Martin Lloyd-Jones, who pastored
Westminster Chapel in London, England, for many years, said
one time he had preached two good sermons in his life, and
both times he was dreaming. I pray the Lord will bless this
Word to all of us here tonight. I want us to turn to two passages
of Scripture. One is John chapter 16, and the
other is Acts chapter 12. And we will read the passage
in John first. John chapter 16, and then Acts
chapter 12. just the first few verses here
in John 16. And remember, these words were
the words of the Lord Jesus Christ the night before he was crucified. And he spoke these words along
with the eleven apostles. Judas has already gone out. These
things have I spoken unto you, that you should not be offended.
They shall put you out of the synagogues, yea, The time cometh
that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God's service. And these things will they do
unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But
these things have I told you, that when the time shall come,
you may remember that I told you of them." And then, if you
will, in Acts chapter 12, Now about that time, Herod the
king stretched forth his hands 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 Passover to bring him forth to the people. Peter therefore
was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the
church and to God for him. And when Herod would have brought
him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers. bound with two chains, and the
keepers before the door kept the prison. And behold, the angel
of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison,
and he smote Peter on the side, and 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 wist not that it was true which was done by the angel,
but thought he saw a vision. 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 forthwith 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 expectation of the people of the Jews. This last passage
especially has been on my mind for several days in regard to
God's providence. God's providence. What is it? What is God's providence? Well, I would give this definition.
It is the day-by-day working out. of God's eternal, unchangeable
decree or purpose. That's what it is, providence. The day by day working out of
God's eternal, unchangeable decree or purpose from eternity. In Acts chapter 15 and verse
18, another apostle by the same name, James, He declared, known
unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. And
the reason why all of his works are known unto God from the beginning
of the world is because he has ordained all things that come
to pass. There's nothing that takes place
in time that God did not ordain or purpose from old eternity. Providence, the working out.
of God's eternal, unchangeable purpose. Well, I want us to first consider
the time. Notice this passage here begins,
Now about that time. In the passage that we read in
John, the Lord Jesus Christ said, The time shall come. the time
shall come. And now we see in this passage
now about that time. What time was it as far as the
date? What time was it? Well, I looked
in a Bible help and I found that the time that that Peter was
delivered from the prison was about 42 A.D., about 42 A.D. Now, if the Lord Jesus Christ
was crucified in 30 or 33 A.D., and we're not certain, these
are approximate dates, I understand that. But the point I want us
to make, I want to make and I want all of us to see that this took
place early, early in the life of the church. It took place
within 15 years at least of the Lord telling His disciples, commissioning
His disciples. And these two men, James and
Peter, they helped to make up that company of apostles that
heard the Lord say unto them, Go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. This took place early in the
life of the church. He told his apostles to wait
in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them as he
had promised. And then there were to be witnesses
unto him in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost
part of the earth. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is the gospel for the world. It's not to be contained
in one locale, in one area. It was always from the beginning
to be sent out into all the world, among all the nations of the
world. And thank God over the years
God has called men to preach the gospel and to go into foreign
lands. How many men have left their
homes and families and many of them lucrative places in society
and work and yet they've had a burning desire and zeal to
take the gospel to the lost. because they believed this would
honor God, and because they believed God had called them, and because
they believed that lost men and women will spend eternity in
hell, that hell is a real place, and those who depart this life
without Christ will die eternally in a devil's hell. Now, they
believed that. And as I said, it was early on
in the life of the church. Our text here speaks of two apostles,
James and Peter. And they were two of our Lord's
earliest disciples. If you remember, let's turn back
in Matthew chapter 4. These two men, along with John,
they were two of our Lord's earliest disciples. We find their calling
in Matthew chapter 4. Our Lord was baptized according
to the Scripture recorded in Matthew chapter 3. And then in
verse 17 of chapter 4, after he had gone into the wilderness
to be tempted of the devil, the Scripture says in verse 17, from
that time Jesus began to preach and to say, For the kingdom of
heaven is at hand. And Jesus, walking by the Sea
of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter. Here's one
of them. Simon called Peter, maybe the
first of the disciples that our Lord called. And Andrew, his
brother, casting Annette into the sea, for they were fishers.
And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers
of men. My, my, what a blessing, right?
to be called from fishing for fish to be fishing for men. To be fishing for fish, which
is important to earn a living, no doubt about that. But all
that we can see is temporal and will last just a while. But to
become fishers of men, to go out and do a work, be used in
preaching the gospel, That is an eternal work. That is the
saving of a soul. He saith unto them, Follow me,
and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left
their nets and followed him. And going on from thence, he
saw other two brethren, James. Here he is. Here's the other
one. The two men in our text, Peter
and James. Peter and Andrew first were called,
and then our Lord saw two more brothers, James the son of Zebedee,
and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending
their nets. And he called them, and they
immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him."
