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I would draw your attention this morning to Luke's historical account of the Acts of the Apostles. Turn to Acts chapter five, and while you're turning there, I would like to first take a little bit of time to establish the immense relevance of this passage by contrasting it to the modern neo-evangelical church that we see here in the United States and kind of sweeping across the world.

As a pastor, I get many advertisements by many people asking me to come to all manner of seminars, and most of them have headlines that read, and I'm going to quote a few of them to you: "How to Have a Successful Church," "How to be Attractive to Non-believers." Ads like "What Every Pastor Needs to Know," "Take Your Church to the Next Level.," "Become a Culturally Strategic Church.," "Learn How to Make Wise Use of Marketing, Design, and Technology.," and then a new one that came out by the financial guru Dave Ramsey advertises this way, "Use an Outreach Program that is Relevant to your Community - Offer them Financial Peace University, and it Will Grow Your Church.”

There is a church not too far from here that went from 200 plus members to now close to 6,000 members. And you may recall the pastor was interviewed by the newspapers and was asked, "What in the world did you do to get this church to be this big?" And he said, "Well, it's real simple," he said, "First of all, we did away with teaching anything about Bible doctrine because that's too divisive, and people are offended with that. And then, secondly, we introduced loud, emotional Pentecostal worship music that is energetic and emotionally charged, and that was the key to the success." By the way, if we did the same thing here, we too would probably be close to that size, if that's what we wanted.

Well, what is the key to church growth? Well, there's all kinds of answers out there. Others will stress, and this is real big today, the idea of image, and they will use a term called "branding." And here's what branding means: the consistent use of design and communication in order to establish a clearly defined image that defines who you are, right? So that's what we need. It's the whole issue of marketing. And others will say one of the real keys is music. Others will say culturally relevant programs. Church has to be, as well, entertaining to people. Has to be sensitive to our modern generation. It has to be tolerant of differing beliefs, and these are all things that I have extrapolated from the advertising that I receive. They must also have some kind of a dynamic social agenda that the community can identify with, but you know what is fascinating? When I read all of these things from the church growth gurus, it's real easy to quickly discover that there's no Bible verses after their statements, and usually when there is a Bible verse, it is not a text that has taken into consideration the proper exegesis and the context, but rather it's isogetical. In other words, they're reading into the text what they want it to say. Texts that have absolutely nothing to do with what they claim, and of course, their systems work if you want to attract a crowd, but it's altogether something else to build a church. And beloved, may I remind you that biblically, a church is defined in Scripture as the pillar and the support of the truth. It's defined as a place where believers are to come to praise the Lord and to worship him in spirit and in truth. The church biblically is a place where saints come to be edified, to be encouraged, to be equipped for ministry. It's a place where you are to come to discover and develop your spiritual gifts, it is a place where you come to be discipled, a place where you come to be accountable to your shepherds, and sometimes even to be disciplined if necessary. It is a place where we come to grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ. And the primary mission of every church, the ultimate goal of every church that Christ himself has mandated, is that of evangelism, leading others to a saving knowledge of Christ before the Lord ascended into heaven.

In Matthew 28 verse 19, He said, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you." Beloved, this is our calling, and this is our purpose. Nowhere in the New Testament are we instructed to become appealing to our culture, which typically translates into "Let's become like the world in order to win it." Beloved, please hear this: It is our separation from the world that draws people to Christ, not our similarity with it. And we are called to be distinctively separate from the world, distinctively the Church of Jesus Christ. Nowhere in the New Testament are churches praised for being endorsed by their culture as some kind of a organization that makes them feel comfortable and accepted. You don't find that anywhere in the New Testament. Nowhere in the New Testament are churches praised for being tolerant of other religions or the idolatries of the culture. Nowhere in the New Testament are any of the churches condemned for being too small - meaning, in our culture, they're probably not very successful, or do we see any place in the New Testament that praises the church for being large. The size is simply not the issue. Instead, as we've read here in Acts so far, the early church was praised for their spiritual unity, their selfless love, their sacrificial giving, their purity and powerful preaching, where they proclaimed and they protected the truth, despite the enormous offense that it was to the culture.

