The notices for the week, if
the Lord's will. Your pastor will preach next
Lord's Day at 10.30 and two o'clock. Mr. James Gudgeon will preach
on Thursday evening at seven o'clock. There'll be a prayer
meeting on Tuesday evening at seven o'clock. We begin our worship
by singing together the hymn 1135. The tune is 677, Lord. In thy name, O Lord Assembling,
we thy people now draw near. Teach us to rejoice with trembling,
speak and let thy servants hear. Hear with meekness, hear thy
word with godly fear. 1135, June 677. so With thy people adoring, Precious
to it thy spirit rendering, Oh, when thy triumph was here,
Hail, with meekness, hail, with meekness, Hail, thy word with
glowing fear. ? The days are not awaited ? ?
May we live and watch till the end ? ? Till we find hope and
may be strengthened ? Children growing, children growing,
in the continent we see. Well in worship, pure as Peter,
Lord, I think of Jehovah. Facing open, diamond-painted, Oh, enjoyment and enjoyment of
our great family. We will first read two psalms,
two short psalms. First of all, Psalm 2 and 3. Psalms 2 and 3. Psalm 2. Why do the heathen rage
and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth
set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against
the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bands
asunder and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the
heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in
his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my
holy hill of Sion. I will declare the decree the
Lord has said unto me, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee. Ask of me and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a
rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings. Be instructed, ye judges of the
earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and
rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,
and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. Lord, how
are they increased that trouble me Many are they that rise up
against me. Many there be which say of my
soul, there is no help for him in God, Selah. But thou, O Lord, art a shield
for me, my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. I cried unto
the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill,
Selah. I laid me down and slept, I awaked,
for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands
of people that have set themselves against me round about. Arise,
O Lord, save me, O my God, for thou hast smitten all my enemies
upon the cheekbone. Thou hast broken the teeth of
the ungodly. Salvation belongeth unto the
Lord. Thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah. We turn now to the Acts
of the Apostles and read chapter 12, the 12th chapter of the Acts
of the Apostles. 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 Easter to bring him forth to
the people. Peter therefore was kept in prison
but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto 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,
for thought he saw a vision When they were past the first and
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 has delivered me out of the hand of Herod and from all the
expectation of the people of the Jews. And when he had 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 to the door
of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. And when
she knew Peter's voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but
ran in and told how Peter stood before the gate. And they said
unto her, thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that
it was even so. Then said they, it is his angel. But Peter continued knocking.
And when they had opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. But he, beckoning unto them with
a hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought
him out of the prison. And he said, go, show these things
unto James and to the brethren. And he departed and went into
another place. Now as soon as it was day, there
was no small stir among the soldiers what 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 their abode. And Herod was highly displeased
with them of Tyre and Sidon, for they came with one accord
to him. And having made Blastus the king's
chamberlain their friend, desired peace. because their country
was nourished by the king's country. And upon a set day, Herod, arrayed
in royal apparel, sat upon his throne and made an oration unto
them. And the people gave a shout saying,
it is the voice of a God and not of a man. And immediately
the angel of the Lord smote him because he gave not God the glory
and he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost. But the word
of God grew and multiplied and Barnabas and Saul returned from
Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry and took with
them John, whose surname was Mark. So reads the word of God. May the Lord give us understanding
according to his word and help us now as we pray. Almighty and ever-gracious God,
help us that we may draw near collectively for the spirit of
true reverence and awe and a true prayer in our hearts, that we
may know the outpouring of the gracious Holy Spirit upon us,
that we may draw near with true hearts, that we may come in true
sincerity and genuine longing and desire for thy nearness and
thy presence and thy blessing. Lord, come to our aid, we pray,
as we have met together for public worship. May our hearts be in
tune. May we know something of the
sweet melody of the sound of the name of Jesus Christ. We
pray that as we have come together, that we may know the blessing
of heaven to rest upon us. We are thankful for the public
means of grace, for this place of worship established so long
ago, where the gospel has been preached ever since. We thank
the Lord for the long continuance of the preaching of the word
of God in this place. And Lord, we come to the first
day of a new week of time. We pray, O Lord, that our hearts
may be softened Our spirits made receptive to the truth. May our
souls be like a flower that opens to the rays of the sun. We may
know the glorious beams of the sun of righteousness shining
upon us. Our souls may respond to the
gracious influence of the Lord Jesus Christ, made known by the
spirit. Lord, we pray that this day may
be a good day in the courts of the Lord. May we know the same
spirit of the psalmist who said, for a day in thy courts is better
than a thousand. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in
the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. And
David who could say, Lord, I'd love the habitation of thy house
and the place where thine honour dwelleth. May that be the desire
and heartfelt feeling of each one of us here today. Lord, come
to visit us, we pray. Come to bless us, to speak to
us from thy word. May our hearts be moved. May
our understanding be enlarged. May faith be increased and repentance
deepened. Lord, we need the gracious work
of the Spirit in our hearts continually. or left to ourselves, we could
grow cold and weary, and we may be left to swerve from the truth
