Let's give our careful hearing again tonight to the reading of God's Word as it is before us here in Acts 12, verses 1-25. Hear now the Word of the Lord. About that time, Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword. And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, He proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of unleavened bread. And when he seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. Now, when Herod was about to bring him out on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains, and centuries before the door were guarding the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, Get up quickly. And chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, dress yourself and put on your sandals. And he did so. And he said to him, wrap your cloak around you and follow me. And he went out and followed him. But he did not know what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they had passed the first and the second guard, They came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord and they went out and went along one street and immediately the angel left him. When Peter came to himself, he said, now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting. When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. And recognizing Peter's voice, I'm sorry, and when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter's voice in her joy, she did not open the gate, but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, you are out of your mind. But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, it is his angel. But Peter continued knocking. And when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, tell these things to James and to the brothers. Then he departed and went to another place. Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the centuries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent some and spent time there. Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king's chamberlain, they asked for peace because their country depended on the king's country for food. On an appointed day, Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, the voice of a God and not of a man. Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give God the glory. And he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. But the word of God increased and multiplied. And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark. Please bow with me briefly in prayer. Father, this is your word, and we are your people, your children. We come as sheep to be fed by your hand, and we pray that you would speak to us We are ready to hear from You and we pray that Your Spirit would use Your Word mightily in our lives tonight. Please convict us in those areas where we need to be convicted. Please comfort us as only Your grace and Your love and Your kindness can do. We look to You now Anticipating to hear from you tonight. Asking this in Jesus' name. Amen. As I mentioned just a moment ago, this morning we began to consider this chapter together. It's a rather long chapter. It's got lots of things going on in it. But this morning we began a consideration of this passage by looking at the very difficult issue of God's providence. And you see that in the very first couple of verses of the chapter in the difficult circumstance that the church faces in that James is killed by the sword, but Peter is delivered by an angel. Why? Why is Peter delivered and James executed? We also looked at the I think it is an awe-inspiring display of God's power as Peter is supernaturally delivered from prison by an angel right in the midst of the time that the church is praying. It's just a remarkable display of the power of God coming and delivering Peter. And we ended the consideration of the chapter this morning by considering the very sober reality, and this is something that we often don't want to talk about, but the very sober reality of God's punishment as it came against Herod here very quick and very heavy because Herod would not give God the glory. Well, this evening we're going to return again to the Same chapter, the same story, to look at a few more matters that I think are here and that can be beneficial to us. But as we do so, I want to return briefly to the final matter that we were considering this morning as we concluded the message, and that is God's patience. God's patience. If you were here this morning, let me just say, you need to hear it again. If you weren't here this morning, you need to hear it as well. But I want to pause now and take a little time really thinking about God's patience as it's really shown in our lives and maybe in contrast to how he brought down his judgment so strongly upon Herod. Because I realize that some of you, maybe looking at this account of Herod being struck down by God and being eaten by worms, and you are not very moved by it, and you do not fear God as you should. Indeed, you may be sitting here tonight, you may have been living your life for some period of time, with the attitude that is often referred to throughout the book of Psalms, that God does not see, He does not know, you think that you are getting away with it. And it is a phenomenon that happens as you get comfortable in your sin. It is a very wrong idea. You think that since your life is going pretty well, since, because you haven't been stricken with something terrible, that you think that you are probably getting away with your sin. And therefore, you don't really need to worry about it. I mean, surely, if God was going to get me for my sin, he would have done so by now. And so you're lulled, frankly, you're lulled by your sin to think that you are getting away scot-free. But nothing could be further from the truth. The bottom line is your sin will find you out. And you need to hear it again this evening, that it is actually God's patience and it is God's kindness towards you, and that is the reason that you have been spared this long in your life. That you have been spared a terrible judgment, and it is His kindness and patience. It is not that you are getting away with it. Because here is the thing. We serve a God, and we have a King so different than the kingdoms of this world, that our God desires to win us by His love and His grace, not by fear and