So again I want you to turn in
Acts chapter 4 and we're going to start at verse 11 and I'm
going to read through verse 11 to verse 22 and then we will
take up our study from last week as we have turned a page in the
book of Acts where the Apostle Peter and the Apostle John are
presently speaking to the leaders of the church about the miracle
that had taken place under the ministry of the Spirit of God. And so we are at verse 11. This
is the stone which was set at nought of the 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 and perceived that they were unlearned
and ignorant men, They marveled, and they took knowledge of them
that they had been with Jesus. And beholding the man which was
healed, standing with them, they could say nothing against it.
But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council,
they conferred among themselves, 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. 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. For 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 glorify
God for that which was done for the man was above 40 years old
on whom this miracle of healing was showed. Thus is the reading
of God's word. Again, cut the volume down a
tad. Yeah, just bring it down. And where I say, bring it down,
leave it there because it's better. for me to tell you, because you
guys cannot tell up there. All right, that's good. Because
it comes back and it starts bouncing in my ears. If you have your outline, we
left off last time dealing with a critical insight that we were
given to mark in the fourth chapter, where the apostle Peter makes
the statement over in verse 11 and 12, these words, Chapter 4 verse 11. This is the
stone which was set at nought of you builders Which has become
the head of the corner. This is the stone which was set
at nought of you builders Which has become the head of the corner,
which means Peter is understanding very clearly What's taking place
at this time as he is being confronted by the leaders and as I said
to you before? What's happening is the first?
persecution, the first examination, the first resistance on the part
of the leadership of the church. This is number one. This will
be one of many occasions where the apostles will be confronted
for preaching the gospel. Up to this point, the preaching
of the gospel starts in the temple at Pentecost and a movement has
begun. People have begun to fellowship
around the word of God. They have begun to listen to
apostolic doctrine. They have gone along very well
and the news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ has spread through
Jerusalem. On this day or on this occasion,
Peter and John goes to the temple and they heal this lame man and
they are now in the temple. This is the strategic work of
the spirit of God in the life of the apostles. They are in
the temple bearing record to the work that Christ has done.
And we looked at a number of things last week as we contemplated
in our previous outline, plundering Satan's kingdom. And we saw how
that in the gospel of Matthew's chapter 12, Jesus said, how can
a strong man's kingdom be plundered unless of course, first, the
strong man be bound. And we work through the idea
of binding and loosening, at least in a cursory fashion, to
understand that the work of the gospel is to liberate men and
women from bondage. You believe that. That's Isaiah
chapter 61 verses one through five and many other places, including
John chapter eight, whomsoever the son shall set free shall
be free indeed. So the essential work of the
gospel is the work of penetrating into the kingdom of darkness,
dealing with the hearts of men and women on the grounds of their
lost estate and bringing them to a saving knowledge of Jesus
Christ, which is the same as loosening them from prison. So
we have these kind of prison paradigms, these prison bondage
analogies working through the scriptures. We saw that again
in Matthew 16 verses 18 through 20. where Jesus says the gates
of hell will not prevail. I will build my church. On the one hand, we have a resolve
on the part of Christ that he's going to build his church, right?
He's going to build his church. On the other hand, we have a
resistance that takes place against the church. On the one hand,
he's going to build his church and the gates of hell will not
prevail. But on the other hand, there's going to be resistance.
So if we can accept those two realities, here's also what we
can accept. We can accept that there will
never be a legitimate advancement into the things of God where
you and I don't have to fight. See, what we like to often do
is romanticize theological concepts. We actually like to romanticize
the issue of salvation. I mean, when we think about what
God has done for us in Christ and how he's redeemed our souls
and how he's accomplished eternal redemption for us, we don't even
really see that so much as a warfare. That was a tremendous battle
he fought. It was a it was a huge galactic
cosmological spiritual battle he fought. That battle itself
was so, so intense in terms of its magnitude. He himself cried
out if there be any other way. Now, what I'm getting at is this,
that what we are dealing with in the book of Acts will evade
us in terms of the richness of its implications, but more so
the significance of what Christ told the disciples in Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John, you are going to be brought before the
rulers. You are going to be taken up
in the synagogues and in the temple. You will be accosted. You will be examined. You will
be reviled. You will be beaten. You will
be killed for my namesake. And what I'm getting at is that
this is where we are. We are on the harbinger of the
persecution coming against the church. And as we work our way
through the passages tonight and over the subsequent weeks,
What I want you to understand is that the apostles will be
in a storm for a long time, a storm. Do you guys know what a storm
is? The apostles will be in a storm. And it wouldn't be fair for us
in terms of our interpreting the scriptures. And with regards
to these passages, if we fail to realize that the context is
a storm, it's a battle raging against them. It's just now starting. And if we were to put categories
around the methodology and the devices wherein the enemy works
when we are engaged in advancing the kingdom of God. What you
learned also last week was that there was one authority raising
question about another authority, that the false authority of the
Jewish rulers who at this present time are examining Peter and
John are what I call false authorities. because they don't have their
authority from God. Their authority is from men,
but they are perpetrating a fraud because they are appearing to
be the stewards of God and that they are appearing to be a watchman
over the kingdom of God. When in fact, the two men who
are now serving God are actually God's authority. Peter and John
are apostles of God. Peter and John are functioning
in their authority. Peter and John are operating
out of apostolic calling, apostolic power, apostolic witness. But the ones who are now confronting
them and challenging them on what they're doing present themselves
as authorities, but their authority is false. Now, they do have a
power behind them, and I would assert to you that that power
is the devil. And so when we, when we, when
we frame and we categorize how the devil works, he virtually
always works through a pseudo secular earthly power to oppose
the kingdom of God. He virtually always works through
a pseudo secular power to oppose the kingdom of God. See, he is
also rabidly committed to authority, isn't he? The devil is rabidly
committed to someone viewing him as having authority. This
is why in Isaiah chapter 14, he says, I will be like the most
high God. I will sit in the sides of the
north. I will rule over the stars of God. I will have my authoritative
Bema seat where people have to come to me and submit to my authority. So as we are beginning to look
at the inquiry on the part of these leaders towards Peter and
John, we have the false authority challenging the true authority.
And what you and I want to learn now is what is it like to be
people of the gospel confronted by a culture that is going to
challenge you on the propositions of what you believe? What is
it like to be people of the gospel challenged by a culture on the
propositions for which you believe. Is that okay? Because you need
to make this subjective. Because we can take the account,
lift it up, and make application on your job. We can make application
in schools. We can make application even
in churches. We can make application in the
civil courts. We can make application in many
places where The kingdoms of this world are challenging the
right and authority of the kingdom of God in terms of what it believes
and what it communicates and how we are to face it and confront
it. So last week's theme was plundering
Satan's kingdom and we made our way all the way through the liberation
of souls being met with opposition. What do I mean by that? Verse
four of chapter four said this, Verse 3 and 4 and they laid hands
on them and put them in whole you know what that means, right?
Kind of a local jail, right? Until the next day for it was
now even tied. So Peter and John are in bonds,
aren't they? And what we learned last week
is that very often the people of God have found themselves
in bondage throughout human history by the pseudo or false or secular
authorities who are seeking to stop what they are doing and
This is a common theme through scriptures. The prophets have
always been cast into bondage. The prophets have always been
put into prisons. The prophets have always been
bound, bind them. And binding is an authoritative
act on the part of God. God does the binding. And yet
the devil also does binding. Because we are dealing with a
parody, aren't we? P-A-R-O-D-Y. That if you're going
to learn the devil's methods, he's going to always come off
as if he has actual authority. but he doesn't. In this physical
dimension and in this physical realm where he controls the minds
of men and women, he will impose himself on us as if he has authority
and he will get a hold of the flesh. He will sometimes have
his way with our physical life. He may have control over areas
of our life where we may have been a little bit careless, maybe
a little bit lacked. You know what I mean? And then
we have to fight through that. Whether it's in our marital relationship,
whether it's in our own mind, whether it's on our job, there
are many areas in which the Christian is called to be diligent, aren't
we? But sometimes in our lack of diligence, the enemy gets
a what? A foothold. Does he? Absolutely, because
he's always looking for a chink in the armor to get into your
life so that he can accuse you effectively. Now, and so that's
where the application comes in. We look up and we find earthly
authorities seeking every opportunity to hinder us from our walk with
God and the effectiveness of our witness. And at that point,
we have to now be ready to wage war. So the church has always
viewed this two-tiered perspective. On the one hand, the church down
here on earth is called the church militant. I said that last week. This is a long standing concept. And you'll hear this taught a
little bit as we go through the seven churches of Asia Minor
in the book of Revelation. On earth, we are the church militant. You guys believe that? Is that
analogy, does that concept of being a militant church consistent
with biblical themes, biblical indicatives? Does God call us
soldiers? Are we called to fight a good warfare? Are we called
to fight the good fight of faith, to lay hold of eternal life?
