I was looking at this portion
of scripture that we're going to look at today, Acts chapter
5. From verses 17 to the end of
the chapter, a lot of folks will just preach the whole section,
but I want to break it down for us because there's a lot here,
beloved. And today we're going to be looking
at verses 17 to 21 of Acts chapter 5. The name of the message is
counted worthy to suffer. counted worthy to suffer. Last
week we looked at verses 12 to 16 where the apostles were doing
signs and wonders all by the power of God, of course, by the
hand of the Lord, did many signs and wonders and a multitude of
people were healed. The sick and those vexed with
unclean spirits. And so as we read this portions,
and also in verse 14 we see in verse 14 of Acts 5, more importantly,
that even more of our brethren were added to the Lord, multitudes
both of men and women. So the Lord is just moving and
adding and building, you know, adding. What he's really doing
is he's saving his elect. He's saving his elect, those
who he's redeemed, beloved. It's amazing. And so let us marvel at God's
work amongst sinners. And you know he's still saving
people today. He hasn't stopped. He's still
drawing his lost sheep out of the deadness of their sin. Right? He's still at work. My oh my. It's amazing. Let's read from
Acts 5.17 to 21 here. Look at this. So after all these
signs and wonders have been done, multitudes have been healed.
Multitudes! You'd think, you'd think people
would be jumping up and down. People were vexed with spirits,
unclean spirits being cast out. You'd think people, you'd think,
you'd think the Israelite leaders would be going, this is amazing,
we've never seen anything like this before. But did they do
that when Christ was at work? And they still have the same
dead nature, don't they? And look at this. This is an
extremely telling verse. Brother Jim, you and I one time
on the way out in our accident, you said, they were losing money.
And you're right. They were losing money, they
were losing power, they were losing prestige, and they were
mad. I'll tell you what. Here's people
being added to the Lord, and they're so mad. And how do we
know? Well, look at this. Then the high priest rose up
and with all that were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees,
and they were filled with indignation. We're going to look at what that
word means. Indignation. Oh my. And they laid their hands
on the apostles and put them in a common prison. They just
threw them in a prison with all the other, they didn't put them
in anywhere special, they just threw them in a general population
of prison. So they're in there with thieves
and murderers and all kinds of folks. Right? My oh my. But the angel of the
Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth
and said, now those doors there is plural. We're going to get to that later
on too. That angel opened all the doors
to get them from in that prison to outside. And you know what he did after
he closed them? And how do we know? Well, because
the next day, those sent by the Sadducees come and they said,
the prison's all locked up. And they're gone. The guards are still standing
there. In the gone! I was reading this, I thought,
the Lord's got a sense of humor. Here they threw them in jail
for the night, thinking, oh, those guys, they're going to
sit in that jail, they're going to be stewing about while we're
in jail. The Lord sends an angel, opens the doors right up, shuts
them all back up, takes them outside, And what does he do? Look what he tells them to do.
He's got a message, too. This angel's got a message. And
it's not about himself, right? Because angels are ministering
spirits. They minister to God's elect, right? They're sent by
God. It says, look at this. But the
angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought
them forth and said, go stand and speak in the temple to the
people all the words of this life. Meaning the gospel Go and preach the gospel. Go
into the synagogue and preach the gospel. And when they heard
that, they entered into the temple early in the morning. They were
there as soon as them doors were open. They were there, beloved.
They were there. They were ready to go right in.
You see that bread of bread? They'd be like, well, the first
day we're going to go right in there. It might not have been
the first, but they were ready to go, weren't they? They were
early in the morning. They were ready. They had to
make sure they were going to be there when the doors of the temple
opened up. Oh my. And taught. What'd they
do? They did as they were commanded to do. Now the high priest had
no idea. But look at this. But the high
priest came. and they that were with him, and called the council
together, and all the children of Israel, and sent to the prison
to have them bought." So here they are, the high priests, they
all gathered, they probably gathered themselves in some fancy room,
we're all, oh yeah, we're gonna bring them guys, we're gonna
get them, and so they send to the prison for them. And we're
gonna now read the next verse, I didn't have it in my notes,
but we're gonna read the verse next after that, look at this. But when the officers came and
found them not in the prison, they returned and told, saying,
the prison truly found we shut with all safety. It was locked
up. It was locked up, beloved, still.