In Romans eight, we read how God praised that church. The apostle Paul said, "I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world." In First Corinthians one, beginning in verse four, we read how God praises the the church at Corinth through the Apostle Paul. He says, "I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech, in all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you." He praised the church at Ephesus in chapter one, verse 15, for "the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints." In Philippians one, the church at Philippi was praised for their participation in the gospel "from the first day until now," and went on to praise them for their love, for their fruits of righteousness, for standing firm in persecution, and for suffering for the sake of Christ. In Colossians 1:4 they were praised for their faith in Christ Jesus and the love which they had for all the saints, and in verse six for "constantly bearing fruit and increasing in hope," and in verse eight for "their love in the Spirit."

You see, you don't ever get this in these seminars. Rather than saying, "How can you grow your church, and how can you be relevant to your culture?" Wouldn't it be a novel thought to say, "How can we come together and honor the Lord?" In Thessalonians chapter one and verse two, we see God praising them for "their work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ," and in verse eight, they were praised for "the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you. In every place, your faith toward God has gone forth, and it went on to declare their reputation, how you turn to God from idols to serve a living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven." And even in Second Thessalonians, they were praised because of their faith, "Your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater. Therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure." And in Revelation two and three, the churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia, in particular, were praised for their faithful perseverance in the midst of great persecution.

You see, beloved, God wants a faithful church-a church that is faithful to His Word, a church that is faithful to Bible doctrine, a church that is faithful in their love and in their service and in their obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, and certainly in their faithfulness to proclaim the gospel in all of its purity and all of its offense. You know, it's amazing the kinds of church growth techniques and strategies that are so popular today are never applauded in the New Testament. But rather, what we see is they are either directly or indirectly condemned because they contribute to the very things that God abhors. For example, in Galatians 1:6, they didn't receive praise, but rather the Spirit of God spoke through the apostle and said, "I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel." And beloved, I would submit to you that in the vast majority of the churches that call themselves evangelical today, they have distorted the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they've come up with a different gospel. In Revelation chapter two and three, the church at Ephesus was condemned for leaving their first love of Christ, the Church of Pergamum was condemned for tolerating false teachers. The Church of Thyatira was condemned for tolerating a woman who called herself a prophetess, leading people away into deception and immorality. The Church of Sardis was condemned because they had made a great name for themselves. They had developed a reputation, the text says, for being alive, but yet they were spiritually dead. They were nothing more than a social club, and the Church of Laodicea was condemned for being spiritually proud, thinking they were in need of nothing, but in fact they were spiritually bankrupt. They were indifferent. They were apostate. In fact, it says that the Lord Jesus Himself is on the outside of the church, knocking, wanting to come in. Beloved, whatever happened to the centrality of the gospel of Jesus Christ? I would submit to you that much of what goes on today in many churches is just like what was going on in the church of Laodicea, where Christ is on the outside. You will recall that was a church that made God vomit. The Apostle Paul said in Romans 1:16, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." Whatever happened to the priority? Think about it, when God purges His church from those who would defile it, and you know sometimes he still does. Sometimes he still purifies his church by taking the most violent offenders out of it through death. We read that, for example, in First Corinthians 11:30. But it is the responsibility of the church to discipline those who would violate that purity. Jesus made that very clear in Matthew 18. Many other passages. Remember, in Matthew 18, there's a four-stage process for dealing with sinning saints, and we see that theme repeated throughout the New Testament. And you know, it has been my experience as a pastor that when sin has been disciplined, for example, in this church and in others that I've attended, it suddenly sobers everyone to the holiness of God, and all of a sudden, the issue of fearing the Lord your God is something that is very, very real. Suddenly, the priority of the purity of the church - the priority of having a secret devotion to God, where our hearts are clean before Him - suddenly those types of themes sweep over the church like a violent storm, and the people within the body very quickly take shelter in the safe harbor of repentance and forgiveness and get serious about holiness. Then, with cleansed hearts and and minds, it's fascinating to watch how the people will even literally reach out and clutch one another's hands in humble fellowship, and then with a strengthened resolve, they rededicate themselves to living lives that are pure before their God. They renounce those things that are defiling and dishonoring to the Lord, and they understand and commit themselves to the twofold strategy of change that we see in the New Testament, and that is to put off the old man, put off the wicked ways of the flesh, and replace that by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ.

