If you'll open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 6, we're going to continue in our series of what is biblical boldness. We're going to have our conclusion, though. We could continue studying this, for there's a lot of good preaching in the Bible. It is our example. The Bible is inspired and perfect and preserved, and it tells us exactly how to preach and how to act. Our text is in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. I hope you're understanding that. I hope you're praying. I hope you're supplicating, crying out to God. I hope you have needs and you realize your need. And I hope you persevere. this praying for all saints. And Paul said to pray for him when he was alive, that utterance may be given unto me. So we ought to do that for all today who are preaching and witnessing. That utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. Paul prayed for boldness. Do you see that? For which I am an ambassador in bonds. that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak." Dear Lord, we do pray that we will not leave this series without understanding biblical boldness, without understanding, Lord, how to lift up our voices for You, not hide our truth. And we ask, God, that we may do it with proper love in the name of Jesus. Amen. We've been through the Bible looking at the Old Testament saints. We began with Enoch and noticed that he was preaching. And we noticed that he preached with warnings. He preached with boldness. But he also had grace. That's important. In fact, I could sum up the whole Old Testament with all of the preachers, right up to the witness of Lot, Abraham, Moses before Pharaoh, David before Saul. All the way through the Bible as we see Elijah before the wicked kings and Daniel before the wicked kings of Babylon. As we look down through Jonah and we see him preaching and giving the warning. One thing I see is that they were plain. They were plain. They were direct. They were firm. However, they had grace. They didn't rail. About the strongest was Elijah when he rebuked the prophets of Baal and used irony. But what we do see is that the prophets of Baal were hindering the people of God. And we notice John the Baptist preached to the people. He was plain. He had grace. He dealt with sin. But also, When He saw the Sadducees and Pharisees, He was strong. He was direct. And He asked them, Who hath warned you to flee? And we notice the Lord Jesus was also direct. And He was severe with the Pharisees and Sadducees. We also saw That the Lord did not break a bruiserie. That the Lord, when He dealt one-on-one with people that were broken, even when He upbraided the cities, He just warned them about hell. And the Lord was very full of grace. And I want to continue now looking, as we conclude this series, I want to pick it up from the apostles in the book of Acts. And we know they began preaching on that day of Pentecost. And if you'll look at Acts chapter 2, it says people from all these different areas that had come to Jerusalem, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues, and what does it say? The wonderful works of God. Well, I'd just like to say right now, if we're going to preach, that we ought to preach the wonderful works of God. I believe they talked about the resurrection. I believe they talked about the Messiah who was to come from the seed of David and He came and was born in Bethlehem. I believe they talked about His miracles. I believe they talked about His salvation, His death upon the cross. I believe they talked about his ascension after his resurrection. I believe they talked about the wonderful works of God. And I believe that if we're going to go out on the street, we ought to make sure we're preaching the wonderful works of God. Amen. We ought to say that God has done something. You need to hear about it. And we ought to give them the wonderful works of God. Works that provoke wonder. And then in verse 14, Peter standing up with the eleven. They were all sitting up there as witnesses to God's truth. And Peter, as the spokesman, lifted up his voice and said unto them, Now, this is very interesting. We're going to learn how to preach. We're going to learn how to preach in the New Testament. Ye men of Judea and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem. He has to get attention, you know. Be this known unto you and hearken to my word. The commentator Barnes says, be this known, Peter did not claim that this was a doubtful matter. His address was respectful, yet firm. He proceeded calmly to show them their error. When the enemies of religion deride us or the gospel, we should answer them kindly and respectfully, yet what? Listen now, we should reason with them coolly and convince them of their error. We continue to see this balance between firmness at the right time and not losing control of yourself, being hot-headed in an unbiblical way. Now, Peter had some mockers. Look at verse 12. They were all amazed and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? But look at verse 13. Others, mocking, said, These men are full of new wine. Oh, it's going to be interesting to see how Peter handled the mockers. And Peter had a lot of grace. Peter had a lot of grace. Look what he says in verse 22. Ye men of Israel, hear these words. Hear these words. In other words, I want you to hear, quit mocking, I want you to hear, I want you to understand, Jesus of Nazareth, He's under control, isn't He? He hadn't lost it yet. He says, "...the Jesus of Nazareth, the man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." He convicts them of their guilt. He shows that Jesus was crucified. He shows that Jesus resurrected. And this is all very, very important. Look at verse 36. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know, assuredly. Isn't that good? Assuredly. You ought to preach. If you don't know what you're talking about, you ought to sit down. If we have something to say and it's true, then we ought to say it. Amen? Let the house of Israel know assuredly that God had made that same Jesus, and He tells them again, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. What do you see? You see the exalting of Jesus Christ, the glorifying of Him as Lord. Raising up Jesus as Lord. We ought to go out and preach the wonderful works of God. We ought not let the mockers turn us aside. We ought to just keep getting back to Jesus and Him crucified. And we ought to lift up His Lordship. We ought to exalt it. And we ought to talk about His resurrection, His ascension to heaven, and the fact that He's coming again as Judge. And that's what Peter did. And that's a good sermon, isn't it? Look at verse 40. And with many other words did He testify and exhort. We ought to testify and exhort. And look what He said. Save yourselves from this untoward generation. That means a rebellious generation. Do you know you need to be saved from