Let's read Acts 12. Let's read verses 20 through the end
of the chapter. And Herod was highly displeased
with them of Tyre and Sidon, but they came with one accord
And having made Blastus king's chamberlain, or his personal
servant, butler, made him their friend, they 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, a speech, 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 smoked Herod, 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 Paul returned
from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry in Antioch
and took with them John, whose surname was Mark. Listen to these
scriptures. I wrote down six or seven scriptures
concerning pride. Listen to these. When pride cometh,
then cometh shame. but with the lowly his wisdom. Pride goeth before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall. A man's pride shall bring him
low, but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit. Listen to this
one. The Lord of hosts hath purposed
it to stain the pride of all glory. and to bring into contempt
all the honorable of the earth. There is a generation, oh how
lofty are their eyes and their eyelids are lifted up. That's
this generation. Listen to this, the lofty looks
of man shall be humble. and the haughtiness of men shall
be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
Listen to this one. The day of the Lord of hosts
shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, and upon everyone
that is lifted up he shall be brought low. The mean man shall
be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the
eyes of the lofty shall be humbled. So just a few, just a few, many,
many innumerable verses concerning pride. This story tonight is
a typical one. It's a story of a proud man who
is brought low. A typical story, a story of a,
as the title goes, a story of a king who was eaten by worms. A king who was eaten by worms. Now this may seem sensational.
The title itself is strange, isn't it? But it's really very
common, very common, and has occurred countless times and
is going on right this now, right this minute, right now. Kings have been eaten by worms.
Look at verse 20 now. Let's look at this story. And
Herod was highly displeased. Herod was highly displeased with
them of tired sight. Now this is not the Herod who
was born, or who was reigning when Christ was born. And this
is not the Herod who had John the Baptist beheaded. This is
a third Herod. Three kings. The Lord went through
three kings in the space of one short generation there. This
is called, this man's name is Herod of Grippa. And I thought
about how the Lord raises up and cast it down. Promotion cometh
of the Lord and demotion of the Lord. God elects kings and rulers and governors
for purposes known only to him. He raises them up for purposes
known only to him. Like Pharaoh, he raised Pharaoh
up for a purpose in his generation. Cyrus, As a good study over in
Isaiah of King Cyrus, there's a good type of Christ. Saul,
King Saul, was raised up for a purpose. And Pilate, as you
know, and now Herod. And God raises these men up to
show forth his power primarily. And for secret purposes known
only to God. Secret purposes. And somehow
or another various rulers are raised up at various times And
they are some way. It's relative to God's people.
Everything God does, God is going to get the glory and God is he's
going to get the glory out of them and some way or another,
a particular ruler at a particular time. Is going to benefit his
people and his church. Now, I needed that for my sake.
And we need that now in this day, don't we? And I hesitate
to keep saying much about our president. And I won't. Only to say this,
that God had that man elected. And as I said before, we will
pray for him. More than anything, we'll pray
that the Lord will restrain him from evil. But to be sure, God
raised him up. And it somehow or another is
going to benefit his people for his elect's sake. You believe
that? I don't know how. Someday we'll
see. If anything, it might cause us
to look to God a little more. Call upon him a little more. Be done with the world a little
bit more. Throw our hands up in despair regarding the world
a little bit more. Right? And say, let the world,
this is the world electing him. Let them have him. And, you know,
he's not my king. I have a king, a good king. And so to be sure, that's comforting,
comforting thing for God's people. He, God, raises up kings. And it says that Herod, this
Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon. Herod
was a powerful ruler. proud earthly ruler and at this
time for some reason we don't know what it was he got mad at
this little neighboring country of Tyre and Sidon. He got mad
at him. He decided to punish them maybe
with an embargo of some sort or some kind of blockade that
