Acts chapter 28 verse 30 and
Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hard house and received
all that came in unto him. What a glorious picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ receiving all coming people, to whom coming
you say, Heavenly Father. We come and we keep coming and
we come and we look to your Son yet again and we pray that the
Blessed Holy Spirit might once more take the things of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the things accomplished, the things finished, the things
being fulfilled, even as we stand in here now, Heavenly Father.
Take those things and reveal them unto us and cause us to
rest in a simple trust in your dear and precious Son. For we
pray in his name and for his glory. Amen. The word is sent, isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
have other sheep, not of this fold, them I must bring in. The glory of the gospel is the
glory of our great God, who is a promise-making, promise-keeping,
faithful God. Behold your God is what Paul
and the other preachers are saying, isn't it? Behold your God. Behold
your God, all flesh is his grass, and our God reigneth. He reigns right now and he receives
sinners. Again and again we have these
promises in the scriptures that the gospel will go and God will
gather his people. When the Lord Jesus Christ is
lifted up he'll draw all men, he'll draw all of his own to
himself. and you'll grant and you'll give
repentance. It says in Acts 11, God has also
to the Gentiles granted, that word's graced, he's graced repentance
unto life. And he'd opened the door of faith
unto the Gentiles. And when he visited the Gentiles,
according to Acts 15, God did visit the Gentiles to take out
of them a people for his name. In the salvation of sinners,
he'll declare the glory of his being. In all of the glory of
His attributes, the glory of His sovereignty, the glory of
His justice, the glory of His holiness, the glory of His righteousness,
the glory of the sin-attaining death of His Son, all of the
glorious attributes of God are revealed best and most clearly
And most poignantly, in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, you
take any attribute of God and you take it to the cross and
you'll see it glorified. God did visit the Gentiles and
he took out of them a people for his name. And he calls them,
he names his people his own, doesn't he? We have his name.
The Lord our righteousness is his name. The Lord our righteousness
is our name. Read Jeremiah 23 and 32. Gentiles and all the Gentiles
upon whom my name is called. They receive them, Paul received
them, all that come to the Lord Jesus Christ. They come drawn
by him. We love quoting Jeremiah 31 verse
3 and it says with everlasting love I have loved you knows no change, and it has no
ending. We love him because he first
loved us, and this is the love that he had for us, isn't it?
The Lord has appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love, a love that had no beginning
and no end. Therefore with loving kindness with weeping and with supplications,
with pleadings will I leave them. Paul received The Jews departed
and Paul was there two years in his house, and I believe it
was the two years prior to his death, and he received all that
came in to him. Preaching the kingdom of God
and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ.
He encircled the Lord Jesus Christ, didn't he, in all of his attributes.
He looked at him from every direction and all the scriptures, all of
the streams of all of God's revelation all point to the glory of his
son. His son who came, his son crucified,
his son buried, his son dead, his son resurrected, his son
coming back and reigning. And Revelation finishes, it says
he's coming. evil world. Are you looking forward? Are you looking forward to standing
in his very presence? In the scriptures, those who
look forward, they always have boldness. They have boldness
on the to that day of judgment. We have
boldness, which is that same word that's used for confidence
there. See, we have confidence. Our gospel's a great gospel,
isn't it? It's a glorious gospel. We have
confidence. Paul had confidence. He preached
the teaching, the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ
with all confidence, with all boldness that word is. Turn back
to Acts chapter 4. And we'll see that as the Church
began in its proclamations of the Lord Jesus Christ, so it
continued to the end. And it continues in the same
way because it's the same Lord who's directing the activities
of all of His people. After the first persecution of
the Church, and we must remember that Paul is standing here before
these people having been persecuted by these Jews, who again and
again and again departed from the words of God
throughout the early chapters of Acts, all they want to do
is stop the disciples speaking, stop them speaking. It's Peter
and John. and says, when they let them
go, verse 23, and they went to their own company and reported
all that the chief priest and elders had said unto them, when
they'd heard that, they lifted up their voice to God. This is
the first evidence, this is the first scriptural, not the evidence
of the disciples praying, they were praying long before this,
but this is the first recorded prayer. It's interesting because
this is a baby church praying. These are very, very brand new
believers praying. They lifted up their voice to
God with one accord and said, Lord, thou art God, which hath
made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is. Who by the mouth of thy servant
David hath said, Why did the heathen rage? And the people
imagined vain things. Dear oh dear, what a world we
live in today, people imagining vain things. If there was ever
an age where vanity is a word that you could put as a label
over almost everything that's going on these days, it would
be, wouldn't it? They imagine vain things. The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against His Christ, this is Psalm 2. for of a truth against thy
holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed. That word anointed
is a word for Messiah, Christ. Both Herod and Pontius Pilate
and the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. What's happening today? Exactly the same thing's happening
today, isn't it? It never will be other than that
in God's creation. Whatever thy hand and thy counsel
determined before were to be done. And now, Lord, behold their
threatenings, and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness
they may speak thy word. by stretching forth thine hand
to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy
holy child Jesus. And when they had prayed, the
place was shaken, and where they were assembled together, and
they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the
word of God with boldness, with boldness. It's not brashness,
it's not loudness, it's not self-promotion. That word boldness means confidence,
with confidence. God's preachers have a confidence
in the fact that God has sent his word, as Isaiah 52 says,
it's come down from heaven and it's done its work here and it
returns to him and it never returns without having achieved exactly
what he sent it for. confidence in the Word of God,
we have a confidence in this Gospel. We don't have to manipulate
people, we don't have to massage the Gospel, we just declare it
as it is. We don't have to convince people
of anything, we just declare who God is. Boldness means confidence,
it means to be open, to speak plainly, to speak frankly, with
courage, to speak clearly, without ambiguity. without being nuanced. I love that word, doesn't it?
