Acts chapter 5, beginning in verse 17. Then the high priest rose up and all they that were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees, and were filled with indignation, and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said, Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning and taught But the high priest came and they that were with him and call the council together and all the Senate of the children of Israel and sent him to the prison to have them brought. But when the officers came they found them not in the prison and returned and told saying the prison truly found we shut with all safety and the keeper standing without before the doors. But when we had opened we found no man within. Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priest heard these things they doubted of them where into this would grow. Then came one and told him, saying, Behold, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Then went the captain with the officers and brought them without violence, for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest asked them, saying, Did we not straightly command you that ye should not teach in this name? And behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom he slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. We are his witnesses of these things. And so is also the Holy Ghost whom God has given to them that obey him. Father, we thank you today for this story. And thank you for the principles that it reveals to us who live today. Help us, Lord, to make the application of these truths to our own circumstances and to realize, indeed, that our first responsibility is to obey God. May we focus on it and be determined to do it. In Jesus name, Amen. If you have had time to read the little entry that we wrote for the bulletin today about the fact that we still have more freedom than we use, That really is the focus of my message tonight. Sometimes we'll read a text like this and we'll read a bold statement like Peter's where he said we ought to obey God rather than men. And we'll think all right now Peter's going to teach us when we get to disobey these people for whom we have so little respect. And we missed the point that Peter's emphasis is on obeying God. The emphasis he gives here is not we ought to obey God rather than you. He is telling the Sadducees we, apostles and Sadducees, ought to obey God. We ought to do what God says rather than be concerned about pleasing men or being motivated by the fear of man. These people certainly were. These Sadducees were very much afraid of losing their popularity, losing their influence, losing their position and their prestige in Israel and therefore their livelihood. Jesus Christ had overturned the money changers tables. Those tables were owned by the chief priest and his family. It was their personal income that was threatened and their position of influence that was being challenged. And the reason, among others, that they despised Christ so much was not just because he offered them a different message, but he preached a message that would have caused them to be thrown out of office. that was the reason they were so upset and so were the Sadducees, the leaders of the temple, frustrated with Peter and the other apostles as well. Now what you and I need to realize is that we are in a day when religious freedom is talked about a great deal. When the First Amendment to the Constitution, drafted by none other than John Adams under the influence of a Baptist preacher named John Leland, that First Amendment was not given to teach that people should never have alternative religion presented to them. It was not written to tell people that you can never mention God in a public place. It said that we have freedom of religion and no law shall ever be made respecting that religion or the free exercise thereof. That doesn't mean that the government has to do everything in its power to make it difficult for people to have faith in Christ. And freedom of religion doesn't mean freedom from God. But as a result of this lengthy debate that's taken place, especially in the 20th century, even a lot of Christian people have the idea that religious freedom is a privilege granted by the state when it's no such thing. Religious freedom is granted by God himself. And in our Declaration of Independence, we declared that men are created equal and endowed by their creator. with certain inalienable rights. There are some rights that we have that were given to us by God. And we have given certain rights to our government. The primary purpose of the government is to protect us from enemies without and within so that we can practice those convictions that we have given to us as rights by God. But unfortunately today, government seems to have taken on a whole new role They have usurped from the family the responsibility for education. They have usurped from the churches the responsibility of caring for the needy among us. And they have taken on themselves all sorts of responsibilities today which give them greater power than our founding fathers ever intended for them to have. The recent court case in Texas, very interesting ruling and of course the ruling in Michigan as well. And the Supreme Court has changed law. They have changed the meaning of the Constitution. And we are in grave danger in the future as a result of these recent decisions. In fact, one justice wrote that for now, where we are in this particular state of development in our country, we need this particular law, speaking of the affirmative action as well as the thing of marriage and so on among people of the same sex. So we need that. Now, in another 25 or 30 years, It might mean something different and America might be ready for us to lay these laws aside. Isn't that an interesting concept that our Supreme Court should say when the founding fathers wrote this document. This is what they meant. Now 25 years from now they might mean something different. You see the folly of that. We have now judicial activism in place that is telling us what the Constitution means. In contrast to the clear meaning of language and if you read the writings of our fathers, our founding fathers, you know exactly what they meant because they wrote extensively on those things which they put in our founding documents. Now our courts are telling us that those documents mean something totally opposite of what our founding fathers intended for them to mean. That's a sad thing. It's a tragic thing and the results are all around us. What we see in our society today is the result of a God-fearing nation being deceived into thinking that freedom from religion means that God can no