That is our hope, that the Lord
Jesus Christ has paid the ransom, satisfied our God's justice,
put away our sin by the sacrifice of himself. What hope we have. I'd like for you to turn with
me in your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 3 before we begin. The Lord has been pleased to
send some. Difficult trials our way this
week. And. I want us to. Be comforted in knowing that
our God is sovereign in all things. How often were reminded? That
if we had the power of God, we would. be tempted to change things. If we had the wisdom of God we
would change nothing. Our God is wise and he does all
things well. And the Lord says that we're
to weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn and
rejoice with those who rejoice. We have some rejoicing this week
as well. You have your Bibles open to
Ecclesiastes chapter three, to everything, to everything, There
is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven. How
many times we read in God's word and it came to pass, what came
to pass? Everything that he ordained came
to pass. A time to be born and a time
to die. A time to plant and a time to
pluck up that which is planted. a time to kill and a time to
heal, a time to break down and a time to build up, a time to
weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a
time to get and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to
cast away, a time to rend and a time to sow, a time to keep
silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a
time of war and a time of peace. What profit hath he that worketh
in that wherein he laboreth? How can we possibly understand
God's purpose and God's time? These are all done in his time. I have seen the travail which
God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. Verse 11. He hath made everything
beautiful in his time. Also, he has set the world in
their hearts so that no man can find out the work that God maketh
from beginning to the end. None unto the Lord are all his
ways. Perhaps there's somebody here
that hasn't heard that Seth and Kaylee lost their baby this week.
at their home, recovering from that. And Kaylee's recovering
physically. We certainly want to pray for
them. Diane Etheridge is having her
cancer returned, most of you know, and she's having surgery
tomorrow. And our daughter Jennifer is
starting her first chemo treatment this week, Tuesday. Mary Wiginton's brother Jim,
who struggled with cancer for a couple of years, passed away
this week. So we have families that are
grieving and families that are rejoicing. You know that Sarah
gave birth to a little Freya this week in their home and rejoicing
in that. and Fred and Billy had a grandchild
this week. Let's go to the Lord and thank
Him for all things. Be thankful in all things for
all things of the will of God and Christ Jesus concerning you. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we do believe that you do all things well and right, that you
reign sovereign over the inhabitants of the earth. The armies of heaven
march according to thy will and purpose. Lord, you accomplish
everything in your perfect time. We ask, Lord, that you would
comfort the hearts of your children with that great truth. Comfort
us with that comfort that only you are able to give. Only you
can speak peace to our hearts. Only you can give us rest and
hope in Christ. Only you can say to us, your
sins are forgiven. Lord, we pray today as we gather
together and as we open your word that you would send your
spirit and power. We pray that you'd be pleased
to bless us with faith. to enable us to rest our hope
in Christ. We pray, Father, for Seth and
Kaylee and the grandparents and great-grandparents all here.
And Lord, we know that only you can comfort them. And so we pray
that you would and give us the grace to help bear their burden. Lord, we pray for Diane and ask
that you would give the surgeon skill to do their job well tomorrow
and that your hand of healing would be upon her. We ask that
you would use this new chemo treatment for Jennifer and that
you would be pleased to give her healing and grace and mercy. Lord, all as we wait on you,
we thank you for little Freya and little River, and Lord, for
the miracle of life that you've brought into our fellowship this
week. And Lord, pray your comfort and
your grace as they raise these children in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord. We ask it all in Christ's name,
for his sake. Amen. Let's turn together in our Bibles
to Acts chapter 9. I want us to look this morning
at the subject of boldness. and understand what boldness
is. And I believe that if the Lord
gives us an understanding of what it is to be bold, that he
will enable each and every one of us, regardless of our personalities,
to be bold, to be clear, and to be confident. For that's really
what this idea and truth of boldness is all about. I want you to be
bold. I want to be bold. Look with me in Acts chapter
9 at verse 27. But Barnabas took him. Now you
know the story. We've been looking at Acts for
many months now. And Paul has had to escape for
his life from Damascus. And he's gone to Jerusalem. Remember,
he was lowered down by a rope in a basket from the wall. And
now he's gone to Jerusalem. And the disciples in Jerusalem
did not trust him, they didn't believe that he was a believer. And so Barnabas stood up and
Barnabas had heard Saul preach the gospel in Damascus and so
Barnabas stands up for Saul and says to the other disciples in
Jerusalem, well let's look Let's look at verse 26. And when Saul
was come to Jerusalem, he has saved to join himself to the
disciples, but they were all afraid of him and believe not
that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought
him to the apostles and declared unto them how he had seen the
Lord in the way and how he had spoken to him and how he had
preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. And he was
with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem. And he spake
boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the
Grecians, but they went about to slay him. So the result of
his boldness was that he was slain. They wanted to kill him
for what he was saying. There was no confusion. There was no ambiguity. There was no doubt about what
the Apostle Paul was saying. He was being very clear. He wasn't
using politically correct language that could be left open for interpretation. He was preaching the Lord Jesus
Christ clearly from the scripture, the simplicity of Christ and
it enraged them. That's really what boldness is. Some people by natural personality
or more timid and more shy than others. Is it possible for someone
who's quiet or timid by nature to be bold? Yes, yes. In the true understanding of
what it is to be bold, yes it is. In contrast to that, boldness
is not being brash. It's not being loud. It's not
being brazen or offensive. That's not what boldness is.
