Thank you, ladies, for the good
meal last night. You couldn't have served a meal
to suit me and Brother Don any better than hot dogs and chili.
I can't eat too much of that too often, but I love it when
I get it. So thank you for that. I want to look this morning at
the passage of Scripture, an incident that took place in the
early church, in Acts chapter 11. in Acts chapter 12. Acts chapter 11, and I want to
begin reading in verse 27. Most commentaries that I read
are in agreement that the church in the latter days will go through
some awful, awful trials and afflictions. That's my understanding. I don't say that I'm right about
that, but that's my understanding. And I don't know what this church
as a congregation may go through. Some of you already went through
some personal trials. The churches went through some
trials. The church that I pastor, the church that you pastor, have
went through some trials. Whatever we may face in the future
as individual Christians, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, who
hope in Him, whatever we go through as a congregation of the Lord
in this world, I hope this message today will help us when we see
what the church has already went through. Let's begin reading
in Acts chapter 11 and verse 27. And in those days came prophets
from Jerusalem unto Antioch, and there stood up one of them
named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should
be a great dwarf throughout all the world, which came to pass
in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, every man
according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren
which dwelt in Judea. which also they did and sent
it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. And about
that time, Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex, to harass,
to intimidate certain of the church. And he killed James,
the brother of John, with a sword. And because he saw that it pleased
the Jews, he proceeded father to take Peter also. Then were
the days of unleavened bread. and when he had apprehended him,
he put him in prison and delivered him to four quarterians, sixteen
soldiers, to keep him, intending after Easter to bring him forth
to the people. Peter, therefore, was kept in
prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God
for him. And when Herod had And when Herod
would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping
between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and the keepers before
the door kept the prison. And behold, the angel of the
Lord came upon him, and the light shined in the prison, and he
smote Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from
his hand. And the angel said unto him,
gird thyself and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he
said unto him, cast thy garment about thee and follow me. And
he went out and followed him and wished not that it was true
which was done by the angel, but thought he saw a vision.
When they were past the first and second ward, they came unto
the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of
his own accord. And they went out and passed
on through the one street, and forthwith the angel departed
from him. And when Peter was come to himself,
he said, Now know of a surety that the Lord has sent his angel,
and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all
the expectation of the people of the Jews. And when he had
considered the 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 hearken, named Rhoda. And when
she knew Peter's voice, she opened up the gate for gladness, but
ran in and told how Peter stood before the gate. And they said
unto her, You're mad. But she constantly affirmed that
it was even so. Then they said, It's his ghost,
it's his spirit, it's his angel. But Peter continued knocking,
and when they had opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. But he beckoned 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 to another
place. Now as soon as it was day, there
was no small stir among the soldiers what was become of Peter. And
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 and thereabove. And
Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sodom. 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." They
were on food stamps, weren't they? "...and upon a set day
hurried arrayed in his royal apparel, sat upon his throne,
and made an oration unto them, a great speech. 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 and the word of the Lord grew and multiplied. This no doubt was the most severe
trial that the church had faced at this time. They had suffered
mainly threatenings, physical threatenings. If you don't cease
to speak in the name of Jesus Christ, then we're going to beat
you." They threatened them. And they did beat them. And they
threatened them. But when they did that, the church
only increased. And then we see in the seventh
chapter, Saul of Tarshish was making havoc of the church, going
about in strange cities and hauling men and women. And when they
were tried, he was there to give his testimony against them, put
them in prison. Many of them know that were put
to death. Religious persecution up to now was what the church
had suffered. The Pharisees and the scribes,
the religious Jews, they'd got their hands finally by the will
of God upon the Son of God. They'd put Him to death. Nothing
else they could do, so now they were after His people. They were
after His church. But we come here to the 11th
and the 12th chapter of Acts and I think probably this is
the worst persecution that the church had endured up until this
time. Everything now seemed to turn
against them. Before, at least the government,
the civil authority was there to somewhat protect them. The
Jews As much as they hated the people of God, they were limited
as to what they could do. But now we're told here that
the king himself turns on the church. The civil authority turns
on them and he puts James to death, probably decapitates him. He puts Peter in prison and says,
I'm going to kill him too because it's pleasing the Jews. Religion
has always been against the church. We've always had to stand against
false religion. There's nothing they can do but
argue. But what is the church to do
when the civil authorities turn against it? That which usually
God has set up for the protection of the church. Now the Lord draws
his hand back and lets the civil authority shut the church down. What's the church to do then?