longer participate in the marketplace of ideas. And, of course, we now have philosophies in place that could never have built this great nation and can certainly not sustain this great nation. What we need is revival, and revival not just of religion. We need genuine God sent revival where nations are turned to the Lord, where our whole nation is affected, where people get saved and seek to line their lives up with the truths of the word of God. Now, we ought not to be looking for opportunities to poke the giant of government in the eye with a sharp stick. But on the other hand, we need to know what our responsibilities are to God. The sad truth in the lives of many Christian people today is that they are far more concerned about not obeying the things they disagree with, instead of obeying the things that God has made clear. And I really believe that one of the reasons we're losing so many of our freedoms is because we're not taking advantage of them. We have the freedom to do a lot of things that we just don't want to do, not because we enjoy the liberty that we have in America, but because we think we're not obligated to God. Christian people have some serious obligations to God. The Great Commission is not just a good idea. It's why we're here. It's why God left us on this earth after he saved us. And if we ignore the God-given responsibility to proclaim the truth to every creature, why should God give us the liberty to continue to ignore it? That's the question we have to ask ourselves. Sometimes Christians come to think that our freedom to practice Christianity is no different than the political freedom that others have to practice false religion or no religion at all. We come to think of Christianity as just one alternative among many. Where'd that idea come from? That's not Christian thought. That's secular thought. They don't mind tolerating Christianity so long as we keep it to ourselves. You can't believe Christianity and keep it to yourself. We're not talking here about one religious system for us compared to thousands of religious systems for others. And we have what we believe and they have what they believe. It's not that way at all. There are only two religions in the world. There is the truth and there is the lie. The truth is right here in this book and the lie is everywhere else. The truth has one form. It's called Bible-believing Christianity, and the lie has thousands of forms, but the common denominator in all those various forms of the lie is that they are opposed to the idea that God alone saves us through Jesus Christ alone. They offer you every alternative that you can imagine for saving yourself if you even need to be, but Jesus Christ is the only way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by Him. And if you and I really believed that, I think we'd be busier about telling folks about it. I really do. I think we would have dedicated our lives to doing whatever is necessary to get the gospel out to other people. We have some people who are in this room that very shortly will be on the mission field and others that are growing up here in our congregation who someday will go out and serve God, Lord willing, if the Lord dares. But that does not exempt the rest of us. from living our lives as witnesses for the Lord. And Peter and the other apostles knew that. We're hearing today the same thing these men heard. You can't do that in public. Really? God says not only that we can, but that we must. And if you and I would obey God, we'd have less to worry about in our country, because the only solution is to have more God-fearing people, electing people, who can get some decent judges appointed so our country can come back to its roots. Now, honestly, folks, if we don't see that happening, if we don't get the right kind of people in office who will break this logjam and quit making abortion the litmus test of whether or not anybody's qualified to be a judge, we're going to end up with a worse Supreme Court than the one we've got now. and these people are going to be redefining the truth and america is in serious trouble as a result of it so what's that what's the answer is it to go out and become a political activist and try to get everybody that we can devote republican that always hasn't always worked as it there's some good men in high office we still have these problems the thing is we need more saved people in america If we had the same percentage of people who were God-fearing when our country was founded today, we wouldn't be having a lot of this nonsense. Therefore, what's the answer? The answer is evangelism. The answer is taking these people who are blind to truth and showing them the truth of the gospel, getting saved and getting their thinking straightened out. That's the only hope. And that's why I say America and the world needs revival. I know that there will be a falling away before the Lord comes. But I don't want to participate in it. I don't want to encourage it. Do you? I don't want to be a part of it. I want to go down with a fight if we're going to go down. I hope you do too. And God's still in the saving business. Many of the things that I'm saying to you tonight could have been said about this country when I got saved. But I'm thankful that somebody witnessed to me and brought me to Christ. Aren't you? Well, let's look at our text tonight. If you have to choose, you ought to obey God rather than men. But you know what? You do have to choose with respect to whether you're going to obey God at all or not. Three truths from our text tonight, and the first is this. The servants of Christ must understand why they face opposition. And that they're going to face opposition. In verses 17 through 21, The reason that we face opposition is not just because they're opposed to us, but they're opposed to the Christ whom we represent. The Lord told us this would happen. The servant is not greater than his Lord. They've hated me. They'll hate you also. They've kept my saying they'll keep yours also. The reason that people are so opposed to what you and I believe tonight is because they are opposed to God himself. They were opposed to the gospel. They were opposed to Jesus Christ. They don't want anybody telling them what to do. They don't want anyone telling them how to live. They don't want anyone putting on them a sense of guilt and responsibility for their sin. They want to be left alone. They think freedom means freedom from responsibilities that they do not desire. The freedom to do what we want. And that has never been what freedom is all about. Freedom is the liberty to do what we ought. Not the freedom from doing what we should, but what we should