The Way It Was

Introduction

Very pleasant good morning to all, and certainly a cordial welcome of those who may be visiting in our audience today. In Jeremiah chapter 6 and about verse 16, the Lord had Jeremiah write, thus says the Lord, ask for the old pass. Wherein is the good way? And walk therein, and you shall find rest to your souls.

What did he mean by the good way that was of old? When Jeremiah wrote this, it was at a time in Israel’s history, you might say was the dark days, shortly before they were taken into captivity. For God’s people had strayed from God’s way, had become indifferent to God’s word. They thought they were all right because they were Jews in the flesh, and because the temple was still in Jerusalem. And they just thought no matter what they did, God would favor them. But history, of course, tells us that God was not happy with them, and because they would not repent of the message of Jeremiah and of other prophets who came, therefore they were punished. Ask for the old ways. The pathway that is good.

If the Lord might have men today say to the Lord’s church, Ask for the old pass. Walk in the way that is good. Or you might respond, like many would say, Well, aren’t we trying to do that very thing? Our brethren throughout the world would say our our intent and purpose is to speak where the Bible speaks and to be silent where the Bible is silent. And haven’t we often raised the question, what was the way of the New Testament church? And we seek to identify today, the same church that you read about in the Bible to be just like they were, without addition, without subtraction? We seek after wear the right name or description of God’s people today. We want to be organized in the same way the church was, as you read in the New Testament, with the same mission, in fact, with the same kind of appeal to the world to obey the gospel of Jesus Christ, be added to the body of Christ.

Aren’t we trying to duplicate the New Testament church in our day? And the answer to that question is yes. Our intent and our purpose and the plea that we make is a sound one.

We ought to be like the church you read about in the New Testament. But then while there may be a form that we have urged and sought after, and maybe have we become somewhat satisfied in a way that maybe while we may have the right form, we have lost sight of the right attitude and spirit and zeal that the New Testament disciples were like.

1. Wholehearted, They Opposed Error

To read about in Acts chapter 2. Would you like to have been in company with Peter and James and John and then later the Apostle Paul as he later became a Christian? Wouldn’t you like to have been walking with them at that time? What would it have been like? In fact, would you say that your attitude even today would exemplify or be somewhat like maybe they were? If in fact we’re going to walk in the way of the Lord the way that was, what would it really be like? I want you to think with me a little bit this morning as we go through the scripture and let’s see, would you really identify with the way it was with the first century Christians? I expect all of us would say, well, we agree that those disciples were wholehearted.

I mean, they were zealous for the Lord. They understood what it meant to really obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. What a change it made in their lives. In fact, in Acts chapter 4 and verses 32 through 34, the scripture said the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul. Neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. Nor was there anyone among them who lacked. For all who were possessors of lands or houses, sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, laid them at the apostles’ feet.

They distributed to each as anyone had need. Indeed, what a description. They were of one heart and of one soul. Can you imagine there being any backbiting or gossiping among those disciples? They were so committed to the Lord that understood, no doubt, as Paul wrote later in Romans chapter 12 and verse 15, they would rejoice with those that rejoiced, and they would weep with those who wept. They were totally united, committed to the Lord and to one another. But also we’d say they were people who understood there was a difference between truth and error. And they opposed error. It wasn’t long, in fact, after the first Gentiles were converted to the Lord, that we read in Acts chapter 15 that there was no small disputation. Meaning, even among Christians, there was a dispute going on.

The matter of what must Gentiles do in order to be saved. You see, even then there was a question of what’s involved in salvation. And they came together, the apostles and elders, and Paul and Barnabas and with the elders at Jerusalem. And you know, they decided that the question that by the word of the Lord. The word of the Lord was means by which they could tell what was error. In fact, it was a little bit after this, probably that Paul wrote this letter to the churches of Galatia, where Gentiles had obeyed the gospel, and where this doctrine that they needed to be circumcised after the law of Moses, how it was probably preached among by these Judaizing teachers. And what Paul said, he said, I marvel that you’re so soon removed from him that calls you in the grace of Christ to another gospel.