I just wonder how many of us would be here this morning if
it was against the law for us to be here. Would I be here this morning
if I was threatened by the local sheriff? If you show up there
to preach, you will be put in jail. What would I do? We have had this overthrowing
governments there in Egypt and now Syria. And whatever you think
of those dictators. And there's some brutal men there
as dictators. But as those dictators, as brutal
as they are, are overthrown, look who's taken their place.
At least those brutal dictators protected professing Christianity. And I'm not here to argue where
those professing Christians are Christians or not, but it's the
principle of it, isn't it? As those governments are overthrown,
the civil authority turns, and what are they doing? Burning
churches, killing Christians. What is the church to do when
the civil authority turns against it? That's what they were facing
here. We never faced that, but we might. It may not be as far
off as some of us think. You and I have enjoyed a lot
of liberty, haven't we? It may be slowly taken away from
us. That's what this church faced
here. And then not only that, and I
say this was the greatest trial they ever faced, there was this
drought. A drought had came. Before they
could grow their gardens, they had their crops, but now there
was a drought. That even stood against them.
Nature seemed to stand against them. They had to have help from
some outside source, sending food from other areas. This was
a trying time for the church. One of them had already been
killed. There was no preaching going on as far as we know. I'll
tell you, James' voice ceased, didn't it? Peter wasn't doing
any preaching. He was here between these two
soldiers. The church was hiding out. What is the church to do
when preaching ceases? When the civil authority says
you can't gather anymore, it's against the law and we'll put
you in jail or kill you if you do. What can the church do when
she can do nothing else but hide out? She can pray. That's what she did, wasn't it? In verse 5, that's what we're
told. Prayer was made of the church continually. That's what
she did. She prayed. She prayed. There may come a time when we
can do nothing else but pray. I just wonder sometimes if it
wouldn't be good if the Lord so shut us up that we could do
nothing but pray. I was at a church service not
long ago and we went through all the service. There was the
reading of the scriptures, there was the preaching and the dismissal
and not one person prayed. I guess the pastor forgot it.
But isn't that the sad thing? That he forgot it. That there's
not a spirit of prayer among us. That we can't forget it.
That we could never assemble without somebody leading us to
the throne of grace and pouring out their hearts to God to be
among us to let us worship Him. That's what they were reduced
to. Maybe that's what we need to be reduced to sometimes. I have a dear old friend of mine,
a friend of ours in Fairview, Montana, northern Montana. He went out there a great number
of years ago and began to work, and the Lord blessed it, but
now he's laying up in northern Montana in a trailer on a bed
dying of Parkinson's disease. somebody waits on him, somebody
feeds him, changes his diaper. A dear man of God. And he says,
I can do nothing. The last time I saw him, he said,
I am reduced to nothing but laying here in this bed. And I said,
brother, you can do something for me. You can pray to God for
me. You can remember me before the
throne of grace. I covet that more than anything
in this world. You can live without this church's
finances. It'd be difficult. Somebody else
would support you. It'd be difficult if they don't
come here and support you physically. But I tell you, the worst thing
they could do for you is not to pray for you. prayer was made continually to
God for Him. Oh, brothers and sisters, that's
what we need, isn't it? A whole attitude, a whole spirit
of prayer among us. Oh, the least I can do is pray
for you. No, that's the most you can do
for me. Pray to God for me. I'll tell you, I think sometimes
if I had one thing that i have ever had the occasion of promoting
over the preaching of the gospel it would be prayer i tell you can take some you
can take some preaching they don't have a great deal of deep
content to it but if god's in it oh it's a blessing but you
let a theologian come to the pulpit and if god isn't in it
it will do nobody any eternal uh... what she ought to always
in her closet when you are broken up theater In our blessed Lord Divine there
is peace and joy sublime. There's health, there's strength.
When we take our sorrows, our troubles, all to Him alone. That's what they were doing.
That's what they were doing. We can't preach any longer. Peter
can't, James can't. They're hiding out. What can
we do? Pray. Let us pray. We see something else in this
church here. We see what it is to pray in
faith. Of all places to see what it is to pray in faith, you wouldn't
think that this would be the place to turn to find it, would
you? Because they did not know God was going to deliver Peter.