do. Now, here's the reality about those of us who are serving the Lord. Just as it was in the text here, some will be imprisoned. In other words, some are going to be restrained and held back from doing what God has called us to do. And that's a reality. We have heard in our own lifetimes of people who have been imprisoned for their faith. There are countries in this world today where it is a capital offense to convert to Christianity. where it's a capital offense. You can have your life taken from you for evangelizing about Jesus Christ. We're not talking about the dark ages, we're talking about tonight in certain places in the world. Now that incenses us. Well, I can't believe there'd be a country where people would execute others for trying to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Well, let me ask you a question. Which is worse? That there are countries where people can be executed for presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ or that there are countries where the people who claim to believe in Jesus Christ never evangelize. Let's be honest about it. If we're not taking advantage of the liberty and the freedom that we have, why should we ask for more of it? Why should we expect to be given more of it? R.L. Dabney. professor of moral philosophy at the University of Texas in his later years, but during the Civil War, Stonewall Jackson's chaplain said, if the pilot be blind and the rudder be broken, it is not meat that we should pray for stronger winds. Do you understand what he was saying? And that's where we are sometimes. If we have no idea where we're going or no idea how we're going to get there, let's don't pray to go there faster. Sometimes what you and I want is the excitement of the ride and not a real understanding of the destination. We just want to have a good time while we're doing it instead of really realizing what our commission is. Why were these people thrown in prison? Look at verse 17. The high priest rose up and all they that were with him. Notice again who it is. Our old cronies here, the Sadducees. Those who didn't believe in any resurrection. Those who were so jealous of the Pharisees. because they had more influence among the people because they taught a resurrection. And now these Christians have come along and they are not only preaching a doctrine which they despise, they are preaching that doctrine about a man they themselves had put to death. How would you like to be someone who taught that resurrection was not true and then have somebody show up and start preaching that somebody that you executed for preaching it has actually been raised? Can you see the irony in that? And that's why it says they were filled with indignation. And that word means envy. They were filled with envy. They were jealous of the Pharisees. They were jealous of the Christians. They were angry and frustrated and they wanted to keep the people under control. And the only way that we can keep control is to put a stop to this here and now. You know, they'd already thought and tried to do that with Christ. What a clever idea. Here's what we'll do. We'll just turn the Romans against him, turn the people against him, we'll have him crucified and that'll be the end of that. And then the third day he came out of the tomb. You talk about a dilemma and the frustration these folks must have felt. And so they laid their hands on them and put them in the common prison. Didn't lock them away somewhere in their own place. They just put them where all the other felons were. All the other murderers and robbers. Now, they were just going to hold them there for a night, probably, because the Sanhedrin planned to meet the next morning. They were going to get that one right. They'd embarrass themselves terribly by holding an illegal trial in the middle of the night, which was also forbidden in their law. So we're going to get this one right. Let's make sure we do all the details here. And we'll get these guys together in the first of the morning, and we'll decide what to do with them as soon as it's light. So they imprisoned them. And some books today will be imprisoned for their faith. But all will be empowered. Look at verse 19 and follow, but the angel of the Lord. Now the word thee is literally an angel of the Lord. We don't have to assume that this is the Lord himself or it's an angel, just an angel of the Lord came by night, opened the prison doors and brought them forth. That's going to happen to Peter again. In fact, if you're following the daily Bible reading, you read this morning about the story where when the apostles or the disciples were praying for Peter, the angel came and woke him up and took him out of the prison. But this is the first experience he and the others were there. And this angel came and opened the doors and brought them forth. And he didn't just say, now, you don't have to worry about being in prison anymore. Go on your way. No, he didn't let them out of prison so they could just enjoy not being in prison. He said, go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. Now, those words do not sound significantly different than the words we read in our commission, do they? Go, stand and speak. Go and present the gospel. That was not an optional suggestion. It was a command. I'm going to let you out of prison, and I want you to go right back down there to the temple square and preach the gospel to the people. You and I have been let out of prison, as it were, freed from the bondage of our own sin and given a commission. Have you ever wondered why the Lord didn't just take us to heaven the instant we got saved? Come up hither right then at that moment. Why did he leave us here to fail him so horribly? Did he leave us here so we can enjoy the beauty of creation? So we can accumulate material possessions for our children to fight over when we die? Why did he leave us here? He left us here to do what he did while he was here. He left us here to go tell others what we know. And there's no purpose for our being on this earth drawing life, drawing breath, if we're not interested at all in doing the very thing that he gave us the opportunity to do. Go and disciple the nations, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. And one of the things we're supposed to preach is that you're supposed to preach. Go and tell others about Christ. Nobody can stop you from being a witness of what's happened to you. Nobody can really stop you from praying. Everybody says, well, you know, they've outlawed prayer in public schools. Let me tell you something. As long as there are exams, there will be prayer in the public schools. You can't keep people from praying and