Open your Bibles to the book
of Acts chapter 12. Acts chapter 12. We're gonna
be finishing up this chapter Lord willing today. The name
of the message is God's enemy is destroyed. God's enemy is
destroyed. Oh my. We're gonna pick up where we left off. Peter
had left Mary's house, and Mary is the sister of Barnabas and
the mother of John Mark. And we're gonna pick up in verse
18. Let's stand up and read Acts chapter 12, verses 18 to 25. We'll read those verses together,
beloved. Acts 12, verses 18 to 25. Now, as soon as it was day, there
was no small stir among the soldiers. What was become of Peter? When
Herod had sought for him and found him not, he examined the
keepers and commanded that they should be put to death. And he
went down from Judea to Caesarea in their abode. And Herod was
highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon, but they came
with one accord to him, and having made Blastus the king's chamberlain
their friend, desired peace, because their country was nourished
by the king's country. And upon a set day, Herod arrayed
in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto
them. And the people gave a shout,
saying, It is the voice of a God, and not of man. And immediately
the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory. And he was eaten of worms, and
gave up the ghost. But the word of God grew and
multiplied. And Barnabas and Saul returned
from Jerusalem, when they had fulfilled their ministry, and
took with them John, whose surname was Mark. My, oh my! While we began this chapter,
beloved, we saw the wicked king, Herod, stretch forth his hand
against the church. And he took James, and he had
him killed. And he saw that it pleased the
Jews so much that he stretched forth his hand again and got
a hold of Peter, remember? Got a hold of Peter. And he was
gonna kill Peter. His whole goal was to kill Peter.
And I can't help but think if he had killed Peter, he'd have
kept killing them. Because he saw that it pleased
the Jews. And you know, he's a politician, right? Seriously,
there's nothing new under the sun, is there? Oh no, nothing
new under the sun, beloved. And so he saw that it pleased
the Jews, the rest of them, he intended to kill him over the
Passover, Peter. But our Lord Jesus, according
to his own predetermined will, sent his angel to deliver Peter.
What happened? Peter was delivered. all according
to the mercy and grace of God. And this miraculous deliverance
of Peter was recorded for our learning, beloved, to encourage
us, to encourage us while we walk through this world. All
of God's born-again blood-washed saints, it encouraged us to put
our complete trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, doesn't it? And
if we sat and thought back how many times God has delivered
us, not just not just now think of this because i've i've did
this a few times and just it'll knock your mind to blow your
head not you know you know what i mean it'll knock your socks
off when you start thinking about how much how many times god delivered
you even before you were saved oh my goodness well you're always
his right didn't know it did we Oh, it's amazing. It's amazing the things he's
kept us from, the things he's protected us from. Oh my. So we learn here to put our complete
trust in the Lord. And we also learn that we keep
close to our hearts the scripture that says, and we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them,
now people stop right there, right? They always stop there.
They don't finish the verse. Well, the verse finishes, to
them who are called according to his purpose, right? That's his elect. Isn't that
amazing? So that's a reminder for us.
And the deliverance of Peter is a reminder for us, beloved,
that for us just to trust the Lord in all circumstances, even
when it looks most dire, right? What's Peter doing? He's sleeping
like a log. God gave him grace, didn't he?
And don't say, what am I gonna do? I don't know if I'm gonna
have dying grace when I'm dying. You don't need dying grace right
now, right? Because you're not dying. But
when you're dying, God will give you dying grace. God gives us
what we need, when we need it. And we've had proof of that,
haven't we? Through our lives, through our lives, through our
walk with Christ. In all of God's people, we need
to be reminded that the Lord Jesus Christ is on His sovereign
throne of power, working all things according to His will.
Right? According to His will. That last
week's message was named, The Sovereign Throne of Power. He
sits upon a sovereign throne of power. He's not up there ringing
his head, Oh, what's going on over there in Europe? Oh man,
I wish I could stop that. No. You know why there's wars?
You know why there's troubles in the world? Because we're a
bunch of sinners. That's why. We're a bunch of sinners. That's
the whole problem. I talk to my son oftentimes,
and we talk about the world problems. And I said, it always comes back.
He says, well, you're always bringing it back there. Yeah,
because that's the root cause. Why do men make peace and then
break it? Because we're a bunch of sinners.