Are we called to put on the whole armor of God and to stand against
the wiles of the devil? Are we called to understand the
methods of the enemy, know his devices? Are we called to pray
in the spirit with all perseverance and prayer and supplication that
we might indeed war a good warfare? Of course we are called to this,
which means that when God calls you to himself, he calls you
to a warfare of certain kinds of and levels of resistance. So you know what that means is
salvation is not a skip through the park, picking rosies and
daisies on your way to glory. Actually, and I think if you're
honest, salvation is more than not a battle. Is it true? It's a battle of faith. It's
a battle of faith. And to the degree that you and
I are lining up with the will of God, to that degree, the battle
is intensified. To the degree that we're lining
up with the will of God, the battle is intensified. And the
more you grow in Christ, as you make your way through the world,
guess what you will discover? The enemy has his emissaries
everywhere. There's no place on earth that
you're going to go where the enemy has not marked his spot
and placed his emissaries to make sure that the kingdom of
God doesn't take a foothold there and begin to spread the message
of redemption and cut the lights on in this dark world. You'll
see that. You know, we we often romanticize. I want to just use that concept
before we get into the text more fully. We we romanticize the
Christian life, don't we? We romanticize what it means
to be born again and say, does anyone know what I mean by romanticize
it? We romanticize it. We, we, we
make as if somehow we are above the fray, above the conflict,
above the battle. Once you get to Jesus, we're
all good to go. That somehow he is obligated to make sure
that you aren't at all troubled. And again, nothing could be further
from the truth. Nothing could be further from the truth. And
I think that as we, begin to grow in grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord, what we understand is it takes a kind of mindset
that understands the battle to even enter into the rest of Christ. That if I'm going to rest in
Christ, Matthew 11, 28, that it's going to take a battle for
me to enter into that rest. Is that true? that I'm gonna
have to wage war against my own carnal mind, my own carnal passions,
my own propensities to foolishness, as well as the devil and as well
as others to enter into the rest, which is in Christ. Because nothing
in our empirical world gives me a right to rest. There's nothing
down here that says, ah, you have a right to rest in Jesus.
Somebody tell me one. Give me a place a sphere, a dimension,
uh, an aspect of your life that says to you, you have a right
to rest in Jesus. And I would tell you, there is
not one. There's nothing in this world that gives you a right
to rest in Jesus. The only thing that gives you
a right to rest in Christ is faith. And faith is the substance
of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen. It is the
counterintuitive voice that allows you to enjoy God based on what
he's done for you in Christ, not your circumstances. And so
it's a battle to do that. It's a battle to do that. So
let's look at a few things. I actually pulled up a new PowerPoint
if you can pull it up. And so you have a fresh outline.
We basically finished last week. The foundation stone is being
laid. And I touched on a little bit of that. So what I want us
to think about is, um, in fact, the theme of tonight's study
is the foundation stone laid and the battle engaged. Is that
what your outline says? The foundation stone laid in
the battle engaged. So, you know, the devil was very
much aware that someone other than his own emissaries were
in the temple, right? You know, the devil was very
much aware that God's people were in the temple and not only
God's people, but God's servants, servants who had the power and
the authority to break through the darkness that was prevailing
because of the religious fraud that dominated their life. And
this is why the rulers are here. Now the rulers are here because
they heard that true authority has shown up. That authentic
authority had shown up that god's real servants are here now and
see we're dealing with two jerusalem's now Aren't we we're dealing with
the earthly jerusalem and we're dealing with the what heavenly
jerusalem? So we're dealing with true servants of god who are
possessors of and are possessed by the third person In the presence
and sphere of the kingdom of satan and this is what I will
mark for you if you don't already know it There there's there's
little more in the world that pleases the enemy than the fact
that he is viewed as an angel of light. There's little more
in the world that pleases the devil than to be able to deceive
people in terms of religion. Religious deception is the biggest
con of the devil, religious deception. And so where God's people show
up with the truth, he is most threatened. Where God's people
show up with the truth, he is most threatened. And this is
what's taking place here. He knows some lights have been cut
on. People don't get healed authentically in the devil's sphere. This man
was healed and it became the precursor to the proclamation
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And people are talking about
it and the enemy shows up. And I want you to mark now four
or five things that we want to contemplate. First and foremost,
going back to our first PowerPoint depth, the witness of the what?
Okay, so I want you to mark the word witness because that's the
reason why the Spirit of God was given to us to bear record
to the truth, right? That's what we're called. Now
again, I want you to see how there's a conflation of two themes,
a parody, a falsehood of one and a reality in the other. Is
the temple a witness to the world? And yet we have two temples in
one place, don't we? We have the physical temple made
of stone with all of his gaudy, ornate beauty by Herod, 50 years
in building, as he said. to which Jews and Gentiles are
all coming because, you know, Jerusalem has always been this
sort of lauded capital of the world on the part of, uh, paganism
and on the part of, uh, carnal religion. We want to go to Jerusalem. Even today, people want to go
to Jerusalem because you know what they call Jerusalem, right?
They call it the Holy land. They call Palestine the Holy
land. I'm still trying to find out what makes it Holy. Tell
me what makes Israel more holy than any other piece of real
estate on planet earth where God's elect are. Tell me what
makes anywhere in the world more holy than where any other of
God's blood-bought, righteous-clothed, holy-standing saints are. What
makes Jerusalem more holy than Hayward? Are you hearing me? I don't think you believe me,
though. What makes one believe that you're going to get closer
to God in a physical location anywhere on planet earth other
than in the spirit where God's people are, where he promises
where two or three are gathered authentically in my name according
to the truth of the gospel? What makes one think that they're
going to get closer to God? Now, some of you have probably
made your excursion to Jerusalem like, you know, Islamic friends
make their their their pilgrimage to Mecca to Mecca some folks
have made their excursion to Jerusalem Only if they're objective
and very honest to realize that much of it is just entertainment
facade imagery and salesmanship It's true Entertainment facade
so image salesmanship A lot of it is just the externalities. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And I've, I've had many testimonies coming back saying, this is just,
it's just, it's like Wonderland. It's like Disneyland. It's like,
that's what it's like. It's a terrible disappointment,
but that was because of a false assumption on the part of people
thinking they're going to get closer. So when we use the phrase,
the Holy land, I think we have some real misguided understanding
around that idea. Wherever the Spirit of God is,
that's where holiness is. And I want you to mark what's
taking place in our text. We're going to work our way through
our outline. I want you to see the evidences, the witness of
the Spirit, the work of the Spirit in the life of the believer,
in the life of the people of God, particularly in the context
of confrontation. Because Peter has had the joyful,
joyful, joyful experience of testifying to the common people
in the temple as to what this miracle was about. And then he's
confronted by the rulers. And so we have in our outline,
the witness of the Holy ghost in verse eight, listen to what
verse eight says. Are you there? Then Peter filled
with what? Right. And the context in which
Luke is now calling our attention to this authority in Peter's
life is that he's being confronted and accosted and examined by
the rulers, right? Ananias, the high priest, Coppice,
and all of these guests, he had his whole entourage there. This
whole entourage of earthly religious rulers are around two men, Peter
and James, and John, rather. Then Peter, filled with the Holy
Ghost, what? Said unto them, stop right there. As one of the critical evidences
of the Spirit of God's presence and power in your life and in
mine, is the ability for Him to grace us to communicate biblical
truth in the presence of opposition and threat. One of the evidences
of being filled with the Spirit of God, filled in the authentic
sense, I'm not talking about in the religious sense, filled
with the Spirit of God is when you are under threat for your
stand for Christ and He gives you the boldness and the clarity
and the simplicity, the singularity to communicate biblical truth
in the midst of threat. And what it also implies is this,
where you and I are in a situation where we're being threatened,
our physical life is threatened, our welfare is threatened, on
any level, our job is threatened, if we are not walking with the
Spirit of God, it is very evident, what we learned a little bit
last night in one of our questionnaires with our women's study, what
happens when God shows us who we are in our native uh, nature
and our weakness in our humanity. Being able to stand for truth
requires the spirit of God. Is that true? Because we will
deny him. We will not stand up for the
truth where our welfare, our life is concerned, where our
being is concerned, even on a little, even on a level of reputation.
