This is an amazing story of Peter's
miraculous deliverance from prison. But like all of the miracles
in God's Word, this was not written to impress us with miracles, the power of angels. This is
a story And I've never seen it like this. But this is of a more
amazing deliverance. This is a story of how God delivers
every single person whom he saves. This is my story. This is my
story. A prisoner delivered. And I hope
the Lord will bless it. Verses 1 through 4, let's read
this again. 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. him with
days of unleavened bread. And when he had apprehended Peter,
he put him in prison and delivered him to four quartermen of soldiers
to keep him, intending after Easter or the Passover to bring
him forth to the people. Herod vexed the Church, it says. Now, many scriptures speak of
Satan, many scriptures. Our Lord spoke of Satan more
than anyone. He had more to say about the
adversary, or Satan, the devil, and his demons, and more dealings
with them. Our Lord cast out many devils. It's spoken of quite a bit. But it speaks of Satan and demons
vexing people. Vexing, like Herod did here.
Vexing people. A woman came to our Lord and
said, Lord, help, my daughter is grievously vexed with the
devil. Grievously vexed. A man, another
man, came to our Lord and said, My son is vexed with an unclean
spirit. In Acts chapter 5, it speaks
of many who came to him that were vexed with unclean spirits. So, vexed means to be hounded
by or troubled by. And as I said, the Lord spoke
more of Satan than anyone. Satan had desired thee, Peter. He talked about the prince of
this world. Now, the world, educated world, modern world, laughs at,
scoffs at all talk of a devil. They do. They laugh at this being
the ridiculous superstitions of religious people. And what they're doing when they
laugh is they're calling Jesus Christ a liar. Nevertheless,
people laugh and when in fact, now here's the subtlety and the
craftiness of this one, this prince of the power of the air.
They, these mockers and scoffers, do his bidding. They're doing his bidding. They're
in his service. They're captives. of his, and
don't know it. And he has them laughing. 2 Timothy
chapter 2. Turn over there quickly. 2 Timothy
2 is a passage of scripture that tells
us this. 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2. You
have it? beginning with verse 24 through
26. A servant of the Lord, a preacher, must not strive, argue, but be
gentle unto all, apt, ready to teach, patient in meekness, instructing
those that oppose themselves. If God, peradventure, by mercy
and grace, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the And
that they, these people, might recover themselves or be awakened
out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him
at his will. So this is no fairy tale. This
is no fable. This is real. This is a real
person. This is not any old religious
superstition. spiritual wickedness in high
places is real. That's all I'm going to say about that.
And those who are captive don't know it. Taken captive. Well, Satan's ploys now are many,
but they're the same. He's always used these same like
he did to the first man and woman, the woman primarily. Lust of
the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. You remember,
that's what he tempted the Lord with, remember? Kingdoms of the
world, bow down and so forth, fleshly pleasure, material things,
pride. I'm somebody Men, women, and
young people are held captive to these things. Men, women, and young people
are held captive to this world, absolutely captive to things,
their bodies, this world. And in darkness and ignorance
about God, about life after death, captives, complete captives.
Now, so here's the story. Herod represents Satan himself. And it said he vexed many. And he had plans, it says in
verse 4, to take Peter. He had, in verse 3, he had plans
to take Peter, and he did. He took Peter. But God had further
plans. had a purpose for Peter. Satan
desired him, Herod desired him, but God had a purpose for Peter.
The God of this world, and it said there, look at verse 4,
it says, He intended to bring him forth to the people. Herod
apprehended Peter and intended to turn him over to the people.
Now that's a good type there, because Our adversary, who apprehends
people with these things and all, wants nothing more than
to turn us over to the world, turn us over, turn us into one
of the people, one of the world, be destroyed with it, the world. But God delivers his elect just
like he delivered Peter, same way. God delivers every one of
his elect. Just like he delivered Peter
out of this prison, every one of them. Verse 5, Peter therefore
was kept in prison. Please, Lord, help. Lord, give
us attention, especially those who don't know you. Please, please,
please, please. Verse 5, Peter therefore was
kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church
unto God for him. While in prison, Peter was being
prayed for, as the people prayed for him without ceasing. And so some in here were the
constant objects of the prayers of this church. I remember as
a young man, a young teenager, and I'd show up in church every
now and then, Later on, after it was all over, well, it's not
over yet, but later on, Brother Gerald King, big old
Brother Gerald, 6'5", he came up to me after the Lord revealed
Himself to me, you know, and he came up to me, big old tears
in his eyes, and he said, oh, he said, I used to watch you come in here,
and oh, he said, you were the constant object of my prayer.
