Please open up your Bibles to
the book of Acts. We'll read from chapter five
and verse twenty seven. Acts, chapter five, verse twenty
seven. When they had brought them, they
stood them before the council. The high priest questioned them,
saying, We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this
name. Yet you have filled Jerusalem
with your teaching and intend to bring this man's blood upon
us. But Peter and the apostles answered, We must obey God rather
than men. The God of our fathers raised
up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging him on a cross.
He is the one whom God exalted to his right hand as a prince
and a savior to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of
sins. And we are his witnesses of these
things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who
obey him. But when they heard this, they
were cut to the quick and intended to kill them. But a Pharisee
named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law respected by all the
people, stood up in the council and gave orders to put the men
outside for a short time. And he said to them, Men of Israel,
take care. What do you propose to do to
these men? For some time ago, Teutis rose
up claiming to be somebody in a group of about 400 men joined
up with him. But he was killed and all who
followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After this man,
Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census and drew away
some people after him. He too perished and all those
who followed him were scattered. So in the present case, I say
to you, stay away from these men and let them alone. For if
this plan or action is of God, it will be overthrown. If it
is of men, it will be overthrown. But if it is of God, you will
not be able to overthrow them or else you may even be found
fighting against God. They took his advice, and after
calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them
not to speak in the name of Jesus and then release them. So they
went on their way from the presence of the council, rejoicing that
they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for his name. And every day in the temple and
from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching
Jesus as the Christ. Let's pray. Father. I come before you in
the name of your son. To Him be all glory and honor
and praise. To Him be every blessing, all
richness, everything that is good. Father, we thank you for your
son. We thank you for all that he is and all that he has done
on our behalf. And we so long to represent him
as we ought to think thoughts that are pleasing to you, to
say things that are pleasing to you. To do it all for his sake. Father,
we are weak and we are tired. We have no strength within ourselves.
You know, Lord. You know. So please, I call upon
your name, Lord, and I ask for your help, for your aid. Lord, I'm so tired of words,
just words. Please do a work among us in
our day, a work that cannot be attributed to men or their intellect
or their great knowledge, but only to you and your good spirit.
Lord, honor your son here today. Honor him. We have no confidence
in self. We know that if you do not show
up, not even one proper word will
come forth from our mouth. We need you, O Lord. We need
you. In Jesus' name, amen. I was assigned to preach on Acts
5, verse 41, and that's what I intend to do. I do, though,
covet your prayers. I'm feeling rather weak today. We're going to look at this text
and the text that we've read, and we're going to look in different
places in the book of Acts. And we're going to look at four
things. We're going to look at how these men were persecuted. We're going to look at the cause
of their persecution. And then we're going to look
at what was not the cause of their persecution. And that is
a very important point today. And then finally, how were they
able to respond with joy and endurance? And not just how were
they able to do it? Because I want to know more than
just history. I want to know how can we do
the same? What is it that we need that
we can be like these men? First of all, let's just look
briefly at how they were persecuted. You know, sometimes I remember
I was doing a radio interview in Detroit, and the radio interviewer,
he said to me, Mr. Washer, there are a lot of people
who do not like you. How do you handle persecution? And I thought for a moment, when
was the last time I was beaten 40 times? When was the last time
all my possessions were taken from me? When was the last time
I was thrown down and kicked until my ribs broke?" And then
I said, sir, I'm not persecuted. It's amazing how in America we
take that word and redefine it to mean someone looked at us
harshly. But that's not what happened
here. It says they were flogged from the Greek word It means
to scourge, to thrash, to beat. It can be used to flay open something. It is even used at times with
regard to skinning something. What they suffered was very,
very severe. Now, what you need to know is
that when someone was flogged, It really comes out of Deuteronomy
25 and verse 3. It was the idea of 40 lashes. Now, at this time and in Jewish
tradition, it had become known as 40 minus one lashes. Now, the scholars debate as to
why this was this way, but many of them think this, that when
they were giving the lashes, they weren't certain of their
count had they miscounted. So they figured, let's do 39
because it's better to err on the side of mercy than it is
to err on the side of severity. Now, in this beating, the back
was the target, but oftentimes the punisher didn't have that
good of aim. And so it was not only the back
left open and bleeding, but sometimes, of course, the shoulders would
be struck, the neck, the face, the lower back. and the legs,
sometimes even the stomach. When a person walked out of there,
it wasn't just a minor beating. It just wasn't getting in a fight
and getting beat up. They were flayed, so to speak. And this was a pain that would
last them more than just a day or a week. So we need to be very
careful when we talk about how we're being persecuted in the
world today, because we need to find our definition of that
from the New Testament. And all that we suffer today,
at least most of us in America, is not quite the same. But there
is something that we have in common. They were not only beaten,
they were not only flogged, they were shamed. And that is something
that does have to do with our culture. Now, the word shamed
here, atimaso, if the idea is to, well, the word timao means
to to esteem. to value someone, to honor someone. And when you put the negative
particle in front of it, of course, it means to not value someone,
to not esteem them, to not honor them in any way. And not only
am I describing what happened here to the apostles, but I'm
describing what happens to the average preacher today in America,
whether it's personally or whether it's through the media. It is
shame. The word can mean to render infamous,
to despise, to dishonor, to treat with great contempt. Now, here's
something that I want you to see. When the world's own suffers
for the world's cause, the world will greatly honor them. But
when the Christian suffers, it will never be advertised or spun
by the world in a way as to make you think that the Christian
is suffering for an honorable reason. Now, I want you to think
about this. First of all, when a Christian,
as these apostles here, when they suffer, they often suffer
for usually the same thing. One of them is this. The Christians
are shamed as enemies of God. as enemies of God. If you listen
to what Jesus said in John 16 to Jesus said, they will make
you outcasts from the synagogue. But an hour is coming for everyone
who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. One of the most amazing things,
comforting things in the midst of persecution is that Jesus
told us it was going to come. So when it happens, we shouldn't
be thinking that somehow the sovereignty of God has fallen
apart. No, absolutely not. Christ told us it would be this
way. And if there were no persecution
now, that would bring doubt upon his word because he promised
persecution. Now, I believe that we're headed
for a time like this in the West. I really do. You see, in the
West, what's happening is they're redefining Christianity as love
without truth. So whenever a man, whenever a
Christian speaks the truth in love, he is automatically somewhat
cast out of Christianity. He's not really labeled a Christian.
