions.

So these individuals, they see Jesus for who He really is and they're convinced He is the Lord and He's the Christ. So Peter encourages them to repent. And so there are three words.

You know these words, but these three words are associated with salvation. Repent, believe, and baptize. You'll find them throughout the Bible.

Repent, believe, and be baptized. And so verse 38 here at the end, it says, Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. This is one of the great blessings, and Peter brings this out.

One of the great blessings of salvation is you receive the remission of your sin. Wow. Especially if you just killed the Lord.

You need your sins remitted. I know we have not killed the Lord per se, but I know my sins, put Him on the cross, but my sins are as heinous as anybody else's. And so I need the remission of sins.

And that's one of the great blessings, and Peter mentions it here. If you'll repent and believe, you're going to receive the remission of your sins. That's a huge thing.

The word remit here means to release from penalty and guilt, to refrain from exacting. You know, God is not going to be exacting with you. He's going to set you free.

Colossians 2.13 says, Having forgiven us all trespasses. Hey, I like this. Hebrews 8.12 Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

So, the remission of sins. Now here's something important. The only way the Spirit of God can come and dwell in you, He's going to say the remission of sins and the Holy Spirit will come to you.

Look at it this way. You and I are dirty, and when we get saved, we're washed in the blood of Jesus. Now we're clean.

Now guess who can come and live in our house? The Lord can. By His Spirit. So once your sins are washed away, then God can come and dwell in you because He's the Holy Spirit.

And He continues to keep us cleansed. That's why it's important to 1 John 1.9 if you confess your sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The Lord wants to live in you and walk in you.

But again, He's the Holy Spirit. And so, you're going to receive, He says, the remission of your sins. Praise God for that.

And you're going to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit of God. Verse 39, for the promise is unto you. And that promise is referring to back in Joel's prophecy that God is going to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh.

This promise is unto you and to your children. You Jewish individuals, your children and to all that are afar off. Guess what? You and I are those, right? We're the Gentiles.

Those people are way out. At the ends of the earth, the promise is to them also. And then at the end of verse 39, it says, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

I'd like you to turn with me to Matthew 22 because I want to talk about who the Lord calls here. He's going to share with us as many Calvinists who would say, well, the Lord only calls certain people. And if you're not called, then hey, tough for you.

You're going to be lost. God foreordains you to be damned. He never calls you.

But notice here in Matthew 22, in verse number 1, And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king which made a marriage for his son and sent forth his servants to call them Notice this. to call them that were bidden to the wedding. In other words, to call the nation of Israel and they would not come.

Again, he sent forth other servants saying, Tell them that were bidden. Behold, I have prepared my dinner and my oxen and my fatlings are killed and all things are ready. Come unto the marriage.

So the Jewish nation was called to the marriage. All of them were called to the marriage. Verse 5, But they made light of it, went their ways, one to this farm, another to his merchandise.

And the remnant took his servants and entreated them spitefully and slew them. That's all the prophets and wise men that God sent to them. Verse 7, But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth, and he sent forth his armies and destroyed those murderers and burned up their city.

That happened in 70 A.D. The Roman army came through and destroyed the city of Jerusalem. Now notice, this is our call. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but those that were bidden were not worthy.

The Jews were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways and as many as you shall find, bid to the marriage. You got that? As many as you shall find.

Just go out all over the world and as many as you find, bid them to the marriage. Invite them to come. Call them.

And of course, that's our responsibility to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Not just the chosen, but to every creature. Verse 10, So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all as many as they could find, both bad and good.

And I'm one of the bad ones. They found me. The bad and the good.

And the wedding was furnished with guests. And I'm not going to read there the next couple of verses, but here comes a guy without a wedding garment. Of course, he's cast out.

And verse 14, Many are called. Many. Everybody's called, but few are chosen.

Only those who believe on the Lord Jesus and put on a wedding garment are the ones that are chosen. But many are called. And so God is calling all men to repentance and to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, let's keep reading here in Acts chapter 2. Go back to Acts 2 and verse 40. And with many other words did He testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. My, oh, my.

That's a good word for us. Save yourselves from this crooked world that we live in. Why should we follow the world? It is crooked.

Oh, it's so perverse, isn't it? Men don't even know whether they're men anymore. Women don't even know whether they're women. It's so confused.

I was at Lowe's this week. Went to the register. There's a young man there.

I mean, it's incredible. He's got a nose jewel in his mouth. It's not a jewel.

