For our scripture reading, if
you will, let's turn to the book of Philemon. Find Hebrews and
look on the page to the left. I got to speak with Mark a little
bit ago, Mark Iverson, and Gwen's home and has some stitches, and
I think she's in some pain still, but's home. And they're just
as the Lord would have them. So I know as you pray for them,
I pray I can and we continue to. It's becoming more difficult
to find people to preach. There just ain't many preachers.
And there's a couple of places that need pastors, and there
ain't that many pastors. I sent y'all that message out
the other day, Gabe had. But as of today, I've secured. Lord willing, we'll be gone last
week of June. Brother Eric Lutters will come
and preach. that Sunday, June 23rd, and then I'll be in New
Jersey in July for the conference. Brother Eric Floyd will be here
to preach for you that Sunday. And then it doesn't look like
we'll be having midweek services, but I'll put a sign on the door
that last week of June. And then with that, Brother Gabes
will be in Africa for two weeks, about the same time I'm gonna
be gone. preaching in Malawi and South Africa. A few of the
men's going with him over there. It's gonna be a hard journey
for him. And then the fellas that normally cover for him,
he has the most pulpit supply. Now they got Danville and Wheelersburg
and now Rock Valley, Iowa, where Brother Jotaro was to keep fed. So let's pray for laborers in
the harvest as the Lord's commanded us to. Finally, we'll read the
whole book. Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ,
and Timothy, our brother, unto Philemon, our dearly beloved
and fellow laborer, and to our beloved Athea and Archippus,
our fellow soldier, and to the church in thy house, grace to
you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I
thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers,
hearing of thy love and faith which thou hast towards the Lord
Jesus and towards all saints, that the communication of thy
faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good
thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. For we have great joy
and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints
are refreshed by thee, brother, Wherefore, though I might be
much bold in Christ to enjoin thee, that which is convenient,
yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one
as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ, I
beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds,
which in time passed to thee unprofitable, but now profitable
to thee. and to me, whom I have sent again. Thou therefore receive him that
is mine own bowels, whom I would have retained with me, that in
thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel.
But without thy mind would I do nothing, that thy benefit should
not be as it were of necessity, but willingly. For perhaps he
therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him
forever, not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother
beloved, especially to me, but how much more unto thee, both
in the flesh and in the Lord. If thou count me therefore partner,
receive him as myself, if he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee
aught, put that on mine account. I, Paul, have written it with
mine own hand, I will repay it. Albeit I do not say to thee how
thou owest unto me even thine own self besides. Yea, brother,
let me have joy of thee in the Lord, refresh my vows in the
Lord, having confidence in thy obedience I wrote unto thee,
knowing that thou wilt do more than I say. But withal, prepare me also a
lodging, for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given
to you. Dare salute thee, Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ
Jesus, Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow laborers. The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, be with your spirit,
amen. And if you have a footnote in
your Bible, it says, written from Rome to Philemon, by Onesimus,
a servant. Let's pray together. Lord, as we look in your word
tonight, the evidence of being with Christ, having him revealed
to us, Lord, we're reminded of Paul knowing of Philemon. His bountiful goodness and the
heart he has. For our Lord and your saints. Generosity, just like Paul wrote
to Thessalonians, knowing their election. Lord, if it's your
will, we ask of you, make that of us. Make us profitable servants. Make the love of Christ pour
out from us and make it evident to those around us. Don't leave
us to ourselves, Lord. Forgive us. Be with our brethren
that aren't with us tonight. Keep your hand on them, Lord,
as you promised you will. It's because of Christ we ask
it. Amen. All right, brethren. Let's turn to Acts chapter four. Learning through boldness. People learn some things, they're
aware of some things, and there was some boldness that happened. And I have one verse here for
my text. We're gonna look at verse 13,
Acts 4, verse 13. And I want this desperately for
each of us. I want it desperately for this
whole congregation. Verse 13 says, Now when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John, remember they was taken, they were preaching
and some Sadducees got mad and they arrested them, kept them
in the tank overnight. and now they horseshoed around
them. You gonna answer our questions. But it 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. What a thing. Isn't that amazing? Don't you want that? Who was it that seeing this boldness
of Peter and John? Well, this is the high priest
kinfolk. Remember, it was his family. His father-in-law was
there and his cousins and it was his family members and the
Sadducees and the captain of the temple and the theologians. This is all known and accepted
widely publicly by everybody as the religionists of their
day. Church going folk. These were not admirers of Peter
and John. They didn't gather around, circle
around them. Most time, whenever you circle the wagons and you're
surrounded in a target-rich environment, all the enemies all the way around
you, they're not there to be real kind to you. If so, they'd
run in, hug you, and pick you up, and carry you off the football
field or something, wouldn't they? These weren't admirers of John and
Peter. They weren't people seeking God.
