And as I said, let's remember
those brethren, Brother Ralph and his congregation, Ralph's
wife, Claudia, Brother Linwood. His wife is a dear lady named
Becky, Rebecca. I like the name. I know some
Beckys I like, love real well. some sisters in the flesh and
in the Spirit. Let's remember those people in
prayer. Let's pray together right now. Our Heavenly Father, we bow to
you in the name which is above every name, the name of your
well-beloved, only begotten Son, our Lord, our Master, our Savior.
our King, our Messiah, the Christ, the Lord Jesus. We bow to you
in his name, looking to him, trusting in him, depending upon
him, believing in him, calling upon him, coming to him as our
substitute, our surety, our representative, our advocate before the Father,
and in and through him, dear You've borne witness with our
spirit through the Holy Spirit that in and through Christ we
have free access to your throne. It's called the throne of grace.
We can come boldly, confidently, freely and have an audience with
our holy God, be loved and accepted, received readily by our great
God. How we thank you. What a blessed
day. privilege, what a high and glorious calling this is. Be
called sons of God. Behold what manner of love you
have bestowed upon some hell-deserving sons of Adam, that we should
be called sons of God and then by your Spirit be conformed to
his image. Someday to be just like him.
See him as he is and to be like him. Lord, that's our desire. That's our hope. That's the thing
that we long for the most, to be with Christ. Whom have we
in heaven but thee, and whom has none we desire on earth beside
thee? We want to win Christ and be
found in him, to know him, and be partakers of his saving
benefits. How we thank you for Christ.
It's because of him, the Lord Jesus Christ, that we have this
blessed family, this close fellowship, brothers and sisters. We couldn't
be closer to our own flesh and blood. In Christ, through his
blood, we have this blessed gathering of believers. Lord, I ask that you would hold
us up by your grace, by your power, which is the gospel Keep
me faithfully proclaiming that gospel. Keep these people believing
it. Keep them availing themselves of it. Lord, don't let us take
this for granted. Your gospel is not to be found
everywhere. But we know, we see our election. We know our election because
the gospel came to us with power and the Holy Ghost and much assurance. And this is all your gift. The
grace of God. We have this glorious and blessed
gifts called the gospel of God's grace in Christ. We thank you
for it. Don't let us take it for granted. Let us esteem it
more than anything else. It's the highest treasure that
we could have. Let us dig for it, Lord. Let
us mine for this gold. Let us sell all that we have
and buy that pearl of great price. Buy the truth and sell it not.
We thank you for the gospel of our salvation. Enable us, Lord,
tonight, through the preaching of the Word, to rejoice in that
gospel, in that so great salvation that Christ has accomplished
for us. Let us go away from here with a greater appreciation for
him and rejoicing in what he has done for us. Thank you, Lord,
for your mercy, your love, and your grace in Christ. Thank you
for these people. I ask your blessings upon each
and every one of them, that you would richly bless them both
physically and spiritually, especially spiritually, Lord, that you would
reveal yourself in a very close and intimate and personal way
to each one of them. Come out and know whom they have
believed. Be persuaded that he is able to keep that which they
have committed. Enable us all to commit our very
souls, our lives, our families, all that we are, to the Lord
Jesus Christ. from this day forward, live for
his glory, live for his honor, and bear fruit to the glory of
the Father. It's our reasonable service. Enable us, Lord, by
your Spirit, by your power. Hold us up. Lord, we pray for these who don't
have the fellowship much like we have it, not in the same way,
but we ask as we are mindful of These two dear brethren, Ralph
and Lynn Wood and others, we ask your help. We ask your blessings
upon their ministry, upon their preaching. Be with them. Give them power and unction.