and wander in by-path meadow. O Lord, we pray Thou keep us,
and keep us by Thy power, and grant us supplies of grace that
we may persevere. It might be a concern, prayer
or exercise in our hearts that we may hold on our way, that
we may adhere to the truth as it is in Jesus, that we may love
the doctrines of the gospel, and that we may know not only
the doctrines of grace, but the grace of those doctrines, that
we may love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and in truth. Lord, do come and minister to
us, we pray. Look upon us in our need, for
we are conscious in ourselves we are, ruin sinners, we are
undone. We are what we are by the grace
of God. And Lord, we need Thy gracious
help and enabling that we may press on and that we may know
Thy nearness and goodness to us this day. We commend, O Lord,
to Thee this congregation from the youngest to the eldest. And
Lord, we pray that Thou be gracious to each one Let us know the various
experiences of the people, the circumstances of their lives,
and those events and the affairs of this past week. All these
things are known to thee. May we be given grace to lay
these things aside. We may lose sight of earthly
and inferior things. We may see no man save Jesus
only, he who came into the world to save sinners. even the chief
of sinners. And we pray, O Lord, that we
may be lifted then above these earthly things, these things
of time and sense and the here and now, that we may have a clearer
view of heavenly realities, that by faith we may look within the
veil, that we may see Jesus, who has made a little lower than
the angels for the suffering of death, that now is crowned
with glory and honor. May it be a heartfelt ambition
to glorify the name of Christ, to remember who he is and what
he has done. And so we pray thou come to us
to help us and to bless us. We pray for those that are very
young and we pray that there may be things that they will
hear today that they will not forget, perhaps just a word or
two or a sentence or two that they may hear and remember and
may bear fruit in their hearts in time to come. We pray that
the prayers offered by praying parents may be heard and answered
for the children, that they may, while early in life, come to
know thy saving grace. They come under conviction of
sin, having their eyes open to the holiness of thy law that
each one of us have broken, and that they may feel their need
to pray for forgiveness, for a new heart, for the blessing
of thy people to be upon them. May they, early in life, genuinely
long to be one of the people of God, to be brought in by thy
gracious hand of power and salvation, Lord do then open their eyes
to see and give them new ears that they may hear and understand. We pray for those in teenage
years who are now more aware of the wickedness of the world
in which we live in today's society and the many pitfalls, the many
dangers and snares that abound and the many ways in which that
which is wicked and sinful and corrupting can be accessed. Lord, we pray that their hearts
may be turned away from these things. They may have a desire
to keep themselves from the evils that others so readily indulge
in. May they desire to be kept morally
upright and pure in these things. out of a genuine sense of the
fear of the Lord in their hearts, turn away from all known evil,
that the fear of the Lord may be as an unctuous light to all
that's right and a bar to all that's wrong. Lord, we pray that
while they're in teenage years, may they become true seekers
and true finders, that they may call upon Thee in truth and sincerity
with a genuine desire to hear thy gracious voice speaking to
them, that they may know thy blessing. Lord, do hear prayer
for them, we pray, and keep them, put a hedge about them, we pray,
that they may be preserved to walk in the ways of truth and
righteousness. Lord, we pray this may be so,
not just outwardly, not just an outward connection with the
people of God, but may they in their hearts be at one. May they
know a union and a desire to be among thy people, to be blessed
with this so great salvation that has been accomplished in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us, O Lord, those of us
who are in the midst of life with many cares and responsibilities
and many labours and many things that call for our attention and
occupy our time. Lord, we pray for strength. Help
us, keep us, we pray. May we be aware of our own weakness
and may we not lose sight of the dangers, lest we become careless
and indifferent, lest in some way we fall and disgrace the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, lest we in some way to bring
shame and reproach upon thy people and the name of the Saviour.
Lord, help us, we pray. Help us to heed the warnings
in the word of God. Help us, Lord, to tremble at
the thought of the approach of sin. And Lord, to keep us, we
pray, not only outwardly but in our hearts as well. Grant
us a greater sense of the tender fear of the Lord and a love for
truth and righteousness and a desire to please the Lord Jesus Christ
in all things. Lord, come to our aid, we pray.
We are indeed, each one of us, needy sinners in so many, many
respects. We pray also for those who are
more advanced in years of past retirement age are conscious
that they have various weaknesses perhaps, and may be at times
frustrated by these things, but we pray thou to draw near to
grant grace as they grow older, and may they be as an example
to a younger generation. May it be true of each of us
that we may walk humbly and walk consistently in the light of
divine truth. Lord, we pray that thou help
us not only in providential things that we may commit our way to
thee, but Lord help us and bless us in spiritual things that our
souls may be fed and watered, and in answer to prayer we may
grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. We commend, O Lord, to thee,
friend and brother, the pastor of the church here, And we ask,
O Lord, for him this day that he may know a blessing wherever
he may be in his travels and in his time of rest and relaxation. We pray that he may be encouraged
and he may be favoured with times of sweet meditation in the Word. Lord, draw near to him, we pray,
and do him good that he may be fed with heavenly manner and
in so doing he may be further fitted and equipped to return
to his ministry here with fresh insights and an increasing sense
of the wonder and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ who came
into this lower world to lay down his life, a ransom for many. Lord, do help us each that we
may rejoice in these things, that we may know these things
by heartfelt experience. So, Lord, we pray Thou come to
us to help us, to minister to us. And, O Lord, we pray for
not only this congregation that meets week by week, but we pray
too for this village, praying, O Lord, that in these times Thou
use Thy people here They may be as a beacon, as a light shining
in the darkness, as a city set upon a hill that cannot be hid,
Lord Hughes. Then we pray for the furtherance
of the Gospel in some way, for the spiritual good of others.
