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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/murray-mccandless/standing-up/
Book of the Acts, please, Acts chapter 2. Acts 2 and verse number 1, and when the day of Pentecost was fully come. In other words, all those feasts of Pentecost had ended, and now the day that they projected forth had come.
When it was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Now, verse 14,. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said unto them, Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell in Jerusalem, Be this known unto you, and hearken unto my words, and so on.
And then, of course, we have his great discourse that we've often referred to, and we'll just come down, verse number 41,. 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, the breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. All that believed were together and had all things common, sold their possessions, goods, part of them, to all men as to every man had need.
And they continuing daily with one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness, singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
Now, I'm not sure I'm just following what we've been hearing in ministry this afternoon. It isn't really a direct break from it, but I think it would be included in it. Peter is a very remarkable character.
I sometimes have thought maybe he's the Jacob of the New Testament. Now, I don't want to have to get in a queue and apologize to him in the coming day because I called him Jacob, but there's a lot of parallels between Jacob's experience and Peter's experience.
There was hardly a man that had higher points in his Christian experience than Peter. And there was hardly a man that had lower sad experiences in his life than Peter. And yet, the first and last words that the Lord spoke to Peter were the same, follow thou me.
The result of him being able to follow the Lord is really what takes place in this chapter. And it's significant to notice in this verse, but Peter's standing up with the eleven, okay? The eleven. The is a definite article, the eleven.
But with Peter, it's not. You'd almost think that the eleven were standing with Peter. Peter's our leader. Peter's the spokesman. Peter's the man that goes ahead, and we're going to stand with Peter, and this is what's going to—no, Peter stands with them.
What a multi—eleven people, eleven disciples, twelve. What a diversity of characters they were. I mean, you could look at Peter himself, say, well, just a minute now, Peter. You denied the Lord. Just a minute, Peter.
You warmed yourself at the fire when others—in such distressful moments. It could bring all the failures, if you like, to this man, Peter. But here's a time when Peter did what few do and want to do today, that is to stand up.
Brethren and sisters, let's get it straight. If assembly testimony is going to survive, let alone thrive, it will take every single believer, brother and sister, to stand up. Aaron didn't do it. Now, they knew who they had.
It likely wouldn't have happened. Likely wouldn't have been all those deaths had they Moses. But they knew who they had when they had Aaron. And he caved in, and he began to blame the people. He began, actually, to say things that weren't true.
Yet what grace there was in God in restoring Aaron, as in Peter. And then, of course, we know as we move into the book of Leviticus, and even before that, we have the sons of Aaron and so on, serving the Lord.
So there's a lot, you would say, going for Peter, and there may have been a lot going against him. Maybe I'm speaking to you today, and let's face it, the track record hasn't been that good with any of us.
The track record really hasn't been something that could be writable. But at the same time, where are we today? Where am I this afternoon? Let's bring this right up to date. Let's bring it right up to the moment, brethren and sisters.
There's things facing assembly testimony that we've never had to deal with before, without going into the details of it. Things that our brethren are facing, they've never had to face before. And we need to stand with them.
Now, Peter stood up, and he stood with the 11. Not nine, not five, not seven, with the 11. Because the chapter begins with one accord, and it ends the same way. I would suggest to you that it couldn't have done that.
What we have, and I know the purposes of God, it would be done. But I would say this, that if we haven't Peter doing what he did, we'd never have the wonderful results or blessings at the end of the chapter.
Wonder how our chapter will end. Wonder how testimony will end in our day. It's not going to end well, brethren and sisters, unless we're prepared to do what Peter did on this day, and that is he stood up with the 11.
There they were, gathered together. And you know, you go back over them, and you look at Thomas and say, hey, Thomas, you know, hey, what happened that night? You didn't show up. You know, if he wanted to argue, you know what he could say?
Well, maybe I wasn't afraid of the Jews. You boys were in that upper room because you were of fear of the Jews. Maybe I wasn't afraid of them. That would have been a good excuse. I don't know what the comeback would be on that, but most of us can kind of come up with a good excuse at times.
And he could have gone around, and you boys, who were you arguing about? Remember the Lord spoke to you? Who would be the greatest? Can you imagine? And you're here? And he could have gone through that whole group of them, even John, even the best, and put their finger on failures in the past.
There's none of us here today that have an A-plus report card, okay? There's mistakes we have made. If we were going to do it over again, we would do it differently, even though we may not want to admit that, but we would, okay?
