The Battle Between Truth and Lies

Yesterday, we went to work down at Columbus. I think we're getting pretty close to starting meals down there and putting a sign out front. I think we're going to do something like this.

Tuesday night, we'll put a sign out. Monday, for a free meal, a hot meal on Tuesday night. And we'll start feeding people and see how that goes.

We have a small one-bedroom apartment. And I'm thinking we could probably feed 50 people as they come and go for maybe two hours. And my goal, what I see as a benefit is that we get to know a different world.

And boy, is it a different world. We get to know a different world and how many people live and try to reach into their lives and minister to them. But it also is probably more beneficial for us in training us to reach people outside of our comfort zone and outside of our world that we fellowship with on a regular basis.

So anyone who'd like to participate, I think I asked Brother David and Brother Chris, I think the first meal we're going to maybe have the three of us couples go down and serve. And then we'll see how it goes. If we're still alive, we'll come back and tell you.

And so we'll see how it goes and progress from there. And so a lot of needs, a lot of needs down there, a lot of drugs, a lot of crime, a lot of children that are innocent children. You talk to the children, they're just like any child, but they're heading for a life that's not good.

So hopefully we can establish a ministry there to the children to help some of the children reach out to the children, wives, husbands. All right, we're going to start here in Acts Chapter 5. I trust you've been following along here and looking at the early church, following along maybe reading some during the week. The early church, and I believe that the Lord has given us this example because this is His heart.

This is that hot coal off the fire. And it's a picture of a burning, Holy Spirit filled group of people. And certainly this example is set for us throughout all generations.

This is God's church functioning as a congregation, as a people, not only inside the body. We saw they bred, they prayed, they fellowshiped, they sold their goods to meet the needs within the congregation, but they also had a ministry outside the body. And in the book of Acts, you'll find it goes from inside to out.

Half a chapter will be on the inside and a half a chapter will be on the outside. And throughout the book of Acts, inside and outside, they're ministering. And that's a functioning church.

A church is not simply an inside church where we have meetings on Sunday and meetings during the week, but it has a place outside. There is a world to reach. And so we see this in the book of Acts.

I'm going to read this section. It's a rather lengthy one from verse 17. Last week we left off in verse 16, but verse 17 on down through verse number 32, it's a story here and we're going to get the whole story in one message.

So let me start reading in Acts chapter 5, verse 17. Then the high priest rose up and all they that were with him. This is after we've seen the miracles and the sick being healed and things are really moving and getting stirred up in Jerusalem.

Remember Jesus said to start in Jerusalem and then move out from there. 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. Got up early, praise God. Probably set their alarm for six, five, got up early.

And they taught, but the high priest came and they that were with him and called the council together and all the children of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the officers came and found them not in the prison, they returned and told saying, the prison truly found we shut with all safety and the keepers standing without before the doors. But when we had opened, we found no man within.

That's obviously a great miracle there. And they truly recognized it. Just like they recognized this man.

When God did the healing of the lame man, and it was a man that everybody knew. He had been there for years. He had been lame from the mother's womb.

And so the Lord is doing these things to testify to everybody that this is the work of the Lord. But they're not willing to receive it. Verse 24, 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.

Their concern is this is gonna get around and we're gonna lose control of the people. We're gonna lose our place. And we like this place, this authority we have.

Verse 25, then came on and told them 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 be stoned. Now the people are liking what's happening.

There's healings. There's a teaching going on. They like what's happening.

And the authorities come and just kind of gently, quietly pull them off to the side. Hey, come with us. And they don't wanna stir up the anger of the people.

Verse 27, and when they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest asked them saying, did not we straightly command you that you should not teach in this name? And behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intent 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 you 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. And we are his witnesses of these things. And so is also the Holy Ghost whom God has given to them that obey him.

And when they heard that they were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them. So things are starting to heat up here. We're only in chapter five and now their heart is to kill them.

And they're facing some great difficulties. So let's pray. And I'd like to just teach you a few things from this story here this morning.

Heavenly father, we give a place to you and acknowledge you in all of our ways that you might direct our path. Thank you again, Lord, for the word of God. I know that we don't realize the value and the preciousness of the word of God and Lord that we would love it and embrace it and let it in our hearts and meditate upon it day and night that it would cause our lives to prosper, not only here, but also in eternity.

And also would conform us more and more to the image of your son. So Lord, may the word of God here today as it's preached and taught, find a place, a place in the heart that can grow and bring forth fruit for your honor and for your glory. We pray in Jesus name, amen.

Amen. All right, so I wanna begin, and I've shared some of these things before. A lot of these things I've mentioned in the past, but this book is simply a testimony of a war that is occurring.

And that war is between truth and a lie. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life and the devil is a liar. Jesus said, and he's a father of it.

And so you have in this book a war between truth and error. And it's going on all the time. Most of us don't realize maybe it's going on, but it's a constant battle in this world between truth and error.

Truth is what's going to bring you to eternal life. Truth is what's gonna bring you to a godly life that will not only affect your families, but will affect people around you and will have a deliverance effect on those that you minister to. Lies are those things that are gonna damn your soul.

Lies are gonna be those things that blinds your mind to the truth and leads you down a road that's going to lead you into destruction. So there's a war that's on. It was happening here specifically, but it's also a war that's happening in our day between truth and between the lie.

The Lord Jesus has empowered His people to go forth into all the world and to preach the gospel. And here's the war. The Lord says, now go.

I'm gonna give you the truth. And I've given you the truth. I've given you the gospel.

I've taught you all these things for three years. Now I want you to go and I want you to take this truth, starting in Jerusalem, I want you to take it to the ends of the earth. And you're gonna face the devil and you're gonna face the opposition, but I'm gonna empower you and I'm gonna fill you with the Spirit of God as we learn to give you a boldness in this battle.