And the keepers standing without before the doors. All the guards
were in their place. But when we had opened, we found
no men within. Now look at, when the high priest
and the captain of the temple and the chief priest heard these
things, they doubted them, of them, where into this would grow. They're probably like, were you
guys drinking last night? Come on, that can't be true. They doubted them, they doubted,
but I'll tell you what, isn't God amazing? Isn't God amazing,
beloved? Isn't he incredible? This is
the same sovereign God who keeps us. Do you know that angels are
sent as ministering spirits for us, for God's elect? We don't even know. We can't
see them, but they're there. Isn't that amazing? Do you know
that angels came and ministered to Christ? Oh my, my oh my. So we see in verse 18, let's
look at verse 18. These high priests, they were
so mad that they sent guards, or they sent their men to go
and lay hands upon the apostles. And they were put in a common
prison. Why were they thrown into prison? Why? What did they
do? What was their, they hadn't started
any rallies and saying, yeah, we're against the Sadducees,
did they? They hadn't said any of that at all. They hadn't said,
well, we're against the Romans. Believe not. They didn't say
anything like that at all. They weren't against any social
things. They weren't having a big old rally. They were preaching
Christ and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. and eternal
salvation in and through Christ alone. That's all. They were
just preaching the gospel. And you know, I think that if
these high priests could have murdered them, they'd have done
it. But they couldn't. Number one, they couldn't because
every man has an appointed time to die, right? And number two,
they feared the people. Because the people would rally
up against them. But number one, the most important thing, it's appointed on man once to
die. It wasn't their time, was it? Now each one of them was
going to die down the road, just like us, but only at the appointed
time of God. And again, they'd broken no laws.
They're not raising a social protest. They're not even crusading
against the evils of that day. They're just preaching Christ. They're just preaching Christ.
And they were persecuted for that one reason, the preaching
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So what does this do?
Well, this plainly exposes man's depravity, right? and man's hatred
for the gospel natural man's hatred for the gospel you know
they're preaching salvations only in christ not by anything
traditional not by not by the jewish religion not by the roman
religion not by the religion of any heathens only christ in
him alone and again we know because of
our study in chapter four that they were preaching the resurrection
weren't they And that went against the Sadducees, because the Sadducees
didn't believe in the resurrection. My oh my. But like Peter said,
it's better to obey God than man, right? Oh my. They had committed no terrible
evil. As a matter of fact, their society had been improved because
the Lord saved folks. You know that? You know why? Because we turn
away from things we used to do, don't we? I like Gene Harmon said, he goes,
God actually improved society that way by saving all them folks.
Some of them may have been thieves, some of them may have been robbers,
some of them may have been prostitutes, some of them may have been this
and that and that and this. And God saved them. My. The only way a human being
will change is by the sovereign grace of God. That's the only
way. Brian, we were talking about
that today. That's the only way that a man will change, or a
woman, is the sovereign grace of God. So for preaching the gospel,
they were persecuted, imprisoned, beaten. We're going to see later
on in our study in the next week or two. They were beaten. They
were whipped. And they come out of there counting
it all joy. that they were persecuted for the cause of Christ. Only
the grace of God can do that. Only the grace of God can do
that in a man or a woman. And take note of the hardened
state of the mind of the high priests and the Sadducees in
verse 17. It tells us they were filled
with indignation. Look at this. Then the high priest rose up,
and all they that were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees,
and were filled with indignation. This word means heat in the Greek. You ever remember when someone
gets warmed up, you say, man, they're cooking, aren't they?
They're getting warmed up. They're getting heated. That's what it means. They were
heated. They were upset. It also means, has an underlying
meaning of envy and jealousy, such as a jealousy of a man over
his wife, maybe someone else paying attention to him, and
that jealousy that a man will get. Or vice versa, a woman too. That jealousy though, that envy,
they were envying what the, ties right in with what you were saying
brother Jim. They were losing money, their coffers were going
dry, or they saw a big decline in it, and also they were losing
power, and they were jealous. So what does that show us? It
shows us their hardened state, doesn't it? It shows us the hardened
state of their heart. Here God's saving people, he's
healing people, he's casting out unclean spirits by his power
through the apostles, and they are filled with indignation.
