Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
We're going to be back in the book of Acts, and we'll be in
Acts Chapter 4 this morning. The book of Acts chapter #4 as
we continue to look at Peter and his growth and we mirror his
growth or we attempt to mirror his growth in our own life.
As we've looked at that over the last few weeks, we started.
Well, we started at the end with Peter at the end of his life,
the last verse of second Peter. And we saw that he was to grow
in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, but he
also grew in giving God glory. And we asked ourselves, will you
grow? Will you make this?
Growth within your own Christian life not that we are perfect,
not that we are stained glass Saints, but rather that we are
just trying to get where we need to go in the Christian life a
little bit more every day that we're trying to be like Christ
because that is the goal. Then we saw in Acts chapter 2
the method of growth was the Holy Spirit and that the Holy
Spirit who lives inside of us, as soon as we get saved, He is
the one who helps us grow. And then we looked at last week
the fact that someone's counting on you to grow.
And we remember we found this lame man, this man who from
birth was not able to walk, but that Peter said silver and gold
have I none but such as I have, I give thee in the name of Jesus
of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And what happened?
That's exactly that took place and that we saw that there are
people. In the same way.
Who Jesus has left behind, not because he's forgotten about
them, no, quite the opposite, because he has left them for you
and I to minister to. And we talked about who some of
those people were last week. And so I'll ask you again if
you've been here the last several weeks, I want to ask you
again, because again, I'm a nosy pastor.
And so I have to ask you the question, have you grown over
the last few weeks? Have you taken time in your
Christian life to be able to grow in certain areas where you
know that you are weak? Do you remember that it's really
the Holy Spirit who is the one that gives you the power and
assistance to grow, that certainly you have to put forth
the effort, but it's the Holy Spirit.
We'll see that here this morning in Acts chapter #4 as well.
And you realize that there are people who are counting on you
to grow. And I will tell you, maybe
perhaps one of the greatest groups that is counting on you
to grow is the lost are those who do not know Jesus Christ as
their Savior. And so this morning, we're going
to look at that great need and we're going to see how we can
fulfill that need in a message that I have entitled this
growing and giving the gospel. Growing and giving the gospel
the necessity of you and I to be able to share our faith.
Would you stand pleased for the reading of God's Word?
Acts chapter 4, we'll begin in verse #1 Acts chapter 4,
beginning in verse #1 but we'll really take time to treat the
whole chapter. But this is where we'll start.
And it says, And as they spake unto the people, the priests and
the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them,
that being Peter and John, being grieved, that they taught the
people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the
dead. And then they had hands on them,
and put them in the hold until the next day, for was now even
time. Howbeit many of them which heard
the word believed, and the number of the men was about
5000. And it came to pass on the
Morrow that their rulers and elders, and scribes, and Anis,
the high priests, and Caiaphas, and John and Alexander, and as
many as were the kindred of the high priest, gathered together
Jerusalem. And when they had set them in
the midst, they asked, By what power or by what name have you
done this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy
Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people and elders of
Israel. And if we this day be examined
of the good deed done to the impotent man, talking about that
man who could not walk, by what means is he is made whole?
Be it known unto you and to all the people of Israel, that by
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom he crucified,
whom God raised from the dead, even by Him, that this man stand
here. Before you whole.
This is the stone which was said it not of you builders, which
has become the head of the corner.
Now listen to this. Neither is there salvation in
any other for there is none other name under heaven give it
among men whereby we must be saved.
Do you know that verse was true 2000 years ago?
And I've got good news for you. It's true today, isn't it, that
this? Neither is there salvation in
any other. There is none other name under
heaven give it among men whereby we must be saved.
And you're either one or two groups here this morning.
You're someone who needs to be saved or you're someone who is
saved that. Needs to tell someone else how
to get saved. Those are the only two groups
that are here today. We'll try to treat both of those
through our text today. Why don't you be seated?
Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I do thank you
for this morning. And again, I thank you just for
the wonderful group of people who are here today.
My heart is so, so much rejoicing in my heart for what I
see here today. But Lord, we didn't just come
here today to gather a crowd. The Lord people didn't just come
here to be 1 of several that are numbered, but we all came today
because of Your word. And so I pray it's Your word
that what stands out. It's your word that changes
lives. And Lord, it's your word that
would change someone's life today from death to life.
And it'll be Your word today that encourages us to tell
someone else how they can know that name of Jesus Christ so
that if we're saved that they can be saved as well.