And I think really truthfully that as I observe things that one of the great hindrances for the congregation, for the church at large is we're not seeing. We don't have vision. Vision is so important.

We've gotta see. Our vision is much like the disciples. They're looking down.

They're not looking up. And they need vision and we need vision. We need to see really what this world is all about and what our purpose here is in this world.

If we don't have that vision, then we're not gonna be able to understand what's going on here or do that which is pleasing in the Lord's sight. So the Lord is sending them out and he has purpose for them. He has given them the power of the Spirit, but there's an opposition and the devil is in opposition and he is fighting against them spreading the truth throughout the world starting here in Jerusalem.

So as soon as they go out filled with the Spirit, speaking the truth and teaching the truth, all of a sudden the opposition roars and lifts up its head and it doesn't take long before the devil is rising up. He's a liar. He doesn't want the truth and specifically he doesn't want the truth communicated to people because if people understand the truth, they'll get free from his captivity.

So Jesus said he came to set captives free and so the truth is what sets people free. And so if the devil wants to hold his prisoners, he needs to stop the truth. And so the book of Acts, if you read it this way, is simply a battle between truth and lie.

Jesus by the power of the Spirit through his people is promoting truth and the devil is trying to stop it and to try to promote lies. And you're gonna see this all the way through this book and especially right here at the very beginning. And something I've shared with you already in the past is this truth, it starts in Jerusalem, but it's growing and moving and spreading throughout the whole world.

That's the purpose that God has for the truth. And there are three passages in the book of Acts. They're divided up into about six or seven chapters, but three passages I'd like you to, or I'm gonna read for you, talks about the Word of God and how the Word of God goes forth.

In Acts chapter six verse seven, it says, and the Word of God increased. The Word of God increased. That's an interesting statement.

The Word of God increased, meaning it was going forth to more and more people, to more and more regions, to more and more areas. In Acts chapter 12 verse 24, it says this, but the Word of God grew and multiplied. So as you go down through the book of Acts, every once in a while the Lord stops and says, the Word of God is growing, it's moving, the Word of God is multiplying, it's going forth, it's spreading, and then you get to six chapters later, Acts 19 verse 20, and it says this, so mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed.

And so this is the idea here in the book of Acts, the Word of God going forth and mightily prevailing in the hearts and lives of people. And you see this little statement made. Chapter six, chapter 12, chapter 19 or whatever there.

The Word of God is going forth. And as the Word of God goes forth, the devil is trying to stop the Word of God. I look at Christianity much like this.

You know, in our lives, really the devil wants to stop you from spreading the Word of God. That's at the very essence of what Christianity is all about. And if you find that happening in your life, then you're gonna find yourself in many ways defeated.

You're defeated from the real purpose that God has for you and for us as a congregation to stop the spreading of truth, to stop the spreading of the Word of God. Now think about this for a minute. How much, as a matter of fact, God does everything through His Word.

You think about what God does through His Word. Number one, He brings conviction on sinners through His Word. He doesn't bring conviction by a Hollywood movie.

He brings conviction through the preaching of His Word. Preach the Word, reprove, rebuke, exhort. Reproof comes and conviction of sin comes.

And so God even starts the salvation process by the preaching of His Word. He then converts the sinner by the preaching of His Word. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.

There's so much that depends upon the Word of God getting into the hearts of people. Conviction, being born again. Growth, how about growing after you're born again? The Bible says this, newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word.

There's the Word again, that you may grow thereby. And so when you think of the Word of God and what God has placed in His Word, the ability to convict sinners, the ability to save sinners, and the ability to cause newborn babes to grow. John 17, sanctify them through thy truth, thy Word is truth.

How are we sanctified? By the truth, the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Faith, the very essence of what faith is, comes by the Word of God.

And so if you want someone to be convicted, you need the Word of God. If you want someone to be born again, you need the Word of God. If you want someone to grow in grace, you need the Word of God.

If you want someone to be sanctified, you need the Word of God. And if you want someone to express faith, you need the Word of God. I mean, the Word of God is the vehicle that God uses to bring about all these good things.

And then some people say, we're not supposed to spread the Word of God. Now that's just ridiculous. Everything God does, He does through His Word.

Everything that is good, He healed them by His Word. Everything that He does, He does through His Word. And so, as we go down through the book of Acts, you're going to see the people of God filled with the Spirit of God, spreading forth the Word of God, and the devil trying to stop it.

He's trying to stop it. And he's doing all manner of means to put the Word of God down and to stop the spreading of it. Not only does the devil do it, but demons do it.

And his children, the children of darkness, they're all in opposition to the children of light. So we have on our side, the children of light, all of you. We have on our side, the Holy Spirit of God.

Praise the Lord. We have the Lord Jesus on our side. We have angels.

We're going to see here in this story. You read this story. We have angels that are on our side, that are actually ministering to us in this battle.

And it's amazing when you go back, I didn't really realize this, you go back to the Old Testament, you'll see how in the battles, by the way, those battles in the Old Testament were actually physical. Guns, not guns, but swords and knives. And they fought with chariots.

Those were types and shadows of spiritual realities in the New Testament. And in those battles, angels were very helpful in fighting and delivering, taking chariot wheels off of chariots and many different things that angels did. And here angels are also in this fight too, to try to bring about the will of God.

So we're all soldiers in this battle. And the Bible says in Ephesians chapter six, He's taken to you the whole armor of God. And so as a soldier, you need the whole armor.

And a lot of the armor is protective. A lot of the armor is to protect you from the enemy. But there is an armor, or there is part of the armor that's offensive.

And that is the sword of the Spirit, praying with all prayer and supplication. Those are the offensive pieces of the armor. Well, God is for them.

And praise God, Romans eight says, if God is for us, who can be against us? God is for us. And God is for us. And He is on our side.