The high priest in the Sadducees. The supposed who's who of Jewish
religion. The ones who supposedly study
the scriptures and tell people about God. Remember the Lord said to Nicodemus,
art thou a master of Israel and know not these things? When he
was talking about you must be born again. You study the scriptures? No,
he didn't have a clue. Now I believe Nicodemus, the
Lord saved him later on. I do believe that, because he
came with Joseph of Aramaeus and took the body of Christ,
thereby showing to everyone you know, that he, because normally
he wouldn't do that. My oh my, something changed in
him. It also means emulation. Someone who's filled with emulation
and envy and jealousy. And again, it's all because of
the supposed attention that the apostles are getting, but the
apostles aren't looking to get praised, are they? They want you to give all glory
to God, just like I do, right? And just like you want me to
do when I preach, give all the glory to God. He's the one who
gets it all. And here they're jealous. Oh,
they're getting so popular. They're stealing people from
our congregation. Number one, they're not your
people, they're the Lord's. Oh, my. Oh my. Isn't it incredible? So it shows
us here the hardened state of the heart of the high priest
and the Sadducees. And that's the same hardened
state we were born into. That's the same hardened state
we were born into. Death and trespasses and sins. And their hardened state again
is manifest because people have been cured, devil's been cast
out, and we see their character, their true character coming out
in the hatred for these things that are being done because of
jealousy and envy. And we can see in history, the
history of these characters here showing the righteous judgment
of God, if the Lord didn't save them, They were damned. They were damned. And if he didn't save them, they're
in hell right now. My, oh my. Now we know there's
some that the Lord talked to and he said, you're not my sheep. Where are they? They're in hell. My, oh my. Aren't you thankful
God showed you mercy, beloved? Praise his mighty name for his
mercy and grace. So this is the natural state
of all men and women born of the seed of Adam. And that is a state that only
sovereign grace can cure. Amen, eh, brother? Only sovereign
grace can cure this state. And we all, who are born-again
blood-washed saints, are witnesses of that, aren't we? Witnesses. Because where would we be if
the Lord hadn't saved us? We'd still be dead in trespasses
and sins. You know, when you mention election,
that God chooses people? Say no, we're talking about this
this morning. When you mention election, and I even felt this
way when the first time I heard election, I said, well, you mean
God sends people to hell? That's the first thing I said
to the person that told me that. Why do we jump to that conclusion
right away? Well, because of our pride, right? And at that time, I thought my
will was stronger than God's because I thought it was my own
choice that made me, you know, but I found out that's not true
at all. God and his mercy saved my soul,
right? My oh my. Do you know all, what does God
have to do for someone to go to hell? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Praise God, he chose us in Christ.
Right? And we say, what does God have
to do for us to go to heaven? Everything! Everything. All he's got to do is leave people
alone, and they go headlong into hell. But a sovereign, it takes
a sovereign act of mercy and grace to take us out of this. That's why the scripture says
we become new creatures in Christ, beloved. We're taken from the
darkness that we're in and translated into the marvelous light of God's
kingdom through Christ Jesus our Lord. Born again by the power
of God. It takes the power of God. The
same power that rose Christ from the grave. Do you know this?
The same power that rose Christ from the grave is the same power
that regenerates us. Now think of that. It's an exercise of God's power,
isn't it? Scripture calls it an operation
of God. He gives us a heart transplant,
doesn't he? We're made alive when we're dead spiritually.
Now we're made alive, and we have a new heart now that hungers
and thirsts for righteousness. And as Brother Kevin prayed,
this is the place where we want to be. We want to hear about
our Savior. Tell me about the one who can
keep me through any circumstance I'm going through. Tell me about my Savior. Tell
me about the one who's the lily of the valley to me, the fairest
of 10,000 to my soul. Why? Because he saved my soul.
He saved me. Oh my. Isn't it wonderful? God did that. And if you're a
saved person, God did that for you too, and for me. How can
we not praise Him? Praise God He didn't, He could
have left us alone. But no, He chose us in Christ
before the foundation of the world. But if it pleased Him
to just pass by us, that's His sovereign prerogative, isn't
it? People say, well, God has an obligation to save me. No,
He doesn't. He's got an obligation to save no one except for His
elect. Now you say that, and people
go, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. I had a fellow, I was going through
John 3.16. And we got, I told, I'm gonna
tell it again, I told it last week, but I'm gonna tell it again.
We were looking at the text, and he said, well, who's over
there, who's over? I said, yeah, what's it mean
in the Greek, Wayne? I said, anyone? And he goes, see, grace died
for everyone. I said, no, what's the next word?
Believeth. There's the elect. The elects
also in the whosoever, and yet elects in the believeth. Because
only the elect of God will believe because of a sovereign, magnificent,
amazing work of grace upon us, our hardened hearts, we were
just like these Sadducees. And God did amazing work in us,
didn't he? And we want to glorify him, don't
we sister? We want to glorify him for what
he's done for us. We want to glorify Him. We want
to give Him all the praise and glory. And one day we're going
to see Him face to face. Oh my. My oh my oh my. So the Lord just has to leave
man in a natural state and we'll go right to hell. My oh my. Paul, in the book of Romans,
he penned that mankind does not like to retain God in their thoughts.