They were just enemies of God, and enemies of God's servants,
and enemies of God's people. And they knew what had taken
place. There wasn't a doubt in their mind. And because of what
they said, what they were preaching in the name of the Lord Jesus.
They're about to tell them here later on in this chat, don't
you say that name anymore. You can do all the preaching you
want. You can hold all the meetings you want to, but don't you bring
that up. Not him. But it says they saw the boldness.
That word there, it also means, we're gonna look at different
meaning of it, but it also means what we think of that word. I wanna preach with boldness,
but that doesn't mean I yell and say real hard truths to everybody,
or tough pills to swallow, or cut to the bone. I don't mean
I just throw the dynamite, as we like to say. Though it does
mean that. It also means as we think of
this word. These two men, they stood up, And they declared,
they didn't discuss. They didn't say, well, what's
your thoughts on this? Well, here's what I feel like it means
to me. Here's what's special about this to me. No, not their
thoughts, not maybes, not I thinks. They spoke with authority. They
spoke with authority. I'm gonna open the floor up now
to anybody that has questions, comments, concerns. The scriptures
say, if a man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.
That means he's gonna talk, it's gonna be a one-way conversation,
you sit there, hush and listen. Keep your mouth shut. Ain't nobody's
business. Then when it's over, he can go
on about his day. And Henry said, preach the gospel
to them and leave them alone. Leave folks alone. Don't muddy
up whatever the Lord's doing in them. They faced obvious danger. They were in prison. They just
now pulled them out of the jail cell. And torture, and crucifixion,
and murder. It wasn't a parking ticket, was
it? That's serious. They had the boldness to do that.
Brother Todd said, preaching requires three things. If you're
going to preach, you have to have the truth. Not a form of
a truth, or you have to have the truth. And you have to have
the Holy Spirit. That's true preaching. Everything
else is a sermon or a message or whatever. And you have to
have boldness. Not great speaking ability. Not being able to out-talk
a crying baby. Or a helicopter. Not just talking
from your belly button. Not a wonderful illustration
that's just such good stories and makes us chuckle. But plainness. Plainness. Simply telling what
God says. Here's what the word says. Here
it is. That's it. That's the definition
of boldness. Sometimes it takes some yelling.
Sometimes it takes some having a getaway car ready because they
may physically fight you if they get away with it. That's good.
That means somebody's paying attention. Might be the first
time they ever pay attention in their whole life. but it simply means telling simply
what God says. This boldness means plainly upfront
speaking of truth, not speaking in a roundabout way. This is
plainly declared here in verse seven. Let's look at it. Acts
four, seven. And when they had set them in
the midst, they asked him by what power or by what name have
you done this? How did this infinite man, what
happened to his ankles? How come he can walk? We've known
him for 40 some years. He ain't never been able to walk. He's
been out there begging. Y'all did something to him. He said
something. By what name or what power have you done this? You
know what they could have said? Well, God helped us. The Lord
blessed us. He gave us this ability to heal
folks. Now that's true, isn't it? That's part truth. It's part
truth. They could have said, well, you,
I tell you what, you seem upset. You got some family members that's
sick. You got some family members that's hurt. You just bring them
to us and we'll heal them. How about that? We'll start off
on a good foot. That's a man pleaser, isn't it? Well, we'll sit around and sip
tea with everybody. We'll make house calls. That's a deacon's
job. They're here to preach the gospel. It's what the word says,
right? They shot the whole arrow and
they shot it straight. Look here in verse 10. Be it
known unto you all and to all the people of Israel that by
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God
raised from the dead, by him doth this man stand here before
you whole." You think this is something. You think it's easier
to say your sins are forgiven or take up your bed and walk?