And I think one of the things that has happened to the church is we're AWOL. We've forgotten that we're here to fight a war. We're here to be in a battle.

We are called soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. That's not just for apostles. That's not just for the elders.

It's for all of us to be a soldier. That's why you have armor. That's why you have a sword.

And you'll never experience Christianity the way God intended for you to experience it until you get involved in the battle, until you become a soldier in the fight that the book of Acts is going to tell us about. Well, God is for them. And I'd like to just go back here to Acts chapter four in verse 17.

And here is the first, we read this already, but notice how that the Lord is for them. In verse 17, it says, but that it spread no further among the people that it straightly threatened them that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. We don't want this truth spread.

And that's coming right from the devil himself. We don't want this truth spread. We're children of the devil.

We hate truth. Verse 18, and they called them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so they're being threatened.

But jump down to verse 29. It says now, and now Lord behold their threatenings. They're going to pray to God and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness, they may speak thy word by stretching forth thine hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child, Jesus.

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. Now God says, I'm in this war.

I'm the captain of the war. And they're trying to oppress and suppress you from speaking the truth and pushing the truth out. I'm going to help you.

And I'll shake the building to get this done. And so that's the heart of God. He's in this to help.

And you all, we need to embrace that. God, He's in this. Yes, He's in this to help us in many other areas of life, but this is central.

He's in this battle to help us to get the truth to the ends of the earth and to plant truth and the seed of the word of God in hearts. Because once you put a seed in someone's heart, God then can take that seed and bring conviction. God can take that seed and bring conversion.

God can take that seed and bring faith. God can take that seed and sanctify. He can do a lot with a seed.

And I've told you this many times, but all we do is in the springtime is we just put that seed in the ground. And that's our responsibility. We know that.

We cover it up with dirt and we say, we don't say this usually, we say, God, it's up to you from here on out. And it is. It's up to Him.

I don't get underneath there after a day or two and dig it up and come on, come on seed and do something to the seed to try to get it to keep coming up. No, no, it's God's work. But my work is to get the seed in the ground.

And you learn that all throughout creation. It's the seed planted in the ground that brings forth fruit and life. So we're told that when the sower goes forth to sow and some seeds fall on the hard ground, who is it that's right there to get that seed? I would say it's the devil.

He is right there following people around as they're sowing the word of God. Oh, here's some seed that didn't get in, get it. He knows they don't want it to lay around like that.

So pick it up, get it off that heart. It says immediately he comes and he snatches the word that is sown upon the heart because he knows the potential that the word of God has upon the heart. Give your life.

If you want to give your life for something meaningful and in a hundred years, you look back and say, boy, I'm glad I did that. Give your life to putting the word of God in people's hearts and let God do whatever he wants to do with it. All you can do is get it in.

And so the early church is getting the word of God in people's hearts and things are happening. God is doing an amazing thing. They're just preaching and speaking the truth and the Lord is taking care of the rest.

And so this is a battle. It's a battle that's going on now. I mean, just look out.

Look out in the last 50 years. How much of the word of God has been taken out of society? God, stop this. Get the 10 commandments off the walls in schools.

We don't want any seed of the word of God anywhere. You can keep it in your church if you want to, but someday they're going to come in here and take it out of our churches. And so the devil understands the power of this book right here.

And I wish we would understand the power of this book and the ability and how we hinder the Lord in actually accomplishing his purposes by not spreading forth the word of God. Well, let's go down through this story here and see how this is working out, this battle. The Lord is helping them.

The Lord is filling them with the Holy Spirit. Even the Lord is sending angels to help them in this endeavor. In Acts chapter five, verse 17, let's just read down through and pick out a few things to learn this morning.

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. Now, why are they so angry? What is the indignation for? Well, if you look down to chapter five, verse 28, it says this, saying, Did we not straightly command you that you should not teach in this name? And behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. There's two things that they're upset about.

Number one is that you people were told and we told you not to spread this anymore in Jerusalem and look what you've done. You haven't obeyed us. You have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and we're upset at you.

We're full of indignation. And there's another thing that we're upset about. You are telling people that we are the ones who killed Jesus and his blood is on our hands.

That's convicting. And so they were full of indignation. Not only were they wanting the word of God to stop being spread about, but they didn't like this idea that they were the ones who crucified the Lord Jesus.

You're bringing this man's blood upon us. Verse 18, it says, They laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. Now we've talked about this already before, but persecution is starting to intensify.

Remember we had in Acts chapter four, they brought him into hold, then they threatened, now they're bringing them into prison and the next chapter, they're gonna get a beating. They're gonna get a beating. And then in the next chapter, chapter eight, two chapters, they're gonna get martyred.

So it's intensifying. And it's all, I tell this everywhere I go, usually when I'm preaching, it's all because they're spreading the word of God. And I've said this before to you all, that if they were just going to live in their community and broke bread and prayed and fellowshiped and sold their goods and had a little community over here in Jerusalem and didn't fill Jerusalem with the doctrine of Christ, they'd let them go.

It's a little cult over there, a little sect, let them do what they wanna do. It doesn't bother us at all. But as soon as they started to fill Jerusalem with their doctrine, that's when the ugly head of the devil rose up.

And friends, listen, we can have our church here. The world won't bother us here in this church house. Now there is gonna come a time when America is gonna get so bad that they're gonna say, we're gonna bust into your doors here.

We're gonna take your Bibles and shut you down. That's when it gets to the end of everything right there. I mean, they shut the churches down and nobody has a Bible.

But that's at the end, but it's coming. But the world hates it when you're out spreading the gospel, spreading truth, the word of God. They hate it, the devil hates it.

And so if you wanna be persecuted, there's no problem with being persecuted. Just go out and start spreading the word of God and preach to people in truth. You'll find yourself having all kinds of trouble.