Encourage them as they go about to preach your word and give
them hearers. May you call out your sheep and
draw together a church in those places, and we'll rejoice and
give you the glory for these things. May we all become acquainted
with these brothers and sisters we don't know we have. May we
become acquainted and all gather the church together, Lord, one
body, one fold, unto Christ. Someday we will be, but we long
to see it now. We long to see more sheep brought
into the fold. There and even in this community,
Lord, bring, if you have some more sheep out there, bring them
in to hear the gospel. Let us be faithful to proclaim
it. Forgive us of our sins, Lord. Forgive us of our sins. Make
us like Christ. Restrain us. Restrain us from
evil. Deliver us from evil. Keep us
from temptation. And constrain us to the good.
May the love of Christ constrain us. and all that we do and say,
for the glory of God and the name of Christ, we pray these
things. We're met together tonight, and I ask your present help.
Amen. All right, let's read the first
ten verses of Acts, chapter 12. This is where we are in our study in the book of Acts. Let's read the first ten verses. 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 a sword. And because
he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Pilsow. Then were the days of unleavened
bread, and when he had apprehended Peter, he put him in prison and
delivered him to four quarterneons 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 by the
Church unto God for him. And when Herod would have brought
him forth, he was about to bring him forth to kill him. The same night, Peter
was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and the
keepers before the door kept the prism. And behold, the angel
of the Lord came upon Peter, and a light shined in the prism.
And he smote Peter on the side and raised him up, rise up quickly,
and his chains fell off from his hand. And the angel said
unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And the angel saith unto him,
Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. And he went out,
and followed him. And Wisnodder couldn't believe
that it was true, which was done by the angel, but thought he
saw a vision, thought he was dreaming. And 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 its own accord. And they went out and passed
on through one street and forthwith the angel departed from him." Now, as I said when we began
the study of the book of Acts, I want to deal with these passages
in context and tell you the story as it is told, as it is recorded
by the Holy Spirit. And this book of Acts is God's
history book of the early church. Tell us of God's wondrous and
marvelous dealings, providential dealings with the early church.
how he formed it, how he gathered it, and we've seen how he scattered
it in order to gather it. We saw that marvelously one night. But while I deal with the context
and the historical events that take place when we look at God's
providence, I also want to preach the gospel from it. Christ said
my words, and that means all of the scriptures, are spirit. So there's primarily a spiritual
application. In all of God's work, there's
a spiritual application. Christ said my words are spirit
and they're life giving, not just instruct us or tell us about
a story, an interesting story, but they're words of life. And
all texts point us to Christ, and I want to preach Christ from
this text as well. And while we marvel at God's
providential dealings here. I saw the look on some of your
faces as you read this, the Lord's sovereign power in bringing Peter
out of that jail. There's a much more glorious
picture here of salvation to be found. I hope we can see it
clearly together. But it's only as we study Christ
that our faith in him grows. The just shall live by faith,
and we need our faith strengthened every time we sit under the sound
of the word, don't we? And it's only as we study Christ,
not historical event, it's only as we study Christ that our love
for him increases. And it's only as we study Christ
that we become like him. If you want to become like someone,
you study them, seek to emulate them that way. So only by studying
Christ, studying Christ, do we grow in grace. and the knowledge
of him, so I would be remiss if I did not preach the gospel
from this one. And I readily admit that. When
I first looked at this, I thought, what am I going to say about
this? There's an advantage to preaching through a book. The
advantage is that you know where you're going to be the next time
you're to preach. The disadvantage sometimes is
when you run across a difficult passage and you say, what am
I going to say here? But the Lord is gracious and
merciful, and he gives more grace, and things just open right up
in this story. So let's look at the story first,
and then let's find the gospel in it. All right? Look at verse
1 again. About that time, Herod the king
stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church, and
he killed James, the brother of John, one of those sons of
thunder. He killed James, the brother
of John, with a sword. This was tragic, wasn't it? Wasn't
this tragic? What the devil was doing, all
this mischief the devil was doing in the church. Turn over to Proverbs
chapter 21 with me. Proverbs 21. The devil had nothing
to do with this. The devil had nothing to do with
this. Far too much power is attributed to the devil. The devil can do nothing but
what God Almighty allows him to do. He's God's devil. He must
report to God Almighty like every one of God's creatures, mustn't
he? Read the first and second chapters of Job and you'll see
that. And it aggravated Satan that he had to report to him.