And so what does God do for some? He just gives them over to a
reprobate mind. Gives them over to themselves. My oh my. And then the cause of them going
to hell is their own. My oh my, you ever think of that? Praise God for mercy in and through
Jesus Christ our Lord. And like Brother Neil said one
time, who are we to say who God will save and who he won't? We
were talking one time, he says, that's God's prerogative to do
whatever he pleases. And I'm like, amen, brother. That's true. He can do whatever he wants.
He's God. Oh, my. He said, that's not fair.
Well, I don't want fair. I don't want fair. Do you? Nope.
Fair, we'd all be damned. I don't want that. I stand up here and preach the
gospel because I know God does the saving. And I preach, and
I pray that the Lord will make it effectual for you. And if
you're here and you don't know Christ, my prayer is the Lord
to save you. And for God's people, that we'd
be built up in Christ. And as the message goes out,
I'm praying God will use it to draw on his lost sheep, beloved.
He said, we know he's going to do something with the word, right? See, preachers can stand up not
in confidence in ourselves, because we have no confidence in the
flesh. But we can stand up in the confidence knowing that God's
going to use us somehow. He's going to use it for his
good and for his glory. Isn't that wonderful? But in no way does the preacher
have any confidence in ourselves, no, my oh my. The Lord puts these
messages on our hearts as preachers and we preach them and let God
do the work. And pray, we pray the Lord will
bless you with them. My, my oh my. And so we see the hardened state
of the mind of these men. God's exposed their evil, deprived
heart just by their indignation towards the apostles. Look again
why they were thrown in prison. Look at verses 16 to 18. Look at this. Here the apostles
are going around, they're preaching Christ, they're preaching the
forgiveness of sin in Christ alone, the resurrection of Christ
for our justification. Look at verses 16 to 18. Look at this. There came also
a multitude out of the cities round about Jerusalem, bringing
six folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits, and
they were healed every one. Then the Sadducees rose up, and
all they that were with them. Then the high priest rose up,
and all they that were with them, which is the sect of the Sadducees,
and were filled with indignation, and laid their hands on the apostles,
and put them in common prison. cast into jail for just preaching
the gospel. Just preaching the gospel. And
remember, remember, the high priest had told them, they said,
don't you preach in Christ's name anymore. That's like telling a Christian
to shut up and we're just gonna talk more. And again, Peter says, is it
better to obey God or man? Well, God, of course, right?
God, of course. And here, God's chosen people
being delivered from the power of darkness, multitudes being
saved, being translated into the eternal kingdom of the Lord
Jesus Christ, multitude of sick folks being healed, and those
vexed with unclean spirits having been delivered, In this absolutely
infuriated we see in the text the high priest. It doesn't make
sense, does it? Oh my. So we see in verse 18,
they sent some officers of the court to arrest our Lord's apostles,
throw them in the common prison, and they laid their hands on
the apostles and put them in the common prison. So the Jewish
Sanhedrin and the high priest sent the officers in verse 17
to lay hold of the apostles. Now the Sanhedrin, they were
the 70 top dogs in Israel religion. And the high priest would make
the 71. They were the top, they were the cream of the crop of
Jewish religion. Oh my. They were the most highly respected,
the most influential, and thought to be the most spiritual. See, man looks at the outside,
but God looks at the inside. Remember what God, remember what
Christ called some of them Pharisees? They were nothing but whitewashed
tombs, vipers and snakes. My, I'll tell you what, they
got filled with rage when they heard that. No one had ever spoken
to them like that. They were reverenced. That's
God speaking to him, isn't it? And here's his apostles saying,
well, is it better for us to obey God than you? Could you
imagine how mad they got? What? Who are these common fishermen
saying this to us? Who are these common fellows? You ever been around people think
they're better than you? You ever been around people like
that? make you feel small. That's what these guys were like. They expected everybody to just
practically worship them. Oh my. And they were supposed
to be the most spiritually and godly men of the religious world
and they don't know nothing about Christ. And normally they were very tolerant
of folks. but not with the apostles of
Christ. No. And how, let us not be surprised
at that. How did they treat our Lord?
Lord said, they hated you, hated me without a cause. They're going
to hate you without a cause. Here it is right in our text,
right? Right in our text. All they're doing is proclaiming
Christ is the only savior of sinners. That's what they're
doing. They're preaching Christ. Hmm. And the Sanhedrin, they
thought the temple belonged to them. But that was God's temple,
wasn't it? This church is God's church.
