Open your Bible, if you would,
to Acts chapter 12. Acts chapter 12, we'll continue
our study through this wonderful book, authored by the Holy Spirit
of God, and the penman he used was Luke, the secretary he used
was Luke, to write down the words, but the true author is God the
Holy Spirit. Let's stand up. and read verses
11 to 17 of Acts chapter 12. And this will be our text for
today. Acts chapter 12, verses 11 to
17. And when Peter was come to himself,
he said, Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath 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 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 damsel came to
the park and named Rhoda. And when she knew Peter's voice,
she opened not the gate for gladness and ran in and told how Peter
stood before the gate. And they said unto her, thou
art mad. But she constantly affirmed that
it was even so. And they said, it is his angel.
But Peter continued knocking. And when they had opened the
door, they saw him, and they were astonished. And he, beckoning
unto them with a hand to hold their peace, declared unto them
how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said,
Go, show these things unto James and to the brethren. And he departed
and went into another place. So we're continuing that narrative
of when the angel of the Lord came and took peter out of prison
last week we looked at that wonderful portion saw god's sovereignty
and today the name of the message is christ throne of power christ
throne of power so peter being set free from
prison by an angel. Remember, he's all chained up
and all of a sudden the shackles fall off. But before that, the
angel gave him a little swat, woke him up out of a deep sleep.
He's just sleeping. He's pillowed his head on God's
sovereignty. He's not worried about anything. He's not worried
about what's going on in the world. He just pillows his head
and went to rest. My oh my. And he knew. He knew, well, they're
probably gonna take me and kill me, right? But he's trusting
in the Lord, right? Because he knows that Jesus Christ
is Lord of all. Well, it wasn't his time to die,
was it? Now, we saw in the first part of Acts 12 that it was time
for James to die. It was his appointment, and he
died at the hand of Herod, right? He was executed. And Herod saw
that it made the Jews so happy, so he said, let's go get Peter,
or let's go get any, and they got ahold of Peter. And so he
was thrown in prison and they were going to execute him. But
my oh my, it wasn't his time to die, was it? It wasn't his
time, beloved. It wasn't his appointment. And
look at verse 11. Now Peter, he finds himself on
the streets of Jerusalem. He finds himself set free. And the scriptures declare in
verse 11, and when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now
I know of a surety that the Lord has sent his angel. and that
delivered me out of the hand of Herod and from all the expectations
of the people, the Jews. So Peter, he come to himself.
Remember, he thought he was in a trance. He thought he was having
another vision. He thought, this can't be real.
I'm dreaming. I'm dreaming that I'm set free. No, he ain't dreaming, Peter.
It's real. It's real, isn't it? And so he
says he come to himself. He come to himself. He said,
I'm free. I'm really free. And then he says, then he gives
God all the glory, right? Because he says, now I know of
a surety that the Lord has sent his angel and that delivered
me out of the hand of Herod and from the expectation of all the
people of the Jews. So he's given God all the glory. God did this.
I had nothing to do with it. Right? The guards had nothing
to do with it. We're going to find out next week, all the guards
get killed. They all die. Because that's what happened. You lose a prisoner, you're a
dead man. You're a dead man. My so they all died and Peter
lived God's on this sovereign throne of power, isn't he Christ
is on his sovereign throne of power, isn't he? You know what?
He's still there today He hasn't abdicated his throne has he?
He still sits upon his sovereign throne of power beloved. Oh my
oh And he was going, he went to
where he knew his brothers would be. He went to where he knew
his brothers and sisters would be, right? He goes to John Mark's
mom's house. My oh my. And what he has experienced
as he's walking through the streets of Jerusalem, what he's experienced
is all going through his head. And I bet you I'll tell you,
he's getting pretty excited, isn't he? God set me free. The shackles fell off my hands.
The guards didn't even wake up. And then we got to the door and
it just swung open. And he's probably playing this
over in his head. Look at this miraculous power. He didn't even
speak to the gate. The gate just swung open by itself.
