Okay. I'm ready. Let's go back to Acts chapter
4. Acts chapter 4. The text is verse 13 to 22 and we're
going to dwell on verse 13 for a little while. So, begin with me in verse 10,
and let's read up to it. It says, Be it known unto you
all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead,
even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is
the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which has become
the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. Now when they saw the
boldness of Peter and John, Peter was the one preaching here. Verse
8 says, Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, sat unto them. He was the one preaching. And
when they saw the boldness of Peter, let's glorify Peter for
just a minute, okay? How about let's not? I've always, you know, I've grown
up hearing these stories and I've always known this story
and I could just see Peter giving it to him in my mind. And I've just always been in
awe of this moment. But it dawned on me as I was
studying this that it wasn't too long before this that Peter
couldn't stand up to a little girl. Remember that? That little girl
came to him and she said, you were with him, weren't you? And
he said, no. No, I wasn't. No, I don't even
know him. I don't even know who that is. Any boldness that a sinner possesses
for the cause of Christ is the boldness of God's Holy Spirit
in that center. That's all there is to it. It
is God which worketh in you. Now let's look at this boldness
for just a second, okay? Go with me to 2 Corinthians chapter
10. 2 Corinthians 10, verse 1 says,
Now I, Paul, myself, beseech you by the meekness and gentleness
of Christ. Man, I love that. The meekness
and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you,
but being absent am bold. Now here's what he's saying right
there. He's saying, I beseech you by the meekness and gentleness
of Christ, who when I'm with you, in your presence, I'm base
among you. But being absent, I write letters
to you. And we're reading one of them
right here. He was absent at this moment, okay? I write letters
to you. And these letters are bold because
they are the Word of God. They're bold. This Word is the
power of God. It really is. This Word really
is the power of God. Verse 2 says, But I beseech you
that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence
wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of
us as if we walked according to the flesh. He's saying. What I'm delivering to you is
the power of God unto salvation. But let me not think. And let
you not think. And let me not act. Let me not
conduct myself as though the power of God unto salvation lies
within this flesh right here. You know, we're talking about
boldness, you know. Verse 3, he says, for though we walk in
the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling
down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high
thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringeth
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. This
boldness is not in our own flesh. That's what he's saying. It's
in the word of God. It's confidence and it's assurance. in and through His Spirit. It
said, Peter being filled with the Holy Ghost. Right? It made
sure to say that first. Peter being filled with the Holy
Ghost. And through the Holy Ghost, it's a matter of fact, faith
in Christ. It's a matter of fact, faith
in Christ. In His ability, in His power,
and in His Word. Boldness is not arrogance. It's not arrogance. And I think
this is so important when the opportunity arises for
us to say anything about the gospel, any of us. The last thing we want to do
is shy away from the truth, right? The last thing we want to do
is not tell somebody the truth and be in our own mind a coward,
right? Well, this boldness is not arrogance. It's not arrogance. Do you think
that Paul was bold in the truth? The Apostle Paul? I do. Look
at verse 10. For his letters, say they, this
is what they say, his letters are weighty and powerful, but
his bodily presence is weak. and his speech contemptible.
Is that saying that we put no effort into it and we strive
to be quiet and monotone? No. No. We scream the truth from
the rooftops is what we do. Just listen. Don't turn, but
just listen. This is Isaiah 40 verse 9. It says, O Zion that
bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain. O
Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with
strength. Lift it up, be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah,
Behold your God. Behold your God. They saw the
boldness of Peter and John. But let's not be confused with
arrogance or with wrath or with anything like that. Go with me
over to James chapter 1. James 1 verse 19 says, Wherefore,
my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to
speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man worketh
not the righteousness of God. Boldness is not arrogance. Boldness
is not wrath towards others. You think Moses was bold? You
think about that. I'm serious. You think about
that. To go into the palace of Pharaoh with all his guards and
all his soldiers there and walk straight up to his throne and
look him right in the eye and say, Thus saith the Lord. Man, is that not bold? Turn with
me over to Numbers chapter 12. I never forget the first time I
read this. I adore this. Numbers chapter 12 verse 3 says, Now the man Moses
was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the
earth. Moses was the meekest man on
earth. He was the meekest man on earth. I bet he was an absolute delight
to be around. I imagine he was, just to sit
and talk to the man. The meekest man on earth. People say, his preaching is
getting more and more bold. I've heard people say that before.
It's getting more and more bold. It's just getting harder and
harder. He's whipping goats harder and
harder. That's not what that word means. Boldness is the confidence and
the assurance of God's Holy Spirit. It's God's Spirit working in
a center. It's confidence that everything
is of Him. How could Moses walk into that
palace and walk right past those guards with those spears and
those swords and walk right up to Pharaoh and say, thus saith
the Lord? It's because he knew this is all of God. Every step
I'm about to take into this palace was ordered by God. And God sent
me with a message. He said, you go tell Pharaoh,
and he's going to let me make it all the way to Pharaoh. Now,
I don't know what's going to happen on the way back, but he's
going to let me make it all the way there. It's confidence that everything
is of Him. Everything in my immediate surrounding
is ordered and controlled by Him. Every single thing. It's
a settledness. That it's going to happen His
way and it's going to happen His time. Boldness. It's just telling
men and women the truth. That's all it is. Just telling
them the truth. And then leaving everything in God's hands. Just
leave it in God's hands to do as He pleases, what He will with
whom He will. And we do all that with meekness
and lowliness of heart. Alright, now turn with me to
Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews 4, look at verse 16. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Does that mean that we're going
to walk up to the throne of grace arrogantly? No. In a fleshly confidence? I'm about to do something bold.
