Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)
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The bible in a year podcast, right to by a sentient, using the great adventure, by hold demand, will read all the way from genesis to revelation, discovering how the story of salvation on falls and now leave IT and the that story today, IT is three hundred and twenty five, three hundred and twenty five. That's three, two, five. If you add three and the two, you get five.

That's today. And we're reading actually boss's chapter for as well as romans chapters six and seven and probably chapter twenty seven versus four, three, six. As always, the vivo translation on reading from is the revised gender version.

Second category tion. I'm using the great adventure bible from, if you want to download your own bible in your reading plan. Finally, you can visit essential press down comes slash bible in year. You can also subscribe to this podcast and receive daily episodes and daily updates. And every single day, including day three, twenty five, you would know what to read.

And IT is day three twenty five reading actually be a possible chapter four romney, chapter six and seven and proverb chapter twenty seven verses four to six, the acts of the apostles, chapter four, Peter and john, before the council. And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the sad jesus came upon them, annoyed because they were teaching the people and for proclaiming in jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day for IT was already evening, but many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of men came to about five thousand.

On the next day, the rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in jerusalem with anas, the hyper est and kai fis and john and Alexander and all who are of the high priest family. And when they had set them in their midst, they inquired, by what power or by what name did you do this then Peter, filled with the holy spirit, said to them, rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed, to a cripple, by what means this man has been healed, be at known to you all and to all the people of israel, that by the name of jesus Christ of nerve, whom you crucified, whom got raised from the dead by him, this man is standing before you. Well, this is the stone which was rejected by you builders, but which has become at the cornerstone.

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved. Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and john and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they wondered, and they recognized that they had been with jesus. But seeing the man that had been healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.

But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred with one another saying, what shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed. Through them is manifest to all the inhabitants of jerusalem, and we cannot deny IT.

But in order that I may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name. So they called them and charge them not to speak or teach at all in the name of jesus. But Peter and john answered them whether IT is right in the side of god to listen to you rather than to god, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.

And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them because of the people for all men praised god for what had happened. For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than forty years old. The believers pray for boldness.

When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and elders had said to them, and when they heard IT, they lifted their voices together to god and said, sovereign ord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who, by the mouth of our father, David, your servant, said by the holy spirit, why did the gentiles rage and the people's imagine vain things? The king's of the earth set themselves in array, and the rulers were gathered together against the lord and against his annointed for truly in this city, they were gathered together against your wholly servant, jesus, whom you annointed both herd and punches, pilot with the gentiles and the pipes of israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now lord, look upon their threats and granted to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal.

And signs and wonders are formed to the name of your holy servant, jesus. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the holy spirit and spoke the word of god with boldness. The believers share their possessions now, the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own.

But they had everything in common. And with great power, the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the lord jesus and great Grace was upon the mall. There was not anyone, media among them, for as many as where processors of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid IT at the apart as feet and distribution was made to each as any had need.

Thus Joseph, who was surnamed by the abuzz zz. Barnes, which means sound of encouragement, a levite, a native of cyprus, sold the field which belonging to him and brought the money and laid at the a passes feet. The letter of thanks poll to the romans chapter six, dying and rising with Christ.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that Grace may abound by no means. How can we, who died IT to see, still live in IT? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ jesus were baptized into his death?

We were buried, therefore, with him by baptising into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we too might walk in newness, ss of life, for if we have been united with him in a death like this, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our former man was crucified with him so that the simple body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin, for he who has died is freed from sena. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, for we know that Christ's being raised from the dead will never die again.

Death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all but the life he lives. He lives the god. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to god in Christ. Jesus s let not send there for rain in your model bodies to make you obey their passions.

Do not yield your members to send as instruments of weakness, but yield ld yourselves to god as men who have been brought from death to life and you're members to god as instruments of righteousness for sin, we'll have no dominion over you since you are not under law, but under Grace, slaves of sin or of righteousness. What then are we to sin? Because we are not underlap, but under Grace by no means.