Am I telling the truth? This is how much you need him.
This is how much you need the spirit of God. You see, I mean,
there are some people who can be bold in the flesh and be audacious
in the flesh and be flippant in the flesh and speak in the
flesh. And these people can operate out of a carnal passion for God.
We know folks like that. You'll run across them in the
book of Acts, where the the apostles will discern individuals who
are pretending to be believers, but are not. But a real child
of God fundamentally discovers as he grows in grace and in the
knowledge of the Lord that he or she or they are naturally
weak and not inclined to throw themselves in front of the bus
for Jesus. And this is part of a necessary
revelation because to be filled with the Spirit on a given occasion
where you have to speak for God When that does happen you out
of all people know that was God Because you there's a difference
between being bold in the flesh and being bold in the spirit
There's a huge difference and what Luke wants us to understand
is that one of the marquee evidences of being filled with the spirit
is the ability to communicate biblical truth and rightly, accurately,
soundly, clearly in the midst of opposition. And so in your
outline, one of the things I have is field, field. This is something
that Luke uses several times. He used it obviously in the opening
of Acts in chapter two, but we have it again in verse 31 of
chapter four, just as a model for you. Look at verse 31 of
chapter four. And this is where we'll be dealing
with this next week. But as Peter and the rest are
praying, as they recount the events that are taking place
here at this time, where they have been accosted by the rulers,
here's what Peter prays in the closing part of their prayer,
by stretching forth your hand, oh God, to heal. and that signs
and wonders may be done by your, uh, by the name of your holy
child, Jesus. And when they had what prayed,
the place was shaken where they were assembled together. I'm
going to talk about that on Sunday, the importance of assembling
together. And they were all what filled
with the Holy ghost. Watch this. And they spake the
word of God with what you know, what God had just done. He had
answered a prayer. The prayer that Peter was raising
collectively with the whole, we'll examine that more fully
on our own, was this, God, we are now being opposed by the
rulers of the church. They are telling us, as we're
getting ready to look at, to not preach in your name. And
in fact, this is what they said, don't say anything at all about
Jesus. Now, that is a sin for a Christian. Are you hearing me? But see,
the apostles know that the persecution is coming. They know that this
is getting ready to ratchet up. They know that this is getting
ready to be more than just being brought in and talked to and
threatened. See, they were threatened here in chapter 4, chapter 5.
They're going to be beaten. By the time we get to chapter
9 and 10, folks are dying. Are you hearing me? See, the
storm is on now. So quite naturally, people who
are interested in the glory of God, realizing that what Christ
said was true. I will build my church. 4,000
has been saved in this context. 5,000 now are going to be saved,
plus men and women and children. That's 10,000 plus people. The
noise is being spread abroad. But the rulers are now strategically
setting up opposition to the apostles to kill them. So the
church now realizes that the secular world system, even though
it's religious, it is a deceptively religious institution opposing
the true and the living God. So what does the believer do?
First thing when he or she are, they begin to realize that for
the gospel sake, I am being opposed. They pray. The first thing a
believer does when they realize that they are simply operating
out of their calling is to pray, right? So let me remind you,
of the man who was initiating this prayer after going through
the same kind of examination that he watched his master go
through. He watched his master being examined
by the rulers. He watched his master being accused
by the ruler. He watched his masters being
persecuted by the rulers, beaten by the rulers, mocked by the
rulers. crucified by the rulers. He watched his master go through
what he's getting ready to go through. By the way, guess what
else he watched his master do before his master went through
it? Pray, didn't he? Didn't the disciples watch their
master pray before he entered into the persecution? And didn't
the master say, pray that you enter not into temptation? Pray
because the spirit is willing, but the flesh is what? And so
what Peter is doing now by the power of the third person who
represents the second person is modeling the master again,
isn't he? See the church under the power
and influence of the spirit of God. As I told you, the church
that is under the power and influence of the spirit of God is going
to do nothing more than what Christ did. The church under
the power of the spirit of God is never going to do more than
Christ did because the Holy ghost came to conform us to Christ.
and to perpetuate Christ's witness in the earth. And so the first
thing we see taking place is prayer. The prayer is answered
and all of them are filled with the Holy Ghost and the languages.
And there was a great earthquake there. It's a powerful, powerful
demonstration of the presence of the Spirit. Back to point
number one. Generally, when we're filled with the Spirit of God,
it's in order to embolden us. We'll get to that point in a
moment. But notice the three categories of, uh, of being filled
with the spirit under the concept of speaking, speaking, speaking,
and your outline, I have, he'll do three things. He will give
you the words to speak. Do you see that when God fills
you with the spirit on an assignment, we're not talking about the normative
continual presence of the spirit of God in our life. We're talking
about the dynamic of him filling us up. There's a difference between
And I fully believe this. There's a difference between
having the presence and dwelling of the Spirit of God in your
life in regeneration and then a filling of the Spirit of God
for deployment. There's a huge difference. Not
that the difference is salvific. It does not constitute a salvation
state plus a non-salvation state. It simply constitutes a relationship
with God whereby when it's time for you to activate, you consciously
are depending upon God to work through you. Am I making some
sense? You are not presuming that based
on your knowledge, based on your understanding, based on your
wit, based on your gift of gab, based on your ability to talk,
based upon your manipulative skills, based upon whatever that
you will actually get the job done. I can tell you this. I
know this from experience that God will let you fail over and
over and over again. If you should think that you
can actually do the will of God in the flesh. Am I telling the
truth? This is why when you're going
to do a Bible study with just one person at lunch between breaks,
you pray before you do that study. If you're getting ready to go
visit with mama and she's in the hospital or auntie or cousin
is there, you pray before you open your mouth. You're getting
ready to deal with your children and they're out of line and you
want God to deal with them and you're talking about sharing
the word of God with them. You better pray that God will fill
you with the spirit so that he can actually work through you
to penetrate their heart. Because there's no human words
that can break the hard heart and cause the soul to submit
to God. No human words can do it. Am
I making some sense? And so I appreciate that Luke
focuses in on that. And of course, the promise is
in Luke 21 verse 14, where Christ says to the disciples, in that
hour, you do not have to meditate what you're going to say. All
you have to do is depend upon the Spirit of God, because that
assignment is from God. And the execution of the assignment
must be also by God. You know, we may be given an
assignment. We talk about this in an evangelism class, which
we'll have tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock. We who believe that
we want people to come to know our Savior realize that in every
venue of our life, we want to be ready to give an answer to
every man on a level of not merely arguing with them, but for them
to be brought to their knees to see the glory of God in Christ.
That's an evangelical mindset. You guys follow that, right?
