The Christian’s Boldness and Confidence

Jesus Christ is the Christian’s foundation for having bold access to God. It is not our performance that allows us to come boldly before God, but the merits of Christ. Christians do not need to be full of fear and anxiety to come to God. Because of Christ, God welcomes them to come, even on their worst day.

You can turn in your Bibles once again to Ephesians 3. Notice verse 7. “Of this Gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace which was given me by the working of His power, to me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”

Now I recognize that if you’re here today and you haven’t been following, or even if you have been following, Paul is saying a lot of things here. Vs. 7, “Of the Gospel I was made a minister.” “To me…” he is the least of the saints. Very least. “…This grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” So he’s talking there about the message he’s received, “to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery.” Then he says a little bit about mystery. “…Hidden for ages in God,” and then something about God who created all things. And all of this is so that this Gospel has come. And the Gentiles are being pulled into the church so that through the church “the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” – angelic hosts. “According to the eternal purpose…” God didn’t invent this. It’s an eternal purpose. You need to recognize this. God wasn’t caught off guard by sin. There’s an eternal purpose for sin and for the devil. “That he has realized (or carried out) in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Now he says something – he’s just mentioned Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom (in Christ… in Christ Jesus our Lord) we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in Him. “So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you which is your glory.”12, you can almost just read right over it and miss it. Just kind of a little side note. “In whom (in Christ)…” Yeah, yeah, yeah, we have boldness and access. Whatever. And we just kind of move on. But think with me here. What words do we have here? Boldness. Confidence. Those are strong words. Those are desirable words. Aren’t they? Isn’t it desirable to find Christians who are bold as lions and confident, like we’ve got a lot of little children around here. You watch a little child in its parent’s arms. Confident like a child. Don’t you want that? I want that. I want boldness. I want that confidence. Those are good things. Don’t you want to know that? Don’t you want to feel that? Paul is hitting on something here that undergirds Christian joy. Because the truth is when you don’t have that, when you don’t have confidence, when you don’t have boldness… on the other hand, Christians who are afraid, fearful, anxious, those who are timid and doubting and uncertain and overly cautious, that’s not so desirable.

It just seems like week after week I keep thinking of Pilgrim’s Progress. Something there comes out. Do you know especially in part 2 – the one that deals with Pilgrim’s wife Christiana – there’s these characters: Mr. Fearing. Anybody ever read about him? Mr. Feeble-Mind. There’s a Mr. Ready-to-Halt. Three of Bunyan’s pilgrims – now, they’re pilgrims. They’re Christians. These guys are genuine. They don’t out to be like Pliable or Obstinate or these guys that fall away (Atheist) – nothing like that. These are real Christians. What names he gives them! Mr. Fearing is said to be dejected at every difficulty and stumbled at every straw that anybody casts in his way. Mr. Feeble-Mind came from the city or the town of Uncertain. Mr. Ready-to-Halt – he had crutches. He left them. By the way, Mr. Feeble-Mind left his feeble mind at the river. Mr. Ready-to-Halt left his crutches at the river. The river is death. They left them. You’re glad that you can leave stuff like that behind.

God Would Have Us Bold

But God would have us bold. Have you ever read Paul’s words to Timothy? It looks like Timothy was wavering, maybe a little bit timid at one time. What did Paul say to Timothy? (from the room) He’s not given us a spirit of fear. Tim: That’s right. No spirit of fear, no spirit of timidity. But rather what? Power. Love. A sound mind. Or you read back in the Proverbs. You know the wicked? They’re always afraid and they’re running when nobody’s pursuing them, but what does it say about the righteous? Bold as a lion. God would have us to be that way. Bold. Confident.

But let’s ask this question: What sort of statement is Paul making here? Think with me. Look what he says. “In Christ, we have boldness and confident access through our faith in Him.” Well, for starters, it’s certain of this, it’s a statement that regards Christians. There’s no getting around that. It is those in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is those at the end of the verse who have faith in Him. But what sort of statement is this about Christians? Listen to it again. “In Christ, we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in Him.”

What I’m asking you is this: is Paul stating what is true about Christians or what ought to be true of Christians? Let’s be honest about what it sounds like. Does it sound like this is saying Christians ought to have boldness? Or that they do have boldness? It’s an indicative verb which means it indicates what’s true. He is saying those of us in Christ – it’s a present, active, indicative. So presently, actively, we have boldness if you’re in Christ.