Do you not know that if you yield ld yourself to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness. But thanks be to god that you who are once slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you are committed and having been set free from sin, have become a slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations, for just as you once yield at your members to impurities and to greater and greater and equity, so now yield your members to righteousness for scientifically when you were slaves of sin, you were free and regard to righteousness.

But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you've been set free from sin and have become slaves of god, the return you get is science fiction and its end, eternal life for the wages of sin is death.

But the free gift of god is eternal life in Christ. Jesus, our lord. Chapter seven, the analogy with marriage do you not know, brethren? For I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law is binding on a person only during his life.

Thus, a married woman is downed by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, SHE is discharged from the law concerning her husband. Accordingly, SHE will be called an adulterous if he lives with another man while her husband is alive.

But if her husband dies, SHE is free from that law. And if he marries another man, SHE is not an adulterous. Likewise, my brother and you have died to the law, to the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from ad in order that we may be fruit for god while we were living in the flesh.

Our simple passions aroused by the law, or at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are discharged from the law dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code, but in the new life of the spirit, the law and thin. What then shall we say that the law is in?

By no means yet, if I had not been for the law, I should not have known sin. I should not have known what IT is to cover IT. If the law had not said, you shall not cover IT.

But in finding opportunity in the commandment route in me, all kinds of cover, apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. The very commandment which promised life proved to be deaths to me for sin.

Finding opportunity in the commandment deceived me and buy IT killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. The interior conflict between good and evil did that which is good then bring death to me.

By no means IT was sin working death in me through what is good in order that sin might be shown to be thin and to the commandment might become syfy ly on measure. We know that the law is spiritual, but I am cornel sold understand. I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

Now, if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. So then IT is no longer. I then do IT but sin, which dwells within me, for I know that nothing good dwells within me.

That is in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do IT for I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now, if I do what I do not want, IT is no longer I do IT, but sin, which dwells within me. So I find IT to be a law that, when I want to do right, ever lize close at hand.

For I delight in the law of god, in my ino self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin, which dwells in my members, Richard man, that I am who will deliver me from this body of death, thanks be to god through jesus Christ, our lord. So then I of myself served a lot of god with my mind, but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin. The book of proverb after twenty seven versus four through six rah is cruel.

Anger is overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy? Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend.

Perfuse are the kisses of an enemy. Father and everyone give you praise. Thank you so much. God, lord god, as we just keep hearing about your Grace that is just poured out on us, your Grace, which comes to meet us in our brokenness. Help us just to say yes. Help us to say yes to your Grace, help us to say yes to your gift out right now.

Help us to say yes to you that you may be glorified in everything we think, everything we say and everything we do, that you may be known, and that more and more people may love you, and that you may be loved by more and more of our heart and jesus name, we pray, a man, and the name of the father of the sun, of the holy spirit, a man. Okay, gosh, let's go back to the xv postles first. Oh, goodness gracious. OK.

So at the beginning, what do we have? The context? Of course, Peter and john, going into the temple there is the man who was crippled, right? He couldn't walk.

And in the name of jesus Christ of nazareth, the lord heels him through Peter. And this is incredible. Now what happens is there being brought before the prize, the number of the temple and the sage sees.

Now, I love that. This says that they're annoyed because they are annoyed. The sad gec es.

Are annoyed. Captain of the temple freeze, they're annoyed. All those people are annoyed. Why are they annoyed? This is the interesting thing.

They are annoyed because they are teaching the people and proclaiming in jesus at the resurrection of the dead, remember, red, the sagging es, the difference between the fiery and sage sees, I mean, a lot of differences, but the sage sees the only believed in the first five books of moses, right? The sag didn't believe in Angels. The sagesse did not believe in the resurrection of the dead.

And one of the ways we can remember that, of course, is the fiery and sagesse. The ferris is believed in the resurrection and these agencies didn't. And that's why they were sad.

You see, old joke, okay, but it's as merely that they were annoyed. And I think that that is interesting. Anyways, here is Peter and john.

They brought before the council that in heren the same people that they were, both Peter, where in the presence of essentially drain jesus is trial, which is remarkable to remember, because the first time we don't hear anything about john, we know that john went all the way with jesus to the crucifix. But we did hear about Peter, and we do know that Peter, he failed right in that moment. He was not told in that moment he cracked, and he denied doing jesus at three times.