It's a modern word. No, it's not. It's a French word,
but it's used in a modern way, isn't it? There is a nuance,
they say, about the sovereignty of God. There's a nuance because
man has this remarkable free will. There's a nuance. There's
a nuance about the love of God. It's more nuanced than just God
loves his people. There's more nuance than God
loving Jacob and hating Esau. There's a nuance that says about
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a sense in which the
Lord Jesus Christ died for everyone. There's a sense in which he died
for everyone. There's a sense in which he made salvation available
and made it possible for everyone. Nuanced. You know what the word
nuance means? It's a French word. God's people, that's what Paul
was speaking, wasn't he? He was speaking with confidence,
wasn't he? He spoke to those Jews, and he declared Isaiah's
prophecy, and he says it's fulfilled in your very sight. You have
all the evidence laid out before you, you see it, and Isaiah says
you won't understand. You hear, and you won't hear. And you won't come. And yet,
God's people will come. And Lord willing, he'll answer
that prayer, won't he? That we will preach with boldness,
with boldness. If you go back, if you're in
Acts chapter four, just go back to me and we'll have another
remarkable instance here which says in verse 13, when they saw
the boldness of Peter and John and perceived, I love this description
of them, perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men. Unlearned and ignorant men. They marveled and they took knowledge
of them that they had been with Jesus. See boldness is what they had
just done. Pride of that, hasn't it? You
see, Peter, they were challenged, weren't they? Who, on what basis
was this They've arrested Peter and John and they're laying charges
against them. On what basis and on what name
have you healed this man? At verse 7 it says, they set
them in the midst and they asked them, by what power or by what
name have you done this? And Peter and John could have
said, we did it by the name of Jehovah, the sovereign God of
Israel. They could have said that, couldn't
they? And it was perfectly true. They could have said, We did
it by the name of the sovereign God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We did it by the sovereign hand
of the creator of the universe, our great Jehovah, the great
I Am. You see, you can tell a lot of
truth and still not be bold, can you? Listen to what they
say. Be it known unto you, verse 10,
and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, we're going to speak boldly about him in particular.
We're not going to hide away from who he is, whom you crucified. We're not going to hide away
from what you have done to him. We're not going to hide sin.
We're not going to hide the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we're going to declare him raised, whom God has raised from the
dead. Even by him, this particular
Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, this particular one, does this
man stand here before you whole. That's boldness. Boldness is
with confidence, declaring, with clarity, with assurance, who the Lord Jesus Christ is,
according to the scripture and according to the testimony that's
laid out before the men of this world. Paul prayed for boldness. He prayed for boldness again
and again. We read it at the end of Romans
chapter 16, didn't either, as we began our message. the mystery, that we might declare
what is the mystery. If we turn with me to Ephesians
6, Paul wrote these letters of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians
and Philemon from his time in prison in Rome. So he began his
time there preaching with boldness the Kingdom of God. He started
with the Jews and then he kept preaching to all that received
him. The invitation, in a sense, was sent out to come and hear,
come and hear. And he kept on doing it, didn't
he? He was asking again, he says,
In verse 18 of Ephesians chapter 6 he'd written from this prison,
praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,
and watching unto therefore with all perseverance and supplication
for all saints, and to me, this is his prayer for himself, and
to me that utterance may be given unto me. that I may open my mouth
boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, that I could speak with confidence,
that I could speak with clarity, that I could speak plainly, that
I could speak clearly. Utterance, that word utterance,
is just words, words. All we have It's remarkable, isn't it, to
think that the most extraordinary, strong thing, most stable thing,
most assured thing in all of this world is the Church of the
Lord Jesus Christ. There is nothing more secure.