He's not suffering as a Christian. He's suffering as some right
wing, some radical, some bigot, some unstable person with mental
problems. Anyone who holds to the word.
In this day, and it's going to get worse as it goes on, it's
going to suffer not as a Christian, not as a Christian, but even
as an enemy of God. It is interesting to me that
when I watch the news, that oftentimes when Muslim terrorists kill somebody
or blow something up or cause some terrible problem somewhere
in the world, they are called this. They are called radical
fundamentalists. They're not necessarily called
Muslims. They're actually separated from the Muslims and called radical
fundamentalists. And what's amazing and frightening
is in the modern day media, if anyone preaches the word of God,
they're not called a Christian. They're called a radical fundamentalist. It seems to me, brothers, that
something of a net is being drawn. Also, I want you to see that
Christians are also shamed as enemies of the state, enemies
of the state. If you look in Acts 17, 7, Christians
were accused of acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying
that there is another king, Jesus. Now, before we go on, I want
to say something. This is in itself a distortion. It's a false
accusation. But nonetheless, it is an accusation
being railed against the Christians that somehow they are making
themselves enemies of the state. Now, I want you to know something,
and this is very important because of all the political activity
that's going on today and how so many people who consider themselves
part of the church are involved in this. Christianity is not
advanced by the Christians fighting against the government. Let me
say that again. Christianity is never advanced
by Christians fighting against the government. As a matter of
fact, we are commanded in First Timothy two to do what? To pray
for kings and all who are in authority. And then look in Romans
13 one, it says that we are to be in subjection to the governing
authorities. The kingdom to which we belong. At this moment is somewhat unseen. It is a spiritual kingdom. It
is not advanced by physical, carnal means. It is advanced
by the preaching of the gospel. And by prayer now, having said
that, I want you to realize something that. Whenever God is removed
from a society, whenever God is removed from a culture, something
must take that place. And oftentimes what takes the
place of God in a godless culture is the state. It is the state. And that state in time begins
to demand similar worship and similar obedience. So they get
to the point where They begin to decide. They begin to rule
over even conscience and religion. And they begin to make demands
and prohibitions that are contrary to the scriptures. Now, as I've
said many, many times, what must we do? We must preach the gospel.
We must pray. But we must also know that a
time could come when even though we seek to get along the best
we can, the time will come when demands are made upon us and
prohibitions are made upon us that are contrary to scripture.
And we will have to stand and we will have to suffer. And it's
not extravagant to say that those things may be on the horizon,
that those things may be on the horizon. Now, I want to go on.
Christians are not only shamed as enemies of God, are not only
shamed as enemies of the state, but they are often shamed in
this way. And I think you'll be able to
identify with this. Christians are shamed as ignorant. Simply
ignorant. mentally unstable, self-righteous,
intolerant bigots. We hear that kind of language
all the time, but it's not unusual. If you look in Acts 26, 24, listen
to what it says. While Paul was saying this in
his defense, Festus said in a loud voice, Paul, you are out of your
mind. Your great learning is driving
you mad. Now here, what do we see? What
do we see here? We see one of the greatest tools
of the world, one of the greatest tools of Satan, and one of the
greatest weapons used against Christianity. Do you know what
it is? It's a logical fallacy. Argumentum ad hominem. What does
that mean? Disregard what's being said. Do not deal with the merit or
the virtue of the argument being put forth. Simply attack the
one who is speaking it. Attack him. Destroy him. Now, here's what I want you to
see about the world. The world is utterly convinced
of its own mythology. The world is utterly convinced
of its own mythology. Now, what do I mean by that?
Its mythology is this. There may well be a God. Yes, the world will say that
there may well be a God, but that God has not spoken. He has not spoken. Now, why does
the world say that? Because if God has not spoken,
there is no truth. And if there is no truth, there
is no wrong. And if there is no wrong, we
are free from God and we are free from righteousness and we
can do everything our wicked heart desires privately and corporately
without any affliction of conscience. Now, That's the world and the
world's happy with that. But then something happens. The
Christian shows up. The Christian shows up and he
ruins everyone's party. Have you noticed that? That's
always the case. It was the case in the first
century. It's the case today. Ruins everyone's party. Everyone
is singing. Everyone is dancing. Everyone
is saying, I'm OK. You're OK. And the Christian
shows up and says, actually, none of you are OK. And how does the world respond?
They will not sit down and have a discussion with the physician. The first response is arguing. But then the world quickly loses
its patience. And then what does it do? We're
not going to discuss. We're not even going to argue.
We are going to shut you down. We are going to silence you.
And how do they do it? With shame. With shame. Argumentum ad hominem. Look at,
look at you, you Christians, you arrogant, arrogant imbeciles,
thinking that you alone have the truth. You're so absurd,
you're so pathetic, you're ridiculous. You do not belong in the academic
world, you belong nowhere. As a matter of fact, you're very,
very dangerous and something must be done with you. It always
declines to that point until you get to Acts 22, 22, where
they said of Paul away with such a fellow from the earth, for
he should not be allowed to live. Why should he not be allowed
to live? Because he loved the truth and preached the truth
and the world hates the truth. Why does the world hate the truth?
Let me give you an example. Years ago, I was in a debate
with a Spaniard and we were going back and forth for hours, back
and forth, back and forth over truth, over epistemology, over
how do we know what we know? And then I found out his favorite
philosopher was a Spanish philosopher by the name of Miguel de Unamuno.
Miguel de Unamuno was a very, very prominent philosopher in
Spain, still is, has a tremendous influence on the academic world.
And this is basically the gist of Unamuno. He said, La vida
es un sueño. Life is a dream. And that the
most noble thing that a man could ever do is be a seeker of the
truth. And the most arrogant, absurd,
stupid thing a man could ever say is that he found it. And
I looked at my Spaniard friend and I said, I finally figured
you out. Now I know where you're going
with this. I said, you want to be a seeker
of the truth because there's nobility in being able to say
you are a seeker of the truth, but you don't want to find the
truth because the moment you find it, you have to submit to
it and you don't want to do that. And that's the world. That's
the world today. That is the world today. Now, let's ask ourselves what
caused the persecution. Let me say it in one word. And
this let this just grind down into the deepest part of your
mind. Christ. Christ was the reason. Christ
was center. Christ was put forth. It was
Christ, Christ, Christ. And if you're going to be persecuted,
don't be persecuted because of your identification with some
political party. Be persecuted because of Christ and Christ
alone. Now, why does Christ bring persecution? Well, the world hates Christ.
