Throughout the book of Acts,
we've seen that the acts of the saints and the acts of those
around them, whether friend or foe, have come to pass by the
acts of our King, the King of heaven and earth. The Lord brings
about everything that comes to pass and rules everything that
comes to pass according to His purpose. Providence is God's
rule over all things. The psalmist said, Our God is
in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He hath
pleased. Isaiah said, Declaring the end
from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not
yet done. saying, my counsel shall stand
and I will do all my pleasure. Acts 12 verse 1 begins with a
phrase concerning time. It says now about that time. This was about the same time
that the believers in Antioch sent relief to the believers
in Judea. Herod began persecuting the church
about this time. The time in which this occurred
is important. About the time the believer performs
an act of charity, a warfare usually begins to rage
within him. The flesh begins to commend him
for his act of benevolence. You're good. That's a good thing
you did. And in the Spirit, He knows I
don't have anything but what I received. The Lord gave me
the heart to know Him, to delight in Him, to see that He's my provider,
to know that He gave me the substance to provide. He gave me the brethren
to provide for. And this war rages between the
flesh and the Spirit. The flesh would have you say,
yes, I am good, which is contrary to a meek spirit and a humble
spirit that believes Christ alone. But our Lord won't allow the
believer to be brought under the dominion of sin. So about that time when the Lord's
people have provided so well for the folks in Jerusalem, a
new adversary enters into their midst. Why would the Lord allow
Herod to vent his wrath toward the Lord's people? Why would
the Lord have his people suffer trials in their lives every day? In John 17, John chapter 17 and
verse 12, the Lord was praying, and this is his prayer. While
I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me I have
kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that
the Scriptures might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee." Going
to the cross. He's going to lay down his life.
He's going to bear the wrath of God. And he says, and these
things I speak in the world that they might have my joy fulfilled
in themselves. I have given them thy word. I've
given them thy word, thy promise, that you'll never leave them
nor forsake them, that you'll keep them. And the world has
hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not
of the world. And he says, I pray not that
thou should take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest
keep them from the evil. a keeping us from the evil. While
we journey through this world, the Lord causes the believer
to see our utter inability if left to ourselves. And he causes
us to have a dire need for his continual preserving all sufficient
grace. The Lord Jesus will not allow
us to go the way of the prideful, but he keeps his people in submissive
humility. He keeps them there. I want you
to see this tonight in three ways. I want you to see it in
Herod, who is an example of the way of man. I want you to see
it through the church and where the Lord drew his people and
where he shall always keep them. And I want you to see it thirdly
in Peter. and in the Lord's church, as we behold the peace and assurance
the Lord gave through a trial like this. Now let's begin here
in Acts 12.1. Now about that time Herod the
king stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the church.
And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because
he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter
also. Then were the days of unleavened bread. And when he had apprehended
him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four quaternions
of soldiers to keep him, intending after Easter to bring him forth
to the people. The Lord used Herod to teach
his people that no man can prosper by his own hand. Herod's motive,
as far as his motive is concerned, he doesn't appear to have done
this so much because he hated the Christ whom James declared,
whom Peter declared, whom the church declared, or because he
loved the God of the Jews, whom James denied and Peter denied
and the church denied, but simply as a political move to garner
more approval from the people. His motive was personal, ungodly,
earthly gain. That was his motive. Now, his
manner and his means were this. This is how he worked this thing,
and this is how the carnal, conniving heart works. First, he vexed
certain of the church. He didn't begin killing, but
vexing, putting them in prison, beating them. And he did it to
those he esteemed less important in the church. There's certain
ones in the church. This is Politics 101. This is
the natural heart 101. Don't ask for the moon in the
beginning. Folks might not want you to have it. So if you just
persecute some lesser folks, don't really do too much harm
to them. See how it plays out. See how
the folks like that. But a small move in the beginning,
and he saw himself succeeding in his little plan, and then
he became a little more bold, and he killed James the brother
of John with a sword. And then verse 3 says, and because
he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter
also. His motive was personal ungodly
gain. The praise of men made him proceed
more brazenly and with more intensity. And scripture declares this has
been the motive and means used by the majority in religion,
as well as in civil matters, as well as in community matters. Throughout scripture we see it.