you really can't keep people from witnessing either. But sadly, the government doesn't have to keep Christians from witnessing. They're doing a good job of that by themselves. And that's to our shame, isn't it? Well, he said, go in the same way that these Sadducees were motivated by their jealousy and their envy. The apostles were motivated by their responsibilities. They knew they had to do this when they heard that they entered into the temple early in the morning and taught. All right, we'll do it. An angel is going to let me out of prison. I'm going to go do what he says. That was their attitude. And the first opportunity they had, they went down there and began to preach and teach. The truth is, we're more indignant about losing our freedom to do what we want than we are abusing the freedom to do what we ought. Aren't we? If you haven't had an opportunity to read the little thing we wrote in the bulletin today about we still have more freedom than we use, I think you ought to read it. Our freedoms are eroding around us for lack of use. Because if we would really take advantage of the freedom that we have, to tell others about Christ, I believe more people would be saved. And the more people that we have in this country and around the world that are saved, the more godly in general life could be. Do you agree with me that evangelism is a better answer than just trying to get a conservative elected to public office? I think it is. I'm convinced it is. But we don't live like it is, do we? We really don't. We want to be free to do what we want to do. And if what we want to do is to practice Bible-believing fundamental Christianity, as long as we have the freedom to do that, it doesn't matter whether anybody else knows the truth or not. You've got to ask yourself what kind of Christianity it is that lets you be silent about what you believe. Something's seriously wrong with that thinking. There's another truth here. It's in verses 21, the last part, through verse 28. Not only are the servants of Christ facing opposition, but the enemies of Christ must undertake ways to furnish that opposition. It's who they are. It's what they do. We ought not to be surprised about it. You know, a lot of people talk about how our country is in such terrible shape because the wicked people are so wicked. I really don't think that's why it is. I think the reason our country is in the shape it's in is because the believers are so wicked. Honestly. It's because God's people are so silent and so confused on these issues. Lost people are going to act like lost people. We ought not to be surprised. And the degradation and depravity in which they live is just characteristic of their nature. But you and I who have a new nature ought to live differently. We ought to have different desires, we ought to have a different focus, we ought to have different interests, don't you think? And yet we become so much like the world that we really don't have much impact on the world. 21 goes on to say, but the high priest came and they were with him and called the council together and all the Senate. That means the elders, the older people in Israel, all the Senate of the children of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought. All right, we're going to have our assembly. We're going to put these guys on trial. We're going to find out what we have to do to put it into this. So they all get together. And there they were. And boy, did they have a dilemma. And the dilemma of the Sadducees is always typical of the enemies of God. In their assemblies, they're always going to take the first opportunity they can to find some way to hinder the truth. Some of you have been to, or maybe even are from, California. You know, it's not just the weather that comes from the West Coast. It's the philosophies that come from the West Coast, too. And they just move across the country like a storm. And if you had any idea of some of the things that people in California are having to listen to and believe from their elected officials today, it would frighten you. I mean, the liberalism is bad enough, but the perversity and the degradation which is being institutionalized out there is shocking. And don't worry, it takes weather about a week to get across the country. It takes philosophies about 10 years to get across the country. It'll be here before you know it. The good old conservative South, the last bastion of freedom. is not immune to some of this nonsense. And we're going to have to deal with it. Sooner or later, we ought to pray for folks out there. Thank God for these young folks who are going out there to plant churches. That's the right response. But here they were in their assembly looking for a way, just like the psalmist said, and Peter, of course, referred to that already here in the book of Acts. Why do the heathen rage and the people take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointing, saying, let us break his bands of thunder and cast his cords from us. We're going to have him rule over us. We're going to do what we want to do. Still going on. Look at their astonishment though. Verse 22, When the officers came and found them in the prison, they returned and said, and told, saying, The prison truly found me shut with all safety, the keeper standing without behold before the doors. Nobody had broken in. That says earlier, of course, that the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors. That doesn't necessarily mean that he physically went through the guards and all that, but somehow he let them out is the idea. He may have opened those doors physically. I don't know, but he restrained the keepers from knowing about it. If you think the keepers and the guards at the door had watched the angel open the doors and the fellows walk out, you think they'd still be standing there? They didn't know those men weren't in there. And when the doors were open, they were shocked as anybody else. When we had it open, we found no man within. And think of the perplexity and the confusion and the dilemma. When the high priest, the captain of the temple, the chief priest heard these things, they doubted of them. They were perplexed is what that means. They didn't know what to do. Now, what are we going to do? I mean, these fellows are not only teaching and preaching something that's really not helpful to us, they're working miracles. And when we put them in jail, God himself is working miracles on their behalf. And you would think that if people are faced with such evidence of the power of God, that they would be humbled. But you and I need to understand that there are some people that are impervious to truth. I think