He couldn't do it. He got mad. Satan said, I can't
do anything. You've got to hedge around Job. Far too much power is attributed
to the devil in our day. He can do nothing but what God
Almighty allows him to do. God Almighty did this. He said,
I kill. I make a lot. There are instruments
involved. Sure, evil, wicked men do what
they will and want to do, but they do what God determines before
for them to do. And such is the case here. The
scripture says he raised up Herod. or raised up Pharaoh to show
forth his power. And here he raises up Herod to
do the same thing. He's going to show his power
through Herod and for other reasons. Look at Proverbs 21, 1. The king's
heart is in the hand of the Lord. King Herod's heart was in the
hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he turneth
it whithersoever he will. And this is my comfort. It says
that Herod vexed the church, didn't it? And this is my comfort
when I'm vexed by the dealings of our unrighteous king. Our King Ahab. You know who Ahab's
wife was, don't you? Jezebel. Our unrighteous, wicked
king. I'm vexed with some of his dealings
and I'm vexed with the conversation of the wicked world that we live
in. But I know that I'm in God's hands. that I am God's child,
a member of his church, and nothing and no one can touch me. Nothing or no one will touch
what he calls his darling, his darling, the apple of his eye,
except what he allows and directs for my good. That's my comfort. That's my hope. It's the only
place we can get in it. is in a sovereign God who does
all things after his own will. Now, back in the text, it says,
now it displeased the Jews when he backs the church and killed
James, the brother of John, with a sword. And don't feel sorry
for James here. He sent James home, didn't he,
James? My boy. And that's, you know, the Lord
said, don't fear them that kill, kill the body. Just send you
home. That's your home kind of thing. Well, this pleased the
Jews. And because Herod saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded
further to take Peter also. It pleased the Jews. The Jews
were God's people. It was supposed to be. But these
were those religious people, devout Jews. They were pleased
with the death of God's saints. They were pleased with the destruction
of the early church. They were pleased with it. And
Christ said this would happen. He said they hated me. And James
was in his company when Christ said this. Christ was preaching
this message over in John 14, 15 and 16 to his apostles, his
disciples. And James was sitting right there.
And Christ said, now they hated me and they're going to hate
you. And he said, the time's coming that whosoever killeth
you will think they do God a service. going to be the most religious
people of the day. They're going to take you and going to kill
you. And James was sitting right there listening to that message.
And when they apprehended him, that was his comfort. The Lord
said they'd do that. And don't think for a minute
that they wouldn't do that to us either, if it were lawful. And they took Peter also, it
said. They took Peter intended to kill him, it says, these were
the days of unleavened bread, or that is, it was the Passover. Now, this is ironic, lack of
a better word, that Peter was apprehended and thrown in jail
on the Passover. Huh? That was the very time our
Lord was apprehended and put in prison. Peter must have thought
about that. Surely he did. Surely that entered
his mind. I thought about this. Peter must
have said to himself as he was sitting in prison, Now I denied
him once, and God mercifully and graciously gave me another
opportunity. I ain't going to deny him this
time. He was put in prison. Look at
verse 4. It says, When they had apprehended him, they put him
in prison and delivered him to four cordoneons or squads of
soldiers. Four squads making up four soldiers
in each squad. That's sixteen soldiers to keep
one poor little fisherman under guard. Sixteen soldiers. And I thought back when they
sent two men to watch a dead tomb of Othello. And that didn't
work. And then they had a few of them
watch, remember they apprehended Peter, James, and John before
this, and they sent some fellas to watch them that time, and
that didn't work. And now they send sixteen men
to watch one man, and that's not enough. They didn't send
enough, because they're not dealing with some poor little fisherman,
they're dealing with the fisherman's lord. And from the beginning, God Almighty
has toyed with and brought to nothing the counsels of men and
the principalities and the powers. I get a kick out of it. John,
you like the Judges, the book of Judges. I get a kick out of
how God toys with nations and armies and kingdoms and has people
killing themselves. And he destroys whole cities
with trumpets and pitchers. brings them off the counsel of
men and so forth. God's people are immortal. And
you remember that. Joe Parks riding out there in
that truck. Ain't nothing in this world going to happen to
you, buddy. Until God Almighty determines it. That's it. You
remember that. God's people are immortal until
God Almighty says for something to happen. And whatever happens,
God said it for it to happen. And it's the best thing that
could happen. That's all, that's all our comfort. All right, verse
four, he says, now they were intending after Easter. What? Have you ever seen that word
Easter? It's in the Bible. Easter. Don't get hung up there.
