Address—C.D. Andersen
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I was thinking about.
Something in Acts chapter 27.
Connection with that shipwreck.
That the Apostle Paul was in.
We're not going to go into the details of that shipwreck.
But there's something there in that account.
That gives us a key, I believe, to what's necessary in these days.
I don't know why such a detailed account is given of this journey of the Apostle Paul and this shipwreck.
But it would seem to me that because of this, the Lord might have more in mind than just recounting this story.
And recounting, perhaps the face of the apostle Paul.
But I believe when we look at the Apostle Paul, we look at 1:00.
That might be an example of the truth.
Or he might be the embodiment of the truth, or whatever expression you might want to use.
Because when you think of the apostle Paul, you think of the truth that was revealed to him by the Lord.
The truth for this present dispensation. The gospel of the grace of God.
And the truth of the Church.
And when you think of him, that's what you think of and you're thinking correctly.
But in this account we find that that ship is in a very dangerous condition position out there in the sea, and in danger of being dashed to bits. We might think of that ship as the testimony of the present time.
And surely the church has gone through a similar experience of being dashed to bits. Now, as far as the body of Christ is concerned, it's as whole and entire and one as it ever was. That cannot be torn apart. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. But it's a testimony, the awkward testimony we're thinking of. And perhaps this ship might be looked at as.
A type or an example of the outward testimony of the Church?
And I notice in verse.
29.
Of Acts 27, it says then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks.
They cast 4 anchors out of the stern and waited for the day.
That's a very significant statement that seems to me.
This ship.
Is about to be dashed to pieces and they cast out the anchors.
I believe the apostle Paul was seeking to encourage Timothy.
In his day because of what he saw.
In Second Timothy he writes.
In the second letter to Timothy, he writes All day in Asia, be turned away from me.
I don't know if there was an outward breakup, but there was something going on in the hearts of the Saints in all of Asia.
And they were turning away from the apostle Paul.
Well, what could that mean but turning away from the truth that the Apostle Paul had given them?
The truth of Christ, the center. The truth of the one body, Christ, the head of the church.
The truth that we're members one of another members of his body.
Members of Christ united to him the head and the glory, all of this. Could it be that they were giving up? Well, we know the apostle was in prison and he was suffering great persecution for the truth, and it seemed that they were becoming ashamed, because he has to write to Timothy exhorting him not to be ashamed of the testimony.
Are we ashamed of the testimony we see breakups?
We've seen a breakup. Christendom is divided into many, many denominations, sex and systems.
That doesn't mean that the body of Christ has been torn apart because.
We are all still members one of another. All true believers are members of the body of Christ that can never be touched. But the outward testimony is what we see, and we can become discouraged when we see the great breakup.
00:05:11
And we find that it's a place of reproach to be gathered simply to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Hebrews 13 we read. Let us go forth unto him, therefore, without the camp bearing His reproach, to be gathered simply to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who to go out and be associated with Him is a matter of reproach. It was always a matter of reproach, and very much so in the early days.
And the dear Saints of God in those days had to have real, vital faith.
In the Lord Jesus Christ, and be attached to him in their souls in a real way, in order to cleave to him with purpose of heart, to go on with Him, to go on in what the apostle Paul had given us.
So here we find that the ship is in danger.
And there are the four anchors cast out of the stern.
And they're waiting for the day. Well, that could remind us of the day star that Peter speaks of. When the day star shall arise in your hearts, the day stars the Lord Jesus Christ. We're waiting for him to come.
And we need anchors to hold us fast to the Lord Jesus Christ.
To hold us fast for his sake, for his glory, that we might be some little testimony until the Lord comes.
I enjoyed what was said in connection with Josiah.
And I think we need to take it to heart.
We do need to keep our eye on the Lord.
We need to be occupied with him, going on with him and not get distracted or turned aside.
Which evidently he did at the end.
We might look at 4 anchors and we can still look in this same book of Acts chapter 2.
There are other things that might be considered as anchors. Reference was made to scripture in Jude and we find 4 things there that are very profitable for us to consider, but we'll consider first.
These things in Acts chapter 2.
And verse 42.
This is a familiar scripture, perhaps to everyone here.
And it's good for us to be acquainted with this scripture.
Acquainted with how things were going in the beginning because.
This was in connection with the church that was formed on the day of Pentecost and to which there were souls added.
And it says in verse 41.
The same day they were added unto them about 3000 souls. I take it that they were added to the 120?
That were there on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came down. The Holy Spirit came down and baptized those 120 believers into one body. And when these others believed, they were sealed by the Spirit of God and were added to that same body. And ever since then, souls that have been saved have been sealed by the Spirit of God and they have been added to that same body.
There is one body. There has never been two bodies or three bodies. There is still one body.
The body that began on the day of Pentecost. The body that's going to be taken to glory.
When the Lord comes to take us home, there is one body, and if you're saved this afternoon, you belong to that body.
And since you've been joined to that body, there's no need of joining anything else.
All adjoining that we see in Christendom.
Is something that supposed.
