That's a great hymn that we've
just sung. We flee to him for a refuge. May that be our portion. As we come to his words, let's
pray. Our Heavenly Father, we do thank you for the fellowship
of your people scattered throughout this world. and the encouragement
that you bring to each and every one of your children, Heavenly
Father, as we are reminded again and again of the glorious, stupendous
victory of the Lord Jesus Christ, that our God reigneth. And he reigneth for the good
of his people and he reigneth over the things of this world.
He reigns as an absolute sovereign monarch. and your people love
it that way. May we be caused, Heavenly Father,
to look again to Him and we thank you, Heavenly Father, that people
that can't come to Him themselves and won't because of their obstinacy,
that Heaven's doors are wide open to your children and cause
us to pray, cause us like the church in Acts chapter 12, cause
us to be earnest and fervent in prayer, Heavenly Father. And
then wait, just wait, resting, leaning like the Apostle John
on the Lord Jesus' breast. May that be our portion, Heavenly
Father, this morning, that we might find ourselves leaning
upon him, that you might speak to us through your word, that
we might hear its promises, we might heed its warnings. But most of all, Heavenly Father,
we would be called to look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher
of our faith. We pray for the people that we've
mentioned, Heavenly Father, we commit them into your hands.
We thank you that the prayers of your people are precious,
our father. And we pray for the proclamation
of the gospel throughout this world and for our brothers and
sisters scattered in all sorts of nooks and crannies in this
world, heavenly father, that you would come yet again and
minister your grace and speak your words of comfort to the
hearts of your people. For we pray in Jesus' name, our
father, amen. Well here in Acts chapter 12
we have this remarkable incident that we've been examining. It's a historical event. The death of Herod is recorded
by Josephus and others. It was in 44 AD and it seems
as if it wasn't long after the death of James and the imprisonment
and the freedom of Peter. that Herod went down to Caesarea
and it wasn't long after these events that Herod met that tragic
end. It is a reminder that when the
Lord reveals himself, when he comes near, he comes near both
in the glorious salvation of Peter. What a picture Peter is
of the salvation of God's people. We were in darkness, we were
in chains, we were guarded and kept We could see nothing in
our natural state. We could see nothing that was
beautiful about the Lord Jesus Christ. And we were guarded and
kept by all sorts of things. We were kept by our natural flesh.
We were kept by the powers of religion that caused us to look
again to our flesh and look away from him. But when light comes,
Light comes and shines in the darkness and it just overcomes
the darkness. And there is a word, a word from
a messenger from God. The angel came to him and the
light shined and it smote Peter on the side and raised him up. arise quickly and his chains
fell off, verse 7, and then he's told to gird himself and bind
on his sandals and cast the garment about him and follow me and he
went out and he went out through those locked doors, he went out
past those prison guards, he went out past Herod's guards,
he went out through that iron gate and he went out to the church
and he brought news, he brought news of deliverance to the church. The Church always needs to hear
news of deliverance. We love the songs of deliverance. We love the songs of the great
deliverance of our Lord Jesus Christ. But here in these verses that
we read earlier, we find this extraordinary division in humanity.