They had no idea that the Lord was going to deliver him, at
least when he did. They were shocked. They were
astonished when Peter knocked at the door and they went and
opened the door and there he stood. They were amazed. Then
you say, Bruce, how in the world can you say this is a prayer
of faith that they were praying? Because the Lord heard their
prayer. And he answered their prayer. You know, faith is not
always believing the Lord's gonna do something. it's not always believe it sometimes
we pray and we don't know what is really i wonder if they prayed
for james lord would you deliver james and peter we pray sometimes
that we don't know if it's god's will but here it is we know exactly And that's the way we pray in
faith. That's the way Abraham walked and lived his life. He
was persuaded that what God had promised, he was able to perform. I know whom I have believed,
and I am persuaded that he's able. Is that not faith? Will
he do it? I don't know. I don't know what
God's will is in certain situations. But we pray knowing that he's
able. That poor leper come to the master
and he said, Lord, if you will, you can. Are you going to? I don't know, but I know you
can. I know you can. And that's the
way we pray, isn't it? That's the way we pray. Call upon me in the day of your
trouble. I will deliver you. You believe
that he's able to deliver you? You believe he's able to deliver
you from your trouble? What trouble are you in? It doesn't
matter if you believe that he's able. And what does that do,
believing that he's able? It brings this prayer to call
upon him. The Lord hear you in the day
of trouble. You believe he's able to hear
you? The name of the God of Jacob defend thee. Is he able to defend
thee? Send thee help from the sanctuary
and strengthen thee out of Zion. Just believe in that he's able
to do these things. I'll tell you what he'll do.
He'll put us to seek and him to do it. He's able. He's able. He's able to do exceedingly
and abundantly all that we ask i think we can ask i tell you
i've thought some amazing things i've imagined some amazing things
i can ask the Lord to do but he's able to do exceedingly above
even what we ask or think that's the prayer of faith Lord,
do for me above what I can even think that you would do for me.
Amaze me! That's the prayer of faith. But what can you do when you're
reduced to the point that you can't even pray? That's where Peter had come to.
The church were in hiding, but they could pray. Peter, have
you been, here's one of the things, here's one of the problems that
we preachers face, and Don can relate to this. Sometimes when
you go off for a meeting, a weekend meeting, four or five days or
whatever, and you're around a bunch of people all the time, you just get where you can't
pray. I don't know how most of you are in your prayer. but i've
got to get somewhere by myself where i can say oh god help me
oh lord be near me i've got to worship him and sometimes i can't
pray aloud around other people you ever have prayer praying
in public i can't pray around people to say i gotta get along
can you imagine peter here this night beginning to pray between
these two souls Buddy, listen. You either shut your mouth, and
I'm going to shut it for you. We're trying to sleep here, and
you keep calling on this Jesus of Nazareth and worshiping him.
I'm telling you, one more word out of your mouth, and I'm going
to stick my fist in. Would you keep praying? Well,
you couldn't concentrate. He was reduced to the point where
he couldn't even pray. What's a man to do this? I guess it's time to sleep, isn't
it? It's just time to rest. It's
time to go to sleep. When we've done the will of God,
when we've spent our day living for His glory and the good of
the souls and the profit of ourselves, and it comes time to quit preaching,
it comes time that we keep praying, what do we do then? Well, it's
time to rest, isn't it? It's time to sleep. This is the
amazing thing about this man here. He was sleeping between
these two soldiers, bound with a chain. And I say that's amazing
for this reason. Peter wasn't built His whole
attitude wasn't made, his whole disposition wasn't made to be
laying between these two soldiers, ready to be brought to the chopping
block the next day. That wasn't what Peter was made
up to be. He was scared to death of men. We have two times that
he denied the Lord Jesus Christ, and both times it was because
he was scared of men. That was one time the little
maid, remember that? A little woman came up to him
and said, you're one of his disciples. He started cussing and swearing.
I tell you, I don't know it. I don't know it. Down in Antioch
in Galatians chapter 2 he denied the gospel because he feared
the Jews that was coming down from Jerusalem. And both times
he was intimidated to death by the fear of man. And here he
lays between these two soldiers and he's asleep. He's not disturbed
at all. What is going on with this man?
The Lord had obviously given him rest. And here was a man
that knew something about eternity. He knew there was a hell to shun
and a heaven to gain. He wasn't laying here ignorant
of what was coming when he got his head chopped off. And yet
he was sleeping. That's amazing, isn't it? That's
amazing. And the very night, we're told
here, that Herod was to bring him forth. The very night. I tell you, my imagination would
have been running wild with me. I couldn't have slept for anything.
