Let's begin our service opening
our Bibles to Psalm 47. Psalm 47. As you're turning,
let me remind you that our bulletin says that we're going to have
a special Sunday evening service on October the 24th. Roland Browning
is going to be here to preach for us and we'll have a time
of fellowship after. Summertime treat and ice cream
social. So I hope you all can attend
that. Psalm 47. Oh, clap your hands, all ye people. Shout unto God with the voice
of triumph. For the Lord most high is terrible.
He is a great king over all the earth. He shall subdue the people
under us and the nations under our feet. He shall choose our
inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob, whom he loved. God
has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the shout of a trumpet.
Sing praises to God, sing praises. Sing praises unto our king, sing
praises. For God is the king of all the
earth. Sing ye praises with understanding. God reigneth over the heathen,
God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness. The princes of
the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of
Abraham. And the shields of the earth,
belong unto God. He is greatly exalted. All right, let's stand together
as Shawn leads us in singing our call to worship. No beauty can I see. The one thing needful, dearest
Lord, is truth. ? Into my soul convey ? ? Thyself
bestow for thee alone ? ? My all in all I pray ? ? Less than
thyself will not suffice ? ? My comfort to restore ? More than thyself I cannot pray,
and thou canst give no more. Loved of my God, for Him again,
with love intense I'd burn. Chosen of the air, time began. I choose thee in return. OK, if you would, turn in your
hymnals to song number two, Love Divine. All love excelling, joy of heaven
to earth come down. Fix in us thy humble dwelling,
all thy faithful mercies crown. Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
pure unbounded love Thou art. Visit us with Thy salvation,
enter every trembling heart. Breathe, O breathe, thy loving
Spirit into every troubled breast. Let us all in Thee inherit, let
us find that second rest. ? Take away our bent to sinning
? ? Alpha and Omega be ? ? End of faith as its beginning ? ?
Set our hearts at liberty ? ? Come Almighty to save us ? let us
all thy life receive. Suddenly return, and never, nevermore
thy temples leave. Pray and praise thee without
ceasing, glory in thy perfect love. Finish then Thy new creation,
pure and spotless let us be. Let us see Thy great salvation
perfectly restored in Thee. ? From glory into glory ? ? Till
in heaven we take our place ? ? Till we cast our crowns before thee
? ? Lost in wonder, love, and praise ? Good morning. Turn with me, if
you would, to Acts chapter four. Acts chapter four, our pastors
ask us to read verses 13 to 22 of Acts chapter four. Now, when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men, they marveled. They took knowledge of them,
that they had been with Jesus. And beholding the man which was
healed, standing with them, they could say nothing against it.
But when they had commanded them to go aside of the council, they
conferred amongst themselves, saying, what shall we do to these
men? For that indeed, a notable miracle
hath been done by them as manifest unto all that dwell in Jerusalem,
and we cannot deny it. but that it spread no further
among the people, let us straightly threaten them that they speak
henceforth to no man in this name. And they called them and
commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of
Jesus. But Peter and John answered and
said unto them, 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 which we have seen and heard. So when
they had further threatened them, They let them go finding nothing,
how they might punish them because of the people for all men glorified
God for that which was done for the man was above 40 years old
on whom this miracle of hearing was healing was show. We'll end
our reading there. Let's pray together. Our Holy heavenly father, What
a privilege this is this morning to meet together as a family and
to worship you. That through Christ, because
of his work, because of your purpose, because of the Spirit's
calling, that we would even dare to have an audience with you.
Father, don't let us ever get past that. come humbly as sinners before
a throne of mercy. And we come boldly because of
Christ's work, because of Christ's sacrifice. We come as children,
as family, as brothers of Christ. Father, we're thankful. We asked
this morning that you'd grant us the spirit of wisdom and truth
here this morning that we could worship. As much as earthly is
possible, that we could worship your name as it ought to be worshipped.