The shackles just fell. My oh my, the power of God. See, man has no power. As that reading said, what could
we say to the king? What could we say to any king
in this world? Why are you doing that? There goes your head. That's
how it used to be in the old days. You never challenged the
king. You're dead. My oh my. So our great God, and think of
that in light of our salvation, right? No wonder the scriptures
declare who can bring any charge to God's elect, because it's
God that justifies. We've been justified by God.
We've been justified by God the Son, who became a man and died
for us, and he's justified us before God the Father and God
the Holy Spirit, hasn't he? That's wonderful, isn't it? So
who can bring any charge against us? There's no charges against
us, they're all forgiven. They're all forgiven. God says,
I don't remember your sin anymore. Oh my. What a wonder of salvation
through Jesus Christ and his precious, precious shed blood.
It's wonderful. And we can live in that fact,
can't we? When we're down and when we're, when we're feeling
low, because we all go through periods, let us think about the
precious blood of Christ. Let us think about how we're
redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. How that all our sins and
iniquities are totally forgiven because of the work of another.
Because of the perfect, sinless, sinatonic work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. So he's walking through the streets
and he's going over all these things that's happened to him.
Well, he's going to where his brothers and sisters are in Christ.
And I bet you he's pondering the whole way. The whole way
he's pondering what happened. He's astonished. And he's just
bursting to tell them. He's just bursting to be able
to profess to them what God has done. Not what he's done, because
he didn't do nothing, did he? He didn't do nothing. He's just
looking forward to professing what God's done what God's done
for him. Oh my. Look at verse 12. And when he had considered the
thing, so he's considering it the whole time he's walking,
he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname
was Mark, where many were gathered together praying. Now, no mention
is made of Mary's husband, We don't know if he passed away,
we don't know what happened, but no mention is made of him.
But he does go, he does go to the home of Mary, who's the mother
of John, and we find out it's John Mark. And John Mark is Barnabas's nephew. So, no mentions made of her husband. Many commentators believe she
was a widow. Mary was the sister of Barnabas, and John Mark was
Barnabas' nephew, who we're going to see more about in future studies
in the book of Acts. And we see in verse 12 that many
of our Lord's saints were gathered together. They're gathered together.
And what are they gathered together doing? They're praying for Peter,
aren't they? They're gathered together praying for Peter. Now
we're gonna see how frail our faith is, and let us not judge
our brothers and sisters, because we're the same mold. We're gonna
see how frail our brothers and sisters' faith is. How, remember
Peter said, Lord, help my unbelief? How that's the cry of all believers.
Because they're praying for Peter to get released, aren't they?
To be set free. They are. And we're going to
see their reaction. It's Peter. And we're going to see their
reaction to the damsel. Oh, my. To Rhoda. My, oh, my. So they're praying for, they're
gathered together. They're praying for Peter. And
all of a sudden, there's a knock on the door. There's a knock on the door.
They're probably not expecting a knock. So let's read verses 13 and 14.
And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to
hearken named Rhoda. Well, Rhoda's a sister in Christ. She'd heard Peter preach probably
before. And when she knew Peter's voice,
she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in and told how Peter
stood before the gate. So, Peter's out in the cold. He's knocking on the door, he's
bursting. He wants to tell him what God's
done. He's knocking on the door, rode a ghost, and here's Peter's
probably saying, let me in. Like this, right? And she's so
full of gladness, she runs over here, back to the group, and
she starts telling them, Peter's at the door. Peter's at the door. Oh my. So Rhoda had no doubt heard Peter
preach before because she knew his voice. She was familiar with
Peter. She talked to him probably and
probably heard him preach. And she probably asked who was
knocking and he said, it's Peter. Because, you know, I remember
days before those little peepholes in the doors, somebody would
be knocking on our back door, we'd say, who is it? You remember
doing that? And the person would say, oh,
it's me. And they'd give you their name, or my brother would
be like, open the door, it's Dave. Oh, OK, no problem. And
sometimes I just did that to get them mad, leave them out
there for a little while. Right? But that's just being
a brother, isn't it? But we used to do that all the
time. Who is it? Because you'd look out the window sometimes,
and the person was so close to the door, you couldn't see who it
was, and they didn't have them peepholes back then. Not where I grew up.