There is a glorious freedom wrought by a sovereign hand of God. Nothing,
nothing in human beings could cause Peter to be brought out
of there. It was a sovereign hand of God. And it's a great
reminder to us as Christians in this world, and in this world
that despises God and despises his gospel, and causes him to
be publicly blasphemed in the streets, that our weapons are
always spiritual, brothers and sisters. We do not have to fight
the carnal battles of this world. The church was praying. The church
was praying. And when our Lord comes, when
our Lord comes, all the barriers are broken down. He bursts the
prison doors open. He carries his people out past
the guards. They're taken out and all the
barriers are broken down by the Lord. But in this glorious salvation
of Peter, this picture of Peter's conversion and this picture of
our regeneration again and again, our reconversion, What begins
in our conversion is what sustains us in our conversions. So often,
if you've been like me, you're languishing in darkness and you
cannot see the light of the glory of God in the face of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and you're entangled, ensnared in the things of this
world. What we need, what we need is a message from God and
light from God to shine upon his word. And he does. He comes. He that has begun the good work
among you, he has begun the good work in you, is a great promise
keeping God. That work that he begun is the
work that he's going to sustain. And he will get all the glory
at the end. At the end of things, the church
will be singing, grace, grace. It's all of sovereign grace. And there's a lesson here. I
don't want us to read this history, this shocking history of these
guards. Maybe 16 of them died this morning as you read this
story. They were Herod's guards. They kept Peter guarded. They are pictures. As Herod was
in league with the Jews, they are pictures of religious people
that keep God's servants guarded and chained. They are pictures
of Satan's false teachers in this world that seek to bind
and capture God's people. But their end Their end came
suddenly. Their end came unexpectedly. You can imagine what was in the
thoughts of everyone that night, wasn't it, before Peter was released.
Herod thought he was about to get the applause of men and to
be revered and honoured of men yet again, wasn't he? Herod's
name means hero. He has the face of a hero. And
the Jews thought that, again, they were going to strike a blow
to the church. The religious people, the zealous
religious people, who thought that they were worshipping and
honouring God, they thought that, yet again, they could silence
Peter. They've tried several times. This is his third imprisonment.
They keep trying to imprison him. You're not to speak any
more in this name. And finally, in the hands of
Herod, the Jews have exactly what they want. Let's have his
head off. Let's have him killed in the
morning. And especially they were inflamed
because now the gospel had gone to the Gentiles and the Gentiles
were gathered in. And these so-called religious
Jews like Peter were then defiling themselves by being in the presence
of the Gentiles. They persecuted thousands. Saul
had been the ringleader of it. They had killed Stephen. Now
they'd had James put to death with the sword. Now they were
salivating over the thought of Peter. Peter, the great apostle,
the leader of the church, being put to death. Silence the word
of God. And the guards, the guards that
night thought their prisoner was safe. The doors were bolted
and locked and guarded. They thought their lives were
secure. They thought their prisoner was asleep and chained. Their
prisoner was making no effort to escape. And the church was
in earnest, fervent prayer to God. What will become of Peter? What will become of this church? The church throughout all the
ages has always seemed so incredibly fragile, so incredibly easily
squashed by this world and put out of existence. And Peter, Peter in prison expecting
the fate of James in the morning. He'd had that whole Passover
week to contemplate what might happen to him. This was the last
night and Passover was finishing and he was still captive. And
see, when God comes and God reveals his hand, all the thoughts and
expectations of people are just overturned. All the religious
expectations are completely turned upside down. The secular expectations
are turned upside down. Herod's thought that he was going
to be a hero and get the applause of men is completely turned upside
down. The Jews, they thought that they
could silence the word of God by killing God's people. All of it turned upside down. turned upside down by our great
God. And when he comes, he divides,
doesn't he? When God comes close and reveals
himself, he does always create this division in humanity. It's
seen so clearly on the cross, on one side. On both sides of
him, two men that morning looked as if they were exactly the same.
They both reviled him. They both were blaming, quite
rightly, they were blaming him for their execution that morning.
