The Secrets of the Early Church's Success - Part 3 — G.W. North

Warning Against Discord Among Believers

And God may show us the way forward. I see the evidences of division, men talking that way. They are going to go this way whether you do or whether you don't. Be careful brother, you be careful sister, you be very careful.

If you sow discord among brethren, you should read the scripture, you come under the curse of God. According to the scripture, the thing is to go on and on and on. Amen. So, and here I suppose I ought to be drawing to a close, turn over and touching upon that great statement in Ephesians, which is the only statement of apostolic doctrine in the whole of the New Testament.

Ephesians 4 and the Apostolic Call to Unity

Here it is, Ephesians chapter four, and notice who's reading it. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, don't let's hear a stertorious voice shouting out what it thinks, with all lowliness, long suffering, meekness, forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

One body, one spirit, even as you are called, in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. How many of you consent to that with more than your lips?

Total Surrender to Christ's Body

Because you don't do other than say you believe the Bible. You don't do that. The whole thing is to do what Jesus did, throw yourself, all your life, all that you have, all that you hope to have, into it, into the church.

It's his body. Amen. You say, he's just going to take up a collection and ask for money. No, I'm not. No, I'm not. I would demean Christ if I did that. And I believe that everybody else who does it on this kind of emotional level is demeaning Christ.

A man must have a revelation in his heart. A man must give and give and give and give for the binding together of the saints of God to lay down his life that it should happen and to leave everything and everybody else that won't go that way so that the Lord shall be honoured in this our day, beloved.

The church has not changed. I know you say, well you get all the sponges, you get all this, you get all that. I know. I know. Jesus had a real sponger named Judas. He also had a soldier that put a sponge to his lips too.

But he didn't drink from sponges. His head was clear. His heart was clear. He was one with his Father. Oh, hallelujah. It is His mind that this should be so. Won't you forsake everything else? Every wayward thing, every idea of your own?

Total Commitment and the Cost of Discipleship

I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that. Won't you sacrifice yourself? Won't you do it? If you don't do it, disband. Here then is the loveliness and glory of Christ. It's got to be all or nothing.

Amen. Commitment. What a word. Commitment. Total commitment. That's why you're sitting in your seat. Because Jesus committed Himself totally. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And if you have any life in you, it's His.

If you have any truth in you, it is His. If you have anything of the blessings of God, it's His. It is dispersed amongst, rather, gathered together in the members of His body. What a great and glorious thing.

Giving Away One's Life in Christ

You will see I'm a great contradictor of myself, aren't I? But this is the wonder of this gospel of ours. If you want to keep anything, you've got to give it away. Jesus said it. You read John chapter 12?

It's very clear. Hallelujah. What a marvelous thing it is. If you want to be a man of God, give yourself away. If you want to be a woman of God, give yourself away. Let experimentation cease. Let all highfalutin talk die away.

Let's see reality. Learn from the Judean outpouring. Learn from it. Pray the prayer. Oh, I don't mean absolutely verbatim. You speak it in your own language. And that's what he understands. God. Thou God.

Confidence in God's Sovereignty

What's all this other stuff? Who are all these other people? Who are they? These heads of nations. These great stirrers up of trouble. These people who are breathing out, threatening and slaughter. God knows how to bring them to naught.

Ask Paul. He knows how to do it. And we should move in the glorious reality of all this, beloved. Come into this position. Let fears go out of your heart and out of your mind. And let the language of fear go out of your tongue when you are praying.

Let the confidence of the Lord come up. Well up in your heart. Glory it will, beloved. Charge you with a new concept of God. Who the what is this? What's that? Nothing can go wrong when you are in the will of God.

Nothing. What sort of a gospel have you been brought up on? The Lord wants us to get up and go and do things. Praise the name of the Lord. Oh, I've got to stop talking for more than one reason. Now let's pray.