Well, no, let me put that, I need to really, we need to look at
that for a moment. The world hates the biblical
Christ. The world laughs at the Christ
of most of contemporary evangelicalism. And the world loves the Christ
of the liberal. Now, do you see what I'm saying?
The biblical Christ they hate. This effeminate sort of savior who
is not the savior, but a savior and a teacher and loves everyone
without judgment, without truth. The Christ of modern day evangelicalism
is just laughed at. Whenever we lower who Christ
is, it doesn't impress the world. It gives them just more grounds
to laugh. And then the liberal over here,
well, they love his Christ because it's nothing more than an idol,
a figment of man's imagination. Man simply creates Christ in
his own image, and then he worships the image he's made. But make
no mistake about it, if you preach the biblical Christ, there will
be persecution, not only outside the doors of the church, but
even inside the doors of the church, because so much of the
world is in the church. And so much of the world is in
the church because the preachers aren't preaching truth. Let's
go on. This is what Christ said in John
7, 7. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify
of it that its deeds are evil. Why does the world hate him?
Well, let's let's take this. Just run with me. Hold your place
in the book of Acts, but go for a moment to the book of John,
chapter three. In verse 18, Jesus says, This is the judgment that
light has come into the world. And men love the darkness rather
than the light, for their deeds were evil. I'm from a farm, a
ranch. Love fishing as a boy. But to
fish, you got to have worms and bugs and all sorts of creepy,
crawly things like that. And so you go out to where there's
rocks and logs and you turn them over. And what happens the moment
you turn them over? Light enters into the darkness. And what do all those worms and
bugs do? They run, they run, they run
because they hate the light, because they do not want to be
exposed by the light. Why do men hate Christ? Because he's good. Because he's
good. Why would anyone hate a good
Christ? Because they're evil. Why do men hate Christ? Because
he's love. Why would anyone hate a loving
Christ? Because they're loveless. Oh,
everyone will talk about love. But then when you teach in the
name of Christ, sir, you cannot divorce your wife for a prettier
woman because you need to love. That's when they rebel. You see
that? That's what we need to understand.
Now, the world hates Christ. And if you and I preach Christ,
the world will hate us. Now, we do not need to try to
make ourselves hateful. We do not have to be like some
of the street preachers that I see and I preach on the streets.
I'm not against street preaching. Matter of fact, a lot of you
guys ought to do probably a lot more of it. But when these guys put
up cameras, And then insult everyone walking down the sidewalk and
it's filmed on a camera so they can put it on YouTube and show
everybody how persecuted they are. If they're hated, they need
to be hated. I don't like them either. We need to be hated because we're
like Christ, not because we're trying to generate hatred. Jesus said in John 15, 18, if
the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it
hated you. That's giving an explanation
for why they were hated, but it's also giving them some comfort.
Know this, this is not something unusual that's happening to you.
Your identification with me, the light, will bring hostility
from the darkness. Now, I remember when I was a
young Christian, you know, preachers would always preach if we were
just more like Jesus. If we as Christians in the world,
in America, were just more like Jesus, there'd be revival. People
would be converted. Amen. I need to be more like
Jesus. Now I realize that's not true. If we were more like Jesus,
there'd be a lot more of us nailed to crosses. The world does not like Jesus
unless the world's heart has been regenerated through a supernatural
work of the spirit of the living God. And that's why as preachers
and pastors, you should never think you're going to be able
to achieve something by your own mind, your own cleverness
or some church growth strategy. The kingdom advances only through
a supernatural work of God when men submit themselves to the
word of God by preaching the word of God and living a life
of intercessory prayer. Now, the world is going to hate
us. But let's make sure that they
hate us because we're good. Listen to 1 Peter 4, 15 and 16. Make sure that none of you suffers
as a murderer or thief or an evildoer or a troublesome meddler. But if anyone suffers as a Christian,
he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name. The world is going to persecute
us. But make sure that the world
persecutes us because we are good. Now, another thing, the
world persecuted these first apostles. Why? Not only because
they were identified with Christ, but because they were preaching
Christ. They were preaching Christ. And
we see when we read the text like Acts 520, they preached
all the words of this life. That is, they preached the full
gospel. The full gospel is not some charismatic
thing. I hear that all the time. I'm
full gospel. I go, I'm full gospel, too. How do you define it? Preach
the full gospel of God. In America, we have taken the
glorious gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and reduced
it down to four spiritual laws or five things God wants you
to know, or your best life now. It's none of that. You preach
the gospel, you start with the character of God. You move from
there to the character and work of man. You bring in, if necessary,
and it is usually necessary, you bring in the law and the
commands and the scriptures and you show men that they are condemned
and you work in such a way that they cannot escape from the verdict. And then you turn the page and
you speak much of this glorious Savior. Tell them who he is,
not just a man, not just a teacher, But God in the flesh, what he
did, not just give us a new way to live. No, not just to give
us a new morality. Absolutely not. What did he do?
He redeemed us. That's the religion. That's the
kernel, that's the heart of Christianity. We are not primarily a religion
of morality, even though we have a morality. We are a religion
of redemption and we preach redemption, not redemption in the church,
redemption in Christ, in Christ alone. We speak of his death. We speak
and we should speak much more of his resurrection and his exaltation
and the full gospel of pleading with men to turn from their sins
and return to God by faith in the person and work of his son.
And then when they say they have returned to teach them from the
scriptures what biblical assurance truly is and then fill their
mind with gospel warnings. that they not turn away from
this truth that they have received. They're preaching. What was it
that was so offensive? First of all, they're preaching
inculpated or incriminated men. They preached repentance. They
preached turning from sin. They preached warnings of judgment. Just look for a minute. Go to
Acts chapter 2, verse 22. And 23, listen to Peter. Men of Israel, listen to these
words. Jesus, the Nazarene, a man attested
to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed
through him in the midst, just as you, that long finger, you
yourselves know this man delivered over by the predetermined plan
and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands
of godless men and put him to death. Now, Look at this. Sometimes when I'm preaching,
you know what I was told in preaching class? Never use the word you.
Use the word we. You want to use the word we? I don't. I don't use the word
we. I use the word you, first of all, because I'm preaching.