No. No. Let us therefore come in
the assurance and the confidence of God's Holy Spirit unto the
throne of grace. Let us come in faith. Let us
come look into Christ. That's boldness. Boldness is
seeing Christ. That's boldness. What will give
a sinner the ability to do anything? Seeing Christ. seeing His work, His accomplishment.
And coming to the throne, that approach must be with meekness
and lowliness or God will not have us. He won't accept us.
Go to Hebrews 13. Verse 5 says, let your conversation
be without covetousness, and be content with such things as
you have. For he hath said, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, the
Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto
me." Do we say that with a clenched fist stuck in somebody's face? No. We come down. We come down. We come down. John the Baptist boldly said,
I must decrease. I must decrease. Verse 5 right
there says, Let your conversation be without covetousness, and
be content with such things as you have. For he hath said, I'll
never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Verse six says, so that
we may, with the assurance of God's Holy Spirit, and with the
comfort and with the confidence of God's Holy Spirit, say, the
Lord is my helper. I'm nothing. I'm weak. I'm a prey is what I am. I'm
an easy victim. But because the Lord is my helper,
I will not fear, look at the last part of it. I will not fear
what man shall do unto me. That is the boldness that Peter
had. That's the boldness Peter had and Moses had and all these
men had. I will not fear what man shall
do to me because the Lord is my helper. My God reigneth. My God reigneth. And as long
as God's Holy Spirit has my sight set on Him, I can speak the truth
boldly in meekness and in comfort and in assurance. And no man
is going to get the glory for that. No man is going to get
the glory. The Spirit of God gets all the
glory for the boldness of Peter at that moment. Alright, now
let's go back over to Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4 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. Unlearned
and ignorant men. There's a question that I get
asked from time to time. And I was asked that question
the very first day that I ever met Brother William and Sabrina.
We met at the Cracker Barrel. And that's a precious memory
of mine. Tony was there, and my dad, and we were all meeting
in Johnson City. They were coming from Irwin,
and we were coming from Kingsport, and we were going to have lunch
and meet each other. They were 15, 20 minutes behind
us. We were there early. And it was
cold. It was March 9th. And I was so
ready for spring. I was dying for spring. And it
was just warm enough to where if I found the sun, I was not
freezing. So I stood outside in the sun
because I wanted to. And the girls were all inside.
And a nice older man came up to me and dressed well and probably
just left church. He, you know, isn't this wonderful
weather? Yes, it is. I'm ready. I'm ready
for spring. And had a little conversation
there. And he asked me about something
in the area in Johnson City, because he wasn't from Johnson
City. And I said, well, I'm not familiar with the area. I live
in Kingsport. And he said, well, what about
something? And I said, well, I'm not that familiar with Kingsport
either. And he said, are you new to the area? And I said,
yes, I am. I moved here about a year ago or whatever. He said,
well, what'd you move for? And I said, I pastor a church.
Really? What's the name of the church?
And I told him, never heard of it. And he was a football coach,
retired football coach. And he said, where'd you go to
school? That's the question I get asked
from time to time. Where'd you go to school? And what he means
is, where'd you go to seminary? And I said, I didn't. He had this look on his face,
he kind of, he went, oh, okay. And he looked at me like, well,
I'm not going to be coming to hear you preach then. You're an unlearned
and ignorant man. Guilty. Guilty as charged. By the standard
of this world, what this world considers to be wisdom, and knowledge
in those matters, I am unlearned and ignorant." Guilty. They could clearly perceive that
Peter and John were unlearned and ignorant. You didn't go to
school, did you? Clearly see that. But what they could not
perceive is the spirit that was inside those ignorant and unlearned
men was the all-knowing, all-wise counsel of God. Now go with me
to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 20. Where
is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? Look at verse 27. But God hath
chosen the foolish things, what men and women think are foolish
things, of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty. and base things of the world,
and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things
which are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh
should glory in his presence. But of him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." Let him glory in
the Lord. Turn with me over to 2 Timothy
chapter 3. 2 Timothy 3 verse 15 says, and that from a child thou hast
known the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto
salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Our little
girls have a Bible class downstairs on Sunday morning. And I'm praying,
as often as the Lord will bring it to my mind, that the Lord
will plant a seed. Plant a seed. This is what they're
learning down there. These little girls, they know
what sin is. All these little girls do. They
know what sin is. They know what the punishment for sin is. They
know that sin must be punished, and it's real. They are learning about the substitute
for sinners. And they're learning about our
acceptance because of Him. The glory goes to Him. Our acceptance
because of His death and His blood. And that's what God's
Word says. And a child can hear it and believe
it. A child can hear this and believe
it. But a sinner who is wise in his
own eyes. A sinner who is wise in his own
eyes, who God has not made to be his child. He's going to hear
this and say, I can't get my mind around that. I can't understand God, so I'm
not going to believe it. I'm not going to believe that.
