Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

The Divine Rest Pt.6

Hallelujah. Even so, come, Lord Jesus, come. Amen? You know, it can't be much longer; you look and see everything that's going on in the world. He said when you begin to see these signs, look up, because your redemption is drawing nigh, praise God. Wouldn't it be great, just any moment now, to hear the trumpet of God? A lot of talk about it. People are just not talking about the coming of the Lord anymore; it's amazing. Very few fundamental churches anymore really emphasize the coming of the Lord Jesus. It's all about how to adapt and live on earth, and try to get peace of mind, and a better self image. I don't need a better self image; well, I do, but I really need a glorified body. Don't you? I need corruption to take on incorruption and mortality to take on immortality. I need to see Him and be like Him, changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, praise God. It's an exciting hope. It's the blessed hope; it's what we're living for. It's what keeps us going when everything else gets tough around us, praise God, that one of these days, we're going to see Him and be like Him. I believe we're that people. I don't believe we're the people that are going to go the way of the grave. Transformed in a moment, praise God. Translated as that voice just cries out from heaven, "Come up hither," praise God.

All of the different books that are best sellers now in Christendom, and we've seen the stories. We don't know exactly how it's going to happen but it's going to work havoc on this planet when everybody with integrity leaves. When everybody with faith leaves, praise God, and the wrath of the Lamb begins to be poured out upon this earth. And the apostate religious system has fulfilled its purpose in causing everyone to deny the name of Jesus; all religions are amalgamated so there could be peace, and the man of sin arises, as Thessalonians says, and there is a one world government. Everything that everybody, but the church, is working for, all of the technology is in place now. As a new Christian, when I first read this thing and thought, "How can this happen?" Now, it's all here, praise God. When I first got saved there wasn't any such thing as world wide communication. There weren't the satellites. There wasn't the Internet. There wasn't the technology that there is today. The mark of the beast; you know, all of the scanners, they weren't around. Implanting chips wasn't around so you could track everybody. They didn't give children social security numbers when they were born when I was a kid (twelve years ago or whenever it was).

We're living in an exciting day, praise God. Are you ready? What are you doing to prepare for this hour? Who are you telling about it? Do the people you know know that Jesus is coming any moment, praise God? Are you ready? Now those of us in the church know, but I still have to ask the question, are you ready? "I wish we'd all been ready" the old song--it's funny to call that an "old song" now. I remember when it was written. I don't remember "Amazing Grace" being written. It's sooner than when we first believed, praise God. But something's going to accompany that hour, and that's prior to our catching away; the Scripture says, iniquity is going to abound. The love of many is going to wax cold. It says that people are not only going to be sinners, but they're going to invent new ways to sin. They're not only going to do these things, but they're going to take pleasure, make heroes of the sinners. The more corrupt you are, the more crude and vile you are, the more popular you'll be. We're seeing that in our day aren't we? But in the church, then--these parallel kingdoms, the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness that are warring against one another. There is no fellowship between light and darkness. As these two kingdoms run parallel and in opposition, Jesus said, "If you love Me, you'll keep My commandments. They won't be grievous, and the one thing you'll know is that the world will hate you if you love Me. They first hated Me; they're going to hate you."

How are you relating to the world system? You can't be one of them and be in the kingdom of God. You can't be accepted of the world and be accepted of God. We can't live with the wisdom of the world and be at rest in the promises of God. When all of this turmoil is going on around us--we're going to finish up our series on rest this morning. When all of this turmoil, preparatory for the coming of the Lord, begins to manifest itself, and multiply in its intensity, are you going to fail then? Are you going to fall in the last hour or are you going to be able to be at rest, praise God, and finish this course?