That's what the Lord asked. And they said, well, it's easier
to just say your sins are forgiven because we can't see that. Probably
ain't going to see it. Accusations from there on. He
said, well, so you'll know that I have power to remove sin. Get
up and walk. And that fella took his bed up
and walked, didn't he? They're saying here, he got up and walked,
but he's been made whole. The Lord's made him righteous. This is not boldness as we would
use the word, was it? Some people, they'll tell truths
without any regard for the consequences, any regard of the outcome, any
regard of people's feelings. Sometimes that's good. Sometimes
that's bad, isn't it? You don't have to have everything
you know all the time. We don't have to be brutal. I don't like
that jacket, it looks bad on you, or something, you know what
I mean? You don't have to say that. Just let things go, right? I thought about parenting. Our oldest, I told him, I said,
you're growing up, now get out. You need to go make a way in
this world. The boys need their mamas when they're little. And
dads kind of play second fiddle to them, you know, because they
need courage and they need nurtured and they need fed and they need
hugged. Right. But there's a time when mom takes
backseat and there's a dad needed. If not, you just have boys that
go all the way to 70. They won't ever leave or do nothing.
But sometimes dad's got to come in and say, hey, you need to
get a job. Pick it up. Get you an apartment. Get out
of here. Causes some hiccups, carnally,
doesn't it? It causes hiccups spiritually,
too. There's been some folks I've said, here's what the word
says. And they don't like it one bit. And some of them got
real mad at me. Most of them just say, but, but,
but, or they'll have some other catchphrase verse that's out
of context doesn't mean that. And I've actually had somebody
ask me one time, he said, would you consider changing your mind
on that? I laughed at him. I said, when
this word changes, then I'll change my mind on it. Until then,
here's what the word says. I ain't gotta yell. That's just
as plain as it could be. It's simple, isn't it? It's simple. Until then, I'm gonna tell you
what the Lord says. Paul wrote to Corinth, and he said, seeing
that we have such a hope, we use great plainness of speech.
That's the exact same Greek word, boldness. We use the same plainness
of speech. We'll just say it as clearly
as we can. Well, what was Paul talking about
there in 1 Corinthians 3? He said in 1 Corinthians 3, 6,
who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of
the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter killeth, but the
spirit giveth life. He's talking about law and works.
As plain as he could. He said it was plainness. He said, you that want to be
under the law, have you heard it? That was also sweetness too. And he said, oh foolish Galatians,
who's bewitched you? That took some what we call boldness,
but that took some plainness too. Somebody's pulled the wool
over your eyes to do this. He said, for the ministration
of the condemnation be glory. Those that don't keep the law
and they perish in their sins and the eternal wrath comes on
them, the Lord's going to be glorified in that. Much more
does the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. Those that the
Lord's made righteous, boy, His justice brings Him glory, but
His grace sure does too. That doesn't come at the cost
of His justice, law, and works. And Paul's telling them as plainly
and as clearly as he can. It's not as if we're made holy.
That's talking around it, isn't it? You have to start inventing
words, like you was talking about a fusion, right? You got to start
making things up, or as if Christ came in the flesh or made sin,
or as if we're made His righteousness. We can't say that because this
is real. This is legal. This is right for God to do.
It's true. I just, I want to say it plainly
and not walk around it. But since these things are plain
and clear, what else does the work of Christ provide for us?
Because of these things. He said in Ephesians 3, whom
we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him. We have access to the Father.