this generation? Do you know this generation is wicked? It will curse your house, curse your children, mess up your family, mess up your life. And you need to be saved from this generation. Not only saved from hell, not only saved from the lake of fire, You need to be saved from this stinking, filthy generation. And that's something people don't get in our churches anymore today. Christians have forgot that you need to be saved from this generation. But Peter stood up and said, you need to be saved from this generation. In fact, he told them, save yourselves from it. And what he meant was, you need to listen to what I'm saying. You need to respond to the truth that I'm giving you right now, so you can be saved from this untoward generation. Well, that was a good sermon, wasn't it? I tell you what, He was plain. He dealt with sin. He dealt with the resurrection. He dealt with the cross. He dealt with Jesus. Him exalted and lifted up. And I tell you what, that's how we ought to preach. We ought to lift up Jesus. We ought to open our mouths and preach Jesus. Amen? In the next chapter, Peter preaches again. So we get to see it all again. Y'all come to church to learn something today? Notice chapter 3 the God of Abraham and of Isaac He's preaching again and of Jacob the God of our fathers have glorified his son Jesus and he tells him again whom ye Delivered up and denied him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go and kill the Prince of life Whom God hath raised from the dead whereof we are witnesses now. I'm learning something about all this. I'm learning that Peter was not very politically correct and I do believe that if Peter preached that same sermon today in Israel, I do believe that there'd be people that would stand up and say, you're not being very nice. And I think that we got a problem today. This politically correct, positive, everything's got to be... I see Peter speaking plainly. Now, hold on a second. I don't see him just going off track. Do you understand? He just dealt with it. He said, you crucified the Savior. And God has made Him Christ. He has lifted Him up. He is Lord. He's the Prince of Life and you killed Him. But we're witnesses that He resurrected from the dead. Isn't that good? Peter calls sin, sin. Just like John the Baptist did. He deals with the main sin of crucifying Christ. He exalts Jesus. He speaks of the resurrection. But hold on a second. Before you start thinking. Now, number one, you might need to preach harder than you're preaching. You might need to deal with sin and save yourselves from this untoward generation. But before we get off track, I want you to notice, to keep these people from being overly discouraged. Is his goal just to go out and offend people? Is his goal to make them angry? That's not his goal. If your goal is to win them, then you have to use moderate firmness mixed with greats. Now, I want you to notice what Peter does. Because some of you might have liked this so far. You might have said, this is good stuff. I can't wait to go soul winning. I want you to go soul winning. Amen? But listen to what he says now. Verse 17, And now, brethren, Now, brethren, I want that through ignorance you did it, as did also your rulers. Why did he do that? Why did you soften it a little bit? Now, he didn't compromise it. There's a big difference. He used grace. It would be like going out and You're preaching Jesus and you're trying to bring people conviction of sin and you're trying to let them see they need a Savior. And you see somebody that's in sin and you deal with their sin. They're professing Christ or whatever. They say, I'm good. And so you're trying to show them that you're not good. You need Jesus Christ. And you begin to deal with them about their sin. And they're getting angry and they're flustered. And many times you can walk over, and I've done this many times downtown, and praise God that many people have responded. They've been angry at what a preacher said to them or something. And then you walk over, you say, can I talk to you about this a little bit? Look, you know, your father never taught you these things. And your parents never taught you these things. You've been denied strong, sound teaching that you should have had as a child. And I'm not trying to patronize or look down upon people, but we're just trying to help you see some things that God wants you to see that you've never been taught. And you know what? So many times they either get a tear in their eye, or especially girls, and they start understanding that somebody's trying to help me here. You're trying to keep me from getting into trouble. You're trying to help. And it's very important. And I think that's what Peter did. He says, listen, I know you didn't understand. I know you were blind. I know you were deceived. Even the Lord on the cross said they know not what they do. So when we preach against sin, there are many who just don't know. You need to call sin, sin, but we need to have some grace and say, I know you haven't been taught this. I know the churches aren't teaching it. I know we've lost it in America today. I know you grew up without understanding these things. Isn't that grace? You understand that? It'll do wonders to our preaching. And I believe we got it right here from the Bible. Amen. So it's neither here nor there. You've got one side that says, don't preach on sin. See, they don't understand the Bible. But you've got the other side that can go too far, and all they do is preach on sin. There's no grace. And what did Paul say? He said, put grace. Put some salt upon your words. Season with salt. Season with that grace. And that's what Peter did. He seasoned his sermon. Isn't that wonderful? I'm not going to compromise my sermon, says Peter, but I'm going to season it a little bit. And that's what he did. Abbott says, observe the gentleness as well as fidelity with which Peter reproves this sin. Barnes says, Peter shows the tenderness of his heart in addressing them. It would have been easy to have reproached them. He had indeed stated and proved their wickedness. The object now was to bring them to repentance for it. Burkett says how careful the apostle was not to drive these murderers of Christ and consequently the worst of men to despair. Peter goes on to tell them to repent, be converted, Jesus is coming. He shows that Jesus was predicted in the scriptures and gives a strong warning. You know, he's talking to people that believe in the Old Testament. That's important. You've got to know who your audience is. Amen? And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear the prophet shall be destroyed from among the people. So he does give a warning. He opens up the Old Testament and says the Bible predicted Jesus would come. And I need to tell you, it also said whoever does not hear Jesus will be destroyed from among the people. That's a good