And yet one of them, one of them was remarkably touched by a sovereign
hand of God. And all he had to look at, and
all he had to hear were the words, of a crucified man. A man hanging naked and bleeding
on the cross next to him. A man who was about to die with
him, and yet by a sovereign hand of God, he heard the mocking
of the people, and he heard the words of a saviour, but he heard
them in his spirit. He was moved, he was given a
new heart by God, and he worshipped. He went from someone who was
reviling the Lord Jesus Christ to someone who worshipped him. Lord, what a great prayer. Lord,
remember me. Acknowledge him as God. Lord,
remember me when you come into your kingdom. You are God with
a kingdom. These men think that they're
ruling over you, and yet you are the sovereign ruler. And
when you come into your kingdom, all I ask is that you remember
me. Just remember me, Lord. My great
words from the Lord Jesus Christ today, you will be with me in
paradise, is the promise of God. Our God shall appear. He comes at a time when that
church had every reason to think that he was going to allow to
happen to Peter what had happened to James just a little while
beforehand. Our God comes at times when we
least expect Him. And He comes, when He comes,
He comes with sovereign power. And when He comes, He reveals
His grace. He reveals His glory. He reveals
His love and His care and His compassion. He reveals the fact
that this Word is His Word, and His Word will go out into all
this world, and no one is going to stop this Word going to the
ends of the earth, and no one is ever going to stop this Word
from reaching to the very hearts of God's people and bringing
them to faith and to love and to repentance. and bringing them
into the fellowship of God's people. He looks, our God, at
people, doesn't he? He looks to the man who is poor
and of a contrite spirit. Herod was proud, the church was
humbled. He looks to the man who is poor
and of contrite spirit, Isaiah 66, who trembles at his word. And then he says in verse 5,
Ye that tremble at God's word, your brethren cast you out. For my namesake, this religious
people, this religious crowd, and Herod with them. Herod was
a religious man. He was in many ways, for someone
who wasn't born a Jew, he was devout. His grandfather had spent
40 years building the temple. They knew that to keep their
so-called kingdom in Judea, they needed to be friends with the
Jews. To be friends with the Romans and to keep peace there
was to be friends with the Jews. But they took it seriously. They
cast out God's people. They cast you out for my name's
sake, says the word of God. And said, let the Lord be glorified.
These Jews were saying, let the Lord be glorified. He's been
glorified in removing James from us. He's going to be glorified
when Peter's removed. And then there's the great word,
the great word that divides. It says, but, but, he shall appear
to your joy. You might be cast out, you might
be made poor, you might be made contrite, you might be made to
tremble at his word. You might be cast out by the
religious world, but he shall appear to your joy and they shall
be ashamed. He shall appear to your joy,
but he shall. That word but's used nearly 4,000
times in the Scriptures. It's a great word of division,
isn't it? It divides the activities of the religious world and it
divides the activities of man in his wickedness from the activities
of God. The Scriptures are just replete
with these glorious buts, the buts of God. He shall appear. He appeared, and when God appears,
they shall be ashamed. Why? Why, says Psalm 2, why do
the heathen rage? Why do they gather against the
Lord and his anointed one? God holds them in derision. He
has to just speak a word, and they are reduced. He shall appear
to your joy. He'll appear to the joy of his
people. There is a great lesson for us
in the death of these men, these men with Herod. In some ways,
it seems extraordinarily unfair that these men should meet their
end that day. Rather than Peter bearing Herod's
sword, these 16 possibly soldiers did. And yet, it was a sovereign
act of God that caused the release of Peter. In a sense, they had
done no fault. There is a serious, serious warning,
isn't it? When we meet with this sort of
event in the scriptures, we need to ask the Lord to teach us the
serious things about it. Herod's death and the death of
these, possibly these 16 people, is a sign that our God is just. And our God is prepared to wait
for justice. You might recall, we read it
last week in Luke chapter 21, Herod gathered his men together
and the Lord Jesus Christ was brought before him. And Herod questioned him with
many words, Luke 23. He questioned him with many words,
and the Lord Jesus Christ said nothing. And the chief priests
and the scribes, this same group that Herod was in league with
now, 10 years later, the chief priests and the scribes stood
and vehemently accused him. And Herod with his men of war,
Herod with his soldiers, They set him at nought. They despised him. They mocked
him. They arrayed him in a gorgeous
robe, and they sent him again to Pilate. Herod stood there
as these chief priests and these scribes stood and vehemently
accused the Lord Jesus Christ. I have no notion as to whether
these soldiers were the same ones that were there 10 years
beforehand. But the picture is clear, isn't it? Satan is pictured
before us in Herod's activities here. Those who go to the pit
of hell are pictured in Herod's death, eaten by worms. And these soldiers, these servants
of Satan, will meet an end. an unexpected end, a cataclysmic
end, a just end, and a sudden end. There is a lesson for us,
brothers and sisters. They thought that Herod was their
friend and their protector, and Herod in a heartbeat turned to
be their enemy. Nazi Germany was a horrible time
for the world, but it was a particularly horrible time for the Germans.