Personal Prayer and Submission to God's Sovereignty

Don't someone stand up and pray for all the rest of us. You pray for yourself. Pray for yourself, beloved. Don't by implication in prayer shift the blame onto everybody else but you. Move in. How wonderful.

If this morning here by God's grace all the quirks and ideas were washed out of us and we all came under the sovereignty of God. Lord, Thou God. You needn't tell Him He is God. You notice they didn't.

That word art is not in the Greek. Thou God. Let your heart be overwhelmed by His majesty. Let all these other things that seem so great die right now. Swamped out by the vision and knowledge of the Lord.

Let them all go. Your fears are lies. All or none of them. And when they were all with one accord in one place, and I'm talking about now spiritually, whether they were in an upper room or not didn't much matter.

They were in the same place spiritually and in their soul's intent. They weren't yet filled with the Holy Ghost either. But they got there. And God saw that they meant it. And they were one. And then the Lord said, Now I'll really show you what oneness is.

The Holy Spirit and the Way of Unity

Baptize them in the one spirit. Come on now. Bring your projects that you've been thinking about and hatching out for yourself, for your church. Lay them before God. Let the rubbish be swept away. Only the Holy Ghost can take you and He'll take you the way of unity and uniting.

All the time. Channels only, blessed Master. But with all thy wondrous flowing through us, thou canst use us every day. Jesus filled us. The writer had it correct. The story of the Acts of the Apostles.

What a glorious truth it is. You ought not to pray for God to pour out the Holy Ghost in your district or in your church. But cleanse out the blocked channels in your mind. That you've blocked up with all kinds of things.

That's perhaps what you ought to be praying. I am no judge. I am no judge. I am a guide. In Acts chapter 1 sorry, Luke chapter 1 and you remember that Luke wrote the Acts of the Apostles. He spoke about his son, Zechariah's son John Baptist.

That he was to guide our feet into the way of peace. I sought to be a guide to you. And then in Acts chapter 1 Luke wrote both books. To find it again. Judas. Guide to them that took Jesus. What sort of a guide are you?

Repentance, Baptism, and the Gift of the Holy Ghost

You can use the name of Jesus in your assembly, but Jesus not be there. You can guide away. Let's sing it again. The Lord will fill you if you'll mean it. And then Peter told them the way they could have it.

It was repent. Repent. Repent, he said. Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins. He never said anything about receiving Jesus as your Saviour. This is where modern evangelism has gone wrong.

The apostles said, you repent. You read Acts 2 very carefully. You repent. Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. That's what you'll find.

And that's what will happen in your church. Anywhere. Just put it up. Just a tone, brother. Jesus fill now with thy Spirit hearts that fall surrender know that the streams of living water from our inner man may flow channels only blessed master but with all thy wondrous power flowing through us thou canst use us every day and Jesus Jesus to fill you with His Spirit you get to your feet don't be too proud if you say I was baptized and filled with the Spirit ten years ago.

Becoming Channels of the Holy Spirit

I'm talking about now. You'll soon see whether anybody's drinking of you and getting life. You'll prove it within the next month. Jesus fill now open up I surrender Lord do you that the streams of living water from our inner man may flow channels only He will He will people that He can use not that He only wants to use you.

He wants to fill you with Himself this is His goodness again and open up right open your heart unto Him believe Him beloved channels only this will save you from introspection from depression this will save you from self interest and self occupation.

This will save you from the selfish devil and the selfish world. This will save you. Nothing else will only this. God only knows this way to do it. This way do you believe that channels only all of it you go back to your tents and go back to your homes put away these foolish things put them away and let God do a great thing in your life in your church in your district in your country.

Amen. We'll pray Father who knowest our hearts Father of Heaven whose love profound a ransom for our souls has found before thy throne we sinners bend grace mercy to us extend for it is sin. If there's anything blocking the flowing of the spirit don't call it something else it is sin and we'll sing the grace which will finish up what I have to say and serve as our grace.

We thank you Lord for Jesus and Father of Heaven. Amen.