And yet, now this is incredible. First eight, Peter, filled with the holy spirit, said of them, rulers, other people in elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good, deep, done to a cripple, by what means this management healed, be IT known to you all, and do all the people of israel that by the name of jesus Christ of nazareth, whom you crucified, whom got raised from the dead by him, this man is standing before you well and goes on to say, this is incredible. This a corner stone line, not only because IT speaks about the corner one in first eleven, but in verse twelve, the line is, and there is salvation in no one else, but there is no other name under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved.

This is, this is huge, because jesus himself, he said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father, except through me. And he is Peter who's making a very clear there is salvation and no one else.

There's no other name under having given among men by which we must be saved. And now the keyword I think of chapter four is boldness, right? Keyword of chapter four is IT says multiple times that they're fill book boldness, and this is remarkable, observing them to be common, ordinary, uneducated men.

And yet they have this new quality. And the quality is not theirs. IT says they recognize that they had been with jesus. Oh my gosh, you guys just for this, one of those, one of those chapters in the act, the puzzles, you want to have A A pen, you want to have some kind of thing to mark this down. Not only here is Peters boldness.

Not only is this the other name given under heaven, which most they say, but even this, they were different, and they recognize that they had been with jesus. And there's something about that, that for all of us, that's the key, that's the core, which is, if we have been with jesus, we should look different, that if we ve bend with jesus, we should look like him. And as jeff noted a couple days ago in the intro to this last age, that you know, the final time period of the church, you have Peter, who looks a lot like jesus.

And later on, after generate, we're going to see paul looks a lot like jesus, and that's what we're called all to be. We're called to look like jesus. I just love this gate keeps going.

I don't want to say everything is repeat the interview chapter again again. But IT says they call them them. This is worth eighteen in chapter four.

They call them them and charge them not to speaker teach at all the name of jees. But Peter, john answered them whether IT is right on the side. I've god to listen to you rather than to god you judge.

For we cannot speak of what we've seen and heard in first twenty one. And when they had further threaten them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them because why could you can't stop someone who's already dead? You you can't thread someone who's already dead.

And Peter and john, you've already died to themselves out of low for jesus Christ. Now, last couple things I want to highlight is that what happens from this? In verse twenty three, they are release.

They went to their friends, reported what the chief prison elders had told them when they heard IT. They all began to pray. And what do they pray for? This is incredible.

They don't say, god, there's a lot of danger out there and a lot of opposition. So um you make IT safe like that. There's a lot of uh, opposition out there, a lot of danger. So I take away the danger.

What they pray for is they say in verse twenty nine and now lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal and science and wonders are performed through the name of your holly servant, jesus. You know, it's incredible. Do not pray for an easy life.

Pray for the strength to face life. Do not pray for easy life. Pray for the courage to face life.

Not pray for an easy weight of jesus. Pray ferr boldness to be able to do this. This is just the secret of the saint, and this is the secret of x.

jr. For these people were already living in boldness. They were already speaking in baldness. They said, instead of god, take away the danger. They said, give us more button and orgies to stretch out your hand and do miracles.

That more, more people know that you are the masai, that you are the one who conquered death and has restored life to all of us. This is, how good is this? You guys? An amazing romans.

Chapter six and seven. There is, there is too much to say, there is too much to say. But let's let's begin try to say something in verse six.

I love this in six and seven. Paul has this pattern. Maybe you notice IT, maybe you didn't notice. He will say something, and then he'll kind of not hedges bets. He will qualify IT.

He'll ll say, what are we say then? Are we to continue? And then that Grace me about by no means.

And he is, what then are we descend? Because we're not under the law. And Grace, by no means. He asked those questions and say, no, no, no, that's not what I meant, just anticipating it's it's a literary device and it's great because I clarify some things because at the end of chapter five, a saying paul had said that so that a sin rained in death. The Grace also might rain through righteousness.