And at the end of the war, when Hitler knew he was being defeated,
he knew that the end was nigh. Hitler turned on his own people. Herod turned on his own. There's one lesson that's very
simple, isn't it? The only friends, the only friends you really have
are the friends of your souls. The only friends you really have
are the friends of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's people want to
live in this world being friendly, being seen to be friendly. The
last thing we want to do is to be self-righteous pains in the
neck. and standing on holy ground and
looking down on others. We want to be compassionate and
we want to be friends, and it's good to have friends, but at
the end of the day, when it comes to matters of our soul, the only
friends we have, the only real friends we have, are the friends
of God. Here it's for, here it's for,
causes this great but. So on one side of the but, one
side of the but is Peter, and on the other side of the but
is Herod. Herod's fall is a picture of
what we are saved from, brothers and sisters. He is a picture. He's a picture of Adam's fallen
race. apart from the grace of God. Our rebellion against God and
our natural unbelief causes us again and again and again to
do what Herod did. You actually bring the Lord Jesus
Christ into court before you and you stand above him in judgment
on him. And you might As religion does,
you might array him in gorgeous robes and then he'll be caused
to be mocked, mocked by the things that people say about him. He
is mocked in this world by the religious world that dethrones
our glorious God. It is an extraordinary thing,
isn't it, that the Lord Jesus Christ is presented before this
world as someone who is weak and pathetic and trying to save
everyone. The great lies of this religious
world today are that God loves everyone, that Jesus has died
for everyone, and that God the Holy Spirit wants to save everyone. And somehow, somehow that Jesus
can't get his will done unless somehow man comply with it. But somehow man in his work causes
the Lord Jesus Christ to be enthroned. Our God reigns. Our God reigns
triumphantly. The Herods who stand opposed
to him, the Herods who array him in gorgeous robes, the Herods
who send him back to Pilate. It is, it is an awful picture,
isn't it? It's an awful picture of religion
in league with human power. And little did they know, little
did Herod know, that standing before him was the king of this
universe. Standing before him was God Almighty
in human flesh. God Almighty who had been given
by his father the power over all flesh. He was the sovereign
ruler. We love to think of him and we
love to proclaim him as absolutely sovereign. They thought that
they were going to have their way with him and his church,
and the Lord just comes and triumphantly rules over them. Herod thought
he had his way with him. Pilate thought he had his way
with him. The Jews thought they had their way with him. They
could rid themselves of this one that showed them that their
religion was empty, that showed them that he was God. He is the
Word of God. I love reading, I love those
words in Revelation 19, and it says, John saw heaven opened.
When we see heaven opened, if you ever see heaven opened, you
will see the Lord Jesus Christ sitting on the throne. Every
time the heavens open, you'll see the Lord Jesus as gloriously
reigning. And I saw heaven opened, verse
11, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon him was
called faithful and true, and in righteousness does he judge.
and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire,
and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that
no man knew but he himself, and he was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in
heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen,
white and clean. And out of his mouth goes a sharp
sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall
rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress
of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. And he has on
his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. The Word of God is King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. Herod is like all mankind in
their rebellion against God. They sit themselves on a throne. They array themselves with the
applause of men, and especially their own applause. They join
hands with the religious world, the religious world of works
and works righteousness and legalism. They join hands with them. And
they are applauded, and they think themselves secure. They think themselves above God
himself. And their end comes, their end
comes in a heartbeat. See, Herod says in our text,
Herod was eaten of worms, and he gave up the ghost. May God remind us again and again
of what the Lord Jesus Christ did to save us from Herod's fate
and save all of his people, he did. He saves them by grace. He saves them by the fulfilment
of his promises. He saves them He saves them by
being what they deserve to be. You might recall in that glorious Psalm 22 that
Herod and these religious leaders 10 years beforehand witnessed. They witnessed either this personally
or they witnessed it by the witnesses of God. And in that great psalm
that the Lord Jesus Christ led that congregation in on the cross,
he cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? I've
obeyed you perfectly. I have loved you and loved all
humanity. I have been your delight. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?" It's the great question, isn't it, of the universe.