It was just a small town, so. But she no doubt had heard Peter
many times. She recognized his voice, and
so we see she runs back. She's overcome with joy, beloved.
They're praying for Peter. She's overcome with joy. Peter's
out there at the door. She doesn't open the door though,
does she? Peter's bursting with excitement
to tell them about what's happened, and he's still out in the cold. And she's so excited, she forgets
everything and runs back to the group. She's overcome with joy. And she's so overcome with joy,
she didn't open the door. And she ran and told them it
was Peter who stood at the gate. Now here we're gonna see the
frailness of our faith. The frailness of our faith as
believers. Who are they praying for? Brother
Brian, who are they praying for? They're praying for Peter's freedom,
aren't they? Well, you know what? Peter's
free. And what do they tell Rhoda? You're mad. You're crazy. No, she's not. No. The very person they're praying
for is standing outside the gate. Standing outside. And they don't,
amen, sister. They don't believe it. They don't
believe it. They think Rhoda's lost her mind. Look at this,
look at this, verses 15 and 16. And they said to her, thou art
mad. You're mad. You're mad. What are you talking
about? But look at, she's not gonna
shut up, is she? She continually affirmed it.
She's like, I ain't mad. It's Peter. And they'll probably
keep going, oh, come on, Rhoda. She goes, I'm not mad. Peter's
really there. He's really, I heard his voice.
I heard his voice. And they said, it's his angel. It's his angel. Now, we don't
know who they're talking about there, if a guardian angel, because
we know the elect of God have angels watching over us and ministering
to us. And we know to be absent from
the body is to be present with the Lord, so we don't come back as
spirits. It's Peter. It's Peter. But Peter, what? Scripture says he continued knocking.
He's probably thinking, let me in! He continued knocking. And when they opened the door,
they saw him, and they were astonished. They were astonished. Now again, the saints had gathered
together. They knew Peter was in prison.
They knew he's heavily guarded. And he was guarded by 16 soldiers. Remember, we saw that last week?
16 soldiers. So they just couldn't believe
Roter. They thought, you're gone mad. Oh Lord, help my unbelief. Help my unbelief. Oh my. So consider what must
be going through the mind of Peter. He's full of these wonderful
truths that God had delivered him. He's bursting at the seams
to tell them how God has delivered him. How God on this sovereign
throne of power has delivered him from the prison, from the
guards. He was powerless to deliver himself,
wasn't he? You see, we're powerless to deliver
ourselves from our sins, aren't we? But if the Son will set you free,
you're free indeed. And we've been set free from
the prison house of sin, haven't we? That held us captive and
shackled us. And praise be to God, them shackles
fell off, beloved. Those shackles fell off. And
we are free. Free in Christ. So much so that
Paul says, be not again entangled with the yoke of bondage. Don't
be entangled with the bondage of religion. Because Christ has
set us free, hasn't he? Oh, my. So here's Peter. He's got these
wonderful truths he just wants to tell them about. He's anxious
to share with them. Not anxious in a way that he's
worried, but he's excited. He wants to share with them,
with those who love the Lord Jesus Christ, this wonderful
truth that he's been set free. He wants to praise and worship
and adore our great God for doing it for him. In verse 16, though, we see that
Peter was left outside, waiting for someone to come back
and let him in. Verse 15, Rhoda stood her ground,
didn't she? She said, she stood her ground,
beloved. She said, no, this is Peter. This is Peter. She said, I'm not mad. She constantly
affirmed that it was even so. Oh my. And we see in verse 16 that when
they opened the door they saw him and they were astonished.