This is the means and the motive. The poison of asps is under the
natural man's tongue. Poison, murder, adultery, theft,
enmity toward God, these things proceed from the heart, and these
are the things which defile a man. So how do God's saints persevere
when surrounded with enemies like Herod? Here's the good news. The Lord God, Christ our Savior,
from his throne of grace determined beforehand and brought to pass
everything that took place here. As we'll see here, He did this
to assure the hearts of His saints that He'll be glorified even
through the evil action of men like Herod. The King of heaven
and earth will cause His dear saints to profit spiritually.
And that's the only profit that there is, is spiritual profit.
And He's doing so right now in our day. He's doing so right
now in our day. Psalm 76.10, Surely the wrath
of man, the anger, the hatred, the ungodliness of man shall
praise thee, and the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. If it praises him, he'll allow
it to take place, to bring praise to his name, to glorify his name,
to benefit his people. And that which doesn't, he don't
allow it to come to pass. I don't know about you, but that
gives me great comfort. To give you comfort? Isaiah told
us, as we saw last time, all flesh is grass. All the goodliness
thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withers, the
flower fades, because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it. But,
he said, the word of the Lord endures forever. Now, everything
that's taking place here, the Spirit of the Lord's blowing
upon everything. And he thinks he's bringing everything to pass
just according to his plan. But he's gonna wither away to
nothing. But the word of the Lord's gonna
continue. It's gonna endure. Let's see
it. From Herod's point of view, he thought he was prospering
greatly by the power of his own hand. Verse one says, about that
time, Herod the king stretched forth his hands. The reality
was that Herod was doing as those did who crucified the Lord Jesus
Christ. Acts 4.27 says, For of a truth
against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed, this
is a different Herod, but both Herod and Pontius Pilate with
the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. That's exactly what Herod was
doing. Whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. Herod thought he was having his
own way when he killed James. From his point of view, he was
prospering. The reality was, Herod was merely
the instrument God determined to use when he appointed the
hour of James' physical death. Herod thought he actually had
killed James. When he saw the breath go out
of him and him laying there dead, he thought he had killed James.
The reality was, According as God had determined before, Herod
merely walked James into eternity where he entered the eternal
bliss of beholding Christ in glory forevermore. That's all
Herod did. Herod thought he brought great
injury to the church of God and so did all those who cheered
him on. But the reality is the Lord used Herod to give his church
such a dire need that they had to come to the feet of Christ
together as one man, and cast themselves upon God's mercy.
That's what we find here in verse 4. When he had apprehended Peter,
he put him in prison, delivered him to the four cordonians of
soldiers to keep him, intending after Easter to bring him forth
to the people. You notice how the Lord used their vain religion
to spare Peter? They didn't kill him right away
because it was the days of unleavened bread. They were going to wait
after they served God. observed the Passover, then they
were going to kill him. But it says here, Peter therefore
was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the
church under God for him. The church came together. It
didn't divide them. It didn't separate them. The
Lord brought them together and brought them to his feet through
this thing. That's the reality of what happened. Herod thought
that once he had killed Peter, then the people would behold
how powerful he is. And everybody, the Jews, even
those that followed, that went after this one named Christ,
and all the other host of people over which he ruled, everybody
would see him as the all-powerful king. And they would cheer him
on, and they would come to him and bow to him in submission. But that's not what happened.
The reality was that the Lord delivered Peter, and the Lord
increased Peter's understanding that nothing is impossible with
the Lord, and the Lord gave new assurance to Peter so that he
could go forth preaching Christ, our Deliverer, even more boldly
than before. I won't read the verses, but
Acts 12.11 through 17. He saw the angel of the Lord
come. We're going to look at these
verses in a moment. But he saw the angel of the Lord come and
took him out. And he went to the house where the people were
praying. And he, beckoning unto them with
a hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought
him out of the prison. He preached the power of the
Lord to deliver his people to the people. That's not what Herod
thought had come to pass by putting him in prison, or would come
to pass. But still, not persuaded when he saw the Lord had delivered
Peter, Herod killed his own guards. Now, verse 20 may tell us what
Herod's ultimate goal was in all of this. In Acts 12, 20,
it says, Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon.