We have access to this kingdom. We have access to Christ. We
have access for our prayers to be heard in plainness. We ain't gotta church it up and
start hemming and hawing and change our accent and use these
super fluidity of words and speak plainly to your dad, your heavenly
father. Lord, thank you. We don't talk
weird to our earthly mom and dad, do we? I hope not. Maybe somebody will tell us not
to. Here's the different use, but the exact same Greek word
in Hebrews 3. It says, but Christ is a son over his own house,
whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing
of hope from the end. That word confidence is boldness,
boldness. It's plain. It's bold as we would
say. It's simple, isn't it? And there's
a confidence in that. Why? We know. We know. There's things that I know. You
can't convince me otherwise. I mean, I could lie and say I
didn't. I've used that before about college basketball. You
pick your team, or baseball team, or whatever, and if somebody
just loves a Padres, you've been in San Diego your whole life,
you could say, well, I'm a Cincinnati Reds fan. You could buy all Cincinnati
Reds stuff, but deep down inside, when you buy yourself, you know
you love them Padres. There's a bunch of things in
this world I know you can't shake me. We have that confidence,
and I'll tell you plainly, I don't have to scream it, but if I have
to, I will. We have confidence, boldness, plainness. It says
in Hebrews 10, having therefore, brethren, boldness, plainness,
simplicity, and confidence to enter into the holiest by the
blood of Jesus. We can walk right into glory. Why? By his blood. It's simple. You ought to have some confidence
and just boldly just stand up, put your shoulders back and go.
It's right. It's like walking into your parents' house. We
don't go in there and kick over garbage cans and set couches
on fire. Of course not. But I had no fear when my parents
were on this world. I had no fear walking into their
home. It's my parents' home. It's my home. John said this in 1 John 4, here
in his love is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness,
just simplicity, confidence, that we may have boldness in
the day of judgment. When that day comes, if the crowd's
right now, it's been cloudy all day. I mean, I was preaching
that, Lord may come at three o'clock, I don't know. But if
them clouds roll back, trumpets are sounding, the mountains,
the hills are shaking, rocks are rolling down in the road,
Whole place is in an uproar. That's that day of judgment.
I know what the Lord said. He's coming, it's all right.
Have nothing to fear, do we? Because as He is, so are we in
this world. I don't understand it, but it's
so. It's so, and it'll be made just evident. I said, well, that's
what that meant. Well, that's plain, isn't it? I have some
confidence in that, don't I? Let's look at one who was given
this plainness and boldness and confidence and it was effectual.
Mark chapter 7. Mark 7. Verse 32. Mark 7, 32. And they bring unto
him one that was deaf and had an impediment in his speech.
He couldn't talk right because he's deaf. We looked at this
not too long ago. If you can't hear anything, you can't pronounce
your words right. You don't know how to. And they
beseech him to put his hand upon him. And he took him aside from
the multitude and put his fingers in his ears. And he spit and
touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he
sighed and said unto him, Ephethah, that is, be opened. And straightway
his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed. And he spake plain. He spoke
straight. This ain't the same Greek word,
but it's pretty close. Same root word. Correctly. For the first
time, he could talk plainly. He could say something clearly.
He could say something simply, and people understood it. And
that took some boldness, didn't it? What we call boldness to
talk for the first time. I have a hard enough time speaking
Spanish. I got to kind of get my nerve up before I can get
going in it. He'd never talked before, but he spoke plainly.
Spoke plainly. We'll see this here in a week
or two with Peter. And they said, you stop preaching.
that name. You can preach all you want and
have all the spaghetti dinners you want and have all the kids
programs you want, but you stop preaching this Christ. We don't
want to hear it. And Peter and John answered and said, whether
it be right in the sight of God to hearken to you or unto God,
you judge. And he said, for we cannot but
speak the things which we have seen and heard. I can't keep
from it. I can't keep from it. I can't
tell. I can't tell that lie. I just, I know better. And I
don't want to know a lie. I don't want to fool people.
I want to know the truth. And this man here, the Lord healed
his ears and he loosed his tongue, just like he loosed Lazarus.
And now he talks plain. I tell you what, everybody around
him that could talk, that God's already throughout creation made
them talk, they understood him. They didn't understand him before.