Well, how can you boil it all down to that? Because it's a
fact. Why is there unity within the body of Christ? We look at
that at Sunday school, right? What brings about unity? Humility. Being a servant. And I've told
you guys often that we men in leadership of the church, we're
servants for the church. We're not higher ups. We serve
the body. And our Lord, we looked at this
in Sunday school. If you get a chance, read John
13. Our Lord performed the lowest tasks that a servant could do
when he washed the disciples' feet. That's why Peter was saying,
Lord, you can't do that to me. You're the master. And see, Paul said, let this
mind be in you that was in Christ. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, took upon himself, made himself of no reputation,
means he emptied himself of his glory. He made himself of no
reputation, and he humbled himself, took upon himself the form of
a servant, became a man. Why? Why did he do that? Why
did the sovereign become a servant? to save us people from their
sins. Amen, sister. To save us, brother Tom. Oh my. And let that one sink in. I found
that in a title by a guy named Steve Lawson. I was reading his
book this week, and Philippians, and I saw this. He says, the
sovereign became a servant. That's what our king did. That's
what our king did, beloved. My, oh my. He became a servant. And now he's up in glory. And
he's in full control. John 17, he prayed, give me the
glory that I had with you before the world was. And God's answered
that prayer, hasn't he? He's answered that prayer. He's
back up in glory. Oh my. The sovereign became a servant
and is now a sovereign again. And how did he become, in what
way did he, he never stopped being God, right? Nope, he never
stopped being God. But he was in full servitude
to the Father's will while he was on this earth. The Greek
word for serving is doulos, right? It means to serve another's will,
to be totally consumed by another's will. Not my will, but thy will be
done. I came not to do my own will, but the Father's which
sent me. Oh my, what a Savior, what a Redeemer is Jesus Christ
our Lord, beloved. And so remember, everything's
under His sovereign control. Now our trials will not be easy.
They're not. They're not easy. Not at all. They won't be without pain, they
won't be without sorrows. But if we remember during those
times that this is all part of God's sovereign plan, He will
help us through those things. I got COVID, what, three or four
times. And each time I've said something
that Norm Wells said to me a long time ago, I'm thankful that that
part of God's providence is all finished. I'm
thankful because he ordained that, right? I'm thankful that's
all done. See, everything we go through
is according to the will of God. It's amazing. But if we remember
that Christ is ever with us, he'll never leave us nor forsake
us, what comfort that can bring us. Now, what happened to these
soldiers that were on duty? Look at verse 18. Now, as soon as it was day, There
was no small stir among the soldiers. What became of Peter? These guys
are shaking in their boots. And we're gonna see why. To lose
a prisoner is death. Romans didn't mess around, did
they? And neither did anybody else in those days. These aren't
Roman soldiers, but they didn't mess around then. You lose a
prisoner, you're gone. Sixteen soldiers, remember? There's a stir. Where'd he go? None of them. Did you see
him? I didn't see him. Did you see
him at the front gate? I didn't see him. What about
you two fellas? You were chained with him. Well,
the chains are on the floor and he's gone. He vanished. What kind of trickery is this? Oh my, they are worked up, beloved. So we see they continued in their
state of slumber until the break in the day. And as soon as it
was day, those soldiers, they were in fearful bewilderment,
beloved. They were, especially those who
were chained to Peter. They woke up, saw that their
prisoner was gone, and their hearts were instantly gripped
with fear. Instantly. I'm a dead man. Now, I'm surprised they didn't
take off. I would have ran. I'm telling
you the truth. I'm out of here, boys. Take off
the stuff and gone, man. Because you know you're dead.
You're dead. Get my family and get out of there. Right? Oh, my. It's a death sentence. And they had no way of knowing
what became of Peter. They had no logical explanation.
They asked him, they said, we don't know. He vanished. Well,
you're dead. The enemies of God are going
to be destroyed here. All they could have said was
we were chained to Peter, then he disappeared. And you know,
what were you drinking last night, boys? Right? No, they weren't drinking nothing,
were they? They were staunch, they were on guard. And he was gone. Look at verse 12, or look at
verse 19 of Acts chapter 12. And when Herod had sought for
him and found him not, he examined the keepers. He questioned them.
He questioned, they were bought before the commander. He questioned
them personally. and commanded that they should
be put to death. Look at that. No mercy, no quarter. You're
dead. No mercy at all. My, what mercy God has shown.