The people, the building, the land. This is God's. He owns this and he owns everything
else, doesn't he? Like Dave says, we just get to
lease it. Right? It's just on loan to us. My oh
my. We're thankful and I love how
you guys pray for the country because keep praying for our
country. It is incredible that we can
meet in freedom. We can meet in freedom here and
rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. Many other countries they can't
do that. My. So the Sanhedrin, again, they
thought it all belonged to them, but it was God's temple, and
the angel of the Lord had commanded these men to go to the temple,
in the place where God's name was profound, unfortunately,
and preach the gospel there. Look at verse 20. Go stand and
speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. Go
preach the gospel. Christ is the word of life, isn't
he? He's the way, the truth, and the life. They're preaching
Christ. And the leaders of the Jewish
church, these guardians of the temple, would have killed God's
preachers if they could. They would have killed them.
But again, they feared that such an action would cause a riot
or bring the wrath of the people down upon them. Therefore, because
it was politically expedient, To do so, they spared the lives
of God's servants. And look in Acts chapter 5 verse
40, look at this. And see the word skin there?
Or the word beaten there? It means
to skin, like skinning an animal. They were whipped with a cat
of nine tails, which is dug into your skin and ripped the skin
right off your back. Look at this. And to him they
agreed, and when they had called the apostles and beaten them,
that's in the Greek to skin them, they commanded that they should
not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. Again, they're
saying, don't you speak that name of Christ again. Oh my. Again, that Greek word means
same word used to describe the skinning of animals. So these
men were brutally scorched with a whip. Again, a whip designed
to rip skin from their body. But look at the next verse. This
is what blows me away. Look at verse 41. And they departed
from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were worthy
to suffer shame for his name. Their blood pouring off them.
They're rejoicing. Praise God, he saved me! You ever rejoice in your suffering?
Not many of us do, do we? I'll be honest, it's a hard thing
to do, isn't it? By God's grace, we can, but it's
awful hard. I think it's almost impossible
for men, because the first thing we want to do is start complaining,
don't we? Let's be honest, that's how we are. But by God's grace,
they left there, and by God's grace alone, they left there
rejoicing, that they were counted worthy to suffer these things
for Christ. It's like when, I think it was
Jim, somebody asked Jim about dying grace, said, I don't have
dying grace. And Jim said, well, when you're dying, you'll get
it. That's true. When we need this kind of grace,
we'll receive it from the Lord. Isn't that amazing? Oh my. My oh my. And only the grace
of God at work in a born-again believer, born again by the Holy
Spirit of God, can produce this. Their bodies were wracked with
pain, they're bleeding, but we see their hearts were full of
joy. My oh my. Full of joy. And they counted themselves worthy
to suffer for the shame of Christ. They considered it a high honor
bestowed upon them that God would allow such worthless, sinful
creatures as they to suffer for the honor of Christ. They knew
what they were. They knew they were just safe
sinners. Peter had denied the Lord three times. The Lord didn't
count it against them, but I bet you Peter still remembered that.
You still remember some things we did? Some things we're ashamed
of we did way back, even though they're washed under the blood? Just keep reminding yourself,
it's all under the blood. It's all under the blood. It's
all under the blood. God don't see it anymore. Now
the enemy will bring it to your remembrance. Washed in the blood of Christ,
beloved. Oh, just keep reminding yourself
when that happens of the blood. It's all, when I see the blood,
I'm gonna pass over you. Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful.
Oh my. So they rejoiced in their faithfulness,
that God was faithful. They rejoiced in God's faithfulness
to them, not their own faithfulness. They knew they were up and down
like a seesaw. Listen to this, Peter wrote this, he said, and
he said, yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be
ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf. So when you're
going through suffering for the cause of Christ, give God all
the glory. Someone persecuting you for your
faith, pray for them, pray for their salvation, and give God
all the glory. Give Him all the glory. Now let's
look at verses 19 and 20. This is incredible what happens
here. This is just amazing. But the
angel of the Lord, by night, opened the prison doors and brought
them forth and said, go stand and speak in the temple to all
the people all the words of this life. Now, we're once again here
reminded that our Lord Jesus Christ is in absolute sovereign
control. Here, these wicked men cast the
apostles in jail, thinking, nah, we're going to let them sit in
there for the night and rot. We're going to let them think about
it. God says, no, you're not. And
not even the apostles knew this was going to happen, did they? Oh my! When I looked at this,
I was just amazed at our God's sovereign power. He opened the prison doors and
brought them forth and said, Go stand and speak in the temple
to the people all the words of this life. Now, some people get
into who was the angel. Was it Gabriel? Was it Michael?