They might be able to make a word out here and there, but they
knew he wasn't talking right. And then now it's like, now you're
talking right. Now you can't. And they could have convinced
that man and talked till they was blue in the face. You don't
pronounce the words like that. Stop saying that to them children.
They're going to believe you. And stop doing this and say it
this way and say it right. And it wouldn't have done a lick
of good. The Lord had to do it, didn't he? The Lord had to do
it. It says in verse 36, and he charged
them that they should tell no man But the more he charged them,
so much the more a great deal they published it. He gave them
a little resistance. You know, sometimes a parent
or a sibling or whatever, you want to get somebody to do something,
an employer, you can give somebody a little pressure. Like, well,
if I was you, I probably wouldn't do it that way. Knowing they're going
to do it that way. Lord said, don't tell nobody.
Well, we can't, just like Peter and John. We have to tell what
we've heard. We have to. They published it. That word
published means herald. They cried it out. They sung it out.
And they were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done
all things well. He maketh both the deaf to hear
and the dumb to speak. He does all things well. That's
talking right. And it takes boldness to say
the Lord does all things well. Whether we're getting our hearing,
or he's taking our hearing. Whether we're getting the ability
to walk, we can't ever walk again, no matter what. It takes some
plainness, some boldness, and it takes some confidence to say
that. He has to teach us that. He has to give that. Our text
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.
They saw this boldness, this plainness, this simplicity of
Christ being declared. And the guts it took to do it.
The backbone it took to do it. They perceived, that means they
took eagerly, they seized upon, they pounced on the fact that
these men were unlearned and ignorant. They had to find something
negative to say, didn't they? You have ugly hair, or I don't
know. They had to have something, and
I bet they can't even read. They're just commercial fishermen. They ain't been to school. They
haven't been to our schools. They're unlearned and they're
ignorant. You know there's a difference
between ignorant and stupid? Stupidity and ignorance is two different
things. Ignorance is you don't know any better. You don't know
what you don't know. No one's ever told you. That's
just ignorance. Stupidity is you cannot or you
will not do anything about it once you do know. I can't process
the information or I just ain't going to. I know better but I
ain't gonna do better. That's stupid. Ignorant, you don't know
any better. But here, this word, it doesn't
mean uneducated, it means you're idiots. That's what they're saying.
They're unlearned and they're idiots. There's a lot of intellectuals
and theologians, they think the Lord's true preachers are idiots. My pastor said, the guy said
one time, he said, I'm a theologian. He's just a country bumpkin.
I'll take that country bumpkin. He knew God. A theologian didn't.
He told part truths. He said, peace, peace, where
there was no peace. They do this because they think little of
the messenger. Because they think little of that messenger's Lord.
Now that's just so. That's just so. I'm happy being
a babe in Christ. I am. The Lord says, he spoke
in the spirit in that hour, and he said, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from
the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes,
little bitty new creations. Now, we gotta learn how to read,
that's a good thing. I mean, some people don't teach their children
how to read, but everything that was before Christ revealed himself
to us, we will count as done. It wasn't no good. We weren't
on a quest to find Jesus. We weren't doing something nice
and trying the best we could. We was trying to stay out of
hell or get a personal benefit because we're self-righteous,
but when we see him, he does all things well. I'm a babe. And if the Lord gives ears to
hear, he'll give a teachable spirit with it. I want to learn
of him. Well, that's embarrassing. Look at your age. Who cares?
I don't care about being embarrassed. I want him. Things change because
there's a new creation. There's a babe in there. And
it seemed good in the Father's sight, didn't it? We ought not
be surprised whenever the servants get attacked, when Peter and
John here was getting circled about, and they did it to our
Lord. They did it to our master, and
the servant's not above the master. Look at what he preached over
in John 7. John 7, verse 14. Now about the midst of the feast,
Jesus went up into the temple and talked. And the Jews marveled,
saying, how knoweth this man letters, having never learned? We never saw him in school. He
didn't go through our programs or our curriculum. This is the
one that created language. That's what they don't see him
as God. This is the creator. This is the ruler, the sustainer,
the savior. And they said, how does he know
how to read? He never learned his shape letters. Jesus answered
and said, my doctrine is not mine, but he that sent me. If any man will do his will,
he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, whether
I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh
his own glory, but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the
same is true and no unrighteousness is in him. I've heard that from
a babe, a physical babe, and a babe in Christ. Who gets the
glory? Somebody's preaching. Who gets
the glory? All of it. Well, he gives 85%
of it to Christ. That ain't enough, is it? What
if he gives 99.9? That's a little bit of living.