Thank you for this time. We ask your blessing upon it in
Jesus name, Amen. Let me ask you this.
Don't answer out loud, but answer with your heart this
morning. When was the last time that you
shared your faith? When was the last time you told
someone that you were a believer and that you hoped that they
would be a believer too? When was the last time you
handed someone a gospel tract you know, a little pamphlet and
let them know about how that they can come to trust Jesus
Christ as their Savior? When was the last time you wept
tears for someone that you wished would get saved but
hasn't gotten saved yet? What was the last time you were
concerned about someone's eternal destiny?
Because the Bible says there are only two eternal destinies?
That's a very real heaven. There's a very real lake of
fire. What was the last time that was
something that was a concern for you?
When was the last time that was something that was a burden for
you? Well, Charles Spurgeon said this
about the issue of giving the gospel.
He said live your faith boldly and let your words and deeds be
a bridge for others to find Christ.
Lee Strobel, who wrote the book The Case for Christ, said this.
When you share your faith, you're not imposing.
You're offering an invitation to know the God.
Who loves us all? You'll see God uses you and God
wants to use me to be able to reach the lost for Christ.
And we see that in a very powerful way here in Acts
chapter 4. And really what we just read is
a continuation of what just happened in Acts chapter 3.
I know I made mention of it a few moments ago, but really the
difference between Acts chapter 3 and chapter 4 as far as time
is really immediate. When Acts chapter 3 ends and
Peter is saying unto you, first God having raised up his Son,
Jesus sent him to bless you and turning away every one of you
from his iniquities, There's really just seconds that pass
before verse 1 of chapter 4 says where it says, and they spake
unto the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and
the Sadducees came upon them. So really what we're reading
this morning is just a continuation of what we looked
at last week. Now if you weren't here last
week, just as a reminder, Peter and John heal a man who was lame
in his feet through the power of Jesus Christ.
This is not something that Peter and John did on their own.
Oh no, quite the opposite. These two men about 50 days ago
couldn't do anything right. These two men 50 days ago
couldn't even get out of their own way, let alone each other's
way. But now they're working together
in Christian harmony for one cause and one purpose to further
the gospel. And in that moment, it was
bringing healing. To this man who?
Leaps up on his feet and gives glory to God.
And Peter doesn't talk. He starts to preach and he
preaches the word of God. Now what's the result of this?
We saw, did you, did you catch this in verse #3 it's mentioned
so casually at the end of verse #3 where it says, and well,
actually verse #4 my apologies. It says.
Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed.
And the number of the men was about 5000.
Now, if you're keeping track, in Acts chapter one, there was 120
at the day of Pentecost, 3000 people got saved, dead to the
church, and now there's 5000 more, more than the day of
Pentecost. How much do we talk about the
day of Pentecost? And rightly so because of the
promise of the Spirit that was fulfilled that day.
But there were 2000 more who were saved on this day than
there were even on the Day of Pentecost.
Listen, you think this church is growing?
Talk about church that went from 120 to 8120 in a few weeks.
Now I'd be up for it. I don't know where we put
everybody. I don't, we don't even know put
the cars, let alone the people. But I would tell you this, I'd
love to find out. And that's what happened, this
church. Why?
Because of the power of God and the usefulness of Peter and John
availing themselves to the power of God.
But of course, the forces of evil don't like people getting
saved. The forces of evil don't like it
when people's lives change. Some of you had some difficulty,
maybe even getting to church this morning.
Why was that? Well, because Satan wasn't
exceptionally pleased for you to come to church.
Satan was exceptionally pleased for you to be able to hear the
Word of God, knowing that your life could change today by
walking through the doors of Liberty Baptist Church.
Why? Because you're at Liberty
Baptist Church? No, Why?
Because of the pastor? No, because of the Word of God
that's being proclaimed here today.
Anytime you come in contact with the Word of God and your heart
is open, your life can change forever.
And he doesn't want you to be a part of that.
And that's exactly what happens here.
Now, may I remind you, Peter and John are humble fishermen.
These men are really nobodies, but all of a sudden the
establishment comes raining down on them.
How much so? Well, in my Bible here I counted
11 different individuals. Or groups of people.
That immediately bring the hammer down on Peter.
