Address—C.H. Brown
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Acts 114. These all continued with one accord and prayer and supplication.
With the women, Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
2nd chapter.
41St verse.
Then they that gladly received his word were baptized.
And the same day they were added unto them about 3000 souls.
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine, and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers.
It's my thought this afternoon to group.
The remarks that may be made.
More or less under these headings that we find in this.
42nd verse.
Continuance.
The Apostles doctrine.
The Apostles Fellowship.
The breaking of bread and prayers.
That verse.
Is one of the very important verses in our New Testament.
Because it gives us the pattern of the early church.
The church has it met under the guidance of the Spirit of God.
In the days before failure.
And come in.
And everything at this point.
Was still under the control of the Spirit of God.
And the Saints of God were functioning.
In.
Full fellowship with the mind of the Ascended Head.
The thing that marked them was continuing steadfastly.
We want to stop and speak briefly about that element.
Continuing steadfastly.
We're living in a day of extremes.
And some of us, perhaps, are in danger.
Of becoming like an alternating curve.
We're on and off again, On and off again.
But this is not according to the mind of God.
God desires that we continue in the faith rooted and grounded.
As did these early believers.
We read about various characters.
In the word of God, who started out well.
But later on in life, there was major failure came in.
And really, it's sorry reading.
To see the close of their lives, how much there was, that dishonored the Lord.
Take a man like Solomon.
What a wonderful man he was. How blessed of God.
Wisdom above all others.
His course at the start was most promising.
And yet further on in his life.
When you read how he turns aside the heathen worship.
It makes you almost wonder.
Why it was?
That God permitted such.
Terrific failure to come into the life of a man so gifted as the Solomon.
But I think we have the answer.
These men are recorded not, as we would like it, a retouched photograph.
But every detail is given that we may see just what a failure man is.
Unless he goes on with God and his life and any soul.
Well, you Solomon feels miserably and dear believer here this afternoon.
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You and I will do the same if we do not.
Go on independence and obedience.
We have no assurance.
Apart from dependence and obedience that we're going to finish our course with joy.
What a wonderful man Gideon was in the days of the judges.
I love to read about Gideon. In fact, I love to think about Gideon. Have done it many times.
But it's with reluctance that I read the clothes of Gideon's life.
That man that had been so marvelously used of God.
And yet.
He turns aside and becomes a leader.
And that that.
Hindered the children of Israel from going on with God.
He actually put that before them that led them into idolatry.
Or how sad it was ASA was one of the good kings.
A dear man he was, but in his old age he became diseased in his feet.
It's a sad thing that we've seen it that sometimes Saints go on fairly well.
In their younger years.
And as they mature in life.
Their spirituality declines when they get away from the Lord.
And in the old age it became diseased in his feet.
These things are sad, are they not?
Well, we could.
Trace others of the same character, Jehoshaphat.
Joseph, that was a dear man.
He ran well.
But the time came when he linked up where they have.
And Ohio, How humiliating the whole thing was.
God doesn't want us to be like the sky rockets that we boys used to play with when we were young.
Go up with a zoom.
Noise. Fireworks.
Just come down a dead stick.
And we've seen Saints of God, especially among those that are younger, become very enthusiastic.
Very active.
Very dynamic in their Christian testimony.
Then days of testing came along.
And they eased off.
It gradually accommodated themselves to what they found around them in the world.
And they ended up just plain worldly.
Well now dear Saints of God, and especially you here that are younger.
When God has recorded these things in His Word for us, they are given for our warning.
These things are given for our learning.
Shall we not take heed?
There is one day of your life as a Christian.
That you can afford.
To be careless in the matter of your going on with the Lord.
With a good conscience.
Don't ever allow.
A bad conscience to persist in your life.
All do seek by the grace of God, to keep a good conscience.
But the only way you can keep it is in the path of dependence and obedience.
They continued steadfastly.
Does that mark you and your local assembly?
Are you numbered among those that are steadfast?
Or do you come and go?
Do you blow hot and cold?
Where do you stand?
Or in these days, it pays to take inventory along these lines.
There's a verse.
In Galatians I want to read.
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Because it expresses something of what we have here.
It's the 5th chapter of Galatians and it's the.