And Father, we pray for that this morning. We thank you for
this place and pray that we grow in knowledge
and that we grow in faith And we pray that you not leave us
to our own wisdom in both in worship and in coming
for your throne and also in things of this world that our father,
we pray that you don't leave us to our own wisdom, but keep
your hand on us. Remember, as you promised that
there were dust, keep us cleaving to you and seeking your face
and in your way, in all things, because that's good for us and
because you deserve the glory. I pray that you do be with us. You know the trials that so easily
beset us. Our trials of this flesh and
infirmity and our pain and our worry. Most importantly, our
tendency towards the cold heart that we have, this nature that
we carry. Father, deliver us according to your will. Be with
us. And we thank you that you are with us. We thank you for
full forgiveness of sin in Christ. And it's in his name that we
pray. Amen. Keep your Bibles open to Acts
chapter four. Be our text this morning. I titled
the message. Have you been with Jesus? I'd
like for each of us to be able to answer that question for ourselves
this morning. Excuse me just one minute. My little recorder is not working.
I might preach for two hours and not know how long I've been
preaching. I would like for us to be able
to answer that question honestly from in our own hearts this morning. Have I been with Jesus? They
could tell that the disciples had been with Jesus. Can they
tell if I had been or not? Now remember what had happened
here. Peter has healed this lame man, and they were arrested for
it, for healing this lame man, and they were arrested, they
were questioned. By whose name did you do it? By whose authority?
Who gave you the authority to do this? What is this gospel
of the resurrection that you're preaching? and Peter clearly answered them,
didn't he? He preached the gospel such a,
we looked at this last week, such a clear answer of the gospel
about man's guilt, about God's grace in Christ Jesus, about
the redemption from sin, the forgiveness of sin that only
comes through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. And when
he died, we know he saved all of his people from their sin
because he was resurrected from the dead. All the sin that had
laid on him was gone. This is such a glorious message
that God saves in both justice and grace through the doing and
dying of our Lord Jesus Christ. Such a clear declaration of the
gospel, such a blessing to those of us who know Christ. But sadly,
these religious leaders did not meet Peter's message with repentance
or faith. Verse 13, Says, now when they
saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they
were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled and they took knowledge
of them that they had been with Jesus. These enemies of the gospel,
they didn't believe Christ, they didn't bow, they didn't surrender,
they didn't beg him for mercy. They just wouldn't accept this
gospel. But they could tell that Peter and John had been with
Jesus. They could tell that. Now, I
sure would like people to know that I have been with Jesus,
that you have been with Jesus. But now what are the marks of
a person who has been with the Lord Jesus? The Lord Jesus has
been with them. What are the marks of these people?
Well, the first one, and this is why I'm gonna spend most of
my time, is boldness. They saw, verse 13 says, the
boldness of Peter and John. Now, this boldness is not the
kind of personality trait where you've met people, buddy, they
don't care for nothing. They're going to say whatever
it is that's on their mind. They're going to say whatever,
and they don't care who likes it, who doesn't like it. They
don't care about the reaction. They just, I mean, they're just
going to, they just don't care what people think. They're just
going to say whatever it is that, you know, that they want to say.
Whether it hurts their feelings, whether it's cruel, whether whatever,
they're going to say it. That's not the boldness. that
is being talked about here. The word translated boldness
means freedom in speaking. You can just speak freely about
these things. You don't have to force the issue.
You just speak freely about it. It's to speak without ambiguity
so that somebody understands exactly what it is that you're
saying. They're not going to leave wondering,
well, did they mean this or did they mean this? If we're preaching
the gospel boldly, somebody's never going to leave wondering,
well, did Christ die for everybody or did he just die for his elect?
No, because we speak boldly without ambiguity about these things.