He hated those of the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon. So
in order to bring them to his feet in submission, in order
for everybody to see them come to his feet in submission, he
brought all this persecution on the church of God. He's trying
to show them that He's God. He's trying to show them that
they need to come bow to Him. If He can defeat these Christians,
these ones that go after Christ, He can prove He's the High and
Lofty One. So that's what He tried to do. And it may have
appeared to the people that Herod succeeded, because those from
Tyre and Sidon did indeed come seeking peace. Look at verse
20. But they came with one accord to him, and having made Blastus
the king's chamberlain their friend, they desired peace from
him. They did. And so if you were just looking
at this through from Herod's point of view, from the carnal
point of view, you might look at it and you might think, Herod
is prospered in what he's attempted to do. He got these fellas from
Tyrenside to come and beseech him for peace, come begging peace
from him. The reality of the matter is
it was just Herod's conniving. King Herod, they came to him
not because they reverenced him. They came to him because their
country was nourished by the king's country. If they didn't
come to him, he wouldn't feed them. So they didn't come to
him because they respected his power. They didn't come to him
because they respected him as a king. They came to him because
they had to eat. He was the only one who had the means to feed
them at that time. And it says, Yet through all
his conniving, Herod thought he had reached his goal. All
eyes were on him on his throne, and all praise went up to him
just as he sought from the beginning. And to all those present, it
appeared that Herod had indeed achieved his goal by the strength
of his own hand. Look there, verse 21. Upon a
set day, Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne
and made an oration under them. And the people gave a shout,
saying, It's the voice of a god and not of a man. So it looks
like he got everything he's going after. That's what he wanted.
This was what he was seeking. But here's the reality. Just
as the Lord declared through Isaiah, the flesh shall wither
away when the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it, but that the Word
of the Lord endureth forever, we come to the reality of what
King Herod accomplished by all his fleshly wisdom and all his
fleshly strength. Verse 23. And immediately the
angel of the Lord smote him. because he gave not God the glory.
And he was eaten of worms. This happened long before he
died. The Lord smote him with worms and they ate him from the
inside out. And he gave up the ghost. All
flesh is like the flower, it withers away. But the word of
the Lord continues. Look at verse 24. But the word
of God grew and multiplied. You see, the only thing Herod's
fleshly strength brought about was death, death to all those
around him and death to himself. And this will be the end of all
who are like King Herod, whether opposed to God's church or passing
themselves off as one with the church. The man who attempts
to force his hand, to achieve that which profits his flesh,
to gain a position so that all will regard him as great, shall
die by the direct hand of God. What do we say to these things?
We say, turn from your wisdom, your fleshly strength, to God
Almighty. That's all we can say. The wise
man said, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not
unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him,
and He shall direct thy paths. Now, it says the Word of God
grew and multiplied. I want you to see this. Secondly,
First, we saw here the Lord used this trial to declare that we're
not going to accomplish anything by the hand of our flesh, by
our own strength, by our own wisdom. We're not going to get
out of it. We're not going to pass a law
to get us out of this mess we're in right now in this country.
Ain't but one going to get us out of it, and it's God Almighty.
That's it. Secondly, and that's the depravity
of man. We look to men who got us into
this mess to get us out of this mess. That's the uselessness
of the flesh. We've got to look to God. Turn
to Him. Secondly, the Lord declares through His church where He brings
us and where He will cause the believer to remain. Acts 12 verse
5. Peter therefore was kept in prison but prayer was made without ceasing
of the church unto God for him. Verse 12 says, and when he had
considered the thing, when Peter had come out of the prison, been
delivered, and he came to the house of Mary, the mother of
John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together
praying. The means the Lord uses to draw
his saints to himself is often severe trials, severe trials. It's his mighty hand. When you
see the severe trials, you're beholding the mighty hand of
God. And He commands us to submit ourselves under His mighty hand.