What if We Don’t Feel Bold?

But you know what? I can imagine somebody sitting here full of doubts. I can imagine there are people – anxieties, fears, uncertainties, struggling. You don’t feel so bold. You feel uncertain. Someone here – there’s probably people here with assurance issues. Someone lacking confidence. And here comes Paul and he makes a dogmatic statement like this. We have boldness. Now look, if you’re struggling and you’re feeling uncertain and you’re struggling with fears, you’re fearful of things, you’re afraid of things, you’ve got assurance issues – if you’re struggling and you’re feeling in yourself: you know what? The truth is I don’t feel very bold. And you know what, if that’s the case, what are these words? They’re not very encouraging. It might feel like Paul is telling you that you are. What it feels like is Paul is telling you that you are something, but if you really stop – and look, if you’re reading this devotionally, you just cruise right across these words. You don’t even think about them. But stop and think. Stop and think what it means when a man under inspiration looks at Christians and says, “You have boldness.” And you go look in the mirror and you say, “No, I don’t.” “I feel afraid.” “I’m struggling with assurance.” “I feel weak.” Paul’s telling me that I have something. He tells me that I have something that I’m not sure if I have. Here you are – you’re hoping you’re a Christian. You think you’re one. But such things have happened. You feel all too much like you’re Mr. Fearing or Mr. Feeble-Mind or Mr. Ready-to-Halt. You know, in that second one, he also has Ms. Much Afraid, Mr. Despondency. Those are two characters that were a long time in Doubting Castle. Giant Despair. That may be where you’re at. You feel like you’re going through things, there’s despair. You’re going through struggles. You’re going through combat. You’re going through difficulty. And you don’t feel confident. You feel shaken up. You feel weak. You feel down. You feel despair.

Do you ever read Paul and sometimes you just want to say, “Paul, get real!” Do you ever feel like that? Perhaps you feel like sometimes you can’t really take Paul seriously. Why? Because he makes everything sound so glorious, so hopeful, so victorious, so solid, so bold, so confident. And here I am feeling like I just don’t live in that sphere. Anybody ever feel like that? I mean, Paul… Paul, when you talk this way either I have to say: what’s with the Christianity that I have? Why does it seem like it falls short? In fact, if it does, is what I have even the true thing? It makes me feel like saying, “Come on, Paul, get off that lofty cloud that you’re on and come down to reality.” I mean, Paul, maybe he received some extraordinary grace beyond all the rest of us, but come on, man, put your feet on the ground. Hit us with some kind of reality here.

But listen, what I know is this, if there was ever a man in touch with reality, it was this guy. He did have grace. But you know what, he was writing to people just like us. Just notice verse 13. You can’t read v. 12 without reading v. 13 or you’re going to come to probably some wrong ideas. “So, I ask you not to lose heart.” Oh, what you need to recognize is Paul is writing to people that he’s afraid are going to lose heart. See, he knows something is happening in these folks’ lives where they’re likely lacking boldness and confidence. You see it? To lose heart is the opposite of being bold and confident. That’s the reality. The truth is Paul is making this statement to Christians that are likely at that very moment being tempted to not be so bold.

Let’s remember the context here. Remember the context where we find ourselves. The idea of bold access is not new right here. Back up. Back up to chapter 2. Look at verse 18. Do you remember this one – those of you that have been here? All the way along through this? Ephesians 2:18, “For through Christ…” Do you see what it says? “…We both (Jew and Gentile) have access in one Spirit to the Father.” You see, Paul’s already been on this idea of access. The Gentiles – they may now approach into the divine presence. Or think about 2:13. Look at it. “We Gentiles…” (Ephesians 2:13) We were once far off. We’ve been brought near by the blood of Christ. You see what’s happening? Paul is exploding with this joy of this reality. What? The Gentiles can draw near. Gentile privilege. But as he does so there in chapter 3:1, he mentions that he’s a prisoner. And do you know what happens? Those people who love Paul and many of them who look to him as their spiritual father, they’re struggling and possibly losing heart. Why? Because their beloved Paul is behind prison bars. And they felt this. They felt this personally. Paul knows that this may be a sore trial to them and that they may be losing heart over this and that’s the last thing that he wants to have happen. Why? Because he wants them rejoicing and glorifying God for the reality that they now have access to the Father. And the last thing he wants them to do is be hung up by the fact that he’s in prison. They knew him. They loved him. They highly regarded him. And this would be a sore trial. We don’t feel that, but to them, it would be. And what he does not want is for that to detract from their worship. He doesn’t want them to lose heart. And that’s exactly what the temptation is. He wants them shouting and praising God for the nearness and the access. He doesn’t want his imprisonment to detract from it.