that's one of the things about which many Christians are naive. They think that if they can just show people the evidence, why they'll change their mind. Not everybody. There are some people who are so committed to their sin, it wouldn't make any difference what you said to them. Is that not what Abraham told the rich man? If they believe not Moses and the prophets, they will not believe the one were sent from the dead. Remember that? Listen, if a person's made up his mind, he doesn't believe this book. He's not going to believe the truth regardless of how you give it to him. That is what is so wrong today with compromised Christianity. It fails to take that fact into account. There are so many people out there today who think, well, you know, if we would just be careful not to offend anyone when we give them the gospel, if we would just be nice and just package it properly and put it in the music and in the mood of the day, people would hear it. The seeds of the gospel would get through the cracks in their armor. It would take root and grow and the people would change and everything would be wonderful. You see, the problem with that idea right there is it is completely naive about the depravity of man. It fails to take into account that people hate God, and they hate the truth, and they have no intention of listening to it. They're like the fellow in the old joke, don't confuse me with the facts, I've got my mind made up. That's the way they are. They don't want to hear it. They don't care what's right and wrong. They have already got their mind made up. They have adopted their religious philosophy because it allows them to do what they want to do. They think they're objective. They think we are emotional and subjective. But they will not honestly analyze the truth of God and make a rational decision about it. They're beyond that. There are apostates in the world. There are people who send away their day of grace, as Oliver Greene used to say. And you're not going to influence those people, regardless of how much truth you give them. And you've got to be prepared to face that kind of thing. But that doesn't mean we ought never to tell anybody, because there are some people whose wills are so hard, they're like Pharaoh. If we'll be faithful, there are some people out there who will be saved. Honestly, if you could have known me before I got saved, I was the kind of person I don't like to witness to now. Really, I was argumentative, I was sarcastic. I thought I was very clever in all of my responses that I could give to folks. I've told you before, when the gospel tract was handed to me by the young man on my crew, I took it and read it for one reason and one reason only, and that was to make fun of it. And while I was reading it, I was thinking of all my smart aleck responses and how clever I was going to be and how I'd get all the guys on the dispatch truck where we were working there on the flight line, I was going to get them all laughing. The thing I didn't count on was the conviction of the Holy Spirit. At the same time I was preparing all of my smart aleck remarks, the Holy Spirit had some remarks of his own. And I heard, not in an audible voice, but with a realization that was undeniable, thou art the man. And I handed the gospel tract back to the fellow. He didn't take it. But I offered it to him and I said, you know, I think I believe that. I had no intention to say that when I started reading it. What am I saying? You never know how people are going to respond. You've got to be prepared for some people to be very upset with you. But you also need to take confidence in the fact that some people can get saved when you give them the gospel. Some people's hearts are prepared in ways you would have no idea. I've found that to be true over and over again. When I've witnessed to somebody and I was just bracing myself that, you know, he's going to really come back at me. I mean, people that I never expected a good response from, who've been tender and broken and have thanked me for sharing it with them. How faithless must I be to have that kind of expectation? And you know what I'm talking about? Have you ever had that happen to you? I remember one of my high school reunions one time, and I made up my mind I was going to witness to some of those guys I used to be scared of. One guy, this guy could play basketball. I mean, he was, he was, he was incredible. He was just, he wasn't like a human. He was like some kind of a gazelle or something. I mean, the guy could just jump forever and do things with that basketball that were amazing. We got back to reunion and I found that his life was in shambles. He'd been married twice. He was with another lady at the time, working in a shoe factory. And I thought, you know, I'm a witness to him. I asked the Lord to give me an opportunity. And we sat down there and we found each other near. And I walked to him and said, hey, how are you doing? He said, I don't know. Well, it can be expected, I guess. He said, what are you doing these days? I said, you know, I'm a preacher. He said, you are. And we began to talk. I gave him the gospel. He didn't get saved that night, but he did say this to me. Let's come back to Kentucky and start a church. I'll go to your church. We talk about something I'd never expected to hear. Well, I didn't go back and I haven't seen him for many, many years, but I sure didn't expect that kind of a response. You and I are not to determine who to witness to based on the expectation of a response. We're to go and witness to everybody that will listen. And don't be surprised when somebody gets their life changed, when somebody gets saved. These fellas just went in there and began to preach, even though there were enemies. And these enemies were astonished. They were dismayed. Truth had no effect on them. They knew this was a miracle of God. These guys couldn't pull this off unless God was involved. And that's why this phrase, they doubted of them, where into this would grow. In other words, they began to get scared that they were dealing with something they couldn't control. That's what that means. We can't do anything about this. I mean, God might be in this. Now what are we going to do? And they were in a dilemma. They were perplexed. And when it says they doubted of them where into this would grow, they were not so perplexed about the miracle. That was clear. They were perplexed about what it meant. I wonder if maybe one or two or even a few might have had a thought in his mind. Could these guys be right? Could this man that we crucified truly be the son of God? We have no evidence that they had that thought, and if they did, they