Then he said, It’s not another. But there’d be some that troubled you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we are an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we preached unto you, let him be accursed. It matters what we preach, it matters what we practice. They had to learn truth from God and then to stand for it. In fact, changing their lives when they obeyed the gospel. It was not just a matter, well, you know, our parents were Christians, and so, well, we we are too. My granddaddy was a preacher, and that’s why I’m a member of the. None of that. They were first-century Christians, you might say, and so in each of those cases, there were people who obeyed the gospel because it took real conversion on their part.

2. Changed Lives and One Faith

By that they had a changed life. In fact, when Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 and in verse 9, he spoke how that it was true that some of them had come out of darkness and they had turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. They had turned to serve who? The true God. But that meant giving up the religion they were brought up in. It meant turning away from what maybe their former friends or even their own parents had believed. They had to know what they believed and why they believed it to do that. They had changed lives. In fact, in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, the apostle wrote how that some of them had so changed from immorality.

It wasn’t just a matter of people who had really been already good, faithful Jews or really morally right, Gentiles, and they just sort of obeyed the gospel because it’s just good people maybe improving their lives through Christ. But some of them had to really make a severe change. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 9, the apostle said, Don’t you know that unrighteousness will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor sorcerers will inherit the kingdom of God. And then he added, and such were some of you. But you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and the Spirit of our God.

I tell you, that took a real change. For some of them morally, they had to change their life, but they understood that the gospel brought salvation and forgiveness to all who would truly repent and believe in the Lord Jesus and obeying it. But it changed their lives. They indeed stood for something that changed for the better. In fact, we’d have to say they understood there was but one faith. You read in the New Testament that these were people who were united in doctrine. In fact, as the apostle writes in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 3 through 5, there is one body and one spirit, even as you’re calling one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father for all who’s above all through all and in you all.

What was he saying? There’s one faith. You never hear or read in the Bible, you know, there are many faiths, just pick the one you like best. We hear that sometimes today. And there’s some today trying to be politically correct, will sort of think, well, it really doesn’t matter. Just join the church of your choice. You never read about that in the New Testament. It’s just not there. In fact, if you believe that there is one Lord, the same word describes faith. There is one faith. If you believe there’s one Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the same word, one, describes faith. One faith. And in fact, therefore, to describe the early church in character and doctrine, they all believed the same, were of one heart and one soul.

3. Common People Who Sought Converts

They were united in the one faith. But the truth is they were just common people. They were not a people who were so highly educated that they understood things that really the common man could not understand. But rather, they themselves were people whose hearts were turned to serve the Lord. It wasn’t a matter of pride. It wasn’t because serving the Lord wasn’t a matter indeed that was popular in that day. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1, verses 26 through 29, when he said, You see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, God has chosen, and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence.

There was an attitude among them. That they obeyed the gospel, they themselves were common men. In fact, the passage says not many of them were indeed wise, that is, after the flesh, highly educated. In fact, even the apostles, when they first preached the word, do you remember on the day of Pentecost? The question when they began to speak with other languages that had not been taught them, but languages of the people who gathered from out throughout the world on that day of Pentecost, and they were amazed. Aren’t these Galileans? was the question. Don’t you know people from Galilee generally they’re not well educated? How did these men learn these languages? Fact is, it was by the miracle of God. But they were observed as this common people, Peter and John, fishermen.

They were people who really turned to the Lord not because they were wiser than others in the flesh, not because they were really of men of high theological doctorate degrees. It wasn’t that at all. But rather they simply were moved by the power of God’s word, the gospel. Frankly, you’d probably agree with me that these were people who not only had obeyed the gospel themselves, but they were filled with zeal to teach others. They sought converts. In Acts chapter 6, the scripture speaks how that even among the priests, the number of disciples multiplied greatly. The word of God spread the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. Indeed, they went out teaching others. Even in Acts chapter 8, when the scripture describes the persecution that arose after Stephen had been stoned, they went everywhere preaching the word.

4. More to the Story: Extreme, and They Had Problems

So persecution didn’t make them stop preaching. Instead, it caused them even to go forward. It’s a message that must be told, even if it meant their life. Perhaps would you not agree that they were wholehearted, that they opposed error, that they had changed lives, that they were of one faith, just common people with common teachers, and they went out seeking converts. But in reality, while all this may be true, there’s more to the story. While this may be true of them, I think when you really look at the fact that they were wholehearted, is to say that really they were militant. They were extremist about their faith. While the passage we read a moment ago from Acts chapter 4, the scripture said they they even sold their land and houses and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

In fact, they were such an extreme that when the law of the land, you might say the Jewish rulers threatened them not to speak at all or teaching the name of Jesus in Acts 4, verse 19 and 20, they replied, We ought to obey God rather than men. Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye, for we cannot but speak the things we have both seen and heard. There’s a message, we truly believe the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and we must speak it. In fact, as you read in Acts chapter 4 on into chapter 5, they kept on preaching. And indeed they were arrested. And brought before the council once more, the ruler, you might say, ruling council among the Jews.

