Acts 4:1

And as they spoke unto the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, being grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. They laid hands on them and put them in hold until the next day, for it was now evening. However, many of them which heard the word believed, and the number of the men was about five thousand.

Father, we do ask that You would, Lord, as we open Your word, open our hearts and our minds and give us understanding by Your Spirit. We thank You for the work that You are doing in our midst, for the work that You're doing in and through this church. Whether it's here in Escondido or to the uttermost parts, Lord, we ask that You would continue to open up doors of opportunity and that You would equip this body, Lord, to do the work of the ministry, wherever You would call us. For we ask it in Jesus' name. All God's people said, Amen. You can be seated.

Now, it's been a few weeks since we were in the book of Acts, but we left off with chapter 3, where Peter and John went up to the temple at the hour of prayer. As they did, there was a man seated by the gate called Beautiful, and he had been lame for basically his entire life. Peter looked down at this man who was begging for alms and said to him, "Look at me." The man looked up and made eye contact with Peter and John, expecting to receive something.

Peter said, "Silver and gold I don't have, but what I have I give to you in the name of Jesus. Rise and walk." He took him by the hand, and the man rose up and walked. He went into the temple, jumping and leaping and praising God, as recorded in Acts chapter 3. This caused a great commotion in the temple, and there were a lot of people there because they were coming to pray. They all gathered around Peter and John, seeing this man whom they had seen many times before, lame at the gate. Yet now he was praising God and jumping up and down in the temple.

They came to Peter and John, and Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, began to preach the gospel to the people that were there. As he preached to them, we saw in verse 19 that he gives them the call, "Repent ye therefore," as stated in Acts 3:19, "repent and be converted that your sins may be..."

Blotted out, and that the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. As he was speaking these things and preaching to the multitudes that were there, all these people began to hear, and their hearts were cut. They cried out, "What ought we to do?" It says, "Repent."

However, as he does this, we read in chapter 4 that the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them. They saw what was going on and rushed there as quickly as they could. They were grieved, as noted in verse 2 of chapter 4, because Peter and John taught the people. Notice this: they preached that through Jesus, there is the resurrection from the dead.

I believe that the chief priests mentioned here, along with the captain of the temple, were concerned that Peter and John were preaching in the name of Jesus. However, it was the Sadducees who were particularly troubled by the preaching of the resurrection from the dead through Jesus. The Sadducees did not believe in the supernatural; they did not believe in the resurrection. They were the ones who came to Jesus with that absurd story about a man who had a wife, and he died. His brother took the wife, and he died, and then all seven brothers died without having a child. Their mindset was, "In the resurrection, if there is a resurrection, whose wife shall she be?"

Jesus, of course, spoke to them and said, "You err, not knowing the Scriptures." He explained that there truly is a resurrection. So, it is the Sadducees who did not agree with or believe in the resurrection, and they came to see that Peter and John were preaching the resurrection from the dead. The captain of the temple and the priests who came also saw that Peter and John were preaching in the name of Jesus, and they did not like this. They were grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

I believe that this is the same message that you and I are to carry and preach in our day. The message has not changed in 2,000 years. It is the message that Jesus came to proclaim, and he commissioned his disciples to do the same. Here we are, 2,000 years later, and we are also to teach and preach the resurrection from the dead through Jesus Christ, faith in his name, and the work that he did.

As we will see in this passage, and as Roberto even mentioned in verse 12, "Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby men must be saved." There is no other way to God. I recognize that there are many in our nation and in our world today who do not like that very clear message—that there is only one way. They say, "Oh, you're so..."

Narrow-minded and so stringent and uptight, the fact is that the Scriptures make it very clear: there is no other way. Peter and John were in the temple at the hour of prayer, surrounded by multitudes of people who had just witnessed a great healing, a miracle. They were preaching to them that through Jesus is the resurrection from the dead. The religious leaders of their day were grieved; they didn't like what they saw. So, they laid hands on them and put them in some sort of detention center, a holding place, or a prison of some sort, until the next day because it was evening.