See, we're guilty before the law of God, right? That's what
we deserve, don't we? But we receive mercy, beloved.
mercy in Christ Jesus our Lord. Then it says he went down from
Judea to Caesarea and there abode. Yeah, kill him. I'm going on
vacation. Such callousness, right? Natural
man, right? Natural man. Natural man. He probably went to bed that
king that night. He probably went to bed the night before
thinking, oh, man, we're going to do a real thing. We're going
to bring Peter out, and we're going to just kill him in front
of all them Jews. We're going to have a hoopla.
We're going to make it a big, big time. Goes to the guards, and there
ain't no Peter. He'd be hopping mad, wouldn't
he? Hey brother, he'd be mad. I commanded you guys to take
care of that prisoner. Where is he? And the soldiers, they
did their job. They just didn't know what happened. Oh my. Didn't matter to Herod though.
Kill him. I'm going down to Caesarea now.
The callousness. The callousness, it just shows
us our depravity, doesn't it? In our natural state, it totally
shows us. We're all like that in our natural state. Just callous. So he was greatly disappointed.
He examined the soldiers himself. He didn't just let his captains
do it. He examined them himself. Where is Peter? Sir, I don't
know he's gone. Execute him. My, oh my, oh my. He commanded
they should be put to death. Then we see in verse 19 that
he went down from Judea to Caesarea in their abode. According to
Jewish historians, Caesarea is about 75 miles from Jerusalem. And Herod had no way of knowing
that he was heading there to where his appointment with death
would be. Had no idea, did he? Do we know when our appointment
with death is? Not one of us in this room knows.
But God knows, doesn't he? Oh my. That's why we ought not
to get mad at folks that come against us for what we believe. Because the scripture says that
God will take vengeance. Vengeance is mine, saith the
Lord. Now I get upset when people use the Father's name and use
the Lord's name. Other words tend not to bother
me as much, but when they use the Father's name and the Lord's
name, That bothers me. And I say stuff
to people. And when they say things against
what we believe, I don't debate people anymore. Preachers, we're
not supposed to debate. You know what? Don't debate anyone.
Just give them the truth. Just present it. And leave it
with God. We've talked about that, sister,
haven't we? Just leave it with God. That's what the fellow did
with me with limited atonement in election. I got so mad when
he told me about that, and he just left it there. Here, read
some of these. Okay. Oh, my. Whoa, whoa. This is amazing. And be patient with folks we
talk to, because we were there. I was there. I was religious
and blind as a bat. I was. Now, the Lord's given
us seeing eyes, isn't he? Hearing ears. And we marvel. Thank you, Lord, for taking me
out of that, not leaving me there. My, oh, my. So he had no way
that his appointed time of death was waiting for him, drawn near. That 75-mile trip, he was making
a trip to his appointed time, and he had no clue at all. Psalm 90, 12 says, teach us to
number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Oh, let
us number our days, beloved. We don't know if we got tomorrow,
but we know who holds tomorrow, don't we? And sister, we know
our souls are in the hands of he who holds tomorrow. What comfort
that is. What a blessing that is to know
that. to have that peace that only comes through Christ Jesus
our Lord. Now here's a biblical truth that
all of us should lay to our heart that God has appointed the time
and the place of our departure from this life. It's already
set. It is already set. Don't worry
about it. It's already set. I had a friend of mine, he said,
you know, I know God's going to take us out at a certain time,
but I often wonder how. It's not for us to know, is it?
We may know a few seconds before. Or we may not. We may pillow our head at night
and never wake up again. Well, we will wake up again.
We'll wake up in glory, won't we? Which is far better. All because of the mercy and
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now for the born again blood
washed saint, we don't have to fear death. Or the coming judgment. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
has saved us from our sins. We're not be judged for our sins.
But there is a great day of judgment coming. There is. There is. When all the world shall stand
before our king. Yeah. And the sheep shall be
divided from the goats. And the sheep will hear, well
done, well done, well done. I didn't do anything. No, but
Christ did it for us, didn't he? He saved us from our sins
and clothed us in his perfect righteousness. And the others
will hear, depart from me, you cursed, you workers of iniquity,
for I never knew you. My, and the only thing that separates
the two parties, is the grace and mercy of God in Christ and
because of him. That's why we say trust Christ
today. You don't know if you have tomorrow. My oh my. There is no fear in love, but
perfect love casts out fear. The fact that the sovereign loves
me and gave himself for me And that love is a perfect love,
that motivated to do that, an everlasting love, that casts
away our fear, doesn't it? It's amazing. We live in this life, and all
the pain and sorrows and troubles we go through will one day be
all over, because this world is not our home. It is not our
home, beloved. I'm talking to Charlie this morning.