Boldness, in short, is being clear, being clear, being easy
to understand. That's what it means to be bold. Matter of fact, Paul had to write
to Timothy and encourage Timothy, who was obviously by nature timid,
to not allow men to despise him because of his youth. And then
when he wrote to the church at Corinth, he sent Timothy as an
emissary and told the church at Corinth, don't despise him.
I know he's quiet, he's timid, but he is a gospel preacher and
I've sent him, receive him. So, and even the Apostle Paul
himself, you know, you think of, you read these passage of
him contending with the Grecians and speaking boldly. And you
think, well, well, he just stood up and without, you know, without
any fear of anything or anybody, uh, was able to declare the gospel. Well, let's look at what Paul
said about himself. Turn with me to first Corinthians
chapter two, first Corinthians chapter two. Verse one, and I, brethren, when
I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom
declaring unto you the testimony of God, for I determined not
to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's what it is to be bold,
is to preach Christ, is to speak of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
the main theme of the Bible. He is the only theme of the Bible. All scripture points to him. And that's what it is to be bold,
is to rightly divide the Word of God. It's to speak of Christ
from the Word of God. Not talking out of both sides
of your mouth, not saying one thing and then saying something
else, leaving it up to interpretation. In verse three, and I was with
you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling and my speech
and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom,
but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. God gives us boldness
in our hearts if he gives us the ability to believe clearly
who Christ is and what he's done and to speak simply and clearly
of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we will know what the Spirit
of God has blessed us with in power. Verse 5, that your faith
should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. So boldness is not impressing
someone or intimidating someone with a forward personality. It is declaring the simplicity
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in such a way as to men
cannot refute it. They cannot refute it, not from
scripture. They may attack it in some other
way, and they may attack you, and they will attack you, even
as they did the Apostle Paul. But they can't refute the word
of God. Turn with me, you're there in
1 Corinthians. Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter three, if you will. 2
Corinthians chapter three. Verse 12, seeing then that we
have such hope. Christ in you is your hope of
glory. The Lord Jesus Christ is everything.
He's everything in our salvation. He's everything in scripture.
We were chosen in Christ, redeemed by Christ, regenerated through
faith in Christ. We are sanctified as the Lord
enables us to keep coming to Christ and we will be glorified
when we're made in his likeness. I see him in his likeness, I'll
be satisfied, be made like him. So it's all about the Lord Jesus
Christ. Paul says, seeing then that we
have such hope, we have hope that the Lord Jesus is sufficient
in and of himself, all by himself to satisfy the demands of God's
justice, to establish a righteousness before God on behalf of his people.
Christ is all I need, he's all I've got, all I've got. Seeing then that we have such
hope, we use great, you see that next word, plainness? It's the
same word that we just found in Acts chapter nine, translated
boldness. That's what boldness is, brethren. It's plainness. It's the simplicity
of speech. It's the clarity of the gospel. It's believing that Christ is. We use such boldness or plainness
of speech, verse 13, and not as Moses, which put a veil over
his face that the children of Israel could not steadfastly
look to the end of that which is abolished. We're not trying
to veil the gospel. Moses, when he came down off
the mountain of the law, had to cover his face because of
the radiance of the glory of God that shined forth, and they
couldn't look upon Moses. But their minds were blinded,
for until this day remain at the same veil, untaken away in
the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away with
in Christ. What is that veil? It's the veil
of the law. What is the opposite of boldness? It is mixing law
and grace. It is mixing works with grace. It is saying that Christ is necessary
for salvation, but he in and of himself is not sufficient.