You're talking about two guys again that didn't even get their
stuff together 50 days ago, and now the entire religious
establishment has come upon him. I've circled them in my Bible in
verse #1 there's the priests, the captain of the temple, and
the Sadducees. In verse #5 there's the rulers,
the elders, the scribes. Verse 6, there's Anis and
Caiaphas, John Alexander, the kindred of the high priest.
All of these have come together in one accord and one voice, and
they're all saying the same thing.
Stop preaching about Jesus Christ.
Stop telling people this seemingly life giving, life
changing message. We don't want other people to
know. And remember, it was just a
couple chapters ago in Acts chapter 2 on the day of
Pentecost that the same people were mocking when they were
speaking in those other languages and saying these men
aren't holy. These men aren't doing right.
They're just drunk and here they are.
It sure doesn't seem like they're drunk.
It seems like they're filled with the Spirit of God and they
are preaching the word of God. And what are they doing?
They're trying to intimidate these men.
In fact, if you look at verse #21 it says later on that when
they had further threatened them, they let them go.
Well, if they had further threatened them later on, that
means that they had threatened them before.
And so really, when James and John, or Peter and John rather,
are first brought in and arrested, they are threatened.
The very next day they're brought out and they say answer
yourselves for what you've done. And Peter, that boldness comes
in handy when it's powered by the Holy Spirit.
That boldness in your flesh gets you in a lot of trouble, doesn't
it? Some of you are really quiet all
right about that because you know I'm right.
Your boldness powered by the flesh gets you in trouble.
You know how I know? Because it gets me in trouble.
Oh, yeah. You're willing to laugh at that.
OK, gets me in a lot of trouble, but boldness when empowered by a
Holy Spirit. Friend, do you realize what God
can do with you? And Peter stands up.
He gives not one apology. He says nothing that's wrong.
He says this, are you all bringing us in?
Have you? Has all of the religious
establishment of Israel come down upon the two of us because
a man who was impotent, a man who had no power in his legs is
now whole. This is what our crime is.
This is what you're worried about.
He says here's what the problem is.
Let's just get down to the root of the matter.
You don't like the fact that we're preaching and teaching the
name of Jesus Christ to the point that he says in verse #12
one of the greatest verses of salvation you will find in all
the Bible. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name under heaven.
Give it among men whereby we must be saved.
And as I said before and I'll say again, that's as true today
as it was 2000 years ago. There is no salvation in Islam
and the name of Allah. There is no salvation in Buddha
and the name of Buddhism. There is no salvation in any
other name. It's only in Jesus Christ.
By the way, if you take Jesus Christ and add another name with
Jesus Christ, there's no salvation.
You can't take away Jesus Christ and have salvation, and you
can't add to the name of Jesus Christ and salvation.
Well, pastor, it's Jesus Christ and works.
Nope, Nope. The Bible tells us that
salvation is a free gift by the grace of God, not of works, lest
any man could boast. That's what the Bible says.
There's not salvation in any other.
There's not salvation in Jesus Christ.
And baptism. I got baptized by the Lutheran
Church when I was a baby, and I was told for many years that
that was all I needed to be saved.
Oh, and take of the Lord's Supper and keep my nose clean
and make sure that I was doing right and coming to church and
giving and all those other things.
You know, I came to find out then on December 2nd, 1998 that
there was no other name, not Martin Luther.
Not the name of the Pope, Jesus Christ and Christ alone and my
life changed forever. By the way, there is no
salvation found in the name of Adam Rivero.
Listen, if you're hanging your hat on getting to heaven because
you know me, man, I am. I feel sorry for you.
Whoever said, oh, you're right, man.
I thought that was my wife at first, but no, it's it's.
That voice is too deep to be my wife.
But but Steve, you're right. If it's in my name, listen,
you're not getting anywhere. But an eternal hell by the name
of Jesus Christ? That's where salvation is.
And so I want to encourage you today, if you don't know Jesus
Christ your Savior, say, oh pastor, you say that every week.
And as long as I fill this pulpit, I will say it every week
until they drag me out of here. Why?
Because there is no other name. And that's why we're here.
You've got to know you can't just come here and say why?
I get a good feeling when I come to Liberty Baptist Church and
that's why I come. Listen, it's not about a good
feeling. It's not about the coffee.
It's not about the friendly. Sure.
Not about the parking. Although we had valet.
All of you would love it. You know, it's about this, about
the name of Jesus Christ. That's what it's about.
That's what it must be about. That must be what it remains
about. It must all be about Jesus
Christ. Well, they didn't like this.