Man ain't too bad. And God's an okay savior. Mm-mm,
no. If all the glory is given to
him, we're maggots. Lord says, that man knows me.
He's a preacher of righteousness, just like Noah was a preacher
of righteousness. But if that's not the case, I ain't splitting
hairs. This is as plain as it can get.
This is bold. They're ministers of Satan. They're
Antichrist. It ain't right. It's the opposite
of Christ. It's for themselves or to lure people away. He says,
did not Moses give you the law? And yet none of you keepeth the
law? Why go ye about to kill me? And the people answered said
thou hast a devil. Who goeth about to kill thee?
We ain't here to kill you. The Lord just said they was. Didn't
he? Enemies kill. And he's saying
you're the enemy. You're trying to keep the law
and you want some glory. You don't want to be as bad as
I say you are. You're going to try to kill me because you're
the enemy. I wish the Lord would bring us to see that and just
make us helpless and cry out to him and say, surrender. Mercy,
wave the white flag. It's a good thing. Why? Paul
said, why would the Lord do it that way? You see your calling
brethren, not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble. Some are, there's kings, a lot
of rich folks, everything throughout the scripture. Not many. God
hath chosen the 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 the base things of the world.
And the things which are despised hath God chosen. Yea, and things
which are not, things that are nothing, to bring to nothing
the things that are. Why would he do that? Why would
he have Peter and John down there? That no flesh or glory in his
presence. That's what he just preached to them over there,
wasn't it? They marveled, greatly wondering,
their jaws dropped. And it says they took knowledge
of them. Look back in our text in Acts 4. That means they clearly
recognized that they had been with Jesus. Verse 13. Now when
they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that
they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. And even
these fellas, they said there's only one way it's gonna happen.
We've seen this before, what we just read in John 7. Yes,
we've seen this before. And they took knowledge of them.
They clearly recognized that they had been with Jesus. I want that. I want that for
you. I want that for this community. This applies to all of God's
children. I always perk up when somebody says this, this affects
all of the Lord's elect, every one of his children throughout
time. I'll get on edge of my seats. I want to hear what that
is. When we have been drawn to Christ by the grace of God and
his perfect providence, it becomes outwardly known that we've been
taught of God. People may not be able to put
their finger on it, they don't have a word for it, but something's different.
Something's different. We speak plainly. We speak with
simplicity, with confidence, knowing, not thinking, we know
when we talk rightly of God and of man, what we are. We all are
wretches. I'm a wretch. You are too, we're
born out of, every one of us. We willfully didn't want anything
to do with him. We were enemies of God. We hated him. Kill him.
Give us Barabbas. That's us. We speak plainly and with confidence,
knowing he's the God of creation, God of providence in all things,
and especially the God of salvation. When a person has Christ revealed
in them and to them, they think different. They think different. They see things different. They
speak different. They hear different. They have to have it. It ain't
some old song and dance that they're just sick of and want
to get it over with. Boy, I used to drag going to church. If I
could get the sniffles at all, like, oh, I think I'm coming
down with something. It's contagious. I feel fever. Dad said, Lord
controls germs, too. Get in the car, son. He spoke
with boldness and plainness. Made me go. And then there's
a time it changed. I couldn't get enough. Tell me
every word. Tell me more. We walked different. Scripture
says, somebody get mad at me one time about that. We ain't
telling us how to think. Well, no, the Lord does. The Lord tells
us how to think. The scripture says, let this
mind be in you. Huh? You think this way. You tell me how to think? I'm
saying take this mind, not yours, and put that mind in you. See
how simple that is? Well, no commercial fisherman
can get that. We've been given a true spirit of repentance with
a turning, a thinking different. Everything's hogwash from before.