It's in the hands of God himself, the angels encamp around the
children of God. There is nothing more secure
in all the world than the Church of God. It's the place in which
God the Father has determined determined to get glory for his
son. And yet, to the eyes of the world
and to the eyes of us, it seems like the most fragile and pathetic
institution you could ever have. And it's not an institution,
it's an organism. So its life doesn't come from
us. The life of the Church comes
from on high, from our God. There's a mystery involved in
the existence of the Church and the establishment of the Church
and the sustaining of the Church. And so it is with the believers
who are members of it. What pathetic, what seemingly
very poor, insignificant beings we are in this world. The world
walks by, walks by, and they can ignore us, and they can dismiss
us as absolutely nothing. Herod did that to the
Lord Jesus Christ, didn't he? He set him before him and he
and his mocking soldiers set the Lord Jesus Christ at in this universe is not a thing
that wriggles. Be it the tiniest little imagined thing that you
can imagine on the tiniest speck of dust at the farthest reaches
of the universe, it's moving now exactly as the Lord Jesus
Christ determined from before the foundation of the world.
And so is everything else. So that was Paul's confidence,
wasn't it? His assurance was not in Paul's ability. How had he got here into this
this room in Rome where he received all that came to him. So Paul
had all sorts of plans about going to Rome, didn't he? And
none of them involved all the things that he did. None of them
involved him going to Jerusalem and being years in a jail in
Caesarea Philippi, being sort of bandied about and bartered
amongst the Jews and others. And then he had no idea that
he was going to come to Rome on a ship, on two ships, three
ships as it were. And one of those ships was going
to spend 14 days being tossed around by the storms. 14 days
without the sun, 14 days without the star, 14 days with the waves
pouring over the days of no hope amongst all those people. And yet what has happened? God
had made a promise to him, hadn't he? The Lord Jesus Christ said,
you've been a witness to me here in Jerusalem, you're going to
be a witness to me in Rome. Just like he said to the apostles
crossing the Sea of Galilee, isn't he? He said, let us pass
over to the other side. It doesn't matter what happens
in between time. When he said, let us pass over, once the word
of God has been said and established, then that's the end of the matter. They must go over the other side.
It doesn't matter what the storms do. It doesn't matter what the
ship does. It doesn't matter what other people do. The only
thing that matters is that God has made a promise. God has made
a promise. Our God promises, all that come
to me, that come to me I will in no wise cast out. No one, he says, can pluck them
out of my hand. All that the Father gave to me
will come to me, and no one's going to pluck them out of my
hand. Satan's not going to pluck them out of my hand. The powers
of this world are not going to pluck them out of my hand, and
neither are you and your sins. We have a glorious gospel brothers
and sisters in Christ. And the glorious gospel is about
a glorious person who is our saviour and our redeemer. And he is a faithful husband
to his bride. He's a faithful son to his father. All the promises of God in him
are yay and amen. All of them. All the confidence
that the children of God need is simply, thus saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord. Time is
going to cut me short again, but it's probably a very good
thing, isn't it? Because what does, we started our service
today thinking about the fact that our great God says, now
may the God of hope, the God of hope, fill you with all joy
and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the
power of the Holy Ghost. Paul went to those people and
he preached a resurrected, risen Lord Jesus Christ. is peace, isn't it? Confidence
and assurance is rest. That's the boldness we have on
the Day of Judgment. It's the boldness that we have
now. He says, and I'll close in Hebrews chapter 13, verse
20. that brought again from the dead
our Lord Jesus, our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep. See, the Father gave him some
sheep, and he's a shepherd. If I own some sheep and I sent
them out into the fields, and I left them in the care of a
shepherd, and when they came back and there was a sheep missing,
who's responsible? We all, like sheep, have gone
astray, and we're doing it all the time. Who's responsible for
bringing the sheep into the sheepfold? The shepherd is. The shepherd
is. The shepherd's done it, brothers
and sisters in Christ. He's the great shepherd of the
sheep. God looks to him for absolutely everything. He looks to him for
the care of the sheep. they are perfectly safe in his
hands. The great chapter of the three,
through the blood of the everlasting covenant, he shed his life blood
for you, brothers and sisters. Are the little things of this
world going to be a trouble compared to the greatness of who he is
and what he's done? And he's a creator. Verse 21, The
Great Shepherd of the Sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant, make you perfect. Make you perfect in every good
work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing
in His sight. It might not be well-pleasing
in your sight, and it might not be well-pleasing in the sights
of people around you, and it certainly won't be well-pleasing
in the sight of the world. There's only one side that matters.
He sees perfectly clearly, working in you that which is well-pleasing
in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and
ever. Boldness, confidence, assurance,
plainness. to his sheep, his troubled sheep,
his languishing sheep, his strange sheep. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just simply
pray to believe what you say, to believe
what you say about your son, to believe what you say about
your people who are eternally united to him. Oh, our Father,
we pray that we might yet again look to the cross of your dear
and precious son and see our sins having they deserve and that they are
gone, gone forever. Grant us, Heavenly Father, simply
just to believe and rest our internal souls into the arms
of your dear and precious Son, who carries his sheep close to
his heart, above this world, living and sustained in this
world by his life now and forever. Bless your word, Heavenly Father.
Amen.