To be adding to the church. But there's no need of it. It's a superfluous thing because if we're joined to Christ, if we're joined to the that one body, we're members of that one body. Why do we need to be a member of anything else?
So if we're clear on the truth that we're members of the body of Christ, it will keep us from becoming members of anything else. So here we have this company, and what are they doing?
It says they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of prayer, bread and prayers. 4 anchors.
00:10:09
You notice the first two are linked together.
They continued steadfastly in the apostles, doctrine and fellowship.
It was the apostles doctrine and it was the Apostles fellowship, which means that the fellowship was according to the Apostles doctrine.
And if you want to find out the character of the fellowship today?
Read Paul's doctrine, the truth of the apostles, the doctrine of the apostles, and you find out what the character of the fellowship is. And when you read that, you find out that there are a lot of things that have been added in Christendom that have no place there. Well, it was when the Lord began to deal with me and show me.
The truth of the Church, the apostles doctrine that I began to see that the fellowship, what I was in, had things in it that were not according to the apostles doctrine.
And so there was exercise about really going on in the Apostles Fellowship.
Well, there may be someone here this afternoon.
That is exercised about these things.
And like I was telling a brother just this noon.
John 717 If any man will do the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine.
If you really want to know the truth, declare to the Lord Himself that you want to do His will, and He will show you the truth.
I believe that the Lord is faithful. He will not leave us in the dark. He doesn't want to leave us in the dark. And He wants us to know the truth. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Oh, there is delivering power in the truth of God, because when you see the truth of God, it shows up all that's not of the truth and you don't want anything to do with it anymore. So the important thing is to get the positive, the truth before you, and that will take care of those things that are not according to the truth. It'll show up itself, but it's not there.
They continued steadfastly in the apostles, doctrine and fellowship.
Our brother spoke of those leaving the meeting or leaving the fellowship, getting away from the Lord, getting away from the Lord's table, getting away from their brethren.
Getting out of fellowship, well, that's a sad thing. We don't want to see anyone leave the meeting as is said, or get out of fellowship and just deliberately leave the Lord's Table.
But this is what happens so often. We get into a bad state of soul, and no one here, not one of us.
Has any guarantee that we will be at the Lord's table when the Lord comes if we're not going on with the Lord?
We need to be exercised about that going on with the Lord, going on in personal fellowship with Him, not allowing anything to come in between US and the Lord, to bring a cloud between US and the Lord. We need to judge it. If it does, we need to get before the Lord if it does and judge that thing, confess it to Him, get rid of it, get the cloud removed and go on with the Lord. We don't have to go on.
In that kind of a condition.
Where there's a cloud between US and the Lord.
Maybe there are some here this afternoon that have a cloud between them and the Lord. Well, it's not the Lord's fault, is it? It's our fault if there's a cloud there, because he says I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. So if there's any forsaking, it's on our part. And perhaps the forsaken comes in a sort of a gradual way, day by day, little by little.
And down the road aways, we find ourselves far away from the Lord in our own souls.
If we're the Lords were still the Lord's, but as far as fellowship with him is concerned.
We're far away from him. We're really not enjoying things with the Lord. We're not enjoying the things of the Lord. And we get to the point where we don't care about being together with our brethren, don't care about being at the meetings, being at the reading meeting, or being at the prayer meeting. We just give up. We get so far away. Oh, may the Lord give us grace to continue steadfastly in fellowship.
00:15:15
The Apostles Fellowship.
So the Apostles doctrine gives us the truth of the fellowship, the characteristics of the fellowship.
And the fellowship itself is, of course, the fellowship of the Father and the Son, fellowship of the members of the body of Christ. Actually, when you're thinking about a body like the human body, you can think of all the parts of the body, all the members of the body. They are having a certain relationship together. You might say they're having a fellowship together.
And they have one thing in mind, all the members of the body.
What do they have in mind? The welfare of the body.
Even when you go to the wash patient.
You need two hands to really.
Wash your hands. They're helping one another. What's that for? To keep the hands clean. And it's for the welfare of the whole body.
And you can think of that way out to the NTH degree.
Fellowship, fellowship together, going on together, and you might think of the members of the body enjoying one another.
This hand enjoys what this one does. This one enjoys what that one does. The mouth enjoys having the hands put food in, put food in it, so on.
There's a working together going on together.
And the body, the human body, is used in Scripture by the Apostle Paul as a picture of the church.
The body of Christ. And you can think about that yourself. Any person, young people, children who know the Lord can think about that too.
And think of the body as a picture of the body of Christ. Christ is the head. We have a head, and then there are the members down here on earth. And this body has members beside the head. But the body is united to the head, so that every member of the body here is united to the Lord Jesus Christ up there. And if you want to know what to do.
You just ask the Lord Jesus who is the head.
You just look to him for guidance because the direction for the whole body comes from the head, doesn't it?
And if you want direction for your life and direction for yourself as a member of the body of Christ, look to the Lord Jesus the Head.