You're not. And you're the one I'm pointing to. I preach to you. Second of all, I don't want you
comfortable. That's not why I preach. I don't
want you comfortable. You see, even sinners gather
great power when they mass together, don't they? That's why you have
all these support groups supporting each other in their sin, each
one affirming the other one. So their conscience dies. I want
the spotlight to be on you alone, seated there by yourself with
no help, no comfort, just like the day of judgment. You, they
said. You've done it. You crucified
Him. You're guilty. Now, of course,
we must say it in love. Maybe I do study the Old Testament
too much. We need to do it in love, brethren,
but we need to do it. And even if you do it in love,
they'll say you're loveless because that's the world that we live
in. Look in look in verses, chapter two, verse thirty seven and thirty
eight. What was after he told them what
they had done, what does he say now when they heard this, they
were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of
the apostles, brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said to
them, repeat this prayer after us. That's not what he said, brethren.
What did he say? Repent, each of you, and be baptized. Is he saying that salvation is
by baptism? No, but he is teaching us something very important.
If you really believe, you will publicly identify with this Christ
that almost everybody else in this country hates. If you truly believe, you will
make that public profession of faith in the name of Jesus. Now,
let's go on. Let's look again. So let's see
it's not an isolated case. Look at chapter three and look
at verse 13. The God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus,
the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate
when he had decided to release him. But you disowned the holy
and righteous one and you asked for a murderer to be granted
to you. That's the world right there. The world. They commit deicide and let the
one who committed homicide go free. but put to death the prince
of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which
we are all witnesses. And then in verse 19, therefore
repent and return so that your sins may be wiped away in order
that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the
Lord. Now this is preaching. Why? Because it really deals
with the sin of men and it really deals with repentance and then
with such joy. fullness. It offers grace. It offers grace. It offers salvation.
Look in verses 22. of chapter 3, Moses said, The
Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren
to him. You shall give heed to everything
he says to you. And it will be that every soul
that does not take heed, that prophet shall be, does not heed,
that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. When was the last time in an
evangelistic sermon you told people, If you do not repent
and you remain in this hardness of heart, you will be destroyed. Too hard a language? Our society is too psychologically
fractured. It's not strong enough anymore
to hear this kind of language. It's this kind of language that
is the only thing that can save it. since you will be destroyed. Look at chapter 4, getting close
to where our text is. Look at chapter 4 and verse 8. Then Peter, filled with the Holy
Spirit, said to them, rulers and elders of the people, if
we are on trial today for a benefit done a sick man, As to how this
man has been made well, let it be known to all of you and to
all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ,
the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead
by this name, this man stands here before you in good health. And then he goes on. He is the
stone. Which was rejected by you, the builders, he was pointing
right at them. but which became the chief cornerstone. Now, brothers, the part that
I love most about this text, he's saying, if you want to know
what this is all about, if you want to know why why we're on
trial, it's because of Jesus. Let that be said of us on that
day. A day that may not be too far
away. When they're screaming all these reasons why we should
be locked away, let it be that we've only really given them
one reason to lock us up, and that is our sincere devotion
to the person of Jesus Christ and nothing else. Not a political
meddler, not an antagonist, no, a preacher of the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Just one more look at chapter
five, verse twenty eight. The leader said, we gave you
strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet
you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intended to
bring this man's blood upon us. I want to say two things here. They're pointing out the guilt.
They're saying like Nathan to David, you're the man, you're
responsible. And they are bringing the blood
of this man upon their hearers. But it's because they want to
truly bring the blood of this man upon their hearers. They
want them to be washed in the blood of this man. that this
death that so pricks the conscience of the sinner and makes him angry
is the very death, the only death that can save him. Also, I want
you to know something, that they spread this name throughout all
of Jerusalem. Brothers, now listen, not everyone
has the same calling, and I know that. But sometimes we take all these
passages that have to do with the power of preaching, the importance
of preaching, the power of preaching, and it seems as though they only
apply to a pulpit ministry. These men were not just standing
behind a pulpit expounding Scripture. They were in the streets expounding
Scripture. Now, that doesn't mean everyone
has to be a street preacher, but brothers, We are not children
of the Reformation if we believe, build it and they will come.
Jesus said, go out into the highways and the hedges, and if you're
a young man here and you love the reformers and everything,
you may have this wrong picture of them, that they were these
men who who sat in robes in these beautiful old stone chapels and
they just wrote. No, they were men who got out
of those stone buildings and they preached the gospel everywhere. And because of it, they suffered.
They suffered. Those of us who preach the gospel
in the pulpit, we need to get out more. We need to get out
more. We need to proclaim the gospel
of Jesus Christ to the masses. Why is it that so many people
who do not have very good theology are constantly in the streets?
And those who have really good theology are constantly in the
library and the pulpit. Let us do both. Let us learn
to reach out And again, I'm not saying you have to be a street
preacher, but when you walk into that place and there's a lost
person waiting on you, when you walk into that place, you're
always thinking a soul, a soul, a soul. I want to spread this
news to the world. I want to spread this news to
the world. When you sit down on an airplane,
you may be the only person who knows the gospel that that person
sitting beside you has ever come into contact with. You're all
getting very quiet. Is there a reason? We need to
preach. Preach in a pulpit and preach
everywhere. And I do believe that when a
man gets older, he maybe should confine himself more to inside,
more to teaching others. I do believe that. So you young
men, while you're young and you have your strength about you,
go out there and preach the gospel. preach the gospel. They filled
the streets with the gospel. Now, so not only did they preach
a message that incriminated men, but now here's the thing that
really got them in trouble. And here's the thing that's going
to get us all in trouble, a whole lot of trouble. And it's this.
They also preach the exclusivity of Christ. If you want to make
the world angry, If you want the world to look at you and
cry out away with this person, this person is not worthy to
live, then hold on to the exclusivity of Christ. Look in chapter four. Look in verse 12. And there is salvation in no
one else. For there is no other name under
heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. Do you know it is interesting
that Christians, they tell me that Christians in the second
and third century and even beyond were oftentimes persecuted as
atheists. Did you know that? Why? Well,
again, let's go back to what we learned before. Here's the
Roman Empire. There's thousands of different
kinds of people, thousands of different cultures, thousands
of different gods, thousands of different ways. I mean, they're
trading gods like baseball cards and every one is happy. Everyone is just getting along
fine. And then the Christian shows
up and says, your gods aren't gods. We do not believe in them. They are idols. They are inventions
by the fallen mind of man and nothing more. That's all they
are. There is only one God and he
has sent his son to us, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Something
else. If you want to. If you're an unconverted minister
sitting here. And you want to avoid you want
to really look evangelical. But you want to avoid persecution.