The Pharisees and the Sadducees and all those as you could
imagine, in fact they question verse #14 and beholding the man
which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing
against it. They said, you know, we don't
like this, but we know this man got healed.
Remember, everybody knew him. Everybody was aware of who this
guy was. Nobody could say a word about
it. And they said, well, we don't
like what they're preaching, but how do we deny what we see with
our own eyes? When they commanded them to go
aside out of the Council, they conferred among themselves,
saying. What shall we do to these men?
For they indeed notable miracles been done by them, is manifest
to all that dwell in Jerusalem. We can't deny it.
That spread no further among the people.
Let us straightly threaten them that they speak henceforth to no
man in this name that listen, we'll just threaten them and
tell them speak no more about Jesus.
Yeah, that'll work. And they called them, and
commanded in verse 18 not to speak at all, or teach in the
name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and
said unto them. Will it be?
Right in the sight of God, to hearken unto you more than us,
to God, judge E we cannot but speak the things which we have
seen and heard. Basically they say this, and I
say this in no disrespect, but listen, they said this, I
believe because they were filled with spirit.
They said it with no disrespect. They're saying this.
You do what you need to do, but we'll do what we must do, and we
must continue to preach the name of Jesus.
And that's why I said last week mistakenly would be in this
chapter, but it's actually in chapter #5 where they say we
must obey God rather than men. Listen, we won't stop preaching
the name of Jesus Christ no matter what anybody says.
That's what Peter says. You know what I love that, that
they come back and they come back to the church.
That group that was fitting in an upper room just a few days
ago and now has to fit on Solomon's porch because there's
over 8000 of them. And they report what takes
place. And look at what happens in
verse #29 they start to pray as a church.
They're there in 1 accord, it says in verse 24, but in verse
29 it says, And now, Lord, behold their threatenings, grant
unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak Thy
word. They're praying as a church.
Lord, we can't stop, we got to keep going.
Lord give us boldness because even though the establishment
doesn't want us to preach the name of Jesus, we must keep
preaching Jesus. And by stretching forth thy hand
to heal thy signs and wonders may be done by the name of the
holy Child Jesus and look. 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. So what happens earlier in the
text we find that Peter verse 8 was filled with the Holy Ghost.
He preached with boldness. What happens in 31?
They pray for boldness. They are filled with the Holy
Ghost and they preach the word of God with boldness.
You know, this isn't just the leadership.
This isn't just the disciples, the apostles who are preaching
and teaching with boldness and authority and giving the word.
You know, this is the entire church.
This is everyone together saying this, we must speak the name of
Jesus. They can throw Peter in jail,
they can throw John in jail. They can martyr these men.
They can do whatever they want. They can do what they want.
But we do what we must, and that's this we must.
Preach Jesus. It's amazing.
It reminds me a little bit of what Jeremiah said in Jeremiah
chapter 20 verse 9 when he said this.
Then I spake, I will make no more mention of him, don't speak
anymore in his name, Speaking of the Lord, but he said this but.
His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my
bones. I was weary with forbearing that
I could not stay, Jeremiah says. I tried to hold the word of God
in and the more I held it in, the more I couldn't hold it in
and finally I had to speak the word of.
God, despite the consequences. And by the way, Jeremiah had
quite a few consequences for preaching the word of God.
But you know, he did. He kept preaching.
Paul said the same thing in First Corinthians 9/16.
He says, For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory
in. Of necessity it is laid upon me.
Yeah, woe is me if I preach not the gospel.
And you look at Paul and he was beaten.
He was stoned, he was shipwrecked.
He he was left for dead. And he explains all these things
and anyone would have told Paul, tap out.
Just stop. You've given yours at the
office. You've done all that you need to
do. But he kept going and going and
going. Why?
Because there were more people that needed to hear the word of
Jesus Christ. What do we see here?
We see Peter and John had boldness, and the church turns
into people who speak boldly as well.
Why is this? Well, there's no doubt it's
because of the Holy Ghost. We've already discussed this.
I'm not trying to make light of that or minimize that this
morning, but that they allow the Holy Spirit to work within them.
And we talked about that a few weeks ago, but there's no doubt
about that. But there's also something else
I want you to see here that I think is very important, and
that's in verse number. 12, or rather verse #13.
It says this now. When they saw the boldness of
Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men, they marveled and they took knowledge of them.