You know what it is? It's a... What's those little pins that you ladies put clothes together with? Bobby pins? Not a bobby pin, no. A what? Safety pin. He's got a safety pin in his nose.

A couple of earrings in here. And I put my merchandise down and... Hi, sir. I just... Oh, it gives me the creeps.

It's so feminine. I want to grab him and say, Son, you're a man. He's 20 years old.

He's just... Oh. It's confusion. It's perverse.

I shouldn't pick on the men, but some of the ladies are acting like men too, aren't they? You know, the ladies get by with that. They can act like men. They can dress like men.

They can be rough as men. And somehow we just don't think anything of it. Except when a guy comes around who's a little feminine.

Then we get a little uneasy. Well, that's not what the sermon's about this morning. But let's keep reading here.

Now, I want to get down to verse 42. We're going to spend the rest of our time here. But in verse 41 it says, Then they that gladly received His Word were baptized, and the same day they were added unto them about 3,000 souls.

So we had 120 in the upper room. Now we have 3,120. Wow, that's a pretty good increase in the church.

Wouldn't it be great if we had that here? Our 120. Next Sunday there's 3,120 all over the place. Listen in the windows.

We'll get the doors open. And so these 3,000 are added to the 120, and these are the firstfruits of the church. And I thought about this.

You know, we're in this COVID-19 thing right now, but many of these people are visiting. They're from all over the world. And this is a super spreader.

Here you've got, just like Wuhan. You know the lab in Wuhan where COVID came from and people got it and they started traveling all over the world. They take this virus and it's turned the world upside down.

This virus has gone everywhere because people took the virus and it caught in other people and it went everywhere. That's exactly what happened here in a good way. People were in Jerusalem, not Wuhan, and they got the virus, the gospel.

They got a conversion, and they went back to their home and it spread everywhere. And it was truly a super spreader. And you know, just like our world has been turned upside down with COVID-19, they turned their world upside down too by spreading that gospel.

And so they went out. And I believe that was God's purpose for doing it here, because many of them were visiting and they were going to take their message all back to their homes and start churches and God's kingdom would be expanding. But now we come to verse 42, and this is important here because this is the very essence of church life.

It's the very beginning. We have now 3,120, and the church is starting. And here's what the Holy Ghost is doing in these newborn babies in Christ.

And I think it's a great pattern for us. You talk about good church life and what God has intended. These four things right here are at the center.

I mean, if you went back to the early church, if we'd go back and visit, you'd find four basic pillars for this church. They continued in the Apostles' Doctrine. Boy, watch these people.

Look what they're doing. They're continuing in the Apostles' Doctrine. They are continuing in fellowship.

Look at how they gather together. They're continuing in the breaking of bread and in prayer. And that's what the Spirit of God is doing in the people of God, the newborn babes in Christ, bringing them together under these four elements.

So if I had a church house up here, if I drew one, I would just picture four pillars that the church is built on. And here's the four pillars that the Spirit of God wants to promote in His church. And so we'll start out with this first one.

I just mentioned these four here this morning. And let's see how we're doing as a congregation, how you're doing as an individual. I believe the Spirit of God is going to work the same way in you it did in them.

And so let's see how we're doing as a people. First of all, the Apostles' Doctrine says they continued steadfastly in four things. Number one, the Apostles' Doctrine.

And as I shared this morning in a children's lesson, this is not something the Apostles dreamed up. No, they received it from the Lord Jesus. Jesus said, what I've taught you, I want you to get and teach others.

So the Apostles' Doctrine is that which they received from the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One who taught them. It is that faith once delivered.

By the way, we don't need a new faith. We just need to preserve the faith once delivered for the same. We don't need to change the Bible.

It's been delivered to us. And so the Lord handed that faith to the Apostles. And we are supposed to contend for it, not tear it down.

Because the devil would love to tear it down and many people would love to tear it down also. Let me give you some interesting thoughts. I was just thinking about this this week.

How did these people do it? They didn't have a Bible like we were talking about here with the children. How did they do it? When did Bibles start coming? Well, I did a little research and just to throw this out, just a matter of information, from 48 A.D. to 64 A.D. are the first known manuscripts that are written. And those are the letters of Paul.

1 Thessalonians and its Galatians were the first two written letters that would have actually been manuscripts that you could have picked up and read that would have been called the first parts of the Bible. I want to read to you a passage here in Colossians When Paul finishes his letter here in Colossians, he says this in Colossians 4, verse 16, And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of Laodicea. In other words, I'm sending this letter to you.