I'm going to show you how to do it. You don't have to, I mean,
just go on a full out attack against scripture. You don't
have to go on a full out attack against even the deity of Christ
or the humanity of Christ. You can even teach justification
by faith. You don't have to lose books
of the Bible. You don't even have to cut out
a single phrase if you want to avoid persecution in this world.
Here's the only thing you have to do, sir. Change the definite article to
an indefinite article, that's all you have to do. You can go
on every television show tomorrow and you can say Christ is wonderful. Christ is the son of God. Christ
is so special to me. Christ saved me. Christ is my
way. Christ is my way. But you cannot
say he's the way Christ is a savior. But you cannot say he is the
savior. Now, you may be wondering, why
am I talking about this? Why am I talking about just the
exclusivity of Christ? I mean, in evangelicalism today,
almost everyone holds to the fact that Jesus is the only way.
There's only one God and one mediator between God and man,
the man Christ Jesus. Brothers, it's slipping. And
mark my words, especially for some of you younger guys, this
will be the battle of our lives. This is where it's all going
to come down. You are going to see that in
America, more and more and more and more evangelicalism is going
to give way. I do not think that they will
fall into a full blown universalism. I believe that evangelicalism
even now is falling into a full blown inclusivism. They will
tell you everything about Jesus that's in the Bible, but they
will not say he is the only way. And if you don't believe that's
going to happen, you need to look around you because it's going
to happen. And all you have to do, if you want, is just take
a look at Europe. I was just in Croatia. I was
just in the Czech Republic for the guys in TMAI. You want to talk about a battle?
Those guys have a battle. And you know what? The battle
isn't so much with the unbelievers. Or even with the Catholic Church. The battle is with all the evangelicals. Who are hostile and against those
beloved missionaries in Czech and Croatia because of one thing,
they believe that Jesus is the only way. Not Jesus and Muhammad, not Jesus
and Buddha, not Jesus and Hinduism, not Jesus and the Catholic Church,
not Jesus and Mary, not Jesus. Just Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. You know, there was a time in
evangelicalism when the statement, Jesus is Lord. You know, you
really can't say that's a unifying statement because all kinds of
people say that. But I believe that one day, even
in America, the statement Jesus is Lord will return to being
a unifying statement of all Christians. Why? Because I believe that more
and more as we go down this hill of relativism. of a false view
of tolerance and of everything else, we are going to see evangelicals
giving way, giving way, giving way until they come to the point
that they say, Jesus is my God. Jesus is my savior. I affirm
you. You should affirm me. When you
have done that, you have committed apostasy. Now, let me say one
other thing about this. Two other things. One, a statement
that supposedly was made by Francis of Assisi. Supposedly, he said
this preach the gospel always use words when necessary. Now,
I understand maybe what he was trying to say, but the statement
is dangerous and it's wrong. There is no way to preach the
gospel with your life. You can affirm the gospel with
your life, but you cannot preach the gospel with your life. You
can only preach the gospel by opening up your mouth and speaking
forth the word of God. And when you do, that's when
all hell breaks loose. I have a friend in a country
that is one of the most Muslim countries in the world, and he
was telling me this. a couple of years ago, he said
when he got to the city where he was going to work and he found
a place to live with his wife and children, that he started
going around the neighborhood talking to people. And he openly
told them when they asked him, he said, I'm a Christian. And
he said he was amazed at how many people said this. Oh, you're
a Christian. Oh, that's wonderful. Wonderful.
There was a Christian here. He was a missionary. He said,
really? Yes, he was here. He's here like
for 20 years. Everybody loved him. He was such
a nice man. What did he do? Man, if you had
a problem, like if you had a leaky faucet or your tire and your
car was flat or just anything, he would help He was the nicest
man. And my friend told me, he said,
Paul, I have purposely gone around and talked to people. And all
I get everywhere is he was the nicest man they ever met. And
they loved him so much. And I can't find one person with
whom he shared the gospel of Jesus Christ. He wasn't loving. He was full of self-love. He loved himself more than he
loved those Muslim people. Why? Because the greatest goal
in his life was to have people like him. Most parents do not
discipline their children, not because they love their children,
they love themselves and they want their children to like them. When we do not preach the gospel,
it is the most loveless thing we could ever do. I've used this
illustration many times about my mother, who is a very, very
strong-willed woman, and the doctor knew it when she was dying
of cancer. And so when he came in to tell her, Ms. Washer, you're
dying of cancer, he brought in a stack of evidence like this.
And he said, you're dying of cancer. Evidence number one,
number two, you need a treatment. Evidence number three, number
four, number five. Until he had, with the evidence,
utterly convinced my mother she had to take a certain course
of action for her salvation. That doctor ruined my mother's
day. He ruined her month. He made
her sad. My mother cried. You would think
if I was a good son, I'd have just stood up and punched him
right in the head. He made my mom cry. No, that doctor showed tremendous
amount of love for an old woman is what he did. And he was willing
to make himself the target of her anger in order to save her. Let's go on. Another reason why
they were persecuted is they obeyed God rather than men. You need to understand something.
Humanity has declared war on God. And the problem with Christians
is they have chosen the wrong side. And if the world has shown
us anything, especially in the last few months, it does not
tolerate anyone who disagrees with it, even in the smallest
way. Therefore, to be persecuted,
brothers, you do not have to walk around rebuking the world
You do not have to walk around trying to make enemies. The only
thing you have to do to be persecuted in this life is to live a godly
life. And if you live a godly life
and you say godly things and you make godly choices, the world
will persecute you. Now, pastors, we are sometimes
very cloistered. And so I want to bring something
to your mind right now. You know, we get up in the morning
and we study our Bibles, we go to the church, we talk to other
elders and other people in the church, and then Christians come
and visit us, and then we go visit other Christians, and then
we preach. And that's pretty cloistered. That's pretty protected. But never forget, you have people
in your church, simple Christians, who when they go to the tool
and dye shop or the factory, they are literally immersed in
vulgarities and filth. And so many things
even beyond us to mention here. And when they sit down at a meal
to eat, And they're there by themselves at lunch with all
the other factory workers, and they bow their head in prayer.