You know the story about Elisha when Elijah came by? and spoke those words of prophecy
on Elisha. The scripture says he was plowing
12 yoke of oxen. Now, I understand that to mean
there was 12 yokes of oxen, two in each yoke. So that would have
been 24 oxen. This is the way I understand
it. He wasn't handling all of those oxen by himself. There
were other workers I'm sure there was a man for each yoke, for
each set of oxen. But you remember he ran after
Elijah and he said, suffer me to go home first and to bid farewell
to my family. And Elijah said, what have I
to do with you? And Elijah went back and he,
with two of those oxen, he offered a sacrifice. and he burnt the
sacrifice with the yoke, the material that they used to yoke
the oxen together to burn the sacrifice. We seek committal,
do we not, on the part of these men that God called to preach. Immediately, the Scripture says,
Peter and Andrew, James and John left their father, two of them
did, and they followed the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord called
them into the ministry. And on three occasions, these
two men in our text tonight, James and Peter, on three occasions
they were singled out from the twelve. to be in special contact
or special relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Many times
in reading you will see they are referred to as the elect
of the elect. We know that he chose all of
his disciples. He said, Have not I chosen you
twelve? And one of you is the devil.
The Lord chose each and every one, elected each and every one
to be his apostles, but these three were chosen out of the
twelve to experience three things that the others didn't. When
the Lord Jesus Christ went into that house of the man by the
name of Jairus, you remember. He was a ruler of the synagogue,
and his daughter had died while Jairus and Christ were making
their way to his house. And when they got there, the
Lord said, ìSheís sleeping.î And He refers to death as sleep,
doesnít He? Remember He said, ìOur friend
Lazarus sleepeth.î He wasnít saying that she was asleep like
we think of sleep. She was dead. And everyone knew
she was dead that was there. And when he said that, they laughed
him to scorn, didn't they? They just ridiculed him, mocked
him. But he went in and closed the
door, and there's Peter, James, and John with him. And he takes
that girl by the hand, and he says, I say unto thee, arise. And she got up. And they saw,
they witnessed that. And then they were with him that
day on the Mount of Transfiguration when his clothes were whiter,
the Scripture says, than any fuller may white them. And his
face did shine as the sun. And they got so excited, Peter
said, well, he didn't know what he was saying. He said, let's
build three little worship centers here. One for Moses, one for
Elijah, and one for you, Lord. And then the voice from heaven
said, This, this is my beloved son, hear him. Moses and Elijah
in their place, but they cannot compare to Jesus Christ. And then that night, after the
words we read there in John, when they came to the garden
of Gethsemane, his disciples, they stayed in one place, but
he took these three with him deeper into the garden, and then
he went away from them. So they were closer to him in
that time of passion. Here are two men, James and Peter,
who had heard the Lord say, Go into all the world and preach
the gospel. And they were two men who on
the day of Pentecost were filled with the Holy Spirit and preached
the gospel. If you want to look in Acts chapter
2, Acts chapter 2, and just reading
the first four verses. And when the day of Pentecost
was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place,
and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty
wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And
there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and
notice, and it set upon each of them. each of these disciples. They were all filled with the
Holy Spirit. They were all filled with the
Holy Ghost and began to speak with other languages as the Spirit
gave them utterance. It was, the point I'm making
here, my first point, consider the time. Scripture says now
about that time. It was the time when the harvest
was great and the laborers were few. It was at this time that
James is killed and Peter is delivered. Remember, we're thinking
about God's providence. Consider the different providential
acts. James was killed and Peter delivered. Remember, God's providence is
the working out of his all-wise, eternal decrees made from before
the foundation of the world. Every person in this building
tonight, I know all of us well enough to know that we would
all say if we were asked, could not God have delivered him? Could
not God have delivered James like he did Peter? I read this
past week a passage back in 2 Kings. Let's go back there just a moment.
2 Kings chapter 1. There was a wicked king over
the nation of Israel, and he sent three of his army captains
to arrest Elijah. He sent one, and then he sent
another, and then he sent another. And each one of these captives
had fifty men under his command as they went to arrest this prophet
of God by the name of Elijah. 2 Kings chapter 1, and we begin
reading in verse 9. Then the king sent unto him a
captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him, and behold,
he, that is Elijah, sat on the top of an hill, and he spake
unto him, Thou man of God, the king, this is somebody, the king
hath said, Come down. And Elijah answered and said
to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, Then let fire come
down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there
came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty. Again also the king sent unto
him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered
and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said. This man is somebody. He's the
king. And he has said, come down quickly. He didn't just say, come down.