Peter had obviously taught and preached for a considerable length of time. They had gone up at the hour of prayer, which is about three in the afternoon, and now it was evening when they were taken into custody. However, we read in verse 4 that many of those who heard the word believed. As Peter preached, he urged them to repent and be converted so that their sins would be blotted out and times of refreshing would come. As he preached about resurrection through Jesus, many people there believed, and we are told that the number of men was about 5,000.

Previously, in Acts chapter 2, you will remember that when Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, the number of the church was about 3,000. There are many different ideas on whether 2,000 more have been added or if, at this point, 5,000 came to faith. Whatever the case, the church was growing very quickly. As we considered several weeks ago, the growth of the church was not because of Peter or John or anything that any man had done. In Acts chapter 2, verse 47, it says that the early church, when they gathered together, praised God and had favor with all people, and the Lord added to the church daily those who should be saved.

It was God who was causing this growth in the church. It wasn't the dynamic teaching or preaching of John, Peter, or the rest of the disciples. It was the work that God was doing by His Holy Spirit in convicting the hearts of men. Jesus said in John chapter 16 that the Holy Spirit is in the world convincing or convicting the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. We need to recognize that any evangelistic work always begins with the work of the Holy Spirit. It always starts with God moving and ministering to the heart, beginning to break up that fallow ground and that hard heart.

Every single one of us here this morning has family members, co-workers, and friends who don't know Christ Jesus. To this point,

Although you have been a good witness to them and have tried to share the gospel, their hearts may be hard. I recommend that you begin to pray that God, by His Spirit, would convince them and convict them of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Pray that God, by His Spirit, would prepare the hearts of the people.

During this time in Acts chapter 4, and prior to this point, we have seen that it has all been a work of the Holy Spirit. Amen? The church today is still to be a work of the Holy Spirit. It is not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord. As God spoke to Zerubbabel, the builder, he faced an impossible task in his day. In reality, we face what would be an impossible task in our own strength today: sharing the good news with people who are dead in their trespasses and sins. Unless the Lord comes in and begins to break up the fallow ground of their hearts, they will not receive the good news of the truth of God.

We must pray that God would move. We need to ask Him to move on our family members, friends, and co-workers who do not know the Lord. God does move, and He is powerful—much more powerful than any persuasive words we might be able to use. God's Word is able to cut deep because it is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. It can divide asunder between joints and marrow, soul and spirit. It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

As Peter preached the Word of God and the Holy Spirit moved on the hearts of the men, many heard and believed. About 5,000 were added to the church. In verse 5, it says, "And it came to pass on the next day that the rulers and the elders and the scribes, and Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest were gathered together at Jerusalem."

When they had set Peter and John in the midst, they asked them, "By what power or by what name have you done this?" They took Peter and John specifically and brought them into the midst of the council, the Sanhedrin. Many religious leaders were present. The rulers, elders, and scribes—the scribes were the lawyers of the day, the ones who had written down and copied the Old Testament. They thought they understood the Scriptures, but they did not fully comprehend what the Scriptures pointed to.

We read that the rulers, elders, and scribes, along with the high priest, Annas, were present. This is interesting because when Jesus was crucified, Caiaphas was the high priest. There has been a change here, although Caiaphas is still around.

John and Alexander are not fully known to us. As many of the kindred of the high priest gathered together, they brought Peter and John into their midst and asked them a significant question: "By what power and by what name have you done this?" What had they done? They had performed a notable miracle. The people noticed that a man who had been lame for essentially his entire life, who was there at the gate called Beautiful every single day, begging for something to sustain him, had been healed.

Everyone had seen this man, but the religion of the day and the religious leaders were powerless to help him. Yet, Peter and John went up at the hour of prayer and encountered this man. They didn't have anything to give him monetarily, but Peter said, "Look at me. I don't have any silver and gold, but what I have, I will give to you. In the name of Jesus, rise and walk." There is the name; there is the answer to the question these men asked. By what power were they able to perform this miraculous feat?