You say, well, I don't wanna be persecuted. Well, Bible says there's a great reward for it. So the persecution here is intensifying.

And it's because they're trying to take the word of God to the ends of the earth. I want you to go back and look with me to Matthew 5. Some of these things we've gone over in the past, but let's just review them. Matthew 5, Jesus starts out, this is his first sermon he's ever preached to man.

And he starts here in Matthew 5 with the beatitudes. And he says in verse 3, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And that's something for all of us to be poor in spirit.

Verse 4, blessed are they that mourn, for they should be comforted. Those that mourn over their sin, God will comfort them. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

By the way, the word blessed there means happy. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And all of those things are good. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

And then this one here, blessed are they which are persecuted. Now, most people would say all these things are for us. Pure in heart, hungering and seeking after God, meekness, mourning over my sin, poor in spirit.

Get down to this last one, and it's like we switch the gear. Blessed are they that are persecuted, for righteousness sake, for theirs. Now, that's something that God expects all of us.

It's something that all of us are to be poor in spirit, to be peacemakers, to hunger and thirst, and all of us are gonna be persecuted if we're doing the right things. And of course, Jesus, or excuse me, Paul and Silas, we're gonna see this in the book of Acts, told the church we must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom of God. And if your life is going on without persecution, then there's a reason for that, because you're not speaking the truth into the lives of people that are lost and dying.

You're just not speaking truth. And so blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.

Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Now, here's the way to be happy.

Happy. Happy are those that are persecuted. You remember there, well, we're gonna see it probably next time, but the disciples or the apostles were beaten for preaching the Lord and teaching the word of God.

And they came back rejoicing. They were rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And so there is a joy in persecution.

Something else I'd like you to see here in these Beatitudes is there's no prison here mentioned. There's no martyrdom here mentioned because the Lord knows that in some places like those who live in America, you can preach the word of God in this country and not go to prison. You can preach the word of God in this country and not be martyred, but you can't preach the word of God and teach people the truth without being reviled, without being hated.

So the Lord only goes as far as when people revile you and persecute you. And then he closes with this, for so did they to the prophets that were before you. And I love that idea.

And I shared it with you here already. The prophets, why did the prophets get persecuted? Because they were speaking up against the sins of Israel, of the nation. And they were persecuted for it.

And praise be to God, when this book of Acts started, in Acts chapter two, the Lord said, I'm going to make them all prophets. I'm going to pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Your young men, your daughters are going to prophesy.

Your handmaidens and your servants are going to prophesy. Those prophets in the Old Testament, they were persecuted for preaching the truth. I'm going to make all my children prophets.

Wow. And they're going to be persecuted. And so as you go through the book of Acts, as we go through this account here, you're going to see that these people are following the will of the Lord and obeying his commandments.

And because of that, they're facing a difficulty. Now, throughout the years, I've seen many, many lies. By the way, if you were the devil and you had to try to stop this spreading of the gospel and spreading of the truth and people teaching and putting seeds, here you are, you're spending all your life just pulling out seeds, getting seeds, following these people who are spreading seeds and you're trying to snatch them.

Wouldn't it be great if you're the devil to convince these people to stop sowing seeds? Then you wouldn't have to spend all your time snatching them off the ground and trying to keep them from growing. Let me, if I'm the devil, let me figure out a way where I can lie to the church and that way they won't put any seeds out. It'd make my job a little easier.

I could just lay on the couch and drink some lemonade. So over the years, you see a lot of lies. A lot of lies.

People are convinced that, you know, spreading the word of God is only for these apostles. That's a big lie. That's a lie.

Well, the devil would love you to believe that because then he wouldn't have to follow you around and spend all that time snatching the seeds out of the hearts where you're putting seeds in them. Well, preaching is only for the house of God. You know, I hear that a lot on the campus.

This preaching stuff, it shouldn't be in the church. It shouldn't be out here. Well, that's a lie.

Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel, not into every church. And so the devil lies because he doesn't want to have to be out there constantly trying to get seeds out of people's hearts. So, yeah, we'll try to teach a lie and keep people in the church.

You ever heard someone say this? Religion is a private matter. You shouldn't talk about it much. Well, that's a lie.

And it comes from the devil, lying to the people of God. Keep your religion to yourself. It's what God wants.

That's another lie. Well, I've heard this one a lot. I'm not an evangelist.

Well, you look at the book of Acts, the whole church is out preaching the gospel. They're not all evangelists. So again, this is a lie.

It causes people to have an excuse to say, well, listen, I'm not that gift. So I shouldn't do this. Well, here's another one for young Christians.

I need to mature. You know, the devil comes and says, you need to wait until you're more mature to preach the Bible, to go out and teach people the word. That's another lie.

And all these are lies that he puts in the hearts of God's children to keep them from spreading forth seeds. So if you had a Christian here that had a bunch of seeds in his pouch, and the devil was responsible to try to pick them up after he was sowing them, and he was sowing them all over the place, and the devil spent all his time trying to pick them up, and the devil come up with an idea, if I could just lie to this guy and convince him that he's not supposed to spread any seeds, it saved me a lot of trouble. So you whisper like you did to Eve, you whisper in the person's ear and says, you're not gifted to do this.

Oh, I am not gifted to do this. So I'm gonna stop sowing seeds. Yeah, that's a good idea.

And all these lies. So the devil watches all the Christians just go on with their life and never sow seeds. He's fine with that.

Has nothing to follow along to try to snatch up immediately the seeds that are sown in people's hearts. But I'd like to just give you a vision of what God can do if you sow the Word of God in people's hearts. I know most of you do this.

Here's an opportunity to sow the Word of God. Just sow the Word of God. Let me just throw this out here because we're gonna try to decorate this mission house we have down there, but if you have a picture, a scripture verse that we can put on the wall, I wanna put on the wall there, we're gonna have music, and just have the Word of God all over the place.