The word means confidence. We can speak boldly with confidence
and assurance. If we know Christ, if we know
the scriptures, that's what this word boldness means. And it also
means A cheerful courage. Usually we think of boldness
as kind of somebody that's willing to fuss and fight and argue and
let's take the gloves off and duke it out. This is a cheerful
courage. It's not a boldness or courage
that makes us go looking for a fight. This is something that
gives us joy. We talk about it because we want
you to have the same joy. It's in Christ. It's a bold,
it's a cheerful courage. This boldness is to plainly and
lovingly tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth, to not hold anything back that is found in scripture
concerning the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the only
way you can have that kind of boldness is if you know Christ. I mean, you know him and he knows
you. You have this union with Christ
It's a confidence that comes knowing these things are true
because I know him. I know the one that it's all
about. If I know the gospel, I know the one that all the gospel
is about. I know Christ. If I know him,
I can have boldness and confidence in preaching the gospel because
I know it's the truth. Because I know him, so I know
I'm not lying on him. The only way you can have this
confidence in your heart every day where you live to know this
is the Savior. This is the one who has saved
my soul. This is the one, I have such confidence in trusting my
soul to him. The only way you can have that
kind of quiet confidence is if you know Christ. I know whom
I have believed. If you know him, you can have
that kind of confidence in him. Now I want you to look at a few
scriptures. Look at Mark chapter eight. I
want to look at a few places where this word is used, this
word boldness is used so that we understand what it means.
Mark 8 verse 31. And he began to teach them that
the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected of the
elders of the chief priests and scribes and be killed and after
three days rise again And he spake that saying openly. Now
that word openly is the same word translated boldness in our
text. He spake that saying openly,
clearly. And Peter took him and began
to rebuke him. Now this word openly is boldness. And when the Lord spake to them
openly, boldly, they understood exactly what the Lord was saying.
That's why Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him and said,
Lord, we don't want you to go suffer and die. We've hitched
our wagon to you. We're following you. If you suffer
and die, we're going to be left alone. Peter understood exactly
what he was saying because the Lord spoke openly and boldly. And you don't know how much I
like to preach that way. I strive for it constantly, that
you understand what I'm saying. Now you may not believe what
I'm preaching and I can't make you believe it. You may not believe
it. But I don't want you to leave here this morning not believing
Christ because you didn't understand what I was saying. We want to
speak plainly in simple words so that people understand exactly
what we're saying. That's boldness. Now look at
John chapter 11. John chapter 11, verse 11. These things said he, and after
that he saith unto them, our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but
I go that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples,
Lord, if he sleep, he should do well. How be it Jesus spake
of his death, but they thought that he had spoken of taking
of rest and sleep. Then Jesus said unto them plainly,
Lazarus is dead. That word plainly is the same
word translated boldness back in our text. The Lord spoke with
boldness plainly to them in plain words that everybody could understand. That's boldness. It's not just,
you know, getting up and being so bold to, you know, just be
cruel. I mean, that is usually what
people mean by boldness is I'm bold enough just to, you know,
to say something that's cruel to people. And that's not the
word. The word is plainly so that people
understand. You cannot mistake what we're
saying. If we preach the gospel right,
it's so plain, you cannot misunderstand the salvation is of the Lord. If we preach the gospel right,
you can't misunderstand. Salvation is by grace. I mean,
it's all of grace. It's not 99.9% grace plus some
work that you do. It's all. of God's grace. It's
all of his electing grace. It's all of his redeeming grace.
It's all of his regenerating grace. It's all of his calling
grace. It's all of his grace that causes
us to persevere to the end. Salvation is by grace. It's by the work of Christ and
Christ alone. If we speak the gospel right,
nobody can misunderstand what we're saying about that. All
right, now look at Acts chapter two. Acts chapter two, verse 29. Men and brethren, let me speak
freely unto you of the patriarch David, that he's both dead and
buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. That word
freely, let me speak freely speak unto you, is the same word translated
boldness in our text. Let me speak freely to you. Let
me not hold anything back. Let me speak freely to you. This
prophecy that David wrote is a prophecy not about himself.