terror. He wants you to love Him and to obey Him because you love Him. That's what He desires. He wants us to be wooed to Him, that we come willingly in the day of salvation. that we come because His banner over us, frankly, is love, that He conquered us by His love and His grace, not terrorizing us and coercing us to obey Him. So He is slow to anger. He is slow to wrath. He is giving you time. As you sit here tonight, He is giving you time to come to your senses, to repent, to turn back to Him. But you need to know, you have to know, as well, that there will come a day when that time is up. No man knows that day. No man knows that hour. But when it comes, it will be irreversible, and you will be locked in and you will be left in your sin forever with no way out and no way back. Herod, this Herod that we're considering in Acts 12, he reigned for four years. We get a little snippet, virtually two days of his life. This Herod reigned for four years. He was born into privilege. He lived in luxury. And he was at the height of his power and his prestige. And then judgment came. In other words, he thought he had gotten away with everything. But in reality, he had gotten away with nothing, and neither will you. But you see, sin will, it is the nature of sin Sin will try to lull you into thinking that you are beating the system, that you are getting away with it, that God is not seeing it. But he does. You are not at peace with God. And while you may not sense that there is an issue right now, you will soon enough. Herod had a false peace. That's what Herod had. a false peace that came abruptly to an end. What a contrast with, and this is the second thing I want us to see this evening, what a contrast with God's peace that he grants to us as children. We skipped over this this morning as we were going through the passage, but notice that there is this Beautiful observation, I think it's a beautiful observation to be made in the fact that on the eve of his execution, Peter is fast asleep. Some of you are fast asleep right now, but it's not because you have God's peace. But Peter is fast asleep. So much so did you notice the detail in the text that the angel had to strike him on his side and wake him. And I think this is such a picture of the peace that we can have in the midst of great trial. It's a picture of that peace that surpasses understanding which the father grants to his children in times of need. It's the peace I saw this afternoon as I sat with Dave Rudy, who had to go back into the hospital this afternoon. Is he out now? Yeah. Dave was there laying in his bed. And from my vantage point, I saw all the medical equipment behind him. And he was laying there. I couldn't quite see his smile because he had his mask on, which is always hard to talk with someone when they have a mask on because you can't see the facial expressions. But Dave was laying there saying, I am at such peace. And he was hooked up and had all this stuff going on, and it was true. I was ministered to by him for about an hour this afternoon, just as he was there in the midst of that trial, entirely enjoying the peace that God grants to his people. I had a quote in last week's bulletin. It was a quote by the late British theologian and commentator John Stott, and he noted how, and it's interesting, certain jail scenes throughout the Book of Acts, we haven't gotten to the one when Paul and Silas are in prison, and it's about midnight, and they are praying and singing praise to God. And here's another scene, we have Peter, and he's on the night of his execution, and he is fast asleep. is God's peace. Interestingly, it is, if you know anything of the epistles of Peter, you've heard the phrase, because it was Peter who wrote it, cast your cares upon him, for he cares for you. Well, it's interesting, Peter practiced what he preached. In fact, Peter knew by experience what he proclaimed for our obedience. He knew that casting your cares upon the Lord is the way of peace, that God grants us that peace, that God really does care for us. And I want to encourage you this evening, really in the same terms that we were exhorted a few weeks ago when Pastor Rice was preaching He might not have used these exact terms, but the way I was thinking of it as he was preaching was, God's peace is not like a coconut that just falls out of the sky and hits you on the head. That's not the way that God's peace works. But rather, God's peace is a blessing that we lay hold of by faith. It is a blessing that is there for you to take. to embrace. This is why Peter says, cast your cares upon him. He cares for you. The way to peace is to cast your cares upon him. The way to enjoy that peace is to lay hold of it by faith. In fact, as we were exhorted a couple weeks ago, it's more than laying hold of it, it's laying hold of him who is your peace. The peace that we are promised is nothing other than God himself. He was with Peter in this prison. Peter had peace and could sleep because he had God, who is himself our peace. In fact, this is nothing other than, and I deliberately chose the psalms that we're going to sing this evening. We've sung two of them. We'll sing one more. But this is nothing other than the reality that we sung of in Psalm 23. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. It's nothing other than the reality of Psalm 4. In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for you, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. It's nothing other than the reality of Psalm 121. He will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. Congregation, this is your privilege. This is our reality as the children of God. We have a God who loves us and who keeps us and who will not allow even a hair to fall from our head apart from His will. And yet that means that we do need to finally consider this evening God's perspective. I mentioned just a moment ago that at the beginning of the chapter we're confronted with the great mystery of God's providence in that James' life is taken But Peter's life is delivered. And this raises that hard question of why. Indeed, maybe you notice as the chapter ends, there's a similar dilemma that's raised at the end of the chapter. Maybe you don't see it there. Maybe you do see it. It's odd that the crowd that actually is the