Seven verse.
He did.
Run well.
Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth?
This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.
A little leaven leaveneth a whole lump.
That would be a rather sad epitaph.
To have.
He did run well. That's what Paul says to these Galatians.
He did run well.
We are now putting the verb in that tense. What does it mean?
It means, beloved, that they were not running well at that time.
Does that prove you you did run well?
Who did hinder you?
Why not go on and run well?
That you should not obey.
Be in the path of obedience.
This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. That didn't come from up there, did it? Oh no. That persuasion to turn aside to the road of compromise.
Came from the enemy of our souls.
It came from the tempter.
Something was whispered into our ear.
That told us that there was something to be gained by departing from the path of obedience.
It's sad when that happens.
But these that we read about here in this second chapter of the Acts, they continued.
Then fastly.
Now the first thing that's mentioned is.
They continued in the Apostles doctrine.
We're living in the day of.
Easy going Christianity when people are saying on every hand.
Well, it doesn't make so much difference what you believe.
Anything is all right.
We are all working for the same place. We are all headed for the same goal.
And it doesn't make so much difference what you believe.
I believe that.
That is the accepted pattern around us today.
Well, brethren, it makes the difference between heaven and hell.
As to what you believe?
Indeed it does.
We can only reach heaven through faith.
And faith is that that sets to a seal that God is true.
And every man a liar.
Faith thinks God's side.
Of every circumstance.
And.
If you and I are not willing to go on and the apostles doctrine.
There is something sadly wrong. Satan has gotten the victory somewhere along the line.
If we were to go out on a.
On the search throughout this territory.
We could find almost every conceivable doctrine of darkness and demons.
That professed Christianity presents today. We could find it in this locality, I think, out here in California.
You're perhaps more cursed than that than we are in our part of the country.
It seems to be a rendezvous for the.
The Agents of the Evil 1.
The Word of God calls them doctrines of demons.
So here we are told that these early disciples continued steadfastly in the apostles.
Doctrine.
Where does Doctrine rate in your thinking?
How do you react to that word? Does it irritate you?
Or is it a word that your value?
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You will find much about it.
In Scripture.
I have encountered but I would just venture a guess that you could find that word 50 times.
In your New Testament, it makes a tremendous difference.
What your doctrine is?
Is it the doctrine of God?
The doctrine of Christ, Or is it the doctrine of demons?
We might turn for a few moments.
The first epistle of Timothy because.
Timothy speaks repeatedly of this question of doctrine.
1St chapter and the third verse. One Timothy.
1/3 I besought thee to abide.
Still an emphasis when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some.
That they teach no other doctrine.
Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying, which is in faith. So do.
Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience, and of faith untamed.
From which some, having turned aside, swerved aside, have turned to vain.
Jangling, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say.
Nor whereof they affirm. Notice the emphasis.
Charge some that they teach no other doctrine.
That shows the importance, beloved.
Of knowing what our Bibles have to say.
We are living in the day of gospel testimony and the emphasis is on the gospel.
Would to God that we were more energetic than we are, I wouldn't discount the gospel for a moment.
But let us not forget.
That the gospel is but introductory to a position in which we're capacitated to learn the will of God.
The apostle, as he went around among the various assemblies, was constantly taking to them.
The establishing truths that would build them up in their most holy faith.
And when he found a company of believers that were still in the infant stage.
He reproached them that at such a late date in their Christian life.
They were in need of milk, had to be fed on the bottle.
Rather than being able to take in the strong meat, the mature food that the Spirit of God would gladly have given them.
Oh, it's to our reproach, beloved, that we know so little about our Bibles.
You know the only way.
We'll ever learn about this book.
Is to diligently apply ourselves.
Read it, Independence. Read it continuously.
Read it every day. Read it with the thought in mind. I want to know the will of my blessed Savior. I want to know what He wants me to do. And so we search the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation to find out what the mind of God is for us.
So that's what the words given for.
It's our food. Man shall not live by bread only.
No doubt we all had our breakfast today.
We all had our dinner. And what about our Bibles?
Are we just as meticulous about seeing that we read the word every day and meditate in it?
Do we get our portion from God as we read His words?
And kneel in prayer in our various homes and seek His blessing upon us as we take up the day.