You know the Greek word there for astonished means to be out
of one's mind. They cannot believe what they're
seeing. Remember it said Peter came to
his right mind? Well they're out of their mind too now. Here's Peter standing before
them. It also means to be beside oneself in the Greek. To be beside oneself. To be transported
beyond oneself with astonishment. And the final Greek meaning is
to be amazed. To be amazed. They couldn't believe
what they were seeing. But beloved, they'd been praying. Lord, help our unbelief. Help our unbelief. It just shows
you the fickleness of us. But you remember that song we
sang? I love that song, sister. Great is thy faithfulness. Even
when we're not faithful, he's faithful. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't God
good? Oh my. They'd been praying that
the Lord Jesus Christ would deliver Peter from the hands of those
wicked men. And we see God answered their
prayers. Peter was no longer in prison. He's standing right
there before them. And when they saw that our Lord,
what our Lord Jesus had done, just what they'd been praying
for, he set free. They were astonished. They were
filled with wonder. They were filled with awe. They
were amazed at that fact. And we can all identify with
that, can't we? As believers, we can all identify with that
fact. We've witnessed here our Lord
Jesus Christ in answering our prayers more times than we can
count. And our reactions being like
these men and women who saw with their own eyes that Peter had
been delivered from prison. And we praised our great God,
an amazing wonder at His power in answering prayer. And we can't
twist God's arm, can we? You know what the Holy Spirit
does? He has us pray according to the Father's will. And everything that we pray that's
according to the Father's will, He answers. But everything we
pray that's not according to the Father's will, He doesn't
answer. Or He answers as a no. You ever
think back at how many times you prayed for something and
you thank God that he said no? I know a lot of things that way. I thank God he said no. My oh
my. Isn't God so good? He's so good. John says this,
1 John 5, 14 says, and this is the confidence that we have,
that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. He
heareth us. So obviously, it was the Father's
will that Peter would be set free. It was God's will. It wasn't God's will that James
would keep living, was it? And he died at the appointed
time of his death. But Herod and the Jews, they wanted to
kill Peter, but God said, no, it's not his time yet. Isn't
that amazing? And they were praying for Peter
to be set free, and it was according to the will of God, and Peter
set free, and they're astonished. I see myself so much there, do
you? That's all of us, isn't it? It's all of us, beloved.
Oh my. So this is the confidence that
the born-again, blood-washed Savior the confidence that the
born-again blood-washed believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has,
that our Savior, our Mediator, our Redeemer, we can come boldly
to Him, to the throne of grace, and we can
call upon the Father. And if we ask anything according
to His will, the passage is added to remind us that there's a right
way, or a rule of prayer. Even when we subject our own
desires to the will of God, we come to God only through Christ,
don't we? We can only come to God through Christ. And he will
either answer our prayer yes or no, but it's all according
to his will. We don't believe that we can
twist God's arm. No. Not at all. we come to God through Christ,
and we're persuaded that our prayers are heard, that is, to
be believed, we believe that God answers prayer, and we pray
according to his will. Listen to this in Romans 8, 26,
it says this. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth
our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as
we ought, but the Spirit maketh intercession for us with groanings
which cannot be uttered. Now the Charismatics got a hold
of that verse and they said, see, that's a tongue that is
not knowing. No, no, read the verse again. Listen to this. Likewise, the
Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should
pray. We don't even know what we should pray. Oh my. For as we ought, but the
Spirit maketh intercession, itself maketh intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered. Oh my. Beloved of God, it's God
the Holy Spirit who moves us to pray according to God's will. We don't know what God's will
is. So we pray and say, if it be thy will. We pray for the
salvation of the souls as the gospel goes out, if it be thy
will, Lord. Every time I put a message on
the internet, I pray, Lord, use it to draw your people who are
lost to you, and use it to edify your people, if it be your will. All for your glory and honor
and praise. And that's what we pray, isn't it? It's for God's
glory. It's for God's honor. It's for
God's praise. Let us never think for one moment
that our prayers move God to do what he does. The reason that Dan and Kathy
are cancer-free right now is because it was God's will. Now,
we prayed for them, didn't we? We earnestly prayed for them.
But that was God's will to do that. And we marvel. We marvel. Now, someone else, another brother
or sister, he might just take them home. And that's not a bad thing either,
is it? For the believer. But if it's their appointed time,
they will go. And as we saw in our reading,
no one can stop death. No one can keep their spirit.