Can you read the next few words? Words with me that they had been
with Jesus when they saw the boldness, but yet they.
Also saw their ignorance and the fact they were uneducated they
looked. At them.
And they said there's only one explanation for this.
There's only one. They've been with Jesus.
Well, that was their education, wasn't it?
They walked with Jesus for. Three years.
They saw the miracles. They saw Jesus do.
Things that were inexplainable. They heard him teach on the
hillside. And from the ship.
As he spoke to those who were on land.
They watched him. Say you fellas stay in the boat
for a while and I'll catch up with you.
And saw him do miraculous things.
They saw it over and over and over and over again, but yet it
didn't make an impact. But when the Holy Ghost was
availed in their heart and their life, what happened?
They were then able to speak with boldness.
Why? Because they had been with
Jesus. You know, I, I.
Would hesitate to ask this morning how many you are
unlearned and unignorant, raised or ignorant.
Raise your hand. I may be ignorant because I said
unignorant, all right? So how ignorant am I?
Because I used the word unignorant, OK, But some of you
don't care, all right? How many?
You are unlearned? And I did it again, all right?
How many are unlearned and ignorant?
Raise your hand. I think a lot of us feel that
way, don't we? And some of you, you're the ones
that didn't go peekaboo earlier. All right?
So I know who you are. Yeah, that's my crowd.
The ones raising their hand. You know what I'm saying?
Listen, I think a lot of us feel like this.
You know, I wish I knew more about the Bible.
Look, I'm worried. About the ones?
Who say I know everything I need to know about the Bible?
You're the ones I worry about. I think a lot of us.
I wish I knew more about the Bible.
I wish. I knew better.
How to share my faith with somebody?
I, I, I wish when I felt that that tug on my heart was someone
who's unsaved and they're saying something that I know they need
Jesus, that I, I just don't know what to say.
And if you feel like that this. Morning.
It's already very evident you're in good company.
Because all of us feel that way. To a point.
I pulled up some statistics this week for both Barna and Lifeway
that shows some pretty disturbing trends when it comes
to Christians sharing their faith.
And this is just talking about evangelicalism as a as a whole
70. 3%. Believe that giving the gospel
is a personal responsibility, but less than half of that group
actually acts upon it. 54% said this.
They had no evangelistic conversations.
Again, these are evangelical believers. 66% say they're
unfamiliar with sharing the methods or sharing the.
Gospel. 39% they're willing, but only 15% say they're eager.
And believe it or not. 95% of people have never let LED
someone to Christ. 95%. Now listen, can you force
someone? To get saved.
You can't force someone to much to get saved as much as I can't
force a fish to jump on my hook when I'm fishing.
Went fishing a few weeks ago and had the Fletcher's with us and
there's Scott Hot Hands Fletcher.
I mean, he's pulling 1 fish after another.
I just created a new name for him.
All right, so 1 fish after another.
They're coming out. They're coming out of the water.
It's incredible. We go to the same spot.
Three weeks later and it's like he caught them all, they're
gone. And there's my children.
I'm. Trying to teach them this is how
you fish this is. To my girls, this is.
This is what it's like. I'm going to this place.
This is a, this is a great place to be able to fish.
And they're like, Dad, can we, can we go now?
I mean I. I, I mean, I would have gone, I
would have gone to the store and bought some Gordon's fish.
Do you know what I mean? That's, that's where I was at.
Were those frozen fish sticks just floating in the water?
No, that just take them, you know, listen.
I can't force them onto the line, and you can't force
someone to get saved if you are. I'm not.
Trying to discourage you if you've never LED someone to
Christ and you've prayed. On it.
And you've tried. Listen, you leave that to the
Lord. But I will say this.
If you've never prayed on it and you've never shared the gospel
with somebody, guess what? You need to do it.
Why? Well, because you need to show
that you've been with Jesus. Do you know to share?
Jesus, you have to spend time with Jesus.
If you get one thing this. Morning.
It's this. You want to share Jesus.
You spend time with Jesus because you may not have the
skills. That's OK, you may not have.
The education you wish you had, That's OK.
There's a bunch probably that you don't know.
And that's the actual term for ignorance.
It's not just things you don't know.
Maybe you haven't learned yet, or they haven't come across your
path. You may be ignorant, but Peter
and John had one thing that nobody could argue with.
They've been with Jesus. And listen, have you walked with
Jesus physically for three years like those disciples had?