And we pray the verse of Scripture on the outside of this chapel
may be as a voice to those who pass by, whether they drive past
or walk past. Pray that there may be those
who will read the words and not only read them but think about
them. May it be as a convicting voice
to the conscience that there is a reality in divine truth. This verse at the present time
may remind people of the glorious, not only historical truth of
the resurrection, but the glorious spiritual reality of these things,
that he who died rose again, the just for the unjust that
the Ant might bring us to God. Lord, do speak, we pray, through
these things in these times and as the verse may be changed from
time to time, we pray that this may catch people's attention
and that through this means the work of grace may be commenced
and carried on and that such may be drawn to hear the Word
of God preached here. Lord, we pray that our hearts
may be moved with compassion for souls as Christ lifted up
his eyes upon the multitude and had compassion upon them, for
they were a sheep not having a shepherd. And so we pray that
thou use thy people to this end. Grant the work of the Holy Spirit,
we pray that there may be even in this community a sense of
the reality that there is a God in heaven who sees all things
and knows all things, that nothing can be hid in thy sight, that
thine eye is upon each one of us, as it was true of Hagar,
thou God seest me, and may this truth become a convicting reality
in the minds and hearts of men and women and boys and girls.
Lord, we pray for surrounding causes of truth where the Word
of God is known and loved and preached. We pray, Lord, that
this day among the chapels of Kent and Sussex there may be
significant blessing, that work by thy gracious Spirit, that
sinners may be called by thy grace and drawn to Christ, that
thy Word may have free course and be glorified. and the Kingdom
of Christ enlarged in these times. Lord, grant us a sense of enlargement
of heart, enlarge our coasts, we pray. May our desires for
salvation for others be ever real and with us, that we may
long to see thy name honoured and glorified. Lord, have mercy,
we pray, in these times, and realise the and sad departures
in these days from truth and righteousness. And we would especially
pray regarding the situation in Ukraine after these three
years of terrible bloodshed and displacement and distress among
the people. Lord, what can we say regarding
these things? What a solemn reminder of the
fallenness of humanity And these things will never be known until
Christ returns. There will be wars and rumors
of wars. But we would pray for a just
settlement, a just peace, an end to this war and conflict.
Lord, have mercy, we pray. And may the increased demand
for Ukrainian Bibles be greatly blessed as people receive them
that may have an interest in reading them, we pray thou guide
by thy gracious spirit and speak through it to the hearts of many,
that they may look back in time to come and have reason to praise
and bless thee for the distresses they've passed through, as it
was a means of grace to make them think in a new way regarding
the issues of life and death. So we pray for those who are
still there in that country and others, many thousands of them
who have been displaced. Lord, to send down thy spirit,
we pray, and the work of thy grace in these times. And so,
Lord, do receive us graciously, we pray, as we call upon thee,
desiring to do so in truth and sincerity. We realize, O Lord,
that we come short Every day of our lives we have much to
confess. We have broken thy holy law. And we have sinned against light
and knowledge. We've sinned against the voice
of conscience. We've sinned against the gospel.
And we are sinners then in every respect, in so many ways, it
is true. Even though we may be kept outwardly,
we pray, Lord, help us to Pour out our hearts before thee with
a sense of brokenness and contrition that our tears may be real and
prompted by the grace of true repentance and godly sorrow in
our hearts. And may we also know tears of
gratitude and thanksgiving for all thy mercies to us which are
more than can be numbered. How great is the sum of them.
We cannot begin to reckon up in order all the ways in which
Thou has favoured us and helped us and gone before us in the
path of life and spoken to us from the word of God. So Lord,
we receive our desires to honour Thee and to praise Thee and to
give thanks to Thy name. And so Lord, we now come to the
word of God this morning May it prove to be a word in season,
a word just suited to the needs of the people, and it may prove
to be an answer to the prayers of the people who have prayed
in secret. May they be rewarded openly.
And so, Lord, we come to thee, asking for thy gracious help
to come and own thy word and glorify thy name. as we ask all
these things for Jesus' sake. Amen. We continue in our worship by
singing the hymn 332. The tune is 287, Alfred. Now let the feeble all be strong
and make Jehovah's arm their song. His shield is spread for
every saint and thus supported who shall faint. Oh. Loving you and for his soul.