Boy, now we see him. And out of this new heart, this
new mouth speaks differently, used to. Don't say the same things
it used to. Says what he says. And we walk
different. How we walk different? We used
to walk the court in the course of this world, religious or not
religious. You could be in a heroine house
or you could have been in a heretic house. It didn't make a difference. But Paul told us, he said, what
agreement hath the temple of God with idols? That's us. We're
the temple of God. He dwells in us, right? We used
to have everything to do with those idols. We used to have
everything to do with that world. We loved those things, but not now.
Not now. That's what Paul told Thessalonica.
He said, I know you're calling brethren, your election. He said,
this word came to you not in just whimsy and idly. It came in power. It did something.
It melted your heart and you turned from them idols. He said,
you're the temple of the living God. As God hath said, I will
dwell in them and walk in them. Our steps are ordered and sure,
ain't they? How sure? The Lord's walking
in us, where he is. He said, I will be their God
and they shall be my people. What were Peter and John saying?
We've been looking at this, these messages of Peter preaching,
right? And chapter two is that miracle when they had, they spoke
and whoever, all those different languages were there, different
nations represented and everybody, they heard in their own tongue. from France, from Spain, and
from Bulgaria, and Chad, or whatever. Whoever was there, they just
spoke. They just got up preaching. Everybody in their own native
tongue, they heard in their ears. That wasn't what was amazing,
was it? That's what everybody talks about. What was they saying? If the Lord gave us a miracle,
he's gonna tell you something. Were they telling funny jokes?
where they're telling old wives tales, snake oil ads, where they're
telling nursery rhymes. It says in chapter two, the Cretes
and the Arabians have to listen to all the other things. So when
we do hear them speak in our tongues, the wonderful works
of God, we say what God's done. Now that's in salvation, and
that's in getting a doctor's appointment. I heard a saint
of God call me today and said, I ain't had time to schedule
a doctor's appointment, and the doctor's office called me, and it's after I get
out of work. They want me to come by. The
Lord did that. Well, that's too plain and too simple. That's
bold. And that's with confidence. That ain't screaming and yelling,
is it? Just saying what the Lord did. We've been looking at this
for several weeks. Peter's message may have been
worded different in each one of these chapters, but it was
the same outline. How about that? He preached the
same message. Almost point by point. He just
had one message, he kept rehashing it, wasn't he? Ah, buddy, he
might pop you in the mouth for saying something like that. That's
why Don would always get mad about that. I think I heard you preach that
before. Boy, did you see his ears turn red, wouldn't you? What was he
preaching? That's the only message we had. I had them all listed,
but for time I won't keep it. There's a sovereign God. Sovereign
means he's reigning. There's reign, sovereign, a holy
God, a sovereign God on his throne, always has been, is, and always
shall be, ain't nothing gonna change about that. And every
one hearing, just like Peter, just like me, all rejected that. All were enemies of him. But God, he was gracious to save
those that he was pleased to love and to put in the cross
before time and save them, not most of the way. Now you've got
to have a co-effort, not a co-pilot, not a, well now I've done all
these things, but sanctification is a different word. To the uttermost
is what the word says. What's that? All the way. Ever
been. That's plain, isn't it? Isn't
that simple? And that's confidence, he said so. I don't have to worry
about it. They preach substitution. They preach satisfaction. They
preach repent and be baptized. Change your way of thinking.
Turn, turn to him and profess Christ the believer's baptism.
Now you know him. You may have been baptized 1700
times before, I don't know, but you never did know him. You do
now, profess him. Why? This same Jesus. The same
one that we hated, never had heard of, we were ignorant of,
and then stupid of. He's seated on his throne. He's
not pacing. He's not wringing his hand. He
ain't trying to do nothing. He sat down, the work's over.