That's all they're doing. They're not witnessing. They're
not even saying anything out loud. They bow their head to
pray. You've got to understand there
are people in that factory who are going to go on the attack
against them and are doing that. Never forget that your life is
easier, not harder, than the people you're pastoring. I have
sometimes gone out with people into their jobs in different
places and just literally come back with my head reeling from
all the filth that surrounds them. Never forget that. That
is why, as a man of God, that those sheep are so precious to
you. And when they come in, the only
thing you're wanting to do is to wash them and to comfort them
and to strengthen them. And the only thing that has the
power to do that is the word of God. The word of God. Sometimes I think it would do
us all well if we just quit the ministry for a couple of weeks
and got a job at the factory, we would see what a lot of our
people go through and need to realize that there's a lot more
persecution out there than than what we sometimes think. Now,
Paul wrote this in Second Timothy 312. Indeed, all who desire to
live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. That's just a
fact. It's just a fact. Now, I want to look at some other
reason for which they were persecuted. I believe that they were also
persecuted because they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
Acts 1 8. They would be filled with the
Holy Spirit. They would have power to be witnesses. Let me read a passage from Galatians
5, 17. For the flesh sets its desire
against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, for these
are in opposition to one another. Now, Paul, in this context, is
talking about the internal struggle in the life of the Christian.
I'm sure of that. But there is a principle that goes all the
way back to Genesis 3, 15. And that is there is this great
battle going on in the cosmos between God. And evil between
God and Satan, and when you take a man who is filled with the
Holy Spirit, the more we are filled with the Holy Spirit of
God, the more opposition we will have to face from the world and
from the devil. I hear preachers say sometimes,
I don't know what the big deal is, I get along with everybody.
Well, I know what the big deal is. I hear preachers say this, we
know we don't preach on sin. I said, we don't preach on sin
in our church. I said, the Holy Spirit's not
in your church. How can you say the Holy Spirit is not in my
church? Well, because you're fighting
against him. How can you say I'm fighting against him? Because
Jesus said when the Holy Spirit comes, he will convict the world
of sin. And you won't even talk about it. So if anyone gets saved
in your church, God's having to work around you, not through
you. Now you know why I preach in
a lot of places once. Also, these men were having an
impact. They were having an impact. They
were stealing souls. We see the number of people that
were gathered in at the day of Pentecost. We see in other times.
I mean, Jerusalem was being turned upside down. It was a magnificent
work of God. And the devil and the world does
not take lightly. Us taking their people. You know,
let me ask you a question that. Several times when I was young,
I would sit under the preaching, listen to Leonard Ravenhill.
He would come by and Wesleyan holiness, but amazing man. I greatly benefited from him.
And he was old school, he was old school, that is for sure.
And he would always say things like this. Is your name known
in hell? Are you making such a dent? in
the kingdom of Satan that your name is known in hell. Let me
ask you a question. If you are a believer. Then your
name is known in heaven and it is loved. But as a minister. Is your name known in hell? And
is it hated? Are you having an impact? Now,
when I say impact, I'm not saying is your church big? I'm not saying
are you a conference speaker? That means nothing to me. Nothing. What I'm saying is this. Are
you a man who has set himself to know the word of God, to obey
the word of God, to preach the word of God? And are you a man
whose voice is often heard in heaven? Are you? Sometimes I see young preachers,
I watch them. And you'll see a young man make
a transition. It's amazing. He goes from a very, very nice
young man who loves Jesus, who reads his Bible, who walks in
godliness. And when he's asked to get up
to the congregation, he shares and it's correct and it's good
and all that. And then usually one day, maybe
he hasn't been asked to preach for months and then He gets up,
he's allowed to preach as a young man under the supervision of
the elders, and all of a sudden, he's no longer a boy. His back
straightens out. He begins to preach with authority
and power. The word of God is just running
through him like fire. Seems like his whole body's gonna
be tore apart. And I always walk up to him when
I see that happen. I say, congratulations, you now
have a target on the back of your head. Be very, very careful now. Very careful. You do not disturb
these waters. Without Leviathan jumping back
to bite you. I mean, I don't have a Ph.D.
I mean, I barely have a Master's. Sometimes I don't even know what
I'm doing here. I just think they left the door open too wide and
a mouse came in. I don't know. Sometimes when
I'm sitting with some of these men who preach here, I think
to myself, I look around and I think, well, I can skin a deer
faster than they can. I don't know. I don't even know
why I'm here. But be very, very careful. This
is more than just intellect. This is more than just exposition. Preaching has to be something
of the Spirit of God. When he grabs ahold of a man
and nearly tears him in two, it's preaching. It's having this
sense of the Spirit of God. I have no great mind. If the
Holy Spirit doesn't show up, I won't be able to put three
words together. But if he shows up, nothing is
impossible. Nothing. Nothing is impossible. Now, what did not cause their
persecution? I know we need to hurry. What
did not cause their persecution? They were not persecuted for
deviant behavior. Number one. There's a guy that
used to come to my church back in Peru and he never became a
member, but I counseled him a lot. And one day he came in, his head
was kind of dragging. I said, what's wrong? He said, man, I'm
being so persecuted at work for being a Christian. I am being
so persecuted at work for being a Christian. And I said, you
know what, brother, I really know you really well. You're
not being persecuted as a Christian, you're being persecuted because
you're the laziest human being I ever met in my life. Let us not be persecuted for
something we ought to be persecuted for. Let us not be persecuted
for deviant behavior. And we see in the book of Acts
that when there was deviant behavior in the book of Acts, the church
and the leaders of the church dealt with it. They dealt with
it. Also, let us not be persecuted
for un-Christian behavior, but let us not also be persecuted
for wearing Christian emblems and not having Christian character." So, you got yourself a T-shirt and a bracelet. What would Jesus
do? Have you answered that question?
Because if not, I can help you. You know, there's a there's a
phrase, a saying that is attributed to Martin Luther, but some scholars
say he didn't say it. I don't know who said it, but
it's a good phrase. And it's this. If you're a shoe cobbler
and you want to glorify God with your shoes, don't put crosses
on them, just make really good shoes. Just make really good
shoes. Also, they were not persecuted
for unscriptural teaching. Do you understand that? It's
amazing. I love the Old Testament. I love
the Old Testament. And I love reading through the
Book of Acts. Why? Because it's filled with the Old Testament. It's filled with the scriptures
that they had. Now, these men were inspired. They were apostles. They would leave us the New Testament.