warning, wasn't it? Well, you know what the leaders did? Some of the people responded, but the leaders walked over. They arose and they imprisoned the apostles. They imprisoned the apostles. This takes us to chapter 4. And now we get to see Peter handle the stubborn leaders. Listen now. We get to see Peter handle the stubborn leaders. We saw him deal with the people. He's playing, but he has grace. But now we get to see Him deal with the leaders. They're persecuting Peter. It says in chapter 4, "...then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel, be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified..." He wasn't afraid to tell the leaders that they crucified Christ. He does the same exact thing He did with the people. Now I see two things. I see He's playing with the leaders. He didn't back down. But number two, He just goes on with his regular preaching. He says, I'll just deal with you like I dealt with you. And he's not being hard with these leaders. I believe because he has grace with him. I believe he says, you know what, maybe they'll repent. And you know what? When people come and persecute you, you don't have to immediately assume that they're going to just stay blinded. You know what? You can say, you know, maybe they're going to hear. I'm going to plead with them. I'm going to plead with these leaders that have come over to harass me. I'm going to plead with them just like I have pleaded with the people. Amen? Whom God hath raised from the dead, even by Him. Does this man stand here before you whole? This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other. That's good to preach, isn't it? There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. That's good preaching for this politically correct world. Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, that was boldness. You don't have to rail on people to be bold. Do you see that? Isn't this important? We just learned what boldness is. Get out there and tell them about Jesus, even though it's dangerous. Get out there and tell people that only Jesus is the way to salvation. You have to be bold to get out there and tell this world that, don't you? Y'all listening? And they perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant. Man, they marveled and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. And that's what we want to do. May we preach in such a way that they know that we've been with Jesus. So what do we see? He didn't deal with the people. He didn't deal with the leaders in a manner different than he dealt with the people. And I do believe this is grace. Peter's hoping they will hear. And finally, what we see in verse 29 is the whole church gets together and prays about the situation. We ought to pray about witnessing. Amen. We ought to pray about how people are receiving the Word of God. And notice how they pray. And this is a problem today. Churches are not even praying. Number one, that's the first problem. Number two, when they are praying, they're not praying about things that they ought to be praying about in the Bible. We'll talk about that this afternoon. But some stuff you ought to pray for at home. And when you come to church, there's other things you ought to pray for. You understand? Notice what they did. I'm not trying to make an absolute law about that, but I just want you to notice. Why don't we take the Bible as our pattern? Why don't we notice how they prayed in the Bible when they got together in church? In verse 29, it says, Now, Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word. What do they want? What's the church want? Hey, we're being persecuted. Lord, give us boldness. Give us boldness. They're messing with us downtown. Lord, give us what? Boldness. Give us boldness. Is it time to go home? Quit preaching? No. It's time to ask for boldness. Praise God for that. Praise God for that. That they may speak what? Reproaches and railings from our own flesh? Speak what? Speak thy word. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness. God granted their prayer. It seems that God likes that prayer. Amen. That's a prayer God likes. They didn't pray for flattery or politically correctness, but boldness, not unnecessary severity, not reproaching, but what? Boldness. Well, they went out there and preached. And the next thing you know, Peter's in prison. But an angel comes to him, releases him. And tells him, you better run, buddy. Is that what he said? No, that's not what he said. Look at chapter 5 of Acts, verse 20. Go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. You want me to go right back out there? Yeah, I'll let you go. I'll let you go. Now go back out there and do it again. Isn't that good? And he goes out there and in all the words of this life, hey, we got a message of life, right? In this culture of death, we have a message of life. Let's go give them life and let's not hold back. Let's give them all the words of this life. And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning and taught. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men, because they came out and said, what are you doing? We commanded you not to preach. And they said, well, you're not really the boss, are you? We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus. And then he gets right to the point here. He says, you want some more of it? I'll give you some more. You slew Jesus. You hung him on a tree. You crucified him. But Him that you crucified, God hath exalted." There he goes, lifting up Jesus again. Manifesting the resurrected, ascended Christ with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior. For to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. He's telling them that Jesus will forgive you of your sins. He is Lord. He is Savior. And when they heard that, they were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them. You know, there'll be successes, but don't you think that every time you preach, if people get angry that somehow you've done something wrong, Do we see this? They got very angry, didn't they? Some people are going to get angry. I just want people to be angry because of the Word of God and not because of our flesh. Amen? Now, let it be because of the truth told plainly and firmly and boldly in love. Peter, like all the other preachers and witnesses we've studied through the Bible, is direct. He's plain, but he has grace. He's plain and bold, but he has grace. And this is the goal as to our manner. As to the content of our message, we must preach Christ. We must preach the gospel. We must preach the resurrection. We must preach the coming judgment. And we must make sure that we tell this world these wonderful words of life that we have. Amen? Alright, in the first five chapters we saw how the apostles preached. Now let's see some deacons go street preaching. Amen? Let's see some deacons go street preaching. You ought to have soul winning deacons, amen? I tell you what, you ought to have a whole church full of soul winners. That's what it's all about, isn't it? That's what it's all about. And that's what we see in the book of Acts. They didn't sit around and say, well, I'm not a pastor, you know, I'm not going to go give the gospel. They didn't have that mentality. They just got out there and preached. Isn't that good? You can get many people saved. You can be used. All right, let's see Stephen begin to preach. It says in Acts chapter 6, Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines and Cyrenians and Alexandrians. And what were they doing? Disputing with Stephen. Disputing with Stephen. And that means Stephen was standing up, having a discourse with them, and he was correcting them where they were wrong. And so Stephen spent some time arguing the Bible. Not arguing in the flesh, but arguing the Bible. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and spirit by which He spake. That's a good testimony, isn't it? You ought to know the Scriptures. You ought to know the resurrection. You ought to know the prophecies. You ought to know why the Bible is true. You ought to be able to prove to somebody that this is the Word of God. And you ought to go through and show them in the Bible why they should believe the Bible and what they should believe. And they ought not be able to resist it. So what they had to do was they had to accuse Him of false witnesses. They rose up some false witnesses and they accused Him And they said, he's been telling us that Jesus is going to come and destroy this place. That shows that they probably had some exaggeration, but nevertheless, it shows that they were probably right. Stephen was giving them a warning. He said, this man that you crucify is Jesus, the Messiah, and he's going to come again and he's going to have a judgment that he's going to bring. Then he goes on, they bring him before the council, so let's see how Stephen is going to preach before the leaders. This is going to be interesting. Now he's dealing with that same crowd. Listen to me, listen. He's dealing with that same crowd John the Baptist dealt with, the Pharisees and Sadducees. He's dealing with that same crowd Jesus dealt with, the Pharisees and Sadducees. Now Peter's already tried to have grace with him. Peter, he didn't just look at them and say, you vipers. That's what John the Baptist did. He said, I'm going to have a little bit of grace because, you know, maybe they're sad that they crucified Jesus. Maybe I'll just tell them and the leaders will repent. And he gave them that opportunity. Now, Stephen's already seen they're not repenting. They're not repenting. That same crowd that Peter gave grace to, they're not repenting. So, Stephen gives them a Bible study. He says, walk with me through the Bible here for a minute. And he goes all the way through the Scriptures. He says, what do you see every single time? You see what God does and how do the people respond. And that's what he wants to teach them. So he says, men, brethren, fathers, hearken! And he gets to his point, gives him this long sermon throughout the Word of God, and then he brings it finally to the summary of his point. And he says in verse 51, Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before the coming of the Just One, of whom you have now been the betrayers and murderers. who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. And when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth. And what he did was he shouted out and said, Behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God, which was, he knew it was ultimate blasphemy in their eyes. He knew this would drive him crazy. But he said, anyway, you're going to kill me, buddy? I'm going to exalt Jesus. And he lifted up Jesus. And all of a sudden, God gave him that vision. And he said plainly what he saw. And they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord and stoned him to death. And you say, well, Stephen was quite severe. Yes, he was. But all I ask of you is this now. All I ask is, what crowd was he dealing with? Sadducees and Pharisees, who Peter had already been nice to, who had already decided, I'm going to murder you. And he went ahead and told them plainly, all you're doing is you're being just like Jesus said. You know, you're the children of those that slew the prophets. He's talking to that same crowd. He's talking to that same crowd. You see more severity in the Bible used with hypocritical, lying religious leaders who try to oppose the Word of God. You see more severity, don't you? And what I think that teaches us is we ought to have grace with our preaching. And we ought to be careful and make sure that we're not just using the same. Stephen didn't preach like that all the time. Even when dealing with the Jews in the synagogue, he didn't preach like that all the time. But when these leaders arose and messed up everything and came to hinder the gospel, he was stern with them, was he not? You know, Saul was a Pharisee who was there consenting to his death. And next we see Deacon Philip do some more Saul winning. So we're going to see another deacon get involved in this thing. It says in Acts 4, therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere. What were they preaching? Telling everybody that they had a good day yesterday. Telling everybody what they heard on the news. No, what are they doing? Preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and what did he preach? A priest preached Christ unto them. And there was great joy in that city. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran tither to him. You ought to run to go sow in him. And heard him read the prophet Isaiah and said, Understandeth thou what thou readest? You know what you need? This teaches me that you ought to be able to get off the gas pedal a little bit. You're sitting here preaching. You're preaching to a crowd. The Lord might say, Go talk to that fellow over there. Go over there and deal one-on-one with him. And I'm telling you, as a preacher, you have to know when to stop and lay off the gas pedal. You understand that? You ought to know how to pull over on the side of the road and have a Bible study. There's preaching, and I'll tell you what, there's some energetic, zealous preaching, but he didn't do that with this Ethiopian. He walked over to him and had a one-on-one conversation with him. And you ought to be able to have a one-on-one conversation. You don't need to be going to people's house and yelling at them and that type of thing, and sitting in their front yard, running up and down, red in the face in somebody's front yard. I mean, you ought to be able to have a conversation with somebody, right? You say, I just get too hot-headed. Well, you know what? You need some self-control. And there's no better way to practice self-control than to get out here and start practicing it. Amen? And start learning. Because if you have the truth, you don't have to get hot-headed. I know there's a time to deal with people, but I'm telling you that we ought to be able to sit down and have a conversation with people. Acts chapter 9, Saul gets saved. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples, and straightway he preached Christ. You say, well, I've been saved about 10 years. Pretty soon I'm going to learn to go soul winning. What in the world are you waiting on? Saul got saved and he immediately began to preach. The woman at the well got saved and she immediately went to go preach. What in the world are you waiting on? They started preaching the same day they got saved. What in the world is your problem? Amen? He straightway preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the what? Son of God. He's not in there railing on people. He said, I want to tell you about Jesus. And Saul increased them more in strength and confounded the Jews, proving that this is very Christ. You ought to be able to prove things from the Bible. And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him. Yeah, they'll do that. And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Grecians. But they went about to slay him. All right, same thing. He preaches the gospel, preaches Jesus, and they're not happy about it. Peter, after doing miracles, gets many saved. He's commanded to preach unto the Gentiles. But he sent it to some Gentiles who fear God. They want to know more. How will Peter deal with them? They're seeking, so he doesn't have to plow too hard. He says in verse 39 of chapter 10, we are witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews, whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Now, that's interesting, isn't it? He doesn't look at, even though everybody's guilty of the cross, he looks at these Gentiles and he says, I'm not going to really deal with that right now. They're already broken. They're already seeking. And so he goes and he tells these Gentiles, the Jews slew Jesus. The Jews slew Jesus. Him God raised up. He's talking about the Jews at Jerusalem. Him God raised up the third day and showed Him openly. He commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify. that it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead. To him give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. When Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. He didn't have to do much to get them saved, did he? He just had to say that it was Jesus that was prophesied to come. He's the Messiah. God's resurrected Him now to be the judge of the quick and the dead. And whoever believes in Him is going to receive remission of sin. They said, OK, I believe. All right. That's pretty easy. They got saved. He didn't have to be stern with them, did he? This is a much nicer sermon, isn't it? He didn't say you have taken by wicked. And some people, that's how we get folks. We have this idea that we got to go full throttle with everybody. And sometimes we're not mashing the gas pedal enough. So I'm saying let's get an idea of who we're talking to, what they need. And I think that's going to help us a lot. It's going to help us a lot. He said these people don't need a whole lot of stuff. They just need to be taught. Next we'll see Paul deal with a sorcerer who arises to withstand his preaching. Well, there's the deputy of the country in Acts 13, Sergius Paulus. He was a prudent man, says the Bible, who called for Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear the Word of God. So here's somebody that's hungry. He's an official in the land. He says, I want to hear more about Jesus. I want to hear more about what y'all are preaching. Wow, this is a wonderful opportunity. I bet they were as happy as could be. I bet they were just praising God. And they get there, and all of a sudden, Elymas the sorcerer, he's a Jew that was practicing magic. Withstood them seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith this old devil-possessed sorcerer gets up and right in the middle He starts saying that what these men are teaching is not true, and he starts doing all his Magic hocus-pocus mess, and I'm telling you I wonder how Paul's gonna deal with him I Wonder what Paul's gonna do with him now he doesn't get severe with the deputy I Do you see that? Paul doesn't run up to that deputy all red in the face, spitting all over the place, and say, you old sinner, you old wick. In other words, you know, this man's hungry and won't stay here. I'm going to sit down with you and have a Bible study. But then this other fella shows up. Some new age magician, sorcerer looking fella. And he comes over and starts opposing. Right when you show up, the devil's sending him right here when I'm about to tell this fella about Jesus. Isn't that something? I wonder how Paul's going to deal with him. Let's look at Acts 13, verse 9, "...then Saul, who is also called Paul, got into flesh." Does it say that? Well filled with the Holy Ghost set his eyes on him and said O full of all subtlety and all mischief thou child of the devil thou enemy of all righteousness will thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord and now behold a hand of the Lord is upon thee and thou shalt be blind not seeking the sun for a season and immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand then the deputy when he saw what was done believed But a bunch of other people walked over to Paul and said, you're not doing it right. I threw that in there, but it's probably happened. Now, what you see here is Paul used great severity that probably 80% of the Christians in America would say, Paul, you're just not doing it right. That was wrong. That was a terrible thing. You can't do that. All that garbage that they have because they've drunk from the cesspool of this world and they don't understand. Manliness and firmness. But what you see about Paul, and this is what I want you to get, Stephen didn't go into that synagogue and call everybody stiff-necked and murderers. You understand that? At least with the severity that he used with the Sadducees and Pharisees. And what you see here in Saul, or Paul, he did not use this type of language with the deputy. See, he was able to say, well, this person's seeking, But this person's not, and this person's hindering. And this is what I say, you want to see Christians get angry and severe? You want to see gospel preachers? You want to see Holy Ghost preachers get upset? You hinder the work of God. I tell you what, you start hindering the work of God, and they're convinced that you're going to continue to hinder it. I tell you what, they get sharp. They get sharp. They get sharp. But they're not sharp to everybody. Do you see the difference? Do you see the difference? We ought to have some patience. Alright. Then Paul stood