He said, it wasn't a day went by that I didn't ask the Lord
to save that young rebel. Well, prayer was constantly being
made by the church for Peter. And verse 6, now here's the captive
in his captivity. That was the captor. When Herod
would have brought him forth. Verse six, the same night, it's
darkness, it's dark, the same night Peter was sleeping between
two soldiers bound with chains and the keepers before the door. The door was shut. It's in the
dark, he's sleeping, he's bound, and the door's shut. Now that's a picture of every
lost sinner when God comes. Men and women, young people,
look over at Isaiah 29 with me, Isaiah chapter 29. Men, women,
young people are asleep, some literally, when it comes
to the things of God. Let me ask you something. Why
is it, why do you become drowsy when you come in here? Huh? Well, why? Am I that boring? I'm not the best preacher, but
I'm sure not the worst. I've sat under fellows that,
now, it would be hard to stay awake. But there's times when
I holler and shout and scream and all, I think, they ought
to get their attention. Why? Why do we suddenly come
into this place, suddenly and absolutely? Think about it. There are other
forces at work. Now, a person who is in this
state constantly is lost. Isaiah 29, look at verse 10,
and look at who does this really. Verse 10, The Lord hath poured
out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes. Verse 11, The vision of all is
the words of a book that is sealed. The Lord does it. Men and women
and young people are asleep, and it's Because somebody has it. Somebody has it. It's going to
take a loud voice. It's going to take a voice. Not
mine. How many times I've heard this? If my voice, I've heard my pastor
say this, if my voice is the only voice you hear, you'll either fall asleep or
you're hopeless, helpless. But now if God speaks, and he
says, My sheep hear my voice. Isaiah, you know how Elijah heard
God's voice? Still small voice. It may be
hard to preach this way sometimes. Are you listening? Still small voice. Men and women, young people are
bound by sinful, or get real enthused about and real wide
awake to the things of this world, huh? The most trivial thing can
absolutely captivate our attention. And he says, it says here, Peter
was in darkness, sleeping in darkness, world of darkness. This is a world of darkness that
we live in. Oh, we're enlightened. This is the enlightened age.
There's never been a darker time. There's never been a darker time. There's never been more educated
people on the planet, and never been more fools. Absolute fools. Romans 1 says, professing themselves
to be wise, and everybody's got a B.S. They do. About everybody's got a B.A.
or a B.S. Don't they? Never been a more educated society,
and never been a more godless one. professing themselves to
be wise, they became utter fools. Darkness, the world of darkness. And Paul says in one letter,
he says, let us not sleep as do others. They're in darkness. We're not in darkness even as
others, he said, but arise. The lights are shining. Well,
but God, now God who's rich in mercy. In due time, he takes
some of these dark bound human beings and shines the light. Sends an angel of mercy. Now
this angel, who was this angel? Who was this angel? If you say
Christ, you'd be right. But I'm going to say it's the
preacher. All right? Isn't he called an
angel in the Revelation? But didn't Christ say, though
if they hear me, they're going to hear you? That's who they're
going to hear me from as a preacher. My dad was just my dad for years. He was just my dad. One day, I heard an angel. Same old dad. Same old message, but I heard
a different voice. I'll never forget it. But God
sends a preacher, and buddy, when he does, he becomes an angel. His feet grow beautiful. Verse 7 says this, And behold,
the angel of the Lord came upon him, the angel of the Lord, and
shined in the prison. God sends a preacher to preach. What does he preach? There's
only one thing. The light, Paul said, of the
knowledge, the glory of God. God, who caused the light to
shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. How many times have you heard
that scripture verse quoted? How many times, huh? How many
times have you heard that Scripture quoted? Well, one day, by God's
grace, you'll hear it, you'll see it. You won't just hear it. God, who caused the light to
shine out of darkness in the beginning of creation, God said,
let there be light. There's a day, a point in time
when you've been hearing and hearing and hearing and had ears
but didn't hear. God caused the light to shine
in your heart. to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. What is this?
What's he talking about? The light, that is the understanding
of the knowledge of the glory of God, that God is God, that
God is God. That God is. That God is and
in Him we live and move and have our being and we're in His hands.
That God is. It's not doctrine, it's He. That
God is, and I am before Him. I don't just come to church, I
come before God. And God's dealing with me. And
going to deal with me. Somehow, God is going to discard
me or save me. Have mercy on me or discard me.