And yet when they made their defenses and when they made their
proclamations, what did they do? They quoted scripture. Everything they said was drawn
out of scripture, affirmed by scripture, conformed to scripture.
So they weren't persecuted for some deviant, silly interpretation. Another thing, they were not
persecuted for religious fanaticism. This is very important. The problems
that we see in the church in Corinth, they're nonexistent
in the book of Acts. Even when we get to Acts chapter
2 and we see the extraordinary outpouring of the Spirit and
we see the disciples speaking in tongues. It is in accordance
with the scriptures. It is tongues, real languages
with real phonetic value through which biblical truth could be
communicated. Do you see that? Not what's going on today. This
was miraculous. It was validated and it was backed
up by scripture. So there was no religious fanaticism. Finally, they were not persecuted
for politics. They were not attacking the government. Number one, they were not fretting
about the government. They were not fretting about
the government. People call me, what are you
going to do now to change the leadership? I didn't know there
was a change of leadership. Don't you watch the news? Yeah,
I watched it today. Oh, that leadership. You mean
the little game that men play when they climb on those little
tin thrones and wear those little party hats? Is that what you're
talking about? Leadership hasn't changed. Have you read Psalms
2? And I see all these pastors just, you know. fretting, and
what really makes me sick is when they put their hope in political
parties instead of putting their hope in the resurrected, glorified
Christ. There was no political activism.
There was preaching and prayer. Before the Sanhedrin, what did
Peter do? He preached. He preached. Before
Agrippa, what did Paul do? Preached. Before Festus, what
did he do? Preach. Before Caesar, I mean,
Caesar's corrupt, all right? A lot of bad things going on
in the country. And when Paul had an opportunity
to appear before his tribune, what did he do? He preached.
He preached, men. He preached. And not only are
we to preach, we are to pray. Look what the Bible says in 1
Timothy 2, 1 and 2. First of all, then, I urge that
entreaties and prayers and petitions and thanksgiving be made on behalf
of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that
we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.
Now, I believe with all my heart that when Paul wrote this, he
had Jeremiah in the back of his mind. I am utterly convinced
of it. Because hear what was happening
with Jeremiah. Jeremiah told all the people, you're going
to be exiled. You're going to be exiled. The false prophet
said, you're not going to be exiled. And then when they got
exiled, what happened? Jeremiah, all the false prophets
said, don't build houses, don't do anything. You're going to
be taken right back to the promised land quickly. And God, through
Jeremiah, said something completely different. What did he say? Listen
to what God told Jeremiah to tell the exiles. Seek the welfare
of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the
Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare, you will have welfare.
Do you see the connection between that and first Timothy two? We're not going to change the
world by doing some sort of activism outside of scripture. We are
going to change the world by our preaching and by our character
and by the way we even treat our enemies. You know, it says
you are the salt of the earth. You know, it says that. And if
the salt is lost, it's saltiness. And so everybody reads that passage
and they go and have a Jesus parade down the middle of the
street. That's not what that means. What does it mean? It means basically this, a true
disciple of Christ has certain characteristics. You take those
characteristics away. You no longer have a disciple.
You take those characteristics away and replace them even with
other good things. You no longer have a disciple
who can change the world. If you want to change the world,
you need to be a disciple with the characteristics of a disciple.
And what are the characteristics of a disciple? The Beatitudes. Pour in spirit. mercy, brokenness, righteousness,
we can just keep going. You want to change the world?
Reflect the Beatitudes in your life and then preach the gospel
like there's no tomorrow and then intercede until your knees
are sore. You want to change the world?
Do that. People ask me sometimes, they'll say, I remember when
President Barack Obama was elected to his first term. I mean, I
got emails and then calls. What are you going to do? What
are you going to do? I'm gonna do what I've been doing
for 25 years. I'm going to pray for the president and I'm going
to preach the gospel. Now, President Trump's elected,
what are you gonna do? I'm still here doing the same
thing. I'm going to pray for this president
and I am going to preach the gospel. That's what we are called
to do. Now quickly, how did they respond
to persecution? By rejoicing? By rejoicing. And what were they really doing?
They were living out the Beatitudes, weren't they? Blessed are you
when men persecute you, but persecute you on account of me, Jesus is
saying. They were living out the Beatitudes.
They were also living out James' admonition in chapter one. To
rejoice in trials. Now, how can we do that? How
can we do that? Let me just say quickly. We can rejoice in the
midst of suffering, not because of the suffering, but because
of four things. There are many more, but I want
to just have time for four. First of all, when we suffer,
it puts us in great company. It puts us in the same company
with the prophets and with the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Second
of all, it results in eternal reward. Sometimes people are
so super spiritual that if I begin to talk about eternal reward,
they think that somehow you've got to think about eternal rewards
only if your motives are bad. Jesus talked about eternal rewards,
and we should have that concept in our mind. It should not be
the motivation, but it should be a motivation because the Lord
Jesus Christ gave it to us. When you're persecuted, there
is reward. Your reward is great. Also, it
results not only in greater reward in heaven, but it results in
greater holiness on earth. You know, sometimes when we're
struggling and we're in the midst of a great battle, maybe a trial,
people attacking us, maybe a sickness, and we cry out, Lord, why are
you allowing this to happen? And then the Lord responds, this
is exactly what you asked me for. You asked me for this. You wanted
to be more like my son. This is how you get there. In
the only hymns, John Newton, when he taught that beautiful
hymn, when he talks about how he prayed that God would just
make him more holy, that God would just draw him nearer. And
he expected that in one night of prayer, that God would just
visit him. But instead, God opened up the
gates of hell and he was tormented and he went through terrible
trials. And then the hymn, he cries out to God, God, why? And
God responds, this is what you asked me for. And in the midst
of trials, when you want to give up and back up so the trial will
go away, ask yourself, what do I want? Do I want what God wants?
Do I want an easy life or do I want conformity to Christ? Also, history proves. That persecution always advances
the church. In some places in the Middle
East, I could name them right now, the church is growing faster
than any other place in the world. Why? Well, where do you find
the most persecution? Persecution never hurts the church.