When people come there to eat, that the seed is sown in their hearts in so many different ways, that even in talking with them, but in seeing that we can sow the Word of God into hearts. And so let's not believe lies. The enemy would love to sow lies into your heart and convince you that you should not be sowing seed.

I cannot fathom you standing before God someday and him saying, why did you sow seed? Why did you speak the Word of God to people? Isn't that crazy? You'll never hear him say that to you. As a matter of fact, his commandment is to go and speak the truth. Well, persecution is coming.

And you're gonna see that throughout the entire book of Acts that people are being persecuted for shedding and spreading the Word of God. Let's keep reading here in verse 19. God here sends an angel.

In verse 19, it says, 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 of the people all the words of this life. Now, just go back to heaven, 2000 years ago and the Lord says to an angel, this could be the angel of the Lord. It could be the Lord himself, but it could be Michael.

It could be one of the angels. He says, you angel, I want you to go down to that prison and I want you to let the gates open and get these guys out. And I want you to tell them something.

Go stand and speak in the temple all the words of this life. God is involved with this work and he specifically sends an angel to free these apostles from their prison so that they could go forth and continue speaking. So they did early in the morning.

Can you imagine, think about this. Can you imagine being put in prison, 12 of you and you're in prison for preaching the word and then in the middle of the night, two o'clock in the morning, you're woken up by an angel and the angel says, hey, God sent me to get you out of here. Oh, that's great.

So the angel takes you through the gate. These guys, the gates sleeping, maybe they're blinded by the angels, takes you through the gates, gets you out on the street, turns to you and says, now listen, I've brought you out of here because God told me to tell you this. You get back out and go stand and speak in the temple.

What you were doing yesterday, they stopped you, get right back out there and do it. Whoa. Now, how many of you would think that, whoa, this is important what we're doing here.

Let's get back out there and praise God, I love this, and says in early in the morning, they were back out. I would be probably too early in the morning if I went through that ordeal, was in prison, had an angel visit me and tell me, go stand and speak all the words of this life. And so the Lord is getting involved.

The angelic world is getting involved in this battle. And so demons, the children of darkness, the devil himself are trying to stop the spreading of the word. God in heaven is saying, no, you're not gonna stop it.

We're gonna spread it to the ends of the earth. And I'm gonna send angels, I'm gonna give them the power of the spirit of God. I'm going to, we're gonna get this thing done.

You know, the church has lost its vision. And in the early church, they had a clear vision. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world.

And then shall the, and hen, what happened to our tea? Shall the end come. You know, that was the vision. That was implanted in the early church.

And they understood the importance of going and standing and speaking. So I wanna encourage, especially you young men, young ladies, you have a whole life ahead of you. And there's a battle.

You wanna get in the battle? Open your mouth, take the word of God and plant seeds in the hearts. Plant seeds in the hearts. And someday in the judgment, Bible says in John four, the sower and the reaper will get together and rejoice.

You'll find out that the seed that you planted in the hearts in two, three, five, 10 years later, that seed God used to bring that person into the kingdom. You'll be rejoicing. And so let's not, let's not believe the lies that the devil gives to us.

Philosophies. Oh, you don't need to do that. Number one, you're gonna get persecuted if you do that.

People won't like you. They'll hate you actually. And you wanna be liked? Who wants to be persecuted? So just be quiet.

Just keep your religion to yourself. So they're not, and you're gonna see that they're not gonna keep their religion to themselves in spite of the fact that they're being threatened. Let's keep reading here.

Verse 21. And when they had heard that, and boy, I'd do the same thing. When I heard that, or when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning.

I don't think they probably slept that night. In the morning and taught, they got right to it. But the high priest came and they were with him and called the council together and all the center of the children of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought.

But when the officers came and found them not in the prison, they returned and told saying, the prison truly found we shut with all safety and the keepers standing without before the doors. But when we had opened, we found no man within. And when the high priest and the captain of the temple and chief priests heard these things, they doubted of them where into this would grow.

Their concern is, boy, this is another miracle. How are we gonna deal with this? You're gonna find out that they were miraculously delivered. There's been a miraculous healing.

We can't deal with this. We gotta squelch it. It's getting out of hand.

Then verse 25, came one and told them saying, behold, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Then went the captain and the officers and brought them without violence for they feared the people lest they should be stoned. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest asked them, did not we straightly command you that you should not teach in this name? Now I wanna bring out something before we get into this statement that Peter makes.

It's an important statement. I think we need to examine it in verse 29. But why does the Lord want them to go to teach in the temple? What's the temple have to do with this? I just wanna mention something here.

The temple is where the people are. The temple in Jerusalem in that day was where all the people would gather on a day-to-day basis. There'd be a flow of people coming in and out of the temple.

And so this angel says, now go back to the temple and start teaching the people. And so the temple is a place where people gather. So if you were living 2000 years ago, you'd go down to the temple and be a lot of people moving in and out of the temple, in the courtyard.

You could probably talk to a thousand people. As a matter of fact, when Peter preached there, with the healing of the lame man, there was like three or 4,000 people, 5,000 people that were converted, lots of people. And so the Lord wants us to go where people are.

If you're gonna plant seeds in hearts, you gotta have hearts, amen? If you have hearts, you gotta have people. And the more people, the more hearts, the more seed. So you'll find Jesus going to cities.

Matter of fact, most of the churches in the New Testament are in cities, Ephesus, Corinth, the big cities. That's where people are. But the temple is a place where people are moving.

I like Proverbs chapter one. It says this, wisdom crieth without. Who's the personification of wisdom? It's the Lord Jesus.

Wisdom crieth without, she utters her voice in the streets. She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates, in the cities she utters her words, saying, how long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? And the scorners delight in their scorning, the fools hate knowledge, wisdom is crying without. She's uttering her voice, where? Out in the pasture with the cows? Out in the cornfield where there's nobody to hear them? No, wisdom cries in the city, in the chief place of concourse.