I want to see people say nothing. Nothing rejoices my heart like
a man or a woman who is ignorant of God in opposition to God,
hating authority, bowing the knee and saying, what must I
do to be safe? Nothing rejoices my heart more because the son
of man came not to condemn the world, but that the world through
him might be safe. So I want to actually be a full grown Christian
because that's what it means to be an evangelist, to be a
full grown Christian. For as he was, so am I in the
world, right? And in order for me to do that,
I have to depend upon God. And I know it's going to take
words. And I know it's going to actually take him conforming
my words and using my words. I can't be empty headed. I can't
just mystically pray for the Holy Ghost and have not studied
my Bible because he goes, Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa. I gave you
a book. You didn't left this book alone. You just expect me
to just open your mouth to start talking to you. You think you're
going to jump past the mechanism that I give you to speak to people?
Jesus said in John 6 63, my word is spirit and they are a life
that you have to use God's word. And the spirit works through
God's word in order to bring about the liberation of souls.
Isn't that so? So there's a relationship between
us and the Spirit of God that requires not only a dependence
upon God's Word, but a loving of God's Word and absorption
of God's Word into our mind and into our heart so that we can
naturally communicate to people because the Word of God has transformed
us. That means that when I'm talking
to someone about God and about Christ, it's the understanding
of the Word of God that is going to be effective and persuasive
in their life. because God has taught me. And
so as Jesus said in John chapter 17 verse 19, I pray not only
for these whom thou has given me, but I want for all those,
all those, all those whom you will give to me through their
words, through the words of the apostles and through the words
of his people around the world. As we share the gospel with people,
Christ mediates for us that our words would be effective when
we share the gospel with people. And that's a powerful privilege.
But three things are stated in our text that Peter did. He exalted Christ, didn't he?
He exalted Christ. He affirmed his resurrection.
That's the central message that brought about the offense for
the Jews. And then there was an establishing of Christ's authority.
I want to remind you of that so we can go to our next point.
Again, what we read over in verse 10 through 12 is, be it known
unto you all and to all of the people of Israel that by the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you 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 not of you builders, which has become the head of the corner.
He's quoting from Isaiah chapter 28 saints. And in Isaiah chapter
28, what God says through Isaiah is that he has laid a tried and
true stone, a true cornerstone. And he will be for some people,
a stone of stumbling. And for other people, he will
be a foundation stone of rest. So the stone of stumbling and
the stone of rest is one. Some people stumble at the gospel. Others receive it as the foundation
upon which they stand. That's also one of the things
we have to get in the 21st century where you and I are. You and
I have to accept the fact that if we share the gospel with people,
they're not going to always accept it. That in some cases, they're
going to be offended by it. And that will be an evidence
of the presence of the spirit too. Are you hearing what I'm
saying? But you know what I've experienced
over the 35 years I've been a Christian? I want to say this caveat about
this, and we'll be able to affirm this through the book of Acts.
Generally, whenever God gives me an assignment to share the
gospel with people, that gospel is indeed a two edged sword,
meaning he will have me targeting one person. And in his own prerogative,
someone else actually is drawn by that gospel and brought to
Christ. I may be debating with an individual
who is arguing with me over doctrinal issues, and I'm seeking to dismantle
his argument and show him his folly. And in the process of
discoursing with him and exalting Christ, because I have learned
what it means to preach the gospel, and this is what we must all
learn how to do, preach Christ. That the spirit of God takes
the preaching of Christ and gets ahold of somebody else in the
room. And the next thing you know, that person is coming over.
I heard what you said to him. I'd like to know more. I've seen
that happen over and over and over again. And this is what
you'll see through the book of Acts as well. So you and I are
not always going in with an assignment to see the person that we are
directly talking to converted. Sometimes it's going to be someone
else in the room. But I say that to say this, I have learned that
most of the time when you're going to be engaging people about
biblical truth, they are going to resist you because the gospel
is designed by nature to demolish human pride. The nature of the true gospel
demolishes human pride. And if I can do all I can to
get out of the way and simply let the gospel speak for itself,
when we start calling people what the gospel calls us, sinners,
pride is already assaulted. When we start actually telling
men and women that Christ is the only way you'll see that
in your outline, pride is immediately demolished. When we start telling
people, not only are they sinners, not only is Christ the only way
Christ is the one who has to save you, pride is demolished. And at that point, you're gonna
see the anger and the hostility and all of the stuff that comes
out when you start speaking biblical truth. Am I making some sense?
And so you have to set your heart to this, that when you're dealing
with that spiritual dimension, wherein you are plundering the
kingdom of Satan, you're gonna have to deal with the resistance
that comes with telling the truth about the gospel. This is the
tragedy in our seeker-friendly religion today, where folks are
trying to shape and craft the gospel to be non-offensive, The
gospel's basic premise is that you and I are hell-bound sinners.
That's offensive in the 21st century. Am I making some sense? I was, you know, I receive often
lots of emails from our radio program and our ministry program
where people are highly blessed by our teaching. And that's just
a joy to know people are enjoying the teaching. And they get to
enjoy it in the anonymity of their own homes, on their radios,
and far, far, far away from the church where they don't have
to publicly identify with me. They can just enjoy the teaching,
but don't let nobody know, you know. No, I'm just telling you
the truth. But I understand that Nicodemus
came to Jesus, how? Because he understood once it
came out. There's a problem. I understand
that fully. I you know, I I negotiate with people in other churches
and their their churches are in trouble Theologically in trouble
ethically in trouble in a lot of ways and there there's listen.
They're so glad that in that dark hole of Confusion they have
a window that they can see out of Into biblical truth. This
is the blessing of the radio ministry that a person can sit
in their house and say, you know, now I can follow this. I can
follow the scriptures. I finally, somebody is talking
about these issues and now they're being affirmed in their soul
about truth that they never really got squared away or answered
in their churches. Cause our churches often are
just systems that are not willing to deal with the whole truth.
And, and, and so I, I'm very, uh, very thankful for those kinds
of affirmations of our work because Uh, there is the frequent opposition
that I get, particularly from leaders. How dare you publicly
speak out against our traditions? Yeah. You know, that's, I'm like,
wait a minute, help me, sir. I try to be as cordial as possibly
can. Would you please help me understand
what you mean by me speaking out against your traditions?
Isn't that our calling to actually address issues, to prove all
things into whole facet, which is good. And I say that to say
this, cause we're getting ready to get into this characteristic
of proclamation. There's a characteristic of proclamation
here that you need to know. Somehow, somewhere down the line,
there has been a, what we call a tacit affirmation, a hidden,
uh, consensus. that we are never to ever talk
publicly about controversial issues. Somewhere in the culture,
it has been made the rule that when there is a controversial
issue taking place, that you can talk about it in private,
you can talk about it at the coffee shop, you can talk about
it at home, but don't make it a public affair. And certainly
if you're a leader in the church, do not start talking about controversial
issues in the church. And I said to this one man who
just emailed me a couple of days ago, because he was just irate
about, you know, me actually exposing and analyzing and deconstructing
this whole issue on tongues. How dare you, he says. How dare you publicly ridicule
and condemn those of us who are Pentecostals. I said, sir, first
of all, I did not ridicule or condemn you. I simply demonstrated
that you don't have a logical argument for many of the things
you guys are practicing in your churches. And I asked him, I
say, do I not have a right to prove all things and hold fast
to that which is good? Do I have, do I not have a right
also in the open public forum to have this kind of discourse?
If you listen to the CDs, you understand that, or the program,
you understand that this was an open forum. Anyone could have
come. We invited all kinds of people to come. No one wanted
to come, but who wanted to come? And it was a Q&A. And then I
gave him the same questions. I said, now, would you please,
pastor of 35 years is what he said. And I'm a big dog. I'm
this. I'm that. He gave me all the
accolades. OK, would you please answer these questions? I am
waiting for your response. But I want to engage him. But
he's just upset because somebody is actually bringing the issues
to the floor. You know what we're talking about?