It's the great question around which this universe exists. The reason this universe exists,
the reason that God's creation exists was because this could
happen on that particular day outside that city of Jerusalem
before these people mocking Herod and others. My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? There is just one simple reason,
isn't it? The answer why God forsook him
is in verse 3. But thou art holy. Thou art holy
is the reason God forsook him. a holy God who is too holy to
look upon sin, when he saw sin on the Lord Jesus Christ. He
had to forsake Him, and He had to turn from Him, and when He
saw that sin on the Lord Jesus Christ, He had to punish Him.
It was the most just act of God ever. The most God-like thing
God ever did was to crucify His Son. It pleased the Lord to crush
Him. Why did it please Him to crush
Him? Because He was made sin for us.
that in him we might be made the very righteousness of God. He became one with us. He suffered
our sin. He owned it as his own. God declared
it and he declared it, that this is sin, the sin that you and
I are committing right now. He owned as his own. and God
the Father in holy justice because of that eternal covenant, because
of that promise that was made in eternity, that I'll bear their
iniquities, I'll carry their sorrows. He suffered infinite, eternal
wrath. And look what he says if you're
in Psalm 22. He says, verse 6, but I am a
worm and no man. So the worms that consumed Herod
were living inside of Herod. The sin that consumes people
in hell is within them. and the only possible way for
that sin to be dealt with, for that worm that never dies. For that fire that's never quenched,
the only way for that to be taken from us is for him to be made
one with us, which is exactly what the incarnation of the Lord
Jesus Christ is about. And it's what we are, isn't it?
It's what the children of God are called in the scriptures.
The Lord Jesus Christ said to his apostles, you're evil. Do
we own the fact that we're evil? He says to Jacob in Isaiah 41,
14, he says, fear not thou worm, Jacob. Fear not thou worm, Jacob,
and ye men of Israel. Those that are humbled to the
place where they see themselves as deserving what Herod deserved,
and righteously so. They're humbled. They're humbled. by the reality of who they are. He says earlier in that same
chapter, he says, for I, the Lord, will hold thy right hand,
saying unto thee, worm Jacob, fear not, I will help thee. Behold, I will make thee a new
sharp threshing instrument, having teeth. Thou shalt thresh the
mountains. You might be made a worm and
you might declare yourself and rightly so, to be but a Jacob,
a deceiver, a supplanter. But in the Lord Jesus Christ,
in the Lord Jesus Christ, he who became that worm, he who
was treated as such, by his own words, treated as such by the
men who stood there and mocked him and crucified him. How little did they know. How
little did they know that in all of their rebellion against
God Almighty, God Almighty was doing the one thing that could
save their eternal souls from hell. He became a worm. He suffered hell. He suffered
the eternal wrath of God. And that's why our great God
can say to his people, fear not. Fury is not in me. Sin can't
be in two places at once. Sin cannot be on my son and on
you. Sin cannot be punished in my
son and then ever be punished in you. That's why when Norm
read those verses, I was rejoicing in Psalm 103. As far as the east
is from the west, he's cast our sins from it. And he's done it
with perfect justice. He's done it because the sins
belong to his son. As the great surety from eternity,
they were his and he took full responsibility for them. Oh, to be rescued. To be rescued
from being a Herod. To be set free like a Peter. Our great God reigns. He doesn't try to save anyone. He saves them. He doesn't try
to do anything, our God. He just does it. Salvation, what
a glorious word salvation is. What a glorious thing it is to
be saved. It means to be delivered. Delivered from prison. Delivered
from the entanglements of Satan. Be delivered from ourselves.
