Acts 18 verse 9. We read here,
Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not
afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace. For I am with thee,
and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee. For I have much
people in this city. And he continued there a year
and six months, teaching the word of God among them. Now Paul
is at Corinth and he came there and he stayed a time with Aquila
and Priscilla who the Lord had directed there from Rome. Claudius
Caesar had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and they
being one of that group departed from there and came to Corinth.
Paul stayed with them. He worked as a tent maker because
that was his occupation and that was the occupation of Aquila. So he got a job with them. There was nobody to support him
there. No church that was helping him whatsoever. So he worked
there and then he preached every Sabbath in the synagogue. Then
Silas and Timothy came, and they apparently refresh him with their
presence, one. And secondly, they bring him
some sort of support from Macedonia. We know that from the Corinthian
letter he wrote, that when the brethren came, they brought a
gift from Macedonia. And he was pressed in the Spirit,
and he preached Christ. And when he did this, there were
some that opposed him and blasphemed him. And he shook his raiment
from them. And he said, your blood is on your own heads. I'm
clean from you. I'm going to the Gentiles now.
And he began to preach. And he entered into a man's house
named Justice. And as he preached to Justice,
the Lord saved some Corinthians. And they were baptized. And the
chief ruler of the synagogue believed. the Lord through Paul's
preaching. But something along here, maybe
it was the opposition he was facing or the type of citizens
that dwelt in Corinth, it was a lewd, lewd place. And something
had caused Paul to be afraid. Now we've looked at what Paul
preached and how he preached from the Scriptures. We've looked
at how when he was pressed in the Spirit, it was because of
the news he got from Thessalonica about how the Lord had worked
mightily through the preaching of the Gospel and what he had
done there. Tonight I want to talk to you about Paul's confidence. And we touched on this briefly
before, but I want to look at it in detail tonight. Now the
text starts out here in verse 9, and it says, Then spake the
Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, and the Lord said,
Be not afraid. I looked up that phrase, be not
afraid, and it's used 26 times in God's Word. And I looked up
the phrase, fear not, and it's used 63 times in God's Word. And of the 89 times that these
phrases are used, most every time they're used is God speaking
to His children. Most every time. God's people often become afraid. Do you become afraid? We're in
this world to bear witness of Christ. And I'll tell you, we
can be as bold as a lion sometimes when we're by ourselves thinking
about this great news of the gospel of our Redeemer. But when
we come face to face with somebody, It doesn't have to be somebody
opposing us. It doesn't have to be somebody
who's mighty. It doesn't have to be somebody
who in any way really has any appearance about them that's
intimidating. And we grow fearful of just speaking the truth to
them. Let me read you a few examples
that I found in Scripture. The children of Israel came to
the borders of Canaan, and the Lord said through His messenger,
Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou
dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou
goest." When Moab and Ammon and Seir
came up against the children of Judah, Scripture says all
Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones and their wives
and their children. And they were afraid. They were
fearful. And then, upon Jehaziel, the
son of Zechariah, came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the
congregation, and He said, Hearken ye all Judah, and all ye inhabitants
of Jerusalem, and thou King Jehoshaphat, thus saith the Lord unto you.
Be not afraid, nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude,
for the battle He's not yours. The battle is God's. So the Lord says here to Paul,
be not afraid. But He says, speak and hold not
thy peace. God our Savior has sent us forth
as sheep in the midst of wolves. But we're sheep who are well
equipped. well equipped. Paul said, though
we walk in the flesh, we don't war after the flesh. The weapons
of our warfare, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but
mighty. A carnal weapon is not mighty. Not even the most mightiest carnal
weapon. It's not mighty compared to the
weapon you have. And I have. The weapon we have
is mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
If our warfare was after the flesh, then we'd use fleshly
weapons. We could use steel armor, and
we could use a metal shield, and we could get us one of those
Kevlar helmets, and we could get us a forged sword. and we
could bind people, and we could throw people in prison, and we
could put them in chains, and we could insist that they do
what we tell them to do, or face death. But that's not our means. That's not the weapons that we
have. Our warfare is not carnal. It's
something far greater For this war, we've got to have mighty
weapons. We've got to have weapons preeminently
stronger than any of those weapons that I just made, those carnal
fleshly weapons. By the power of God, our weapons
are able to pull down strongholds of Satan, and the depraved natures
in men and the deceitful heart of men, it's able to pull down
all their strongholds. These weapons we have. It's called
the armor of light. Christ Jesus, the light. It's called the word of truth,
the power of God. The armor of righteousness on
the right hand and on the left. Whatever direction we turn, this
is our armor. The power of God. The truth of
God. It's the power of God unto salvation. Now, you go into this warfare
equipped by God with the whole armor of God. What is the whole
armor of God? It's the having your loins, your
inward parts, girt about with truth. You see, our weapons are
the truth. And that which protects us and
gives us confidence is the truth in the inward part. It's the
weapon that's going to conquer And it's also the weapon that
conquered us and that strengthens us to go into this warfare. It's
having our loins girt about with truth. It's having the breastplate
of righteousness. Paul tells us through the Thessalonians
that what he means by the breastplate of righteousness is the breastplate
of faith and love. It's not my faith and it's not
my love. Could you get any confidence
from your faith and your love? Could you get any confidence
in how well you believe and how well you love? The righteousness
of God is manifest through the faithfulness of Christ and the
breastplate, that which covers our hearts and which quickens
our hearts and our inner man is the faithfulness of Christ
and God's everlasting love for us in him. That's the breastplate. That's what covers our heart,
that new heart. It protects us as we go into
this warfare. This equipment is having our
feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. You're peacemakers and your feet
are covered in the gospel of peace so that you go in the way
of peace. That's this gospel that we have.