We're talking about a category of speaking that constitutes
boldness. Point number two in your outline,
you see the exclusivity of Christ? Is that in your outline? After
speaking under exalting Christ, affirming the resurrection of
Christ, establishing the authority of Christ, the exclusivity of
Christ is in verse 12. I'll get to boldness here in
a moment, because that'll be where we close at tonight. Your
gospel in mind, which is given to us by Jesus Christ, is summed
up in Peter's words in verse 12. Neither is there salvation
in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. See verse 12? Verse 12
is offensive to the whole world. The whole world is offended by
that proposition. Do you guys understand that?
that that proposition is a proposition of exclusivity, singularity. It's an absolute. It's one of
those statements that is anathema in the secular intellectual institute,
that the idea that everybody else is wrong and Christ is right
is unacceptable, untenable, intolerant of you. Did you get that? This
is where we are today. Now watch this. I see. I want
to make sure it makes application to you because you can sit and
listen to me and your theology can be romanticized and you will
fail to realize that you're being challenged by these same things
and that the winds and the trends and the waves and the warfare
and the intensity of the warfare is affecting you just like it
affects everyone else. And if you are honest with yourself,
you have to ask yourself, how am I faring in this storm? Am I faring like the apostles?
The apostles are standing there giving an answer to the rulers,
aren't they? They're standing there explaining
what they did, who did it through them and why it was done. And
in the process of them explaining that Jesus, the son of the living
God, has been glorified by God, his father, and the healing of
this lame man, which you all know. You all know this. Then he goes on to say, and you
killed him. That's another one of those insights
that we've already stated was a repeated element in the apostles
doctrine, letting the Jewish people know you were culpable
to the death of the Messiah. You need to accept that in order
to have a premise for repentance on your part and tell the Jewish
people except what they did. They are not ready for salvation.
But that's one of those pet peeves that in the present European
mindset and culture that we don't want to touch. We don't want
to deal with that. That's one. The exclusivity of Jesus in all
your educated environments is like, that's crazy, man. Every
way of man is right. That's called pluralism. You
guys understand that? And so listen, you are offending
me by telling me that Jesus is the only way. So see you and
I have to have the Spirit of God just to say what the text
says Isn't that right? Because the text has its own
two-edged sword that it knows what to do when once you simply
utter the words the war is on now and You and I are tested
whether that's true or not. It's Christ the only way for
us To the exclusion of every other way so much so that I am
willing to die for this absolute Cause you know what you will
hear Christians say? You'll hear Christians say, well, Jesus is
the way for me. Implication is you got your own
way. Argument is there is no other
way. And so we're not saying Jesus is the way for me. Jesus
is the way. Am I making some sense? See you
see and see at that point you have to be simply ready to explain
Why it must be what Peter said was there is no other name given
among men under heaven whereby we must be saved There's a necessity
of salvation Attached to the exclusivity of Jesus that's critical
for people to know see what people are saying is when there's two
or three ways We don't have to be saved, but we do have to be
saved See, that's the proposition around the gospel that our religious
leaders in the present generation also do not buy. See, I've told
you guys this, and I've told our church this for years. Liberal
theology, liberal progressive theology is in full denial of
every tenet of biblical truth. It's in full denial. It will
use the language. It will call Jesus savior, but
they don't mean salvation from sin, from hell, from the wrath
of God, from our depravity, from our fallen nature. They mean
salvation in some kind of social euphoric sense, which means that
Jesus is just one of a pantheon of saviors out there that people
can get ahold of if they want to. Am I making some sense? And
so you knowing that you have to be ready to say, no, I do
not mean that by when I say Jesus is the only way. What I mean
by Jesus being the only way is that Jesus is the only way. So we read in the gospel of John
chapter eight, I want to read one verse before we deal with
the other part. We read in the gospel of John chapter eight,
verse 21 through 30 and more particularly verse 24 where Jesus
affirms this himself. You know what I'm really enjoying
about Peter in our text? And the rulers will note this
too. Peter gets smart after he gets the Holy Spirit, doesn't
he? He gets pretty smart. And the thing that I am really
enjoying about him is the one thing that he did not have the
night our master was crucified. He did not have boldness. He
was Peter through and through. Simon Peter, wasn't he? He had
no ability to speak for Christ. He failed, he ran, he hid, he
lied, he cursed. He denied, didn't he? So I'm
saying that's what you and I are by nature. So when you and I
see Peter doing exploits in the book of Acts, the wind has taken
that boy up, has filled his lungs, has illuminated his mind, has
emboldened his predisposition to talk for the one that he had
already told him. He said, now Jesus, now you know,
you know, I love you. You know, I love you. Cause faith
only works by what? See, you're not going to be ready
to take the hit for Christ if you don't love him. See what
I'm saying? So in John chapter eight, I,
the disciples are there. They heard the battle between
Christ and these pseudo rulers of the church. When in John chapter
eight, verse 21, here's what Jesus says in John eight, 21,
then said, Jesus, again, unto them, I go my way and you shall
seek me and you shall die in your sins. Whether I go, you
cannot come. Verse 21 was fundamentally saying
that in your present state of unbelief, it's impossible for
you to end up in heaven where I'm going. Did you get that?
See, because he was talking to the rulers and the rulers were
under the assumption that they were going to heaven because
they were Abraham seed. And what Jesus was saying is you're not
going to heaven. Now, I know where I'm going and you're going
to seek me. But because your motive is wrong,
you're going to die in your sins. Now, watch what he says. Then
said the Jews, will he kill himself? Because he said, whether I go,
you cannot come. And he said to them, you are from beneath,
I am from above. That's politically correct, isn't
it? So we know where Peter and John got their boldness from,
don't we? Isn't that what the rulers had assessed? These cats
have been with Jesus. Because with whom you associate
yourself, you assimilate. This is why leadership positions
are very critical. Those of us who are leaders,
we have to be very careful about our environment, about our presentation,
about our manner, about how we appear to people. Because the
saints are going to take what I say and they're going to regurgitate
it and say it exactly like I say it. True. It's just true. This is how we are. Like your
kids will do the same thing. It shocks me when I'm in one
room and they're in the other room and I hear them talking
just like me. Except when I'm saying something
good, you know, but I'm just saying that's the responsibility
of leadership. So you have to know that people
are going to borrow your modeling and run with it. And that's okay. Do you understand that? This
is why Paul could say, follow me as I follow Christ. And so
here's what our master says. You are from beneath. I am from
above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. See that
phrase world right there in that text. This is one of six or seven
ways in which the word world is used in your Bible. You know
how I've told us about the one definition fallacy, the fallacy
of defining a word one way, like in our present generation of
folks who don't like to think with their Bibles, whenever they
use the word world, they are using the word world in terms
of every human being on planet earth per capita. So when we
say for God so loved the world, they're under the assumption
that Christ died per capita for every single individual in the
world. And I say, don't, don't read that into that text because
everywhere in the Bible where the word world is used, it cannot
be speaking to every individual per capita without distinction.
Because in John 17, Jesus says, I pray not for the world. If he doesn't pray for the world,
how is that world going to be the object of his salvation?
Am I making some sense? So there's a category of worldly
people for which Jesus is not praying and he knows who they
are. Like this category here are the Jewish rulers who are
not spiritual. They are earthly. They are not
heavenly bound under the authority of God. They are earthly bound
and they are under the authority of Satan. See, Christ knows his
sheep, doesn't he? I know my sheep and I am known
of my and I know them by name and I call them by name and they
know my voice and they follow me. And so we understand that
he's very clear on the category of people who will be the objects
of his saving mercy. Is that true? And he doesn't
mind saying you're going to die in your sin to those who are
adamantly hostile to the gospel. Listen to the language. I said,
therefore unto you that you shall die in your sins. For if you
believe not that I am, you will die in your sins. Ego imi. The old Hebrew tetragrammaton
of I am that I am in Genesis chapter, Exodus chapter 3 around
verse 14. Who shall I say sent me? Tell
Pharaoh I am that I am. And so one with the Father and
the Holy Ghost, the Son, is the great and eternal God himself
as well, present among these people, to tell them, if you
don't believe on me, you're going to perish. Now, this underscores
the exclusivity of the gospel, doesn't it? It also underscores
the necessity of it being plainly and clearly and comprehensively
preached and taught, right? Meaning that as, uh, as people
would have us to believe and want to, uh, embrace the idea
that God is going to save people apart from the preaching of the
gospel, that would make this statement that Jesus here set
forth false. Because what Christ is saying
is in order for you to be saved, you've got to believe who I am
and believing who he is is two things. It is a conviction. That's
what believing is. based on information. The objective
information that we are to believe in is the testimony of who Christ
is and what he did. That means unless Christ is preached
and taught, there is no place for a person's faith to land
by which they might be saved. Am I making some sense? And so
we are bound to the preaching of the gospel for people to experience
a saving relationship with God. And this is what he is so plainly
saying. And I think he closes it out in verse 30 like this.