And they threatened them. Didn’t we command you not to speak in this name? And here you’ve tried to bring this man’s blood down upon us. And what did Peter say? We ought to obey God. And yes, they were beaten for it. The council first talked about killing them. But only because of a wise man on the council named Gamalia, they they did not kill them at that point in history, but they did beat them. And even to that, the apostles, the scripture says, as they left them in chapter 5, 29, they rejoiced that they were kind of worthy to suffer shame for his name. So they were, yes, they were extreme about their faith. It wasn’t because it was easy to be a Christian. It wasn’t because it was just convenient what they did.

Really, they opposed error. That’s true, too. But that is to say they had some problems. You ever thought about the problems? How many times in the New Testament we read where even these early disciples had some problems among them? In Acts chapter 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and in verse 19, the apostles said, There must be heresies or factions among you, that they which are approved may be made known or made manifest. When you read through the letter of 1 Corinthians, you’d definitely say that was a church with a lot of problems. Throughout the church at Corinth, sometimes the problems had to do with really attitudes toward one another. In that very text I wrote I read of 1 Corinthians 11 19, verse 18, in fact, says that there were some divisions among them, attitude toward one another, and it was characterized by how they ate the Lord’s supper.

Some would eat, not waiting on the other. There was not a united spirit among them. Problems at Corinth. We probably best know the verses in chapter 1, where the apostle in verse 10 spoke about how that he had heard there were some divisions among them. Some of them said, I’m a Paul. Or I’m of Cephas, I’m of Apollos. Others said I’m of Christ. And how Paul said, Well, is Christ divided? Were you baptized the name of Paul? Was Paul crucified for you? Questions that they knew the answer to it didn’t have to even be written. Attitude toward one another. Yeah, they had some problems over that. And yet, this passage said 1 Corinthians 11, verse 19, says, These factions serve a purpose. Even these divisions among you actually they serve as a winnowing process.

It separated those who really stood for the truth versus those whose attitudes were wrong. In 1 John, the Apostle John chapter 2 said how that there were some who went out from us because they were not of us. They had the wrong spirit and the attitude towards standing even for truth. And when error is taught, it has a way of winnowing, of separating those who stand for truth for those who do not. Not only did they have problems about attitudes toward one another, Corinth had some problems with dealing with immorality. In 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 1, in fact, Paul said there’s such immorality or fornication among you that even the even the heathen would not accept. Man lives with his father’s wife. Such immorality going on.

And then in those next few verses, he says, What have you done about it? It’s sort of like you just buried your head in the sand, like it, you know, if you just ignore it, it’ll go away. Paul said it won’t go away. In fact, in verse 5 of 1 Corinthians, he says, Look, when you gather together, deliver such a one unto Satan. That is, withdraw fellowship from that person. Let them know they’re not in fellowship with God, and they shouldn’t be in fellowship with you if you’re standing for God. But the purpose, he said, was not just to get rid of them. He says that their soul may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. The purpose for discipline, even to the point of withdrawal of fellowship, is to make some corrections.

To not let people go along thinking, well, it doesn’t matter how I live, you know, it’d be all right, because there are the people in the church. You know, others doing this or that. It wasn’t a matter of ignoring immorality or ungodliness. It was a matter of helping people understand. You straighten up your life because you’re going to be judged by the word of God. And therefore, you live in such a way that God will approve. They had some problems at Corinth. They did oppose error. And they did sometimes have wrong attitudes toward one another. But you know, over and over, as these problems are revealed to us even now, centuries later, the intent and purpose was that they may correct, that they may understand and stand as one, one heart and one soul.