You read it in the church. It's the Bible. You read it in the church and you take it to Laodicea and read it there.

See, no one had anything. They had the Old Testament. Now these manuscripts are being brought forth that we take for granted.

We have here in the Bible. And that's why the Bible says to give attendance to reading. Because people didn't have their own books to read.

And so reading was a part of the congregational service in the synagogue. Okay, we're going to read five chapters from the Bible, the Old Testament, today. And people would listen because they didn't have a Bible to go home to.

Well, in 60-65 A.D. is Mark's Gospel. Another manuscript is written. And then the others in the New Testament were written between 80 and 100 A.D. So by the time you get to 100 A.D., that's the end of John the Apostle's life.

You get pretty much all the New Testament has been written. And there's manuscripts floating around. You can actually pick them up and read them.

And then I read this. By 150 A.D., many major libraries would have had copies of the entire New Testament compiled. And so by 150 A.D., you could have gone to some of the major libraries, probably in Corinth and Galatia and Ephesus, and said, I'd like to see an entire New Testament.

And they'd say, we have one over here. You can look at it. All the manuscripts copied and they're together.

The oldest manuscript that we have that's still preserved goes back to 325 A.D. Actually, you can go to a museum and you can see it. And so the Apostle's Doctrine, that's the first thing that's mentioned here. In other words, these people steadfastly obeyed and heard and obeyed the Word of God.

That's their heart. They were continuing steadfastly in the Apostle's Doctrine. Obedience.

They loved the Word of God and they said, teach me it because I want to do it. And I believe every newborn babe in Christ ought to have that same heart. Teach me the Bible because I want to do it.

Right? Amen. And if you were part of the early church, you'd have had a bunch of people around you saying, what's the Word of God say? Let's do it. Obedience.

They learned the Apostle's Doctrine and they followed it. Now, I'm going to compare each of these four things to sheep. You know why? Because we're the sheep.

We're the sheep of God. And if you look at the nature of sheep, which I did a little studying on sheep this week, you'll find that sheep have these same things. Number one, sheep need a shepherd.

And they hear the voice of a shepherd and they follow him. And that's the very essence of what a sheep is. He hears the voice of the shepherd and follows the shepherd.

So we're sheep. First thing we do is hear the voice of our Lord and we follow him. My sheep hear my voice.

And they don't just come to church and hear a message. They hear my voice and they follow me. So the nature of a sheep is to hear the shepherd and to follow the shepherd.

So how many of you this morning truly in your heart, if the Spirit of God is there and you're truly born again, ought to have a sincere desire to hear the Word of God and to do it? Right? To continue steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. And if you're a part of the early church, if we go back 2,000 years ago and we just visit them, get a time machine, go back and visit, and we drop ourselves in the midst of that, you've got people there, what is the Lord saying? And we need to do it. It would be great to have that attitude, wouldn't it, in church? Just teach me so I can do.

You know, I get concerned. I think we all get concerned when people are taught and taught and taught and taught and don't do something not right. And the second pillar here he mentions, they continued steadfastly in fellowship.

In fellowship. Now, I heard it explained one time. This is kind of a coarse way of explaining it.

Fellowship is two fellows in the same ship. Two fellows in the same ship. They're going the same direction.

They can't get off the ship. They're locked in together, two fellows in the same ship. Now, when I was a young man, I played a lot of golf.

I loved to play golf. I loved golf. You've heard me tell stories.

I grew up just across the road from a golf course. We were members of the golf course. All I had to do was come home from school, get my golf bag, walk across the road, start playing golf, and pay a dime all my life.

It's free. My parents paid for it. But I loved to play golf.

Do you know who all my friends were? They were golfers. You know, we had my buddies. I look back on it.

All my buddies were people who loved to play golf. My fellowship was with young men who loved what I loved, who had an interest in what I had an interest in. And so we had a common interest, we had a common love, and we bound together.

We were buddies. Listen, look at who your friends are. Your friends aren't people who have interests elsewhere.

Your friends are those who have a common interest with you. And so these individuals, when they were converted, they had a common interest. They were seeking out fellowship with those who loved the Lord Jesus Christ.

And I hope you're here today because you love Jesus. Amen. And I hope you're here today because you have a kindred spirit.