All if we don't, we're going to run into poverty of souls.
Well then, in the next chapter of Timothy, the 2nd chapter.
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And the fourth verse, First Timothy 24.
God, who will have all men to be saved.
And to come under the knowledge of the truth.
Now it's God's will of desire.
That all men should be saved.
If a man comes to you who don't care who he is.
Don't care how vile he is.
How low down he is.
If he comes to you and says, Do you think that God would save a poor Wretch like me?
What are you going to tell him?
Why just read this verse to him?
God will have all men to be saved.
Oh yes, the gates are wide open.
Wide open.
That's God's will of desire.
If you're saved here today.
If you're saved, it's because God desired that you shouldn't be.
And so you thank him for it. You thank him for the open door.
But the will of God, the desire of God, didn't stop with your salvation.
Who will have all men to be saved and.
Don't leave out the end.
And come on to the knowledge of the truth.
Oh yes, there is more to it than salvation.
Salvation is a glorious, marvelous thing.
But God has something more for you than salvation.
He wants you to come to the knowledge of the truth.
That's a big word.
The knowledge of the truth.
What is the truth?
Well, it's all that has to do with the person.
And the work and the glory of God's beloved Son.
Christianity Is Christ the only reason we have this book?
Is that God is trying to bring Christ before our souls.
And you and I are to search this book from Genesis to Revelation.
That we may find Christ there. God wants us to become rooted and grounded in the truth is to Christ.
Will have all men to be saved and to come into the knowledge of the truth.
But when we go to the 4th chapter, I Timothy 4.
We find ourselves introduced to a sad condition of things.
The Spirit seeketh expressly than in the latter times first verse.
One Timothy 41.
The spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils or demons.
Speaking lies and hypocrisy. Having their consciences seared with a hot iron.
Don't forget.
That we are surrounded today with that very thing.
Those that have departed from the faith.
They have given an ear to doctrines of demons.
To have them coming to your door.
You have them soliciting your interest, they'd like to come in and open their Bibles and talk to you.
For what purpose?
To lead you into midnight darkness.
To lead your souls away from God and away from his Christ.
All some of these things are tragic, you know.
I don't remember whether I told it here or not. If I did, you'll pardon me for repeating it.
But recently we had a dear sweet appearing 12 year old girl that appeared at our house.
And she wanted to talk to us about the Bible.
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I suspicioned as soon as she began to talk that she was a Jehovah Witness.
So I.
Ask her a question, a leading question about the Lord Jesus Christ.
I said my Bible says in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
I said the Christ that I worship was God.
And that dear little girl, without any hesitation.
And with they decided attitude, she said no, he was not God.
He was a God.
I talked some further with the poor child and she said, well I can't answer those questions, but Mama can.
Or think of the tragedy of it.
What an awful thing that mother is guilty of.
Indoctrinating that young soul.
With that enmity to God's Son, until she is going about from door to door, peddling her blasphemy against God's eternal Son.
Oh yes, we're living in these last days and I warn everyone here.
Oh, watch your step. Don't be taken in by these doctrines. They're becoming more and more aggressive.
And not only are they becoming aggressive, but their successful.
All over the world their numbers are increasing. Some of them are building vast temples, beautiful multi $1,000,000 buildings.
Oh yes, Satan's on the March. Beware young folks, all keep close to your blessed Lord.
Value of the Word of God. Let it speak to your heart and conscience and never try.
In any way whatsoever to turn aside the edge of God's Word.
Now the last verse of the 4th chapter. One Timothy, take heed unto thyself.
And unto the doctrine.
Continue in them.
For in doing this, I shall both save thyself and them, and hear thee.
Now, that's not a question of saving yourself in the sense of getting to heaven.
It's a question of preserving yourself from getting into some of the shipwrecks that are going on all around us today.
It's going to preserve you from a breakdown in your Christian life and testimony.
How are you going to do it?
Take heed unto thyself.
And to the doctrine. Don't divorce your conduct from the doctrine.
They go together.
What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.
God joins conduct and doctrine together, and if you and I are going to walk rightly.
We will have to think rightly according to the thoughts of God as we find them in His words.
For in doing this, thou shall both save thyself.