I won't either. The word Easter means Pascha,
for we get the word Passover. It's merely the Passover festival.
That's what word, word Easter meant. Verse 5, it was the Passover
time, and Peter, therefore, was kept in prison. Verse 5, the
prayer was made without ceasing of or by the church unto God
for him. Now, let's not underestimate.
We're all guilty of this. Don't underestimate how that
God Almighty has ordained prayer. this thing of prayer that God
has ordained to call up his power. I didn't say there was power
in prayer. I said prayer is what God ordains
to call up his power. I chose my words carefully. The
world says there's power in prayer and what they mean by that is
it's some kind of magical incantation. Hocus pocus dominocus, just merely
recite the words Jesus and you get what you want. That's not
the essence of prayer. There's no power in this thing
act of prayer, but there is great power in the one to whom we pray. There's where the power lies. And God Almighty has ordained
prayer as a means of calling forth His power, of showing forth
His power, of revealing His power. Let me explain that, or attempt
to. God ordains prayer to reveal
His power in this way, because God gives—God is going to get
the glory. God is going to get the glory
for everything that takes place. Prayer gives God the glory. Say
something happens, something that you needed or something
miraculous happened to you without you asking God for it. Something
takes place, something happens, you are provided with something
you need desperately and you didn't ask God for it and it
happens. Now you will attribute that to,
you won't, but people will attribute that to luck, to chance, to just,
well, it's a miracle. This is what people say when
they say we believe in miracles. They don't believe in the God
who causes miracles. They just believe when you can't
explain what has happened, you call it a miracle. Well, prayer,
now after you call on God for a particular thing, you call
on God to provide something for you or do something for you,
and he answers your prayer, then he gets all the glory for it,
you see. When you ask him for it and he answers you with it,
then he gets all the glory and the credit for it. So he has
ordained prayer for that reason. Ezekiel 36 is a perfect example
of that, isn't it, John? God says he's going to do all
these things. I will, I will, I will, I will. How many times
he said that? And in there, in that latter verse, he says, and
I will yet be inquired of for this thing. They're going to
ask me for it. And they're going to realize that I'm the one that
gave it by them asking me for it. Does that make sense? All
right. I was preparing this message
in Brother Ralph's house and I was preaching it to him as
I went along. And he added this. Ralph said,
you know, did you notice he said that the
church didn't petition the Roman government to let Peter out of
the jail either? They didn't resort to carnal
means first, did they? Or at all. They didn't petition
the Roman government. They didn't resort to carnal
means or human methods in answer to their problems. They merely
went to their great God. Go to the source. All right? Read on. Verses 6 and 7. Now,
when Herod would have brought him forth, or ready to bring
Peter out of jail to kill him, 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." As Peter was apprehended by the enemy
and bound and in captivity, chained in darkness, the scripture says
the Lord came in safety. Do you see the picture there?
There's the gospel. We found it, didn't we? There's
the gospel. Turn over to Psalm 79 with me.