up, beckoning with his hands, said, Men of Israel, ye that fear God, give audience. He goes into a synagogue of the Jews. He doesn't stand up and say, you children of Satan. No, he walks into the synagogue, stands up, and says, anybody here that fear God? If anybody here fear God, I want to give you some truth right now. He assumes, given them the benefit of the doubt, that they might be in Judaism because they don't know any better. They haven't heard the gospel. You know what? We need to understand that. There's some people that may have never heard, and we need to go just give them the truth and assume that maybe they want to hear it. They just don't know any better. He preaches David from the Old Testament, says Jesus is David's seed. Begins to talk about the coming of Christ the ministry of John the Baptist and he says in verse 26 men and brethren children of the stock of Abraham and whosoever among you feareth God to you is this word of this salvation sent For they that dwell at Jerusalem and the rulers because they knew him not nor yet the voices of the prophets They have fulfilled them and condemning him now. This is interesting He's not in Jerusalem So he goes to Jews in a synagogue somewhere else, and he says, they over in Jerusalem crucified Christ. And he's aware that we all corporately, in one sense, because of our sin, but he doesn't deal with them in that way. He doesn't tell them that you with wicked hands have crucified Christ, even though they were Jews and even though it was a synagogue. He goes over here, and he says, you know, they crucified Him, but I'm here to just tell you about Jesus. Look at him in verse 32, we declare unto you what type of tidings. Glad-tiding I want to tell you Jesus is the Messiah how that the promise which was made unto the fathers Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preaching you the forgiveness of sins Now he does give warnings beware therefore Lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets behold ye despisers and wonder and perish so he says don't be one of these despisers but I assume you fear God and I want to give you the glad tidings that Jesus died for your sins. I tell you what, he's not as firm as Peter was with the Jews in Jerusalem. You see that? So that shows us we can go around and we can preach to people and assume maybe they fear God. They just don't know any better. And you're not going to slide sin under the rug. I'm not telling you to do that. I'm not telling you to compromise. But we can understand that everybody doesn't need to be dealt with with full throttle. You understand? And unless they're showing opposition and hard heartedness, you just give them the warnings, you give them the gospel and you're nice to them. You got grace. Paul had grace. And that's wonderful. Uh, the Gentiles that are among the Jews who had converted to Judaism, they want to hear more about this. But, uh, the next time they came together and the whole city almost was present. And when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold. Okay, let's see what boldness is. They just say, it was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you, but seeing you put it from you, judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life. Lo, we turn to the Gentiles. They shook off the dust of defeat against them and came into Iconium. The disciples were filled with joy with the Holy Ghost. So boldness was simply saying, hey, I tried to give it to you. God wants you to get saved. But hey, maybe somebody else will be more hungry than you are. Bye bye. And they leave. That was boldness. That was boldness. And that's important. They didn't rail. They let them know that light will be given to others who are interested. It says in chapter 14, long time therefore a bold they speaking what? Boldly in the Lord. Now the Gentiles come out. And they see Paul and Barnabas and they see all that preaching and all of these miracles. And they call Barnabas Jupiter and Paul Mercurius because he was the chief speaker. And they start preparing to do sacrifices and worship them, which when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of, they rent their clothes and ran in among the people crying out and saying, sirs, why do you do these things? We also are men of like passions with you. Now, listen to what he does to the Gentiles and preach unto you, preach unto you, Gentile, that you should turn from these vanities into a living God, which made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are therein. I put that in here so you can see that sometimes a bunch of pagan Americans need to be told to turn from the vanities that they are worshipping. And it's not wrong to go among people that are worshipping money and say you ought to turn from what you're worshipping. You ought to turn from this worship of materialism in America. You ought to turn from what you're worshipping and worship the true God. You ought to turn from these new age stuff that you worship in, and all of this mess, and we ought to worship God. It's all vanity. These false gods didn't make heaven and earth. You ought to turn to the real God. But always give them the good news, right? Give them the good news. Well, the Jews finally stir up the Gentiles, and they end up stoning Paul, leaving him for dead. Paul just gets up and goes back soul-winning. Now, chapter 16, on the Sabbath, we went out of the city by Riverside where prayer was wanting to be made, and we stood up on the corner, and I tell you what, we upbraided those women, we gave them everything, we took turns preaching at them, and we just... Now, is that what they did? No. They went and sat down by the river. You know why? Because women were there, and they were women that were going to pray. See, you choose. Whatever ground you have, determines what type of tools you use, what type of firmness. And notice, they were seeking women. There was no need to upbraid the ladies. They're prayed. They just don't know about Jesus. They're doing the best they can. So they go and sit down and begin leading them to the Lord. One-on-one evangelism. And Lydia gets saved. Paul gets vexed by a woman with an evil spirit for many days and he puts up with it for many days and finally casts it out. That just shows the patience that they have. You understand? So Paul and Silas get thrown in jail and they sing and there's an earthquake and the jailer gets saved in his house. And then they gently but plainly tell him to believe on the Lord Jesus. He's already trembling. So they use compassion. They don't break a bruised reed. What do you see in these women and in the jailer? You don't see strong preaching. You don't see you stiff-necked murderers. You don't see that type of thing. You don't see you vipers, you serpents of hell. You don't see that. Because these people just simply want to know. The women want to know. They're seeking. The