You know what a concourse is? You find them at the airport. I looked up the definition of concourse this morning. I like airports.

And I was in Chicago. My wife and I flew to South Dakota. I mean, there are so many concourses.

They have A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and it's concourses all over the place. These are large sections where planes dock and you get on these airplanes. But in the chief places of concourse, here's the definition of concourse.

An open space where roads or paths meet, where crowds gather. The chief places of concourse, where people are moving, where they're crossing, intersecting, where people gather. That's where wisdom should be crying out.

Oh, the church has lost that vision. Wisdom crying out. You know, the devil's crying out all over the place.

You can't go, young people can't go very far. They'll see a billboard, immodesty, immorality. The devil is crying out all over the place.

Hollywood, the phones, YouTube. You got all the voice of the devil. He's luring people into his snares, into his traps.

But the question is, where is the church in this public arena? The devil is out there crying out with his voice, trying to allure God's children and trying to allure the world. But the Bible says wisdom is out there crying too. In the chief places of concourse, in the gates of the city.

What's a gate? It's where people come in and out. I have no doubt Jesus sat in the gate, preached the Word to people. The apostles were in the gates.

Hey, take your life, go someplace where people are moving and start preaching the truth. Tell people the truth. That's not my gift.

We're not talking about gifts, we're talking about obedience. We'll see that here in just a minute. Obedience.

Jesus said this, I sat daily with you in the temple teaching. He was in the chief places of concourse. He understood that the Word of God needs to go forth and that you go to where people are.

So in our arena, where are people moving? Where are they gathering? You gotta look for those places and go and speak to people the truth. Wisdom. You say, we have wisdom.

The Bible is wisdom. Well, wisdom should be crying out in those places. By the way, if you look in the New Testament, it says you go through the book of Acts.

That's what's happening here. And that's why the angel says, go down to the temple again and start teaching. So let's keep reading here.

Early in the morning, it says they came and taught. I wanna share something because I know people get discouraged in this area. You say, brother Jerry, if I go out and teach people, they just don't listen to me.

That's not the issue. And I had to overcome this hurdle in my own personal life. Just take a few minutes to share this with you as encouragement.

It's not the issue. The issue is not whether they'll hear you. God said, go into all the world and preach the gospel.

He didn't say if they hear you. He said, just do it. I'm just commanding you to do it.

Whether they hear you or not is not the point. You sow the seed, I'll take care of the rest. And so our responsibility is not to win converts.

Praise God that you do win them every once in a while. And you have people that come to the Lord. You have people that repent.

You have Christians that get their hearts right with God and praise the Lord for that. But that's not what we're to be looking for. We're to first and foremost, obey the Lord.

I wanna ask you to turn over there to Isaiah and let's read here, Isaiah chapter six. Give you two verses here that were encouragement to me. By the way, if you're thinking about this and you're thinking about, well, if I start opening my mouth and sharing the word of God with people, they're not gonna listen.

Well, that's okay. They're not gonna like it, that's okay. Jesus said, as it was in the days of Noah and as it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the son of man.

As we get closer and closer to the end, you're going to see a similarity between the days of Noah and the days of Lot. Jesus said it was, as it was in the days of Noah, as it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the days of the son of man, the coming of the son of man. So what is it about Noah and Lot's days? Well, one thing that you can learn is this.

Noah was a preacher. He preached the truth. He didn't want anybody to the Lord.

Nobody got into the boat except for his family. That's a lot of preaching he did. And he built that boat probably a hundred years it took him.

He preached and he begged people to get in the boat. He begged people to turn from their sin. Not a single person got into the boat.

But Noah is commended as a preacher of righteousness. Lot, in the days of Lot, Lot finally woke up and he started to warn people right at the end of Sodom's existence. And he went to his in-laws and he tried to get them out of town, but they wouldn't listen to him.

So if you look at the days of Noah and you look at the days of Lot, and unfortunately we're living in the days of Noah and living in the days of Lot, I would have much preferred to live in these days that we're reading in the book of Acts. Wouldn't it be great to preach and 3,000 people get saved? That'd be a tremendous experience. But you know, you're not gonna be rewarded any less than if you preach and nobody gets saved.

Nobody. Matter of fact, they throw bricks at you. The issue is not salvation.

The issue is whether or not you're faithful to do what you're told. Well, look what it says here in Isaiah chapter six. Isaiah sees the Lord.

I'm not gonna read the first couple of verses there. He sees God on his throne. In verse five it says, then said I, woe is me, for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

For mine eyes have seen the Lord, the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth and said, lo, this hath touched thy lips and thy iniquity is taken away and thy sin is purged.

By the way, that happened to his lips. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send? A couple of houses I've been in, they have that on their walls. Who will go for us? Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then said I, here am I, send me.

Here am I, Lord, I'll go wherever you want me to go. Verse nine, and he said, go and tell the people. Go and tell the people, hear ye indeed but understand not and see you indeed but perceive not.

Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed. In other words, I'm gonna give you a ministry. You got a good heart.

You know, you said, woe is me and that was good. You said, here am I, Lord, send me and that was good. I'll send you, Isaiah, but I want you to know something.

You're gonna go, you're gonna preach to people, they're gonna hear you. In fact, your preaching is gonna make them worse. They're gonna make their hearts heavy, they're gonna close their eyes and their ears are gonna be closed.

And then like you and me, the obvious response that Isaiah or I would give is verse 11. Then said I, Lord, how long? Like, Lord, how long do I have to do this? And he answered, until the cities be wasted without an inhabitant and the houses without a man and the land be utterly desolate. Wow, how'd you like that ministry? You go and preach to them, then they're gonna hear you.