Seeing this lame man given strength to walk once again, not just to walk but to jump, leap, and praise God as he entered the temple, is truly remarkable. Imagine, if you will, this man who had been lame his entire life due to his infirmity. He was not allowed to go into the temple and worship with the rest of the Jews. The closest he could come was at that gate called Beautiful. No doubt he longed to enter with the congregation to worship, yet he was hindered by his condition. Now, he was given strength and went in jumping, leaping, and praising God, excited about what had happened.

Many of you this morning have experienced a similar transformation. Perhaps you didn't have a physical infirmity, but you know you were dead in your trespasses and sins. You were spiritually lost. But the Lord came and quickened you, and now you come before Him jumping, leaping, and praising God. People in the world who do not know Christ may look at what we do here on a Sunday morning, singing songs unto the Lord, and think it looks pointless. However, you know that God has transformed you, and your heart overflows with joy unspeakable. You want to come and worship God.

It is a wonderful thing to come before His presence with thanksgiving. Here was this man who had been lame his entire life. How many of you felt lame for your entire life until the Lord saved you? Yet now, the Lord has saved you, called you, and brought you near by the blood of Jesus Christ and by the power of God.

God. And so they asked him, by what power and by what name? The sad thing is that these religious leaders didn't know the power of God. Isn't that interesting? They had a form of godliness, but they denied the power thereof. They did not know the power of God. They were powerless to help this man by their religion, and religion will always be powerless to transform man.

Many of you come from a religious background where you engaged in various formal religious practices, hoping that those formalities would cleanse you and remove the conscience of dead works, but they never did. There was always the remembrance of sin. Only in Jesus Christ is there power to completely transform. Yet these religious men, the leaders of the nation of Israel, did not know that power, although they had a form of godliness.

There are many people in the world who have a religious formality but do not know the power of God. They may have some sort of experience, but they do not understand and know the power of God. You can go to any continent or any people group in this world, and you will find different religious experiences and expressions wherever you go. However, the power of God is only found in Jesus Christ; it will only ever be found in Him.

Here were these very religious men, close to the worship of God, for God was worshipped in the temple. They had the Word of God as given by Moses and the prophets, yet they did not fully understand and know the power of God. There are many people in the world today who do not know His power. God desires to show forth His power, doesn't He? He told His disciples in Acts chapter 1, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts." They were going to be witnesses of the power of God.

We see them powerfully witnessing for God, and the religious establishment looks at them and asks, "Where did this power come from, and by what name have you done this?" Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto the rulers and the elders of the people of Israel, "If this day we be examined for a good deed done to an impotent man, by what means he was made whole, be it known unto you and all the people that are in Israel, that by the...

The name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him does this man stand here before you whole. By Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified. That's the name. It is so interesting to me that it is that name that causes such great consternation in so many people. Franklin Graham wrote a very interesting book several years ago called The Name. In that book, he outlines how just the name Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth causes so much trouble throughout the world.

Why? Because we need to recognize that this world is under the sway of the wicked one, the prince of the power of the air, the enemy of God, Lucifer, and his angels or devils. This whole world is under the sway of the wicked one, and as a result, it hates the name of Jesus and would love nothing more than to purge the name of Jesus Christ from society. We even see it happening in part in our own nation today, and I believe that it will happen even more as time goes by. There is a desire in the wicked heart of man, stirred by the evil adversary, the devil, to hate the name of Jesus.

Here, by the power of God, stirred by the Holy Spirit, notice that it says Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit. Again, in verse 8, the filling of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts is a repeated theme. It doesn't just happen once. In Acts chapter 2, they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Here in Acts chapter 4, verse 8, Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit. At the end of Acts chapter 4, we will see that the whole congregation was filled with the Holy Spirit. We will see it again when Peter goes to Cornelius' house in Acts chapter 10; the congregation there was filled with the Holy Spirit.