No, but if you're saved, have you walked with him in a
personal close relationship for years now?
The closer you are with him, the more you want to tell people
about him. Isn't it interesting that?
The more you get to meet people who are your heroes, usually the
less you are impressed with them.
It's just that way in. Life isn't it that when we see
someone afar they are incredible, but the closer you
get you realize the best of men are men at best.
I'll give you an example. When I was a kid, I lived in
Tampa, FL, and I was a big fan of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
By the way, in those days, there were no Super Bowls, there
wasn't Tom Brady. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were
the worst team in NFL history in the 1990s.
But they started to finally get good.
They finally started to have a couple of decent seasons.
And I remember I was about 15-16 years old, something like that.
There was a big event at Kmart. Yes, I said that right, Kmart.
You know, I've talked about. CDs and Kmart today you can tell
what generation I'm a part of, all right.
At Kmart they had. Warren Sapp, who would end up
being a Hall of Fame defensive player, He was coming to Kmart
to be able to sign autographs. I asked my dad, can I go see
Warren Sapp? I would love to have him sign of
football card that I have of his.
I think that would be a great thing.
We stood in line for probably 2 hours at Kmart.
All the blue light specials are going off.
We can't go anywhere because we're stuck in line.
And so we're there, we're waiting, we're waiting.
This is this is my hero. He plays football.
He's a he's a big deal. And you know, I've got to the
front of the line and you know what Warren Sapp did the whole
time I talked to him, well, tried to talk to him.
He was staring a hole right through the woman behind me.
That he probably. Wanted to go on a date with.
He couldn't care much. About this 1516 year old that
was standing right in front of him that had waited for a couple
hours. I was disappointed.
I waited to meet my hero. You know what I found out that
day? Why is he my hero?
Because he can play football. That that doesn't seem to make
a. Whole lot of sense because he
can, because he can sack a quarterback, because he can
catch an interception. And this is a guy that I want to
emulate. He didn't even care about me.
He was more worried about getting me out of the way.
So we talked to the woman. And I wish that was a.
Joke. And it's not.
It's exactly the way it happened.
You get close to people. And you start to see the flaws,
start to see the imperfections, you spend time with them, and
you start to see some things that maybe are unsavory or at
least less than savory. I'm not saying everyone has a
skeleton in their claws. I'm not trying to be so
negative. I'm just saying the best of men,
or men at best, We're all sinful creatures.
But I'll tell. You this this morning.
The closer you get to Jesus Christ, the more beautiful He
becomes. You'll never get.
Closer to Jesus Christ and say, oh, I.
Didn't know that about him. That's not good.
Oh, the closer I get to him. Oh, I didn't know he taught
that. I don't like that so much.
Oh, oh, I didn't. Know he felt that way about
this. According to his word I, I.
Don't think I care for that. Can I tell you?
The longer I serve him, the old song says, the sweeter he grows,
and the more time. You spend with him the more time
you want to. Spend with him, and the more
time you want to spend with him, the more time you want to spend
with him. The more time you should spend
with him, and the more time you spend with him.
The more time you should spend with him, the more time you
should tell other people about Jesus.
Because they noted. That they had been with Jesus.
We turn to first Peter chapter #3 because Peter actually talks
about this in his epistle. Now, we covered First Peter
chapter 3 about a year and a half ago.
So I don't expect you to remember.
I don't know that I remember, all things considered, as I was
looking this up this week. First Peter chapter #3 because
Peter did talk about not necessarily this situation, but
I believe this issue of having spent time and having been with
Jesus. Look at first Peter chapter.
Three verse #15. It says this.
But. Sanctify.
The Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an
answer to every man that asketh you.
A reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
What does the Bible say? Always be ready to give people
an explanation of why you're a believer.
Always be ready to. Talk about the hope that lives
within you. Have you ever seen someone that
was so excited about a product to someone that was so excited
about this, this newfangled thing that they've gotten?
I remember the very first time I saw someone carrying an iPhone
and I remember they showed me, look, you can get a website, you
can make it bigger and smaller and you just use your fingers
and, and I remember my pastor at the time who just got one said I
can control my DVR. With this.
And I said you can control ADVR with a no irony whatsoever.
This is incredible. How is that possible?
And now you say, who cares? What's the big deal?
Have someone said what's a DVR? Yeah, you're TiVo.
A TiVo. Feel like a TiVo?
Like Tim Tebow? No, a TiVo, Yeah.