And them that hear thee, do you want others to be LED or right?
Do you want them to be in the path of God's will? All right.
See to it that your own feet are in that path.
Make straight paths for your feet.
Less than which is lame be turned out of the way.
Are you misleading anybody?
If they're following you.
Are you saying to them, come with me?
And you're leading them into sin.
In the darkness.
Or it's a solemn thing.
There's going to be a catastrophe, a calamity at the end of that kind of a pathway.
It's going to end in ruin.
Take heed to thyself and to the doctrine.
Continue in them.
For doing this thus shall both save thyself, and them that hear thee.
The 6th chapter in the third verse if any man teach otherwise and sent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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And to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud knowing.
Nothing but doting about questions and stripes of words.
Whereof cometh in the strife, railings, and evils surmising?
Perverse disputing of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth.
Supposing that gain is godliness from such, withdraw thyself.
If you find that you're associating with those who will not submit to the word of God.
They want to twist it, they want to water it down. They say, well, I don't believe that we are supposed to take that.
I don't, I don't agree with that. And so they take an eclectic attitude towards the word of God. They pick out what they like and they reject what they don't like. What are you going to do?
In regard to such people from such withdrawal thyself, that's what Scripture says, and we're never wiser than Scripture.
All beloved doctrine counts.
God puts a high value on it and you and I need to be indoctrinated.
In the Word of God, in the leading of the Spirit of God. Now going back to our verse in Acts 2.
They continued in the Apostles Fellowship.
We, all of us, enjoy fellowship, don't we?
One of the nicest verses.
That I know of in Acts isn't this.
4th chapter.
Acts 4, verse 23.
And being let go, they went to their own company.
Being let go, they went to their own company.
Who do you think those folks were?
Their own company.
They were those that knew and loved the Lord Jesus Christ.
When you're let go, when you're free, you have a little time off, so to speak.
Where do you seek your company?
Oh, what an important question that is.
These dear disciples in this early day.
The moment they found themselves at liberty.
They sought out their own company.
Oh, how wonderful it is.
In this defiled, wicked world that God has those that he looks on with delight.
They have been washed in the precious blood of Christ. They have been sealed with the Holy Spirit.
God has claimed them for his own. They are members of the body of Christ.
They are awaiting the Lord's return here. They are a redeemed people in the midst of this world.
Brethren, those are the ones with whom you and I.
Are to find our association and our delight.
Now I'm not speaking.
About going forth with the gospel to the ungodly.
That's another thing entirely, but I'm speaking about this question of fellowship.
Of association being let go, they went to their own company.
Where are you by choice seeking your association?
Turn to 1St Corinthians, the 1St chapter.
And the ninth verse.
One Corinthians 1.
Nine, God is faithful by whom you are called unto the fellowship.
Of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
How marvelous.
That's the fellowship to which recall the fellowship.
Of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
What is fellowship?
By its close association. And you and I are called out of this world.
To be associated with the rejected Son of God.
He was here in the world, man gave him the cross, man threw him back in the face of God and said we don't want him.
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God took him back to heaven, and he sent down the Holy Spirit to gather out a people for his name.
And those that have been saved are formed together into one happy fellowship.
The body of Christ.
And so here God has called us under the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Can we associate by any possibility?
Any thought of carelessness?
Or unholiness.
Or profanity.
With a name so holy.
And so blessed as that of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the fellowship to which we're called beloved.
Get the similar thought in Ephesians, the third chapter.
Ephesians 3, verse 9.
And to make all men see.
What is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God?
Who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now, and to the principalities and powers and heavenly places, might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The fellowship of the mystery that from the beginning of the world ascending.
Here in God, Oh dear Saints of God, here today.
You and I are initiate. We have been taken into God's confidence.
He's let us know now what was in His heart from all past eternity.
That Christ was to have a church. That Christ was to come into the world.
And diet, calories, crops that Christ was to be raised from the dead.
Did he just go back into heaven that he was to send down the Spirit of God?
And gather out of the world up people for himself.
That mystery was hid in God from eternity.
The mystery of Christ and the Church.
That the fellowship to which we're called.
And that is what is brought before us in these wonderful verses here in the third of Ephesians.
Now first John and the first chapter.