Everything we see, and remember this too, he says when he tells
people this, now they look at him like, what are you talking
about? And he says, I just keep mentioning what you said in several
messages, that everything we see, everything, including us,
everything is temporal. Everything. The thing that man
prizes the most, just temporal. Gonna be gone. The world, all the beauty in
the world, the majesty of the mountains are going to be gone.
There's going to be a new heaven and a new earth, beloved. It's
all going to burn up. That's global warming, isn't
it? Right? It is going to burn up. It's going to be gone. It's going
to be gone. And there will be made a new heaven and a new earth.
And the scripture says this. This is marvelous. Wherein dwelleth
righteousness. My. No sin. Oh, goodness. I'll tell you what. And those who are born again.
washed clean in the precious blood of the Lamb shall see that
one day, only because of the mercy and
grace of God in Christ. It's absolutely amazing. If ye
then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.
Don't seek things in this earth. Everything's temporal. Seek those
things which are above, Paul says, where Christ is on the
right hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things in the earth, Colossians 3 verses 1 and 2. See, we humans tend to set our
eyes upon the earth. Paul says do the opposite. Set
your mind on Christ. And you know, have you ever thought,
and I know this to be true in my life, have you ever thought
and noticed that the Holy Spirit has this constant theme Look
to Christ, look to Christ, look to Christ. You know why? Again, it's in all of us. I need to constantly be reminded
to look to Christ because by nature, and even this old flesh
we carry around, we want to look at the things of the world. oh, this is going on, look what's
going on. Oh my gosh, it's never been like
that. Well, there's nothing new under the sun, scripture says,
so it has been like that. You know, some folks tell me,
oh, it's worse than it's ever been. Well, in our lives, yeah,
probably, right? But there's nothing new under
the sun. You go through history, and some of the things that are
being done today were done hundreds of years ago. Look up what it means to um,
you remember that yankee doodle? Um, they used to sing that stuck
a feather in his hat and called it macaroni Right. Do you know what macaroni meant?
You guys are gonna laugh. I always thought it was pasta,
right? It's not pasta Macaroni was a dress that the italians
used to use and you couldn't tell if it was a male or a female And the british were big on that Nothing new under the sun, is
there? Right? Oh my! God's still in control,
beloved. He's still in control. He's still
in full control. This world's not our home. We're
called pilgrims and strangers in this world. We seek a better
country, don't we? Which is heaven. We're just passing
through here. We're just passing through. So
rejoice. Rejoice and relinquish our hold
upon this world, because when we die, we're going to be in
the presence of the Lord. Herein is my Father glorified,
that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father
hath loved me, so also I have loved you. Continue in my love.
Do you know the Father, as much as the Father has loved Loved
Christ is as much as Christ loves us. Listen to that again. As
the Father had loved me, so have I loved you. He's speaking to
his disciples in John 15. John 15, nine. That's incredible. That's incredible. So continue
you in my love. That's the love of God shed abroad
in our hearts, right? by the Holy Spirit of God. We
can't muster it up, but he sure sheds it abroad in our hearts,
doesn't he? It's wonderful. You ever notice when you can
go to different churches, grace churches and stuff, and people
who believe like we believe, and you can have instant kinship
with them? How's that happen? It's the love of God shed abroad
in our hearts, isn't it? It's amazing. It's by the power
of God, the Holy Spirit. We have the same Father. Same
Spirit, same Lord, same Master, same Christ. It's amazing. Oh my. Now let's read verses 20 to 23
of Acts chapter 12, where we see God's enemy Herod meets his
end. He meets his end. I'll tell you
what. So he's up there persecuting the church, cutting it down,
wasting it. But his days are coming. And
every one of us in this room has a day. And we don't have any clue when
it is, do we? My, oh my, look at this. Verse
20, and Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon.