Even, you know, you look at your family and things, you think, you know, I think I would have done this differently or that differently. But there it is. My point is this. If I come right to the moment of this afternoon in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Conference, I want to leave this conference standing.
Standing. Isn't that what the Apostle Paul says? Having done all to stand. He doesn't say, having done all, preach a great message. And Peter preaches a great message, but first he stands. Having done all to stand.
I'm sorry. I can't say it breaks my heart. I haven't shed a lot of tears over it, but it does disappoint me when I have those of my generation that sat in the same ministry meetings as you're sitting in, listen to the same preachers that are in glory that I listen to.
Where are they today? Where are they today? I couldn't share a platform with them, and we'll betide them. They're going to start trashing the place where they heard the Word of God was saved. And all of a sudden it's become a no place.
There's all this legalism and all this going on. I don't even want to go there, okay? I've got time for that. But I do appreciate. Yeah, I've been taking the task lately and, you know, I had a good meeting a number of years ago, got up at a conference and, you know, he says, now listen, people leave us and go away.
He says, you've got to show them kindness and, you know, it's going on and that's fine. That's okay. But I am sorry. If you leave God's assembly, whatever relationship I have with you is going to change.
You're turning your back on what I profess to be very dear as endeared itself to me. I respect brethren I know. I would actually call them friends. One's a Baptist church pastor. One's among another circle of assemblies that I wouldn't move among.
You know what I heard him say? He says, you'll never hear me stand on a platform and put down the gospel hall. I'm just quoting his words. He said, I saw my parents' commitment to it. And I saw what they did for us.
That's where I was saved. So he says, I will never run that down. And the other brother, the same thing. Admirable. I appreciate that. I respect that. But I have absolutely no time. Those that go out, slam the doors and kick the place in the face on the way.
What's wrong? What's wrong? Let's come just to what this man says here, that when he stood with them. Now I know there's times when, like I already referred to, he stood at the fire and warmed himself and that sort of thing.
But having said that, here is a pivotal moment in his life. The purpose of God, the church. Okay? The day of Pentecost has fully come. The fulfillment of it. The last time you would ever want a man to fail.
And he stood up with them. There's been failure, brother, in countries where this hasn't taken place. I mentioned, I think in Hampton the other night, last winter I spent, and I appreciate a number of people that have joined us.
I know it was hours early for you when you joined ministry meetings that I had on a Monday night. Three nights of gospel were Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. And I did not do those out of my own exercise.
I have to confess it wasn't mine. I had those Zoom meetings because I had people that requested them, that asked for them. Ministry and or gospel. And the response was very, very encouraging. Tremendous encouraging.
You know, my cousin's right here in the meeting, David Kimber. I forget how many he had on for a gospel meeting one night. Well, I thought, if everybody had that many on, that'd be something else. But it was just very, very encouraging.
Let me say that. Okay? Well over in the hundreds, I think we peaked, I might as well tell you, I was in ministry I think one night, 194. That's a lot of people. That's a small conference. You put two people, each one, that's a large audience.
During that time, I was asked for some Zoom meetings for Australia. And I had to get up at 3 .30 in the morning, start ministering at 4 .30. It's a good thing to be early. Start ministering at 4 .30 to them in the Melbourne area and along the, it would be the eastern side.
I've got to remember now, it's east to west down there, just down under, let's say that. And minister to them. Do you know how many were on Zoom? 14, 12, 13. You say, well, what, oh my brother, why would you do that with so few?
Well, why not? Why not encourage what's left? Now I listened to, if you ask me, I'll tell you it is. I listened to a man minister to that area of assemblies in 1980. Okay. You're with me? 31 years ago.
And he was really a teacher of the word, but he wanted to hear an exercise for gospel meetings. He said, we're going to plan gospel meetings here. So I'm going to come and we're going to have some gospel meetings.
And he named the hall, we're going to have them in. There was a number of assemblies that were to be involved, four or five, I think. And he wanted them to go ahead, get their programs printed, your invitations, your banners, whatever you want.
I will be here to walk the streets with you and we'll do the work. And he thought he conveyed it fairly clearly. When he came back for the meetings, do you know what was done for those meetings of five or six assemblies?
Nothing. No invitations, no banners. You say, what were the excuses? Lame and very weak. Thought we'd wait until you got here. Isn't that great? This and that. So the meetings as they were supposed to start, didn't start with the gospel meeting.
They started with ministry. And he spoke in the fear of God. I would not have wanted to have been in those meetings. And that meeting that night, he says, brethren, I am here to warn you before God, you continue your course, your halls will be empty.