It's the gospel that brought us into this peace and it's the
way we make peace as we go forward. It's taking the shield of faith,
trusting God alone that He'll do as He promised us. It's the helmet of salvation. It's the hope of salvation. Do you hope that you'll be saved?
Do you hope that God will save you? He's promised He will. He's promised He will for the
sake of Christ. If you hope in Christ and you
hope in God, you got a good hope. And this equipment is the sword
of the Spirit. It's the truth. Loins girt about
with truth. It's the breastplate of the righteousness
of God, the faith and love of God in Christ Jesus. It's having
our feet shod with the gospel of peace. It's having the shield
of faith. It's having the helmet of the
hope of salvation. And it's having the sword of
the Spirit, which is the Word of God. God's Word to you. You believe Him? He's given His
Word. You believe Him? It's His Word
to you. And it's that Word we preach,
we speak as we go forth. That's the weapons of our warfare
and that's the armor of light that protects us. We live of
the Gospel. We're not only sent to bear witness
of it, we live of it, we're protected through it. It is that which
strengthens us and emboldens us and gives us the confidence
that we'll be protected in this battle, in this war. And we may
get like Jeremiah got every now and then. Look over Jeremiah
1 with me. Jeremiah chapter 1. We may get like Jeremiah. And we may feel this way, but
listen to what the Lord told Jeremiah. Jeremiah 1.6. Jeremiah said, Then said I, Lord
God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child. But the Lord
said unto me, Say not, I am a child. For thou shalt go to all that
I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces,
for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. And then
the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth, and the
Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See,
I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms
to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down
and to build and to plant. And so the Lord says, Paul, be
not afraid. Speak the word and hold not thy
peace. The Lord gives Paul three reasons
for confidence to hold forth the word of life. And that's
what I want us to look at tonight. And this will be our divisions
for our message. First of all, it's the presence
of God. Secondly, it's the protection
of God. And thirdly, it's the purpose
of God. Now let's see that under these
headings. Look at Acts 18 verse 9. Then spake the Lord to Paul in
the night by vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace,
for I am with thee. Now the presence of our Lord
is the most blessed assurance and confidence that the believer
has. If you know whom you have believed,
And if you are persuaded that He is able to keep you body,
soul, and spirit until the day of salvation, if you're persuaded
of that, it's because He's with you. And you can be assured if
He's with you, He'll be with you. He said, Paul, I'm with
you. Look over at Exodus 33 with me
just a minute. This presence of God, this is
the desire of a believer. Look over with me at Exodus 33, verse 12. Moses said unto the
Lord, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people, and thou
hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast
said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in
my sight. Now therefore I pray thee, I
pray thee, if I have found grace in thy
sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find
grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people.
And he said, this is what the Lord said to him, my presence
shall go with thee. I will give thee rest. And he
said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not
up hence. For wherein shall it be known
here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? How
is it going to be known? How is it going to be known that
we found grace in his sight? Is it not in that thou goest
with us? So shall we be separated, I and
thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the
earth. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will. I will do this
thing also that thou hast spoken. For thou hast found grace in
my sight, and I know thee by name. Now let me ask you, who
is this who says he knows us by name? Who is this that says
my presence is with you? Who is this? He said, I am with
thee. When Moses was sent by God to
go into Israel the first time, he said, when I come to the children
of Israel, and I say to them, the God of your fathers has sent
me unto you, and they say unto me, what's his name? He said,
what am I going to say to them? What am I going to say to them?