My, what a deterrent to sin, knowing that God - through your shepherds, through your elders - will love you too much to allow you to go on sinning with impunity, thinking that there's really no consequences, thinking that you can get away with it. Isn't God loving when he comes along and through the church confronts you with your sin and helps you understand that you are bringing reproach upon yourself and reproach upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and because of his love for you, and therefore our love for you, we are going to confront you and call you to repentance. You must understand, beloved, that discipline demonstrates in a very real way the offensiveness of sin to a holy God, and the broken fellowship that has occurred, and the desperate need for repentance, and then the joys of reconciliation that will follow. Beloved, God insists upon a pure church, a holy church, a spotless bride. Remember in Ephesians chapter five, verse 26, we read that He wants to present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and blameless. Beloved, he insists upon lives that neither grieve nor quench the Holy Spirit. We are, as Paul told Titus, to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly and righteously in the present age.

Well, these early saints understood this. God had made it abundantly clear to them through his dramatic judgment against that couple in the church. So indeed, they now gathered together all with one accord. And notice verse 13, "But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem." I cannot count the number of people who call themselves Christians who will not come to this church and others like it for fear of accountability and discipline. There are certain pet sins that they love far more than anything else, and they know that eventually they would be found out and confronted. Others have some personal agenda. Others have some false doctrine that they hold to that they know would be challenged here. Hopefully, rebellious carnal Christians would find no sanctuary in any church. Certainly not in this church. But notice in verse 13, "the people held them in high esteem."

Isn't it fascinating? Even even the most hardened and worldly pagans respect those who are committed to holy living, who fear God. You see, friends, here we see the effect of holiness upon even unbelievers. Thus, we can conclude, first of all, as we look at this text, that the early church was honorable in holiness. But I want you to notice next how this quintessential virtue of holiness evokes divine favor upon God's people, because when people are holy, they will be, secondly, empowered in evangelism.

Notice beginning in verse 14,

"And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number,

"to such an extent that they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on any one of them.

"And also the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed."

Now, my friends, I ask you: Do you think that God would pour out such a mighty demonstration of his power to save souls, to heal bodies, to cast out demons, if these people were not committed to holiness? You see, you must understand, while God's saving grace is solely a function of his uninfluenced good pleasure, many of his temporal blessings for the saints are contingent upon their commitment to obedient living - to righteousness, to holiness. You know, we will only reap bountifully when we sow bountifully. For example, we only enjoy the fruits of the Spirit when we walk by the Spirit, and on it goes. And what a tragedy it is to see Christians forfeit divine blessing in their life because of their lack of holiness, and in turn they exchange God's favor for his chastening. And some of you, no doubt, are living under that very cloud. And beloved, it doesn't have to be that way. Obviously, such a Christian will be powerless in evangelism.

Certainly, their life will be a poor testimony to the transforming power of the gospel of Christ. I mean, who would want what you're selling when you're no different than the rest of the world? Have you ever noticed godly saints are contagious? You ever notice that? You know, believers and unbelievers alike are drawn to a godly person, like we would be drawn to an oasis in a dry desert. I've seen that over and over again. They're drawn to them because they're people of integrity. They're people that fear God. They're people that love like Christ loved. They're people with great wisdom. They bear fruit in their life. They're fearless of what others think, but they do fear God. Well, like the unbelievers in the first century held those God-fearing Christians in high esteem, so too, dear friends, many of our unsaved friends will hold us in high esteem if we likewise live holy lives.

So the multitudes of the folks were being saved; many were being healed. What an amazing scene there in verse 15. The streets are lined here with cots and pallets, and you know they're wanting Peter's shadow to fall on them. By the way, we don't know for sure if they were healed because of that shadow, the text doesn't say that, but it does say that at least these people believe that perhaps they could be healed. We don't know if it actually occurred, but in verse 16 we see that even people from other cities are coming, and they're they're also bringing people with unclean spirits. These would be unbelievers who were so vile in their lifestyles that demons were welcome to take up residence within them, and then the demons begin to just take them over, and we see that much even in our world today, and it's utterly astounding here, isn't it? These people are healed; they are delivered from that which is oppressing them.