So what’s my point? Well, just this: When Paul says (back to 3:12), when Paul says “we have boldness…” “In Christ, we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in Him…” This is not only not meant to discourage people who are losing heart, and weak and doubting and timid and fearful. It’s precisely the thing to tell people who are losing heart. You see? You want to connect the context here. It’s precisely the thing that you want to say to the Christian who is weak, who is afraid.

So how does it work? Well, certainly it doesn’t work this way: It does not work if the emphasis is on “you.” You have boldness. In the sense that this – this is not what he’s doing – “Well, you know what? True Christians? They have boldness all the time. And if me being in prison is making you lose heart, well, probably your Christianity just isn’t real.” That’s not it. No, that’s not it. “Well, if you don’t have boldness I guess you’re just not the real thing.” No.

What you do say to Mr. Ready-to-Halt is this: “We have boldness.” And you want to emphasize the boldness. You want to say to the struggling individual in a way that it takes their eyes off of themselves. That’s the reality. It’s not: go look in the mirror to see if you have boldness. It’s: we have faith in Christ. That is the foundation of our boldness. You see, you want to say it emphasizing it in a way that it takes our eyes off of us and puts them on the Source of our boldness. That’s the issue. That’s it. The emphasis needs to be on the “why” we have boldness. Not the “who it is that has the boldness.” Eyes off of self. That’s exactly what Paul is doing because he says that this confident access, this boldness, it comes by faith in Christ. Faith in Christ is exactly what it means to look away from self to the Son of God. That’s the issue. Remember what this boldness is all about. Boldness. Boldness to approach God and draw near into His presence. You know what? There are many who are bold. They’re brash. They’re presumptuous. They run to God and they pray and they ask God for all sorts of things. Listen, Paul is saying we who have faith in Christ, we have a right to our boldness. Nobody else does. No one else.

How Should God Be Approached?

God is not to be approached any old way. Several weeks back I mentioned this verse out of Jeremiah 30:21. “‘Who would dare of himself to approach Me?’ declares the Lord.” But you see, we don’t come of ourselves. Who would dare of themselves approach? In other words, you dare not. But we don’t come alone. We don’t come by ourselves. We come in Christ. You need to recognize what’s being said here. By our faith in Christ, by looking to Him and embracing Him and resting and leaning, we have a right. We have a right that should give you boldness. We have a right to the boldness to go into His presence. You see, it’s not because of who you are. And it’s not because of what you’ve done. It’s based on what Christ has done. It’s based on the merits of another. This is important, because listen, you know a lot of times when we don’t have boldness? It’s when we’ve failed and fallen flat on our face. Haven’t had a good week. Listen, have you never read, we have an enemy. At the end of this book you’re going to need to do everything to stand in the evil day. That means there’s evil days. And who’s behind it? These cosmic powers of darkness. And what do they do? They want to trip you up. They want to tangle you in those thorns. They want you to cease to follow Christ when the persecution comes. They want to snatch up that seed. They want to make you fail. They want to make you faithless. They want to make you not go to God boldly. They want to tell you all manner of lies. They want to discourage you. They want you to be powerless. They don’t want this church to be any sort of witness. They want you to flounder. They want you to be in despair. They want you to be in doubt. That’s what they want. They want you to question everything. And when you’re having one of those weeks and you’re being attacked and they’re speaking in your ears and they’re telling you all sorts of lies and they’re reminding you of all your failures and you’re full of doubts and the devil’s breathing down your neck and saying, “how can you be a Christian?” But I’ll tell you this, though you have faith like a mustard seed, if you can say in the midst of all of it, my only hope of being accepted… my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood – His shed blood, His righteousness. I may be weak, but I know that’s my only hope. I’ll tell you this, if your hope is just simply that by Christ’s stripes I am healed, that faith may be like a mustard seed, but it’s based on what Christ did that you ought to have that boldness. Not your performance.