? Fair ocean rolling ? ? Blue ocean
waves ? ? Fairer star-spangled banner yet wave ? Oh, say does
that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the
free and praise, and praise. ? And the days are going by at last ? ? And change can come
before you know it ? I'll sink the ocean to the sea,
And when it rises, dry the trees. Hail, cherubim of our sacred
trees. Hail, cherubim of our sacred
trees. O say does that star-spangled
banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the
brave? And in it we shall trust. Please turn with me to the Acts
of the Apostles, chapter 12. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter
12. And I particularly draw your
attention to verses 4 and 5. Acts 12, verse 4. And when he
had apprehended him, that is Peter, 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. Peter therefore
was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the
church unto God for him. I want to just draw your attention
initially to two words in verse four, after Easter. Another Easter has come and gone. The central truths of the everlasting
gospel of the grace of God have been preached once more, no doubt
faithfully and plainly, and the sufferings and death of the Lord
Jesus Christ in particular on Good Friday and Last Laws Day,
the glorious resurrection of Christ from the dead. And I'm
sure it's true of all of us, we've heard these things over
the past, last weekend, But the point is this, has it just passed
us by? We're now after Easter, aren't
we? Has it left any impression upon
us? Has there been any sense of a
savour of Christ in our spirit? Or has it left us where it found
us? We were perhaps unconcerned before
Easter and you're still unconcerned now about your soul. Is that
true of anyone here this morning? You were indifferent about spiritual
things then and you still are now. Or can you say that as you
look back that these things meant something to you? That your heart
was in some way touched by the realization of the death of Christ,
the substitution death of Christ for sinners and his glorious
victory over sin and death and the grave and hell. It's a sad thing if it means
nothing to us. I think of that verse in Jeremiah's
prophecy. Jeremiah in some ways is a picture,
a reminder of Christ. Jeremiah wept over Jerusalem,
so did Christ. And on one occasion, Jeremiah
said, is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see,
if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, wherewith the Lord
hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. Well, is
it nothing to you that Jesus should die? Well, it's a searching
question and we do well to search our own hearts regarding this
particular point. Are we just happy for such seasons
to come and go? Or did we find ourselves desiring
to know something of the blessing of God upon these things? Well, we come to the subject
before us in particular then regarding this passage, this
chapter 12 of the Acts of the Apostles, and we notice first
of all the enmity of man towards the truth. The enmity of man
towards the truth. Eleven years have passed since
Christ has died and was risen again on the third day. During that period of time many
sinners have been called by God's grace And through the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, 3,000 were converted
that day. You turn over the page, you find
the number is 5,000. And so the early church in Jerusalem
grew to enormous proportions in a relatively short space of
time. The work of God was going on
in a remarkable way. And it always seems to be the
case when God is at work, the devil is at work as well to try
and oppose it and to resist. the truth and to turn people
away from the sound of the truth. So as the gospel was spreading,
which we read about here in the Acts of the Apostles, we see
a new wave of persecution was being raised against God's people.
And here is Herod, who feels emboldened to stretch forth his
hand to vex the early New Testament church. Now this is Herod Agrippa
I, who was a grandson of the Herod who was alive at the time
of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and commanded that all
the baby boys under two years of age should be put to death. A bloodthirsty family, people
who hated the truth and resented the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And so James, the brother of
John, was put to death It has been said that a minister's
life, a minister is immortal until his work is done. And sad
as these things were, mysterious it may seem to us in God's providence,
his work was done. But God had another James that
he was going to appoint to be the leader of the early New Testament
church. He is mentioned in verse 17,
the half-brother of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the
flesh, the author of the epistle of James. He was the man God
had intended to continue this work. It is sometimes said that
God buries his workmen, but he carries on the work. And we see
that as you look back through the history of the church, you
see how God has continued his work of calling sinners by grace,
establishing churches and raising up new congregations here and
there. and granting the word of the
gospel should go forth even to remote places where Christ before
had not been named. So we live in being able to look
back and see what the Lord has done as we remember what the
Lord has done through the history and through the work of the gospel.
Well, persecution is the normal experience for the church of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Here was Herod abusing his power
and using it to harm those who had no cause to be put to death. The Church of the Lord Jesus
Christ in the Scriptures is described as the flock of slaughter. For
thy sake we are killed all the day long, the Apostle Paul reminds
the Romans. That's the usual experience of
God's people down through the centuries. Here in this country
we've been so favoured for so long with civil and religious
liberties. And in one sense you could say
it's abnormal for a country to have such a long period of time
without direct persecution. But we do wonder, don't we, what
is coming? We sort of see dark clouds on
the horizon, difficulties that some Christians face because
of conscience sake. They cannot say certain things,
they cannot do certain things for conscience sake and find
themselves in difficulty on that account. We really wonder what
a younger generation may live to see in respect to these things. And it all goes back to this
point, the enmity of man against the truth. But we notice the
solemn end of Herod which is mentioned at the end of this
chapter. You see, no one will prosper,
ultimately, if they fight against God. God always has the last
word. And sometimes in remarkable,
astonishing ways, those who have opposed the truth come to a very
sad and solemn end. And that certainly was the case
here with Herod at the end of this chapter, where he was eaten
of worms and gave up the goat. Not the other way around, which
is usual, but he was eaten of worms and died. may be a very
painful death. And these things were intended
to warn the people regarding their enmity against the truth
and rejection of the truth of Christ in the gospel. I have a book at home entitled
Last Words of Sinners and Saints. It makes very sobering reading.