Or damn me. God is. God is God. The light of the knowledge of
the glory of God. And the way we hear this and
see this is the gospel. The gospel comes, the preacher
preaches who God is, and we're in His hands, and that God came
to this earth and did what He did for some people. They're
called elect. And creates an interest in the
heart. Oh, I'd like to be one of those elect. Who's it for? Sinners. Well, what did he do? Well, he lived a perfect life.
And then he died on that cross to pay for sins of his people. And now he ever lives to make
intercession for them, and he's coming again to receive them
to himself. And there comes a time when somebody that wasn't interested
before, was absolutely asleep to these things, now is interested.
And that word touches their heart. Old Mr. Wet Eyes comes. And they hear that it's talking
to them. Talking to me, aren't you? I've
heard this all my life, preacher, and you're talking to me, aren't
you? Yeah, I am. No, my God is. Like old Samuel,
young Samuel. Remember when Samuel came in
to Eli and the Lord was speaking to him and he didn't know it.
Samuel came in to Eli and said, did you say something? No, go
back to sleep. And the Lord spoke to him again.
What did you say? Did you say something to me?
The young man talking to the preacher, you talking to me?
I didn't say anything. I'm talking to you. Go back to
sleep. And then finally he figured out,
the Lord is speaking to me. That's what it's going to take.
My, my. The knowledge of the glory of
God in a person. Jesus Christ, who came, who lived,
who died, who is coming again. in whose hands we are, who must
do something for us. May God shine that light on you. Well, it says Peter was bound
with chains. See that? Two chains. Both hands.
Both hands. He couldn't do anything but what
he was bound. He couldn't do anything but.
He was in chains. Both hands were chained. And
this is man. This is a young, I think about
young people. I look at them today, you know,
and it's getting bad. And I mean, it's getting bad,
bad. Their bodies look like, it's
horrible. People, it's absolutely, God
is unleashing this captor on this world. I mean, it's absolutely
taken captive by him and doing what just, it's absolutely horrible. It's unthinkable what people
are doing. They're thinking nothing of it.
Why? And I look at them and think,
don't they see? No, they're bound. They're bound to do what this
person does and what that person, they're going to do what the
world is doing. Why? To be accepted by the world,
to be a part of the world, to be with the world. See, freedom is not doing what
everybody else is doing. I'm a free spirit. No, you're
not. If you're just like everybody else, you're not. Huh? Freedom. Look at this, what happened
to him. He was bound with two chains
in the keepers before the door, kept to prison, and that's the
gospel. You know, Christ is called the
door. The gospel is the door of the sheepfold, and it's shut,
buddy. It's shut in this world, ain't
it? Oh, but if Christ opens the door,
look what happens. Here's his deliverance. The deliverer
and the deliverance. Behold, verse 7, behold, the
angel of the Lord came upon him, and light shined in the prison,
the light shined, and smote Peter on the side. The light shined, smote him on
the side. That's what we need to be, smitten
by the Word of God, don't we? Like a two before upside the
head. The young people, old people,
old people I'd like to do this to. Let alone young. Won't you listen? Won't you listen? God must do it. Smote him on
the side. Stanley doesn't say he I'm sorry
to wake you up. Please forgive me. Will you please
wake up? He smacked him, buddy. Like old
Jacob. That man wrestled with Jacob.
He'd limp from that day forward. Get up! This thing's too serious
to pussyfoot around. That's an old saying, pussyfoot
around. This thing's too serious to deal, you know, to be a wimpy
little mealy-mouthed preacher. Oh, please accept Jesus. Please,
nothing. You better get up, man. You better listen to me, man.
That's what the Word of God has to do to a hard-headed... Get up! What's wrong with you? Are you in darkness? Are you
blind? Are you stupid? God's God. God came down here
to do something. It ain't no fable. And he's coming
again, just more sure than I'm standing here. Get up, boy! Get up, Peter! Time's short. Don't have time to waste. That's
what he said. Get up, let's go, quick, quick!
What are you waiting on? What are you waiting on? That's
what he said one time to that—that's what it was, and Ananias said
to Saul, he said, Why tarriest thou? What are you waiting on? Get
older? If God had killed me at eighteen, I'd be in hell. At fifteen. I knew what I was
doing at fifteen years old. I was a rebel. Kids want to be
treated as adults at fourteen, thirteen. All right then. If you don't bow to God and come
to him right now, you're a goner. No age of accountability. Old man, how long are you going
to sit in darkness and sleep as do others? You're a goner if Christ doesn't
do something for you. You better get up, arise. Look
at it. Arise up quickly, verse 7. Quickly! I said, Peter, preacher don't get
mad. I'm telling you. If God had killed me, I look
back on my life with so many instances where I tried my best
to kill myself. Not suicide, but I mean it as
a wild buck. God had mercy on me. Why? Why? I wasn't better than any
of my buddies. I was worse. And you're not better because
you come here and your mother and father do. My daddy was a
preacher. This thing's too serious for
me that this is it. This is it. Get up quickly now. Come on. Come on. Get up quickly.