I can't sleep now hardly, and things are well with me. I've
been on melatonin for the last six months, for crying out loud. But here was a man that was going
to be killed the next day, and he was sleeping. He wasn't praying. They probably wouldn't let him.
He sure wasn't preaching, but he was sleeping. I want to give you seven things
right quickly, and just take me a minute. That Peter believed
and knew and lived in the faith of, and this is why he slept. This is why he slept. And brothers
and sisters, whatever we have to face in our personal lives,
whatever we have to face is congregation these are seven hope you can
live first of all in all of these pertain to peter you find it
all his life first of all he knew this he knew all that's
it That's the faith that keeps me
still, no matter what the test, to know the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, Bruce, how can I know
him? Well, he is in heaven. He is in heaven at the right
hand of the Father, in the bosom of the Father, and we're upon
this earth, but we can know him, and we must know him. This is
life eternal, to know him. And the Lord asked Peter one
day, he said, Peter, who do you say that I am? He said, you are
the Christ, the son of the living God. How did he know that? And you're brothers and sisters,
I can't reveal Christ to myself, I can't reveal him to you, but
there is one way to know him, and you can know that you know
him. flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father
which is in heaven the spirit reveals Jesus Christ to our understanding
we know him and when he reveals it he can
make it where it's beyond a shadow of a doubt that you know him
I love the little article you put in the bulletin this morning
about him. Read that article in the bulletin.
The lady was there losing her memory. I know in whom I have
believed and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that. She forgot
it all but that which I've committed unto him and she forgot everything
but him. Him. That's it, isn't it? Him. To know If we know everything
else, we may have all our theology, all our ducks, as they say, in
a row. But here is where it's at, to
know Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the first thing. The second
thing is this. Peter knew what Christ had done
for him concerning his sins. Boy, if you know Him, be about
the Father's business when you can. Be about helping your fellow
man and your profit of your own soul when you can. But when it
comes time to lay down and rest, lay down and rest because you
know Him. And lay down and rest because
you know what He's done for you concerning your sins. And here's what Peter said, 1
Peter 2, verse 24, He Himself burned our sins. my sins, in his own body on the
tree. 1 Peter 3, verse 18, Christ has
once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might
bring us to God. He knew that in this question
concerning his sins, Jesus Christ had bore them, he had suffered
for them, and he had put them away. by the sacrifice of himself. Now, could you lay down and rest
if you could live in the faith of that? What is it that makes
us afraid when we think about death? When we think about the
judgment to come, what is it that bothers us? What makes our
conscience scream, no, I can't face this, no, I'm terminated? Is it not this knowledge that
our sins are upon us? that we'll lay down in the grave
and our sins will follow us to judgment? Is that not what makes
us afraid? I read a story years ago and
I never have forgotten. I've often told it about this
young mountain climber. Out west somewhere he climbed
up in the mountains and got caught in a storm and froze to death. And they found in his pocket
a little note and he said, my only fear, will God forgive my
sins? And he died that way. And he
died in torment, no doubt. Peter wasn't concerned about
that, was he? And here's why. And brothers and sisters, here's
where the faith of our hearts got to take hold of this. Jesus
Christ, in the days of his flesh, took our sins from us by the
will of God, by the work of God, the act of God. He took them
to himself. into his own body. Believe that. We say that, but
do we believe that? He bore our sins in his body. We hear that, but do we believe
it? Do we try to twist that and say, surely it can't mean that?
It means exactly that. Before we were ever born, all
God's elect people, He gathered up every sin, He searched every
crack and every crevice and got all those monsters. As only God
can do. And upon the cross of Calvary,
He put them in the body of His Son. And He says, these are mine
now. And He owned them as His own.
He called them my iniquities. And sin in our own apprehension
may still be in our conscience, but before God they're not. Before God our sins cannot be
in two places, on us and upon our Savior at the same time.