And He uses this hand, He uses His trials to bring His saints
to His feet. And trials are painful, but the
more painful the trial, the more the believer is made to behold
his own inability. And the more painful the trial,
the more the believer is brought to hug up to Christ when you
children, when you children, you parents, when your child
is hurt. Today, Will, I got a call from
the school. Will took a tumble. He was on a run across an asphalt
playground at school and fell and busted his lip and scratched
his eye and knees and things. But his lip was, you know, when
you get a busted lip, it'll bleed real bad. It scared the teachers.
He was bleeding real bad. They called me and it was time
for him to come home anyway. So I went up there and got him.
But when I got up there and got him, That was a trial to him.
That was a painful trial to him. You know what the first thing
he did when I went up there to get him? When he saw his father,
he grabbed onto me and hugged onto me. Tighter than he ever
would. If he'd have just stumped his toe, he'd have kept on going. But when he brought down to where
he's bawling and crying, when he saw me, he hugged me. He grabbed
me, held onto me. That's what the more severe the
trial is, the more we'll hug up to our God. That's what's
represented here in this prayer. And it says that when prayer was made without
ceasing of the church unto God for him, when the believer is
going to have to be brought to confess that only the caring,
all-sufficient hand of our Lord and our Redeemer can provide
our need. You know, the Lord sent a famine and justice upon
those who rejected Him at Jerusalem and throughout Judea. We saw
that last time. And that famine came upon the
unbeliever and the believer. But the Lord provided for his
people. He sent provision from Antioch
to them in Judea and Jerusalem and provided for them. Now, this
persecution by Herod brought death to both the Lord's saints
and to those guards. Herod killed people that was
in his own. under his own rule. So death
was coming to everybody involved here in this thing. But in the
midst of this, he blesses his church by causing them to cast
their care upon him. The good as well as the evil
that comes to pass in this world is all woe to the wicked, but
it's all well for the righteous. You know what Job said? Job said
to his wife, he said, shall we receive good at the hand of God
and shall not we receive evil? And the Scripture says, in all
this did not Job sin with his lips. He wouldn't sin against
God. Two of the greatest reasons that
believers suffer are given right here. James and Peter suffered
for preaching Christ and Him crucified. When you stand up
and preach the sovereign power of God Almighty, which is what
I'm endeavoring to do for you right now, when you stand up
and declare that God chose a people and put them in Christ Jesus,
and in Christ Jesus as their surety, none shall be lost. Because of Christ, He would have
to deny His Son before He denies them. And therefore they shall
be saved, those whom God chose on His own, according to His
good pleasure and His good will. When you declare that, men don't
like it, and you will suffer for it. When you declare that
the redemption that Christ accomplished is full, complete redemption,
that He really, truly purchased His people, really, truly paid
the ransom price that was demanded by the law, that He really, truly
put away their sin forever so that God remembers it no more,
absolutely no more, that by the will of God they were sanctified,
and by the one offering of Christ they were perfected forever,
that it's Christ who sanctifyeth, that He was made one with those
He sanctifies, and it's Him that does the sanctifying. that he's
all the righteousness the believer has, that the believer is not
left to his own devices to try to look into God's Word and to
come to some way that he can become more righteous or more
sanctified or more accepted of God. Christ is our separation
from this world. If Christ hasn't separated us
and doesn't continue to separate us in mercy and grace by making
Himself everything to us and this world nothing to us, we
won't be sanctified. We won't be separated from this
world. We'll be straddling the fence. We'll have one foot in
the world and one foot in the church unless He takes us and
plants us at the feet of Christ. But if you declare that message,
you take away the law that the man uses. You take away the restraint
a man uses. You take away the carnal, visionary,
the visual things that religion can see from a man. And you make
salvation to be a spiritual matter. You make the workings of grace
to be in the heart, effectually accomplished by Christ Jesus
the Lord. That the fruits of righteousness, the fruit of the
Spirit, love that He gives in a sinner to make that sinner
love God and to love His brethren. is by the Spirit of God and not
by man. That the joy that the Spirit
of God creates in a believer is fruit that he makes, wherein
the believer joys in Christ Jesus his all, and joys in his brethren
whom God has given him to delight in, because they too joy in the
same Lord. When you declare that the fruit
of the Spirit is long-suffering, wherein the believer is being
made patient because he beholds God working all things together
for his good. When he beholds that God is doing
it that he might be glorified, that he's doing everything according
to his purpose. When you declare that it's Christ
the Lord, the Spirit of Christ that creates that fruit of long-suffering
in the believer to where He bears long with His brethren and He
bears long with men outside of the church, He deals with them
in gentleness, He deals with them in goodness, He declares
that Christ is all the goodness and there's no good in us. That's
goodness! And He deals fairly and justly
and mercifully with someone. And when you declare that it's
Christ that creates that fruit in the heart and not man, That
offends a man because he says, I want to be my own husbandman.