Well, it's as simple as that. And yet sometimes I think we make it very complicated, but we also remember that the flesh in US doesn't like something like that total devotedness to the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's another one, Satan that doesn't like it all. How he fights the truth of the church and he fights the body of Christ. He fights the church. And if you want to go on according to the truth of the church as we find it in Scripture, you'll find out that the.
Fight you and He will try to get you into a low state of soul. Get occupied with this or that, get occupied with the failures of your brethren, get occupied with your own failures and get you down in the dumps just to spoil you.
In your function as a member of the body of Christ.
Or how we need to just get before the Lord, tell Him all about it, judge yourself one with him, that we might fit into the body of Christ as the Lord would have us, and function there as He wants us to function and go on in that sweet fellowship together until the Lord comes to take us home. So here we have two anchors, the apostles teaching.
And the Apostles fellowship and we need to go on in those two things.
The doctrine and the fellowship. Now we come to the break of bread. That's another anchor we might look at.
We remembered the Lord this morning.
Together for the Breaking of bread, we read in Acts 20, The disciples came together to break bread.
What did that mean? They came back. They came together to remember the Lord.
As the Lord had asked, he has asked us to remember Him. It's very plain that He asked his disciples to do that. And it's plain too, that he asked the apostle Paul to do that. And the apostle Paul got the revelation from the Lord himself.
What they ought to do, what the Lord desired.
00:20:01
And the Apostle Paul went on with it and he taught it everywhere. And those that he taught went on in the breaking of bread. That's why when he came to throw *** he found that disciples came together to break bread. For it must have been a joy to him to see that, that they came together to break bread. Well, we've been going to Ghana.
For some time since the table of the Lord was spread there.
And every time I've gone back there, it's been a joy to me to see, well, the disciples are still coming together to break bread.
Or what an encouragement it is to see that, that they still come together to break bread. And over Nigeria, now they're coming together to break bread. And then we hear those in India, they're coming together to break bread. And those who go over there and see that after they first been there, what an encourage it must be to them to see, yes, they're still going on. They're coming together to break bread.
Is that so important to break bread? Well, evidently it is because this was part of what they continued steadfastly in.
In the beginning, in the breaking of bread.
It wasn't an off and on thing.
One time a month or anything like that, but it was the first day of the week, which indicates that they did it weekly.
The first day of the week.
Not the first Lord's Day in the month. That's what we used to do where I was before. Some places to do it once every half year, maybe every once in a year. But oh, that can't be enough. As OFT as you do this, you do show his death till he comes. We try to do it as often as we can, and we find it really convenient to do it every first day of the week, which is Lord's Day.
The Lord's Day, especially the Lord's Day, and you can connect it with the Lord's Supper and the Lord's Table, the Lords Day, the Lords Supper, the Lords Table, it's all the Lords and you link it all together and so you want to remember the Lord.
At the on his day at the Lord's table by eating the Lord's Supper. Then there's a fourth one here. They continued steadfastly in prayer.
Sometimes.
I see people missing from the prayer meeting, it's so encouraging to find.
Most of the assembly at the prayer meeting. I know there are circumstances which might prevent some from coming, but yet most of the time we find more to breaking bread than we do at the fair meeting. Well, I believe the prayer meeting is just as important as the breaking of bread. The Lord is in the midst at the breaking of bread and the Lord is in the midst at the prayer meeting.
If you want to meet the Lord, you can meet him on Lords Day morning and you can meet him at the prayer meeting. And you might add that you can meet him at the Reading meeting because that is where we take up the Apostles doctrine.
And in all the meetings we express fellowship together.
All of these things are important.
Are we giving up to prayer meeting? I hope not.
Someone has spoken of the prayer meeting as the powerhouse of the assembly.
Well, it's not because we're powerful, but we are there and we get in touch with the one who said all powers given unto me in heaven and in earth, and we need to be in touch with him. We need to keep up the line of communication. We need to keep up that line of communication with Him so the power can come down because we're very weak.
And when we're in His presence, we own our weakness.
That's part of it, humbling ourselves before the Lord, owning our weakness, our nothingness, and being cast entirely upon Him. The prayer meeting is the place where you express dependence upon the Lord.
And if there's not good attendance at the prayer meeting, it must mean that there are some who are not feeling their dependence upon the Lord for themselves individually and for the assembly. This is where we pray for those who are sick and afflicted. This is where we pray for those who need prayer, who are getting away from the Lord, who are sick in their souls.
This is the place we would pray for those who are in foreign lands.
Giving their time and energies to the work of the Lord. This is the place where we pray for one another. This is the place we pray for all those who are serving the Lord full time and those who are serving the Lord part time.
00:25:11
In fact, all who know really what it means to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ are serving the Lord.
We can't leave it to just one person or two people.
All of us must feel the responsibility, and if we feel responsibility, we feel that we must go to the Lord to get what is needed to fulfill the responsibility and we feel our dependence upon the Lord and this is what we express in the prayer meeting. All brethren, let's cleave to the Lord Himself with purpose of heart and not forget these 4 anchors.