You can sell off your chairs. They won't be needed. There'll be no future in testimony. And of what's left down there now, and I've never been down there. Some maybe have. I've been invited, but I've never.
That's too far. Some of these faraway places are for the global preachers. I'm local. Iowa's local to me. Okay. Most of the assemblies are single digit number. A sister wrote me, the youngest in the assembly.
I'm 74. We've had nobody sitting in the backseat for 20 years. How do they carry on? Wouldn't you want to encourage them? Isn't that worth getting out of bed, whatever, try to encourage them and see them and send pictures, lovely little halls, commendable.
There's nobody there. Nobody there. What happened? Just what we've been hearing at the beginning of the meeting here from our brother Thibodeau, their thrust and desire of the gospel had faded and gone.
Let me say this. Anyone that's going to preach the gospel has to have a love for souls. That's true. But there's a love that comes before that. It has to be a love for Christ. A love for Christ will flow out to a love for others.
Do you know where gospel work begins? Where we began this morning, worshiping in his presence. There's all kinds of mission places out there, and they'll have their series, their campaigns in there. I'm not putting them down, but they don't start where our week started this morning.
That's where we started. That's where they started in this chapter. So what we need is men that will stand up. Somewhere along the line, nobody stood up. Nobody responded. You got the sad results of it in that part of Australia and New Zealand.
A brother that I know from, that must have been tough, got invited down there for a conference. It's just coming to my mind now. And the conference is on and got tests for his COVID and got clear and his wife got down there for the conference.
And he came out with a COVID two days before the conference. So I don't know what happened, but wow, that's tough going. We don't realize how good we have it. We don't realize how blessed we are. So with one accord, when the whole churches come together, you know, that's an expression that Paul uses in writing to the Corinthians.
That seldom happens unless it's a very, very small company. The whole church comes together. It would be about a month ago, maybe a month and a half ago. And it was a Lord's Day morning. And for the first time in a long time, nobody's working shift.
Nobody was away. Nobody's sick. The whole church gathered in our local assembly. I think there was 56 there. The only two that weren't there claimed COVID problems. COVID was not the problem. Their problems were pre-COVID.
But can I tell you what a joy it was to see the whole church gathered together and in one accord. It starts with this man. What a start it was. It says, remember in Ezra, we noticed that yesterday, they gathered themselves together as one man.
That's why the thing got built. That's why the wall got built. What restoration there was amongst those people once they gathered themselves together as one man. And it says in verse 14 and chapter 1, we read chapter 2, these all continued in one accord in prayer and supplication with the women, Mary, Mother, Jesus, and with his brethren.
So his brethren and sisters working together in one accord, that harmony. And the result of that is the tremendous blessing that you'll see in this chapter. When there's discord, when there's disunity, brethren, how can we expect to see any blessing?
Work toward its goal. We're not asked to make it. We're asked to, if I could use the word, to foster it, to encourage it, to be an example of it. More than that, Acts 2, we read right in verse number 46, and they continue steadfastly with one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house to eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.
That's at the end of the chapter. I'm just going to come to the end of the chapter for a few minutes here and just see the happy result of this man standing finally as divided and diverse as they were, Peter standing up with the 11.
Lifted up his voice, couldn't lift up his voice till he's standing up. I have no voice. Nobody has a voice worth to be heard if he's not standing up. And it says this, they continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine.
Now, I know we touched on this in Mount Sterling, but really didn't go into it at length. The apostle's doctrine. How much did they know of the apostle's doctrine? You know what they had? They had a right understanding of the Holy Spirit and His work, because they were the beginning of it.
They wouldn't have been caught away in some of this charismatic movements that even believers have got caught up in in some places. Oh, I know large companies gather. What do they do? What do they gather for?
Mainly the music at the place, not too far from where I live. I can't say there's any believers that I know that were once with us that are there, but there are some that I think, I believe, are really saved, caught up in that.
But they had a right understanding of that, among other things, okay? They continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine, singular, and in fellowship. Fellowship flows out from that doctrine. Sometimes we want to reverse it around.
We get the fellowship, and then we're going to kind of come put the doctrine out front. No, no. It's the doctrine first. The fellowship flows out from that dark doctrine. And so they continued in that, and in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
See how wonderful that is, and how lovely it is put together in prayers. Likely the most neglected department of our lives, which isn't mine. Hardest thing to do. End of a day, you're tired. You'll fall asleep on the side of that bed, or whatever it might be, trying to pray.