On the one hand you've got the last days of men like Gatsby
and John Warburton and many others besides who spoke of the blessing
they experienced in their soul as heaven seemed to be opened
up to their understanding before they passed away. But then on
the other hand you've got the solemn words that ungodly people
spoken. Their horrors they felt as if
hell had begun in their soul before they left this world.
How they bitterly regretted their sins and their opposition to
the truth. Well, these things are for our
warning, aren't they? God's word has the same warning
to us. It's a solemn thing to oppose God's people, to oppose
the gospel, and to live in a state of resentment and enmity towards
the truth. But in contrast, we read at the
end of this chapter, the word of God grew and prevailed. The truth of the gospel, as it
was proclaimed, continued to be blessed. Sinners were being
called still into the kingdom. and the testimony of the Lord
was being enlarged. It's like a little refrain you
have in the book of the Acts of the Apostles that the word
of the Lord grew and the power of the gospel continued to be
made known. So the enmity of man towards
the truth. James was put to death and then
because it seemed to please the people, the Jews, Herod was further
emboldened to take Peter and to put him in prison with the
full intention that he should be put to death as well. We move
on secondly to notice the intervening hand of God. The intervening
hand of God. How impossible the situation
appeared to be for Peter. He was surrounded, we're told,
by four quaternions of soldiers. Now, children, you may not understand
what a quaternion is. It's a group of four Roman soldiers
and here were four quarterlions of soldiers. So 16 strong men,
fully armed no doubt, and would use any means to prevent anyone
escaping. And here was Peter surrounded
by four quarterlions of soldiers and he was chained as well. It seemed, humanly speaking,
an impossible situation. How could he ever be delivered
from this imprisonment, surrounded by the walls of the prison. Sometimes
said man's extremity is God's opportunity and this certainly
was the case regarding Peter. And yet in spite of all the fearful
circumstances we are told that Peter was sleeping, verse 6,
when Herod would have brought him forth the same night Peter
was sleeping. between two soldiers. I don't
know how you or I might have felt in those circumstances but
evidently God had given a measure of peace in Peter's heart so
that he could simply just rest and be asleep at this time. It
reminds me of Psalm 37 where David says, rest in the Lord
and wait patiently for him. David knew what he was talking
about because David had been in some very distressing circumstances
in his life when it seems so many were against him. Enemies
came against him time and again throughout his life but there
are times when the Lord gave him peace and rest. That's why
I read to you from those two Psalms. Let me just read a verse
from Psalm 3 and on this occasion was when David was having to
flee because his son Absalom had usurped the throne of Jerusalem.
And David didn't know the outcome of these things, didn't know
what the end result would be. But notice how he was able to
say, verse five, I laid me down and slept. I awaked for the Lord
sustained me. I will not be afraid of 10,000s
of people that have set themselves against me round about. That
wasn't just bravado, that wasn't someone speaking their own strength,
that was the Lord giving David peace. Some of us know what it
is to be in a situation where we feel to be afraid, perhaps,
or very anxious about certain things, and you can't just reason
yourself into a state of calmness, can you? But the Lord is able
to impart peace to the troubled hearts of his people. Maybe you're
in circumstances like that at the present time, you don't know
what's going to happen next. You don't know what's coming
the next few days or weeks or months and you're fearful. But
the Lord is able to give you peace in the midst of those trying
circumstances. And peace in such a way that
you know it's come from the Lord and nowhere else. Well, so it
was with Peter. So we notice the intervening
hand of God. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? The question is asked in different ways throughout the
scriptures. Jeremiah has it in his prophecy, is anything too
hard for the Lord? And there is indeed nothing too
hard for him. And Satan and evil men can only
go so far, it's only with divine permission that they are allowed
to go as far as they do. Peter was on a chain, but don't
forget that the devil was on a chain as well. Yes, God permitted
that James should die, but he didn't allow that Peter should.
You see, the evil one was on a chain. It's like Bunyan who
felt in his pilgrim's progress to be fearful of the lions. Christian
was fearful, wasn't he? Until he realized they were chained
foes. And the evil one certainly is. The devil can only go so far.
The other wonderful truth is this, that not even the highest
security can keep the Lord's presence away. It's like that
for Joseph. You think of the strange, mysterious
trials that Joseph went through in his life. He had served faithfully
in Potiphar's household. And then he was forced to accuse
and thrown into prison. But we're told the Lord was with
Joseph. It comes again and again, but
the Lord was with Joseph. Commentator Dr. Corker says,
bolts and bars cannot keep the presence of the Lord out. And
whatever your circumstances, the Lord is able to come to you
and make known his presence. The dark circumstances perhaps
you are experiencing at the present time will not prevent the Lord
coming to you and putting peace in your heart and giving you
a sense of comfort and strengthening your faith in believing. Well,
the Lord was going to intervene by sending an angel. Angels are
messengers, aren't they, of the Lord. The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear him and delivereth them. They are
ministers of God, sent to minister to the heirs of the kingdom. And they are powerful, aren't
they, as they do the Lord's bidding. And an angel appears in the prison.
smites Peter to awake him and his chains fall off. There's
a lovely picture of a spiritual parallel here isn't there. Charles
Wesley in one of his hymns he draws this parallel isn't it
between our state by nature, we are imprisoned by nature in
bondage and we are chained and we cannot release ourselves.