cut off food and supplies because it says they were nourished by
the king's country. In other words they were supplied
by the king's country and he threatened to cut off supplies
from them because he got mad at them for whatever reason,
we don't know. But it says, with one accord, look at this, with
one accord they came to him, having made Blastus, the king's
chamberlain, their friend, desiring peace. They saw the king's displeasure. And they knew their certain doom
and destruction, and so they appealed to and befriended the
king's closest servant with gifts and pleas and offers and begging
him to make peace with the king on their behalf. Now, when I
came to this, Terry, when I came to this passage, I thought, what
am I going to say about this for 45 minutes? Might have to
make it thirty, I thought, when I come to this. But do you see
the gospel in that? Huh? Very clearly. It shines out to you. Here's
the gospel picture in our story. And we must look for the gospel,
mustn't we? And would that men and women
saw their condition before the Holy God, His anger, His displeasure,
the displeasure of our God and King who nourishes us. The God
in whose hands we are, the God who gives us everything we have,
the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the
clothes we wear. He says, I've nourished a people,
didn't he? I've nourished a people that
have rebelled against me. He said, I have clothed you,
though you haven't known me. And would that people would see
their offense against the Holy God, their sin and rebellion
against Him, and their certain destruction and doom and condemnation
before Him. They'd see that. They'd fear
God. Then salvation has come to their
house. And would that they would come
to this God with one accord. Would that they would come, those
who are sinners to the uttermost, because He's able to save. to
the uttermost, then that come unto him by Christ, as Scripture
says. And would that men and women
would come to Christ and beg him with one accord to make offerings
of peace on their behalf, to make that blood offering on their
behalf, to establish peace by the blood of his cross by God. Would that they would come to
God, and we know that no man can come except the Father which
hath sent Christ draw them. And if you have come, you bless
God for drawing you with cords of love, the cords of a man,
Hosea said. Come to God with one accord by
the king's closest servant. The king's closest servant, he
said, behold, mine elect, my servants, in whom I delight.
The king's servant, Christ, the king's son, no less. And call
upon him to plead your case before an angry God. Seeing the scripture
saying I didn't quote all of that in Hebrews seven. He said
he's able to save the uttermost in the come unto God by him seeing
he ever live to make intercession for the transgressors for them.
He ever live. So that's why we keep coming
to the king's the king's servant king the king's Christ the king.
So we keep coming to him desiring that he would make peace for
us and he does. And our generation doesn't recognize
their condition, though, do they? And I blame it on the pulpit.
I blame it on the pulpit. They're not preaching the holiness
of God and the sinfulness of man and their need of a substitute. But would that men and women
would see and recognize God's displeasure and recognize God's
holiness and see his power and come to Christ His servant. And
old Herod here, you know, like old Herod here, men and women
by nature have a loathsome disease. This is what we're going to look
at now. They have a loathsome disease called pride. And it's
going to be men and women's ultimate... It's pride that keeps men from
bowing to a sovereign God. It's pride that keeps men and
women Believing the gospel of God's sovereign grace, grace,
the gospel of God's sovereign grace brings you down in the
dust. It's the first thing it does to you. It brings you down
and makes you feel down and dirty. You got to feel that you got
to be brought down. He said the scripture says he
that is humble shall be exalted. But he that exalt himself should
be a base, be obeyed, pray to God, pray that God abases you
now so that you'll be exalted later. Because that's the first
thing the gospel does to us. It brings us down. And men and
women don't like to be brought down. But men and women are full of
this loathsome disease called pride. And it says the people
appealed to Herod. They appealed to his pride and
they flattered him. This account is written in the
historian Josephus, this very account. And it says, look at
verse 21. Many of you may have that book,
Josephus. It's a historian back in the
days of the early days. And he wrote of many, many things. And he wrote of Christ and his
death and so forth. And he wrote of this story here.