And that’s the problem with far too many. This law, this legality. I actually read a chunk of Pilgrim’s Progress yesterday. Mr. Feeble-Mind – do you know what Bunyan said about him? He actually came from a legalism. Legalism will cause you to fear. Why? Because it’s all performance-based. You’re always looking at what you’ve done. You’re always looking at how well you’ve kept the law. Look, righteousness is a part of the Christian life. But you never want to get – even when you read Scripture that talks about the fact that you ought to be following Christ and doing the works that He did and being zealous of good works – even when you read those, don’t you dare think that’s what gives you boldness to approach God because it is not the foundation. We have boldness that comes from something else. It’s confidence.

Grace Is the Remedy for Fear

Brethren, do you recognize that grace is the remedy for fear? That’s where our hope rests. Fear is so often a result of continuing to hear the law pounding in our ears, but our bold confidence is based on Christ’s blood. Is Christ your only hope? Though your faith be like that little mustard seed… Don’t you know? Even if you say it’s just small. I feel weak. But so what? If you’re clinging to Christ, God requests your presence. Come with all your weakness. Come with all of it. He requests you. Why? Because you have access and He loves you. That’s the reality. Enter. Approach. In all your fainting fits and losing heart, come. And you know what? What does it say about though your faith be like a mustard seed? You can move mountains. Why? Because you’ve got access to He who moves mountains. You don’t have power in yourself to move them. But you have access to the One who does move mountains. And you can come bold as a lion and it is no presumption.

Now the devil’s going to tell you: “Ah, after what you did… God doesn’t want you there.” But you know what God says? “I want you here. I want you before My throne. Come. Because there’s mercy there. There’s grace to help in time of need. You come. I want you there.” God is calling you all the time: “Draw near.” The devil’s saying, “Can’t go near, can’t go near.” Why? Sin! Sin! Well, wait, if your eyes are on Christ, then God says, “Come, come.” We have access. What ought that to do to our prayer life? We have access. Think of all the things that you may not have just simply because you haven’t taken God at His Word. You haven’t used the access that you have. God doesn’t want us timid. He doesn’t want us cowards. Listen! Boldly approach the throne of grace. You can be bold as lions. You can go there. He wants you there. Get your eyes off yourself. If you stand and look in the mirror, the devil’s going to be right there and say: “Man, that is ugly… that is bad.” But when you put your eyes on Christ, do you know the devil has no answer. You’re going to shut his mouth. You’ll shut it. You say to the devil, yes, yes, I have failed. Yes, I’m surprised that God would ever want to receive such a one as I. Yes, it’s true. My faith is weak. I have doubts. Yes, I have sins. Yes, I have not honored the Lord all the time the way that I wish to. But devil, I’m not going because I’ve measured up. But I have a substitute Who stood in my place and He measured up. And though you tempt me to doubt it all, still my hope is built on Christ. And it is built on His blood. It is built on Him performing a righteousness in my place – a substitute – and I will go to God and I will betake my blood-bought right to stand in the presence of God. Christian, that’s what you have. And though you ever have so much weakness, if you know my hope is Christ. I’m trusting Christ. I’m leaning there. I’m resting. I’m resting. Access, beloved! That’s what we have. Be bold! Why not?

What Does it Mean to Have Access to God?

Access means what? It means you’re going to be heard. When you lift up your voice to God and cry to Him, the living God says, Isaiah 58, “Here I am.” You cry. “Here I am.” This is no small part of being a Christian. This is a huge part of being a Christian! Approaching God. Access means that God is going to hear. God is going to respond. God is going to answer. God is going to act on your behalf. God is going to hear. He’s going to respond. That’s what access means. It means that very often you have a sense in your soul – Craig was talking about hearing, not just with your physical ear, but spiritual hearing. “My sheep hear My voice.” There’s a sense Christians often have of gaining access, of knowing the smile of God.

Look, God is going to acknowledge. And access is what you have a right to if you’ve come to Christ for rest. When you come to Christ with some running sore of a soul, “Lord, heal me. Help me, Lord.” And with that God is most pleased. Might I come? Dare I come? This holy God, this almighty One? If you trust His Son, He says, “You are most welcome.” God gets great glory from that. That’s why He sent His Son. He bids you come that way. You’re welcome to come that way. How? Through Christ. But don’t dare to come any other way. Christ said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes unto the Father…” You may think you do, but it’s a delusion.