It's a prophecy concerning the Savior. Let me speak freely to
you about who men are. In this great message on the
day of Pentecost, Peter spoke so freely, didn't he? He spoke
freely about our sin nature, about our guilt, and the way
our sin and our guilt is exposed is by how much we hate the Christ
that God sent to save his people from their sin. He spoke so freely
about that. Even though you're so religious
and you got the whole veneer on just right, the problem's
in the heart, it's in the nature. He spoke freely about that. He
spoke freely about God's eternal purpose is always being accomplished. God's eternal purpose for he
ever created this world was to glorify his son in the salvation
of his people. that he would save his people
in justice by making his son to bear the guilt of the sin
of his people and punishing him fully for it. That was God's
eternal purpose. His purpose of salvation was
never in the law. Peter's telling me, you boys
think that by keeping all this law and all this ceremony that
we've grown up in and been steeped in, that that's salvation? No,
Peter said. Those things were given to us
as pictures to show us our need of Christ so that when he came,
We'd see him, we'd recognize him, we'd lay hold on him. Peter
spoke freely to them about that, didn't he? He spoke freely to
them about what the resurrection of Christ means. That men did
not accomplish their purpose when they crucified Christ on
Calvary Street. God's eternal purpose was accomplished. And we know it is because God
raised him from the dead again, three days later, because his
death had justified all of his people from all of their sin.
People just, if Peter talks so freely, that's boldness. That's boldness. To not feel
the need to hold anything back, just let her rip. This is God's
purpose. And I preach it expecting you
not to get mad about it, but to rejoice about it. Oh, this
is how God could save a sinner like me. Then look at Acts chapter
20. Acts chapter 20, beginning in verse
30. I'm sorry, verse chapter 28.
I knew that was wrong. Acts chapter 28. Verse 30. And Paul dwelt two whole years
in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him, preaching
the kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the
Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding him. That word
confidence is the same word translated boldness in our text. Paul could
preach in confidence. that when he talked about all
these things that concern the Lord Jesus Christ, he could speak
with such confidence because he knew there's no error in it.
There's no error in Christ. There's no sin in him. And he
had such confidence in telling people about the Lord Jesus Christ,
that his righteousness is the righteousness of his people.
That righteousness doesn't come by our obedience to the law,
it's Christ's obedience for his people as their representative.
We don't put our sin away by quit sinning and we sin less
than we ever used to. Sin is put away by the precious
blood of Christ. The blood of Christ justified
his people from all of their sin from which they could not
be justified by the law. He just exalted Christ in every
step and all these things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, he showed
us the glory of Christ and he was confident there's no error
in it. Because it's all about Christ. It's all about Him, see? Now that kind of confidence can
only come from believing the Word of God, from knowing what
the Word says about Christ. If you're taking what some man
said about Christ, maybe it's true, maybe it's not, I don't
know. There could be some error in that when you consider the
source, but if it comes directly from the Word of God, we've got
this confidence, boldness, because we know there's no error in it.
And someone will say, well, that kind of boldness, that sounds
good for a preacher. Peter and John were preachers,
and this is concerning preachers, and I'm no preacher. Well, it's
true, most believers never preach. But every believer can tell why
do you have such a good hope in Christ? You can tell why you
hope in him, boldly, in plain, simple language that everybody
understands. You can be like that leper and go home and tell
folks what great, or it wasn't the leper, it was the demoniac,
what great things God's done for you. Now you can tell that,
you can tell that, and you can do it boldly, confidently that
what you're saying is true. But now the only way you can
have that boldness, the only place it can come from is faith
in the heart. It's got to come from faith in
the heart. I'll show you that in Ephesians
chapter 3. This boldness doesn't come from us having a pep rally
and talking ourselves into it. It comes from faith in the heart.
Ephesians 3 verse 10. To the intent that now under
the principalities and powers and heavenly places might be
known by the church the manifold wisdom of God according to the
eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord in whom
we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. Now that word boldness is the
same word translated boldness in our text. And what Paul is
talking about here is that sinners, men and women, just like us,
have boldness to come into God's presence and be accepted. How can that be? How can a sinner
ever have any boldness to come before the throne of God Almighty? How can you possibly do that?