And verse 21, upon a set day, Herod, upon a set day. Now stop right there a minute. This day was set in God's eternal
decree. This day was set. God was going
to show forth his power. But Herod set the day. He thought,
Herod said, I'm going to show forth my power. Oh boy, God has
set the one over against the other. God will set things in
order. Herod set the day, but God had
set it a long time before that. This was a day determined by
God. This man's, the year, the month, the day, the bounds of
this man had been determined by God, appointed by God for
Herod. He could not pass them. This
was the day he was to die. He's going to meet his creator. This is the day. He could not
pass these bounds. Somebody says, that's fatalism.
No, that's Job 14, 5. Man's bounds are set, he cannot
pass them. God has set them. So it says,
on a set day, Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, Josephus says
this, and I'll quote, he was arrayed in silver that did reflect
the sun and did make him to appear as to shine himself. He wore
a silver robe, sequined robe of silver, and went out in the
bright sunshine before all the people, sat upon his throne,
and he shined before all the people. It says he sat upon his
throne and he made an oration unto them. He sat upon his throne
and made a speech. I can hear his affectationist
voice now, can't you? Oh, how men and women love to
ascend their thrones, don't they? Huh? They sure do. Be they what
they may be, whatever they may be, a stage. How I love to stand
on that stage, don't I? A platform, a podium, the preachers
behind the podium. That's the reason I like to bring
you this thing down here. all the time. I heard a story
one time about a man who went in to see Oral Roberts. And do
you know that Oral Roberts, he has his, in his office, he has
his desk up on about a four foot platform. Right in the middle
of it. How many of y'all would come
in to see, would you men come into the men's meeting if I was
up to four feet above you. Yes, Stan, what is it you want? Oh my, how men like to be on
their thrones, don't they? There's only one throne men and
women deserve to be on, and it's made by American Standard Plumbing. Right? That's the only throne
that man has earned. And the oration he makes is worthy
of the contents of it. So Herod made his little speech.
He made his little speech, and the people loved it. They loved
it. Verse 22, And the people gave
a shout, saying, It is the voice of a God, and not of a man. But you know, let's bring this
down to our level. Have you ever caught yourself making over a mere mortal man
like the world does over some entertainer some politician some
sports figure let me ask you the. This reason we need to temper
our children in regards to the sports figures these guys on
the map. We need to ask ourselves this
question. How would we react if, what if
Bill Clinton, well, let's pick a better example than that. Who is there? Ronald Reagan,
George Bush, you know, some decent fellow walked in here. Some high
figure, public figure walked in our door. How would we react?
Would we stop our service right now? Would we, would everybody,
honey, look. Would we? Have we ever caught
ourselves doing that? Somebody said. I saw whoever
I saw a certain so-and-so, Senator so-and-so or whatever the other
day, have we ever caught ourselves doing that? Making over a piece
of flesh, a worm? We better we better we better
catch ourselves. I tell you, the popular figures
of this world are not to be admired. They're to be disdained. You find me a godly man now.
Ed, you find me a godly ruler and leader and all, and I'll
treat him like a man. I'll still treat him like a man,
but I'll honor him and respect him and so forth. But for the
most part, these world figures, these prominent figures, Especially
these entertainers and all that, these celebrities. The Scripture
says that which is highly esteemed among men is of what? Abomination
to God Almighty. These celebrities, these entertainers,
these politicians and sports figures are highly esteemed,
aren't they? Aren't they the most highly esteemed
people in our day? More highly esteemed than God
Almighty. They sure are. I thought about this the other
day. Only in America would we make somebody like Whoopi Goldberg
a millionaire. Only in America. Michael Jackson. You know, these despicable people. Only in America. Only in America. Men and women worship and serve
the creature rather than the Creator, don't they? They sure
do. Bow before them. Do them obeisance and honor and
humble themselves for them make over a piece of dirty flesh. Look over second Timothy three.