You know what? That's irrelevant. That really
doesn't matter. It was an angel sent by God,
wasn't it? It was one of his elect angels. It was an angel of the Lord,
it was his. God's in command. He's the commander-in-chief of
all the angels. They all bow before him, all
the elect angels, and even the unelect, even the angels that
fell. They say, we know who thou art, and they tremble in fear
at who Christ is. Satan, I was talking to my son
this week about Satan, how he's just, Josh even said, he said, he's
just a created being, isn't he? He's not all-knowing. I said,
no, he's not all-knowing. Not at all. Only God's all-knowing. Sister Diane's brought this up
before. Sister, you brought that up one Wednesday night. That
he's just a created being. He can only do what God allows.
And that's true. Now we're no match for him, are
we? No. Every, all those fallen angels
and the elect angels are all at the Lord's command. You ever
think of that? They can't do nothing unless
He allows it. Remember the, oh Lord, remember
them demons, they're trembling? Are you gonna send us to the
deep? In the Greek, that's the abyss.
Are you gonna send us to the abyss? Are you gonna send us
to hell? He says you can go into them swine. Because the Jews weren't supposed
to have swine, were they? And them swines, what do them
swines do? 2,000 swines go over a cleft
and die. My, oh my. He just commanded
them. Go. My, how powerful is our God.
So he commanded this angel, go and let them out. What's the angel going to do?
Well, I'm going to think about that Lord. No, no, no, no, no. Yes, sir. At your command. And I think
the angels rejoice to do that, to minister to God's people.
That's what the scripture says in Hebrews 1.14. Are not all
ministering spirits but the angels sent forth to minister for them
who shall be heirs of salvation? Who shall be heirs? Well, I'm going to send you to
this person because I think they might be heirs. God sends his angels to those
who shall. He knows his people, right? He
knows us by name. My, so this is, here's one of
God's elect angels. One of those ministering spirits.
The minister that airs a promise. One of those angels of excelling
strength. As it appears, he opened and closed the doors to the prisons.
They were all locked up. No problem for him. My oh my. How do we know he opened
the door? Well, it says there. You know, it doesn't say he just
drifted into the cell. It says he opened the door. Nothing. And shut it again, and it locked. How do we know? Because that
verse we read, that falls, right? He says, we went and found the
whole prison all locked up, and every guard standing there, and
there's no apostles in there. Oh my. And again, the ministry
of angels lies in things spiritual and temporal. For what concerns
our bodies and souls in directing and preserving us in journeys
and delivering us from outward dangers, in restraining things
that would harm us and destroying our enemies, And some folks believe
they carry us to heaven. My, could you imagine Sister
Kathy being carried to heaven by an angel's brother? Woo! My! Brother Joel? My, oh my! Your papa, your dad is woosh. Both your dads woosh. Up they
go, man. Isn't that so comforting? Oh,
so comforting. So this angel sent in by God
at night, so they're not going to have to sit in the prison
all night, are they? From what I've heard, I never went to prison,
but from what I heard, you don't like to stay overnight. And here they are, look at this,
this is awesome. But the angel of the Lord, by
night, opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said,
go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of
this life. Now they probably went, I don't
know where they slept, they probably went and slept somewhere that
night. They didn't have to sit in that old musty rotten prison
with rats running around and all kinds of folks in there,
no. No. My oh my. And we see that this
angel opened the prison doors where the apostles were put in.
And other doors as well, because it's plural. Right? And opened the prison doors.
So he opened their prison door. And imagine he walked in here.
There's another door here. He opened that door up. Over
here. Another door here. He opened
that door up. Over here. Oh, we're finally outside. There
you go, guys. And all the while, the doors
are shutting behind him, locking. What I want to know, and I don't
know, is how they get by all them guards. God can do anything, can't he? He can veil their eyes so they
don't see nothing, and they go right by them. I cannot explain
that. But by faith, I believe it. Right? Oh, my. It's amazing. And these
doors were strong. You ever seen prison doors? They're
strong. Especially back in those days, too. They just had that
old lock thing. But those doors were strong. You could rattle
that door, and it wouldn't even move. Man, oh, man. I'll tell you what. But they
were easily opened by an angel. Oh, my. He opened them like they
were nothing. And it was very likely at or
towards evening when the apostles were taken. And therefore they
were committed to prison again to lie in there all night till
the next morning. Again, let's read verses 22 and
23. The angel, he must have shut
the doors too, as I said. Because look what it says here. Oh my goodness. But when the
officer came and found them not in the prison, they returned
and told, saying, the prison truly found we shut with all
safety. The doors are shut. Every door
is shut. And locked with safety. Locked. And the keepers, the guards,
standing before, without, before the doors. Everything is as it appears it
should be. Okay, except for this. But when we had opened, we found
no man within. So they come to the prison door
where Peter and John are. They open the door. There's no
one in the cell. Could you imagine them looking
at each other? What happened? And then to think,
now we've got to go back and tell them. Can you imagine the
anxiety in their head going all the way back there, thinking,
how are we going to explain this? So they just went and told them
the truth, didn't they? And the Sanhedrin, just like anybody
else would, says, what are you talking about? How can that be? Well, you know what we see here?