It's only by what Paul says here the faith of Christ. You notice
he didn't say faith in Christ. He said by the faith of Christ,
a sinful man like me, like you can have boldness to come into
the presence of God almighty because of the faithfulness of
Christ, that he was faithful to do everything the father gave
him to do. He was faithful to obey the law
in every jot and every tittle, and his obedience is the obedience
of his people. He was faithful. Oh, he was faithful
to be obedient to his father in every way, to be obedient,
even to the death of the cross. He could have called 12 legions
of angels and got out of that, but he didn't because he was
faithful to offer the sacrifice that would put away the sin of
his people. He is faithful to do that. He's faithful to call
his people. He's faithful to be with his
people. He's faithful to teach his people. He's faithful. It's
the faithfulness of Christ that is the assurance, the confidence
that a believer has. I do have faith in Christ. I
do. God's given me that. I do believe
Christ. But it's nothing I want to brag
about or talk about or write home about. Our faith is shameful. But if I'm depending on the faithfulness
of Christ, oh, I can have boldness. I can have confidence to come
before God accepted. Let me show you that in Hebrews
chapter four. Hebrews four, verse 16. Let us therefore come boldly.
Same words in our text, come boldly under the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of
need. We can come boldly because Christ
made us accepted in the beloved, in him. As long as we come in
his name, we can come boldly. Now, if I come in my name and
my merits and my works, my faithfulness, I have no confidence. The only
confidence I would have is God wouldn't accept me, that he'd
destroy me if I came in his presence that way. But we can have confidence
to come into the very presence of God accepted by the faithfulness
of Christ. Look at first John chapter four. First John four verse 17. Herein is our love made perfect,
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because
as he is, so are we in this world. Now the fear of every human being
is the day of judgment. Even if you never had somebody
preaching to you the day of judgment, everyone fears dying because
we Human beings intrinsically know after that there is the
judgment. Somebody made all this and we're
gonna have to answer to him someday. Then how can a sinner who's never
done anything but sin be confident that in that day of judgment
they will not be condemned? Now how is that possible? How
is it that a believer not only does not fear the judgment, but
actually looks forward to it. How can you possibly only if
Christ has made you innocent? Only if you're trusting Christ.
Many in that day, scripture says, are gonna be calling on the rocks
and mountains to fall on them. Hide me from the wrath of the
lame. They're gonna be trying to hide.
You're gonna be trying to get to Christ as fast as you can.
What's the difference? I trust Christ. I trust him. to make me righteous. I trust
that his bloody sacrifice for me has put away my sin so that
the Father will always accept me. Always. I have no fear because
right now, every believer can say this, as he is, so are we
in this world. I mean right now. How is Christ? He's holy. He's righteous, He's
without sin, so are you who believe. So are you who believe. How is
Christ right now? He's seated in heavenly places,
so are you who believe. Already seated in Him, in heavenly
places. However He is, that's how His
people are, and the Father will always accept Him, because He
always accepts His Son. Now that's a blessing, isn't
it? To be able to trust Christ like
that, to that extent, what a blessing that is. Well, if you have faith
like that, that trust Christ like that, you know what? You
have that faith because you've been with Jesus. Which brings
me to my second point, is the only way anybody can have this
kind of faith is if they've been taught of God. Look back in our
text, verse 13, Acts 4, verse 13. Now when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men, they marveled. They wondered how did these men
learn all these things because we didn't teach them in our schools.
How did they learn the scriptures like this? Not only did they
not learn that in our schools, we don't teach that in our schools. We don't teach that. How did
these men, I mean, they can barely learn their ABCs. They can barely
put letters and numbers together. How did they learn this? Because
they've been taught of God. How could these men stand before
these rulers who a short time ago put the Lord Jesus to death? How did they have the boldness
to be able to tell them these things And this had to be in
their mind. These men could put me to death
the same way they put the Lord to death about two months ago.