Get up. Arise and Christ shall give thee
light, Scripture says. Why tarryst thou? Confess Christ,
or he'll deny you." And his chains fell off. He got up. What did he do? What
do you think Peter did? I'm going to sleep a little bit more. I've
got tomorrow and another day. No! He got up. Okay, I'm coming. His chains fell off. Look at, read on here, this is
wonderful. His chains fell off and an angel said unto him, gird
yourself. What do you gird yourself with? What's the girding? What
do we gird ourselves with? You know, we've wrapped ourselves,
we've immersed ourselves in that stupid square box that absolutely
has got this country just dictating everything about this country.
The thing we do, what we think, where we wear, where we go, what
we see, what we think about things. Absolute captive to that stupid
box. Guard me with the truth, O Lord. Lord, please deliver my son,
my daughter, my husband, my wife, my parents from captivity. And put this Word in their heart
that's able to save them, make them wise unto salvation. And
remove this garbage. God's going to—my wife and I
were walking downtown rolling up the other night. Went to eat
Friday night. And but by the grace of God,
I'm one of those people. So I knew they were looking at
us. Here is straightforward. Here's this, you know, square
couple here. Look at them. Walking down there,
all these cool dudes, you know. But by the grace of God, that's
me. That was me. I was walking down through there
and I said, I turned to them and I said, Do you have any problem
believing that God's going to burn this planet to ashes? Look around you. Do you have
any problem believing that God's going to absolutely burn this
piece of dirt up? Huh? I don't. But by the mercy and grace of
God, that's me. much of that hell hole in my
heart. But this one thing I do now,
I am, by God's grace, pressing toward that mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. This one thing
I do, I call upon Him, Lord, have mercy upon me. I know better
than they are, even though I dress differently or even though my
hair is gone. Not long, it won't even grow
at all. But have mercy on me. Spare me. Save me from this untoward generation. Chains fell off. Guard yourself. Guard yourself. Guard yourself. Guard yourself. Lord, let us be able to put our
ears, put your fingers. Remember when the Lord opened
that man's ears? He was deaf and dumb. Remember,
he didn't hear anything and he was a babbling idiot. That's
a picture of me. That was me as a teenager. I
didn't hear anything my parents said as a boy, but I had a lot
to say. Or are you going to hear from
me? I hear you. That's a guardian thyself. Lord, put your finger in my ear.
Stop my ears to this world. Bind on your sandals. Look at
it. He said, put your shoes on. What's that? Scripture talks
about being shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Use some
shoes. Hippies back in my day used to
love to go barefooted. I dated some girl one time that
looked like a duck-billed platypus. Her feet did. She never wore
shoes for years. Her feet were huge. Ugly! She thought she was cool, and
she had ugly feet. I tell you. And this generation
is so cool. It won't have a thing to do with
this gospel. The gospel of peace. The glorious, beautiful, altogether
lovely Son of God, who turns up their cool noses at the Son
of God. Man, oh man. You know what shoes do? They bind your feet up. Keep
them from getting like a duckbill plant. They keep them straight. Keep them straight because they'll
just go everywhere. Your feet will go everywhere
unless the gospel sets you straight. That's me. Wild ass is cold. Where are you going? What are
you going to do? Here I go. Go to Christ. That's where the
gospel comes, and you need to get to Christ now. Gurdjieff put your sandals on.
See that? Read on. It says, And so he did.
And so he did. And he said unto him, Cast your
garment about you. What's that? Cast thy garment about thee.
What is that? Your only hope of getting out
of prison. The righteousness of Christ.
You need Christ to cover you. If you're not covered, you're
naked before God. Cast your garment about. Follow
me. Follow Christ. Follow me. And he went out and
followed him. And verse 9 says, He wished not
what was true. He couldn't believe it. What
was happening to him? He couldn't believe what was
happening to him. He thought it was a dream. Peter thought it was
a dream. Thought he'd seen a vision. Thought
he was in a dream. He was being delivered. He was being delivered. Now look at this. This is wonderful.