It needs the Lord to intervene. to fill the dungeon with light,
as it were, to cause the shackles to fall off. My chains fell off,
he says, my heart was free, I arose, went forth to follow Thee. And
every true conversion is a result of divine power being exerted
whereby we are delivered from the bondage of our sin and we
are set at liberty by the application of the atoning work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's a most wonderful thing to
be saved by the grace of God, isn't it? And herein we see then
a picture of the work of God's grace. And such was the effect
upon Peter that he hardly knew quite what was happening. It
almost seemed too good to be true, you might say. Verse 9,
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. Well it certainly was true and
he came to realise it was true very soon. As he looked back
he could see that it really was the intervening hand of God.
Some of the Lord's people are troubled on this particular point
because they cannot exactly name the day when the Lord first began
with them, when the Lord first blessed them. Now some people
can. Some people could not only name
the day, they could even name the hour perhaps when the Lord
spoke under a particular sermon and the Lord spoke with power
to awaken them to newness of life or set them at liberty. But it's not the essential point
whether we can remember the actual day. The point is, has it happened? Like Peter, it was only as he
looked back could he really begin to see exactly what had happened,
how he'd been awakened and set free and delivered from that
bondage. And likewise, many can look back
in that way and we can see where we once were and we can see where
we trust by grace we now are. And we have to ascribe it all
to the power of the grace of God in the Gospel. Some of you
know what I'm talking about, don't you? You can look back
and see the change God has wrought. And you know it was God who did
it because others, perhaps your contemporaries, have just drifted
on in their sins and they're still where they once were. that
God has had mercy upon you and intervened in your heart and
your life. Now sometimes when the Lord does
come in a way of blessing, it does sometimes seem almost too
good to be true in one sense, more than perhaps we have been
praying for. It was almost overwhelming perhaps,
sometimes a surprise blessing the Lord sends to his people. As the psalmist said, when the
Lord turned the captivity of Zion. We were like them that
dreamed. And their mouth was filled with
laughter. The Lord has done great things for us whereof we are
glad. Are you able to say that? The
Lord has done great things for you whereof you are glad. The Lord is filled with a sense
of gladness. You've been lifted up above where
you once were. You've been able to rise above
your circumstances perhaps. The Lord has put peace and joy
in your heart in believing so that you've walked in the blessing
perhaps for days or weeks. Well Peter would have felt like
that surely in his remarkable deliverance that he experienced.
Call upon me in a day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou
shalt glorify me. But you notice that Peter didn't
have to force the door or the iron gate to get a full release,
as verse 10 reminds us, when they were passed the first and
second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the
city, which opened to them of his own accord. Sometimes the
Lord works in experiences like that. I look back in my own life
and remember a particularly trying situation many years ago, when
I was faced with great uncertainty I still had a wife and family
to support and the future looked so unknown and so unsure. And yet in committing these things
to the Lord I proved it was like the iron gate that led to the
city opened of its own accord and the Lord made the way. I
didn't have to put my hand to anything but the Lord made the
way in answer to prayer. It's like Manoah and his wife
who looked on as the angel did wondrously. They were astonished
at what was happening. It was the Lord's doing. And
sometimes we can see these things. We've seen it ourselves. We can
look back and we can remember. Remember the concerns. Remember
the difficulties. And we admire the hand of God
in His delivering grace. Well, if we can do that, then
we want to crown the Lord. We want to honour Him. We want
to glorify Him. We want to put the crown upon
the right head, don't we? So Peter was given a full deliverance
without any hand of his own being involved. It reminds me of when I was a
child, my parents and the rest of the family went to a missionary
meeting in Tunbridge Wells. And the speaker was a man you
may have heard of, Geoffrey T. Bull. He was a missionary in
Tibet under the communist regime and he was imprisoned in solitary
confinement for over three years and the cruelty he experienced
was astonishing. I've never heard of anything
like it before in my life. The indignities and the pain
he went through simply because he was preaching the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. But the Lord also opened the
way whereby the prison gates were opened for him. and hence
he wrote a book entitled, When Iron Gates Yield. You may have
seen the book, perhaps. Well, these things are profitable
reminders to us of what the law can still do for his troubled
people, if it is his will. There are many in prison today
for their faith. It may not be the law's will
they will be released, but the law is able to do that if he
so purposes. And likewise, circumstances may
seem to imprison you and trouble you. but the Lord is able to
make a way when there seems to be no way. You see, these things
are written for our instruction, for our encouragement and comfort. You think of others who were
imprisoned in the scripture, you think of Joseph, falsely
accused, as I mentioned earlier, imprisoned, it seemed like he'd
been forgotten. The butler forgot him, didn't he? The butler was
released. And Joseph quite hoped that he would put in a word for
him in the presence of Pharaoh. But time just passed by and it
seemed like Joseph had been completely forgotten. But when the Lord's
time came, he was very speedily brought out of the prison into
the presence of Pharaoh and became soon the Prime Minister of Egypt. It was the Lord's doing, wasn't
it? A remarkable intervention of the Lord. Think of Jeremiah
also, hated for his ministry. And yet he served the Lord faithfully,
and he was cast into the dungeon, and the people wouldn't have
cared if he died there. But God made a way for him to
be released, moved the heart of King Zedekiah to ask regarding
what was the will of the Lord. That was the means of Jeremiah's
release. Think of Daniel in the Den of
Lions. It's a famous account, isn't it? Even little children
know about Daniel, don't they? and how the Lord shut the lion's
mouth so they didn't hurt Daniel and he was brought out untouched. Well time and again the Lord
has intervened for the help of his people. He did so previously
in the Acts of the Apostles. He sent an angel to open the
door of the prison for the apostles. In Acts 16 there was an earthquake.