It was something that needed to happen continuously. So much so that Paul, when he taught the church at Ephesus, would say, "Be being filled with the Holy Spirit." It is something that you and I need to seek from God every single day. We should ask God to overflow us, to overwhelm us, to work in and through us, to guide and direct us. He desires to do that. Jesus gave us a great promise in Luke chapter 11, where He said, "If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to him who asks?" All we need to do is ask, "God, would you fill me?"

It was D.L. Moody who, many years ago, was asked why he constantly talked about being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Filled with the Holy Spirit? A couple of ladies came up to him and said, "Haven't you already been filled?" He replied, "Yes, I've been filled, but I leak." We all go through that, don't we? There are times throughout the day when it feels like the little low fuel indicator light goes on. When someone says something that upsets us or when someone cuts us off on the freeway, it's like, "Bling, low fuel," and we think, "Oh, I want to kill him." Whatever it may be, even at that moment, we can say, "Lord, would you please fill me with your Holy Spirit?" The flesh remains, doesn't it? It has been said before that the flesh wakes up first every single morning. We need to ask God, "Would you fill me again today? Would you overflow me? Give me the right words to speak to the people you bring me in contact with?"

Here was Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit. He said to the people, "Listen, be it known unto you and all the people of Israel that it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified." There is an interesting contrast here. He addressed the leaders of the religious establishment in Israel, saying, "You crucified him. You killed him. But God raised him from the dead." This illustrates the power of God. Remember the mixed multitude that Peter was speaking to; some of them were Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection. Peter didn't care if they didn't believe in the resurrection; it did not diminish the truth of it. The resurrection was still true whether they believed it or not.

Although many people in our nation and in our world today do not believe the Word of God, it does not diminish the truth of it. Even if they speak slanderously of God and His Word, it does not mean that what God has said is not real, right, or true. Amen? God's Word is true, and it is a sure foundation. We are called to stand upon it. Here, Peter, filled with all boldness, speaks to the very same people to whom he denied the Lord just a few months prior. The same people were present when he said, "I do not even know the man." Now, filled with the Holy Spirit, he declares, "Listen, the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, that is the power that healed this man. The one that you crucified, but God raised him from the dead. Even by Him does this man stand here before you whole."

Do you have that testimony today? Do you have that same testimony in your life that it is by the name of Jesus Christ that you stand whole and in your right mind today? That is a sufficient testimony to share with people who need to hear it.

Don't believe in Christ? We need to be bold to share that. Peter says, "Listen, this guy, you all saw him. He was lame. He was seated there by the gate that's called Beautiful, begging for alms for his entire life. Every single one of you walked past him. Perhaps you gave something to him, but most likely you decided to go through another gate because you didn't want to see him. And yet, it's by the name of Jesus Christ that he now stands here whole."

This is the stone, verse 11, which was set at naught by you builders, which has become the head of the corner. Here, Peter is quoting Psalm 118, verse 22. He says, "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone." Paul, the Apostle, would also use this verse in many of his letters, quoting back to the Old Testament.

There is an old legend among the Jews that when they were building the temple, they would quarry the rocks some distance away from the Temple Mount so that they wouldn't hear the sound of a hammer or a chisel on the Temple Mount. It was to be a holy and reverent place. They would quarry the rocks in another location and bring them there. One of the rocks was brought up, but the builders didn't quite know which one it was. The legend says that they pushed it over the side into the Kidron Valley because they didn't know where it was supposed to fit.

When it came time to lay the cornerstone of the foundation of the temple, they couldn't find the stone. They called back to the quarry and asked, "Hey, where's that cornerstone?" They were told, "Oh, we sent it to you months ago." But they had rejected it; they had pushed it down into the Kidron Valley. Eventually, they found it, and it became the cornerstone of the temple.

It's interesting because here, Peter, stirred by the Holy Spirit, recognizes that this was an allusion to the coming Christ, the one who would be the chief cornerstone of the church. The builders, the religious establishment in Israel, would reject Him. They would say, "We will not have this man to rule over us." And yet, He still was the chief cornerstone.

So Peter says to them, "Listen, you crucified Him. You rejected Him. But this does not diminish the fact that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." Would you highlight that or put a star next to it? Or reach over into your neighbor's Bible and circle it three or four times? What an important truth we need to memorize and understand. There is no salvation outside of Jesus Christ.