You've got to do your part. That's the veil of the law that's
over them, but that veil is done away with in Christ. When we're
able to set our affections on things above, where Christ is
seated at the right hand of God, then we see that He is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. That
veil is taken away in Christ. The confusion of speech and the
contradiction of law and grace is all taken away when Christ
is revealed. Verse 16, nevertheless, when
it, that is the heart spoken of in the previous verse, when
it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. The
Lord gives us the eye of faith, the single eye. The eye that
is single is full of light, the scripture says. And the eye that
is double is full of evil. And the single eye looks to the
simplicity that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, I fear,
lest as Eve was deceived by the serpent in the wilderness, that
your heart should be moved from the simplicity that is in Christ
Jesus. That's what boldness is. Boldness
is the simplicity of Christ, the wholeness, the fulfillment
of the gospel in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's confidence. It's the confidence that the
Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient. I'm not looking to anything other
than Christ for the hope of my salvation. My confidence is in
him. If I If I'm tempted to look to
myself to find some evidence of my salvation, my confidence
wanes. But when I'm able by the Spirit
of God to look to Christ alone for all my salvation, then I'm
sure, I'm sure that He is sufficient. I'm sure that He did it all.
I'm sure that God is pleased with Him. I'm sure that His resurrection
proves that everything He did was accepted of the Father. and
that he is all I need in my salvation. So it's confidence. And it's
confident that Christ is the truth. He's the truth of the
gospel. He is the gospel. He's the way. He doesn't show us the way. He
doesn't say, follow me and I'll show you how to walk down this
path of the law. He is the way. We follow after
Christ. He's the truth. There's no truth
outside of him. And he is the life. He is our
life. He doesn't show us how to have
life. Christ Jesus, the Lord himself,
is our life. I'm just trying to be bold. I'm
trying to be clear. I'm trying to be simple about
this gospel of God's free grace in the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what, and if you're able
right now to say in your heart, amen, that's, he's my hope. I love the simplicity of the
gospel. Don't talk out of both sides
of your mouth, preacher. Don't say that, well, God loves
everybody, but most of the folks that he loves, he's going to
send to hell. That doesn't make sense to me. Don't say that God's
sovereign, but when his sovereignty comes up against my free will,
then he abdicates his throne and all of a sudden I become
the one who makes the decision. Don't say that. That's too confusing.
That's the language of Babylon. That's just Babel. I can't make
sense of it. Don't tell me that Christ died
for everybody. But the most of the people that
he died for are going to bear the burden of their own sins
in the devil's hell for all eternity. Don't tell me that doesn't make
sense to me. Tell me the truth about who the Lord Jesus is and
what he has done. And if you're able to say amen,
that amen is evidence of the boldness that God's given you. Whether you're Whether you're
able to make that clear to anybody else or not, the Spirit of God
has made it clear to you. And in time, the Lord gives us
opportunities, doesn't he? He gives the most timid, the
most shy, the most quiet of his children the opportunity to be
simple and clear about the gospel with someone. You know, we're
not interested in going around confronting people with the gospel. Peter put it like this. He said,
be ready always to give an answer to them that ask you for the
hope that is within you. And when you do answer them,
do it in meekness and fear. Meekness and fear. There's boldness. Let me tell you about Christ.
Let me tell you. Where does that boldness come from? How do we
get that boldness? Well, Acts chapter four, you
remember when they brought Peter and John before the Sanhedrin?