One John, the 1St chapter.
And the third verse, that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you.
That you also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father.
And with his son Jesus Christ.
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Now there is a fellowship that God himself is ordained.
It's a fellowship of God the Father, and it's a fellowship with his Son.
How do I have fellowship with God the Father?
By thinking.
God's thoughts about his Son. That's the way I have fellowship with God the Father.
How do I have fellowship with his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ?
By thinking the thoughts of the Son about the Father.
That brings us into fellowship with the Father and with the Son.
Well, that's the fellowship which would then call that's the Apostles fellowship.
And we dare own no other when our if we turn to the 6th chapter.
Of Second Corinthians we see something just the opposite.
Two Corinthians 6, verse 14.
2nd Corinthians 6, verse 14.
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Being not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness?
And what Concorde hath Christ with delial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an envelope?
God does not want.
That you and I should be yoked up together in any way whatsoever.
Was unbelievable.
I was talking to a man just recently.
He told me he'd been out getting some new members for his church. I said, were they saved? No, they said, we don't bother about that. We get them in and we get them saved afterwards.
Well, is that in accordance with this verse?
This fourteenth verse be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
You have no right if you're a Christian.
To be in any sort of fellowship.
Religious or otherwise.
With those that make no confession of Christ.
God tells you not to.
He says in the 17th verse of that 6th chapter come out from among them.
And the separate, saith the Lord. And touch, not the unclean thing, and I will receive you.
Had a man doing some work for him in one day in Des Moines.
I asked him if he was a Christian. No, he says, I'm not.
He says I'm not interested in religion at all.
Well, I said, man, you have a soul, don't you? Yes, he said. I'm supposed to do. But.
Religion, those things just don't interest me.
Well, I said, don't you? Don't you realize that there's a God and you've got to meet him? And this is a solemn, important matter.
Well, he said. I'm religious, if you mean if that's what you mean, I belong to church.
Well, I said, perhaps you'd tell me what church you belong to.
And I was. I was utterly shocked.
When he named one of the most.
Fundamental of the denominations in the town where I live.
And the local the local congregation where he was a member.
Has the reputation of being outstandingly fundamental.
And yet the man violently protested against me, thinking.
That he personally was a Christian.
Oh, what a day of mixture.
How solemn it is, how sad it is.
Brethren, the Word of God tells us that we are not to be yoked up with anyone who doesn't profess to be a child of God.
You know that's not only.
In our fellowship in the Assembly.
What it has to do with our fellowship and other matters too.
If you're going to go into business.
With somebody in a partnership, be sure that the one.
With whom you link up as a Christian, don't ever link up with an unsaved man.
In a business partnership.
And if you're a young person contemplating marriage?
I warn you with all solemnity. I warn you solemnly.
Don't ever marry an unsaved person if you are a Christian.
Don't do it.
You're just asking for sorrow and trouble.
I'll tell you a safe rule.
If you're a Christian, don't ever go with an unsaved person the first time.
You're just disobedient to the Word of God, and you may have to reap the rest of your life.
Don't do it.
Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
What Communion hath light with darkness?
What concord hath Christ with Belial?
What part of he that believeth was an infinite? Now back to Ephesians the 5th chapter again.
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Ephesians 5.
Eight verse.
Or you were sometimes darkness.
But now are you light in the Lord?
Walk as children of light.
11Th verse and have no fellowship.
With the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
For it's a shame even to speak of those things that are done of them.
In secret, but all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light.
For whatsoever doth make manifest His light.
16th verse Redeeming the time because the days are evil.
On that 11Th verse I have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
How is that in your life?
Are you allowing yourself to have one little bit of fellowship for the unfruitful works of darkness?
Or when it is presented to you, do you reprove?
Rebuke. Avoid. Shun. Turn away.
Oh beloved, we can take no chances. We can't play with fire and not be burned.
Let's hear the warning of God's Word today.
No fellowship.
Were they unfruitful works of darkness?
Now back to our second of acts again.
They weren't about the breaking of bread.
Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The night in which he was betrayed instituted the Lord's Supper.
And he said, do this in remembrance of me.
And we find that the early believers in our chapter here.
Did that they broke bread from house to house.