You see, what happened when the Spirit of God came upon them, they all had a kindred spirit. The Holy Ghost was in this one, the Holy Ghost was in this one, and the Holy Ghost was in this one, and they came together and they had a kindred spirit. And therefore, because they were filled and moved by the Spirit of God, they loved to be together.

Fellowship. Now here's my testimony. When I was 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, and as early as I can remember, I hated Sunday.

I hated to get up and go to church. You know, you had to put on those nice clothes, just oh, so uncomfortable. I went in my blue jeans and my T-shirt.

My mom had me on this kind of shirt like this, high. Then you go and you sit and listen to some guy who's as boring as can be, and you just endured it for an hour and a half. You know, I went from that's the worst day of my life.

Sunday's the best day for me now. Sunday's my best day. I love Sunday.

And the reason why I love Sunday is because I love to be together with people who love Jesus Christ in sincerity and who have a kindred spirit with me. And I trust that's where you're at. Birds of a feather flock together.

Would you agree with me on that? That ought to tell you something. Who are you flocking with? You know, it tells you a lot about the spirit that is in you and what you really love. Who are your friends? Who do you hang with? Do you hang with people who love Jesus? Or do you hang with people who love the world? If you hang with people who love the world, there's every evidence that you've got a worldly spirit in you.

And you're trying to find out a kindred spirit. Well, here's some kindred spirits of mine. I'm going to hang with this group.

But you know, those in the early church, when they got converted and the Spirit of God came upon them, they wanted to be together. They wanted to fellowship. Hebrews 10.25, we need to remind you of this every once in a while.

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. You know, I've noticed this throughout the years that when the heart begins to drift away from the Lord, they soon start to drift away from the fellowship with the saint. You know that? Pretty soon.

Fellowship with God's people is not important. Well, getting back to sheep. Here was my study of sheep.

Sheep are by nature gregarious. Anybody know what that word means, gregarious? I had to look that one up. Gregarious.

That means they flock together. They have a herd mentality. They're social creatures.

They group together. They're not loners. And so God likens His people to sheep.

Sheep hear the voice of the shepherd, they follow Him, and they like to group together. Matter of fact, that's why they're so easy to be led, and His shepherd can lead them because they are gregarious. They group together.

Can you imagine a bunch of sheep out on the hillside who are all a bunch of loners? And all of them want to go their own kind of way. I'm going this way. You go that way.

How could the shepherd keep them? I read this. I did a little study on sheep. I read this that sheep want at least four or five other sheep within their proximity or they get very agitated.

They like to be amongst their own kind. And that's what fellowship is. You ought to like being here because you have people here that are sheep.

So it's easy for a shepherd to herd them. So let me ask you this. Are you following diligently the voice of the shepherd, doing his will? Secondly, do you love the fellowship? You know, if you're not wanting to come to Sunday church, fellowship with the saints, I just have a question where your heart is.

Where's your heart? That's something I've appreciated about us as a congregation here for the last 30 years. You know, when we used to go to the Baptist church, when the sermon was over and the final prayer, everybody bolted for the door. And the pastor had to get out quick there to get out in front of them to shake hands before they left.

Here, you don't have to do that. As a matter of fact, I can take an hour or two to get to the door and shake hands before they leave. And that's a good thing.

People like the fellowship of the saints. But I know this. When the heart begins to move away from the Lord, it's like, oh, do I go to church? Let's not go to church.

Something's not right with that heart. Well, we're down to the third pillar, and we'll move quickly here. The third one is breaking of bread.

Now, this is referring to both eating together and communion. And I want to remind you that the Lord's Supper was not just like we take it. You know, we have these little containers and we have these little pieces of bread.

But when the actual Lord's Supper was instituted, it was after the Passover meal. They sat down for a meal. They ate.

They broke bread together. And then the Bible says, after supper the Lord took the bread and the cup. And He said, now drink this in remembrance of Me.

He instituted the Lord's Supper. And even in 1 Corinthians, if you read that closely, you'll find the word supper in there because the supper and the Lord's Supper were combined. In other words, there was a meal, and then they took the Lord's Supper.

Remember, in 1 Corinthians, some of them were coming and they were eating before others, and they were getting drunk, and it was a big mess. It wasn't like we were taking these little cups, you know. Brother Irvin jumped down and stole Chris' cup and was eating it and his bread and eating it.

No, they were having an actual meal. And afterwards, the Lord then took the cup and the bread. So eating together.