And by the way, unlike the ridiculous claims of modern-day faith healers - as a footnote, as we've discussed at length before - the miraculous signs and wonders of the apostolic age were unique to that day, and I do not believe that they are to be normative for the church today. They were for the purpose of authenticating both the messenger and the message of that day that we have now confined within the canon of Scripture, and those signs and wonders ceased upon the completion of the canon of Scripture, and now Scripture serves as the sole authority that authenticates the message and the messenger of the gospel.

But here again, we see God answering the prayer that is recorded in chapter four, verse 29. Remember where they prayed to "speak Thy word with all confidence, while Thou dost extend Thy hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Thy holy servant Jesus"? Beloved, answered prayer is always contingent upon our commitment to holy living, to purity of life. I want to underscore that again briefly. For example, in Proverbs 28 verse nine, "He who turns away his ear from listening to the law.," in other words, from obeying Scripture, "even his prayer is an abomination." And in Psalm 66 verse 18, we read, "If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear."

Well, having been soundly sobered by the divine judgment upon sin and the church, these early saints really understood and lived consistently with Paul's words in Second Timothy 2:19 that were written later on, and there we read, "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord abstain from wickedness." And in verse 21, he says, If a man cleanses himself," it goes on to say, "he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified," that literally means holy, to be set apart. "He will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work." And indeed, we see their usefulness in this historical account, where we see how that they were empowered in evangelism.

But now, because they were honorable in holiness, and certainly empowered in evangelism, we see thirdly that they were able to persevere in persecution. They persevered in persecution. Notice the account beginning in verse 17, "But the high priest rose up, along with all his associates (that is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy." You see, all of a sudden, these Galilean fishermen were getting all of the attention; these untrained ignoramuses, these country bumpkins. Look at the crowd that they're drawing. And in verse 18, it says,

"They laid hands on the apostles and put them in a public jail.

"But an angel of the Lord during the night opened the gates of the prison, and taking them out, he said,

"'Go your way, stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this Life.'"

I find it rather humorous here that the Lord records what he did. He sent an angel to release those men, and you will recall that the Sadducees didn't believe in angels. Oh, how the Lord has a sense of humor! "'Go your way,'" verse 20,

"'stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this Life.'

"'And upon hearing this, they entered into the temple about daybreak, and began to teach.

"And when the high priest and his associates had come, they called the Council together, even all the Senate of the sons of Israel, and sent orders to the prison house for them to be brought.

"But the officers who came did not find them in the prison; and they returned and reported back,

"saying, "'We found the prison house locked quite securely, and the guards standing at the doors; but when we had opened up, we found no one inside.'

"Now, when the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them as to what would come of this.

"But someone came and reported to them, 'Behold, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!'

"Then the captain went along with the officers and proceeded to bring them back without violence (for they were afraid of the people lest they should be stoned).

"And when they had brought them, they stood them before the Council and the high priest questioned them."

Folks, let's stop before we read the next verse. Don't you think that one of the things you would want to ask is, "Hey, how did you guys get out of that jail?" You see, I think they already knew the answer to that. So look what instead they ask in verse 28,

"'We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man's blood upon us.'"

Now, what's ridiculous about this is they seem to forget that earlier, as recorded in Matthew 27 and verse 25, these same leaders told Pilate, "His blood be on us and our children." My, how sin causes us to have selective memory.

Verse 29, "But when Peter and the apostles answered and said, 'We must obey God rather than men.'" And by the way, that statement obviously implies that we do not see you as representatives of God. We must obey God rather than men.

Verse 30,

"'The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross.

"'He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and the Savior, to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

"'And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.'

"But when they heard this, they were cut to the quick.,'" it's the idea of they were just cut in two; they were absolutely beside themselves with fury, "and were intending to slay them." So here we see the religious elite becoming absolutely enraged to the point where they wanted to scheme together to kill the preachers of the gospel of Christ. Now, as an interesting note, and I had a couple of you send me some emails along this line, even this week, and I thought it was interesting and therefore of the Spirit of God that I share some of this with you. The Romans later on joined in the hatred against the Christians. They weren't there quite yet, but later on, they joined in, even though the Roman Empire was a very pluralistic society. Didn't matter what you believe, as long as you just kind of live and let live. You know, just like America today. You know, it's it's okay if you want to believe that stupid Christian stuff. That's fine. Just just don't push it on anybody else. All right? And so "everything was cool," as we would say. Well, why did they later on reject the Christian message? Well, the answer is because the true Christian message said something that was absolutely intolerable, and that is that Jesus is the only way, not one way of many. It's sad to see many ostensibly Christian denominations and individuals compromise on this central doctrine.