No. No, no, But you listen it it we.
End up not being so impressed about, but at first it's So what
do people do? They tell everybody tell you've
got to see this. You.
You can't believe. This, it's incredible.
But again, as we get closer to it, we realize actually this is
actually probably harmed my life more than it's helped it in a
lot. Of ways the more you talk about
Jesus, the. More you realize you're.
Not selling a bill of goods that will cause destruction to
someone down the line. You end up telling.
Them about the one who will change their life forever and
the more time you spend with him, the more you should want to
tell other people about him. What does it say?
How does that hell happen? The very first part of the verse
sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, meaning this put him in
his proper place. When you put him in his proper
place where you put him where he belongs.
What happens? You want to tell as many people
as you can. Now listen.
Can you always give a full gospel presentation to
everybody? Not necessarily.
When you're in the workplace, can you give every customer a
full gospel presentation? Well, it will not be your
workplace very long. If you give everyone a full
gospel presentation where you work, It won't be.
Can everyone you come in contact to on the street or everyone you
come contact to at the store, or maybe you sit down next to them
at a table. You're at one table at Duncan
and they're at the table next to you.
Can you always have a full conversation about the Bible?
Not necessarily. But I will tell you this, You
can show a bit of Jesus to everybody that you come in
contact with. How is that by showing them
through your life that you've been with Jesus, that you are
different? That no, you're not going to get
upset when the line is too long. That you'll handle it with
grace. You won't get upset.
When they tell you, well, you can't make this return even
though you know you can make the return, you try to talk to about
it. You say, well, so we're just
supposed to just just give up. That's what we do as Christians.
I didn't say give up. If you have the right to return
something, return it, but handle it like a Christian.
And that doesn't mean this screaming louder than the person
across the desk because that's not showing him Jesus, that Co
worker that. Irks you in the next cubicle and
you just wish they would get fired or transfer or anything.
You realize they really need Jesus and you may be the first
one in that office to actually be kind to them because everyone
else who is not a believer has been so irked by them.
They've just pushed him away and you could be the one to show
them Jesus. Why?
By showing. That you have spent time with
Jesus. You know, I've often had in
situations like this in my life, I have not been able to fully
give the gospel, but somebody will say something like this.
You ever heard this? There's something different
about you. There's something different
about you. And then you end up saying,
well, you know, I'm, I know Jesus Christ.
And they said, you know what? That's it.
I've been blessed to work in
churches for the last 20 years, but there have been times and
seasons where because of situations I've had to work
outside of the church as well as working in the church.
Being in Tampa, FL was one of those and some of you that are
been here a while know that I've told stories about working for
the Tampa Bay Lightning. I had a very prestigious job
working for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
That's the hockey team by the way, that's won a few Stanley
Cups. My prestigious job with the
Tampa Bay Lightning was sanitation.
I empty trash cans. After the game, that's all I
did. I would empty trash cans after
the game and then work back at the church in our Christian
School in the morning. That's what I had to do to get
some things done. And you know when you're
emptying trash cans, you don't have a lot of time to tell
people about Jesus. But you know what I found in
the? Time that I worked there
overnights, over time people started to ask if there was
something different about me and.
Then they started to make fun. Of me and call me Bible boy
which I. Always like because it's kind of
like. A superhero like Bible Boy, you
know. Because like.
But you know what started as a joke turned into something that
was actually serious? And in the time that I.
Was there, I had two different men from that group.
The ones that made fun of me, the group of old guys, they
called us the old guys because I was I think 26 at the time.
And anything over 20 was the old guys because it was all 1819
year olds would be the only ones that want to clean up.
And a few of us old guys. Of that old guys group, I got
several to come to church. Never came to trust.
Christ. One of them's passed.
And I think of. Him every once in a while and
think I sure do hope he accepted Christ.
But I do know this that I was able to show them Jesus and as
the doors opened then I was able to tell them about Jesus.
Well, there are people say, well, just show your lifestyle
to people. That's a good way to start.
But don't stop there. As the doors open, they see
you're a genuine Christian. Tell them about Jesus.
You know what you can do? Pray for the lost.
Paul said this in. Colossians 4 three says with all
praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of
utterance to speak the mystery of Christ.
When was the last time you were concerned about someone's soul?
And you prayed to the Lord and said, Lord, will you give me a
window to talk to this person? That's what Paul said.
