Boldness, 2

“They spoke the word of God with boldness” – Acts 4:31b

Boldness comes from the Lord.

This is how the word of God is to be spoken.

Remember Jesus Christ

“Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel,” – 2 Tim. 2:8

Remember Jesus Christ.

Jesus’s first sermon, 2

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” – Jesus (Mark 1:15)

Jesus’s first sermon.

Edward Mote

“My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand.”

— Edward Mote (1834)

Mote worked most of his life as a cabinet-maker in London. He was in his 50’s when he was called to pastor Rehoboth Baptist Church. He pastored there for 26 years.

The congregation liked Mote so much that they offered him the church building as a gift. Mote replied, “I do not want the chapel, I only want the pulpit; and when I cease to preach Christ, then turn me out of that.“

Mote went home to the Lord in 1874 and is buried in the church yard at Rehoboth Church.

Jesus did not commit Himself to them

“Many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.” – John 2:23-25

Jesus did not put up with halfhearted faith.

He deserves better.

The offense of the cross

“The offense of the cross” – Gal. 5:11

“I believe it to be a grave mistake to present Christianity as something charming and popular with no offense in it. Seeing that Christ went about the world giving the most violent offense to all kinds of people, it would seem absurd to expect that the doctrine of His person can be so presented as to offend nobody. We cannot blink at the fact that gentle Jesus, meek and mild, was so stiff in his opinions and so inflammatory in his language that He was thrown out of church, stoned, hunted from place to place, and finally gibbeted as a firebrand and a public danger. Whatever His peace was, it was not the peace of amiable indifference.” – Dorothy Sayers

No one, unless…

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. No one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.” – Jesus (John 6:44, 65)

No one, unless. Wickedness is so ingrained that apart from Divine Grace, no one would ever believe.

There are some of you who do not believe

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” – Jesus (John 6:63-64)

Jesus’s preaching had one aim: declaring truth.