certainly dismissed it quickly. But we have no idea what people are thinking. They're going to take ways or find ways to make opposition. And their defiance clearly indicates what their official choice was, and it's also typical of these enemies. There was a real crisis here. Verse 25 says, Then came one and told him, saying, Behold, the men whom you put in prison and standing in the temple are standing in the temple and teaching the people. So, the Sanhedrin were sitting there. They couldn't find them in the prison. Somebody is wondering, where are they? Where did they go? We know we locked them in the prison. We know we put guards in front of the door. Where are they? And somebody comes in and says, I'll tell you where they are. They're right back down there at the temple preaching. Can you see the blood vessels in their heads? I mean, what? They had done everything they could think of to put them to silence, and there they were, down there, still at it, preaching the gospel. Then went the captain with the officers and brought them without violence. Oh, isn't that an interesting statement? You know, the Bible tells us that the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. There are a lot of people today that would like to justify some of their foolish behavior by saying, well, I just snapped. If anybody was ready to snap, it would have to be these guys, but they knew better. Because if they went down there and did what they wanted to do, they would have been stoned by the people and they knew that was the case. So they use this remarkable restraint. They knew just how far they could go and they stopped right there. That's another good argument, by the way, for having people who know the truth and a lot of them out there in our society. These men weren't released to indulge their freedom, they were released to fulfill their calling, and that's exactly what they had done. And now these Sadducees, these religious leaders are going to take them without violence. But you know what? We can't really determine by looking at the grammar of this phrase whether the idea of being taken without violence refers just to what the arresting officers did or whether it refers also to what the apostles and the people did. So if we see, and really both applications are proper. In other words, the apostles did not resist the arrest is the idea. They didn't resist those. The Bible tells us that we should always be ready to give an account of the hope that lies within us. We're always to show respect to God ordained authority. And I think if we're going to understand Peter's statement in a moment, we ought to obey God rather than men. We do have to remember that they went willingly with the arresting officers. You see, there's a lot of people today who believe that they should have freedom not just to do what their conscience dictates, but they should also have freedom from the consequences of doing what their consciences dictate. You don't have to remember a very important principle. We are not responsible for the consequences of obedience. If you've ever read any of Fox's Book of Martyrs, you know that there were people there who were determined to obey God and they lost their lives for it. And they weren't railing against the government while the flames licked around the stake either. They were glorifying God. Some years ago, there was a big protest movement going on among a lot of Bible believers. And a lot of talk about Satanism, these child abductions were just being advertised. We were starting to see the faces of children on milk cartons all over the country. Remember those days? And everybody thought that the Satanists were kidnapping all these people and taking them back in the woods and sacrificing them. And even some preachers were preaching that. And then we found out that most of them, if not all of them, were actually non-custodial parent abductions, you know, where they wouldn't bring them back after weekend visitation to their ex. And that's what most of that was about. But I remember hearing a tape of a fellow who was preaching in a fundamental Baptist church, talking about what they needed in this fight for truth. And he says, we need some more pistols. And he says, what we need are magnums, not a 38, but 357 magnums, because a 38 will bounce off a windshield. I'm quoting a sermon I heard back in those days. And I remember thinking, in the fight for the truth, under what circumstances will you be shooting at a windshield? That would be an aggressive position, not a defensive position, wouldn't it? Doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. And I remember how everybody got all stirred up about that kind of thing and thinking that, boy, the battle for truth is to be fought with weapons and guns and those kinds of things. No, the battle for truth is fought with the gospel. It's fought with evangelism. And if the enemies of Christ come to arrest us and make us give an account for what we say we're teaching and believing, I believe the Bible teaches that we go without violence. And then we witness to those people, just like Paul did. He went all the way to Rome, where he was eventually beheaded. And you know what he did while he was there? He started a church in the prison in Caesar's house. I love to read that. You know how we know that? Because he said so in the book of Philippians. Remember that? The saints here salute you, chiefly they of Caesar's household. And I've told you before, I can just see that old Philippian jailer. Maybe he's a deacon in the church now. And he's back in the back of the congregation while they're reading that. And he hears about the church in Caesar's house and the Philippian jailer, now a deacon in the First Baptist Church of Philippi, says, glory to God, he's at it again. Isn't that wonderful? That's what you and I ought to do. If it means we go to prison, then we witness to the people in prison. But we don't run like fugitives preaching a Christ who can't protect us. We've got to be consistent. And that's what these men were doing. Verses 27 and 28 tell us that there was a crime involved here. When they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest asked them, saying, Did we not straightly command? That word straight means with a threat. Did we not threaten you? Didn't we command you with a threat that you should not teach in His name? Didn't we tell you what would happen to you if you did this again? And behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. How'd you like to be accused of that? I wonder how many of us could plead guilty to that charge. Filled Greenville with your doctrine. Everybody in your neighborhood has heard