And as I studied this, and I hope you'll recognize the scriptures
that suggest themselves to us as we look at this. How many
verses of scripture, just scripture after scripture, are suggested
to us in reading this account of Peter's salvation? And this
is the picture of us. All of us by nature. The Scriptures
say, we're bound by sin and shame. We're chained in the darkness
of ignorance and sin. We're captives to the law of
God. That's what Paul said in Romans. Captives to the law of
God. Guilty as charged. We are held captive by Satan,
by sin, by self, by the world. We're condemned and ready to
die, ready to be delivered to death under the wrath and judgment
of God. But the cry goes forth, delivering. Look at verse 11. It says in
Psalm 79, 11, Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee. According to the greatness of
thy power, preserve thou those that are appointed to die. at
the sign of the prisoner. Who's that? Peter? Well, certainly
Peter was crying and the Church was crying, but this is a picture
of Christ as well. Christ who bound himself in prison,
didn't it? He was bound to the flesh. He
was made sin for us. He said in that great prophetical
scripture, deliver them from going down into the pit. I found
a ransom. What is it? It's me. I'll take
their place. Put me in the pit and take them
out of it. Put me in prison. Bind me and
take them, set them free. I'll take their place. I'll be
their substitute. And Christ says to the law what
he said to those soldiers in the garden that day. Do you remember
what he said to those soldiers that came to apprehend him? And
Christ says to the law, if you seek me, let them go free. Take me instead. Preserve thou
those, verse 11, preserve thou those that were appointed to
die. And Christ says, kill me in their place. Let them go free. And in dying, and Christ died
in our stead, and in dying, the scripture said, he led captivity
captive. He took my sin, my guilt, my
shame, all those things that had me bound as that fit man,
John, that fit man who took my sins like the scapegoat out into
the wilderness and deposited them. That fit man took my sins
away. And it says back in our text,
the angel of the Lord came upon Peter to do this work. The angel
of the Lord came to him. When does salvation begin? When we come to Christ? Is that
the beginnings of salvation when we come to Christ? He said no
man can come. unto me, except the Father which
hath sent me." Christ comes first, Joe, and then we come to him. He comes first because we're
lost. And he's the great shepherd,
and he's seeking the sheep. We're lost. We don't know where
to turn. And he comes seeking us. And it says the angel of
the Lord came. And Scripture talks about the
messenger of the covenant, the angel of the Lord, and that's
Christ, too. who is sent to let go his captives. And that's Christ,
that's a picture of Christ, isn't it? But, you know, this is also
a picture of God's preachers who are called ministering spirits
in 1 John 4, Christ's ambassadors, preachers of the gospel. God
Almighty sends these preachers, and like Paul said to Timothy
in 2 Timothy 2, 26, he sends them to awake those who are taken
captive by Satan at his will. So they are, the preachers of
the gospel are his angels to go to his people. All right?
Look at verse 7. And it says, The angel of the
Lord came upon Peter, and it says, The light shined in the
prison. God has shined in our, the dark dungeon of our hearts,
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the gospel comes to us and
dispels all darkness, enabling us to walk in paths of righteousness,
to walk in Christ's, the way, dispelling the darkness of ignorance
and superstition and fear. And look at it. It says, a light
shined in the prison and it said he smoked. Peter was sleeping. That's rest, isn't it? Peter
wasn't too upset. And he was sleeping between these
two soldiers, and the angel of the Lord came in, a bright light
shined in the prison, and the angel of the Lord hit Peter on
the side, smote him on the side, and it says he raised him up.
Do you remember that passage in Psalm 141 verse 5? He will save my soul. Let him
smite me. And that's the rod of reproof.
That's God's Word. That's a rod of reproof. That's
a rod of correction. That's a rod of rebuke. That's
a rod of affliction. That's a rod of conviction that
awakens us out of the sleep of death and says, Arise. And he said to Peter, Wake up,
Peter. And he says to us, Arise, awake
thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ will
give thee life. And the Lord God awakens us from this sleep
of death, and the Scripture says, "...quickens us together with
Christ, and hath raised us up from the grave." Verse 7, go
on. And it says, "...he smote Peter on the side, and raised
him up, saying, Rise up, Peter, quickly." Don't tear him. Rise up quickly. Psalm 119, 60,
listen to this. David said, "...I made haste."
and delayed not to keep thy commandments." The scripture says today is the
day of salvation. That we are to believe and call
upon him now, not tomorrow, not at a more convenient time, but
now. Today is the day of salvation. Arise quickly, sinner. The song says, I will arise and
go to the Savior. I will hasten to him. Today is
the day of salvation. Do you remember those four lepers
over in 2 Kings? Those four lepers that came to
the city and they were serving to death, and they said, Now,
if we tarry out here, we're going to die. So let's just commit
ourselves to these people, and if they kill us, they kill us.