But they came with one accord to him, and having made Blastus
the king's chamberlain their friend, so they befriended the
chamberlain of Herod, they desired peace. They'd been at war. because
their country was nourished by the king's country. Ah, there's
the hitch. There's the kicker. And upon
a day set Herod arrayed in royal purple, sat upon his throne and
made an oration unto them. Oh, Herod's gonna, he's gonna
melt this for all he can. He gonna show them how great
he is. And the people gave a shout,
saying, this is the voice of a god and not of a man. Now,
they're doing that mockingly. They're not sincere. The only
reason they're saying that is they want food. Because look at verse 20. Because their country was nourished
by the king's country. They're telling him. And you
know what that's going to do to her? Like any politician, right? They're gonna get puffed up with
that, aren't they? Look at this. Oh, it's a voice of God and not
of a man, little G. And immediately the angel of
the Lord smote him because he gave not God the glory. And he
was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost. Now we're gonna look
at what that is. I'm just gonna touch a little bit on that eating
of worms there. It took him five days to die.
He was eaten from the inside out. Horrendous death. So we see in verses 20 that the
cities of Tyre and Sidon are bought before us in this text.
There are two cities located on the seacoast of Phoenicia.
According to John Gale, the inhabitants of these two cities had done
something that highly offended King Herod. So he cut them off.
Cut them off. But then they went around, smart
folks, they went around his back and they befriended Blastus,
who was the king's jamboree. They got the ear of someone who
had the ear of the king, didn't they? And I imagine they probably
lavished him with things, gifts. And through him, they let the
king know that, oh, we're so sorry. We're sorry for what we
did to you. We're sorry for what we said,
we desire peace now. Because again, at the latter
part of verse 20, their country depended upon imports and exports
to and from the king's country in order to survive. You know,
a country can have a lot of control over other countries by imports
and exports. And we read in verse 21 that
there's a set day, a day that Herod had appointed, Then nothing caught by God by
surprise, right? He knows all this is going to
happen. He comes, Herod's arrayed in
this royal purple. Remember they wore purple back
then? They probably looked pretty incredible in all his royal stuff. And he sat upon a throne. Oh,
make sure you get that throne out there. sat upon and he gave
them an oration. Speech. Gave them a speech. Oh my. He gave them a speech,
beloved. And we're going to see here. We're going to see here that
He gives them this great oration. And what do they do? They say,
Oh, and the people gave a shout,
saying, It is the voice of a God. Well, that would have puffed
his head up, wouldn't it? And not of a man. Well, He took that. He took that. He took that and he ran with
it. He didn't correct them. He didn't
give God the glory. He didn't say, no, it's not because
of me. See, this is the natural man.
Natural man wants to seek the attention. Natural man wants
the praise. This is the marvel of a born-again, blood-washed
believer, that we no longer seek praise for ourselves. Right? Because there was a time when
all of us, if we're honest with each other, sought glory and
praise. Right? We did. I even have to be careful. You find yourself, catch yourself,
Sometimes I'll be in the conversation, someone's telling me about something,
and I'm like, oh yeah, well this, and I catch myself now and say,
I don't have to bring myself into that, I don't have to do
that, they'll tell me something about them. And when we listen and talk with
one another, we learn a lot about one another, don't we? But see,
he wanted this praise. He lapped it up, beloved. He
thought it was great. And again, natural man. Did we
glorify God, sister, before we were saved? We didn't even think
about that, did we? Didn't even enter our minds.
I remember the old, look out for number one. When I was growing
up, look out for number one. You remember that? Oh my. It's not look out for number
one, it's now praise number one, praise him. I love what Scott
used to say, we're a bunch of zeros, and you put the one in
front, he's the one. He's the most important one.
God and God alone. And you see, nothing's changed,
eh? Because in religion, preachers want to tell you stories
about themselves. You don't want to hear my stories.
I may put them in here and there and things that happened in my
life, but the main thing we're here to hear is about Christ. And that's the main thing I want
to speak about. And I want you to give the glory
to God for what I proclaim. Because he is worthy of all the
praise. I'm just a sinner saved by grace,
just like you. But the world loves praise. And
let's be honest, our flesh likes it too, doesn't it? Let's be
honest. Oh yeah. That's why we have to keep saying,
well, to God be the glory. Not in a legalistic way, oh,
I gotta say that. I don't mean in that way, I just
mean honestly. You know, you're blessed by the
message, you often hear me say, well, praise be to God. He's wonderful. I'm blessed putting
it together and preaching it. Isn't it wonderful? But religion
is more interested, preachers in religion are more interested
in drawing attention to themselves and to the phony Jesus they preach,
who can't do nothing unless you let him, because that's, I'm
telling you, people say, well, how can you talk like that way?