When God says that your time is up, that's it. It's appointed
unto man once to die, and after this, the judgment. There's no
getting away from that appointment. None at all. I always tell people,
are you ready? Are you ready for that appointment? Are you trusting Christ and Him
alone for your salvation? Because no one's going to miss
that appointment. I was talking about someone who
passed away that we know. And one of the girls said, well,
how do you know you're ready? And one of the fellows I talked
with said, well, you have to be born again. You have to trust Christ. The only way you can be ready
is trusting the Savior for death. Oh my. And think of this, God
does what he does because he's purposed it before time has begun.
Isn't that amazing? So I have an appointment with
death, and so do you. And God's purposed that, beloved,
for eternity. And as Peter, why could Peter
rest his head like that? Why couldn't he pillow his head
in that prison? Because he knew he had an appointment. There
was a Confederate general who used to go into battle and he'd
pray, his soldiers would go by him and he'd be praying for them
as they went by. It was, what was his name? Jackson, Jackson, Stonewall Jackson. And he prayed for his troops
as they went by. And he said, I'm immortal until the day that
God has appointed for me to die. And there came a day when he
was shot. And he said to us, today I pass
over the River Jordan. My oh my. When it's that day, none of us
can stop it. None of us. Hmm. So what a blessing for us
to know that God has moved us to pray according to his sovereign
will. That's incredible, isn't it? That he moves us to pray
according to his sovereign will. He moved them to pray for Peter's
release. That was all according to his sovereign will, wasn't
it? And we're filled with awesome
wonder as we witness the power in God answering these things
that he's moved us to pray for. Now look at verse 17 again. Now
he goes in, he goes in the room. Peter goes into the house and
he says, but he beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their
peace, declared unto them how the Lord had bought him out of
the prison. And he said, go show these things
unto James and to the brethren. That's the brethren at Jerusalem.
and he departed, that's the church at Jerusalem, and he departed
and went into another place. We see here that God's saints
were so excited that when they saw Peter that many of them were
talking at the same time. They're all talking at the same
time. Well, that's normal, wouldn't it be? You see, Brother Brian,
we'd be doing the same thing, wouldn't we be? Oh, Peter, what
are you doing? Oh my, this is incredible. All of us would be. And there's so many questions
being fired at Peter that he beckoned unto them with his hand.
He said, hold your peace. Hold your peace. Got something
to tell you. Hold your peace. He wanted to tell them. He wanted
to testify of what God had done for him. You know, and I can look back
at when Brother Brian and Sister Linda came back four years ago. I can look back. They know exactly
how the saints felt when they saw Peter. I'll never forget that weekend.
We were all filled with joy. I'll never forget it. And tears
of joy were shed. No doubt, some tears of joys
were shed here when Peter, when they saw Peter. Tears of joy. They see in Peter again. And we see in verse 17 that Peter
asked them to hold their peace, and they were full of questions,
just full of questions, beloved. And when they settled down so
that everyone could hear, Peter declared unto them how the Lord
had bought him out of prison. And I'm sure he gave them a step-by-step
account. I was sleeping, and this angel
gave me a nudge, I woke up and saw the angel of
the Lord. I thought I was dreaming. And then the shackles just fell
off my hands. They'd be like, really, Peter?
Yeah, the shackles just fell right off. And didn't even wake
up the guards, guys. Didn't even wake up the guards.
And then the angel of the Lord took us right through the prison,
passed all those guards, and not one of them even woke up
or saw us. And then we got to the gate,
the iron gate, and it just swung open. And we'd all be going there. Really? That's amazing. Wouldn't we be filled with awe
and wonder even more now? What was that angel like? He
just said, He just disappeared. Where'd
he go? He just disappeared. What was he like? He just looked
like a man. Oh my. My oh my. But he shone. And that light didn't even wake
up those fellas. My oh my oh my. Oh. My. And he gave them a step-by-step
account of how, by God's sovereign power, it was demonstrated through
his angel who had delivered Peter from the hands of God's enemies
and the enemies of the church. And that's what Peter was excited
to declare unto them. He's waiting for someone to open
the door. He's probably bursting at the seams. I want to tell my brothers about
this and my sisters. And then we see, notice this
too, it's just put in there, but we see the love of God shed
abroad in Peter's hearts for the brethren. As he says, he
gives them instructions to send messengers unto James. He doesn't
want the other saints in the church at Jerusalem to be concerned
and worried. What love there is there. amongst
the brethren. Oh my, what love there is. He wants him to tell James and
the brethren at the church of Jerusalem to declare the things
that God had done for him in setting him free from prison.