We see God's sovereign hand at work, don't we? Oh, this is our
king at work. He's absolutely sovereign, beloved. And you know what else we see?
I'll never leave you nor forsake you. I'll always be with you. No matter what you find yourself
in, beloved, the Lord will always be with us. And he has promised
that he will never leave us nor forsake us. Even if it comes
to the point of death, He just takes us home. My oh my. And then I believe we're more
alive than we've ever been before when we get to glory. Oh my. Look at verse 20. Go stand. This is why he, so he takes him
out of the prison through all those doors. Doors get re-shut,
locked. Again doors is plural in verse
19. So the angel led him right out of prison. And then verse
20, go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the
words of this life. Now again, note beloved that
they were not delivered out of prison to go and run away, were
they? What's the first thing a prisoner would do if you took
them out of prison? They'd take off, wouldn't they? They run so fast, they get out
of there. These men, they do not fear,
by the grace of God, the Sanhedrin. They were delivered out of that
prison, not in order to go and secure themselves from danger,
no. They were called to preach the gospel in the temple, and
they were commanded to do that. They were commanded to do that.
Think of this too, the temple is a public place of worship
for the Jews, right? It's their main place of worship. You have synagogues all around
the country, but the main place of worship is the temple in Jerusalem. And anyone who lived in Jerusalem
that could go to the temple would go to the temple for worship
on Saturday. So where does God send them?
Well, he sends them where his lost sheep are. He got sheep
there, or else he wouldn't be sending them there. You know
that? He sends them to the temple. You know the only reason I'm
here? Because God's got some sheep here. That's what Norm
Wells told me. He said, the only reason you're
in Alma, God's got some sheep there. He may have some more
to gather in, too. We don't know. But he's definitely
got sheep here, doesn't he? Oh my, it's amazing. So where better to go and preach
Christ than the temple where he's supposed
to be proclaimed. And the Jews meet there, so God
sends them there. And they were to stand there
with courage by the grace of God, not fear and reproach, not
fearing the wrath of man, knowing by even what had passed that
Christ is on their side. They were just miraculously delivered
out of a prison by an angel of the Lord, sent to do that. So they go and declare the gospel
to the people. Notice the people, the common
people. common people, just preach the
gospel to them. My, the multitude, all who comes, let them hear,
preach the gospel. That's what we do too, right?
All who come, preach the gospel, and out goes the message, and
still, the gospel's still being preached as the message goes
out, right? It's wonderful, beloved, I'll tell you why. And who makes it effectual? The
Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of God. He's the only one who
can make that message effectual, whether it blesses you or whether
it saves you. Because otherwise, my words are
just words. But somewhere, like I love what
Donnie said, somewhere between you and I, God the Holy Spirit
gets a hold of those words and blesses your soul with them. Just like he does when I'm listening
to a message. Oh my. And so they're the priests of
the gospel, aren't they? They're sent to preach the gospel. They're
sent to preach the words of life. Listen to this in John chapter
six, verses 68 and 69. It says, then Simon Peter answered
him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Now a bunch of people had left
the Lord. And he said, you gonna go too?
You're going to leave too? He already knows they're not,
because he's going to keep them, isn't he? But listen to what
Peter says. This is wonderful. Peter says
this. Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou
hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And then our
Lord tells them, flesh and blood didn't tell you that. That's
been revealed to you. Where would we go? If we have Christ, we have everything,
beloved. If we don't have Christ, we have nothing. We may think we're something,
but we're not. Remember in Galatians? They thought they were something,
but they were nothing. Those false teachers. My, oh my. And those two verses
point out that Christ and Christ alone is the only way to eternal
life. Not by the law. No one can be saved by the law.