It's redemption. Salvation is redemption. He's
brought us back. He bought us. He bought his people. He owns them. He bought them
with his own precious blood. He paid a ransom for their souls,
and he got them. He got what he ransomed. That's
why. When salvation comes, it's like
a light shining in a dark place and it overcomes the darkness.
That's why salvation is called the forgiveness of sins. It's
called acceptance with God. It's the restoration of fellowship.
It takes Herod's and makes them into Peter's. It takes Saul's
and makes them into Paul's. It takes sinners like us and
makes us to be called children of God. It's to have peace with
God. It's to be reconciled to God,
isn't it? To be reconciled to His sovereign
providences, reconciled to His sovereign provision. It's to
be covered and robed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
have the very righteousness, we are the very righteousness
of God. When God sees His children here,
He calls them His jewels, and He cannot be more delighted in
you, my brethren, in Christ. Your sins have gone. There is
nothing that separates you from God. He sees you in his son as
wholly spotless, unblameable, unapprovable in his sight. It's
being washed. washed in that precious blood. It's being sanctified. It's being
declared by God to be holy. It's to be justified. All of
these words describe our great salvation. And we are, like Abraham,
friends with God, brothers and sisters in Christ. We walk with
God. We are children of God. We are
the bride of Christ. We are jewels and we are precious. It is literally receiving life
from death. Peter was about to die and God
rescued him. Herod was sitting on his throne
and rejoicing, thinking that he was secure. Now he had peace
with these warring regions nearby. There he was on his throne. Herod, in a heartbeat, went to
hell. and God's children are saved
by a sovereign brace. Saved by a sovereign hand. And that's the other side of
this but, isn't it? Herod was eaten. Those who were
his servants, those who were in league with him, are put to
death, but, verse 24, but the word of God grew. The word of God is the proclamation
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're on the winning
side, brothers and sisters in Christ. God wins, always. God reigns, always. They can
have all of what they seem to have in this world, the esteem
of men and the applause of men, dressed in their fine robes,
with all of their religious activities like those Jews, but God. But
God. Again and again, we see this
extraordinary word, but. You might love those verses in
Ephesians chapter 2 that describe our great salvation. We walked. We walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience, among whom we all had our conversation in times
past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath,
even as others, but God. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ. By grace,
ye are saved. And he's raised us up together
to sit with him, sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. Paul described his own conversion,
didn't he? He was profited in the Jews'
religion. There he was, esteemed by these
Jews that were now in league with Herod. Above many of my
equals in my own religion, being more exceedingly zealous for
the traditions of my fathers, but when it pleases God. Salvation is when it pleases
God, but when it pleases God. But when it pleases God to send
His Word, the Word who is the One who was made flesh and dwelt
among us, the Word who is God, the Word who is with God. All
through Acts, we just see the progress of this Word. Nothing
is going to stop the Word of God. Nothing is going to hinder
the Word of God being proclaimed, and nothing is going to ever
hinder the hearers hearing the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing. Eternal life comes by hearing. And in Acts we see again and
again that the word is used over and over again. There is this
word that's gladly received by those who had put the Lord Jesus
Christ to death in Peter's first sermon. The Word is proclaimed. The Word of God increased. With
all of the enmity against it, the Word of God increased. It
is called the ministry of the Word. That's what we're here
for. We're here to proclaim the Word,
the living Word. To proclaim the Word is to publish,
as Acts 10 says, is to publish, is to declare who the Lord Jesus
Christ is. The Word comes with power. The Holy Spirit fell on those
who heard the Word in Cornelius's house. And here the Word grew. The Word grew and multiplied. It's the Word of salvation. It's the Word of the Lord. It's
the Word of God. And I love the description of
it. It's the Word of His grace. It's the word of his grace. It's
the word of the gospel. The word by which you are sanctified. The word that builds you up.