Paul and Silas were shackled in the prison, in the innermost
prison. and the Lord sent an earthquake
to set them free. It's also the means of setting
free the jailer himself spiritually. If it needs an earthquake to
set you free from your circumstances, the Lord will send an earthquake
in one form or another. He's never lost to know how to
deliver his people in a time of trouble if it is according
to his will. So notice the enmity of man against
the truth and secondly the intervening hand of God But thirdly, we must
notice the power of prayer. The power of prayer. Verse five, Peter therefore was
kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church
unto God for him. This is an important point we
must not forget. The purpose and the power of
prayer. Wrestling prayer can wonders
do. Bring relief in deepest straits.
Prayer can force a passage through iron bars and brazen gates. And Peter and his friends there
in Jerusalem were going to prove this in a marked way. Now you'll notice this was marked
prayer in the sense it was united prayer. As the margin says, instant
and earnest prayer was made. They were united in their longing
desires Some of the best prayer meetings are those where there's
a special focal point, isn't there? And people feel equally
the sense of burden for that particular matter. It may be
that someone amongst them is very seriously ill. Maybe something
sudden has happened. And each one of the prayer meetings
is moved to pray earnestly and fervently for that very matter.
They are often the best prayer meetings, aren't they, when there's
a sense of togetherness regarding a particular concern. And likewise,
believers here in Jerusalem met together with that united desire. They were together not just physically,
but together spiritually, weren't they? The force of their united
Christ, no power can long withstand, for Jesus helps them from the
skies by his almighty hand. And so he did on this occasion. And we're told, that there were
many. It was a well-supported prayer
meeting. It's a sad fact that often prayer meetings are the
least supported meetings in the week. It's only a prayer meeting,
sometimes people will say. They may come on a Sunday, they
may come in the week to a preaching service, but not necessarily
to the prayer meeting. But this prayer meeting was well-supported. There were many meetings together
for prayer. They all had faith, they were
members of the church, they were believers. The true church is
made up of believers, those who have been delivered from the
power of unbelief and have been brought to that point of casting
themselves upon Christ and his atoning work. And looked to the
Lord daily for strength and for supplies of grace to persevere. These people were meeting together
for prayer with believing hearts and in fellowship one with another. You see, this is a pattern for
us, this is what our prayer meetings should look like, what our meetings
for worship should look like, a united desire where hearts
are knit together in the love of Christ, desiring the blessing
of heaven upon them and the increase of the church. So, a shared burden,
each one knowing the same grace of God, having been washed in
the same precious blood, clothed with the same robe of righteousness,
and with the experience of the same new life in their hearts.
What a sense of true unity there is, in that sense heart unity
with the Lord's people. And it was instant and earnest
prayer, as the margin tells us. Instant and earnest prayer was
made They didn't need persuading to come to the prayer meeting,
it seemed it was a very natural thing for them to want to do.
They realized the purpose of prayer and the need to pray and
so they came no doubt willingly with a felt sense, we must pray,
we must gather for this purpose. Here is Peter in prison, this
useful servant of the Lord, this apostle who had been so instrumental
in blessing previously and now he was Unable to proclaim these
things anymore, they desired his release. And so you can understand
their sense of urgency. And they didn't give up until
the prayer was answered. They continued to pray. They
prayed without ceasing. Samuel Rutherford used to say,
we may have to wait long at the same door, but we're not waiting
in vain. And I think of Thomas Watson,
the famous Puritan, who said, the angel fetched Peter out of
prison, but prayer fetched the angel. You see, we believe in
prayer, don't we? We believe in the power of prayer. We believe there's a God in heaven
who bows down his ear to hear and answer prayer. Yes, it's
all according to his perfect will, but nevertheless, he can
prompt us to pray and prompt us how to pray. He can indict
prayer, he can move us to pray in a certain way in which he
is going to answer that prayer. These people were moved to pray
for Peter's release and they probably were thinking to themselves,
we can't think how it might happen but you know it can happen. And
when their prayer was answered they were overwhelmed by the
wonder of it. They'd hardly believe it. It
would seem so significant, so striking, so wonderful. I say
again, wrestling prayer can wonders do, bring relief in deepest straits. Prayer can force a passage through
iron bars and brazen gates. Well, we notice when Peter was
released from prison, it was a very natural thing for him
to gravitate to the praying people of God. He went to the home,
verse 12, when he had considered the thing He came to the house
of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where
many were gathered together, praying." Do you feel a sense
of attraction to God's people? Do you feel a sense of drawing
spiritual union, a drawing feeling to the people of God? Are you
able to say, I believe they are my people? You want to be one
of them? And you want to be with them
when they pray? You want to be with them when they worship?