Go with me to 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter 3, look at verse 16. As also in all his epistles,
speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard
to be understood, which they that are unlearned, truly unlearned,
not in a mental sense, but in a spiritual sense, truly unlearned
and unstable rest, with a W, that means wrestle. as they do
also the other scriptures unto their own destruction. Based
on these scriptures, I don't think I want to be too wise in
the ways of the world. Not really. People talk about
a lot of stuff that I don't think I actually want to know about.
I really don't. I think I'm better off being
unlearned and ignorant in those things. not wise in my own eyes. The Apostle Paul said, I used
to know everything. He said, I studied under Gamaliel.
Well, I went to school. He said, I used to know everything.
Now I don't want to know anything except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. All that other stuff you can
have. Now go with me to Matthew 11. Anybody who is unlearned and
ignorant like me loves this verse. Matthew 11, look at verse 25. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast
revealed them unto babes." Our Lord wrote this precious book
so that a child can believe it. He really did. And a scholar
has no idea what it's saying. Now, hath God not made foolish
the wisdom of this world? It's right after this that the
Lord says, come unto me, verse 28, come unto me, I am meek and
lowly, meek and lowly. Let those who are wise in their
own eyes debate the word. Let them debate it. Let those
of us that God has given childlike faith to believe the Word. Let us believe it, alright? With
boldness. Let's believe it with boldness,
confidence, assurance of the Spirit. I don't understand everything
that God has said in this Word. I don't. But I know He does. He understands everything He
has written in this Word. And knowing that gives me boldness
to preach His Word. You know that? I preach things
sometimes that I don't understand. But I know He does. So I tell
it with absolute confidence of the Holy Spirit. Boldness. It gives me boldness to look
to Him, to trust Him and speak His truth. Now let me show you
something very quickly, okay, back in our text, very quickly.
Go to Acts chapter 4 again. Acts 4 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. The
truth cannot be denied. It can't be denied. They didn't like it, but they
couldn't deny it. Verse 14, And beholding the man which was healed. This is still that impotent man
that was healed. standing with them. He never
could before for 40 years and there he is right there standing.
Beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could
say nothing against it. When God's Holy Spirit declares
the truth boldly, men and women can't deny it and they can't
say anything against it. We look in the Word, don't we?
We see it in the Word. Well, there it is right there.
I see it. Can't say anything against it.
Verse 15 says, But when they had commanded them to go aside
out of the council, they conferred among themselves this Sanhedrin
council, saying, What shall we do to these men? For that indeed
a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all 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. And they
called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach
in the name of Jesus." They got together and they said, we're
going to lose our ministry over this. That's what they said concerning
the Lord in John 11. Basically what they were saying,
we're going to lose our ministry over this. We're going to have to
stifle this quickly. This truth is actually setting
men and women free. We're going to lose everybody.
Verse 19 says, 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. You tell us. Alright, now you
tell me. Am I better off to listen to
God or listen to you? Tell me what you think about
that. Look at chapter 5, verse 29. Then Peter and the other apostles
answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. And we should, shouldn't we?
And by God's grace, by God's spirit, in meekness and in lowliness,
we do. We do. That's boldness. God's Holy Spirit gives the sinner
an ability to obey God rather than men. That's boldness. All
right, now go back over to Acts 4, verse 20. They said, for we cannot but
speak the things which we have seen and heard. Here's what they
boldly told him. We may be, by the standard of
men, unlearned and ignorant. We may be. But they said, we
know who Jesus Christ is. We do. We've seen him. We've heard him. We know why he died. We saw it happen. He told us
why. It was to pay the price for the
sin of all of his unlearned and ignorant men and women. They
said, we know for a fact that he's risen. We know that he's seated in the
heavens. We actually watched him go up. We may be ignorant on a lot of
things, but we know this for certain. He is coming back. He told us. We may not know a lot of things,
but we know whom we have believed. We may not have seen a lot of
things, but Peter said we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Verse 20 says, 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
forty years old on whom this miracle of healing was shown. They had to let him go. They
were telling the truth. They couldn't deny it. They were
telling the truth. What makes, humanly speaking,
ignorant men speak boldly? The Holy Spirit of God convinces
them through this word that they are telling the truth. And brothers
and sisters, I say this in meekness and in lowness, but
I say it boldly. I'm telling the truth. I know. I know. I'm telling me
the truth. I'm preaching to me. My soul's
on the line. We're looking to Christ with
confidence and assurance in His word and His work and His blood
only. Christ alone. He is the truth. That's why we preach Christ.
Because He is the truth. I pray the Lord will give us
all boldness and meekness and lowliness, all right? Let's stand
together.