jailer wants to know. When people want to know, get off the gas pedal, deal with them one-on-one and be nice. It's not wrong to be nice. I think we can get a lot of people saved if you learn to be nice. Don't be like one of these people that somebody can't even talk to you. Learn to be able to be contradicted and be nice. Will this help you? It'll help you. Practice with your Christian brothers and sisters. Learn how to have a disagreement and not let everybody in the room know you're disagreeing. Acts 17, Paul teaches in some other synagogues, opening and alleging that Christ's knees must have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ, and some of them believe. He just went in there and said, hey, the Old Testament taught about Jesus. Can I show you? Isn't that beautiful? Then you've got the Bereans, which were Jews, and he praises them for searching the Scriptures. They say, I'm not just going to believe you. I want to look in the Old Testament and see if this is true. And Paul says, well, you are noble. Paul says, I appreciate you looking in the Bible. That's the very thing I want you to do. Now while Paul was waiting in Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he looked over at these Gentiles and saw the whole city given to what? Idolatry. We know up above that they preached against idolatry, didn't they? Therefore disputed he in the synagogues with the Jews and with the devout persons and in the market daily with them that met with him. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill. He said, you men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you're too superstitious. It's not wrong to go tell a bunch of new-agers that they're too superstitious. It's not wrong to go tell a bunch of pagans that think they're smart that they're too superstitious. You're following a whole bunch of just myths and things, you know. For as much then, and I tell them that too. I say, man, you've been sitting on smoking marijuana, watching Zeitgeist on YouTube, and you need to understand you have not been taught the Word of God. Tell them. Tell them. They think they're smart. They think they're smarter than you. Show them in the Word of God that you're just drinking the Kool-Aid. For as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is likened to gold or silver or stone. He says, can I reason with you, fellas? If we are made, then whatever made us has to be greater than us. Well, that's a good point, isn't it? So he preaches to them Jesus. He preaches them the resurrection. And they call him a babbler. They begin to mock him. So you know what Paul did? He just left them. He said, well, I tried. I told you to quit being a heathen and this pagan. worshiped stuff and tried to tell you about Jesus, you didn't want to listen, so he left them. Acts 18, when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the Spirit, testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ, and when they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, said unto him, Your blood be upon your own heads. That was always his response. You know, and Jesus said that when you go house to house, if they don't want to hear it, He said, just leave. Okay, I was going to give you peace. I was going to give you a blessing. I was going to tell you about the Word of God and about Jesus. You don't want to hear it? They just leave, take their shoe, Wipe the dust off and go on down the road. And Paul did that. He didn't chase them down the road, you know what I mean? Now, if you think they're going to listen to you and they're talking to you, then walk with them wherever. But my point is, when people are plainly saying, I don't want to hear, and you've tried to plead with them, you've tried to do everything you can, you know, let's find somebody else to witness to, amen? Find somebody else. He simply goes elsewhere. Next we see Apollos. Oh, Apollos, Acts 18, he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. And when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them and expounded on him the way of God more perfectly. You know what this shows me? This shows me you can have boldness, but not really understand everything. I think there's a lot of bold preachers in America. But I think some of them need to have the Word of God explained more perfectly. Some of them aren't really even preaching the Gospel, you know? And they need to learn the Gospel. But you know, Aquila and Priscilla were glad for their boldness. And when you hear a preacher that doesn't just quite understand, but you see him bold, we ought to appreciate it. And we ought to say, I want to go see if he'll hear and show him the Word of God more perfectly. For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was... Was he embarrassed about Jesus? Was he ashamed of Jesus? No, that's boldness. Paul finally tries again with some Jews. He just can't stop. He says, I'm going to try one more time. It says in chapter 19, he went into the synagogue and spake boldly for the space of three months. He didn't hide Jesus, did he? Disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. It's not wrong to dispute, as long as you don't get in the flesh. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsman. And what do they say about Paul? The pagans get stirred up again. Moreover, you see and hear that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, says this pagan, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods which are made with hands. And Paul would have entered into the people, but the disciples suffered him not. They had a big old town meeting in the theater, and they all began to holler and chant and yell. This fellow stood up and says, they're preaching throughout all of Asia that you ought to turn away from these gods saying they are no gods, which are made with hands. And Paul said, let me in there. I'll tell you what I want to witness. Let me in there. I want to tell them all. And they grabbed him and says, no, that'd be foolish. And, you know, we can't let you go in there. But hey, you find out what Paul preached. He went around preaching to pagans that that's not a God. That's not a God. This isn't God. But he didn't do it to be mean. He did it to say, look, how can this thing, you know, you go in a Hong Kong market, how can this big fat Buddha be a God? How can he be? How can he be? And if you see somebody say, now, if you've got a heartbeat and you're living and you can talk, can he talk? He can't talk. So that means you created him. He didn't create you. Now we see Paul brought before governors. You know what we see in Paul? Exactly what we saw with Moses, what we saw with David, what we saw with Daniel, what we saw with Nehemiah. All throughout, we see this graciousness. Listen to how he deals with them. Remember, even John the Baptist reproved the king, but he didn't go off on a tangent, you know. It says