Some of you probably want to look this up. There is a website out there and there’s all these testimonies. I watch them on YouTube. I pull them up on the t.v. IMetMessiah.com You say what’s that? It’s all these Jews who are being converted. And it’s their testimonies. And I found them really interesting. I’ve probably listened to like 30 of them. And some of them are just tremendous testimonies. Ah, how many of them are moved by Isaiah 53! Somebody will read Isaiah 53 to these Jews and say you know where that comes from? And they’re like, well, Luke? Somewhere in the New Testament?

But listen to this, I copied down two people’s testimonies. I want you to hear this. There’s a young lady – probably 25 years old. She said this: “I used to go to the synagogue and we’d sit there and we’d pray along with everybody.” It was interesting, she said this: “A lot of the time, I could feel God’s presence there. I just felt like God is here. And then I would go and I would pray and I wouldn’t hear back. You know, I liked synagogue. I loved the liturgy. I loved the tradition. I liked even keeping Shabbat. But there’s a certain emptiness that was there. It’s like, you know, there wasn’t power. We always talked about God theoretically, but not personally, and I was so hungry for that. Because that’s what you see in the Tanach.” (Their Old Testament Scriptures.) Basically what she was doing was she was looking at the lives of Old Testament saints and she was saying they had something with God. I’m not feeling it. “It was just so clear that I kept praying all the prayers and I wasn’t hearing. And I started to ask God why. Why is that?” You see, that boldness, that access. It wasn’t there. You know why it wasn’t there? As Jewish as she might be, she didn’t have the Messiah. And she goes on to say she had a cousin or something, and she later found Christ.

Here’s an older gentleman. He says this: “As I was continuing to study…” So he’s searching. Here’s a man searching. He wants to know. He said, “I noticed the personal relationship that God had with our fathers.” See, this is a Jew and he’s searching his own Old Testament Scriptures and you know the thing that jumped out at him? It was that his own fathers – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua – God spoke with them. And they made sacrifice and made altars. And he said, “And I didn’t have that relationship with God. At the synagogue, no one had that personal relationship. So I began to pray. ‘God, I want to know You like our fathers.'” And he went on to find Christ.

Maybe this describes you. You come here and maybe you come here because you do feel like there’s a sense of the presence of God. Maybe you feel like something’s different. But the reality is you’re just like these people. When you try to pray, it feels like there’s no answer. There’s a deadness. There’s a lull. There’s a quiet – not a good quiet. There’s the quiet of the silence of God because He’s not answering. Why? Because you’re trying to approach Him in the wrong way. Maybe like this girl, you can talk about God theoretically, but you know – you know these saints who talked with God, walked with God and worshiped God – like what’s missing? What’s missing? And maybe you’re here and you’re even bearing the name Christian, but you know, not just Old Testament saints, even some of the saints here – you look at their lives, and why do I feel like I’m an outsider? Why do I feel like I can’t connect? What’s wrong? Why don’t I have that boldness? I go to God and I don’t know if I feel bold or confident. I don’t know what I feel. But I feel empty. I feel like something’s missing. In fact, the reason I go here is because a bunch of other young people and I want to get married. But this God thing, yes, in theory, and I talk about it and I can quote Scripture maybe, but something’s missing. Listen, if you’ve got a Christianity and God is the something that’s missing, that’s not small. Maybe you feel like talk about God’s presence is as foreign to you as Mars. The idea of your soul ascending to God – it’s like another language.

I often think of those Old Testament words. What profit is it that we dwell in Jerusalem if we do not see the King’s face? What profit? You’re just like one of the three classes of the hearers, the soils, that you heard about. You come and you hear, but you don’t really hear. You come and you hear, but you don’t really hear back from God on a personal level. Have you ever noticed – have you ever noticed that it’s the people that are bold to go before God that come away from that throne with boldness to do and attempt great deeds for God? Have you ever noticed that connection?