We're going to die anyway. If they save us, we'll be saved.
And that's what us sinners, us old lepers, need to do. Why tarry
we here? We're going to die. Let's go
to Christ. If he kills us, it's what we deserve. If he saves
us, then God be glorified. God be merciful. And I don't
know about you, but I'm going to arise right now. To whom coming? To whom coming? The song says,
Jesus, I come out of my bondage, sorrow, and night. Jesus, I come
to thee right now. And it says, verse His chains
fell off. That's the title of this message,
Terry. His chains fell off. They fell off. Christ said in
John 8, he said, Whosoever committeth sin is a servant of sin. But
if the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. free from sin's power, free from
the guilt of sin, free from the condemnation of sin, and someday
completely from the presence of sin. Someday. And someday
we will drop this robe of flesh, these chains that bind us, and
we'll fly off into the face of God like a bird set free. And verse 8, And the angel said
unto him, Peter, gird thyself. Does that sound familiar? Turn
over to Ephesians 6 with that. Peter, you'll need protection
as you leave this prison. You'll need protection. You'll
need warrant. You'll need a covering, Peter,
on your way. And the remainder of our days
here on this earth, though Christ has set us free from sin, free
from its guilt, free from its condemnation, free from the penalty
of it and the all-consuming power of it, we're going to need protection. Aren't we? And the wiles of the
devil and so forth. And it says here in Ephesians
6, it says, verse 14, Stand therefore, having your, get up, sinner,
Peter, girt yourself with truth. Girt yourself with truth. The
gospel of your salvation. Be clothed with it. The gospel
is your protection against the fiery darts of the wicked. How
are you going to resist the devil? Well, this Armenian These that,
what does the scripture say? They despise dominions. They speak of things that they
know not. They say, step on the head of the devil. Resist the
devil, you know, in your own strength. Oh no, this and me
and some sons of Seba tried to do that one day, didn't they?
And they ran out of there naked. And the devil said, we know Jesus
Christ and Paul, but we don't know who you are. How do we resist
the devil? Only through Christ. The blood. That's the only way. We plead
the blood. We plead Christ as our substitute,
our mediator. We say, like Michael the archangel,
we say, the Lord deal with thee, Satan. Don't deal with me, take
it up with my Lord. He'll go running then. He's ran
every time. And the gospel is our warmth,
too. It's wine to cheer your heart, to make glad the heart
of man, the wine of his blood, and to warm our heart. It's our
sin covering, too. We need a covering out there
in the world. We need a covering before God. Look at the text
again. He says, Peter, gird yourself
and bind on thy sandals. I wonder where Paul got Ephesians
6 at. Peter was talking to him about
this story. He heard about Peter. What happened
to Peter? Bind on thy sandals, and where's to be shod with a
preparation." Keep your place there in Ephesians 6. That's
what it says there in Ephesians 6, verse 15. Have your feet shod
with a preparation of the gospel of peace. Peter, you need some
shoes on if you're going to walk out of here, or you'll stumble
and you'll fall. And Peter was told to bind on
his sandals, and we are told, Peter was told to put his shoes
on, wasn't he? And these exhortations here in
Ephesians 6 are to us. Aren't they? Stand, therefore,
having the lawns girt with truth, and he says, and your feet shod
with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Have you ever noticed
that? The preparation of the gospel of peace. In other words,
we are to avail, we are responsible to avail ourselves of the gospel. The gospel is like a pair of
shoes that we can put on, John. And we're irresponsible if we
don't put them on every day. Right? If we don't avail ourselves
every time the gospel is preached, come in and put it on. Right? We know that God Almighty, the
Holy Spirit, applies the blood, but we need grace every day.