Well, because it's true. It's not the God of the Bible.
If the God of the Bible depends upon you to do anything, the
God that you believe and preach, depends upon you to do anything,
it's not the God of the Bible. He's called in the Hebrew, the
self-existent one. If someone's self-existent, do
they need anything? He didn't even need to make this
world, did he? He didn't even need to make the angels. A.W.
Pink, I remember reading the book on the attributes of God
by him one time, and I had to put the book down after the first
few sentences. It was about the solitudeness
of God. And he said, in the beginning, God was, and he was perfectly
content being God. And I had to put the book down. He was perfectly content just
being God. Not even created nothing. Yeah. And then He just created
everything just to manifest His glory, beloved. He put redemption's plan into
motion just to bring Him glory and honor and praise, just to
manifest His glory, manifest who He is, His righteousness.
His mercy, His grace, which all comes to us through Christ Jesus
our Lord. My, oh my. And people have a
God of their own imagination, don't they? A God who they want to be at
their beck and call. And false preachers, they have
a God of their own imagination. I know I was in religion. I used to say, I made a decision
for Christ. Nothing about repentance, nothing
about being born again. I. That was the problem right
there. Now I say, the Lord saved me. Right? There's a big difference,
isn't there? Because I found out I would never
make a decision for Christ. Because there's none that seeketh
after God. Then I found out there's none good, no, not one. Then I found out that we're made
willing by the power of God. And I begged for mercy. God saved me. My oh my, isn't he good? Isn't
he so good? You must be born again. Make a thousand decisions and
never be born again. You must be born again. Must be. Holy Spirit must regenerate
us and then we're given faith to believe. to cling, to cleave
to the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. And the reason I preach the gospel
is because God sent me to do it and I have a concern for your
souls. False preachers don't have a
concern for people's souls. They want numbers and they want
money by himself. Trust in Him and Him alone and
what He's done. Oh my. My, oh my. The believer's been
translated again from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of
God's dear son. Do you know, if a false preacher ever is saved and born again, and they stand in front of the
congregation that they preach to, and they tell them, but the
Lord saved me. You know what'll happen to them?
Remember Norm Wells who's here? Preacher came. He invited this
preacher he had heard about called Henry Mahan. Come, come to preach
for us. Norm was a landmark Baptist. Landmark Baptist believes they're
the only true church and everyone else is just friends. I was caught
up in that too. Basically, it's Baptist Catholicism,
basically is what it is. And he believed in free will
and all that. So here comes Henry, and he preaches
the gospel. And Norm's so mad, he goes home
that first night and says, I hate that man to his wife. I hate
him. And he said he was too embarrassed
to drive him to the airport and send him home. So he let him
preach for the next two nights. And he drove him home, and he
said he was sitting there, a couple weeks later, thinking about what
Henry preached, and the Lord saved his soul. And he stepped up in front of
the congregation, and he said, Lord, save me. And they said,
get out. They wanted to throw him out
right there on the spot in his family of three kids. But his
brother was part, his twin brother was part of the church and he
said, he convinced them to give him 30 days. In 30 days he was
gone. Just because he got up and professed,
the Lord saved my soul. And so when a man is saved by
God's grace and come out of that, all we want to do is preach Christ. All we want to do is proclaim
our Savior. How can a preacher glorify God?
How can he show genuine concern for the souls of those he has
the honor of preaching to? They go hand in hand, if we glorify
God in our preaching, we're showing a real concern for the salvation
of those who we are preaching to, to hell-deserving sinners. And remember, God won't share
his glory with anyone, will he? No one. No one at all. And he's
ordained at the means, through the preaching of the gospel,
it's God's ordained instrument that the Holy Spirit uses, And
he regenerates his people, gives them faith, and they believe
the gospel. All by the power of God, the
Holy Spirit. And God, the Holy Spirit, by
his almighty power and will, enlightens the mind of his chosen
people to deliver us from the power of darkness, the power
of Satan, the power of sin. all by his almighty power. It's
by his power. Not by anything we do, but by
his power. He makes the gospel effectual.
One minute we don't believe, the next second, one second we
don't believe, the next second we believe. We don't understand
everything, do we? We don't understand all the great
doctrines we learn and grow and, right? When the Lord saved me,
all I knew was the Lord saved me. That's enough right there,
isn't it? But we grow and mature in our
faith, all by the Holy Spirit, and he teaches us, doesn't he?