You know one of the interesting things? I’m praying through the Psalms and just this week I was in Psalm 30. And what’s interesting is in Psalm 30, David is bold! “In You, O Lord, do I take refuge. Let me never be put to shame.” He’s just asking, asking. Don’t let me be put to shame. “In Your righteousness, deliver me.” He wants deliverance. He wants to not be put to shame. “Incline Your ear to me.” (incomplete thought) It’s like, God, if You don’t answer, how different am I than those that are perishing, going down to the pit? What difference? Lord, that’s what makes Christianity here in this world. The reality of it is in that. That I have an approach, I have access. I can draw near to God. And He’s there. And I have the ability to sense that He’s there. And it produces joy. And there’s a sense of forgiveness. I look at that cross and I can say, yes! Yes! I see Christ hanging there! I see Him crushed! I see Him pouring out His soul! I have access based on that. I can run in. Here’s David. He runs in there. Lord, give me help! Give me help! And you know, you read down though this thing, and he’s asking: for Your name’s sake, lead me and guide me, and take me out of the net they’ve hidden for me. Be my refuge. On and on… But what I found interesting is you get to verses 9 and 10. “Be gracious to me, O Lord. I’m in distress. My eye is wasted from grief. My soul and my body also. My life is spent with sorrow.” See, here’s a man like we were talking about. He’s tried. He’s in the fire. But you keep reading. “I’ve spent my years with sighing.” So he’s discouraged. He’s sighing. He’s cast down. He’s losing heart. And he even goes on to say this: “My strength fails because of my iniquity.” “My bones waste away.” What’s that, David? Are you the one that conquers lions? Bears? Goliaths? Yep. Yep, that’s exactly right. Because you know what, his boldness to approach God was not based on his performance, and he knew that. And he could go to God and rather than trying to posture himself before God because you feel like you had a good week, he’s saying, Father, I have not had a good week. My bones are wasting away because of my own iniquity. I’m sighing. I’m cast down. I’m discouraged. But you look at the boldness. He runs – he doesn’t even get to talking about his sins until v. 9 and 10. It’s like in the beginning it’s just: clear the way. I need my God. You are my refuge. And he runs there. And then you know what? Those who boldly approach not because of their performance, but because of the sacrifice of Another, because of the merits of Another, because their eyes are on that Other One – you know you find people like that, they come away from the throne even bolder. And they do go out and they conquer their Goliaths. That’s the Christian life. You don’t want to just pass over this verse. Boldness. We have boldness. You say, “I don’t feel bold.” Well, put your eyes on the Crucified One because that ought to give you boldness. No matter what’s happening in your life. No matter how you feel, no matter how you might be struggling, no matter how you might feel discouraged, cast down, full of doubts – look, if you’re resting there upon Christ, it’s not presumption. You boldly go in there.

Look to the Cross

If the devil says what right do you have? You just point to the cross. That always silences him. He has no answer for the cross. You see what he does, is he’s trying to pull your eyes off the cross. The writer of Hebrews: you run this race. You set your eyes upon Christ. He wants you to get them off. He wants you to think about how you’re living. He wants you to think about performance. He wants you to think about the laws, the legal demands. No. No, the place you’re going to get the grace to run the Christian life is not going to come from the laws and the rules. It’s you set your eyes on Christ and then you flee into God’s presence like David. And then you cry out for the help. And you know what? What God has done is He’s filled your hands with these promises: like “to him who asks, they’ll receive; those who seek, they shall find. If they knock, it shall be opened unto them.” You go in there with all of those things and God is saying I’ve given you all these promises to give. (incomplete thought) David was provided. David was given. David had it heaped upon him.

The boldest people have not been the most perfect people. The boldest people have been those whose confidence solidly is resting in Another. And those bold people who go to that throne with that boldness, they’re the ones that come away even bolder. And they go out into this world and they’re the ones that attempt great deeds for God and succeed. And that’s the way we need to live life – with boldness! We can be bold as lions. The righteous should be bold as lions. We don’t want a bunch of cowards. Cowardly Christianity. Cowardly Christianity is a dead giveaway of a people who spend too much time looking at themselves. Grace frees us. Grace gives us wings to fly like an eagle, to run and not be weary. Grace frees us from fear. Why? Fear has to do with judgment. Fear has to do with the fact that I’m not going to be received. I’m going to be condemned in the end. It’s going to turn out after all that none of this is real. My Christianity’s going to give way. No, not even if it’s faith the size of a grain of mustard seed and all your hope is there on Christ. You’re leaning on Him. You can face the howling winds of hell, but rest there, and what God says is, “My son, My daughter, if you’re going to trust My Son, My only begotten, I want you to live in My presence.” And you have a right to it and it is one of the greatest blood-bought rights of Christianity that Christ makes a way. Be bold! Bold! We have boldness by our faith in Him. Amen.