And James, the son of Alphys, also called the brother of our
Lord, according to John Gill, the James that Herod had killed
was the pastor of the church at Jerusalem. And the James that
Peter is sending the message to of his deliverance had probably
taken over as the pastor of that church in Jerusalem. So Peter wants him and the brethren
under his ministry to hear of the blessings of the Lord Jesus
Christ and set him free. Now, we don't know where Peter
went, the scriptures just declare that he left the house. He left
the house. He might have gone to the church
at Antioch. We don't even know if he left
the city of Jerusalem, we just know he left that house. He left Mary's house. And wherever
it was that Peter went, He went with full confidence, didn't
he? That the Lord would take care of him. He'd saw it. He went with full confidence
knowing my God is Lord of all. He's sovereign. He's the King
of kings and the Lord of lords. So this lesson today in this
study should be a confidence builder for we who are the people
of God. Our confidence being in Christ and Him alone. and
being in the fact that God is absolutely sovereign. He's sovereign, beloved. He's
the king. He is the one who delivered Peter.
Listen to what Jude wrote. He said, Now unto him that is
able to keep you from falling. See, we can't keep ourselves
from falling, but Christ can keep us from falling, can he? And to present you faultless.
In the Greek that means blameless, beloved. Blameless. Before the
presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God, our
Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now
and ever. Amen. That's Jude verses 24 and
25. Unto him who's able to keep us
from fault. Unto him who's able to present
us faultless before the Father's throne. That's the Lord Jesus
Christ, isn't it? God in the flesh. God in the
flesh, who became a servant, who became a servant to save
us from our sins, beloved. In full servitude to God, the
Father. Not my will be done, but thy
will be done, Father. Oh, my. Do you know that the born-again
blood-washed church of Jesus Christ is as safe as God himself. You know that? Brother Henry Mahan once stated
so wisely, he said, we're as sure of heaven as if we're already
there. Well, that's good news, isn't
it? That's good news. Representatively speaking, we
are already there. We're already seated in heavenly
places in Christ. He's ascended into heaven to
appear in the presence of God for us. He's represented us. He now represents his chosen
blood-bought people. He mediates for us. Turn, if
you would, to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. Our Lord Jesus Christ is right
now seated at the right hand of majesty on high. He's not
waiting to reign. He reigns already, beloved. He's
a sovereign king. And all things have been put
into the hands of Christ. That's our Savior. Now, He's
able to keep us from falling, isn't He? He's able to present
us faultless. All because of His perfect sin-atoning
work on Calvary's cross and the shedding of His precious blood
to redeem our eternal souls, beloved. And our Savior right now is seated
upon the throne of glory. Right now. He's not waiting to
reign, beloved. No, He reigns right now. And
He's the blessed surety of all His people. And we've been made to sit in
heavenly places in Him. Look at this, starting in verse 4.
But God... Oh, before this, He's given us
a an account of what we are, dead in trespasses and sins.
But God, praise God, there's a but God. He didn't leave us
where we were, did he, sister? He didn't leave us where we were.
But God, who's rich in mercy. You can't measure his mercy.
You can't measure his grace. We've tasted that the Lord is
gracious, haven't we, as his people? But God who is rich in
mercy for His great love, all the great love, the everlasting
love of God in Christ. God's loved His people from eternity,
from everlasting. And there'll never be a time,
there's never been a time when He hasn't loved His people. My,
oh my. And that's all in Christ, isn't
it? Oh, for His great love, wherewith
He loved us. Notice that's past tense because
he loved us from eternity. He still loves us. He's the same
yesterday, today, and forever. That love hasn't even changed,
has it? That love for us has never changed, beloved. It's
wonderful. Even when we were dead in sins,
that's our natural state. Dead, without hope, had absolutely
nothing to do with God. That's our natural state. He
hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are saved.