Let's turn, turn with me back just a couple of pages to Acts
chapter four. Verse 13. Now when they saw the
boldness of Peter and John, the unwillingness of Peter and John
to compromise the gospel, the unwillingness that they had to
take the offense out of the cross, the unwillingness that they had
to take the edge off the gospel with speech that could be interpreted
one way or the other, no, they simply told about who Christ
was and what he had accomplished. And when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men. So here we see right, right,
clearly that education and degree and, and, and natural intelligence
is not necessary for boldness. These men were unlearned. They
were ignorant. They hadn't been to the rabbinical
schools. They hadn't. And they marveled. They marveled at them. How could
these men be so bold? How could they be so clear? How
could they be so uncompromising? They took knowledge of them that
they had been with Jesus. There it is. There's the simple
truth. If you've been with Christ, The
Lord has spoken to you, if he's met with you, if he's revealed
himself to you, you cannot compromise his glory. He's gonna get all
the glory in your heart for your salvation and whatever opportunities
the Lord gives you to be bold with someone else, he's gonna
give you the ability to be clear and uncompromising in the gospel
with them. You see, you cannot compromise,
thus saith the Lord, can you? Where boldness is not saying,
well, you know what it seems to me. Or it could be this way,
it could be that way, or you know you need to think about
this. Or, you know, this particular doctor sounding brass says this,
and this dead theologian said that. No, boldness is just saying,
God said this, thus saith the Lord. When in Acts chapter 26, when
Paul was brought before Felix, you remember Felix told him,
he said, Paul, much learning has made the mad. So you're out
of your mind. And, uh, and Paul responded by
saying, no, I'm not mad. He said, I'm speaking before
the King freely, freely. And that word freely and acts
26 is the same word as boldness. I'm just speaking freely, I'm
just telling you the simple truth about who Christ is and about
what he's done to save his people and to get all the glory for
that salvation. Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians
chapter two. 1 Thessalonians chapter two. Look with me at verse one. You know, Paul told Timothy,
he said, you preach the word, just preach the word in season,
when it's convenient, when men are able to rejoice in it and
out of season, when they hate it, you don't change the message,
you just tell them what God says. For yourselves, brethren, verse
one of 1 Thessalonians chapter two, begin at verse one. For
yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you that it
was not in vain. But even after that we had suffered
before and were shamefully entreated, as you know at Philippi, we were
bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much
contention. There's going to be opposition.
Well, you're clear. Why do you think politicians talk the way
they do? They're vying for votes. They speak in language that everybody
can understand. Everybody can interpret it the
way they want to interpret it. That's what we don't do. And when you're clear, there's
going to be some contention, isn't there? For our exhortation
was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile. We weren't trying
to deceive people. But as we were allowed of God,
If we're allowed of God to be bold, we'll be clear and we'll
speak of Christ. But as we were allowed of God
to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak. Not as pleasing men, but God,
which trieth our hearts. There's boldness. We're not trying
to win friends and influence enemies. We're trying to be faithful. It is required of a steward that
he be found faithful. For neither at any time used
we flattering words. We didn't try to flatter you.
Something to make you, you know, most, most religious meetings
that are going on right now are nothing more than mutual admonition,
admiration societies. You know, they're just, they're
admiring one another and telling each other how wonderful they
are. And God's people say, preacher, remind me again that I've got
nothing but my sin. Remind me once again, that Christ
is everything in my salvation. Remind me that I can't do anything,
and I don't have anything. And that will cause me to rest
all my hope in Christ. You give me something to do,
and you're just going to take away
my boldness. You're going to take away my
clarity and my simplicity. He said, we didn't come trying
to flatter you. Verse five, for neither at any
time use we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness. We weren't trying to covet men's
approval. God is my witness, nor of men
sought we glory, neither of you nor yet of others. when we might
have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ, but we were gentle
among you." So Paul said, when he's talking about being bold,
he's not talking about being mean-spirited and loud and brash. No, he's
talking about the love of Christ and the gentleness of the gospel
towards God's people. So being affectionately desirous
of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel
only, gospel of God only, but also our own souls because you
were dear to us. There's boldness. And when men oppose the gospel,
it only makes God's people more bold. It makes them more clear. The Lord said, it is necessary
that heresies be among you in order that those which are approved
of God may be made manifest. So when you're clear on the gospel
and someone tries to say, yeah, but, and they confuse the simplicity
of the gospel with the works of men, it only makes you go
more towards Christ and more clear in your own heart. The
Lord sends those oppositions in order to clarify the gospel
for us. The opposite of boldness is to
say, well, you know, there is a sense in which. God loves everybody,
or there's a sense in which Christ died for everybody. Wait a minute,
that's not clear to me. There's no sense in which God
loves everybody. Jacob I've loved, Esau I've hated.