And you want to be with them for all eternity? You want to
be with them in heaven at last. But Peter felt something like
that towards these people. It was not a stated place of
worship, such places didn't exist at that time for New Testament
believers. It was still the temple of course,
but they met from house to house. It was a practical necessity
in those times. And so they met in this private
home for prayer. But Peter had something to say,
didn't he? He was able to relate to them
what the Lord had done, how he'd answered prayer, how the Lord
had intervened, how he'd been set free, how he wondered at
these things, but in looking back could see the wonderful
delivering hand of God. What a happy meeting it must
have been, as they could relate how they'd been burdened to pray,
and how Peter could speak of his deliverance. Some of the
happiest meetings among God's people is when we gather to hear
what the Lord has done for this one or that one. And we may have
prayed for them, and we may have been greatly burdened for them.
We've had a great weight upon our spirit and day by day we've
prayed for them, we've carried them in prayer. And when we see
those prayers answered and they come before the church and tell
out their little tale of God's grace, our hearts are warmed
and our souls are refreshed. We feel uplifted and strengthened
and our faith is encouraged. the Lord has bowed down his ear,
he's heard our poor faltering prayers and we've seen the answer,
we've seen the fruit, we've seen evidence of it in souls being
blessed under the preaching of the Word of God. So what a happy
and encouraging meeting this must have been as they met together
there together in the house of Mary in Jerusalem. Now you might think, well wasn't
it a rather strange thing that Peter was in prison. If the Lord
had a further work for him to do, why was it the Lord allowed
him to be imprisoned? Well, we can't always explain
God's providence. It's a dark, mysterious thing
sometimes to us. But if he had not been imprisoned,
then the people of God wouldn't have proved the Lord in the same
way, would they? They wouldn't have proved his
delivering grace in the distressing hour if he hadn't been imprisoned. it would have been a significant
token to Peter that there was a future work for him to do.
And again sometimes we look back and we wonder at the time why
those distress and experiences, why those hardships, why those
times of great fear and trial. We couldn't seem to understand
at the time but perhaps we can look back and we can see because
the Lord came to our help in those circumstances and we saw
his hand very significantly and we desire to honor him and to
praise him on that account. Well, these things are real things,
aren't they? And so when Peter was come to
himself, he said, now I know, verse 11, now I know of a surety
that the Lord hath sent his angel and hath delivered me out of
the hand of Herod and all the expectation of the people of
the Jews. This was for the furthering of
the work of grace in the hearts of these believers. They would
have looked back upon this time and they would have remembered
the trial, they would have remembered the difficulty and the burden
they felt, but the wonderful sense of relief in deliverance. It was necessary for Peter, for
his own soul's good, it was necessary for the gathered church as well. And so it may be at the present
time you are in Dark circumstances, mysterious things have happened
perhaps and you don't know what decisions to make perhaps, what
you should do or where you should go. But the Lord is able to make
the way where there seems to be no way. The Lord is able to
make things plain when things seem so obscure. He's able to
make the pillar of cloud go before you by day and the pillar of
fire by night. I remember years ago when I was so uncertain of
the Lord's revealed will in a very important matter And I almost
envied the children of Israel because they had the pillar of
cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. They had divine
guidance 24 hours a day. When the pillar moved, they moved.
When the pillar stayed, they stayed. It seemed so clear, so
plain for them, but everything for me seemed so obscure. But
you know, in time, the Lord made it so clear and so plain, it
was almost as if it was the cloud moving before me. so that I simply
moved where the Lord made things clear. Where the Lord is able
to give light in the midst of obscurity, isn't he? He's able
to make mysterious things plain to our understanding. We might
know and do his will and give honour and glory to his great
name. 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. Peter therefore was kept in prison,
but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. May we be encouraged to continue
to pray, and the Lord may intervene in his own time and way. Amen. We conclude this service by singing
together the hymn 397, the Juni's 453, Champkins. In themselves as weak as worms,
how can poor believers stand when temptations, foes and storms
press them close on every hand? Weak indeed they feel they are,
but they know the throne of grace and the God who answers prayer
helps them when they seek his face. 397, the tune is 453. Senses as weak as rocks, A broken
heart beneath the sun, And temptations blind as thorns, ? Blessed art thou among women
? ? Blessed art thou among women ? O come, O come, all ye faithful
joyful and triumphant O come, O come, all ye faithful joyful
and triumphant Alleluia, alleluia. Shall I forget
your grace, O Savior, to pray. We have nothing at all
to fear. ? And wonders of love ? ? We believe
in thee, O Nashville ? ? Heav'nly host, the night is new ? ? And blessed days ? ? God the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ? O'er the ramparts we watched
were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the
bombs bursting in air, And now may the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father, the fellowship
and communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all, now and forevermore. Amen.