Praise God we're saved by grace, not a works. And he's gonna tell
us that again in verse eight. Just in case we, see, because
we need to have things repeated to us, don't we? Because man
naturally thinks he can work his way to heaven. But he says
here, even before he says it in verse eight, in verse five,
by grace ye are saved. and has raised us up together
and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ. We're
already representatively sitting in Christ in glory. That's amazing. That in the ages to come, all
the ages to come, that'll come and go, he might show the exceeding
riches of his grace and his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. or be praising God for eternity,
for what He's done for us. For by grace, again, are you
saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. Right? That great verse, John
3, 16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son that whosoever believeth in Him. There it is. Whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have everlasting life. Look at this again. For
by grace he is saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's wonderful. It is the gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are
his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Those works
in no way save us. We don't even know when we do
them. They're just fruit of our salvation that we've been born
again by the Holy Spirit of God. James talks about that. Faith
without works is dead. Don't be all excited about when
you are worried about, oh, I don't have any works. You don't even
know when you do them. If a person thinks, well, I'm
going to get a reward for doing this, they've missed the boat,
beloved. Because Christ is our reward.
He's our reward. For we are His workmanship, His
workmanship. We're stones being made ready,
remember? Stones being made ready, created in Christ Jesus. There's
the key, the whole verse, in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. He's planned and purposed it
all. So what comfort's found here for the believer in the
fact that, look at this, Jesus Christ is Lord. He's Lord. All the vast empire of God's
creation has been placed under the dominion of the God-man,
King Jesus. King of kings and Lord of lords. That's my Savior. Is He yours?
Praise His mighty name if He is. Oh, give Him all the glory. Give Him all the praise. And
there's no limit to the realm and sphere of our Redeemer's
total sovereignty. Everything is under His command.
Everything is under His command. Remember what Peter said in Acts
chapter 10? He's Lord of all. He's Lord of
all. We're going to keep going back
to that. I'm going to keep mentioning that. Because Peter declared,
remember he declared that to the Gentiles. He's Lord of all. Lord of all people, Lord of all
things, Lord of all events, the God and Father has given to the
Son the name which is above every name, the name of Jesus. Every
knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God and the Father. Therefore, Christ
is Lord Supreme. Jesus Christ is Lord over all
people. upon this earth. He's Lord over
all the righteous and the wicked, the living and the dead, the
believing and the unbelieving. He is Lord over all. And believers,
by the grace and mercy of God, recognize, acknowledge, and willingly
surrender to our King's Lordship. We can't make him Lord. God already
did that, didn't he? You ever hear that? Just make
Jesus Lord of your life? Well, God beat us to it. Number one,
by nature, we wouldn't want that anyways. Only by the grace of
God and the mercy of God and his regenerating power do we
submit ourselves to God's authority. And it's wonderful. All things are under his control,
to do his bidding, to perform his will and accomplish his purpose,
always and all things. Jesus Christ is Lord over all
the powers of darkness. People take Satan and they vault
him up. Christ is Lord over them all. Satan's like a dog on a leash
to Christ. You know that? I'm no match for
him, and neither are you, but he's no match for the King of
kings and the Lord of lords. And our king crushed him. Crushed
him at Calvary's Cross. You ever see them old junkyard
dogs? I remember going to the junkyards with my dad when I
was little. Man, they always got mean dogs at those places.
They seem mean, and man, they'd stretch that chain as far as
they could, just trying to take your arm off or something. But they couldn't go any further
than that chain, right? That's the same with Satan and
his minions. They cannot do anything that
God doesn't allow. How do we know that? He said
to Job, what did he say to Job? You can touch him, but you can't
take his life. That shows God's sovereignty,
doesn't it? Yep. So always remember that. Always
remember that. Job 1 verses 12 and 12 says this,
And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in
thy power, only upon himself put not forth thy hand. So Satan
went forth from the presence of the Lord. And then in Job
2.6, it says, And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in
thine hand, but save his life. You can't kill him. See, there's
that overruling authority. There's that sovereign power,
beloved. And we go through many afflictions,
don't we? And trials and troubles in this life. But remember, our
God is sovereign over all of them. And he's right with us. He said, I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. Never. So Jesus Christ is Lord over
all the powers of darkness. He's Lord over all the damned
souls forever in hell. He's Lord over all the demons
of hell. He's Lord over Satan himself. All are under the dominion
of King Jesus. And He's Lord over all His people,
isn't He? And Lord over all the angels who didn't fall. He's
Lord over everything we see and don't see. He's Lord. He's Lord
over the affairs of providence. And I rejoice to tell you that
there's no place in this universe from the throne of God that God
doesn't see and that God doesn't reign over. There's no place
in this universe or anything we don't even see, the lowest
pit of the deepest hell, Christ is in absolute control and rule.