And He took them from us and put them upon Him. And He suffered
for those. And God is more glorified in
the three hours of suffering of the Son of God for our sins
than He is in our eternal punishment for our own sins. He can take
no delight in the damnation of a sinner because it cannot satisfy
Him. But upon the cross of Calvary,
what did he say when his son said, it's finished? God says,
I'm satisfied. I will never smite again. I'll
never curse again. Why? Because there's no reason
to. Our sins have been born. They've
been purged and under God this morning. The only way that you
and I as children of God are allowed to consider our sins
as burdensome as they are to us, as we confess them before
God, the only way we're allowed to consider them is that they
have been purged. Martin Luther said, when Satan
comes to you and says, you're the worst sinner that ever lived,
deserving of hell, tell him you believe it. But Jesus Christ has stood surety
for you. and by his own life laid down,
your sins have been put away in a way that God is glorified. And live in the faith of that,
brothers and sisters. Live in the faith of that. Share
that. Read it over and over until you
get it in your hearts. Share it and live in the faith
of it. We hear things, but we don't
hear things. I was coming out of the motel
room this morning and Dave, And I told the lady there at the
desk, I said, you've got a nice hair dryer, but you need to put
some extra hair conditioner in the room. And she said, okay,
we'll do that. She didn't hear a thing I said.
She was looking at my head. Okay, okay. Ain't that the way
we are? God saw the travail of his soul
and he's satisfied. Rest. Rest. Hear it. Hear him. And rest. Peter knew it. And I tell you,
he knew it to the point he slept. God gave his beloved rest. Thirdly
is this. Peter knew this personally. He
knew he had an advocate with a father in heaven. he knew remember
the occasion where the lord told him peter satan it is hard to
have you you're going to show sin against me you're going to
deny me and satan is waiting to you do it he's going to drive
you to despair he's going to drive you away from me into eternal
misery but i have prayed for you that your faith fell on. What was it that kept Peter from
being driven to despair, from being sifted by Satan, the archenemy
of God in our souls? He had an advocate with the Father.
That's the only thing that saved him. I have prayed for you. You know if things are well in
heaven, things are well on this earth. Ain't that wonderful? Things
are well with me in heaven. Things are well with you, dear
child of God. You have a mediator. You have
a faithful and merciful high priest. You have an advocate
with a father. It's well there in the court
of heaven. And if it's well in heaven, it must be well down
here. So he sleeps. He sleeps. David said, Lord, you're my shield. You're my glory, the lifter up
of my head. Therefore, I lay me down to sleep,
and I wait for the Lord to sustain me. I will both lay me down in peace
and sleep, for the Lord only maketh me dwell in safety. Fourthly is this. Peter said
this himself in 1 Peter 3, verse 22. Listen to this. He says about
Jesus Christ, He has gone unto heaven and is on the right hand
of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject
unto Him. He lived in the faith of that.
Who's Harriet anyway? Oh, I've got you, Peter, and
tomorrow you're coming before me. I'm going to cut your head
off. Well, who are you, Harriet? You're just a puppet. You're
a pawn. Your heart, your very heart and
the direction of your thoughts and what you're going to do tomorrow
is in the hands of my sovereign savior and he's going to do with
you whatsoever he pleases. Oh, we get so disturbed about
what's going on in our country. Well, we should. Our poor president,
we don't like him very much, do we? Just to be honest. Just
to be honest, I pray for him, I pray the Lord keep him, but
I pray God will awaken him and open his heart. But who is he? He's nobody. He's a pawn. His breath's in his nostrils,
and all the Lord has to do is, and he can't take another breath,
smite him right here, and he's dead. these fellows can you imagine
these two soldiers how they pity peter if you've got any sense
about you what you would do is deny this christ that you've
been talking about preaching we'd go tell harriet and boy
he'd get uh... he could really tell the jews
and they'd set you up for life you'd have a long life in this
world man look at us you know tomorrow you're going to be dead
And us soldiers, boy, we're going to be living right on, enjoying
life. You think so? You think so? There's somebody else running
this show, you know. You know, I may be out of here tomorrow,
and you fellas may be in trouble. Oh, that's what happened, wasn't
it? Oh, brothers and sisters, why
do we fret and fear when things seemingly are so out of control?
The Lord Jesus has gone into heaven. He's on the right hand of God.
All things are subject to Him. Your situation, the circumstances
that you find yourself in, it's all subject to Him. Rest. Rest. Fearfully is this, and quickly.