This one said, the king has said, come down quickly. I want you
to know that I'm here on a mission from the king. And Elijah answered
and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from
heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God
came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty. And he, that
is the king, sent again a captain of the third fifty, with his
fifty. And the third captain of fifty
went up. Now this captain, I say unto
you, I suggest to us tonight, he recognized, yes, he served
a king, and his king that he served sat on the throne in Samaria,
but he recognized also that there's another king. There's a king
of kings. There's a king sitting on the
throne in heaven, and all things move according to his will. And so this captain, he came
with his fifty, and he fell on his knees before Elijah, and
besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee. I'm not here commanding in the
name of my king. I'm praying thee. I'm praying
thee. I'm asking thee. I'm asking for
mercy. I pray thee, let my life and
the life of these fifty thy servants be precious in thy sight. And the angel of the Lord said, Go down with him, be not afraid
of him. And he arose and went down with
him unto the king. So if we ask the question tonight,
could not God just as easily have sent fire down from heaven
to destroy Herod before he ordered the sword to be put to James? Could not God just as easily
have delivered James from Herod as he did Elijah from that wicked
king of old? Well, I don't think anyone here
would answer, well, that was in the Old Testament. That was
Old Testament days. We're reading now in the New
Testament. Yes, that's true. But remember this, my friends.
The God of the Old Testament is still the same God. And the
power that God had when the Old Testament was taking place, He
had when the New Testament was taking place. His power is omnipotent
power. He's unlimited in power. The
scope of his reign includes everything, everyone. It's all inclusive. Then someone would ask, then
why didn't he? Why didn't he? We all agree he
could have. His power is not limited. He
could just as easily have delivered James as he delivered Peter. Then why didn't he? Well, how
in the world can we answer that question? There's only one way
I know, and that is with Scripture. And the Scripture says, The secret
things belong unto the Lord our God. But those things which are
revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we
may do the words of this law. The answer to why he did not
deliver James is one of these secret things that belong unto
God. That's the best answer that we
can possibly give. Now third, consider some lessons
to learn from God's providence. I have three lessons for us tonight. First, God's ways are above man's
ways. I know we know that, but we need
to be reminded, God's ways are above man's ways. As I've tried
to point out in and impress us with the fact here in the early
days of the church, just taking off, so to speak, and going into
all the world, evangelize the world. If there were ever a time
when every labor was needed and every labor was useful, it was
this time. And yet here, when the Lord only
had twelve apostles early on, one of them is slain. And no
one can deny that God could have delivered him. But he didn't. God's ways are not our ways. You know, he says that to us,
doesn't he, in Isaiah chapter 55, verses 8 and 9. God said, For my thoughts are
not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the
Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. Now the context in which those
two verses are given concerns God's saving mercy and His pardoning
of sinners. God's ways are higher than our
ways. His thoughts are higher than
our thoughts. We may be sure tonight that however
high our thoughts, and we sang that hymn just a moment ago that
David chose out, oh, the depth and the height, I believe it
was, of the mercy of God. We, no matter how high and how
great we think God's mercy is, we may be sure, it's greater
and it's higher than that. That's the context in which he
spoke these words. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. We may be sure that however high
our thoughts of God's mercy And his pardon are, they are so,
so, so far below his thoughts, as the heaven is higher than
the earth. So I say to all of us here tonight,
and especially someone who may be harassed by thoughts from
Satan telling you that God's thoughts or God's mercy is not
great enough for you that you send away your day of grace or
whatever He might insinuate into your mind. I want you to know
this. God's mercy is greater still. God's mercy. And the Scripture
in Nehemiah. Can you imagine this? This man
of God speaking to God said, God, thou art a God ready. to pardon, ready to pardon. All men may have hard thoughts
of God, and Satan, he sure tries to give people hard thoughts
and discouragement when a man or a woman is seeking after the
Lord. But, oh, God's thoughts are so
much higher than our thoughts. He's a God of mercy, a God of
grace. God's ways are above man's ways. Number two, God's ways call for
faith on our part. Now, we preached a message this
morning about faith, and that's how we come into union with Christ
on our part. We are in union with Him by faith. He is in union with us by His
Spirit. But faith is something, as I
said, it's a living grace. And we begin the life, the Christian
life, trusting Christ, believing Him, and all along the way. God's providence, as we see things
that perplex us, that, things that we cannot possibly understand,
as in this case, James being killed and Peter delivered, we