I want to be the one who planted the vineyard. I want to be the
one who tilled the vineyard. I want to be the one who watered
the vineyard. I want to be the one who brought forth the fruit
in the vineyard. I want to be the one who gives all the glory
for this fruit in the vineyard. And God says, no, no. And if you declare that, you'll
surely suffer. If you declare that it's Him that preserves
us from this evil world, When He receives all the glory and
salvation in our believing, in our sanctified walk, in our perseverance,
then men will surely rebel against that message. That's why James
and Peter, that's why folks that didn't agree with one another
said, we all agree you kill those fellows. You kill those fellows.
And then brethren suffered when they beheld the mistreatment
and suffering and even death of the Lord's sanctified ones.
The believers, brethren, when they suffered, that causes us
to suffer. These aren't the only things,
the only trials that cause us to suffer, but these are two
of the greatest trials that we endure that causes us to suffer.
The Lord said, brothers shall deliver up the brother to death
and the father to the child and the children shall rise up against
their parents and cause them to be put to death. You should
be hated of all men for my name's sake. It's enough for the disciples
that he be as his master and the servant as his Lord. If they've
called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall
they call them of the household? But the Lord declared to us that
this world is full of suffering and he told us what he would
produce in his people through this suffering in John 16, 33.
He said, these things have I spoken unto you. He told them all about
this trial that was coming. And He told them all about what
He was accomplishing at the cross in their redemption. And that
God was satisfied toward them in Him. And because His blood
had purchased them, they could never be lost. And He said, I've
declared all these things to you that in Me you might have
peace. And He said, in this world you
shall have tribulation. It's coming, he said, but be
of good cheer. I have overcome the world, he
said. And he was telling them, I have overcome the world on
your behalf, for you, and because I have overcome the world for
you, I shall see to it that ye shall overcome the world. Now
don't go seeking peace in the world. That'd be insane, wouldn't
it? To hear that and then turn around
and look for peace in this world. And we behold something of the
true prayer which the Lord produces in his people. You see, he brought
this trial to bring them to his feet. And it was through James
and Peter suffering for preaching the word. It was their brethren
that they saw suffer. And they brought in this trial.
And whereas the world of civil government that hates God and
a world of religion that hates God, that thought this would
divide his people, God used it to draw his people to himself.