Christ Jesus boldly proclaimed to His disciples in John 14, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by me." There is no other name given among men whereby men must be saved. We must be saved by Jesus Christ. There is no back door, no side window; there is no other way but Christ alone. He is the only way.

Some people say, "Well, that's awfully narrow" or "that's awfully exclusive." Listen, I didn't make this up. God is the one who commanded it. There is no other way. Although there are different faiths, different religions, and different worldviews, some of which gather all the different faiths together and say everything leads to God, that is not true. There is a wide path, and Jesus says it leads to destruction. We need to be very clear in our proclamation of the truth: there is no other way. There is no other name given under heaven among men whereby men must be saved but Jesus Christ.

Now, I believe that we are seeing, and have been seeing for a long time, a shift in our nation more and more towards secularization, more and more towards secularism. There is a pluralistic worldview in our nation, and we are really into multiculturalism. Everything is good, everything is fine, and we have to tolerate everybody, especially as it relates to religious views. When you talk with someone about Christianity and the Lord and the gospel, they might say, "Oh, I'm glad that you have that. I've got my own view."

We need to be bold in our proclamation that, no, listen, I understand that you have your own worldview, but it will not stand on the day of Christ Jesus. There is coming a day when all of us will stand before God for judgment. Many on that day will say, "Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name. We cast out demons in your name. We did many mighty works in your name." And He will say, "Depart from me. I never knew you, you who practice lawlessness."

There are many people who have a form of godliness, but they don't know the power of God—the power of God that is found only in Jesus Christ. That is the only way for salvation. Every other way leads to destruction.

Now, because of the message that you and I bring, we will experience trouble and difficulty, as we see in this passage and as we will see in other places in the book of Acts.

The church, because of their steadfast determination to preach Christ and Him crucified, was persecuted. We in America today have largely gone without persecution. As a result, we've been very free to exercise religion in our nation. However, this freedom has also led to many outside influences entering the church and watering down the message of the gospel. Just as Jesus said in His parables, there are tares among the wheat. There are those who are false converts, who don't really know Jesus Christ as Lord, but they are among the body of Christ within the church. We may not know who they are until the end; only God is able to reveal who they are.

We need to recognize that there is a continued secularization in our society. There will be a continued push for us to keep our mouths shut, as we will see in this passage in just a moment. They will tell these men, "Listen, don't preach and teach in this guy's name. Stop doing this whole thing." Our culture and society here in America are moving more and more in that direction. This has been happening for a very long time. Many of you experience this in the workplace or in our community, where there is a push to keep religion in the pew. It's one of the things that is often said.

I believe that there is a new fuel that has been poured on this fire, this anti-God sentiment in our nation. I want to preface what I'm about to say by expressing my heart here. I am not against our new president. I do think that his election is and was historic and will continue to be so. However, his election has added fuel to the fire of this anti-God liberal mindset in our nation. This mindset pervades our modern media. Have you noticed? It is very much ingrained in the modern news media, magazine print media, and so forth. As a result, it is being disseminated to a very large populace. That anti-God, very liberal, against God, anti-morality mindset is being given out to tons and tons of people. This is not to say anything mean, but people are sheep.

We are sheep. We will just believe what people tell us. That's why we need resources to verify information. For instance, there's a website that shows the truth behind various claims circulating on the internet. It's called Snopes. People receive these forwards in their inboxes, read them, and often think, "Oh, wow, this is amazing."

Did you know where popcorn came from? There was a fire on an island that had corn, and the Native Americans went back and cut up this crazy stuff. Just because it's on the internet, people believe it a lot of the time. Or just because there’s news that circulates, we tend to accept it without question. We have to be careful and very guarded about what we are feeding our minds and our hearts. That's why we need to make sure that we take in the Word of God, because it is a light unto our path.