one that proclaims Herod to be God, is not judged, is spared. And yet Herod, who actually doesn't claim to be God, he just doesn't dismiss their attributing deity to him. He just doesn't push it away. He is punished. Again, why? Well, this is the mystery of God's providence. inscrutable why God does what he does. It is inscrutable and it is beyond our finding out. In the end, there really is no other answer other than to acknowledge and to realize that God is sovereign and that he is all wise and that he cannot err. We do not. And we will not ever have everything explained to us. And yet, although we are not promised an explanation for everything, God actually does help us to trust Him even in these hard questions. That is, He reveals things to us that can actually strengthen our faith and enable us to cling to Him during times of trial, even praise Him while we're in the midst of a trial. In fact, one of those is right here in this passage, and it's a really simple observation, not unique to me, but it's been one that's been made by the church throughout the ages as they've reflected on this chapter, and it's a simple observation here. And it's found in the real difficulty that Peter had of understanding what was going on in the midst of his actual deliverance. Verse nine, notice verse nine particularly. I think it's helpful that we read there, and he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. You see, most of the time in the midst of difficult situations, things will not be clear. And nonetheless, we still need to trust And we still need to follow, but afterwards, things are sometimes clearer. And therefore, we read in verse 11, if you notice in the passage, when Peter came to himself, he said, now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting. In other words, as they say, as the saying goes, hindsight. sometimes is 20-20. Once we've been through it, we couldn't see it when we were in it, but once we come through it, we can often reflect back and see that was what was going on. Now let me make a qualification there very quickly. This does not mean that every time something difficult comes our way, we will soon enough understand precisely why it happened. But I think that this is a good illustration of the fact that things are often very unclear when we are going through them. But that does not mean that God is still not in control of them. Some of you sit here tonight and you are going through things you have no idea why. What is the reason for why this has come into my life? And the call upon you tonight, both in the trial and beyond the trial, is to walk by faith, to trust the Lord in it, to continue to say and to have that attitude as Job had, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In fact, I don't think it's insignificant that at the very end of the preeminent chapter on faith that we have in the entire Bible, Hebrews chapter 11, at the very end of that chapter, I find it fascinating that we have this amazing and almost, it could seem to be contradictory observation that by faith, in verse 34 we read, by faith some escaped the edge of the sword. That's Peter. And then in verse 37 of that same passage, a few verses later, we read that by faith some were killed by the sword. That's James. That's exactly what happened here. And it is faith that enables us to affirm both, because we have laid hold of our gracious King and we trust Him. That is to say, this is not King Jesus being unfair. This is King Jesus being sovereign. This is Him ruling. and carrying out his will. Beloved, I can guarantee you that when all is said and done, we will come to know that truth that I think is maybe best articulated by a guy named A.W. Pink. It was Pink who said, and I think one day every one of us will acknowledge this, that God is too wise to err. And he is too loving to make one of his children cry even one unnecessary tear. As we close, I want to make one final point this evening, and that is bringing us back to think about the whole chapter is really a look at kingdoms in conflict with each other. The whole chapter really shows clearly the beauty and the grace of King Jesus versus the cruelty and the impotence of King Herod. Jesus loves even his unfaithful servants like Peter, who he delivered, like you, like me. He loves even unfaithful servants in his kingdom and continues to love us and deliver us. And he is with us and he rescues us. in our times of need, but the main reason, I think we have to come back to the main reason why we serve and trust and love our God and King is because he will never ask us to suffer more than he did. And he never abandons us in our suffering, but he is with us because he is our peace even to the end of the age. He never asks us to suffer more than he did because we simply cannot. The cross of Christ should forever answer our questions and forever endear us to our King. He suffered and died a death that none of us will ever experience so that he could fully and finally deliver us from the prison of our own sin. That is, while Herod killed his own, Jesus died for his own. Brutal cruelty versus beautiful grace. And thus, a chapter that begins with the news that persecution is on the rise from the hand of the most powerful man in the region, it ends with the note that the word of God was increasing and multiplying. In other words, Jesus will build his church and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. I'm going to end with a quote I had in the bulletin this morning by a man named Bruce Milne. He wrote, the evil one is ever abroad and over the centuries regularly finds Herod's willing instruments for the expression of his hatred of the people of the Lord. At times, evil seems to have unfettered sway, and faith burns low. But the Lord is King, and again and again He thwarts the scheming of the enemy, overturns the tyrants, exalts His Son, and gives joyful increase to the followers of the Lamb. Congregation, we are loved by and we serve a king whose reign will have no end, whose grace has no limit, whose mercy is to a thousand generations and is new every morning. Again, his banner over us is love. Let's seek to love him back. Let's seek to have a walk worthy of the calling to which we've been called worthy of the name that we have the privilege of bearing.