How did they have that boldness to tell them the truth anyway? Because they've been taught of
God. If you've been taught of God, you can't teach anything
else. You can't believe anything else. You can't see anything
else. Once the Lord shows you Christ, you see him everywhere
and you can't not see him. These men told the truth because
they've been taught of God and they couldn't say anything else.
This matter of preaching the gospel and hearing the gospel
and believing it, and this matter of having faith in your heart. As you go through your daily
responsibilities and your daily activities, and you do those
things out in the world, you do them to the best of your ability,
but you're still doing it with faith in the heart, still doing
it looking to Christ. This is a supernatural thing.
This is not teaching the scriptures. It is not a scholastic exercise. It's supernatural. You do have
to understand it in your head. Like I said before, I want to
preach so that you understand. I want to preach plainly so you
understand. But just understanding is not
salvation. Only God could teach the heart.
And if God reveals Christ to you and in you, you can't believe
anything else. You can't believe anything else.
Well, all right. How can I tell if I've been taught
of God or not? I mean, how do I know this just isn't something
I've heard all my life or some man preached it? I kind of like
him, so I'll believe what he's saying. How do I know? Have I
just drank the Kool-Aid or have I been taught of God? Can I know?
Can you know? Yeah, you can. Look with me,
John chapter six. John chapter six. Verse 45. It's written in the prophets,
and they should be all taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard and learned of the father does what? Cometh unto
me. Now if you look over at Isaiah
chapter 54, this is what our Lord was quoting. And Isaiah
gives us a little more detail here. Isaiah 54. In verse 13, all thy children should be taught
of the Lord, and great should be the peace of thy children.
In righteousness shalt thou be established. Thou should be far
from oppression, for thou shall not fear, and from terror, for
it shall not come near thee. Coming to Christ is believing. It's trusting Him. Every man
that has learned of the Father, they come to Christ, they trust
Him. And when they do, great is their
peace. You see, Christ made peace for
them by the blood of His cross, and great is that peace. They
know they have peace with God because the blood of Christ took
away everything and made God angry with them. And great is
the peace of it. Coming to Christ is being made
righteous. We're made righteous by faith
in Christ. to be made righteous in his obedience. And when you come to Christ,
you're going to be established in that. So that when the old
man tries to get you to start trusting your works and start
trusting the things that you do and start trusting your religious
knowledge and you can't do it. You must believe Christ. You
can't find any peace, any hope, any righteousness in those things.
That's being established in righteousness. And if you've come to Christ
that way, trusting him completely, I can tell you why. It's because
you've been with Jesus. He's revealed himself to you
and drawn you to him. All right, here's the third thing
about those folks that have been with Jesus. Their faith agrees
with the scriptures. Back in our text, verse 14. And beholding the man which was
healed, standing with him, they could say nothing against it.
But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council,
they conferred among themselves, saying, what should we do to
these men? For that indeed a notable miracle has been done by them
as manifest to all of them that dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot
deny it, but that it spread no further among the people. Let
us straightly threaten them that they speak henceforth to no man
in this name. Now these men, they couldn't
deny the miracle, that had taken place. I mean, here's the man
walking around. He's over 40 years old. For 40 years, he's
been laying there in the beautiful gate of the temple, begging alms.
40 years, now here he stands. We can't deny that the miracle
has taken place. So here's what let's do. Let's
threaten him, don't do it anymore. Don't find any other impotent
men and heal them. Don't be kind enough to heal
any other lame people. Don't preach in this name of
Jesus that gives such power and such salvation and such peace
and confidence to the heart. Just don't preach that anymore. You know, I thought about the
miracle that's taken place in the heart of a believer. People
should know that a miracle has taken place in our hearts. They
should be able to know that. Now, many times they don't. And
I thought of two good reasons for why they don't. Number one
is our sin. It is hard to see past my sin,
to see Christ in me. It's hard to see, because of
my own sin, because of my own bad attitude, because of the
way I act. But also, they don't see because
they're blind. I mean, they didn't see Christ
in Christ, so they're not going to see Christ in me. It's not
necessarily our goal that people see Christ in us. But if we've
been with the Savior, here's one thing that they cannot deny.