And this brings me to what I read this week when interviewed by ABC's Charles Gibson, President George W. Bush, I believe betrayed his denial of Christ as the only Savior and also revealed to everyone what many of us had known to be true for many years, and that is, he has no understanding of the gospel of Christ. Charles Gibson asked him this question, "Do we all worship the same God, Christian and Muslim?" And the president answered, "I think we do. We have different routes of getting to the Almighty." Next question, "Do Christians and non-Christians and Muslims all go to heaven in your mind." Yes, his answer was, "I believe they do. We have different routes of getting there." And recently, in an interview with El Arabia Television, the president said, and I quote, "I believe in an Almighty God, and I believe that all the world, whether they be Muslim, Christian, or any other religion, prays to the same God." And in that same interview, he went on to say, and I quote: "I believe there is a universal God. I believe the God that the Muslim prays to is the same God that I pray to. After all, we all come from Abraham. I believe in that universality."

Now, beloved, imagine what it would have been like, imagine the world's reaction if the president understood the truth and spoke the truth-the same truth that Jesus and the apostles spoke. Imagine if he answered, "No, I believe that the only people that will ever go to heaven are people who have placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, for he alone is the Savior." Imagine the reaction if people would have heard him say, "Unless you repent and believe in him alone, the same wrath of God that abides on you right now will abide on you throughout eternity in hell." Now, do you begin to understand where the persecution comes? Yeah, beloved, this is the gospel, and whenever it is faithfully preached, it will evoke persecution. It's bound to happen. Indeed, they crucified Christ. The world hates Christ just as much today as they did in the days when he was offered up on the cross. Do you think that the people today are any different?

Jesus reminded his disciples of this in John 15. He said, "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you." But what we can rejoice in, dear friends, is that by the power of Almighty God, those early saints and many saints down through redemptive history persevered in great persecution. They were willing to deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Christ. It's something that we know little about in our culture, but I keep warning you: the day is coming. The day is coming.

And now notice the wicked reasoning of the Sanhedrin that was influenced by a prominent Pharisee named Gamaliel. Notice beginning in verse 34, "But a certain Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law, respected by all the people, stood up in the council and gave orders to put the men outside for a short time." By the way, Gamaliel's most famous and prominent student was Saul, who later became Paul, the Apostle Paul. So they put him outside here for a short time.

In verse 35, he said to them, "'Men of Israel, take care of what you propose to do with these men.'" Then he's going to give two illustrations here. First, verse 36, "'For some time ago, Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a group of about four hundred men joined up with him, and he was slain. And all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing.''"

In verse 37, "'And after this man Judas of Galilee rose up,'" here's another illustration, he, "'...rose up in the days of the census and drew away some people after him; he too perished, and all those who followed him were scattered.’ And so, in the present case, I say to you, stay away from these men and let them alone. For if this plan or action should be of men, it will be overthrown. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them, or else you may even be found fighting against God. And they took his advice, and after calling the apostles in, they flogged them. That's where they would give them 39 lashes, one less than the legal limit of 40, and yet this was totally illegal. But they flogged them and ordered them to speak no more in the name of Jesus and then released them. My, can you imagine the pain of 39 lashes now. Your back being laid open-excruciating pain. Now notice verse 41. So they went on their way from the presence of the council, depressed and disillusioned because Christianity was not meeting their felt needs because they were not finding their purpose in life, because they were not becoming successful as people promised them that they would, because they were not fulfilled in ways that they thought they needed to be fulfilled. Because after all, that's why they joined up with this whole program. Now they went out from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. And every day, in the temple, and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Notice they did not teach and preach self-fulfillment, self-esteem, prosperity, some purpose-driven life, some social or moral agenda. They preached Jesus as the Christ, beloved. May I challenge you this morning to just examine your heart for a moment as we close? Are you committed to holiness in your life? Is that really a priority? Is is that is that a consuming passion of yours? Are you sincerely and deeply concerned about your life? Is it a theme of your prayer to ask the Lord to help you live your life in such a way that the center of gravity around which all your life orbits is the glory of God, and that whatever you do, God, I want to please you. How I treat my wife and my husband and my children, and Lord, all the things that I do-is that the priority of your life? Well, if so, it's going to be easy to see because you're going to be empowered in evangelism, and you're going to be able to persevere in the midst of persecution. Because when you're holy, you will tell others about Christ, and when you tell others the truth of the gospel, you will suffer persecution. But if you examine your life right now and you realize that you know what I really never, I never witnessed to anybody. I don't have one person on my prayer list right now that I am targeting for evangelism. I don't have even one person in my family that I'm coming to the Lord in prayer seeking an opportunity to present the truth, beloved. If that is you, the primary reason is you're not committed to holiness. And certainly, when persecution comes along for the rest of the saints, you won't experience it because you compromised. Like the president, so I would challenge you to examine your life and to take time to be holy, as the hymnist is well admonished. Remember that old hymn I used to sing it when I was a little boy, and have sung it down through the years. The first verse just goes like this: Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord, abide in Him always, and feed on His word. Make friends with God's children, help those who are weak, forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek. May that be the prayer of our hearts. Let's pray together. Father, these are sobering truths, and I pray that by the power of Your Spirit, You will use them to transform our lives.