Well, let me start back at verse 28. Then said Jesus unto them,
When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you shall know that
I am, and that I do nothing of myself. But as my Father hath
taught me, I speak these things, and he that sent me is with me.
The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things
that please him. Now watch this. And as he spake
these words, what? Many believed on him. This is
where he starts his discourse in verse 31. Then said Jesus
to those Jews who believed on him. If you continue in my word,
see the operative word, continue in my word, then are you my disciples
indeed. And you shall know the truth
and the truth shall what? And that's the marquee work of the
Messiah. He has come to set the captives free, to open the prison
doors, to open the eyes of the blind, to heal the sick, to raise
the dead, to heal the lame and to proclaim the acceptable year
of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God and to establish trees
of righteousness for his father's glory. That's what Christ has
been doing for 2000 years. Every believer is a tree of righteousness.
Every believer is a tree of rights, but it's the consequence of gospel
preaching. And one of the goals of the enemy
in the church is to destroy gospel preaching, to stop the centrality
of biblical proclamation and biblical teaching like what you
and I are doing. Ladies and gentlemen, please understand that this is
going by the wayside day by day in our churches. to prepare your
heart to come out and sit under the teaching of the Word of God
without fanfare, without music, without entertainment, without
all of the distractions and paraphernalia of emotionalism. To simply sit
and hear the Word of God explained is going by the wayside. Am I
making some sense? It's going by the wayside. The
idea of sitting under teaching for an hour and a half is some
places is just utterly unheard of. I'm still amazed at even
the older preachers that I'm dealing with who have just basically
made it a law. You don't teach people for more
than 20 to 40 minutes. I say, are you kidding? I don't
even get my opening introduction in except for the first 20 minutes. Isn't that true? But listen to
me. Long ago when I was under sound
preaching in my youth, an hour was minimum. An hour was minimum. Because you have to settle down,
you have to hold in, you have to focus And that takes the grace
of God to settle you down and begin to remove all of the circumstantial
issues that cleave to you. Like some of you were asleep
for a little while. You're awake now. Am I telling the truth? Because you came in unprepared.
You came in unprepared. I'm telling the truth. You know
what's interesting about where I am right now? I'm just telling
the truth. I'm still young enough to enjoy
the, uh, the, the genuineness and the spontaneity and the dynamic
and the hopefulness of all that God is doing right now. I love
where I am. I love where my brothers and
sisters in ministry are right now. I love where we are. There's
a lot going on, but I also love the fact that I'm not 20 years
old anymore or 25 or 30. Cause I am not easily moved by
all of the phony stuff that's going on. It just, I see it for
what it is. You know why? Cause I grew up
under sober, sound preaching and teaching that was no nonsense. God gave me the blessing of hearing
men who were sage expositors of the word of God. That challenge,
you know, every now and then I get one of my brothers, he
says, Pastor, you use too big a word. Go to the dictionary.
Get your butt in the dictionary. Stop being a lazy listener. Am
I making some sense? And did I get it from my brothers
and sisters who go to other churches? You know, my pastor's not saying
anything. I tell them that's by design. He's not saying anything
by design. He's not stretching your mind
by design. He's not challenging your spirit
by design. He's not waking you up to ideas
from God by design. Am I making some sense? That's
by design. That's to put you to sleep on a theological level,
on an intellectual level, on a propositional level, on a dialogical
level. That's to make you sleepy around
the word. This is where it has been substituted
with entertainment. So I want to encourage you because
you guys are part of grace over this year. When you look to the
left and you look to the right and you see your brother and
your sister in Christ sleeping spiritually, Ask God to give
you grace to wake them up. Am I making some sense? Ask God
to give you grace to wake them up because you will sit in your
chair and you may very well go to heaven, but your neighbor
on the left of you are on the right of you will fall asleep
and perish under the wrath of God because the enemy has trapped
them and close their ears and close their mind. And they're
only there in shale and not in substance. And this is where
we're going to be exhorted in Hebrews chapter 10 to consider
one another, to provoke one another, provoke one another, to love
in the good works. Shake them out of their stupor
in their sleep. Tell them you love them. Wake
up! You need to give back to God. The myriad of distractions
in our present world can keep you outside of a close relationship
and walk with God till you close your eyes, breathing your last
breath. and you will rue that day because you will know how
far away from God you are. How far you are away from God.
Have you ever been in a state where you were almost drowning?
How many ever been underwater almost? There you go, got quite
a few. See how God does that? See how God does that? And people can be on top calling
and you can barely hear it because there's a separation between
you and them. And that's how it is when people are dragged
off into a state of lull and dullness and spiritual apathy. They can barely hear your words. If you don't do something radical
to penetrate that dimension where they are trapped to shake them
out of it, they'll stay that way. They'll stay that way. That's
where we have the warnings in scripture around apostasy. You
guys do know that. So go with me now to our next
point. The next point I want to establish
going beyond the exclusivity of Christ, which we have here
affirmed the offense of the gospel is that it opposes both works
and pluralism. Every way of man is not right. Even though that's what the Proverbs
says in Proverbs chapter 21, verse two, every way of men is
right in his own eyes. And there seems to be a way that's right
before me, but the end thereof are the ways of what? And so
we read our last proposition that we're going to deal with
tonight. You are my witnesses. This is, I'm going to just open this
up a little bit and then we'll come back next week and more
fully develop it because it goes into the apocalypse. The form
and structure of what Peter and John are dealing with in Acts
chapter four and Acts chapter five is prophetic of what we
see in the book of revelation when God speaks concerning his
two witnesses and the blessings that come out of it. You are
my witnesses. Verse 13, Listen to what chapter four verse 13
says. Now when they saw the boldness
of whom? Peter and what? Stop right there. So while Luke initially started
his narrative around Peter as the spokesperson, here's what
you need to know. Peter was not speaking by himself. Peter was preaching and John
was preaching. Peter was preaching and John
was preaching. They were both preaching at the
same time. They were preaching the Christ
that they both knew, the Christ that they both loved, the Christ
that they both experienced. They were preaching by the same
spirit concerning the healing that had taken place. They were
bearing record one with another because that's how God works
when he moves us out in the evangelical task of witnessing for Christ.
He sends them out what? Two by two. in order that every
word may be what? But more than that, it is God's
rule to make sure that brethren are dwelling together in the
cause of the gospel so that it's not one individual. Whether you
know it or not, and you ought to know this, there is great
boldness and great confidence and great encouragement that
comes when brothers and sisters are working together in the cause
of the gospel. It is much easier when there
are two people in the midst of a multitude of people who either
believe or not for one person or both of them to communicate
biblical truth clearly and boldly because they've got a comrade
with them. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
They've got a comrade. And this is why even our master
in his humanity and his humility and in his modeling, what did
he do? He gathered 12 brothers with him. Now he had already
done what he knew he was going to do as the new Moses. He was
setting up his new theocracy. He was going to have his 12 rulers,
right? But those were also his comrades
comforting him on a human level. Do you believe that? Pray with
Me. Pray with me. And he was going
to their rescue all the time. And he was sending them out in
twos and sending them out in threes. And they were doing ministry
together. That's how it gets done. Am I
making some sense? This is very practical, very,
very practical on the level of assignments being accomplished.