The enemies of Christ cannot deny. They can't deny that our
message matches the scriptures. They can't do that. Because we
go to the scriptures and there it is. If we've spoken boldly,
plainly, without ambiguity, they can see our message matches the
scriptures and they cannot deny that. Because by grace, we do
what Peter and John are doing right here. We preach the word. In season and out of season.
In every opportunity, in every situation, we preach the word. We point sinners to Christ from
the word. If our message comes from the
word, nobody can poke a hole in it. They'll throw rocks at
it, but nobody can poke a hole in it. If our message comes directly
from the word of God. You know, we preach man's total
depravity, don't we? Man's sinfulness. Our sinfulness
makes us deserve God's wrath, and that, our nature, that description
of our nature comes directly from the word of God. There's
none that doeth good. No, not one. Not one. And we
point that out, man's total depravity, so we'll see our need of Christ.
We need him so desperately. We preach God's electing love.
Without any apology at all, we preach God's electing love. One
of the things I love to think about so much, that Almighty
God chose a people to save, even though they didn't deserve it,
and he knew they never would do anything to deserve it. The
difference between the saved and the lost always begins here. God's electing love. The scripture's
full of it. Romans chapter nine tells us,
What's the difference between Jacob and Esau? Jacob have I
loved, Esau have I hated. What's the difference between
Moses and Pharaoh? I raised Moses up to be a trophy of my grace,
and I raised Pharaoh up to be a trophy of my justice, so that
when I destroyed him, the whole world would know I'm God. It's
the difference in salvation. It's always God's electing love. And of course it should, that's
the way it must begin. God is God, so he has the absolute
right to choose who he'll show mercy to and who he'll pass by. I thought there's so many reasons
for that, but first of all, because he's God. He's God, so everything
he does is right. It's right because he does it.
God doesn't have to look up and say, okay, what's the right thing
and the wrong thing to do here. It's right because God does it.
The fact that he does it makes it right. And second, it's God's
right to choose who he'll show mercy to and who he'll pass by
because all of our sin is against him. It's up to him whether or
not it's gonna be forgiven, isn't it? It's up to him. And thank
God he chose to save a sinful people out of the lump of Adam's
fallen race because God's good. because God's gracious. Don't
you love to think about that? Don't you love to hear that preached?
That's my only hope of salvation, that God would choose me first,
because left to my own devices, I can tell you this, I never
would have chose him. Then we preach limited atonement, and
that doesn't mean that Christ's power to save is limited. It
means this, it's limited in its scope. Everyone that the Father
gave to Christ to save, Christ died for those people, and those
people only Every last one of them is completely and utterly
saved from all of their sin. Our Lord said, I pray not for
the world, but for those that you've given me. Limited atonement
and every last one of them shall be saved. We preach the irresistible
call of the gospel. I preach hard as I can possibly
preach But my enthusiasm my Nothing about me makes the message effectual
We preach the gospel and leave sinners along with Christ knowing
this God's gonna save his people the spirit blows where it listeth
Now you can't tell where it came from and where it's going, but
you know he's been here because now there's life where there
wasn't any before. The Holy Spirit, I know this,
is gonna take the things of mine, the Savior said, and show them
to you. I'm gonna preach them to you,
but God, the Holy Spirit's gonna teach them in your heart so that
you believe it, so that you love it, so that you come to Christ
and you wouldn't go anywhere else. We preach, all of God's
people, they're gonna persevere to the end. And it won't be because
of their stick-to-itiveness, it'll be by the saving power
and grace of God. The same grace that called them,
the same grace that chose them, the same grace that redeemed
them, there's the same grace that's gonna keep them to the
end. Now unto him that's able to keep you from falling and
to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with
exceeding joy. It's by the grace and power of
God. Our message agrees with the scripture. That's where our
boldness comes from. I can have boldness telling you
what God said. Now, I got no confidence in all
telling you what I say, but oh, if we say what God says, there's
complete boldness and confidence with that, isn't it? And here's