This is an indictment against our generation. Second Timothy
three describes the very day we're living in. This tells me
that Christ is right around the corner because this is so relevant. We're living in the last days,
it's so evidently characterized here. 2 Timothy 3, you've read
it so many times, read it again. This know also that in the last
days perilous times shall come, that is hard times, rough times,
troublesome times, wicked times. Men shall be lovers of their
own selves. This is the me, my generation. Me and the lovers
of selves. Catherine Hepburn, you know what
the title of her autobiography is? Catherine Hepburn, you know
that despicable woman? She's a vile, despicable woman. Is she dead? I wish she was. The title of her autobiography
is Me. That's the title of it. Me. Lovers of their own selves, covetous,
boasters. Oh, how proud. Proud blasphemers. They're not afraid to speak evil
of God, dignities, anything. They speak wonderful themselves,
aren't they? Oh, boy. Disobedient to parents. You know, the kids today, it's
a sign of the times. Unthankful. generation that thinks
they've got everything coming to them, don't they? Not thankful,
unholy, without natural affection, all this homosexuality and what
have you, truce breakers, false accusers, liar, incontinent,
fierce, violent, despisers of those that are good, calling
good evil and evil good, traitors, petty, high-minded, lovers of
pleasure more than lovers of God. But they have a form of
godliness. They're religious. Isn't that
today? Their religion has never been
more popular than today. But he says they deny the power
thereof. He said turn away from them.
Turn away from them. We ought to have nothing to do
with these proud worldlings today. except as we may witness a good
confession before them and as opportunity to talk to them about
Christ presents itself. Other than that, don't have any
dealings with them. Two can't walk together. Light
can't have fellowship with darkness and so forth. Sons of God are
the sons of Baal, and that's what they are. Doesn't that describe
our generation? All right, so in our story, Herod
the king, he was a man-made ordinary king, but God did put him there
for a reason. Show forth his power. Wrinkled,
old, corrupt, filthy man. Like the Pope, you know. I'd
like to jerk that robe off of him in public sometime. Let everybody
see. Look at there. He's wrinkled.
He's ugly. He's fat. You say he shouldn't
be so harsh. This is on tape. He's fat. He's ugly. He's wrinkled. He
stinks. His sweat stinks. He's a despicable,
can I say enough vile things about that wretched man who makes
himself to be God before the people? Can we? Am I being too
harsh? He's an ungodly, he's anti-Christ. Well, Herod the King, who was
much like the Pope, He got up this day and he was deified by
the people. Deified. It's the voice of a
God and not a man. That's what they do to the Pope,
too, don't they? Millions, literally millions, come out there to watch
that man. He's half asleep, probably doped up, and percadamned, and
hubba-dubba-dubba-dubba. Poor water. going to hell, and
he's going to hell, and they're following him just as fast as
they can. Somebody needs to tell this generation,
don't they? And they said, It's the voice of a God, not of a
man. Verse 23, And immediately the angel of the Lord smote this
fellow. Immediately. Because he gave
not God the glory. And I'd love to see that happen.
Wouldn't you love to see that happen on national TV? It wouldn't
do any good, it wouldn't draw anybody to Christ, but I still
would like to see that man. We will. Someday. We're going to see the great
harlot judge, aren't we? And we're all going to say, Amen.
Hallelujah. Right? Right. Look over at Daniel
chapter 4. This story of Herod reminds me
of another fellow, another king. Is it you? The book of Daniel. Right after Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel. Look at Daniel, the book of Daniel
chapter 4. Here it reminds me of this fellow
named Nebuchadnezzar who was a king. Perfect parallel there. Nebuchadnezzar, look at verse
28. All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of 12 months, he walked
in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. Here's this great
Babylonian king, and that's one of the greatest kingdoms ever
on the face of the earth, ever, much greater than the United
States now would ever be, or Russia or whoever, Babylonian
kingdom. And the king spake and said, it's not this great Babylon
that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of
my power for the honor of my majesty." And while the word
was in his mouth, as soon as he said that, there fell a voice
from heaven saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken. The kingdom
is departed from thee. They shall drive thee from men.
Thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall
make thee to eat grass as an oxen. Seven times shall pass
over thee until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom
of men. and giveth it to whomsoever he
will." The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from men, did eat
grass as oxen, his body was wet with the dew of heaven, his hair
was like eagle's feathers grown, and his nails like bird's claws. At the end of the days, God had
mercy upon this man. He didn't herald it, but he did
this man. At the end of the days, he says,
I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine
understanding returned unto me. I blessed the Most High, and
praised and honored him that liveth forever. whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion. His kingdom, it's not mine, it's
his kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants
of the earth, including kings, are reputed as nothing, and he
doeth according to his will, not man's will, his will in the
army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and
none can stay his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? At
the same time, my reason returned unto me. And for the glory of
my kingdom, my honor and brightness returned unto me, and my counselors
and my lords sought unto me for reasons known only to God." He
raised this man back up. And I was established in my kingdom
and excellent majesty was added unto me, but now I, Nebuchadnezzar,
I give the glory where it's supposed to be. The crown is on the proper
head now. I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and
extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth in
his ways, judgment, and those that walk in pride. He can make
them like a beast, bring them down. And this is what happened
to old Herod, and it says in our text, immediately the angel
of the Lord smote him because he gave not God the glory, and
he was eaten with worms. eaten of worms and gave up the
ghost, or died. Did you notice the angel of the
Lord there? That's the same one that delivered Peter. I believe
it was the same one. The, it says, the angel of the
Lord. The same one that smote Peter. You remember that? That
smote Peter to raise him up. He smote that poor, humble fisherman
and said, he smote him. Let the righteous smite me, the
righteous one, and it'll be a kindness. He smote Peter to raise him up. The same one smote Herod, that
proud, lofty king, to bring him down. Same one. Same angel. The same angel of
God is an angel of mercy to some. Some proud sinners. and an angel
of judgment to others. That's discriminating grace and
that's electing grace. It's the same angel, same type
of people. We are no different than this
man, proud and lofty, but the angel comes to us and smites
us and brings us down to raise us up. And others, he's going
to damn them, going to smite them down to the grave. Well,
Christ, he says that because he gave not God the glory, God
must have the glory in all things. The scripture says Christ, he
must have the preeminence and he must and he will. You can
count on it. God must have, Christ must have
the preeminence in all things. Scripture says he to be lifted up, what has to
happen to us? We have to be brought down. And
God will be glorified and we will be humble. And we need to
pray that we be humbled now in salvation rather than later in
damnation. It says, he was eaten with worms. Now this is significant. Just
a few more minutes. It says, King Herod, king, this
mighty man, was eaten with more. Sounds bad. What happened to
start crawling out his ears and just start it is blessed to start
consuming. Well you know this is in this
is in Josephus to it said that Certainly, I prefer what God
says about it, but it's interesting what that pagan historian said. It says that immediately upon
giving this oration, that it says Herod was stricken by a
pain in his belly and was brought down and said to his confidants,
he said something to the effect that I had not given, God hath
brought me down. He said something like that. But you know this was a somebody
said all this terrible thing happened this great man. No this
man was kind of like only among the leper. Now human scripture
says was a leper. Who was the captain of the Syrian. And sometimes. Well. Men and women are sinners by
nature and sometimes they happen to be elevated to the place of
great man. But that's the order of things.
We're lepers. Naaman was a leper who happened
to be a great man. And it's not somebody's, the
title of that book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People.
That's not, that's not the right order. That's not it. It's, it's the mercy and the
grace of it all is when good things happen to bad things.
And everybody's bad and everybody is a leper and some happen to
be little bigger and more powerful lepers than others, but they're
still lepers, right? Still sinners. You know these
bodies, it says King Herod was eaten with worms. These bodies
carry around the instruments of our death. This is God's way of showing
us. Microscopic medicine has brought
to light what we're made of. Look under the microscope. I
know you've all heard about these worms that live under your eyelids
and and these nurses and all could tell you about what all
parasites are in our bodies and so forth. We are eaten with worms. We are decaying literally. We are being eaten by worms right
now. As we sit here, right? That's
what I started this thing out by saying. This is very common.