Here, pray for us that we have a door of utterance that we could
talk. You have someone that's heavy on
your heart. Lord, would you just give me a
time where it's just the two of us and that we can talk about
this very issue? This week we pray for the lost.
Will you talk in a way that gives glory to God?
You know, a great way, even if it's in conversation, to be able
to bring things up with people is to say something like this,
praise the Lord, that's a blessing or bring up, oh, you
know, I was at church yesterday and, and these are ways you can
bring up the name of Jesus even in conversation.
Well, people will think I'm crazy.
Well, do you think you're crazy for believing Jesus?
So when talking about. Him.
That shouldn't be crazy at all. It's just be.
Normal. You know what's often find?
Funny when you do stuff like that you find out you'll find
other believers who you encourage as well.
My wife and I know there's some others here as well that that
wear shirts that have Bible verses or different things like
that. She talked to someone when she
was having PTA few days ago and she says I like your shirt.
To my wife. Yeah it's like but she didn't
want to let her Co workers know. But then she told another Co
worker, hey, she's a Christian too and they got to talk to each
other and maybe that was encouraging them to be
emboldened. To work with them.
In their own office. I don't know.
You don't know. The thing is, we don't know
unless we share his name. Pray that God would give you an
opportunity to talk, then live in such a way you could witness
to anyone, anytime. I was a store a few days ago and
one of the things I love doing when people ask for my e-mail
address, I tell them Pastor at mylibertybaptist.org.
Now it's not good if I've. Chewed them out right before
they ask for the e-mail address and.
Then I say. Pastor at
calvarycatholic-church.org. That's what I try to say like,
like, I don't know, you know, I don't know.
See if you can get a hold of me. I don't know.
But no. Pastor at my libertybaptist.org.
And I had a gentleman just asked me at the store this week.
He says. You know, I've always been
wondering, what's the difference between a Christian, a Catholic
and a Baptist? And I said, how long do you?
Have. And we had a good.
Conversation did I get to lead him to Christ there No did I get
to plant a seed I hope so find ways to be able to talk and live
out your faith so that when the door does open you're ready we
have friends and family Sunday coming in a few weeks it'll.
Be an opportunity with. You to have some invitation to
be able to invite people. That's not why I'm preaching
this message today. It's just next where we are
looking in Peter's life. But I will tell you, we, we try
to give you opportunities to make it very easy to invite
people. The problem is you just have to.
Step out by faith and invite. Well, they may not like it.
They may not like it, but I'll tell you they will not like a
devil's hell. So we ought to do everything we.
Can while we can to show them the love of Jesus Christ.
This is a story we're done. In 1949, a man named John
Courier was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in
prison. Later he was transferred and
paroled to work on a farm near Nashville, TN in 1968.
So about 20 years later, Courier's sentence was
terminated. A letter bearing the good news
was sent to him, but John never saw the letter nor was told
anything about it. Life on that farm was hard
without the promise of a future, yet John kept.
Doing. What he was told even after the
farmer for whom he worked had died 10.
Years went by, then a. State parole officer learned
that Courier's plight of Courier's plight found him and
told him that his sentence had been terminated.
He was a free. Man.
And could have been a free man 10 years before.
What happened? No one told him.
Do you realize that the precious blood of Jesus Christ is
efficacious enough and powerful enough to save everyone who
calls upon the name of Jesus? It won't run out.
It won't lose its power. Anyone and everyone can call
upon the name of the Lord to save him.
But what happens? Somebody has to tell them that
it's there. How shall they hear?
Romans chapter 10 Without a preacher, how shall they hear?
Without you, preacher? No, not.
Just the preacher, the preachers, the ones who give the
word of God. Listen.
Why do we need to grow? Well, you need to grow because
there's someone who needs to know salvation and listen.
If you don't know Jesus Christ as your Savior, remember you're
in the other group. None of this even reflects upon
your life. None of this is even
consequential to you until you get to the place where you trust
in Christ and Christ alone to save you.
Listen, you're a Sinner. Only Christ can save you.
All those things I mentioned before could never save you.
I had to come to that place in my own life.
The Catholic Church can't save you.
The Lutheran Church can't save you.
The Methodist Church can't save you.
By the way, the Baptist Church can't save you just by being a
Baptist. It's what does it.
Say Acts 412. By the name of Jesus Christ, you
can be saved. Get saved today and if you are
saved, tell someone else how they can get saved because God
expects you to grow even in giving your faith.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.