the last mark of those who have been with Jesus. They'll keep
obeying God to the end. Verse 18, they called them and
commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of
Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, whether it
be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than
unto God, judge ye. But we cannot but speak the things
which we've seen and heard. So when they'd further threatened
them, they let them go, finding nothing how that they might punish
them because of the people. For all men glorified God for
that which was done. For the man was above 40 years
old on whom this miracle of healing was showed. You know, one of
the marks of believers is we're good citizens. Scripture commands
God's people to be good citizens. Whatever it is, civil authority
that's over us in this world, God put them there. God's ministered
us for good and we're to obey them. If you don't want to be
afraid of them, don't break the law. And our Lord taught us that
by example, didn't he? He paid his taxes, he went to
all the ceremonies, observed all the ceremonies. He was always
a good citizen. But when it comes time somebody
gives us an order not to preach the gospel or to tell us what
we can or can't preach, now that's another matter altogether. No,
we can't do that. Woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. Woe is unto us if we believe
not the gospel. And that's what Peter and John
did here. They said, you boys decide whether or not it's right
to obey your God. You can judge that. But they
said, I'll tell you what we're gonna do. We're not gonna quit.
We're gonna do what God says. We're gonna say, when we preach,
we're gonna say what God says. And that's the mark of a genuine
believer. It's faith in Christ that continues,
that continues. God's people are obedient. And
you know what we're obedient to? The commandment of God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. And I don't care how long we
go throughout this world, believer never graduates past that. Believing
Christ, trusting him, casting all my care on him. And there's
not gonna be any compromise here. We're not gonna compromise this
because if you've been with Jesus, if the Lord's revealed himself
to you, you can't not believe him. You can't not believe him. And to quit believing him is
to give up your boldness, your confidence, your assurance of
salvation that comes through the faith of Christ. You know,
if we've been with Jesus, we'll stay faithful to the end. You
know why? Because he's been with us. And
he kept us to the end. When we get to the end of this
story, that's what every believer is gonna say. I stayed faithful
to the end because he never left me. He never left me alone. And to think that from here to
the end of your life, if you believe Christ, he will never
leave you. That he'll always be with you. That gives you a cheerful confidence,
doesn't it? A boldness in him. I pray the
Lord will give that to us. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for the reason for the believer's boldness and confidence because
of the faithfulness of Christ our Savior. Oh, how we thank
you for him. How we thank you that he is faithful
to accomplish everything that's necessary to save all of your
people from all of their sin. He did everything that's necessary
for us to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and
to believe him so that we cast all of our soul on him. All of
our hope is in him. Father, how we thank you. Father,
how I pray that you would continue to be with your people. Be with
us here in these services, just as you promised, where two or
three are gathered together in my name, they are mine in the
midst of them. Continue to be with us. As we
go from this place, Father, be with your people. Lead us and
guide us. Be with us every step of the
way. If you don't go with us, don't let us go, so that it can
always be said, we've been in the presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Father, It's for his sake, for
the glory of his name, that we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, Sean. OK, if you would, in your hymn, we'll
turn to song number 388. And stand as we sing, Have Thine
Own Way, Lord. 388. Have Thine own way, Lord, have
Thine own way. Thou art the potter, I am the
clay. Mold me and make me after Thy
will, while I am waiting, yielded and still. Have Thine own way,
Lord, have Thine own way. Search me and try me, Master,
today. Wider than snow, Lord, wash me
just now. As in Thy presence, humbly I
bow. Have thine own way, Lord, have
thine own way. Wounded and weary, help me, I
pray. Power, oh power, Touch me and heal me, Savior
divine. Have thine own way, Lord, have
thine own way. Hold o'er my being, absolute
sway. Till I shall see Christ only
always living in me.