We need fresh manna. And these are opportunities to
come in and put our shoes on. And have our feet washed by the
water of his word and put our shoes on so we can go outside
and not stumble. not stumble. At every trial and
trouble and stumble and fall into sin, we hear God's word. So these are our spiritual shoes
to keep us from stumbling. Read on. He says, Peter, he says,
gird thyself, bind on thy sandals. And so he did. He was obedient
to the Lord, wasn't he? Yes, so he did. And he saith
unto him, Peter, cast thy garment about thee." Cast thy garment
about thee. And I believe this alludes to
the whole armor of God. Put on the whole armor of God,
Paul said. Have your loins girt with truth,
have on the breastplate of righteousness, have your feet shod with the
preparation of the gospel of Pete. Put on the shield, above
all put on the shield of faith. The helmet of salvation, the
sword of the Spirit, put on your cast your garment about thee."
Are you with me? Peter? Cast your garment about
thee and follow me. Follow me. Follow Christ. Verse
9, and he went out. He went out. Out of prison, but
back out into that world. Back out again. Into that hard,
cruel world. But he felt better already, didn't
he? He knew nothing could harm him
now, and he knew this was all the Lord's doings and that whatever
comes to pass, the Lord's able to deliver him from that. He's
able to deliver him. He's able to keep that which
Peter had committed unto him against whatever day, the evil
day. And he went out and he followed
him. And we go out. Scripture says
we go in and out. And we go outside the camp, Scripture
says, to Christ. Let us go therefore unto him,
outside the camp, bearing his reproach. Follow Christ. And it says Peter, and let's
just read on down through here, it says, Peter couldn't believe
it was true, what had happened to him. It was too good to be
true. He thought it was a dream, and
I tell you sometimes when you hear the gospel, you feel yourself
being an old rotten wretched sinner that you are. It's too
good to be true. And I always think about Psalm
126, and this applies so perfectly. It says, When the Lord turned
again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter. Peter was smiling when
he came out of that prison. And our tongue was singing. Peter
was singing when he came out of it. Paul was singing in it.
Peter was singing when he was walking out of it. And they said
among the heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them. Peter,
how did you get out of prison? Well, by my determination and
my, oh, that brought me out. Who saved you, John Cheesley?
The Lord did it. The Lord hath done great things
for us whereof we are glad. Turn again our captivity, O Lord,
as the streams in the south. He that soweth in tears shall
reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth
bearing precious seeds shall doubtless come again with rejoicing."
Oh boy, this was a terrible and tragic event when they took the
spokesman for the church, Peter. What a worship service they had
when he came back. And he went out, it says, and
he followed the angel, and verse 10, and when they were past the
first, this is significant, when they were past the first and
second ward, they came under the iron gate that leadeth unto
the city, which opened to them of its own accord. The iron gate. Here this angel was walking before
Peter, and they came to this iron gate that was shut up. And this angel said, Open up
you gates, be you lift up you everlasting doors. I'm coming
through and I'm bringing somebody with me. And those doors opened
right up. Those doors that were shut and
the doors of heaven They were shut to us by God's law and God's
justice with Christ in Christ. They open up freely and we go
in. And he also said in another place
when he was when he asked Peter of the apostles, remember they
said, what think you of Christ? And Peter said, thou art the
Christ, you're the son of the living God. And Christ said to
him, Peter, flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, but my heavenly
revealed it to you. And he said, upon this rock,
upon this faithful confession, upon this foundation, Christ
the rock, you're a little stone. You'll be built upon that foundation,
Jowart Peter. And upon your confession, upon
this profession, upon your Christ, will I build my church, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And so this gate
wouldn't withstand the onslaught of Christ and his people. Read on. Let's read on down through
verse 19. I'll quit. So, and this is humorous, and
I don't have time to deal with all of it. I'm sure there's a
whole lot more here, but let's just read it. It says, They went
out, and they passed on through one street, and forthwith the
angel departed from him. And when Peter was come to himself,
He said, Now I know assurity. Well, I left out a word, but
it sure works, doesn't it? Now I have assurity. Now I know
of assurity that the Lord has sent his angel and hath 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 That's
what we're doing now, considering our so great a salvation that
happened to us. We know of a surety that the Lord did this. Salvation
is of the Lord. And when Peter was pondering
this, he considered this thing. As he was walking home, the angel
left him. And he was walking home. Where'd
he go? Thought just occurred to me. Where'd he go? He looked
up God's people, didn't he? He went to where God's people
were gathered. And he found that they were assembled together
as usual, as they were want to do. They were assembled together
again all the time. 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 at the door of the gate, a young lady came
to hearken or to answer the door named Rhoda. And when she knew
Peter's voice. She opened up the gate for gladness. Here Peter knocks at the door.