As a matter of fact, they're probably gonna throw bricks at you. But I want you to keep being faithful because I'm gonna judge them and we're gonna preach to them until they're waste. You're gonna be standing up there preaching to them and the whole thing is gonna go down.

Nobody's gonna get converted and you're just gonna bring judgment upon them. Now, are we open to that ministry? You know, we're living in a day. Yeah, yeah, we're living in a day of Noah's.

And Noah saw the destruction and their hearts were hardened, they didn't hearken. And Lot saw the destruction of Sodom and they were wasted and ruined. And so that is a part of this ministry.

You know, we read the book of Acts and it's the early church and people are getting converted and we say, wow, that's great. But as time goes on, hearts become hardened and the ministry changes. So don't say in your heart, I don't wanna do that because no one's getting saved or no one's listening.

Only do what you do because you're wanting to obey. Obey Him, obey Him, that's why you do it. I'm gonna give you one more verse here.

This is really an encouraging verse for me. 2 Corinthians chapter number two. 2 Corinthians chapter two, verse 14.

Paul is writing to the church at Corinth. He says this, now thanks be unto God which always causes us to triumph. I love that.

He always causes us to triumph. Oh, that's good. You mean I don't ever have to fail? No, you don't fail.

He always causes us. You mean, this is written by Paul. After I come away from that pile of rocks where people stone me, I'm triumphing? Yeah, let me show you how.

Verse 14, now thanks be unto God which always causes us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place. Here's how you triumph. Young people, here's how you triumph in Christ.

You simply make manifest the savor of His knowledge in every place you go. Spread the Word of God everywhere you go. The only way you fail is if you shrink back in fear and keep your mouth shut and you don't manifest the savor of His knowledge.

Let's keep reading. Verse 15, for we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved. And in my Bible I have a red ink around this word and.

And I have a star beside it too. We are a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved. Oh, it's a wonderful thing to go out and spread the knowledge of the Lord and people get saved.

And what a sweet savor for the Lord. And in them that perish. Oh, so if I'm spreading the knowledge of the Lord and people perish and they reject it and die, it's a sweet savor? Yeah, just as sweet.

And he explains it in verse 16. To the one we are the savor of death unto death and to the other a savor of life unto life. They are both a savor.

It's a sweet smell to the Lord. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not as many which corrupt the Word of God, but as in sincerity, but as of God in the sight of God speak we in Christ. So here's how you conquer every time.

And I view it this way. The only thing you need to do is obey. Just go forth and spread the savor of His knowledge in every place.

Share the Word of God. Here, here, here, here, here. Share the Word of God.

You are conquering. Here's how you don't conquer. Oh, I want to keep my mouth shut.

I'm afraid. And I withdraw and I'm quiet. That's when you've been conquered.

That's when you've been defeated. And so you spread the knowledge of the Lord. To some, that knowledge is a savor of life.

Oh, I'm so thankful you shared me the Word of God. I want to get converted. It's changed my life and a beautiful savior to the Lord.

And then another one says, I hate you and throws a rock at you. That's another savor unto the Lord. You see the cross? You gotta understand the cross to the Lord is a beautiful thing.

Jesus on the cross. It's the glory of God, it says. And when you do right, speak the truth and suffer for it, it reminds me of His son.

Yeah, Jesus healed people and converted people and that reminds me of His son too. My son healed lepers and my son healed blind people and my son converted people and my son, my son, my son, but my son also spoke the truth and he got nailed to a cross. I love my son and you need to be like my son.

Sometimes you're gonna convert him. Sometimes you're gonna nail you to a cross. Either way, you're a savior of my son.

Back to Acts chapter five. We're getting down to the end here. Famous words that the preacher says, I'm winding down.

Okay, Acts chapter five. Let's keep reading here in verse, let's see. Let's go down to verse 26.

Then went the captain with the officers and brought them without violence for they feared the people lest they should be stoned. And when they had brought them and set them before the council and the high priest asked them saying, did not we straightly command you that you should not teach in his name? Now these people had authority. They were the religious authorities.

They had authority over the temple and they said to these apostles, you cannot preach in this temple. You cannot do these things in Jerusalem. And behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us.

Then verse 29, and these are words that we've heard before. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. Now you can probably understand what they're feeling here.

Just about, I don't know, maybe a month earlier, they saw the Lord ascend up before them and they saw him and heard him say, go and told the world and preach the gospel starting in Jerusalem. Okay, Lord, that's what you tell us to do. We'll do it, okay? Okay, now a month later, don't preach in Jerusalem.

Don't preach the word of God here. Oh, wait a minute. We got two commands here.

We got one from the Lord and one from you. And their response is, we ought to obey God rather than men. Now those men did have authority, but as we've talked about before, the Lord is a higher authority and they were to obey the higher authority when those authorities conflicted.

Now they were to honor the authority and obey the authority in other areas, but when that authority conflicted with the Lord's authority, then they were to obey God and not men. Now I'm gonna just throw this out to you and I'm interested in some of these things. Maybe some of you are not interested, but I doubt if I'll ever get to this place in my life.

Maybe the Lord will send me to the mission field someday. But I believe this and you may not believe it. And a lot of people don't follow this practice, but I believe these disciples understood this.

They were told not to preach here and they were threatened with prison. Some of them are gonna die. And they said, we're gonna obey God.

And we read that and say, yeah, yeah. But then we bring it into our life. It's like, whoa, can we find a way out of this one? If Jesus has commanded, think about this.

If Jesus has commanded, let's take us. And he says to us from his word, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you.

If he, let's just say he were here, he'd show up in a vision, his transfigured body. And he says to you all, go into all the world and preach the gospel. All the world and preach the gospel.

Is there, think about this. Is there any place then in the world that someone could tell you, don't preach the gospel here, that you would say, okay, we won't. Well, we're in Afghanistan.