True prayer. is humbling ourselves under the
mighty hand of God, waiting upon Him to exalt us in due time,
casting all our care upon Him, persuaded that He alone careth
for us. It's settling down at His feet,
confessing that His will is what we desire to be performed. And
when we desire His will concerning the grace and mercy of all spiritual
blessings which are sealed up in Christ, That's where His will
is concerning all spiritual blessings that are sealed up in Christ
Jesus the Lord. When we pray concerning those
spiritual blessings, we're praying according to His will. When we
pray His will be done according to the promises which He's promised
His people, we are praying according to His will, such as grace sufficient
to bear any outcome. He didn't say He would necessarily
give you the outcome you want to happen. But He did say He
would give you the spiritual blessing of grace, which is sufficient
to bear up under the outcome. Grace to know how the Lord brings
to pass His will, and to know that His will and what He brings
to pass is right. That's what we pray for. Grace
to be patient, to wait upon the Lord, to work in His time and
not our time. If we ask these things, we ask
according to His will. And simply knowing He hears us
is our confidence in knowing that we shall have what we desire
of Him. You might want to turn to this, 1 John 5.14. That's
where I got what I just said to you, but let me just read
it as John says it, through the Spirit. This is the confidence that we
have in Him. that if we ask anything according
to His will, He heareth us. And if we know that He heareth
us, whatsoever we ask, we know we have the petitions that we
desired of Him. Now, if we have this confidence,
anything that we ask of Him according to His will, He heareth us. And
so then, if we know He heareth us, then whatever we ask, and
that's in accordance with His will, we know He'll give us what
we've desired according to His will. So, it's plainly stating,
if you're going to ask Him something, ask His will to be done. And
if you ask for His will to be done, you'll get what you ask
for. He promises the Holy Spirit shall
be our comforter. We have a good indication that
they asked the Lord to comfort Peter in this trial according
to His promise. And we have this indication because that's exactly
what the Lord did. We find Peter here, look here,
verse 9. And when Herod would have brought
him forth, going to execute him, that same night Peter was sleeping
between two soldiers. The Lord's will is, I'll comfort
my people when they're in the midst of trials. So we have a
good indication that they prayed, Lord, if it be your will, comfort
Peter. And they got exactly what they
asked for, because that was the Lord's will. That was his promise.
He promises to deliver His people from every trial. We have a good
indication they ask this according to His will, for He delivered
Peter from his trial, and He delivered them from their trial.
And be sure you get this, likewise, He delivered James from his trial. You get that? The way He delivers
is according to His will, and this is what we ask for, for
Him to deliver according to His will. He promises to perform
His will to exalt His glory and to edify His people. We have
an indication, they prayed, that His glory would be magnified
and His people edified. For He spared Peter, revealed
His power even more in Peter, and Peter came forth declaring
the mighty hand of God to His people. Christ was glorified
in actually what He did, in what Peter preached when Peter told
Him what He did, and His people were edified in the whole thing.
That was His will. And they prayed, Lord, if it
be Thy will, exalt Your name in this. Edifago people that's
his will and he did it He promises to destroy all our enemies We
have an indication that they prayed for this, just as King
David did throughout the Psalm. We have these indications because
these things are exactly what the Lord did. Verse 18 says,
As soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers,
which was become of Peter. And when Herod had sought for
him and found him not, he examined the keepers and commanded that
they should be put to death. And he went down from Judea to
Caesarea and there abode. And shortly after, the angel
of the Lord smote Herod and killed him. But the Lord, it's His will
to put down all His enemies, destroy the enemies of His people.
And it's not sinful for the Lord's people to pray, Lord, destroy
my enemies. Break the adversary. Take them
out of the way. David said, I hate every false
way. Destroy those that would attempt to lead your people in
a false way. That's the Lord's will. And He
did it. He did just that. The essence of all true prayer
is the same as all other aspects of the believer's worship. We
sing songs which declare our need of Him and our desire for
His glory to be magnified according to His will. It's what we just
sang, Be Thou My Vision. We read this same thing when
we read His scriptures. This is the same word we preach,
and this is our prayer. This is worshiping God in spirit
and in truth because it's the heart of worship which He creates
and brings forth in His people. Let me say one thing on this.
I've been sick lately, so I've had folks call, folks tell me. Something I've noticed in our
day and time is, you remember when the Lord said folks that
want to make long prayers to be seen of men, they have their
reward. They want to give alms to be seen of men, and when they're
seen, they have their reward. I wonder, I just wonder, when
folks are so eager and anxious to call you and tell you, we
put you on our prayer list, if they have their reward. Your prayer don't save nobody,
but God to whom you pray does. If we pray We're going to be
drawn into that prayer by God Almighty, by giving us a dire
need to where we see we can't do anything. But this hopscotch
and skipping around and telling everybody, well, we prayed for you. I've
had people in Dallas, Texas and in Arkansas and here and everywhere
else. And folks that I know are from
the gospel, they sat under. It's a gospel that declares God
loves everybody, that God would like to save you, that he would
if he could, that his blood wasn't effectual to really redeem anybody.