This is where the danger of this kind of autonomous individualism
and isolation of the one person out doing his own thing. You
will not get much done for God by yourself. It will not happen. You will not get much done for
God by yourself. Here's the reason why. Can I
tell you why? Because God doesn't work with rogues. He just doesn't. Because no one person is going
to steal his glory. He's just not going to let it
happen. He works with tandems because there's a necessary complementarian
relationship in tandems by which they offset one another. And
there's far more of a sense of accountability when you are doing
ministry with someone else, where you have to answer to them if
you love them and care about them. And if they carry some
kind of peer influence in your life, if their peer. So like
you went to preach and that person was silent this time and y'all
walking home and you, you begin to recall what you said and that
brother says, yeah, but you know what? You said that wrong. There
was a little bit of an edge when you said that we need to work
on that and you go, you know what? I appreciate that. Am I
making some sense? and vice versa and all kinds
of things along those lines. So Peter and John were good for
each other in that sense. But now when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John, what they marked was not Peter and John.
I'm raising that up as application to us. What they saw was the
boldness. The word is parousia, almost
like parousia, but it's parousia. And it really simply means this,
ladies and gentlemen, the outspokenness, the frankness, the confidence,
and the freedom to simply say what is right from your heart
without fear. That's what boldness is. Boldness
in this sense, it should be up on the PowerPoint. Pull the PowerPoint
back up. Boldness in this biblical sense, and this is a gift from
God. It should be under PowerPoint number two. This is a gift from
God. When you and I are functioning
out of this boldness, you see the word parousia? It means to
be outspoken, it means to be frank, it means to be confident,
and it means to communicate freely. I'll share with you what I learned
years ago about preaching, is that when it comes to communicating
in the context of preaching, formal preaching, it requires
the gift of the Spirit of God to operate and accompany you
in your communicating, so that over the course of your communicating,
You are not distracted. You are not constrained. You
are not failing to do what God wants you to do in the execution
of what you are saying. It requires the Spirit of God
to give you the eloquence. I'm talking simple eloquence.
I'm not talking the highfalutin stuff of sophistry and making
people think you're something when you're not because you can
string together a bunch of you know, syllables. I'm talking
about the eloquence of communicating in such a way that people get
it. Am I making some sense? That requires the unction. And
the word is freedom. We are using it in the King James
boldness simply because of the context in which they're doing
it. Obviously, it takes boldness to speak to authorities who can
harm you, right? But really the word means confidence.
But the confidence lies in an internal sense of settled clarity. where you are focused, you know
what your subject is, and you are talking about it with a sense
of understanding where you're starting and where you're going.
Also, when the Spirit of God is in that matter with you, there
is a real conscious awareness of his presence working with
you as you're communicating that truth. And when he leaves, it
is evident. When he leaves, it is evident.
Second Corinthians chapter four, verse 13, Philippians chapter
one, 13, first Thessalonians chapter two, two Ephesians six,
nine, all our passages that speaks to the confidence and the boldness
to declare the word. In second Corinthians four, 13,
Paul is speaking to the church at Corinth who had become an
adversary to them. And he says, we have all received the same
spirit of faith. Therefore, because we hear, we
believe, and we declare what we have heard. We believe. And
because we believe it, we declare it. And what he's saying is declaration
is a consequence of conviction. And conviction is a consequence
of knowledge. And that's a consequence of the
spirit of faith given to the believer. That's why we declare
it. And then he said in Ephesians 6, 19, we are asking that you
pray for us that God gives us an open door of utterance that
we may proclaim the gospel with boldness as we ought to. Think about that for a moment.
That's Ephesians 6 19. Now I want you to mark this characteristic
of preaching. It should be bold. There should
be a level of confidence in it because of the content. It's
true. So why should I be talking to
people? Uh, as if what I am saying is questionable, uh, implausible,
maybe right, maybe not. I have no reason to speak for
God if I am questioning the authority of His truth. If I do not believe
what God's Word says, I should not be representing God. And
if I do represent God, ought not I, as His ambassador, to
speak boldly and confidently and clearly for Him, knowing
that God has to back up His own Word? Am I telling the truth? Confidently, freely, it's a free
flow. And for me that utterance may be given unto me that I might
speak the gospel with boldness as I ought to speak. And so we
have three things under that, which we will close with and
come back next week and deal with it. We are talking about
the witness that they are going back to that previous outline.
Oh, is that it? Yeah, there we go. The witness
that, that the spirit of God is working through our testimony
and first second Corinthians chapter 13 one. That's where
I quote it out of the mouth of two or three witnesses. But in
Revelation chapter 11 verse 3, I've got five minutes. We'll
go there and we'll close there and we'll come back on this point
next week. Go with me to Revelation chapter 11 verse 3. I'll read
verses 1, 2 and 3 and show you the gospel there and we'll close
with it. In Revelation chapter 11, we
have a picture of the temple according to John. And actually
we are on the inside of the temple. where John is called upon to
measure the holy of holies. And he says in verse one, and
there was given me a reed like unto a rod that's used for measuring
this, it says he's a neo Ezekiel type of prophet because Ezekiel
was given the same thing. You guys remember that to measure
the temple in Ezekiel 40 through 48, I believe. And he stood,
and the angel says, stood, rise and said, measure the temple
of God, right? The temple of God, and the altar,
and them that worship therein, measure everything. Measuring
means to judge. But the court, which is without
the temple, leave out. Now, what is the court? It's
called the temple proper. That's the external edifice and
court area where in the people did menial tasks. The Gentiles
and the women and the common people were in the court of the
temple. In the holy place where the priest, in the holy of holies
was the high priest. You guys got that? The altar
is in the holy place. And so we are in a vision of
the temple But the temple here, I must warn you, is really about
the body of Christ. It's about the whole church,
both saved and unsaved, being measured by God, being examined
by God. I want you to hear the language.
There's two categories. There's the category of the common
temple proper. And then there's the holy place.
He's making a distinction, but the court, which is without the
temple, what did he say? Leave out and do what? Do not
measure it. Watch this for it is given unto
the what? And the holy city and they shall
do what? Tread it underfoot. How long?
So there's an aspect of the temple. that God says will be overrun
by Gentile influence and Gentile power and Gentile authority.
But then there's an aspect of the temple that God is going
to protect. That aspect of the temple that God is going to protect
corresponds to the true believer, the body of Christ that is authentically
filled with God's spirit. So in the church, whether you
want to acknowledge it or not, we have saved and unsaved. You
do know that. That's right. And in the church, we have wheat
and tares. And in the church, we have devils
and angels. It's just true. And God is the
one that does the separating. And this is why in the church,
there's also I'm talking about the churches in general, not
any local church in particular, the church in general. This is
why in the church, you have so much warfare. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? It was so in Jesus day. The devil
ran the temple in Jesus day. He ran it, but Jesus went there
on Sabbath special days, but he knew who was running the temple.
That's why he could say to the rulers, you are of your father,
the devil. He runs this place. This looks like my father's house,
but this is a den of thieves and robbers. Now we're going
to get this thing straight, but for the moment, this is what
we're dealing with. We're dealing with false professors and true
professors in the same body politic and mature believers have to
understand that. The calling for you and me is
to make our calling in election sure You understand because there's
a day coming when God's gonna cut the lights on and everything
gonna be seen for what it really is That's second Corinthians
5 verse 8 when every man will be manifested before the judgment
seat of Christ right now. We're not manifested We're all
walking by what? We're all saying we're believers
by what? But there's a day coming when it will all be manifest.
