To Speak Thy Word with Boldness

Just hit me as we were singing this, uh, uh, that second verse. Thy word is like a flaming sword, a wedge that cleaveth stone. Keen as a fire, so burns thy word, and pierces flesh and bone.

Let it go forth, o'er all the earth, to cleanse our hearts within, to show thy power in Satan's hour, and break the might of sin. And the word of God goes forth like that, not through the mouth of ministers, but through all the saints. You know, uh, if it's just a little sermon that, uh, the preacher preaches on Sunday morning, uh, it's not going to go very far.

And what is it that keeps the word of God from going out of our mouth, all of our mouths, I included, all of us, when we walk out the door? I'd like to read from Acts chapter 4, verses 29 through 31 today. This, uh, by the way, this is an episode after Peter and John had been up to the temple. We talked about it, I believe, on Wednesday night a little bit.

They'd been up to the temple, uh, and they healed this man who was lame. They had no silver and gold, but they said, What we have we give to you in the name of Jesus Christ. Get up and walk.

A crowd gathered, and Peter begins to preach. Next thing you know, they're arrested. And after they're, uh, released again from custody, they come back to the saints, the believers that are gathered, and, uh, tell them what happened, and everybody praises God.

You know, and, uh, they're just praising God that they have an opportunity to experience persecution for the name of the Lord. And then in verse 29, they are praying to God now. And now, Lord, look upon their threats, and grant to thy servants to speak thy word with all boldness while thou stretchest out thy hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of thy holy servant Jesus.

And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness. In spite of all our talk about getting out on the street, and in spite of all our, you know, uh, encouraging each other to really preach forth the word, and all the illogical reasons we give as to why, you know, uh, uh, we better stay inside these walls. And all the good excuses we give for remaining, you know, within, uh, uh, the safety of the walls of our churches and homes and fellowships.

We know, all of us, that the reason our ministers are dominated by hesitancy is because we're afraid. On the day of Pentecost, we see a group of believers who are also afraid. You know, and the fact that they were afraid was quite obvious because they were in a house.

And that house was sand. And when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all together in one place, and there came a sound from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were seated. They were still in the house when those tongues of flame descended and sat upon each of them.

But when the Holy Spirit entered into them, they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them utterance. Then they were moved to go outside the house, for we are told that a multitude came together. And that Peter stood up to the eleven and began to raise up his voice and speak to the multitude, and that didn't happen inside the house.

Now, the fact that these people left the security of the house and went outside into the street is a sign that they were no longer afraid. Suddenly, these believers, these men and women, had become bold. The direction was no longer in upon themselves, but rather out to the world.

When the Holy Spirit came into them, they began to speak. The word came out of them. They spoke as the Spirit gave them utterance, words that gave an accurate testimony to the glory of God came rolling out of their mouths to their own amazement.

There was no hesitancy, no self-consciousness, no fear. The words just came tumbling out, and as this happened, they found that they could no longer stay inside the house. They couldn't just sit there saying these beautiful things to each other.

They had to go out into the street and tell Jerusalem. Now notice, no preacher had to say, you've got to go out there and preach the word. Nobody had to tell them to get out in the streets.

This was done by them through a compulsion from within. They had to do this. Now this liberty to speak, this inner compulsion to get out into the world and proclaim the gospel of Jesus, crucified and risen, is the very thing which we lack.

If there's anything we need in all the fellowships represented in here today, it's the boldness of God. Now indeed, we still have to continue to exhort each other to go out to the world. And when we find our fellowships becoming ingrown and self-conscious and self-centered, we have to shake ourselves up.

We need to hear Jesus telling us again and again and again to preach his gospel out there in the world, not just to each other, but out there. But my friends, we will never do this until the boldness comes. So long as the word of God remains stuck in our throats, so long as the only witness that comes forth from these mouths is a feeble trickle of Bible quotes, or perhaps a big bluster of Christian platitudes we picked up secondhand, then we might as well stay inside the walls here and whimper to each other because we have nothing to tell the world.

But when the boldness of the living God indeed enters into us and stirs our hearts, the word of God will come forth. And we will not merely speak to each other in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, which by the way we will indeed do, but we will do more than that. We will go out there and tell the world.

We will no longer be ashamed to speak boldly outside the walls of our churches and houses the gospel of Jesus Christ crucified and risen. When the boldness of God comes upon us, we have to speak. We're compelled to.

Woe is me if I preach not the gospel, says Paul. Now notice the boldness that we're talking about is not the boldness of human flesh, not the boldness of an overactive ego. Not the boldness of ambition for our own glory.

But the boldness of God. Now what has to happen in order for this boldness to come down upon us and break the chain so that we're no longer self-conscious, no longer afraid, no longer all choked up with a thousand critical spirits against other people and other fellowships, no longer afraid, worried, anxious about what people think of us, so that we will go out and speak the word, here and out there. There are some of us who seem to think that we just have to wait until God does it.

Wait until the better calls come. You know, God will give it to us when he's ready to. As if we were waiting for God to do this thing.

I agree with you, it has to come from God, but my friends, God has already done his part of it. You know, we're not waiting for God, God is waiting for us. God has already poured out his Spirit in this place.

His Spirit fills this room at this very moment. The Spirit is breathing over us, brooding over us, waiting for us to line ourselves up with his purpose so that he can indeed fill us with the boldness of God. And it's like opening the Venetian blinds so that the light can come in.

First of all, boldness from God comes to those who have died to themselves. In the realm of the holy, the opposite of boldness is self-consciousness. When I'm self-conscious, that means I'm filled with my soul.

God can't come into me, I'm in here. Before God can fill this temple, I have to die. Now, the boldness of this world may come, you know, from a big ego.