5. Former Ties Upset; Choosing Between Doctrines

Oh, they had changed lives. And to say they had changed lives really is to say that those former ties were upset to this extent. In Matthew chapter 10, there’s a scripture where Jesus warning the disciples who would come after him. He said in verses 21 and 22, he said, Brother will deliver up brother to death. I’ve looked at that passage many times and thought, wow, how intense. Such hatred against Christians. Can you imagine if you have a brother in the flesh because you’ve obeyed the gospel, your brother will want you to die? Well, brother to brother, he said, even father against his child. And child and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. Now that just seems it’s hard for us to imagine that in our generation.

But people can so hate the way of the cross that they would put to death those who have obeyed the gospel. But Jesus explained it even in verses 34 through 37 in Matthew 10. He said, Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. I’ve come to set a man at variance against his father, a daughter against their mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man’s enemies would be those of his own household. What’s the point? Jesus said.

He who loves son and daughter more than me is not worthy of me. What Jesus was saying is get your values straight. Understand, number one, who do you want to follow? Is Jesus Christ? Is he everything to you? Is he really the Son of God who died for you because of his love and because of his father’s love? And that means more than anything else. Any other relationship, even that of your parents or of your children, Christ should be first. Oh, former ties upset to that extent. Sometimes we hear people say, even today, well, I don’t obey the gospel, but you know, my parents, boy, they would really be upset if I did. Or my grandmother would turn over in her grave. I’ve heard people say things like that.

Like, you know, this may be true, but I’m not going to obey it if it upsets my good parents or my good grandparents. Those of the first century had such an attitude. It didn’t matter. Christ is what mattered. In fact, they had one faith. Do you realize they had to choose between doctrines? Yeah, they had to choose. False doctrine that we say exists in the world today existed even back then. Through the New Testament, many, many of the letters are written to help the disciples determine what is true from what is error. In the letters to the churches of Asia in Revelation chapter 2, church at Pergamon, he talked about having holding the doctrine of Balaam or the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. And then later to the church at Thytire, the doctrine of Jezebel.

And they both were identified with teaching the doctrine that it was right, all right, to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols. It seems at that time there was this doctrine going along. We call it Gnosticism. First John really deals with it, where there was an attitude that said all flesh is sinful, and it really didn’t matter what you did in the flesh because it wouldn’t affect the spirit. If really your spirit is saved, then you’re going to be saved. So, yeah, you can commit fornication, maybe like the priestesses and in the Gentile temples, commit fornication or eat things sacrificed. Well, it won’t matter because once saved, always saved is sort of the idea. And yet the scripture teach that was not right. That may be what some proposed Christians were saying, but they were false teachers even among the Lord’s people in the churches of the Lord.

That’s why John in 1 John 4 and verses 1 through 3 said, Beloved, test the spirits. Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they be of God, for many false prophets are gone out into the world. And then he identified, every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. He that confesses that Christ has come in the flesh is of God. Those who who deny that Christ has come in the flesh are the Antichrist. They are against Christ. And what is he saying, brethren? You have to make a decision between what is true doctrine and what is false doctrine. That is, they had to take the word of God, no doubt, even then, and have to say, well, these teachers, are they teaching the scriptures in the proper context, or are they misusing the scripture?

6. Unpolished Teachers; Converts, Not Members

Sometimes we have to today ask people, where is your doctrine? Find it in the scriptures. And let’s make sure you’re teaching before and after what that verse is really meaning. Keep it in its context. Indeed, they they had problems. They had former ties upset. They had to choose between doctrines, and in reality, they were unpolished teachers themselves. It wasn’t as though you have the apostle Paul, though he was a well-educated man, that he said, Listen, what I’m telling you is what I’ve learned in this theological seminary. It wasn’t that he was called Dr. Paul and therefore everybody could believe him because, in fact, in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, you know how Paul explained himself. He said, I came not to you with the wisdom of men.

But I preached to you Christ and Him crucified. Christ and Him crucified. In fact, in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and in verse 10, the apostle said, or others said this about Paul. His letters, they say, are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible. I’ve often stopped at that thought. Paul’s speech is contemptible. I know I’m not eloquent, but I sure hope you wouldn’t say Bob’s speech is contemptible. That’s pretty hard. I don’t think of Paul as being so smooth as his speaking that everything he just had to listen and you had to follow it, follow him. It wasn’t that way at all. In fact, in chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians and verse 6, Paul said, even though I am untrained in speech, yet I am not in knowledge.