They won't let you preach the gospel in Afghanistan. So we're gonna obey the authorities in Afghanistan. Well, no, wait a minute.

Some authority which is way above the authorities of Afghanistan already told you to go and preach the gospel in all the world. Anywhere in this world, you have the same place that these men are facing. You can say, listen, I have been given a commandment by a greater authority.

You're telling me not to. He says in all the world, I know it's a tough place in North Korea. I know it's a tough place in Iraq.

I know it's a tough place in some countries, but I'm commanded to do it in all the world. And I know many people have said, well, listen, if you do it, you'll get run out of the country. So what? They got run out of the cities all the time.

We're gonna find them getting running out of place all the time. You say, if you do it, they'll throw you in prison. Well, they got thrown in prison.

If you do it, they'll beat you. They got beat. If you do it, they'll kill you.

They got killed. You know why? Because they said, we're gonna do what God says regardless of what man says. And I wonder, and I'm not in their position, so it's easy for me to talk.

But I wonder, oftentimes our mission work is like, well, we can't really preach the gospel here in this country kind of openly. I was preaching at Columbus State a few years ago, and there was a young boy came by me. He was a foreigner.

And I didn't notice him, but he came by and he walked about 30 feet off. And he started yelling at me. And he said this to me, he said, I'm from Pakistan.

He said, if you do that in my country, you'd be in prison. He'd come over here as a student. He's telling me, you do that in my country, you're in prison.

I said, okay. In America, we get privileges, amen. Question is, if I go to Pakistan and they say, I'm gonna kill you, or we're gonna put you in prison, do I take the same place Peter did and said, well, listen, I need to obey God rather than you.

I think you do all over the world. You say, well, you won't be a missionary there for long. Brother Chris said it, well, God's ways are a lot different than ours.

We start thinking, well, the only way we can stay in this country is to be quiet and we'll kind of do it undercover and blah, blah, blah, blah. And that's our reasoning. But I'll tell you what, their imprisonment and their beatings and their martyrdom spread the gospel a lot quicker than the whole quiet religion that many people have embraced.

And I just don't think it's good. And we may come to the place in this country where they're gonna say, you can't speak anymore in the name of Jesus. We're getting very close.

I'm thinking in the next five years, if we don't get a conservative president in this next election, that we're going to be basically told if you preach against homosexuality, transgenderism, any of these things, you are going to jail. It's coming, it's already in Canada and it's getting worse and worse and worse and they're gonna bring more and more issues in. So the question for me, for you is this, do we then go undercover or do we continue to speak boldly in the name of the Lord? I think we speak boldly in the name of the Lord.

Now it's easy to say that now because they're not throwing us in prison right now. Wait until they're throwing you in prison and see if I'm speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. I'm hoping that I am.

So if I have a choice like they did, you go to that campus today, I guarantee if you preach against homosexuality, you're gonna go to prison. Will I go? I hope I will. Are you coming along with me? It's always two by two, you know.

It's Paul and Silas in the jail. So Peter here has to deal with this, we ought to obey God rather than men. Verse 30, the God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you slew and hanged on a tree.

Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince, that's a king and a savior. For to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins. I won't have time this morning to talk about that.

I'd just like to close in verse 32 and we are his witnesses of these things. And so also, I'm gonna ask you a question here. And so also is the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him.

Now I look at that and say, what does it mean there? God has given the Holy Spirit to them that obey him. What obedience do you think he's talking about here? When Peter says to those people, God has given the Spirit to them that obey him. Well, the context here is in verse 29.

Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. And God has given the Holy Spirit to them that obey him. You say, well, obedience, doesn't that mean, you know, dressing a certain way or doesn't that mean giving money to the church? Doesn't that mean not wearing fingernail polish? Doesn't that mean blah, blah, blah, blah? Well, here in the context, it may mean God gives the Holy Spirit to them who are willing to obey him and speak the truth in the face of opposition.

Could we at least acknowledge that that might be the way to interpret that passage? Seeing that the word obey is just a few verses before, we ought to obey God rather than men. Certainly obeying God has to do with a great commission. That's what they're thinking about here.

So let's speak the truth. And God gives us the power. He gives the Holy Spirit to them that obey him.

Acts 1.8 says, I'll give you the power of the Holy Ghost if you'll be my witness. My witness. So one thing you do see in the book of Acts is that those who have the power of the Holy Spirit, that power is given to them to be a witness.

They want to obey him. So we're not to this place right now in this country because we live in a free country in large part. And I know some people don't like these, you know, these rules about all this COVID stuff, but we're still in a free country.

Someday the rules are gonna get pretty tight, especially towards those who are Christians. And preaching the gospel is gonna be condemned and inhibited. So we may face in our lifetime, maybe the next five or 10 years, the same thing Peter did.

We either shrink back and say, I'm not gonna obey the Lord and preach the truth, the whole truth. I'm going to lay low. And so I don't think that's a wise decision.

And it may be sooner than what we think. So let's all get involved. Let's get involved and realizing that God does what he does through his word and that his word needs to be put in hearts.

If you want to do something for an eternal purpose, put seed in people's hearts. The word of God in people's hearts and let God take it from there. Just pretend you're out one day tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning, wake up and say, I'm gonna plant a garden today. All right, I'm gonna plant a garden. So all you do is take five or six, seven verses, get them in your heart and walk around and just meet someone, just put a seed in their heart.

Someone else later on in the day, drop a seed in their heart. Drop another seed. Just plant a garden tomorrow.

The next day, plant a garden. Someday when you're standing before the Lord, you're gonna realize you've got a tremendous heart. All this seeds that I planted are now come.

To fruition. Well, that's what the early church understood and that's something that we need to grasp more of. Let's pray and then we'll open it up for anyone who would like to share.

Heavenly Father, we thank you.