This is nothing unusual here. He's being eaten by worms, and
we are too. We're going down to the grave.
We're being eaten by worms. We could be carrying that little
cancerous thing in us right now that's going to eat us and destroy
our bodies. Right? God can use the weakest of creatures
to bring men down, can't he? Pharaoh was brought low by lice. Lice, flies, frogs. Oh, great Pharaoh. Frogs! Y'all wonder why I'm looking
at Roberta. Her house is overcome by frogs. Did you know that? Pharaoh's was too, Roberta, but
not by choice. He didn't go out and collect
them. They came hopping in. And this great man, you know,
oh, can you imagine the humiliation sitting on his throne and all
his pomp and show, you know, and lice and flies and frogs,
rivet, rivet. He's trying to make it, God humiliate,
God, I like that. No, God just brings down these
mighty, high and pompous people. He's able to use the basis of
things, isn't he, to bring down man. And all his lofty looks
just to show it doesn't take much. I don't have to use much
to show you what you're worried, man, man. And Brother John, he
and I worked this out together before we came in here. We began
thinking about worms. Worms, and you know, there's
a worm in there, many worms in men that literally consumes them.
There's a worm of envy. There's a worm of lust. It's
in men and women. It's a worm of jealousy. It's
a worm of covetousness. And it consumes men and women.
And someday they're going to be consumed totally by it. And
Christ said in Mark chapter 7, yeah, Mark, no, Mark 9, he said
three times, he quoted that verse written in Isaiah 66 three times,
talking about hell. He said, it's where the worm
dieth not and the fire is not quenched. Three times. Where
the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. Where the worm
dieth not and the fire is not quenched. Three times. I'll never
forget Ralph Barnard's message. He talked about that rich man
in hell. How he lifted up his eyes to
heaven and said, Father Abraham, send Thy servant, Lazarus, that
he may dip his finger in water and touch my tongue, for I am
tormented in his flame." And Abraham said to him, No,
there's a great gulf fixed between us that you cannot pass. Then
the man said, Well, send him back to my brothers. that they
might hear him. And Abraham said, No, they have
Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. And he said,
No, if one rose from the dead, they'd believe him. He said,
No, not if one rose from the dead. And then he uttered this
statement to the rich man in Hale, this statement. He said,
Son, remember, thou and thy days hath good things. While Lazarus sat at your gate
and so forth. Son, And Barnard brought that
out as being that worm in hell that doth not. A memory. A perfect,
crystal clear memory. A perfect memory of every message
of the gospel ever heard. Every word of every sermon ever
heard. A perfect memory. Haunting men
because of their rejection of it. Every opportunity. Every
time they walk by a table and there's a word of God laying
there, a perfect memory, where they went after sin instead of—a
perfect memory. A worm dieth not. Memory. Son, remember. Our memory will
be erased. That worm will be erased. Their
sins and their iniquities, he said, I'll remember no more.
And he says the former things shall not come to remembrance
by them. And the fire that burns in their bosom that they lust
after these things will be quenched, but in hell it will not be quenched.
And these worms in hell," and my pastor described it in this
way, these worms that die not are like the worms of cravings. Lusts will go unchecked but unfulfilled. Men and women are lusting after
things that are just out of their reach. Like somebody said, it's
like the drunkard, it'll be like the drunkard with a bottle just
out of his reach. An insatiable desire after he
can't get it. And it seems to indicate that
those in hell are able to witness what's going on in heaven from
that parable. Isn't that horrible? The reason
hell is such a That's what it seems to indicate
in Henry that we're not going to be able to look in the torments
of hell, but it seems that they're going to be able to see what's
going on. Oh, son, remember. Remember. Well, once again, God
Almighty brought this proud man down, brought to nothing the
counsels of men. It says in verse twenty-four.