Peter remembers this. I imagine he remembered this
very well. Just before the Lord went back to glory, he told him
to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
There in Matthew 28. And he said, I am with you always. I am with you always. Always. I am with you always. What does that mean to us? He's
with you this morning. He'll be with you when you leave
this place. He'll be with you tonight. In the late hours of
the night, He's with you. There's no place that you ever
go, no circumstances you'll ever face. The Lord Jesus Christ,
by His sovereign Spirit, He is with you. The writer of Hebrews
said, I'm telling you this so you can live your life without
covetousness. You can be content with the things
that you have and the situations you're in because the Lord has
said, I will never leave you nor persecute you. So that we
may boldly say, the Lord is my effort. I will not fear what
man can do to me. Sixthly is this, and this had
to mean a lot. This wasn't the first time Peter
had been in jail. Remember chapter 5? He had been there before, him
and John. The same thing happened to him
before. An angel came and led him out of jail. Here he is again. And don't you think he was thinking
about this thing? Well, he said, I remember not
long ago. I was here before. And the Lord
delivered me and he's able to do it again. Well, I listened
to a message by Brother Mahan yesterday. Words to live by and
words to die by. And one of his points was this.
Spurgeon told one of the old members of his church, he said,
I envy you because of your age. Spurgeon was 22 years old. And
he said, you can look back over a lifetime of experiences. You have learned to trust the
Lord because you have learned of his faithfulness. I tell you,
I was scared to death when the Lord first saved me. For quite
some time, I was scared to death. Every situation I got myself
into, every circumstance that was displeasing to me, I worried
and dreaded myself then. But now, now, 40 years later,
I can look back over my life of walking with him, and I can
say without a doubt, he has never let one promise fall to the ground. He has never failed me one time,
brothers and sisters. And you, you, some of you are
older than I am. You can say that, can't you?
Has he ever failed you, Don? Never has. Ever failed you, Shelby?
You've learned that experience, haven't you? He never will fail
you. He never will fail you. And last
is this, and I want you to turn to my text of scripture here
in 1 Peter 5, and I'll close with this. Peter knew this. 1 Peter 5, look in verse 1. 1 Peter 5, verse 1, the elders
which are among you, I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness
of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker of the glory that
shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God which is
among you, taking the oversight thereby, not by constraint, but
willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Neither
spend lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock.
And when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown
of glory that fadeth not away. You know why Peter wasn't so
concerned about how much longer he lived in this life? Why he
laid down and slept? Because he lived in the faith
and the assurance of what was awaiting him. I'm a partaker
of the glory that shall be revealed. How this would change our lives,
brothers and sisters, if we could live in the faith and knowledge
of this every day. And God would have us to. It's
not presumptuous to believe what the Bible says about the saint
when he departs this life. The scriptures are not silent
on that subject. I have a desire to depart. Is
it lawful to have such a desire? It is! And we should have it! And we should even pray, Come
Lord Jesus! Why? Because to depart this life
is to be with Christ, which is far better. It's to rest from
our labors. It's to look upon His face. It's
to see Him as we long to see Him here. It's to worship Him
as we long to worship Him here and never was able because of
our sin. It's to never sin again. It's
to never be molested with temptations and sorrows and weeping again.
It's to be comforted. It's to sit in His lap. It's
to be hugged. It's to kiss Him. It's to look
into His eyes. It's to know Him in a way that
we often misjudged Him here. And to wait there with Him until
He comes again in His glory. to have these bodies changed
and fashioned like unto his glorious body. Why would a man want to
live in this life? Why would he want to pray for
his days to be extended if he has such a hope in the life to
come? That's why Peter was sleeping.
That's why he was sleeping. I'm a partaker of the glory.
Fanny Crosby was, I think she was born blind, but she never
She has no recollection of ever seeing anybody. She was an old
lady when she died, blind. The preacher said to her one
time, he said, Mrs. Crosby, said, it's really sad
that God wasn't pleased to give you eyes. And she said, oh, sir,
no, no, no. She said, if I had my choice,
I'd be born blind again. And he said, why do you say such
a thing? She said, I've never seen the face of anybody. And
the first face I will ever see is my savior. Oh, then let me die. If I'm to
see him, if I'm to sit in his lap and lean upon his bosom,
let me die. They gonna kill you tomorrow,
let them kill me. I'll just begin to live. well
let us do what we can let us give ourselves a fresh to the
work of god and the honor of jesus christ the good of his
people let us do everything we can brothers and sisters but
when we're reduced to where we can't do anything let us pray
when we're at the place where we can't even do that let us
rest god bless you god bless you god bless you brother dom
as you come and preach to us