"'And so, in the present case, I say to you, stay away from these men and let them alone. For if this plan or action should be of men, it will be overthrown;

"'but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them; or else you may even be found fighting against God.'

"And they took his advice; and after calling the apostles in, they flogged them..." that's where they would give them 39 lashes, one less than the legal limit of 40, and yet this was totally illegal. But, "they flogged them and ordered them to speak no more in the name of Jesus, and then released them." My, can you imagine the pain of 39 lashes now? Your back being laid open-excruciating pain.

Now notice verse 41, "So they went on their way from the presence of the Council"...depressed and disillusioned because Christianity was not meeting their felt needs because they were not finding their purpose in life, because they were not becoming successful as people promised them that they would, because they were not fulfilled in ways that they thought they needed to be fulfilled. Because after all, that's why they joined up with this whole program. No,

"They went out from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.

"And every day, in the temple, and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ."

Notice they did not teach and preach self-fulfillment, self-esteem, prosperity, some purpose-driven life, some social or moral agenda. They preached Jesus as the Christ. Beloved, may I challenge you this morning to just examine your heart for a moment as we close? Are you committed to holiness in your life? Is that really a priority? Is that a consuming passion of yours? Are you sincerely and deeply concerned about your life? Is it a theme of your prayer to ask the Lord to help you live your life in such a way that the center of gravity around which all your life orbits is the glory of God, and that whatever you do, "God, I want to please you." How I treat my wife and my husband and my children, and Lord, all the things that I do-is that the priority of your life? Well, if so, it's going to be easy to see because you're going to be empowered in evangelism, and you're going to be able to persevere in the midst of persecution. Because when you're holy, you will tell others about Christ, and when you tell others the truth of the gospel, you will suffer persecution. But if you examine your life right now and you realize that you know what I really never, I never witnessed to anybody. I don't have one person on my prayer list right now that I am targeting for evangelism. I don't have even one person in my family that I'm coming to the Lord in prayer seeking an opportunity to present the truth, beloved, if that is you, the primary reason is you're not committed to holiness. And certainly, when persecution comes along for the rest of the saints, you won't experience it because you compromised, like the president, so I would challenge you to examine your life and to take time to be holy, as the hymnist has well admonished. Remember that old hymn? I used to sing it when I was a little boy and have sung it down through the years. The first verse just goes like this: “Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord, abide in Him always, and feed on His word. Make friends with God's children, help those who are weak, forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.” May that be the prayer of our hearts. Let's pray together.

Father, these are sobering truths, and I pray that by the power of Your Spirit, you will use them to transform our lives, for indeed, Lord, we all struggle with holiness, and we thank you that we have the certain hope that someday we will indeed be perfectly holy, not because of anything that we've done, but because of the transforming power of the Lord Jesus Christ and his saving grace alone. Lord, speak to us and use us in a mighty way. May we be committed to evangelism and empowered by Your Spirit, knowing full well that when persecution comes, we will be able to persevere, because you have saved us unto eternity, and our faith is secured by the power of God. I ask all of this in the precious name of Jesus and for his glorious sake. Amen.