The absolute highest heaven, Christ is in absolute and full
control. He's sovereign. God's creation
is not out of control. It's under the control of King
Jesus, beloved. You'll say, oh, the Earth's gonna
do all this. It's under the control of King
Jesus. Now, we're to be good stewards, aren't we? But it's
all under the control of King Jesus, all of it. And you know, people talk about
global warming and the oceans rising and all that. I just stick
with scripture. Scripture says that God set a
bar. The oceans can't go above that. That's what, look it up in Proverbs. He set a gate for the oceans. Now they may flood over, but
they're always gonna recede back, aren't they? Isn't that amazing? Oh my beloved. That tells you about our God's
sovereign power. And nothing is thrown into confusion.
Everything's happened according to the Lord's will. And His purpose
is being accomplished right before our eyes. And He's Lord over all the vast
regions of heaven. Marvel at this, that Jesus Christ,
God in our nature, He is the reward of heaven. Is there a greater reward than
Christ? He said to Abraham, I'm your
exceeding reward. My, oh, my. And all the songs
of the redeemed in heaven are praises to the Lord of glory,
to the Lamb forever. And the God we serve is the same
God of the Old Testament saints served, the same God that all
the New Testament saints served. God's always been on his throne
of power, holding the providential reins of all events in his omnipotent
hands, guiding all the events of life, and accomplishing all
things exactly as he has purposed them. Think of this, when Adam
fell, he's on his sovereign throne of power. during the floodwaters of Noah's
days, he's on the sovereign throne of power. He was on the sovereign
throne of power when Joseph was sold into slavery. He was on
the sovereign throne of power during Israel's Egyptian bondage.
He was on the sovereign throne of power when he delivered Israel
from the cruel hands of the wicked Pharaoh. He was on the sovereign
throne of power when Jesus Christ was born of a virgin. He was
on the sovereign throne of power during all the days of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He was a man of souls and acquainted
with grief. He was on his sovereign throne
of power when Jesus Christ was arrested in the garden. He was
on his sovereign throne of power when Jesus Christ was nailed
to the cross. He was sovereign... He was on
his sovereign throne of power when he poured out his wrath
on his Son, the Word of God, who has made flesh to shed his
precious blood to redeem our eternal souls. He was on the
sovereign throne of power when he raised Jesus Christ from the
dead. and declared him to be the son of God with power according
to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead.
So marvel, beloved, at this wonderful fact, marvel at it, that Jesus
Christ has been on his sovereign throne of power as the glorified
God-man since his glorious resurrection. And the Lord Jesus Christ was
on his sovereign throne of power during all the events that were
recorded in the New Testament during the Apostolic Age. Everything
we're reading, he was on his sovereign throne of power. And he's still on his sovereign
throne of power, beloved. He's still on his sovereign throne
of power, working all things after the counsel of his own
will. And the throne of Jesus Christ is an eternal throne.
so he will always be on his sovereign throne of power. He's the exalted,
glorified God-man who's worthy to receive glory, honor, and
praise, and he alone is worthy to receive that glory, honor,
and praise, for he has created all things, and for his pleasure,
they are and were created. Beloved, this is our king. This
is our savior. This is the Lord of glory, the
sovereign king of glory, in his name, is the Lord Jesus Christ. The name above every name, the
name of Jesus every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father. Praise his mighty name. Brother Dan, can you close us
in prayer?