She said, Who is it? It's Peter. What? Who? Peter. She ran back in and told how
Peter stood before the gate. Now these were not well insulated
sealed up doors. Peter could hear everything that
was going on in there. And they said unto her, You're mad. It's
not Peter. I bet Peter laughed to himself. He remembered a day when he was
sitting inside and some woman came into him and said, It's
the Lord. I've seen him. You're mad. You're
crazy. And Peter, all this was just,
oh, he's thinking the Lord's marvelous dealings. And the Holy
Spirit is bringing to remembrance. to me, bearing witness with my
spirit, letting me go through the same things he did. And they
said to her, you're a mad woman. And she said, no, no, it's Peter.
She constantly affirmed it was so. They said, well, it's his
angel. They'd already gotten superstitious, hadn't they? But
Peter continued to knock. Would y'all open the door? And
they opened the door and saw him, and they were astonished.
They were astonished. I tell you, when some of the
old sinners walk in our doors, we're astonished, but we're mighty
pleased. I never would have believed God
would have saved the likes of that fellow, but I'm sure glad
to see him. I'm sure glad he's in. He's amongst
us. And Peter beckoning them with
the hands. Does that sound familiar? Christ, when he came to the disciples,
he showed them his hands. Peter came in, beckoned them
with his hands. to hold their peace. Christ came
in and said, peace, peace. And he declared unto them how
the Lord had brought him out of prison. And Christ came in
and declared unto his disciples, the Lord raised me, God raised
me from the grave, brought me out of the dungeon. He will not
suffer my soul, suffer me to, let me suffer corruption. And
he preached the gospel from the Old Testament to them. And Peter
did the same, told him how the Lord had brought him out of prison.
He said, Now you go show these things unto James and to the
brethren. And he departed and went into
another place. As soon as it was day, there was no small stir
among the soldiers either. And what was become of Peter?
Sixteen soldiers couldn't watch one man. And when Herod had sought for
him and looked for him and found him not, he examined the keepers
and commanded that they should be put to death. And God will
someday put to death all of our enemies, too. He'll laugh at
them. He'll laugh at them. And so should we. This is the Lord's doings, and
it's marvelous in our eyes. Salvation is of the Lord. And
his chains fell off, because the Lord came to him and delivered
him from from captivity and set him free. All right, let's stand
and I'll dismiss this in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we marvel
at your glorious word. It's beyond a shadow of a doubt, it
is God's word, inspired word of the living God. Every word
of it, it's too glorious. miraculous, it's too marvelous,
it's too much Christ in it. It tells the same story to be
the mere inventions of a man. I followed cunningly devised
fables when you made known unto us the coming and the dying and
the rising from the grave of the Lord Jesus Christ and everything
we have in him. They're not cunningly devised
fables, but the all-wise, glorious purpose and will and salvation
of our great God. And we marvel in it, and we give
you all the glory for it, and may it comfort our hearts, Lord.
May we see from this story that a multitude of hosts should encamp
against us, that these things will not come nigh us except
you ordain them. and that you are with us. If
God be for us, who can be against us? And may we come to Christ
now. May we arise quickly and go to
the Savior, even now. Come into Christ. In his name
we pray and we're met together tonight. Amen.