in Acts 24 before these governors that Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come. And Felix trembled and answered, Go thy way for this time. Isn't that good? We ought to be able to reason with civil leaders. That was boldness, wasn't it? Let me reason with you about these things. And then look at chapter 26, verse 2. This is very interesting. I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee, touching all things whereof I am accused of the Jews, especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions. Now, that's not flattery. He's praising whatever he can praise. He's saying, you know, it really is a privilege to get to talk to you because I know you've studied Judaism and I know you really try to understand what's going on in the land. And these kings were not godly men. You understand that. These leaders. So he goes and he's very kind, very gracious with this king. And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself. Much learning doth make thee mad. That's an insult, isn't it? That's an insult to have Festus up here mocking like that and hindering. Now, he could have got pretty angry at old Festus, but he gives him a chance, doesn't he? He says, I'm not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. What self-control? That was self-control, wasn't it? He wants to have good behavior between King Agrippa, doesn't he? And here he has these leaders, these governors mocking him. He was very restrained, very plain, very gracious, very courteous. But he doesn't sit back and say, yes, I am mad, I'm crazy. If you say so, I'm crazy. Is that what he did? No. He says, I'm not mad. I'm not crazy. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. That was some good stuff, wasn't it? I tell you what, Paul is showing you how to do it. A mixture of plain speaking with grace, kindness, without flattery and without compromise, boldly proclaim the truth. But keep yourself under control, respectful. The book of Acts closes with Paul witnessing to the Jews at Rome. Acts 28. And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed after that Paul had spoken one word. Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers. Saying, go into this people and say, hearing you shall hear and shall not understand and seeing you shall see and shall not perceive. For the heart of this people is wax gross. When they didn't listen to what Paul said, he walked in and he just said, you know what? The Bible prophesied that this is how it be. You finally see the book of Revelation as the last book of the Bible. You see some angels start preaching. Remember, we saw Michael the archangel preach? Oh, he didn't preach, but he contended against the devil. And he said, the Lord rebuked thee. He didn't rail upon Satan. And you see some angels preaching in the book of Revelation. And oh, I'll tell you what, they tell you fear God. And don't you take that mark? And they warn you about what's going to happen to you if you take the mark. They're clear. Warning is very important and consistent. As we conclude this whole study, from Genesis to the book of Revelation, we've marched through the Bible, everywhere we saw preaching, we highlighted it, and I hope now you have a better understanding of how to preach. I pray after five weeks that we all have a better understanding of what boldness is. And that we'll think about these things, and that we'll let this become a part of our ministry. Because I tell you what, what a blessing to have such a soul-winning church. What a blessing to have so many people that knock on doors, go to abortion clinics, get out here on the street, and tell people, and write letters, and email, and do everything you do to try to witness for people about Jesus. And if we can do it in a better way, If we can tighten up in some areas and be more effective, then that would sure be a blessing. But ultimately, we just want to be a good witness for God. And we want to do things the way God wants them done. So let's give warning. Let's do it with grace and kindness. And let's get stirred up about preaching and evangelizing. You know, Jesus died on a cross for our sins, right? Jesus Christ. prophesied in the Old Testament, right there in the book of Genesis, prophesied that he would come, that seed of the woman, and he would come and that his heel would be bruised. But pretty soon he's going to bruise the head of Satan. So the Bible prophesied that this Lamb of God would come and die on a cross for us, take away sin. Isn't that beautiful? That He would resurrect, be ascended to the right hand of God, and He would wait there until it's time to come, and we say, Come, Lord Jesus. And He said, You know what? Let them that hear say, Come. That's what the Holy Spirit says. Let him that heareth say, Come. So what does God want you to do? He wants you to be so happy and thankful that He saved us by His grace through faith alone. And He wants you to go tell others, come, come. That's our main message, isn't it? Come. Sometimes we've got to rebuke sorcerers who get in our way. Sometimes you get some stiff-necked Pharisees and Sadducees you've got to rebuke. But our main message is come. Come. Come. Praise the Lord. Brother Scott, if you'll play on the piano there for us. We're going to have a few moments that you can come up And just dedicate yourself to Jesus. Ask the Lord for boldness. Ask the Lord for grace. Ask the Lord for more kindness. Whatever God has spoken unto you throughout this series of messages, I pray you'll come and talk to the Lord about it. And I pray, just as they prayed in the book of Acts, and the Lord responded, the house was shaken, and He gave them what they asked for, I believe when you come, God will give you what you asked for. Let's come. Let's be better soul winners. May God bless us. May God bless us. You use this time. God wants to make you a vessel to His glory. May you be a vessel unto the Lord's glory. Oh, what mighty soul winners! Praise God for a church of soul winners. Lord, give us boldness. Give us courtesy, Lord. Kindness, compassion. Give us a love for souls. Give us a burden for sinners and their lost condition. Let us take the time to come out of ourselves and our own business to bear another man's burden, to deal with him about his lost condition, to teach others the way of God more perfectly and be willing to hear when we need to be called. Thank you for the revival, Lord, that we see in hearts in Kingdom Baptist Church. Oh, God, I believe you're going to do great things. If you hadn't got a part of it, you come get a part of it. The Lord wants to use you just as He used that woman at the well. You say, I'm not mighty in the scriptures yet. You know what Jesus did for you. Start there. Start there. Tell them what Jesus did for you. That's what the woman at the well did. Father, bless our lunch together. We love you in the name of Jesus. Amen.