It formed an important and important part of their assembly life.
Later on, the Apostle Paul was converted.
And the Spirit of God knowing.
How prone we are to get.
Strange ideas and get out of line saw to it.
That the apostle Paul received a Commission direct from an ascended Christ.
Telling him that Christians that profess the heavenly truth.
That knew the mystery that were initiated into all the truth of this wonderful mystery of Christ and the Church.
In all its fullness as it came out through Paul.
That they were to go on with the breaking of bread.
In remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now there are some today that tell you that that is belonged to the Jewish church.
And it's no longer applicable to us. Well, the Spirit of God took care of that in the 11Th chapter, First Corinthians.
By giving that truth to Paul and he passed it on to us.
And if you're a Christian, if you're converted, if you belong to Christ.
He expects you to remember him in the breaking of bread.
He expects you to be at the Lord's table.
In other words.
I can't find two classes of believers in the Bible.
Some that were breaking bread and some that weren't, unless it be one under discipline.
Put away from some bad action.
If you know the Lord Jesus Christ.
And assure of your salvation.
And your life?
Is consistent.
That is, if you are living a Christian life.
Your place is at the Lord's Table.
You can't excuse yourself. You can't say well.
I want to have a good time first. If I take my place at the table, the brethren will say something to me about my way.
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Well, that's a shocking attitude to take.
I trust no one here is guilty of an attitude like that.
But in the 20th chapter of the Acts, in the seventh verse, we find that on the first day of the week.
The disciples came together to break bread.
They did not come together to hear Paul preach. They came together to break bread.
Do you come together on the first day of the week to break bread?
Or do you come together to hear a sermon in the Bible? They came together on the first day of the week to break bread.
That was an institution in the early church.
As far as I know, it's never been discontinued.
How wonderful it is.
The Lord knows our hearts.
He knows how forgetful we are and how careless we are, and brethren, there is nothing that touches our hearts.
Like that hour we spend in his presence once a week.
And we think about his sufferings, his love, his infinite compassion.
We think upon His glory. Our hearts are moved.
And we go out from his presence refreshed. We go out to testify in this world of sin and sadness all around us.
Oh, how important is the breaking of bread in God's schedule for the Christian?
Are we indifferent or careless about it? May God exercise us this afternoon.
What he is going to say on that coming day when you face the Lord Jesus.
And he asked you if you ever remembered him in his death.
Oh, how sad to think of facing the Lord Jesus Christ and never once in your life did you do what He asked you to do.
You want to go on that way.
Can you go to sleep tonight with a good conscience, knowing if never once answered to his request, oh, May God stir us up on these things.
Then we read here that they continued in prayers.
A prayerless life is a powerless life.
Satan trembles when he sees the feeble St. upon his knees.
I suppose the major reason why you and I do not spend more time on our knees is because we have a subtle enemy.
That makes it his business to see to it that we don't bow them here in prayer.
I don't know of anything more easy to neglect.
Than prayer do you. There is always something else to do, maybe something for the Lord.
Maybe it's a meeting and appointment, a letter to Ryan, a call to make, but it's anything and everything and everything but prayer, getting on our knees before God and pouring out our wants and our needs to Him.
Oh yes, prayer formed a great part of the story of the early church.
In this.
Just turn the page.
To the 4th chapter in the 31St verse.
And when they had prayed.
The place was shaken where they were assembled, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.
And they speak the word of God with boldness.
And multitudes of them believed were of one heart and one soul.
Wouldn't you have loved to be there?
What a lovely place to be.
But as one they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled.
I doubt if there ever has been a great work of the Spirit of God.
On this earth, in the history of the Church.
That wasn't preceded.
By some man or some men, some woman or some women.
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Praying to God, crying to him in secret, coming together for united prayers. Somebody.
Was on their knees.
And in answer to that prayer.
God sent revival. That's his way.
Don't neglect the prayer meeting.
Don't leave your seat empty at the primary.
Oh, it forms in the Central Park.
Of our Christian life and testimony, well beloved.
Shall we continue? Shall we go on in the doctrine? Shall we seek a sound fellowship? Shall we find our place at the Lord's Table? Shall we be found at the prayer meeting? Oh God bless this thing. The first hymn of the book.