He teaches us. And we learn more and more about
the precious Savior, about the great Sovereign who became a
servant to save us from our sins. We're raised from a state of
spiritual death, and God is the only one who can do that. He's
the only one. Oh my. So we preach Christ. We
preach Christ and him alone. When does a preacher glorify
God? Well, when he preaches Jesus Christ is God's glory. And when
he preaches the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that salvation's
only through him and nowhere else. We glorify God when we
preach that God our Father chose us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. That's a God-glorifying doctrine. Because we never would
have chosen God, but he chose us. Marvel at that, beloved. Marvel at that. And the only
condition was He chose us in Christ. Those outside of Christ aren't
saved, but those in Christ are saved. Isn't that wonderful?
It's wonderful. Do we have anything to do with
that back there in eternity? No. It's all God, beloved. We
also glorify God when we preach that Jesus Christ obtained the
perfect redemption for his chosen people. How? By his perfect obedience
to the law and justice of God. The whole law of Moses, he fulfilled
it all. Again, he became a servant that
he might save us from our sins. It's amazing. We glorify God
when we preach that Jesus Christ obtained eternal redemption.
It's not he might have, he did it. He obtained eternal redemption
for his people. How? By the supreme sacrifice
of himself, shedding his blood to redeem our eternal souls.
That's God-glorifying doctrine, beloved. We glorify God when we preach
that Jesus Christ satisfied God's holy justice for us when he laid
down his life for all his sheep on Calvary's cross. That by his
substitutionary death, he, the Lord Jesus Christ, would reconcile
us to God. We also glorify God when we preach
that God, the Holy Spirit, God, the Holy Spirit, calls us with
a holy, irresistible, invincible call that we can't resist. We can't resist. And he does
it all under the preaching of the gospel. And it's an effectual
call, isn't it? We've experienced that. And it's
by his power and by his might. See, God, the Father's involved
in our salvation. God, the Son's involved in our
salvation. God, this Holy Spirit's involved in our salvation. Salvation's
of the Lord. Period. And that's a God-glorifying
doctrine, too, isn't it? Yeah. And we glorify God when
we preach that Jesus Christ is risen from the grave, oh, by
the power of God, and he's right now, right now, right this second,
and the seconds are gonna follow, seated on the right hand of glory.
Right now. Oh, let that warm your heart,
beloved. He's seated in glory right now. Turn, if you would,
to John chapter five. John chapter five, just quick.
Oh, he's a sovereign monarch. ruling over the whole universe,
beloved. Oh my. Remember, as we learned in Sunday
school, He came not to do His own will, He came to do the will
of the Father, right? Look at this in John 5, verses
21 to 23. For as the Father raises up the
dead and quickeneth them, Even so, the Son quickeneth whom He
will. Praise God, He quickened us, beloved. We're born again.
And look at that. He quickeneth whom He will. Whom He wills. Oh, my. For the
Father judges no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the
Son. Who are people going to face at the great white judgment
throne? The Lord Jesus Christ. That's who. That all men should honor the
Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son,
honoreth not the Father which has sent him. Do you see how
serious it is? When man rejects Christ, they
reject the Father as well. Now by nature, we all reject
him. Praise God, he made us willing.
What mercy, eh, Brother Tom? What mercy we've received, Brother.
He made us willing. So marvel at what we see set
here before us. God, the Holy Spirit, reveals
this wonderful truth that the fact in our text and Acts, what's
revealed to us is that no one can hinder God's purpose and
plan. No one. You see stuff going on
in the world? It's not hindering God's purpose
and plan. It's not. We look at it from our view,
it's like, oh my goodness. But not from God's view. That's what gives me peace, is
it give you peace? My, oh my. Oh my, nothing can hinder God
from seeking and delivering his sheep from the helpless, hopeless,
totally depraved condition that we were in because we fell in
Adam. Nothing can hinder God. Not man
or angel or a demon or Satan or anything can hinder God from
saving his people, from regenerating his people. Oh my. And King Herod killed James,
the brother of John. He attempted to kill Peter. And
just as all unregenerate men and women are, Herod was an enemy
of Christ, an enemy of God. And we see clearly in this chapter
that he opposed the spreading of the gospel, didn't he? So
much so that he was taking Christians and one of them killed. But marvel, despite this hateful
opposition, in no way was God's sovereign work and will hindered. in absolutely no way. No way at all. His sovereign,
eternal purpose shall be accomplished. He will get every single lost
sheep that there is. And he will take every one of
his sheep home. Isn't that wonderful? Nothing can hinder God from doing
what he has purposed. So we've seen at the beginning
of chapter 12, Herod fighting against God, trying to stop the
spread of the gospel, and this chapter ends with Herod being
slain by God. Right? And the gospel, what happens
after that? The gospel spreads triumphantly.