And I think we ought to institute this more. Let's say you have people over. We can do this.

You have people over for a meal. You sit down at a table. You have a nice meal.

When everybody's finished, maybe the head of the home takes the Bible and says, now let's just remember the Lord's death and take some wine and bread and pass it around and let's partake of the Lord's Supper. We were having fellowship, what, six months ago, and I think Brother Mike's family and Brother David's were there, and maybe Irvin's. I forget who it was, but we decided we're going to have feet washing.

Wasn't that? We're going to have a feet washing right there in the house for the moment. And so they went from house to house, and maybe when they sat down to eat meals, they said, let's just remember the Lord's death, and they passed some wine and some unleavened bread, and they had communion along with their meal. 1 Corinthians 11.25 says this, after the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped, when he had supped, after they had eaten supper, saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood.

So the early believers were continually eating together and remembering the Lord's death. I believe that. Breaking bread from house to house.

And I want to encourage you to have people to your house and have fellowship, break bread together, and even remember the Lord's death after supper, after you eat. And so getting back now to sheep. Sheep need grazing.

This is the four things that sheep need. They need a shepherd to lead them and to hear his voice. They need to group together.

They need a fellowship. You give a sheep these four things, he's a happy sheep. And they need to feed.

They need to graze. It's in their nature. So breaking bread refers to eating physically and spiritually.

I believe that's why we have meals here, and God put that in our hearts. I believe it's good for us to have spiritual meals and that we get fed spiritually with preaching and teaching. But I also think it's good to get fed physically and have our physical needs met along with our spiritual needs met.

So for the last 30 years, we've been having meals along with spiritual meals. And then finally, prayer. And this is the last one.

They continued steadfastly in prayer. They had a communication with their shepherd. By the way, ever heard of the bleeding of the sheep? Sheep bleed.

And why do they bleed? Because they have some complaint or some need, and they're communicating that to the shepherd. They're the bleeding of the sheep. And that's a picture of our lifting up our voice as a congregation, praying together for our needs.

And it's not going to be long here before you're going to see the church, the sheep, gathering together and bleeding. Lord, our shepherd, our chief shepherd, we have needs. In Acts chapter 4, Lord, behold their threatenings and grant them to thy servants that with all boldness.

That's the sheep crying out to God. I have never been out on a hillside to hear sheep bleeding, crying out to the shepherd. We have needs.

We have needs down here in the pasture. Acts chapter 12, the sheep gather together to pray for Peter who's in jail. And we're going to see a number of prayer meetings.

So as you go through the book of Acts, you're going to see them abiding in the apostles' doctrine. We're going to see them fellowshipping together on a regular basis. It says actually daily.

We're going to see them breaking bread from house to house and commuting together around the Lord's death. And we're going to see them in prayer together. And those four are a testimony of the major function of a Spirit-filled New Testament church.

I think it was Brother David who mentioned this, but I've heard this from my Baptist background and I think it's a true statement. The popularity of the church is shown on Sunday morning with the crowd that comes. The popularity of the preacher is seen on Sunday night service.

But the popularity of the Lord is seen on Wednesday night where is the prayer meeting. That's where the Lord is popular. So these four, and we're going to see them as we go through the book of Acts, these are the pillars of church life.

And let me ask you how you're doing in closing. Are you abiding and desirous to follow the Apostles' doctrine? Do you love the Word of God? And are you seeking out ways in which you can please Him? Jesus said, I do always those things that please Him. Secondly, do you love the fellowship of the saints? Is that the flock that you flock with? Or do you love being out there with your buddies in the world whose interests are out there in the world? Who do you like to flock with? And then the breaking of bread.

Do we gather our nourishment as we come together and we share with each other the Word of God and share our food, share our sustenance? We're going to see these people selling everything they had and sharing with each other. And then they prayed together. They prayed together.

And this is the nature of a sheep. He follows his shepherd. He loves to be herded together.

He likes to graze. And he likes to also lift up his voice and call upon his shepherd for his needs. So that's vibrant church life.

That's early church life. That which the Spirit of God is going to lead us into. So you can evaluate your own personal life.

You can also evaluate us as a congregation. And I have no doubt that if every one of us is filled with the Spirit of God, that those four things are going to be prominent in our life. Prominent.

And if they're not prominent, then there's a concern that maybe your heart is moving in another direction. So let's consider those things. Thank you for coming and listening this morning.