But the boldness of God always comes when there is a dead ego. And we have to go up there on Calvary again and take our station by the cross and look at our King and die with him. And see ourselves crucified with him.

Go down into that grave again. It is no longer I who live, I'm crucified with Christ. Don't you know, since Colossians, you're dead, your life is hid with Christ in God.

Now, if I'm dead, who can hurt my feelings? What does it matter if they laugh at me, I'm dead. Then, the boldness of God comes to those who are really walking with Jesus. Notice carefully, on the day of Pentecost, the believers were gathered together indeed, but they were not gathered together for the deeper life.

They were not trying to develop themselves spiritually. They were not having some kind of seminar about the Holy Spirit. They were there because Jesus told them to stay there.

They were being obedient to the Son of God. Their walk with Jesus Christ led them to that place. God does not pour out his Spirit with power upon those who make a hobby out of the Holy Spirit.

God pours out his Spirit upon those who walk with his Son. If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray to Father, and he will give you another confidence to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, and the worldly church can't receive either.

When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were common, uneducated men, they wondered, and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. They didn't say that they got a diploma, or they were doing this or that, or they studied all the aspects of the Holy Spirit's ministry. They were with Jesus, and the Spirit of God came on them and gave them that boldness.

Walk with me, says the Lord. Do what I tell you, and I will see to it that you are constantly anointed with power from on high. I will breathe upon you the breath of my life continuously, all the time.

Just walk with me. It's not some kind of trick, or secret, or method to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Walk with Jesus, and I promise you in the name of Jesus you'll be filled with His Spirit.

If you really walk with Him. Next. The boldness of God is given to those who look to God for it.

To God, not to anything else. Not to some man, not to some book about it, but to God Himself. Interesting.

Those Pentecost believers did not just grab the boldness and run with it and say, now we got it, we're all set. But we see them coming back again and again to be filled afresh. This passage that we read this morning is from chapter 4 of Acts.

And this is the same bunch of people who had already been baptized in the Holy Spirit in chapter 2. They already had the word of God. They already spoke the word of God with boldness. They were already anointed.

How come they have to say, and now Lord, behold their threats. And grant to my servants to speak the word with all boldness. Well, I thought they had the boldness.

But you go back again and again and again. And ask for more. Seek for more.

Your eye is on the throne. And when they had prayed, the place where they were gathered was shaken, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. I thought they weren't filled with the Holy Spirit before.

Well, they got filled again and spoke the word with all boldness. The boldness of the Spirit of the living God is not something you get and stick in your pocket. It's a river of life in the Spirit that flows down from the throne of God.

And as long as our eyes and hearts are really on the throne, the river continues to flow. Get them off the throne, and it stops. Open your mouth, and God will fill it with his word.

Finally, boldness from God comes to those who carry a cross. To those men and women who have accepted persecution and rejection for the name of Jesus as a way of life. Watch out for people who want all the goodies of the Holy Spirit, but they run, you know, 50 miles an hour away from the cross.

The gifts and blessings and wisdom and power and authority that the Holy Spirit imparts to the saints is imparted to the saints who are willing to pick up their cross and follow Jesus under a cross. If we're not under the cross, persecution destroys us. But we notice that Paul wasn't destroyed by persecution.

He didn't get bitter. It made him more bold, because he was under a cross. And here's Stephen, he's going to be stoned to death.

Death is coming right toward him. He doesn't pick up and run. He becomes more bold, because Stephen is carrying a cross.

When you carry a cross, that's what you're here for, to die for Jesus. How can we say that we're carrying a cross, Jesus Christ, when we're scared to open our mouths because we might lose some friends, or we'll lose our big, bold, bad reputation in the world, or somebody won't like us anymore, or they'll laugh at us. Behind every beautiful excuse that we give for our cowardice is the very simple fact that we have much to learn about denying ourselves, taking up our crosses, and following Jesus.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me. For I am meek and lowly in heart, and you'll find rest for your souls. And what is that yoke but his cross? And he says, my yoke is easy, my burden is light.

Because when I'm walking under the cross with Jesus Christ, I no longer have to carry the weight of fear. I don't have to be scared of my fellow man anymore, or what he can do to me, or what the devil can do to me, or what anybody else can do to me. I'm free.

Of course we're going to be persecuted. We're going to be despised, we're going to be slandered, and we're going to be rejected. You know, if this is something you don't want, then don't follow Jesus.

This is all in the promise. He promises us this. He tells us in the world you're going to have tribulation.

And notice these saints. They didn't say, and now, Lord, behold their threats, and set fire from heaven to destroy them. But rather they said, and now, Lord, behold their threats.

The time of the Casper Milquetoast Christians. Of course, in the Church of the Antichrist, there's going to be lots of room for Casper Milquetoast. It's going to be full of Casper Milquetoast.

But in the kingdom of God at this hour, no matter how timid or how shy you may be by nature, the Son of the living God is calling for saints who are strong in his might to proclaim his word with their mouths and with their lives. And he will give us all the boldness that we need, even this day, if we really want it badly enough to pick up our cross and follow him. Let us pray.

We're not asking, Father, that you blind our eyes to the dangers or the risks or the pain or the trouble. Rather, Lord, we're asking right now that you give us such a clear and wonderful vision of a life you're now calling us to live that we may so gladly seize that life that the dangers and the trouble and the persecution and the pain will only add to its glory. We're asking, Lord, that as we walk now under the shadow of that cross and take it, those chains of self-centeredness and self-consciousness will break.

And that your saints here assembled in this place today by your power, Lord Jesus, will be set free. And that the spirit of fear will be removed, Lord, and that the Spirit of God will come in and truly rule our hearts. This day, Father, and in all the days until the King comes, we ask it in his wonderful name.