And God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, Thus
shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me
unto you. In John 18, when they came to
arrest our Lord, They came that night to arrest Him. And the
scripture says they came with lanterns, and torches, and all
kinds of weapons, carnal weapons, carnal light, like they had kindled
themselves. That's what they came to arrest
our Lord with. And they came to Him, and the
Lord said, Whom seekest thou? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. We seek Jesus that Nazarite. And the Lord made sure they understood
who it was that was standing right in front of them. And the
Lord said, I am. He said, I am. And when He said it, they went
away backwards and they fell right on their behind. Now you
know what the last thing our Lord said before He ascended
to the Father? What He said to His disciples.
Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto
me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you. And, lo, listen to this, I am
with you always, even unto the end of the world.
Amen. I showed you Sunday that that
verily means amen. That's his name. Verily, amen. He said, I am with you. Amen. He put his name to it twice. What do you do when you sign
a letter? When you get to the end of that letter, you put your
name to it, don't you? At the end of every gospel, it ends
with this, amen. That's His name. He's the Amen,
the faithful and true witness. And He said, this is how it is.
I am. That's who He says goes with you. His presence. Now here's
the second thing. Back in our text. Then spake
the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision. Be not afraid, but
speak. Hold not thy peace, for I am
with thee. No man shall set on thee to hurt
thee. This is the protection of God. The I am in whom is all our salvation
is the I am in whom is all our protection. Our Lord, he hedged Paul about
so that nobody was able to touch Paul and to do any kind of bodily
injury to Paul while he was at Corinth, while he preached the
gospel there at Corinth. And our Lord's able to do that.
He told Jeremiah, He said, I'll make you unto this people a fenced
brazen wall. And they'll fight against you,
but they won't prevail against you. For I am with thee to save
thee and to deliver thee, saith the Lord. The Lord's able to
do that. And He did that with Paul and Corinth. But He didn't
do that with Paul everywhere else. Paul said, I was beaten. He said, I've been thrown in
prison. We've seen that already in the book of Acts. He said,
He endured much bodily injury. But you know that in most places
when our Lord speaks of hurt not coming upon you, He speaks
of something far, far greater. Far, far more valuable. Something
of far, far more worth than just bodily injury. He said, when
he was speaking to his disciples, he said, they're going to deliver
you up to the councils and they're going to scourge you in the synagogues.
That's bodily injury. He said, brothers shall deliver
up brother to death and the father, the child, and the children shall
rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death.
That's bodily injury. And by divine permission, they
did this to our Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, it's enough for
the servant that he be as his Lord. But physical hurt's not what
I chiefly desire to be saved from. What is it that you chiefly desire,
the hurt that you desire to be delivered from? One of it, one of the things
is, is I desire to be delivered from the hurt of not speaking
about my Lord as I ought to speak." Does that hurt you? If you have
opportunity to speak concerning your Lord as you ought to speak
and you don't, does that hurt you? If one of you children were standing
with somebody and you heard them speak unkind, horrible words
about one of your parents. And you had the opportunity to
correct them, to tell them the truth. And you walked away and
didn't tell them the truth. Would that hurt you? Would you
walk away thinking, I had the opportunity to tell them the
truth and I didn't? Well, this is what the Lord promised
His disciples. He said, When they deliver you
up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak, for it shall
be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is
not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh
in you. Does that mean the Lord is going to do that all the time
for us? You know, the Lord didn't do that for Peter. And Peter
stood there by that fire that night with that woman, and she
began to say, I know you. I saw you with Christ. And Peter
denied him. But the Lord allowed Peter to
deny Him because Peter thought he had the power in himself and
the strength in himself to be a witness for God. And he'd never
deny Him. And the Lord told him, if you're
going to speak the truth about me, and if you're going to speak
what you ought to speak, just like every other aspect of our
salvation, it's going to be by His power and His grace. We pray. I hear you pray. that the Lord would give me an
unction, that the Spirit would give me boldness to preach, that
give me liberty to speak. What it is, brethren, is this
confidence that we're talking about. It's God giving up a man,
a child of His, one who He sent forth to be a witness of. It's
God giving him confidence to know that His presence is with
you. It's Him giving you confidence
to know that He's protecting you. No man will hurt you. When
He does that, brethren, you'll speak as you ought to speak.
And the praise and the glory in it won't be, well, you ought
to have heard how I talked to Him. It'll be Him. And you won't go away talking
to anybody about how you told somebody. That's not... That's
not what we're talking about. When our Lord said, let your
light so shine, the light is Christ. The light is the gospel.
