The Glory Of God - Part 4

The more you know of the Word of God, the more you'll know of his majesty, the more you'll know of his glory. Look at Acts chapter 3 for a minute or two here. The more I read of this book, the more trouble I get. Sorry, it's Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4, verse 13. Now, when they saw the boldness, now they say, when they saw the coldness. He says in the same chapter, I guess, see how these Christians love one another. Now they see how these Christians shove one another. Verse 13 says, now when they saw the boldness, who are they? Well, look up the chapter a bit further back. Verse 5, it came to pass on the morrow that their rulers, they were the rulers and the elders, and described Annas the high priest and Caiaphas another high priest. And that's illegal anyhow, the Jews weren't allowed to have two high priests and they had them. And John and Alexander and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together in Jerusalem. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they conceived, they perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men. And they took knowledge of them that the glory of Jesus Christ was shining in them. The glory of Jesus is shining in Moses up on a mountain, he's by himself. These men are in a hell hole, these men have been to prison. And yet the glory of Jesus Christ is there, though they have a prison sentence hanging over them. You don't need ideal situations to get the glory of Jesus Christ, all you need to do is to be in his will. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, isn't that something? Just imagine those men in the other room didn't have a PhD between them. Didn't have a bank account between them. Unlearned, unusual, unwanted, but boy before long the world knew they were around. They had no backing company, they had no bank accounts, no newsletters. Isn't that terrible? Don't mention that please round here, but anyhow. And we all get to have one of the wonderful, not getting junk mail from all these big evangelists. You will tell the evangelist when you get to heaven, very clearly you know the streets are made of gold, they'll be digging the streets up. I'll be looking for you, you see. Isn't it a paradox this book? If you want to go up, go down. If you want to gain, throw everything you have away. Lose your life, you'll find it. Keep your life, you'll lose it. If you ascend, you'll be humiliated. If you humble yourself, you'll be exalted. If you want to be a somebody, be a nobody. So foolish, isn't it? You better nod your head because you know it's true anyhow. When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they took knowledge of them. That gets under my skin, it gets in my heart. They took knowledge of them. Go back and see why they should be so happy. Verse 1, They spake to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them. Now you've got the whole load on your back. The priests, the captain of the temple, the Sadducees. And then over in verse 5, you have the rulers and the scribes. Verse 6, Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, who many years were the kindred of the high priest, they were gathered together. And when they had set them in the midst, fancy facing that gang. How would you feel? Huh? If you were ushered into the high court, and you saw all the big shots there, and you knew that your life was hanging on a thread, would we have boldness? When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, verse 3 says, they laid their hands on them and put them in hold for the next day, for it was evening time. How many of them which heard the word believed. Glory to God. Isn't that preaching? That when you lock the preachers up, the revival still goes? If your revival isn't working in your church, just get the sheriff to come and arrest the preacher. Stick him in jail and see if he comes round. You know, the tragic thing about us today is the world couldn't put up with us. It couldn't put up with the early church. The early church was going that way, the world was going that. Now we're running side by side, and God knows, nobody knows. There's no line of demarcation. We're as greedy as the world, as fashionable as the world. We want a place in the sand with our jealousy, our envy, our pride. These men were destitute of all that. Why? Because they gazed on the risen Christ of God. And even though they'd been in jail for days, they didn't brush off. They couldn't be intimidated, no matter what you said to them. They'd seen Jesus. And ungodly men said, there's only one reason why these men are like this, they're like their master. We couldn't intimidate their master. We tried to threaten him, we tried to destroy him. We pushed him over the edge, I tried to push him over the edge of the cliff, and he was as calm as could be. We got men to scream for his death, and he was still the Prince of Peace, he was still placid. And these men have the same kind of spirit in them. They didn't just take notice of them, look what it says, in the middle of verse 13, they marveled, they marveled, they were astonished, they were dumbfounded. They were saying under their breath, what in God's name is the secret of these men? They're no better than when we put them in jail, their hair hasn't changed a different color, they're not six inches taller, they don't look stronger. They had a living intimate relationship with the risen Son of God, that's why. Preachers argue about what happened in the upper room, no argument about it. Common sense. What does it say, is it the end of Luke, where it says that when they saw Jesus risen, what did they do? They went roaring back to the temple, filled with ecstasy, filled with joy. Do you think they stopped? I think that ten days that they waited, the last ten days in the upper room was the most ecstatic meeting that had ever been in the history of the world. I believe it exceeded the joy of Moses when he got all Israel to sing, the horse and his rider hath he cast into the sea. They knew the devil's power was broken. They seen Jesus going up, he says, I'll go up there to my Father, and when I get there I'll make perfect, you're in perfect praying. I think in the upper room they were saying, he's there, he's there in the right hand of the Father, if we just pray, he'll just communicate with the Father. He said, I go to prepare a place for you. He's got angels busy getting your mansion ready. So why worry? They'd lost all fear of men, they'd lost all fear of death, they'd lost all fear of consequences. They lived in this world as though they were already in the next world. Well isn't that what it's about? But you say, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, not on earth, in earth, I am earth, I'm of the earth earthy. And the kingdom of God can start now, that's where it starts, not right after I die. I read the other day somewhere about, they buried a man, what did it say, they buried a man yesterday. Or so and so died yesterday, and they buried him, and somebody who knew him said he died 45 years ago. He'd been no good for 45 years. He wasted his life. Are you dead, are you alive tonight? If they bury you tomorrow, would you say, well that man's already been dead about three years. Now there are two classes of people in the world, not rich and poor, not black and white, not bond slaves and free men, just two kinds. Those who are dead in sin, and those who are dead to sin. There's no other cloud. But either dead in trespasses and in sin, or that miracle has taken place in us which had taken place in some of these men, in fact all of them. It says in Ephesians 2, doesn't it, the first verse, you ought to, ye did in time past, time past, something's happened. In time past you ought to go into the prince of this world, the power of this world, the prince of the power of the air. And yet at the end of that very, very, very same chapter, it says ye are the habitation of God. You can't show me a miracle in the world greater than that. A man is the habitation of fear, the habitation of sins, bondage to habits, and God gets hold of him and kicks the devil out of his life and fills him with God? You know, if we gazed every day on the majesty of the risen Son of God, you'd never backslide, you'd never be afraid, you'd never get depressed. After all, everything's going our way because it's gone his way. They took knowledge of the...