I've loved you with an everlasting love. He loves those who are
in Christ and only those that are in Christ. And Christ died
for those whom God chose in the covenant of grace before the
foundation of the world. Is that clear? That's just scripture. You're there in Acts, turn over
to Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13. Look at verse 45. But when the
Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy. Acts 13,
45, they were filled with envy and spake against those things
which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. That's what
they do. If you're clear in your heart
and we're clear in our speech about how salvation is of the
Lord and he gets all the glory, They're going to contend with
you over that. That's a hard saying for men
who are looking to something that they've contributed as the
hope of their salvation. Then, when this contention came,
and this contradiction and blasphemy came, then Paul and Barnabas
waxed bold. In other words, they became more
bold. Now wait a minute, let me be more clear with you. We're
not going to be led down that road. They became more bold and
said it was necessary that the word of God should be first spoken
unto you, but seeing you put it away from you and judge yourself
unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.
For so hath the Lord commanded us saying, I have set thee to
be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation
unto the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this,
They were glad and glorified the word of the Lord and as many
as were ordained to eternal life believed. Who believed? Those who are ordained of God
to eternal life. They're going to believe, every
one of them. Don't try to figure out whether
you're elect. If you believe that Christ is
everything in salvation and that your only hope before God is
that He stand in your stead and bear all the burden of your sin,
you're resting all your hope in Him alone for your salvation,
you're not mixing the gospel with something that you've done,
then that's the evidence that you're elect. You can't look
into the Lamb's book of life and see if your name's there,
if you've been chosen of God. But as many as were ordained
to eternal life will believe and believe. And how else do we, this word
boldly is also used in Hebrews chapter four when the scripture
says that we are to come boldly before the throne of grace to
find mercy and help in our time of need. What does that mean
to be, to come before the throne of grace boldly? Does it mean
to be brash and loud as we approach God? No, it means confidently. We come with the confidence that
God is satisfied with the Lord Jesus Christ, and that everything
that he requires of us is found in him. That's how we come. Let me close with this story. You remember it, it's found in
1 Kings 3, you don't have to turn there, I'm gonna paraphrase
it for you in just a couple of minutes. Solomon followed his
father David, chosen of God to be the king of Israel. And Solomon
had a vision in the night. And in that vision, the Lord
told Solomon, he said, ask what you will and it'll be given unto
you. And Solomon said, Lord, I need wisdom. How am I gonna
lead these people without wisdom? And God poured out the spirit
of wisdom on King Solomon. And the Lord said, you're the
wisest man that's ever been or ever will be. And so Solomon wakes up from
the vision and immediately in the next passage the Lord proves
the wisdom of Solomon. Two harlots come to the king
and they have a child with them, one child. Now the two harlots
represent the one who is bold and the one who's not bold. We're
all harlots. Who maketh thee to differ? We're
all by nature sinners. We're all by nature harlots.
And so, but the one harlot who was the mother of the child pleaded
with Solomon to give her the child. You remember the one harlot
rolled over on her child and killed her baby in the night.
And she swapped babies. And so when the mother child
woke up, she had a dead child there and she knew it wasn't
her child. And so the two harlots went to the king and they were
contending for the life of this baby. And Solomon listened to
their story and he said, bring me a sword. Bring me a sword. Divide the child and give half
to each of these women. And the mother of the child immediately
cried out and said, oh Lord, my king, let it not be. Give
her the child. And the woman who was not the
baby's mother said, divide the child. It'll be neither mine
nor hers. And Solomon said, give the baby
to that woman. She's the mother. She is the
one who is unwilling to divide the life of the child. It's a gospel story, isn't it?
The gospel of God's free grace is that child. It cannot be divided. And the mother of the child will
say, no, under no circumstances divide that child. Under no circumstances
use the sword of your tongue to confuse the gospel with anything
other than Christ. And the unbeliever will say,
oh no, to buy the child doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Where
do you stand? Where do you stand? It's the
gospel of God's free grace in the accomplished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Simple. Clear. Is it something you cannot compromise? You can't tolerate listening
to someone who will divide it. The mother of the child can't
go listen to someone else who's gonna take a sword and divide
the child. Just can't do it. Our merciful heavenly Father,
we pray that you would give us by your spirit boldness to rest
all our hope in Christ. For it's in his name we pray.