No one. Not even by obedience to the
law we can't be saved. Simply because we can't obey
the law. But there's one who obeyed the law for us. And his
name is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he honored the law, didn't
he? In our Roman place. His words are powerful. It's the means of quickening
dead sinners and also of reviving depressed saints. Do we get anxious? Do we get depressed? Yeah. But
he revives us, doesn't he, through the preaching of the word. Why? Tell me about Christ. There's
enough trouble in the world already, isn't there? Tell me about Christ. This is
a lighthouse, an oasis, a place we can come and rejoice with
each other. It's like finding water in a
desert, isn't it? Praise God he gave us a desire
to be here. Praise God he gave us a heart
that hungers and thirsts after righteousness. My oh my. So what comfort can
be found in Christ for the safe sinner? He completely redeemed
his people from their sins by the shedding of his blood. Completely.
We are completely redeemed. Nothing needs to be done by man. Nothing. In this eternal life, the words
of life can only be found in Christ. There's nowhere else. Peter even said, where should
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. Who can we go to? Thou art the Christ. Thou art
the Messiah. That's what he's saying there.
Thou art the Messiah. The Son of the living God. In
what joy, now remember they told him, don't you preach the resurrection
anymore. What joy we can find in the resurrection, that God
is satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ for us. That's wonderful. Because he rose, we're gonna
rise too. Oh my. And now the apostles are freed
from prison, they're delivered by the hand of God through an
angel of the Lord. They're bid to go preach the
words of life, meaning the gospel and the doctrines of it. They're
commissioned by God, also they're sent by God to preach the gospel. They've been reproached, they've
been persecuted, they've been thrown in prison for just preaching
the gospel. And now they're still gonna go
out and preach the gospel. That's grace. God given them grace,
beloved. My! Again, look at verse 21 of
Acts chapter 5, and when they had heard, they entered into
the temple early in the morning and taught. That's what they
did. They heard what the angel said to them, they get up in
the morning, they head to the temple, and
they preach the very one they were thrown in prison for. Now, think of this too. Would
a hireling do that? Would someone who was not sent
by God do that? They'd run the other way. You know, I've always said, if
I ended up in prison, I'd just preach the gospel in prison.
That's what all we preachers talk about that. If God ever
had us to go into prison, we just preach the gospel in there.
Donny Bell, I've talked about that. Well, we got a prison ministry
now. What do you do? Right? My, oh my. My, oh my. So we see by the grace
of God, that they were obedient to the command of God. And that's
only by the grace of God. They'd been delivered by an angel,
which is miraculous. And they believed him to be the
messenger of God who declared his will. And so when he said,
go into the temple, they went into the temple. Like I said,
he wasn't just sent to free him. He was sent with a message too,
wasn't he? Keep preaching Christ. Keep preaching. And we're going
to see through this book of Acts miraculous sovereign works of
our great God in protecting his people. Keeping them. My, oh, my. And even saving one
who was murdering them. And saying to the man he was
going to send to speak to him for the first time, saying, he's
a chosen vessel. Do you know every believer is
a chosen vessel? I'm looking at folks who have
chosen vessels of God. Isn't that wonderful? Not because
of anything in us? No, no. Not because of any merit? No. All because of the grace
of God and Christ. My, we're so blessed, beloved.
We are so blessed in Christ. So what did the apostles teach
to suffer for Christ's sake? Well, they taught the amazing
grace of God's sovereign grace, right? They taught that God was
sovereign and that Christ was sent into this world to die for
sinners. They declared the scriptural truths of the God's sovereign,
unconditional, electing grace in Christ. They declared the wondrous truths
of his perfect redeeming work. I mean perfect. There's nothing
to be added to it. They declared the perfect redeeming
work of salvation done by Christ for a particular people. How? By the shedding of his precious
blood. Not only am I looking at chosen vessels, I'm looking
at folks being redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Do you deserve it? None of us do, do we? That's
what makes it amazing grace. That's why it's so amazing. That
God would show grace to sinners such as we. Mine. And then the scriptures declare
the wondrous truth of the sovereign, irresistible, drawn power of
God the Holy Spirit who gives eternal life. He regenerates
us, we're born again by his power. He does this to God's chosen
people, how? Under the preach of the gospel. And then the scriptures declare
the wondrous truth that God himself raised Jesus from the dead. And
that's what really ticked off them Sadducees, because they
didn't believe in the resurrection. Here's the who's who. Here's
the who's who of Israel. And they didn't believe in the
resurrection. And Christ rises from the dead. And that's our
hope, isn't it? The hope of our salvation is
based upon the complete work of Christ and the fact that he
rose from the dead. Because if he didn't raise, then
none of us be justified because it says he was raised for our
justification. So we can stand in the presence of God accepted in the beloved. My! That's what they preached beloved.
That's what they preached and that's what they were thrown
in jail for. Glory be to God. Glory be to God. Brother Jim
would you mind closing us in prayer?