In the daytime, at least it's a better time for me. And you know, I don't have to tell you, brethren and sisters here, the busiest night of the week is prayer meeting night. The busiest night. There's so many things thrown up that you've got to do.
You owe, you've got to do them. But you know something? The reward. Do you ever go and say, well, I wish I hadn't gone? Never. It's the other. When you don't go, you wish you had gone. But what a reward.
You know, all those men that broke through the ranks to get David the longing of his heart, I've often thought, waters from the wells of Bethlehem. He can remember earning days and the refreshment that he got there.
Now in circumstances when they're adverse and against them, he says, just just give me some water. Just so those three men, mighty men of David broke through the elite guard of the Philistines, raced their way past them in that.
I think only God could bring them past that. Otherwise they risked their lives. They got a draft of water. You mentioned how pleased they were, as carefully aware as they brought that back to David. And of all things, he pours it in the ground.
Now, naturally speaking, naturally speaking, oh my, thanks. Really? That's what you thought of our efforts? No. You know, the truth of it is they were going to be rewarded, not for the result, but for the effort that was put in to bring the result.
So, brothers and sisters, there's times when we think that our efforts are so small and they seem to get poured out on the ground. Never mind. God sees the effort that is put into it. I worked with a man in early days, and he said, you do the work.
You don't reap it here, he says, you'll reap it down the road. He's absolutely true. All labor, there's profit. You know, you put into weeks of labor and in an area where you're not near any assembly, and you don't see a lot done.
Maybe, yeah, I shouldn't say put in a small way. One or two gets saved, but what you had hoped for just didn't happen. But God doesn't necessarily have to honor those results. He honors the effort that went into that.
If you don't see it there, you'll likely see it somewhere else. I can say before the Lord I have proven that. So they continued. And fear came upon every soul. Many signs and wonders and so on were done by the apostles.
They believed and were together and all things in common. You can just see the welding, just the merging that's taking place here. Just that early church in those early days and the power that is resident.
They're continuing daily with one accord in the temple. Notice how the temple, just notice how so closely linked with their homes. Just what we touched on a little bit yesterday. Our homes and the assembly.
So it's the temple first and then it's their homes. Not their homes in the temple. With the temple breaking bread from house to house and to eat their meat with gladness and signals of heart. Praising God, having favor with all the people.
And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. Does that answer the question? Yeah, the Lord did the work. He added to the church daily such as should be saved. Let's leave the additions unto Him.
You know, we go for, oh hey, I like numbers too. I do. Yeah, I like numbers. It's discouraging when there isn't numbers. But it's not all about numbers, brethren and sisters. Okay, just let the Lord add.
There's an overseer. I want to be careful what I say here today. Miles from here. It's in our country. Came to me 25 years ago. He said, I'm sorry to tell you, he says, if it's any help, he says, you'll be likely speaking long before I'm, long after I'm gone.
He says, we lowered a standard. Down. Trying to accommodate some who wanted a different way in the assembly. Everybody, others said, we got to hang on to them. We can't let them go. We've got a big hall here.
And they had a big hall. And there used to be a hundred that broke bread in that hall. Now they're down to 40 or 50 at the time. So they tried to accommodate them. Tried their best to appease them. You know, the truth was, in due time they left anyhow.
You know what the end of that story is? Sold the hall last year. Only once. I hope I never see it again. A picture of a gospel hall with grass growing up around it. A foot high, at least I'm saying the minimum way.
That wasn't the hard part. You know what the hard part was? To see a sign stabbed into that grass for sale. For sale. Brethren, there had to be a day when somebody did some work somewhere. Somebody put on the boots, got into the trenches and worked.
Otherwise it would never be there. For sale. Brethren and sisters, may the Lord have mercy upon us and may He preserve us as His people. And may we seek the honor of His name. Just remember this man, Peter, like I say, there's much more that can be said about Peter.
Not in a critical way, but in a very positive way. This is one time when you read that passage, I want to give him a fist salute, almost a pump. Yes, Peter. Yes. Standing up with the eleven. Okay. In other words, there's something irresistible about that company that he had to stand with them.
So, you know, sometimes men are leaders and they can lead off people sometimes in the wrong direction and people find it easy to stand with them. He's our leader. But no, they were pioneering the path.
Oh, he was going to speak. God was going to use him. Souls were going to be saved as a result of his preaching. But it all began with a man that wasn't slouched over. Lucky he was standing at Elf's Auction waiting for a bid.
He's standing up and he's lifting up his voice. And God blessed his words, blessed his effort and honored him. May that be the experience of us as we go forth from this conference to seek the honor of his name.