Everything began to open up to him. He was being delivered and
he thought, he didn't know where he was or what he was doing or
where he was going. He really didn't. He thought, I'm in a
dream. Something's happening here. But am I dreaming or is
this real? And suddenly everything began
to open up. Read on. Verse 10. When they were passed
the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate
that leadeth unto the city, and it just opened up its own accord. They went out along, passed on
through the street, and the angel left. Passed captors
Passed gates, doors opened, and Peter said, verse 11, when
he's come to himself, now I know. Now I know. I think back on the
Lord's amazing dealings with me. I think back when I was in
some kind of stupor. When He was dealing with me.
Yes, when He was dealing with me. I didn't know if I wanted
to follow Christ or if I wanted to stay with the world or Is
this real? Is this happening to me? I don't
know. I think, where am I? What am I doing? What's going
on here? There's a struggle going on within me. And I remember
friends began to, things began to happen. Friends began to drop
me. I didn't drop them. I still,
nobody wants to be alone. I wanted my buddies. They began
to drop me. They saw. I told you the story and let
me just tell it like it happened, OK? It's not too plain for anyone. I was sitting by a pool one time. As a young man, early 20s, sitting
there and what young men do by the pool, you know. But I was
reading a book by Arthur Pink. On the inspiration of Scripture, And one of those men looked at
me and said, what are you reading a damn Bible for? Sitting here,
but you're reading a damn Bible. I don't know. I don't know! What's
happening to me? But then they began to drop me.
Girls I was interested in. were no longer interested in
me. Now, this never happened before. This just never happened before.
Honestly. Boy, the girls I was interested
in, the old flames, you know, I thought, well, they'll be glad
to see me again. I dropped them before, and I
drooled them. Here I am, honey. I'm back. Well, I'm not interested. What? Jobs began to open. That would
allow me to hear the gospel. And you've heard the story while
I was looking for a girl. Chains began to fall off. Doors began to open. And I didn't know it at the time.
I was being delivered. I've been delivered. I know now. Like Peter retained himself.
I know now. I know this was of the Lord,
verse 11. Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath sent his angel. I'm one of the eleven that delivered me. He's delivered
me out of the hand of the captor. I'm delivered. And from all the
expectations of the people, I'm delivered. I've been saved from
this untoward generation. Well, look at this. This is good.
This happened to me, too. When Peter was coming to himself,
verse 12, and when he considered the thing, that is, Peter was
saying, where am I going to go? What am I going to do? Where
do I go from here? And it says, he came to the house
of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark. And there
were many gathered there together praying. Peter said, where do
I go? Well, he went to the church.
Went to church. Went to where God's people were. And verse 13 and 14, there was
a young lady named Rhoda that came knocking. Peter knocked
at the door of the gate, and a young lady came. And Peter,
she knew Peter's voice. She heard, she couldn't believe
it. And she ran back and said, you'll
never guess who's here. You'll never guess. Peter. No, they all said, no, not Peter. You've seen a vision. You'll
never guess who's in church. You'll never guess who brought
his Bible. You'll never guess who's here.
Yeah, Paul, the rebel. He's here. Look, look, that Adam
from second row. No. Yes. That's what you're praying
for, wasn't it? Peter kept mocking, you know,
Peter wanted in. He wanted out of that and in,
where God's people were. See, oh my. He was asleep before. Oh, he's overweight now. He continued
knocking. When they opened the door, they
were just astonished. Well, it looks like Peter. Sounds
like Peter. Well, it is Peter. It is. It is Peter. And they were all
excited. Verse 17. And here's his confession. Now Peter confesses. He gets
in the midst of the church there, and they let him in. Oh, they
let him in. They were just delighted to have him. They were praying
for him. They let him in and received
him. They're all so thrilled. And what does Peter do? He confesses
Christ. First thing he does. Look at
verse 17. Peter said, he declared unto
them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. The Lord
did this. The Lord did this. and united with the brother. That's my story. That's my story. You'll never
guess who's here. You'll never guess. Jill. Amen to you. I told them one
time, and I used to on Easter come around, and I'd see them
in church And we'd go out to eat, you know, Franklin Restaurant. And I'd see them. I didn't want
to see Jill, Amy, and Rebecca. I wanted to choke them. Why aren't you here every other
night? Saturday, Sunday. You'll never guess who's here,
and it ain't Easter. That's your story? This is the
story. This is my story. This is my
song. What's that at hymn? What's that hymn? Praising the
Savior all day long. This is my story. What is it? 255? Yeah, that's it. John, you come up
and lead us in there. 255. Let's stand and we'll sing
first and last verses. first and last verse. Thanks.