So I'm not making light of the people's idea of wanting to let
you know that we're thinking about you. But to tell somebody
that and to go out and make it known to people just because
you want everybody to know that you're praying for them, that's
one more work of righteousness. That's one more work to make
us feel good that we put you on our prayer list. We're praying
for you. I mentioned you. I prayed for you. The truth of
the matter is, is God's people pray for one another, and they
don't announce it. They don't have to announce it.
There's a prayer meeting going on in the midst of this church
that no carnal eye can see. It's going on in your house.
It's going on in your house. It's going on in Pete's house,
Eric's house, Adam's house. It's going on amongst his people. And they're praying for one another.
And there's brethren all over this country praying for one
another. I'm not saying that when you talk to somebody, it's
not encouraging to them to let them know we're praying for you,
brother. I'm just talking about this culture
we have of what prayer is in our day. It's gone off the deep end. It's gone into something that's
not righteous. It's not the work of God. I can't
make you see that, but God can. I pray He will. Thirdly, real
quick, I'll go through this. In Peter and the Lord's Saints,
we behold the result of the peace God gives in the hearts of His
saints when He works all this grace in the midst of trials,
as He did right here. He works peace and assurance
in our hearts toward Him when He causes us to behold that He
alone is mighty to save us. And then we're like Peter. We
see Peter there sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two
chains, the keepers before the door keeping the prison, and
he's laying there sleeping. He knows this. He knows that
he's Christ. He knows that he's been bought
with the precious blood of Christ. He knows that because Christ's
blood is precious to God the Father, he can't be lost. He knows that no matter what
man does to him, no matter what these men do to him, He's either
going to be spared by God to go and preach Christ more, or
he's going to be with God for all eternity. It's a win-win
situation. That's how it is with a believer.
As Brother Scott Richland said, since I heard the good news,
there ain't been no bad news. That's how it is with a believer.
And then He works this peace by discovering to us that not
we ourselves, but He is our Deliverer. Look at this. I'll just read
this to you, but verse 7. And just look at how all Peter
did was what he was told to do. Behold, the angel of the Lord
came upon him, and a light shined in the prison. And he smote Peter
on the side, raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains
fell off from his hands. And the angel said unto him,
Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy
garment about thee, and follow me. And he went out and followed
him. And he wished not that it was
true which was done by the angel, but thought he saw a vision.
And when they were past the first and the second ward, they came
unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city, which opened to
them of his own accord. And they went out and passed
on through one street, and forth the angel departed from him.
And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety
that the Lord hath sent his angel and hath delivered me out of
the hand of Herod and from all the expectations of the people
of the Jews. That's what the Lord causes us
to see. He breaks the chains. He opens the prison doors. He
leads us out. He commands us to follow him.
And he causes us to behold, indeed, the Lord has delivered me. The
Lord's delivered me. And then He works this peace
in our hearts when He discovers to us that He's able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to Christ
the power that worketh in us. Verse 12 says, And when he considered
the thing, he came to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose
surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying.
And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to
hearken, named Rhoda. And when she knew Peter's voice,
she didn't open the gate. She was so excited and so happy
and so thrilled to see that the Lord had actually heard her prayer. Their prayer and it actually
delivered Peter that she just left him standing there and took
off running back in to tell everybody else about it And when she knew
Peter's voice she opened out the gate for gladness But ran
in and told how Peter stood before the gate and they said to her
they were asking the Lord To perform his will and they said
to her you're mad. He's not standing out there and But she constantly affirmed that
it was even so and they said well, it's his angel. They've
killed him It's his angel, but Peter continued knocking. He's
out there since somebody let me in And they opened the door and
saw him and they were astonished they were just astonished you
know what they were astonished about they were astonished that
that The Lord actually communes with His people. The Lord actually
hears the prayers of His people. The Lord actually answers that
which His people pray in accordance with His will. The Lord actually
performs His will and gives His people grace sufficient to say,
Lord, thank you. Thank you. They were amazed. Well, here's the application
for you. When the heart begins to swell with pride, turn from
this world from your deeds, from yourself to Christ. In times
of ease and in times when the enemies of Christ turn against
you, count at the feet of Christ the Lord. When you see your brethren
in harm's way, turn to the Lord knowing that He bought them,
He knows what is best for them and for you, and pray His name
be glorified and His saints be saved as it pleases God to do
so. And do this, brethren, by pouring
out your heart in thanksgiving and supplication without ceasing. Prayer without ceasing, brethren,
is where The Lord brought them to this place where they prayed
without ceasing. But just for a little while, while the trial
was going on. And later on, because they're
just like me and you, they went back to their routine. But the
Lord brought them into another trial down the road and they
prayed without ceasing. You know what He does for us?