However, there is a significant amount of information with an anti-God and very anti-morality mindset being disseminated to a large group within our nation. As a result, I believe we will continue to see a growing scorn and contempt for the church and for the message that you and I bring. This contempt is already present, but I think it will ramp up. We are already witnessing it directed at the church and the Word of God.

I read several articles this week, and one that really stood out to me was from Newsweek. The article was titled "Brains Are Back." Let me share what the author says. He expresses that the election of President Barack Obama has made him positively giddy. In one of the paragraphs, he writes, "After nearly eight years of a president who could barely form a coherent sentence, much less a strategic thought, we can finally go back to respecting logic and reason and studiousness under a president who doesn't seem to care much about what is left and what is right or ideologically pure or what he thinks God is saying to him. A guy who keeps religion in its proper place in the pew."

The author continues by criticizing George W. Bush, describing him as a symbol of ideological rigidity, religious zealotry, and anti-intellectualism. What I want you to notice is what he implies. Read between the lines. What he is saying is that what you believe as a Christian is viewed as anti-intellectual and religious zealotry. In essence, he suggests that you have checked your brain at the door.

We do not have any logic or studious reason. We are just ideologically insane, basically, is what this author is saying. And that's what's being disseminated to a large group of people. Not only that, there is this view that our new president is something of a savior, which concerns me. One writer from the Washington Post, Harold Meyerson, wrote the day after the inauguration this week. He said good words, speaking about President Barack Obama's inauguration speech. Good words. But what made yesterday so astounding is that those words were made flesh.

I don't know if you catch what he just said, but he's quoting the Apostle John from the Gospel of John: "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." That speaks of who? Jesus Christ. There are some very interesting things happening in our nation in the time in which we're living. We need to recognize that as these things begin to build more and more, there will continue to be this disdain and a loud, boisterous call for the church to keep quiet. Just keep religion in its proper place in the pew.

Now, I want you to consider something. Had Martin Luther King and the men of his day kept religion in the pew, Barack Obama would not be president today. That's just the fact. It's the truth. They believed the Word of God and stood upon the convictions of the Word of God. As a result, we saw the civil rights movement in our nation, and praise God for it. Wherever the Word of God has gone, it has liberated man. Man binds himself when led by Satan and is in bondage.

But this desire for the church to just keep quiet and keep religion in the pew makes the message of Acts chapter 4 very applicable for us today. We need to notice what these men of God say when the religious establishment of their day or the leaders of their day say, "Be quiet." There is salvation only in the name of Jesus Christ. There is only one name given under heaven among men whereby men must be saved.

When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they perceived, in verse 13, that they were unlearned and ignorant men. What's the world say about us? They marveled and took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. They looked at Peter.

They saw the boldness of him and perceived that this guy was an idiot. It's basically what they said. This guy doesn't know what he's talking about. Who is this guy? He was not trained by them. He did not go through their universities or their higher learning centers. They perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, but they marveled because they had been with Jesus.

Beholding the man who was healed standing with them, they could say no other thing against it. When they saw the testimony of a transformed man, there was no possible way they could deny that something was going on here. We need the testimony of God in our lives, that He has transformed us and made us whole. We also need the boldness from the Holy Spirit to speak the truth, even though we may be the ignorant and unlearned individuals of the world.

When they had commanded them to go outside of the council, they conferred among themselves, saying, "What shall we do to these men? For indeed, a notable miracle has been performed by them, and it is manifest to all who dwell in Jerusalem. We cannot deny it. We cannot deny that the power of God moved in and through these men. But that it spread no further among the people, let us straightly threaten them that they speak no more to any man in this name."

We are coming to a time in our nation where that kind of decree is going to be given. If you go to the whitehouse.gov website and look through the policies of this administration, one of the things you will find has to do with hate speech legislation and a big push to bring this about. President Bush wouldn't sign it, but President Obama has said he will.

Largely, when they talk about hate speech, it's not specifically racial issues they are addressing. It pertains to the church and the church's stance regarding certain lifestyles being sin, particularly homosexuality. They want us to keep quiet. There is a desire to keep religion, so to speak, within the pews and the walls of the church. Just keep it there. But our God told us to go and proclaim it. So we have a little issue here. The culture and society are saying to keep it inside the walls of your church; that's just fine.