He's on his throne and he's interceding for us until we are finally,
every one of us, brought home. Sheep like other sheep. They're
a herd animal. They gotta be together. If one's
off by itself, at best, it's sick and about to die. Probably
a wolf, with a different hair on it. And then they said, they
told all these things. And they said, now live, just
like them dry bones. That prophet couldn't make them
dry bones live no more than I can. The Lord can. Like, believe,
repent, come to Christ. I can't do that. He can. Have a new creation in you. I
can't do that. We can't make physical babies
if the Lord don't do it. How in the world am I gonna make
a spiritual creation? But they preached it. Live, didn't
they? Have new ears. Have a new heart.
And when you get that, have a new tongue. Stop saying that stuff. I won't have to command that.
I won't have to help you too much. You just do it. There's
a new creation there. Have new ears, have a new smell,
have a new motivation, a new ought to, out of a debt of gratitude,
out of love. That's a reasonable service.
Peter and John said, you're crazy going up front. That's the same
high priest that just ordered the Lord to be put on the cross.
So be it. Oh well. I know people, and you
do too, they live their whole, you've known these people. You've
seen some of them spring up and fade away at the flicks of the
word. They live their entire lives dedicated to some denomination
or some church house or something. And they're playing church. It's
church theater their whole lives. And everything's fine. Nobody
has a problem with it. But the gospel, they might be
like that deaf person, they could at least mimic it. The gospel
starts coming out of them, and they start saying, whoa, what
about this? All of a sudden, the knives come out. Those that
were just friendly, you'd go to church all you want to, give
all you want to, do whatever you want to, all that stuff.
When the truth starts coming out of their mouth, the fangs
come out of the other ones. Ain't you seen that? I've seen
it happen. I've seen it happen in this state. Lord, give us boldness to tell
it anyway. Give us the confidence and the
plainness. to tell it anyway. That Supreme
Court Justice, I saw a short video on him today. I remember
it when I was a kid. They were grilling him years ago. And they
said, why don't you just step back and not take a Supreme Court
nomination? Congress has done our giving to him. He said, I'd
rather die. than to step down, than to stop this process. And
I thought, I want to be like Peter and John and all those
before me and all them to come after me. Lord, keep me faithful
to the end, make me faithful to serve you, and I'd rather
die than do something else. Cut my tongue out if I'm gonna
say another gospel. I want this for me, and I want
it for you, for people to tell, to say, boy, I tell you what,
there's something different about this. I can't put my finger on
it. people to tell. Believers will. I've said that
already, but believers can tell. You can get around somebody long
enough. That's what Henry says, two people walking down the street.
You can't tell which one's a believer and which one ain't a believer.
But when you get to talking to them, it won't take long to say,
man, that's like that friend of yours that said, well, Lord,
that's a terrible thing coming to life, huge trial. And I said,
Lord ain't dealt with me according to my sins. This is all right.
Huh? I don't want to talk to that
person. That's my kind of language. Your kind of language too, isn't
it? Maybe they know something. I'll end with this. Brother Robert
Grant wrote these words. And it's the first verse in our
hymnal. And it's a good foot to start on. Not a discussion. This is a command. This is a
demand, isn't it? Because we know. I thought, what
boldness and simplicity this is. Oh, worship the king, all
glorious above, and gratefully sing his power and his love. Our shield and defender. the
ancient of days, pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise. I pray that grace is on our lips
to. Let's pray together. Father, teach us. And chasing
us and give us wisdom and. Confidence and plainness and
boldness in Christ. that we would learn of Him. We
taught this precious gospel, Lord, and to know it. I want
to know the gospel. I want to preach the gospel and
we want others to hear it too and to believe it. Well, we know
these things are ordered and sure, but Make us profitable
servants and be with us. We can't be by ourselves. We
know what we are. You know our frame. We ask for
your mercy and your grace to be with us every second of every
day. Thank you for all of your providence
you've given us this last little while and our brethren throughout
this nation and throughout this congregation here. Forgive us,
Lord, and be with us. It's because of Christ, our King,
that we ask these things. Amen.