And the more the light of the gospel shines, John said, he
must increase, I must decrease. I'm not looking to have anybody
looking at me. The works I delight in, the works
I'm zealous for, the works I desire for men to see are the works
of my Lord Jesus Christ. Not my works. I want people to
see Him. Not me. But He gives the sanction. Don't you see that the Lord's
doing this? What I'm saying here and the point I'm making, the
Lord's doing this to Paul. The Lord came to Paul and spake
to Paul and said, Be not afraid, Paul. Speak and hold not thy
peace. I am with thee. No man shall
hurt thee. The Lord's doing this very thing
to the Apostle Paul. And here's the second thing the
believer desires to be spared from the hurt of, and that's
being separated from our Lord. But the Lord said, you shall
be hated of all men for my name's sake, but he that endureth to
the end shall be saved. It don't matter how the end comes.
It don't matter what the instrument is that brings the end. He says,
he that endureth to the end shall be saved. for the sake of Christ. Turn
with me to Isaiah 54. Isaiah 54. For the sake of Christ,
who shed his blood, no believer shall ever suffer the hurt of
being separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Never. Why is that? Well, after that
great chapter in Isaiah 53, when the Lord when the Lord declared
that Christ Jesus, the Son of God bore the transgression of
His people, and that He made satisfaction of God, He shall
see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied, and that in
Christ ye are healed with His stripes. Then in Isaiah 54, He
says this, Isaiah 54, verse 14. In righteousness shalt thou be
established. In righteousness shalt thou be
established. Now what's the result of that?
Thou shalt be far from oppression. You know what oppression means
in Scripture? It means legal bondage. being bound by the law. And he says, in righteousness
you shall be established. Do we then make void the law
through faith? God forbid. We establish the
law by faith in Christ. His righteousness has established
us so that we'll be far from oppression. The law can't separate
us from God. Thou shalt not fear. Are you going to fear men who
would try to oppress you? Are you going to fear coming
into the presence of God that there's something left undone,
that there's some condemnation yet to be laid to your charge?
Fear is cast out so that we may have boldness in the day of judgment
by this. As Christ is, so are we. In righteousness
shalt thou be established, he said. And he says, and from terror
Those night terrors where you're being accused by the accuser
of the brethren. Where you'd be accused by men
who would try to bring you into the terror of thinking there's
something yet that you need to do to be established in righteousness. He said, that's going to be far
from you. For it shall not come near thee. Behold, they shall
surely gather together but not by me. Whosoever shall gather
together against thee shall fall for thy sake." Look down at verse
17. No weapon that is formed against
thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against
thee in judgment shalt thou condemn. Now when it says no weapon that
is formed against thee shall prosper, some kind of weapon
was used to cut Peter's head off, and he died. But did that weapon prosper?
No. This is the hurt that he spares
his people from, brethren. This is the hurt he spares his
people from. It is the hurt of being separated
from God. No weapon shall ever be able
to separate you from the love of God in Christ. Knowing that,
brethren, Knowing that knowing that he'll give us the power
to speak as we ought Knowing that nothing men can do shall
ever separate us from the love of God. He says here this is
The heritage of the servants of the Lord their righteousness
is of me sayeth the Lord That's why this thing can't you can't
fail. I And that's why the Lord concludes
when He was giving those instructions to His disciples, He said, Fear
not them, therefore, what I tell you in darkness, what I tell
you privately, what I'm just teaching you in the heart, go
speak it in light. Go out in the open and tell folks
about it. Tell folks about Christ. What
you hear in the ear, preach it upon the housetops. And fear
not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the
soul. but rather fear Him that's able
to kill body, soul, and spirit. That's God. We reference Him. In referencing Him, we know He's
with us. We know He'll protect us. And
no hurt will come upon us. No hurt will come upon us. Now,
here's the third thing. He says to Paul, Be not afraid,
but speak, and hold not thy peace. I am with you. The presence of
God is our confidence. He says, No man shall hurt thee.
The eternal protection of our God is our confidence. And in
the face of all opposition, the purpose of God is our confidence. Look here, he says, For I have
much people in this city. What kind of people were they?