1675, Seven Oaks Road, just stay there. Our God says to go and preach repentance and remission of sins unto all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. They said, "Let's tell them just to not talk in the name of Jesus any longer."

In verse 18, they called them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, you judge." I love that. He says to the leaders there, "Why don't you tell us what we should do? Our God told us to proclaim it." Jesus told us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Our God told us to proclaim it. Now you say, "Keep quiet." Tell us, who should we listen to? For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. Oh, I pray that that mindset would invade my heart and yours. We cannot but speak the things that we have seen and heard.

When they had further threatened them, verse 21 tells us they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them because of the people. All men glorified God for that which was done. They couldn't find anything to charge these guys with. Although they looked for something, no doubt they were trying to find some sort of sin or crime to bring against them so that they could actually beat them or judge them in some form. But they couldn't find anything.

In the next chapter, we will see that they make something up and beat them, telling them to keep quiet. But here, they couldn't find anything because Peter, John, and the disciples were men of integrity. Therefore, I would say to all of you here this morning, especially you men, we need to be men of integrity in the society in which we live. Though they may say to us, "You guys are foolish, you guys are intolerant, you are ignorant, you are stupid, you are unlearned, untrained," may they never be able to say, "You are murderers, liars, adulterers, fornicators, or any of those sorts of things."

They may bring all kinds of different accusations against us because of the message that we preach. But let it be that we are men and women of integrity. When the world looks at us and says, "Oh, you guys are just a bunch of ignorant and unlearned men," that's the furthest they can go with it. They don't have anything else to grab onto. May the gospel never be slandered.

May we be steadfast in our determination to follow hard after the Lord, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in this world. They may threaten you; they may try to keep you down, but speak the truth with boldness. I think we need to speak the truth with boldness in a wise way. If your employer asks you not to do that while you're working, absolutely not. As a man or a woman of integrity, you do so on your own time, during your break, and so forth. But at work, you are a witness to your employer as a person of integrity, honesty, and self-control. They know they can trust you with anything.

I know a number of you here in this church who are godly men of great integrity. You are examples to me in such a huge way because you stand in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation among whom you shine. It's not very hard for me to be a witness of God in my work environment, but I know there are many of you here this morning where it is. I pray for you, and the pastors pray for you, that you would be men and women of integrity and stand strong in the midst of this wicked and perverse generation, shining brightly as lights.

They could find nothing that they might bring against these men because all the people in Jerusalem had seen this notable miracle. Verse 22 says, "For the man was above 40 years old on whom this miracle of healing was showed." He had been lame for a very long time, and they were all blown away by what they had seen.

Verse 23 states, "And being let go, they went to their own company and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said unto them." When they heard that, they lifted up their voice with one accord and said, "You'll have to come back next week to find out."

Let's stand together. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word.

And I do thank you this morning, Father, for the men and the women of this church who stand strong in a dark world. Lord, I thank you for their honesty and for their integrity. I thank you for the way that they preach without words the truth of Your Gospel.

But Lord, I pray that when given an opportunity, every single one of us would be bold in our proclamation of the truth. There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby men must be saved. There is no salvation in any other but in You, Jesus. We thank You that today Your power has transformed our lives and that we have this testimony.

As we go from here today, I pray that You would once again, as You did so many times in the Book of Acts and throughout the ages of the church, pour out Your Holy Spirit and give us boldness to stand strong and to speak the truth.

Father, we know that we are living in the last days. In the last days, we are told that perilous times would come. Men would be lovers of themselves, proud, boasters, arrogant, disobedient to parents, unlovely, unloving, unthankful, and unholy. They would have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. You told us that we are to turn away from such individuals.

So, Lord, I pray that You would help us to stand strong, to avoid the pitfalls that we find in this world, and to follow hard after You to Your glory. We pray this in the mighty and precious name of Jesus. Amen.