So then he asked the question, are we saying then continue sin? The Grace may abound, because here's what pausing. The more sin, the more Grace that, the more we need god's Grace because of our sin, the more he gives his race because of our need.

And so then the question could be, well, shoot, in that case, how about I send more and get more Grace that way? samples? No, no, no. That's not the point when you need the Grace. Grace is given, but don't go like injuring yourself in order to get more Grace.

But the reality, of course, is that the power of god's healing, power of god's Grace, is we can be truck along right at a certain level of relationship with the lord, at certain level of holiness, and just know his his divine life in us. And we fall into in what happens when we represent and turned back to the lord, we got a confession that doesn't just raise us back up to the same level we were. He raises up in, elevates even further because we're Grace abounds there with sin about Grace bounds all the more.

But that's why he clarifies, don't go looking for since you get more Grace but if you happen to need the Grace, you can trust in the love of god for you to give you even more. Hopefully that makes sense because he was on to talk about those, those who were baptised into Christ, bapat into his death. We were buried, therefore.

And so this reality, of course, is that the old man, right, the former man he calls IT, the the old man being are fAllen flesh. He is meant to have been crucified with Christ in our baptism, that when we actually repented, right, we turned away not just from sin n, not just vice, not just from old habits, but we turned away from that person. I was someone different before I encounter Christ.

I was someone different before he saved me. He's made me into a new creation. And so I turned from that and that let that person die. I'm ever going to confession to a priest. And at one point out, he said, you know what, I think sometimes we would rather just kind of torture the old man.

Or what same policies here is, the former man, rather than actually let them die, because he was, he was kind of highlighting how sometimes we don't really fully turn away from that former way of life with sometimes we don't really fully turn away from that sin. And so he can use that turn of phrase able to say, sometimes I think we just tortured the old man rather than actually let them die. Keep him alive a little bit, and maybe he'll have some power in our lives.

But as saying policies. We know that our former man was crucified with him so that the simply body might be destroyed and that we might no longer be slaves of sin. That's first six in chapter six, for he has died, is freed from sin.

So if we've died with cries, we believe we should also live with them because this is the whole this this incredible mystery um gosh, there's so much to say I wanted just jump to the end in chapter seven because there is so much good but there's also this sense of, oh my gosh, paul understands me in jeff seven. This is another place we might want to just have that highlighter out there, that pen, that pencil or whatever IT is to be able to write your notes to underlying these. We recognize, he says, the interior conflict between good and evil.

And this is one of those passages of scripture that might, you might say, oh my gosh, this is me. If it's not that great, praise the lord for that. But I read IT and think of god. At least you understand me. So that is paul. He says, I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate you refer like that that we're at war within ourselves even says that he says, now if I do what I do not want, I agree the law is good ah because I I don't want this I want the right.

I don't want the wrong so then it's no longer either do IT but seen that dwells in me and that recognition that yes, there's a broken ness so and think paul uses the terms, the flesh he's not condemning, like our bodies, the flesh means the fAllen human nature, our fAllen human nature. So IT keep that in mind. When ever you hear the term the same all uses the flesh.

But I don't know any exceptions. Tk, paul refers to the flesh. That means our fAllen human nature IT doesn't mean the bodies are bad IT just that part of us that doesn't want to do the right thing essentially. But I love this, he says. So I find IT to the law when I want to divide evil eyed coast of hands as a chapter seven for twenty one, I seen my members, another law, I war with the law, my mind, and making me captive to the law, sin, which dls in my members.

And he cries out in verse twenty four regiment that I am who will deliver me from this of death and the very next versy just like inserts this praise and he says, thanks Peter god through jesus Christ's, our lord just like i'm still, i'm still nice. I am just here. I am a pudden of messiness but thanks for the god through jesus Christ started and it's just that's the key in the middle of the mess to be able to praise, guide for his presence, for what he's doing in the, in the myth that mess.

You guys, I don't mean to take any more of your time today. IT has been an incredible gift to man. Be in what day for, I guess, now of the age of the church, and just be truck along here.

I think i've used that term twice today. Oh, well, here we are telling you, i'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My money is father mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow about us.