must realize that God's ways call for faith on our part. We're not able to understand
why it was best for James to be killed and Peter spared. But
it's not necessary that we understand. But what is necessary is that
we believe. We believe the Scripture which
tells us that He makes all things work together for good to those
that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose
by faith. He mixes everything in life,
all of these providential things that we see and go through and
experience for our good. Someone said that if men were
all powerful, I don't know if you've read this statement or
not, but I think it is so, so well, so good. If men were all
powerful, suppose you were all powerful. we would change everything. I mean everything. If we were
all powerful, we would change everything. But if we were all
wise, we would not change anything. Can you say amen to that? If
we were all powerful, we'd change everything. Things happen we
don't like. We wish things didn't happen
like that. But they do. And we realize that
God's in control. And that this doesn't happen
by accident. It just doesn't fall out of the
sky. I've read the biographies of two missionaries, both of
whom were taken Around the age of 30, David Brainerd, to the
American Indians up in the eastern New England states, years ago,
he was contemporary with Jonathan Edwards, a greater missionary,
I don't suppose, has ever been, and Henry Martin, who lived in
the late 1700s and 1800s, missionary first to India and then to Persia,
or Iran. And both of these men I think
David Brainerd at 29 and Henry Martin at 30. That's young, isn't
it? That's young to be taken. And
they were so useful and so dedicated and so zealous in the work of
the Lord. You cannot read, let me tell
you, you can't read their biographies and not be convicted. They were
so zealous in the work of the Lord, and yet both of them were
taken at a very early age. We can't understand, but we by
faith believe and know that what God does is right and what God
does is best. I would say this, that the biographies
of those two men God has used, no doubt, in encouraging and
challenging other men that he has called to the mission work. And here's the last lesson we
should learn. God's ways should keep us from
murmuring. You know, murmuring is a wicked
sin. We don't think about it as much as we should, but murmuring
is a wicked sin. When you believe and understand
that providence is God working out His plan, His decree, His
purpose, then murmuring against the things
that we experience, we should acknowledge in everything. in
adversity as well as in what we call good things. Didn't Paul
say, in everything give thanks? In everything. When Job's wife,
for whatever reason, for whatever reason, she told her husband,
And she looked at him. He was all covered with boils,
scraping himself. Everything was gone. When she
looked at him, maybe it was out of pity. I don't know. Maybe
she was an unbeliever. But she said, Curse God and die. Maybe she did that out of pity.
Put yourself out of misery. But do you remember how Job answered? What? Shall we receive good at
the hand of God and shall we not receive evil? Think of all
the good that you and I have received at the hand of God. God gave His only begotten Son
to save us. He sought us out when we had
no interest in the things of eternity. Here we were headed
for eternity lost, and God intervened. God apprehended us. That's the
word that Paul uses right in Philippians. He was apprehended,
and that's the word that the policemen use when they go out
to arrest someone. They apprehend that person. And
we were on our way As fast as we could go to hell, and God
by His Spirit, His grace, His gospel apprehended us. Shall we receive good at the
hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? And I'm not talking
about moral evil, I'm talking about adversities. His righteousness
he has imputed to us so that God declares us to be just and
his precious blood cleanseth us from the filth of sin. Yes,
James is killed and Peter is released. There is a part in
Pilgrim's Progress. You remember, as I tell, remind
us of this, but there's a part in Pilgrim's Progress when Christian
was being accompanied by a man named Faithful. And they came
to a place and an evangelist came and spoke to them again. He had spoken to them, of course,
earlier, warned them of what was going to happen, and pointed
them toward the cross. But evangelists told them this
time that they would come out into a place and enter into a
town, and that town would be named Vanity Fair. And evangelists
told them, one of you will seal your testimony with your blood
in this city. Well, it turned out to be faithful,
faithful like James in our text. But the writer John Bunyan, he
said that he saw behind the multitude, the multitude that killed faithful,
John Bunyan said that he saw a chariot with a couple of horses
waiting for faithful. who as soon as his adversaries
had dispatched him was taken up into it, that is the chariot,
and straightway was carried up through the clouds with the sound
of trumpet the nearest way to the celestial gate. James was
released from this wicked world. Peter was released from the prison. Who had the better? Who had the better? James, immediately,
in the presence of God, which Paul said, to depart and be with
Christ, which is better. Peter remained here for some
time, serving the Lord as God ordained. The providence of God
I pray the Lord would help us to consider these things and
especially be careful of murmuring against the Lord. Let us sing
a hymn before we are dismissed. a little unconventional but let's
turn back