And He does that to teach us that that's where we ought to
be all the time. We ought to be praying without
ceasing is constantly casting our care upon Him who cares for
us, submitting to His mighty hand of providence, trusting
Him, praying His will be done, just constantly looking to Him
and knowing that He shall provide. That's praying without ceasing
is in the spirit of that continually. And that's where he teaches us
that through all these trials. And that's where he's bringing
us. He's bringing us to his feet one day to where we will, without
ceasing, adore him and thank him and praise him and worship
him. That's what we see here in this
prayer. That's what it is. You can't legislate it. You can't
set an hour for it. You can't set a time for it.
These people, We find several places in Scripture where when
a dire thing happened like this, they broke all their normal routine
and came to Him praying without ceasing. But in everything they
did, everything the believer did in their singing, in their
worship, in their prayer, in all of their worship, in their
reading of Scripture, all of their worship of God, that's
what we see, is constantly looking to Him. I want us as a people
here that serve Him, I want us to to worship Him without ceasing. I want us to sing praises to
Him without ceasing. I want us to read His Word without
ceasing. I want us to worship Him in the
preaching of the Word without ceasing and pray with Him without
ceasing. This we do when we come to this
place, every time we enter this place, to worship Him. Let's
do it at home. Let's do it all the time. Let's
be in continual song toward Him, reading His Word. rejoicing in
His Word, declaring His Word to anybody who will listen, and
praying to Him without ceasing. And when the Lord brings something
upon us to where one of our brethren is in a dire need and He expresses
His need for prayer or what have you, let's come together. And notice here, they weren't
all in Mary's house. There were many in Mary's house.
Some may have been in somebody else's house. Some in another.
Mary had a big house. So there was a lot of them there.
But we don't have to come to a certain building together for
special prayer. It don't have to be everybody
in one place. It can be some over here, some
over there. What I'm getting at is is somebody long time ago
may have, may have, and I read the writers and the old writers
that would have prayer meetings. Just like David said, I'll pray
to you morning, noon, and night. When the offerings were made,
the Lord didn't command them to pray. But they prayed when
the offering was being made that the Lord would receive the prayer.
He commanded them to pray on the Day of Atonement. That was
it. But they saw men like King David pray three times a day.
And now you look over there. You see people praying three
times a day, praying to a God that's Not God, but praying three times
a day. Carnal religion likes to imitate
things. The carnal heart likes to imitate. I don't want to,
in the same places where that goes on, folks are talking about
the culture of sin, where we just get into this culture, way
of thinking, of sins that are coming about, and we just fall
right into that trap, into that culture, and we go on and sin.
The same thing is happening in churches. The same thing is happening
in public prayer. is that, oh well, everybody's
got to come together and break off into groups and this group
over here pray and that group over here pray. You know it never
says in Scripture that they vocally pray. They may have been sitting
in Mary's house in their own heart, sitting there together,
but each one praying to himself. I don't know. May have, may not
have. But it doesn't declare those things because the Lord
doesn't lay down any legislation to tell us how to pray other
than to tell us to pray without ceasing. But He draws us to it. He brings us to it just like
He did here. And He brings us to His feet. That's the key.
Brings us to His feet. And that's where we come to.
And that's when we truly enter into prayer. When we're truly
pouring out our hearts. Truly pouring out our hearts
to Him. And He's able to do abundantly, exceeding abundantly more than
we ever ask or think. By His power working in us. That's
how we come to His feet, His power working in us. And it's
unto Him to whom is all the praise and the glory forever and ever. That's true worship. That's what
He caused here through all this trial. I hope you see that.