It's prosperity, brothers, that hurts the church. You're in far
more danger than anyone who has an axe hanging over their head. Now. I want us to note something about
this rejoicing. We have a few more minutes. I
can't believe they gave me till three o'clock. When it says when it says that they went away
rejoicing, this is a present tense participle. It wasn't just
some flamboyant moment of religious zeal. They were deeply Really. Rejoicing, and we can
see that in verse 42 of our text and every day in the temple and
from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching
Jesus as the Christ, they kept right on doing it. And that's
what you've got to do. And don't get sidetracked by
sin. Don't get sidetracked by gimmicks. Don't get sidetracked
by the fact that maybe in your neighborhood or your city somebody
did something else and their church just grew magnificently
if it wasn't according to the word of God. Ignore it. Put your head down and just keep
right on preaching and praying. Now, The last question, what
enabled them to meet persecution and rejoicing? Or what what enabled
them to to meet persecution head on? With rejoicing and endurance,
what what enabled them to do that? Because that's what I want
in my life. First of all, number one, God, Christ, heaven. And heaven's reward. was a greater
reality to these men than any shame or praise or reward that
the world could give them. I have found something in my
life, and it is when I read the Puritans, the reformers seems
to be the same. I must saturate my life in the
word of God. If what is unseen is to become
a greater reality, reality to me than what is seen. But not
only must I saturate my life in the word of God, I must tarry
with him. In prayer, I must tarry with
him in the night watch. Men, it's not just about exposition. It's not less than exposition,
but it's about more than exposition. What do your knees look like? Really? Really? I found it. I found it. My flesh hates studying the word
of God, but it hates even more prayer, because if I know a lot
about the word of God, I can maybe even boast in that or impress
somebody when I'm preaching. But prayer, no, that's a secret
thing. Nobody knows it. But God. I wish even Martin Lloyd-Jones,
the great expositor, said at the end of his life he would
that he had given more time to prayer. To prayer. There's one other thing I want
to say. Just turn with me to the book of Romans. Chapter two. There is a passage It's just amazing. Look at verse
7. To those who by perseverance
in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal
life. Have you ever thought of yourself
that way? Are you a man? who is persevering, doing what
is good because, listen to this, now listen to it, this is so
Spartan, isn't it? Seeking glory and honor and immortality
and eternal life. This is David Farnell written
all over it, doesn't it? He's a professor here in Greek
who likes this kind of stuff. Brothers, let me share something
with you. I am so tired of this false, monkish, wimpy, effeminate,
milquetoast, skinny gene, contemporary Christianity. I'm just tired of it. Men running around uncertainty,
fear, compromise, whining. We need men who through perseverance
are seeking glory and honor and immortality. An eternal life. That's what we need. We need
men that Paul describes, men who are on the alert, standing
firm in the faith, men who act like men and are strong. It's
what we need in the face of persecution. I remember one time a bunch of
people were attacking me. They made a film against me.
I mean, they really went to lengths to get me. And I came home and
I was kind of downcast and I walked in our log cabin there and my
wife looked at me and she said, what's wrong? I said, man, they
made a film against me. This has happened and this happened.
I said, I'm just down. You know what she said to me?
She said, you know what you need to do? You just need to man up
is what you need to do. Now, buddy, that's a woman right
there. You go back out there and fight. We're never having
that in this house. One time I had to deal with a
situation that was literally tearing me apart. And I walk
out the door, close the door behind me. Then I hear the door
open up. I look, it's my wife. And she
said, Spartan, come back carrying your shield or being carried
on it. People ask me, aren't you afraid
of men? I said, have you met my wife? I'm not afraid of anybody. But brothers, how did this transformation
happen? How did it happen? Let me give
you just a few really quick. I've got three more minutes.
Acts chapter two. I just want you to think about
this. First of all, here we have Peter. He denies Christ before
a servant girl. And then after the day of Pentecost,
he defies an entire nation. What was the difference? The
life and the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the difference.
And I am tired of a bunch of charismatics who teach false
things about the Holy Spirit, stealing my inheritance. I'm not talking about some charismatic
second blessing. I'm talking about this, that
we meet every weakness, every fear, every need by going to
our knees and crying out for greater and greater manifestations
of the life and the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what
I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. And I want to tell you something,
if you want to know, because he's here speaking. People always ask me when I say
that, what are you talking about? I say, read Ian Murray's book
Pentecost today. It's what I'm talking about.
He shows what our fathers believed, none of this silly nonsense going
on today. But they did believe this, that they could do nothing,
nothing apart from the power and the life of the Holy Spirit.
Ian Murray and his book Pentecost today has been one of the greatest
helps to my entire life. Other than the autobiography
of George Mueller and, of course, the scriptures, that book has
been the most helpful to me. outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
But what else? Saturation in the Word of God. Saturation in
the Word of God. You young guys, you stop with
all your busyness. You stop with running in bachelor
packs and all the things you do that take your time. Get out
of that television. Do what? What should you do?
Saturate your life in the Word of the living God. And then what will happen? Reality? Reality. When the unseen becomes
more real to you than that which is seen and the heavenly reward
becomes greater than anything this world could ever give you. Staying in the word of God until
you're like Abraham and Moses. Listen to this. By faith, Abraham,
when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he
was to receive for an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where
he was going. By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise,
as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob,
fellow heirs of the same promise. For he was looking for the city
which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. You can't do this apart from
living a life of prayer, a living a life of saturating yourself
in the Word of God. You can't do that. You can't
do that. Look at verse 24. By faith, Moses, when he had
grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of
God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering
the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of
Egypt. For he was looking to the reward. Look at that. He
was looking to the reward. He was seeing the unseen. We could go on. Look at verse
36. And others experienced mocking and scourging, yes, also chains
and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn
in two. They were tempted. They were put to death with a
sword. They went about in sheepskin and in goatskin, being destitute,
afflicted, ill-treatment, men of whom the world was not worthy,
wandering in deserts and in mountains and caves and holes in the ground.
And all these have gained approval through their faith. Do you see
that? Look at verse 40, because God
had promised something better for us so that apart from us,
they would not be made perfect brothers. You need a new reality. You need to see what's real.
You need to stop living in shadow land. Stop looking at this world
and look at God in scripture and you will be able to meet
this head on. And I'm not talking about just strong men of strong
will. I'm talking about men who are
empowered by the Holy Spirit because they have spent much
time with Jesus. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your word. Thank you for. Your good spirit,
your kindness. Thank you for these men. In Jesus
name. Amen.