The word of his grace. Saved By grace, a but saves us. A but saves us. We were a Herod. Don't think you're above him,
brothers and sisters. You were a Herod, but you've
been saved. Grace. That word is used so misleadingly
these days, and they were singing songs. They've turned it into
a pop song these days, haven't they? They sang it at Aretha
Franklin's funeral the other day and turned it into something
that is not sung by wretches anymore. It's amazing grace. It's hardly ever sung by a wretch.
I haven't heard a wretch declare grace. Wretches are the only
ones that know anything about grace. It's not a pop song. The grace of God is eternal. It is the free favour of God
that is just bestowed upon people as a gift because God loved them
from the foundation of the world. And he loved them because he
loved them. Because there was nothing lovable in them. The only recipients of grace
are those who have no merit and from whom God can expect no compensation. It is grace to the ill-deserving,
the hell-deserving. It's grace unmerited. It's not
even sought for. Peter was asleep when God came
and rescued him out of that prison. Paul was riding high on his horse
to Damascus, and God saved him. When God comes, it comes with
a powerful force from on heaven. And it doesn't come because there's
anything attractive in us, brothers and sisters. Grace can't be bought. And it can't be earned, and it
can't be won, and it's got nothing to do with our works. Oh, if
we'd learn that, brothers and sisters. Every time you get in
some sort of fix, you think, well, I'm going to have to do
something now. I'm going to have to pray a little bit harder,
read my Bible a little bit more. I've got to do something. I've
got to do something to make up with God. Jesus has done it all,
all to him I owe. When was the grace given to God's
people? Second Timothy 1.9 says, it was
given us in Christ Jesus. There is no grace apart from
the Lord Jesus Christ, and it was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. We're justified freely. Grace is eternal. Grace is free. Grace is sovereign. That's why we have a throne of
grace. We can go to a throne of grace. Grace comes to those who are
needy. Are there needy sinners? The
Lord Jesus Christ spoke those great words. In fact, the people
in Nazareth declared them to be gracious words. And he said,
the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor. The gospel that's going to be
preached is the same gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ preached.
He's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. Are there
any poor here? He has sent me to heal the broken
hearted. That doesn't mean that your heart
is sick, it means it's broken. Heal the broken hearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives, the recovering of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. You cannot
walk in this world and not be bruised by the things that come. to set at liberty them that are
bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, to preach God's
jubilee, to preach God's jubilee, the glorious jubilee of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that jubilee year that Israel never celebrated
once, that jubilee that said that everything that you had
lost is returned to you by law, Everything that you've lost.
You've sold yourself into slavery and you're set free. You've lost
all of your possessions and they come back to you. That's the
glorious, glorious jubilee. It's the glorious good news.
We lost everything in Adam. We came into this world And unbeknownst
to us, until the glory of God shines to show us what we are,
we never knew that we were Herods. And we never knew that we were
in prison. And the word of God grew. The word of God comes. The Lord
Jesus Christ himself comes. And when he comes, he grows. He grows his people. He grows
them together. He grows them to worship him
and he multiplies them. May his word come and grow and
multiply amongst us. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we do thank you for your Word that speaks truth, your Word
that speaks words that nothing in this world can ever speak
to us. And we do pray, Heavenly Father, that you would honour
your Word in the hearts of your people, that as we take these
emblems that signify and remind us of the Lord Jesus Christ's
broken body and his shed blood, Heavenly Father, will you cause
us to know him in such a way that we might, by doing this,
remember him. We pray for your blessing upon
us, Heavenly Father. We thank you that it's at the
throne of grace that needy sinners can come to in their hour of
need. Make us needy, our Father. Make
us to know the glory of perfect and finished and completed salvation. Make us to know the sovereign
reign of your dear and glorious son. We pray in his name, amen.