I like this. Herod was brought down and eaten
by worms, gave up the ghost, but the word of God grew and
multiplied. Herod, you remember starting
out this story? Herod becks the church. He says,
I'm going to put an end to this thing once and for all. I'm going
to put an end to all this gospel business once and for all. He
that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. You're going to have worms
crawling out of your ears, bud. And my kingdom is going to spread,
the wind is going to blow it to the far corners of the earth. The Word of God lives on. Old
Herod, it doesn't tell him what his speech was because it was
forgotten mighty quickly. Man's mighty words and works
are going to be brought to nothing, but God's Word is forever settled
in heaven. Man's little star is going to
fade and fall rapidly. It's just a shooting star in
it. Christ, the bright and morning star, is going to shine brighter
and brighter and brighter until someday God is going to set him
in the heavens. The sun of righteousness is going
to rise. For some with healing in his wings, for others they're
going to be burned up by the brightness of his coming, destroyed
by the brightness of his coming. Others are going to be drawn
to him. He's going to be set in the heavens until someday
he shines forth in the fullness of his strength and his full
glory for every eye to see. And we're going to look straight
into the sun, straight into the sun. The Word of God grew and multiplied. And it says, verse 25, Barnabas
and Saul returned from Jerusalem, these two poor pitiful fellows.
God brought this king down smitten with worms. And here are these
poor fellows, their ministry was just getting started. Herod's
great kingdom brought down like that. And these poor, seemingly
helpless, weak, insignificant individuals about to turn the
world upside down. God is their strength. Let me
read in closing. Let's read these verses in closing.
You'll see how 1 Samuel chapter 2, Hannah's prayer. This is so
fitting, isn't it? Hannah's prayer. Let's read these
as closing verses. They fit perfectly. Hannah's
prayer in 1 Samuel chapter 2. Hannah prayed and said, My heart
rejoices in the Lord. Mine horn is exalted in the Lord. Verse 1, My mouth shall be enlarged
over mine enemies. It is enlarged because I rejoice
in thy salvation. There is none holy as the Lord.
There is none beside Neither is there any rock like our God.
Talk no more so exceeding proudly. Let not arrogancy come out of
your mouth. For the Lord is a God of knowledge. By him actions are weighed. The
bows of the mighty men are broken. They that stumbled are girded
with strength. They that were full have hired out themselves
for bread. They that were hungry ceased,
so that the barren hath borne seven She that hath many children
is waxed feeble. The Lord killeth, and maketh
alive. He bringeth down to the grave,
and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor, and maketh
rich. He bringeth low, and lifteth
up. He raiseth up the poor out of
the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to
set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne
of glory." For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and
he hath set the world upon them. He will keep the feet of his
saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness, for by
strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall
be broken to pieces. Out of heaven shall he thunder
upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends
of the earth. He shall give strength unto his King and exalt the horn."
of his anointing. That's perfect, isn't it? A perfect
ending to that story, prophesied many, many years before Herod. All right, let's stand and be
dismissed and pray. Our Heavenly Father, we delight
and rejoice in God our King, that You sit on the throne of
your majesty on high, reigning and ruling the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of this earth. And you control all
things. Everything is in your hands. Ah, Lord, print this upon our
minds and our hearts whenever we get downcast. Why art thou
downcast within me, O my soul? Rejoice in God." God reigns. Let the earth tremble. Let the
people rejoice. Let God's people rejoice and
say, This God is our God. And he reigns and rules and doeth
according to his will. And we are in his hands. And
nothing, nothing, nothing can hurt us or harm us but what he
divinely and sovereignly orders for us. And he shall bring to
naught the things that are. The counsels of men shall be
brought to nothing, and God's counsels and purpose shall be
revealed in that great day. In the name of Christ we have
met together, for his glory, his honor, his namesake, through
his blood and righteousness we pray. Amen.