Isn't that amazing? It spreads triumphantly. Oh my. Look at verse 24. But the word of God grew and
multiplied. Can't stop it. Can't stop it. No matter how small the church
is that's preaching the gospel or how big the church is that's
preaching the gospel, the word of God shall go forth as God's
pleased and planned and purposed to have that church going. Right? My oh my. So here's Herod, the enemy of
God, dead, eaten by worms inside. And this serves as a warning
to the enemies of God, doesn't it? My oh my. And marvel at this,
the God of the Old Testament saints is the same God of the
New Testament saints, the same God of the saints today. He's
not changed, has he? He's not changed, beloved. Not
at all. God has always been on his sovereign
throne of power, holding the providential reins of all events
in his omnipotent hands. There's never been a time when
he's not been in control. Never. Guiding all the events of life
and accompanying all things just exactly as he purposed them.
Now we pray for our nation. We pray for our leaders. Yes,
we're supposed to do that. Yes, of course. But behind it all, we know that
God's in control, don't we? My, so marvel at this glorious
God honoring biblical truth that's set before us. Our God reigns. Herod could not stop the spread,
excuse me, the spread of the gospel. He couldn't stop it.
He tried. God thwarted him, didn't he? My, oh my. And again, God's ordained preachers,
we don't debate the gospel truths. We don't. I do not debate gospel
anymore. I used to love debating people.
I won't do it anymore. It's just a waste of time. Just
present the truth. Here you go. Talk to my buddies
across the road. You know, they want to just go
out. Here you go. Just set it before them. That's
all we can do, right? Set the truth before them and
pray. God be merciful to them. He's
merciful to us, right? We were there. Oh my. Think of this. God has spoken
to us by the Holy Spirit of God under the preaching of the gospel
through his word. And we believe that by declaring
his gospel truths. The word of the Lord declares
that Jesus Christ is God, our sovereign creator, who became
a man for the very purpose of fulfilling the conditions of
the eternal covenant of grace to save his people from their
sins. We declare that. Unashamedly. Also, the word of God declares
that the blood of Jesus Christ is the blood of the everlasting
covenant. And by his shed blood, we have received the remission
of all our sins. So we declare that. The Word
of the Lord declares that Jesus Christ was obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross, which was the will of the Father.
And he became fully submissive. He submitted his own will to
the will of the Father and became a man obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. And we declare that. Moreover,
the Word of God declares that God God's Son fulfilled His Father's
will. He sanctified and perfected His
chosen people forever by the supreme sacrifice of Himself,
and we declare that to be true. We're sanctified in Christ, aren't
we? Now, we grow in grace, don't we? But we are sanctified in
Christ. This means set apart. It means
to be made holy. I can't be holy, can you? But
in Christ, we're holy. Isn't that amazing? That's incredible. My, oh, my. And He did this by the supreme
sacrifice of Himself, and we declare that to be true. The
Word of God declares that because our dying Savior, again, was
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, He saved
us from our sins. We declare that. The only way
to be saved is through Jesus Christ, our Lord, and what He's
done. Not by works of righteousness, which we had done, but according
to His mercy, He saved us. Word of God declares that God,
the Holy Spirit, is the one who regenerates us. We're born again
by his almighty power. He regenerates the elect of God,
the chosen of God. We don't know who they are, so
we preach the gospel to everyone. You say, well, what if I'm one
of the elect? Do you trust Christ? Oh, yeah? Then you're one of the elect. Isn't that wonderful? It's amazing. So he regenerates us. We're born
again under the effectual call to preach in the gospel by his
power. And we declare that to be true. And praise our great
God who humbles us. He humbles the saints, gives
us a sincere desire now to glorify God in all that we do. He's the only hope I have. I
don't have nothing else to give you. set before you, but Christ. Isn't He wonderful? And know,
know that one day we shall see Him face to face. Oh my, it's an exciting day,
isn't it? It's an exciting time. Brother Dan, would you close
us