Are you hearing me? That's the day that when we will all know
see right now. We don't know and We might suspect
people and sometimes people break out and show themselves like
Judas Iscariot and Hymenaeus and Alexander the Coppersmith
and all of the apostates that we know in the Bible. But a lot
of times people stay in the church, live in the church, die in the
church, never knowing Christ. Are you hearing me? And we are
called upon to let that be. We are called upon to let that
be so that everybody gets a chance to hear both the overtures of
love from the gracious Savior to come to Christ. and believe
on Christ and grow in Christ, and then to hear the warnings
of the apostate who die in the church under the deception of
false beliefs and false doctrine. Listen to what it goes on to
say. I want you to mark this and see the similarities between
Peter and John and Jesus and John. Peter and John and Jesus
and John and the church today. Listen to what it says in verse
three. Are you there? And I will give what unto my what? See what I'm talking about? It's
John and Peter, two witnesses. Did God give them power? Are
they standing up in the temple? Are you seeing the parallels?
You need to, because what's going on in the revelation has been
taking place on the earth. This is why I taught us the earth,
the church on earth is the church militant. The church in heaven
is a church triumphant. The revelation is simply an insight
into what's taking place down here in the spiritual dimension.
You have to see that. You got to see it. This is why
when Christ comes to the seven churches, as we will unpack it,
he will let them know that he is the great high priest in the
midst of the seven golden candlesticks. And so the churches represent
the temple and the articles in the temple in this great celestial
battle. So wants what's taking place
with the two witnesses. And I will give power unto my
two witnesses and they show what? Is that what Peter and John are
doing? 2,300 score days, 2,000, um, 1,203 score days. That's 1,290 days clothed in
what? And the sackcloth is a symbol
of grief, symbol of mourning, a symbol of repentance, a symbol
of judgment. And when the prophets wore sackcloth,
what they were doing was reflecting the mind of God to the people
saying that you need to repent. You need to repent. The judgment
of God is on you. The wrath of God is on you. Is
that what Peter and John are saying? Israel at this present
time as we have been discoursing under the judgment of God Are
they in that probation period where they are hearing the gospel?
But eventually the judgment will come the gospel will stop and
go on out to the regions of the Gentiles This is what's taking
place here now watch this And I will give power into my two
witnesses and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and three
score days as twelve hundred ninety days is equivalent to
a the time, times, and half of times. You guys know that. We'll
deal with that when we get to the book of Revelation. It's a three
and a half year period that corresponds to the seven year period, a half
a week, right? Does anybody know what I'm talking
about there? Good. So you know the half a week or the three
and a half corresponds to the time of witness. That's why John
the Baptist preached for three and a half years. Jesus preached
for three and a half years. You see the parallels? So we
have to understand that it's a full week cycle. You and I
are still in that full week cycle. We are operating out of this
symbolic half week. The end of the half week will
be the end of time for us. And we are going through the
same dynamics presently in the world. Now, Mark, what takes
place here? And these are the two olive trees
and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
These two witnesses, you guys see that? the two olive trees
and two candlesticks. So what is John doing? He's borrowing
the language from Zachariah, right? And you remember the two
olive trees stood on the outside of the golden lampstand, right?
To pour oil into the golden lampstand. What is the golden lampstand?
It's the witness, it's the light, right? Are we the light of the
world? Is Christ the light of the world? The two olive trees
represent what? The Holy Ghost, right? The olive
oil represents the anointing. And so the olive trees are pouring
oil into the candlestick so that the candlestick can be illuminated
so it can do its job of witnessing, right? That's what we've been
saying for the last hour. Without the work of the Spirit
of God, the candlestick cannot shine and therefore give light
to the truth of God's Word to this dark world. So you and I
are candlesticks. You're the light of the world.
And the Holy Ghost must pour oil into you continually so that
you can illuminate biblical truth in this dark world. Am I making
some sense? It's important for you to know that because God
wants us to own the terms and nomenclature of the Old Testament
because the reality is in Christ. And Christ is in you, the hope
of glory. You and I are the living temple.
You and I are the candlestick. You and I are the prophet. You
are the ones declaring the word of God. You have to know that. This infinite glorious God does
not dwell in temples made with hands. He dwells in a body. First Christ, and then his members. This is where the work is done.
So now let me set the larger context. And if any men will
what? Ah, there's your opposition.
See the persecution? See the context? If any men will
hurt them, fire proceeds where? Why? Because they're communicating
biblical truth. It's not my word, like what?
that goes out of my mouth. So when you and I share the word
of God with men and women, if they are enemies of God, that
word is like fire that will ultimately consume them because it bears
record against their rebellion. Is that true? Am I boring you? And if any man will hurt them,
fire proceeds out of their mouth and devour their enemies. This
here is what we call, again, Old Testament paradigmatic imagery. Old Testament paradigmatic imagery.
We're dealing with the two prophets right the two witnesses in the
Old Testament The great two witnesses was Moses and whom Elijah they
were the ones on the Mount of Transfiguration, right? Moses
represents what the law Elijah represents what the prophet the
prophet only declares God's law remember Elijah and the days
when the Syrians were coming to attack him and Where's the
man of God? If I be a man of God, let fire
come down from heaven and consume. Remember that? Let fire come
down and consume it. And so what we are dealing with
is God's representatives sharing biblical truth in a culture where
people either receive it and affirm their salvation and reject
it and affirm their judgment. This business is serious at the
end of the day. This business is serious at the end of the
day. And if any men will hurt them, fire proceeds out of their
mouth and devour their enemies. And if any men will hurt them,
he must in this manner be killed. See, in other words, you and
I are not seeking to destroy people by the power of a physical
or a political sword. That's not our ministry. Our
ministry is not to take up swords and guns and bombs to kill people. That's not the way the gospel
works. Am I making some sense? Our job is not to blow up people,
fight people, use cannons, drones or nothing. Our job is to communicate
true. As our master did, as the prophets
did, as the apostles did. God uses that true to either
condemn or say. There's nothing more powerful
than God's word in the world, for even though men can kill
your body, it is the word of God that will kill both body
and soul in hell. I'm done with the next verse,
and then we'll come back next week. If you have questions, you can
raise them next week. These have power to shed heaven, Old Testament,
prophetic, paradigmatic, who shut the heavens in his day,
Elijah, that it rained not in the days of their work. That
was because of the rebellion against Israel of Israel, right?
God shut the heavens because of their idolatry. At that time,
feminism dominated the world like it dominates our churches
today. Jezebel and Athaliah, they had taken over the church.
Remember Ahab? that wicked weak servant King,
his wife ran the show, bringing in all those pagan idols. That's
where we are today in our present evangelical church right now. That's where we are. I'm telling
you, I'm sorry. I'm telling you we are in rebellion
against God's word. Is he now somebody going to get
mad because I said that, but we're, we're in open rebellion
against God's word, open rebellion. So here, Christ is saying, Jesus
is saying yesterday, today, and forevermore. What he did in the
Old Testament, he's doing in the new, although he's using
Old Testament imagery to recapitulate the principles as to how he works
presently. This is not about old Elijah.
This is not about old Moses. This is about Christ and the
church. Those are the two witnesses, Christ and the church. And if
you will, Jesus and John the Baptist represent these two prophets
and then the church throughout the present age. If I took the
time to work it through, you will see that they are killed
and that they rise again from the dead and everybody that saw
them give glory to God because of the resurrection. You understand? And when Christ rose, we rose. Do you understand? And so even
though you kill a child of God over here, God raises up another
child of God over here. And when you kill him here, he
raises him up over here. And when you kill him, that's
why 2000 years is going by. And guess what? He still has
his prophets preaching the word of God to this hour. And as a
consequence, people are being brought to a saving knowledge
of God through the power of the gospel that continues to prevail
to this moment. This is the beauty of the book
of Acts. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time. Thank
you for your word. Thank you for my brothers and sisters who
have come out. Give us grace. to stand for your word. Give
us grace to tell the world the truth as it is in Jesus over
against all of the lies and all of the views that oppose your
scriptures. Give your people boldness and
confidence to stand on the word of God. This you have called
us to do and you have promised that your church will be built
and the gates of hell will not prevail. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you.