this. You've often heard if you were convicted on the basis of your Christianity, would there be enough evidence for you truly to be found guilty? I'm sorry to say, in many lives, it probably wouldn't be the case. But you fill Jerusalem with your doctrine, and you intend to bring this man's blood on our head, on us. In other words, what that phrase means is you intend to prove the fact that we killed an innocent man. Now, isn't that interesting? They knew they killed an innocent man. They knew he was innocent. They knew that all six of the trials that he went through were all illegal, and Christ was acquitted in every one of them. And yet, they persuaded the people through emotion to put him on the cross. You know, a lame defense is often its own incrimination. We, in our lifetime, have heard politicians stand up and defend themselves by saying, you have no evidence that I did that. In parentheses, because I've destroyed all of it. You can't prove that. You know, whenever I hear a man say, you can't prove that or you have no evidence that I did that. That's not the same as saying I absolutely did not do it. Is it? People are accused of things they actually did, and they become indignant that you accuse them because they don't see how you could know it. They think innocent until proven guilty is a fact of the heart. And these fellows are doing the same thing. You're trying to say that we killed an innocent man. And you have no basis on which to say we killed an innocent man, because we had the best false witnesses that money could buy, and we convicted him. That's their argument. And they knew that was their argument. They're afraid the whole thing's going to come unraveled on them, which it did, by the way. And if you and I will keep proclaiming the truth, we have nothing to fear. Just keep giving people the truth, and those who respond rightly to it will come to Christ, and those who don't respond rightly to it won't respond regardless of what you do. You don't have to sugarcoat it to get hateful apostates to respond right. Because you'll just make it more confusing to others. The final thing is this. Not only are the servants of Christ going to face opposition, not only are the enemies of Christ going to provide that opposition, but the gospel of Christ will provide its own vindication. When souls get saved, all the arguments are moot. And sometimes the souls that are saved are those who invented those arguments. Look at Paul himself. We're going to see his testimony pretty soon. Breathing out threatenings. Bringing people to their execution, hailing men and women. That means bringing them on the end of a rope back for trial. But the one thing that Paul didn't count on was the Damascus Road experience. And when he came to meet Christ, everything changed. You know, President Bill Clinton presented himself as a Baptist Christian. Gave no evidence of salvation, but quite the contrary. But you know what? The gospel could save him. I don't know if the man's beyond hope or not. He's beyond our reach. But he's not beyond the reach of the Holy Spirit. Let me go a step further. The gospel could save Hillary Clinton. Want to test your faith? Ask yourself if you believe that. There's a part of me that says, Yeah, I could have saved Jezebel too, you know. In my heart, for me to believe that would take more faith than I usually have. But the truth is the truth and the gospel is the gospel and salvation is real and depravity is what it deals with. And you can take the most depraved person, the most manipulative, dishonest enemy of truth that you can think of And our responsibility is to bring the gospel to that person and leave the results up to God. Would it be something if God were to choose to start the next sweeping revival that if the Lord carries years from now, people would be reading about. If God were to start that by saving the Clintons. Don't think that's an impossibility. Because you read of such things in history. Well, I think you and I have to ask ourselves, well, I don't know if God could save them or not. Well, let me ask you a question. You think you could save your neighbor? You think you could save your employer? You think you could save your brother or your sister or your cousins? Or even your parents? Or your children? You better believe it. And you better live like you believed it. while we've still got the freedom to do something about it. Don't you think? We're talking about a question of loyalty here. Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. He was saying to these Sadducees, you know, you are way too concerned about keeping your influence over men instead of making sure you're right with God. And that's where a lot of people are today. We ought to be loyal to the Lord. And there are times when we're going to have to choose to obey God. instead of men. Now, Peter had already said to these people back in chapter four in verse nineteen, you know good and well that command is not legal. And in that chapter, Peter and John answered and said to them, would it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than God judge ye? And that's the way of saying in that language, you already know that you don't have the legal authority to tell us not to speak for God. You already know that. You know that that's an illegal order. And so he's now saying to them, You already know it's an illegal order. The problem is, you ought to obey God rather than men, just like we intend to obey God rather than men. He was appealing to their own understanding of who God was and what their obligations to him were. And the interesting thing about it is these words were spoken by the same man who wrote 1 Peter 2, 13 to 17. You want the balance? Turn to that passage very quickly. Our time is almost gone. 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 13. Peter, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Peter, who stood up before the Sadducees and the Sanhedrin, all the rulers of the Jews, and said, We ought to obey God rather than men, said this to you and me, Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme or to governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God that with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. as free and not using your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Well, there's a good explanation of what freedom really is, isn't it? Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. Those words penned by the man who stood before the Sanhedrin and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. And you know what God says? God says, honor those in authority. Now, the way to understand that, I believe, is by realizing that all true authority comes from God, just like all true submission goes back to God. Now, you have to meditate on that phrase. It's not a scriptural phrase, but it's a way of understanding what the scripture teaches. All true authority comes from God. Therefore, if it doesn't come from God, it's not true authority. And all true submission goes up to God, and therefore, if it doesn't go up to God, it's not true submission. That'll help you if you'll think on that. Because there are times when usurpers and tyrants have claimed authority, which is not legitimate, and it's right to resist it. Robber comes into your house, he's got a gun, and he tries to take authority over your family. Are you right to resist that? Absolutely. He may have the upper hand, but he doesn't have any God-given authority. You see? And sometimes people can get themselves in office that same way. Otherwise, we wouldn't have the teaching of Romans 13 and other places. It talks about obeying the government who bears the sword. Now what's the government going to do with the sword? Execute wrath upon them that do evil. You see? And that same passage that teaches us the authority that police officers have is also the authority under which just nations go to war against unjust nations. And all through the Old Testament we read about God commanding evil to be resisted and overthrown. And the reason we ought to have this loyalty is because we have the liability that goes with it. Verse 30 says, The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. That's the trouble with old Peter, boy, he just preaches like a fundamentalist. We're talking here about the one that you killed, the one you put on the cross. Pretty clear. Pretty straightforward. I don't think we have to say that, you know, he said it with a mean tone of voice, but he sure made it clear. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. We have met the Messiah. We have met the savior and we can't be quiet about him. Yes, he's the very one that you did crucify. But God raised him up and has made him the savior and we know it. We've seen it and we have to tell other people what we've seen. We have no alternative. except to give that message to the world. That's what he's saying. We are his witnesses. You know what the word witnesses is in the original language? We are his martyrs. We're going to give our lives to this. We're going to sacrifice everything so that people can come to know these truths. There's not going to be any holding back. Not any holding back on the charges he made against them and not any holding back about the testimony he's going to be giving about Christ. No hesitation about the source of the power here. We're his witnesses. And so also is the Holy Ghost. It's not just us who are witnessing these things, the Holy Spirit himself is witnessing to it. That's how you see all these things happening. That's how you see this lame man leaping for joy in the temple environs. That's how you see these people praising God. By the way, I imagine someone thought that's how these guys got out of prison. The Holy Spirit's involved here. God himself is in this thing. And later on, they're going to be counseled to be very, very careful because they might be fighting against God himself, as indeed they were. Sometimes we think about contending for the faith and debating with others about the truth, but we need to be careful. We don't convict people and we don't convert people. That's the Holy Spirit's job. He is the one who convinces the world of sin, of righteousness and judgment. God did not tell us to go out and persuade and change men's thinking and minds. Our primary responsibility is just to proclaim. Go and proclaim. Tell people who Jesus is and what He did. Now, it's alright to be persuasive and it's alright to debate, but we don't have to do the Holy Spirit's job. We just have to do our job. And the sad thing is, We're really not doing it. We really aren't. Suppose that we as Americans this year on the Fourth of July only had freedom to do what we're actually doing for God. How much freedom would we have? You understand what I'm saying to you tonight? We ourselves are limiting our freedom We talk about the free exercise, but there's not much exercise going on. Would you agree with that? And if we don't get busy. Our opportunity is going to slip away. And it'll be gone. Our grandchildren are going to have a far different country to live in. In my lifetime, in my lifetime, We have gone from seeing public schools that were like our Christian schools now go to becoming temples of humanism where one world, one government, one religion, one sex philosophy is the religion. What are we going to do? We better take the freedom we still have. and start practicing it. Get busy and start telling others. People say you have no right to force your religion on me. Well, that might be true, but that doesn't mean I don't have a right to tell you about my religion. Doesn't mean I don't have a right to tell you about Christ. Doesn't mean I don't have a right to evangelize. Those countries like Russia, the former Soviet Union, in which people lost the freedoms that you and I ignore with impunity. Produce some of the strongest Christians that are alive today. Because they began to find out what really matters. Maybe America is going to have to find out the hard way to. And I hope and pray that the people of faith Baptist Church will stand. That you'll be strong. that you won't cave in and give up on what you say you believe if you really ever have to pay a price in order to defend it and believe it. Just be a witness and get started now. And if the day ever comes when you have to choose, you ought to obey God rather than men. Father, thank you for the time you've given us tonight. Thank you for the freedoms that we have. Lord, we stand indicted by our own inactivity, guilty of abusing the freedoms that we have as Americans. Lord. We love America, but sometimes we have to admit that what we love about it is its richness, its ease. It's plenty. We think of the spasm of interest in spiritual things that occurred for a few days after September the 11th. And we realize how hardship and a real threat to the loss of freedom awakens something in the hearts of people. May it never come to the place, we pray, in America, where we have to lose what we hold so dear in order to realize what we've held so cheaply. Let it begin in our homes. Let it begin in our hearts. Let it begin in this church. that the seeds of revival would take root and grow. And Lord, if you would be pleased to send a real, heaven-sent, Holy Spirit revival to America, may we be involved. In Jesus' name, Amen.