when Paul came to Corinth. What kind of people was it he
was looking at when he got there? We might understand something
about why he was afraid. Look over at 1 Corinthians chapter
6. Here's what kind of folks they were. 1 Corinthians chapter
6. Verse 9. that the unrighteous shall not
inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived, neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,
that's homosexuals, prostitutes, nor abusers of themselves with
mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers,
nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you." Paul is writing this later and
he said, Some of you were this way. It's what you were. But
ye are washed. But ye are sanctified. But ye are justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. That's what
kind of people that the Lord had there. He had some fornicators
and some idolaters. and some adulterers and homosexuals
and abusers of themselves with mankind and thieves and covetous
and drunkards and extortioners. But he said, Paul, I have much
people in this city that I have purged of all their sins. I have washed them as white as
snow in my own blood. Paul, I have much people in this
city that I have washed of all their sins in my own son whom
I gave, my only begotten son whom I gave. Paul, I have much
people in this city whom I have separated, sanctified, set apart
myself when I chose them by my free sovereign grace and put
them in Christ Jesus before the world ever was founded. I have much people here that
I've everlastingly loved who have existed holy and without
blame before me in love everlastingly. I've predestinated Aquila and
Priscilla to be right here, Paul. I brought those two together
in my predestinating grace. I brought them together and I
caused this great tumult in Rome so that the Romans got tired
of anybody that had anything to do with this one named Christ
and just finally said, all you Jews, get out of here. And Aquila
and Priscilla came down there to Corinth just to provide you
a house to stay in, Paul, when you got down there. I predestinated
that These children whom I everlastingly loved would be right here in
Corinth, just like Justice was when you came to him, Paul. I
put him right there and brought you right to him. Just like that
ruler of the synagogue, Paul, I predestinated for his path
to cross your path right at the moment like it did just a few
days ago so I could call him out just like I did a few days
ago. Because I predestinated him unto
the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ to myself. And I have
much people in this city that I've done the same thing. I predestinated
them to this cause, Paul, and they're going to hear this gospel.
They have to hear the name of Jesus Christ because I have justified
them. Because I have put away their
condemnation. Because I have condemned the
condemnation. I have made death die for them. I have put away their sin. I
have satisfied my own law for them. I have completely made
them the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, my son. They
have to hear this gospel, Paul. They have to hear it. And I have to send forth the
Holy Spirit through this Gospel and give them life through the
incorruptible seed, through the Gospel of Christ, that they may
have life to behold, that I have had them in my heart, in my Son,
in my purpose and will of grace from before I ever made the first
grain of sand. And I've done everything since
that time. Everything I've done in my providence,
I've done to bring you to this city, Paul, and them to this
city, Paul, so that I could bring them to hear this gospel preached
and call them out through the Word of Life, through the Word
of Light of Christ Jesus. Now you say, Paul, I'm with you. And Paul, I'm going to protect
you. Because according to my purpose,
I have much people in this city, Paul. Now don't be afraid. Go and speak and I'll hold you
peace. I'll hold you peace. Are you convinced that God's
with you? Are you convinced that you're
eternally protected in the Lord, our sanctuary? Are your inward
parts, right now, as you hear this Gospel, priest, are your
inward parts burning within you? Or does your heart overflow with
the truth of the Gospel, so that your loins are curled about with
the truth? Are you convinced that the gospel
of the triumphant, victorious, finished work of our resurrected
King and Savior is the only weapon, the only weapon that's going
to cast down imaginations and bring every high thing into the
obedience of Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you convinced of that? If so, know that you're safe
behind the shield of faith. Know that you can put on the
helmet of the hope of salvation. Know that your breast is covered
in the breastplate of God's righteousness, of Christ's righteousness, of
His faithfulness and His love for you, from whom you can never
be separated, brethren. And be not afraid, but speak
and hold not thy peace. according to the riches of His
grace towards you, according to the good pleasure He's purposed
in Himself. Be not afraid and hold not thy
peace. Speak. And I ask you to pray
for me as Paul said, that utterance may be given unto me, that I
may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel,
for which I'm an ambassador in bonds, that I may speak boldly
as I ought to speak. I'm persuaded that God's with
us. And I'm persuaded he'll protect
us. And I'm persuaded he's got much people in this city. I don't know if it's much people,
he's got people. And quite frankly, when I think
about his people, when I packed up to come here
and moved here to this place, In my heart, I thought, if it's
no more than two or three that are already here, that are already
His, and He don't add any more to it, that's enough. He has to give me the grace to
speak boldly and be not afraid and to teach just the same as
if it was a thousand. And what responsibility? Men
hear that and they start hoping, we want to go out and reach a
bunch of others. But what if you're that soul
that He sent me to minister to? What if there's just one and
you're that one? Are you concerned about the rest now? He said,
I have a people and wherever He has people, He's going to
be with you, He's going to protect you, and He's going to do it
because he got a people and they're going to hear the God is through
this gospel that we're going to be shielded they were going to be
built up that we're going to be edified and light begets light
Isn't that amazing? Isn't that an amazing thing how
He uses that to do that for us individually so that we might
be ones He uses to edify others that He loves? Well, it was by
the assurance that our Lord gave to Paul. Verse 11 says, He continued
there a year and six months, teaching the Word of God among
them. I pray it be so here.