But we have been thoroughly manifested among you in all things. What Paul said is, I come to you declaring Christ and Him crucified. And whether the manner or method of the speech is what tickles your ears, at least it’s the truth. And being the truth, men ought to obey it. Indeed, finally, you’d probably agree with me that though they sought converts, not members. What do I mean by that? They sought converts, not members. I would say to you that a member is the kind of person who, well, he comes when it’s convenient. But converts look forward to every opportunity. They love to meet with the saints and to worship the Lord. Members warm a pew. And their attitude is, well, here I am now, see if you can keep me interested and stir me hard.

They come to receive. Whereas converts look forward to things that they can do to encourage others and to draw others to the Lord to rejoice in the Lord. There’s a difference between the two. Members complain and murmur about various little things. Converts act to change things that need changing. And they are the ones who promote an optimistic spirit of love and fellowship. Of one heart and one mind, of one spirit, of one soul. In fact, you want to know the difference between a convert, really, and a member. Probably best described in the gospel according to Luke. In Luke chapter 14 and in verse 26, Jesus made a very clear distinction between discipleship. When he said in Luke 14, verse 26, not everyone. Verse 26, he says, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

Conclusion

There again is the focus, what’s most important. In verse 33, so likewise whoever of you does not forsake all that he has. He cannot be my disciple. It says you put Christ above all else. Serve him above everything else in your life. What’s your goal? What’s your focus in life? That’s the true convert above everything else. That’s a pretty tough pattern to follow, isn’t it? I ask you, where would you have been? Would these descriptions fit you had you lived 2,000 years ago? Had you been of that number of the 3,000 who obeyed the gospel on the day of Pentecost or the church shortly thereafter? Wholehearted, zealous for the Lord, even to the extent that the world may say, hey, you sure are extreme about this.

That you’d sell your house and land and bring the money to other Christians who needed it? Would you be one who knew enough about the truth that you could oppose error? And that even though there may be some problems among the disciples, it wouldn’t make you quit. You’d simply sort it out on the basis of what’s the word of God. And then stand for the word of God. And there’s this learning process as we grow and mature in the Lord. Would it describe you as a changed life? That conversion meant I’m understanding who the Christ is. And even if it upset former ties for my own family, even in my own family would want to put me to death for it. Yet I love the Lord.

And I want to go to heaven. And I’m going to stand. And that you understood something about the one faith. And that we must not compromise the one faith. And it isn’t a matter of just trying to be politically correct and try to appease the multitudes, but rather even when I have to choose between certain doctrines that are out there, the devil makes certain there will be some. But I’m going to try to learn what the scripture says, and I’m going to stand for what the Bible says. And even though I’m just a common person, it’s not because maybe I have some degree of high learning or something like that. But simply people whom the Lord loves. And the Lord gave himself for. Common people. And even my teachers don’t have to hold a doctorate degree from a certain seminary.

If they come with the Bible, the Word of God, and they explain it in a way that simply says, here is what truth says, then I’ll stand for it. And in fact, like others, I’ll be busy trying to seek out converts. You know, numbers, we sometimes are important. How many do we have in attendance today? And it, you know, we we like to know that we’re growing in numbers, but more importantly, in the faith. But what really matters is converts. People understand the difference between being lost in sin and being with the hope of heaven itself, saved by the grace of Jesus Christ through faith. Where would you stand in this group? Well, today there may be some in this audience who’ve never obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And therefore, we appeal to you simply to say, what does the Bible say? What did Christ ask of me? When Jesus gave what the great commit we call the Great Commission, recorded in Mark chapter 16 and verse 15, he said to his disciples, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature or person. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved. He who believes not shall be condemned. Have you done that? Pretty simple. It’s not that hard to understand. Just simply as you believe Jesus to be the Son of God, commit your life to Him. And that may involve changing your life, repenting of sin, of confessing your faith in Him, but being saved by His blood. Romans chapter 6, verses 3 and 4 describes how we are buried with Him by baptism into His death.

That’s where His blood was shed. So that’s where Christ said, He who believes and is baptized shall be saved. In baptism, we reach the blood of Jesus Christ. Our sins are washed away. Have you obeyed that? If not, we bid you to obey even this day and even right now as we stand to sing this final song. Won’t you come?