That's what the teaching has been all about; just to be able to give you and I that supernatural hope, the ability to walk in the supernatural so that we can finish this course. There is a rest, Hebrews says, for the people of God. In our study we saw that, that rest, then, wasn't something that was given to us automatically but the apostle said in Hebrews that we must labor to enter into the rest. That word "labor" means to be diligent, to be a doer, or a student of the Word of God, because the rest is the Word of God or the promises of God. The Word, Hebrews says, did not profit them, not being mixed with? Faith or obedience, the ability to do what God had promised, and commanded. Do you have the rest of obedience going on in your life? Are you at rest to say, "What God's told me to do, I've done, and there's nothing else I can do, so I'm at rest, praise God." We saw that the greatest evidence of rest, and this is something every one of us has to survey our hearts for this morning, and again daily, the greatest evidence of rest is that you've ceased from your own labors. Hebrews says that we are to cease from our own labors as God did from His. So in that fourth chapter of Hebrews, we have all of this information that's being given to us about what it means to rest, to be a doer of the Word, to cease from our labors, to be a student of the Word of God, to be diligent in our application of the Word of God. All of it is evidence that we've come into the rest of God.

The Scriptures say it differently. The apostles speaking again in another place where he says to be carnally minded is what? Death. But to be spiritually minded is? Life and, say it, peace; the rest of God (Romans 8:6). Jesus said, and this is one of the things that He declared in His kingdom. If you're in the kingdom of God He said, "Peace I give unto you, not as the world gives." If you're in My kingdom, Jesus said, you're going to be at peace. If you're in the world, you're going to be in turmoil. You're going to be fearful. You're going to doubt the promises of God. His promises are not mixed with faith; they're not the soul source of your strength, they're not what you're relying on in totality; there's always a worldly backup system. You say, "I want to do the Word and I want to be known as a Christian, but when God fails, I have this worldly backup system. This natural net just in case everybody's right and God's Word isn't true." The rest of God says let God be true and every man a liar. Amen? His promises are "yea" and "amen;" they're faithful to a thousand generations. His Word is alive and it's powerful, and it's sharper than a two-edged sword that fourth chapter of Hebrews tells us. It's constantly dividing every thought that we have. It's dividing. It's discerning the thoughts and the intentions of our heart. The Holy Spirit convicts us, too, we know. Every thought we have, and the Holy Spirit will say, "That's natural" and you'll say, "Yeah, but it's logical, and everybody's doing it. I'm not going to really act upon it, I'm just putting it in place here 'just in case.' It's something I'm putting in the bank. What I'm really intending on doing is walking in the Spirit." Then why are you building a safety net in the flesh? To be carnally minded guarantees the use of your self built safety net. To be carnally minded is death. To be spiritually minded is life and peace. We see that God's called us into that rest.

In Exodus 33, verse 14, we saw that God said, "...My presence shall go with thee, and I will give you rest," praise God. So rest, then, is synonymous with what? The presence of God? Yes, but not really, because God is omnipresent. So rest is synonymous with your awareness of the presence of God. "...My presence shall go with thee, and I'll give you rest." Then, we dealt with the fact that rest isn't something that God just infuses into us, but rest is something that has to be appropriated by faith, and it's something that we have to be involved in because Jesus said, "Take My yoke upon you, learn of Me; I'm meek and lowly, and I will give you" what? "Rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:29). If you'll take My yoke, if you'll learn meekness, if you'll learn humility, if you'll yoke up with My lordship, if you'll die to self, if you'll be a doer of the Word, and not a hearer only, if you'll say, "For me to live is Christ," if you'll declare there's no other name under heaven where by men can be saved, but at the name of Jesus; if you'll bow your knee, I will give you rest. Are you at rest this morning? Maybe we're not yoked up. Maybe we haven't ceased from our own labors. Maybe we're still trusting in the arm of the flesh. Maybe we need to be more diligent in our doing and studying, in our laboring to enter into the rest of God.

Maybe, as we saw in one of the sessions, we've forgotten what manner of man we are as James speaks in his epistle. Maybe there needs to be a little more "mirror time" so that we don't forget what manner of man we really are. Where is your trust? Where is your treasure? Where is your hope? Is it the blessed hope; is it the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ? Where is your treasure? The unseen kingdom, or is it something here on earth? Are there goals, yet to be accomplished, that are driving you? What is your treasure? A new home, a new job, a new car, a new spouse, I mean a spouse? What is it that you're looking for really? What's going to satisfy you? What's it going to take to satisfy you? What's going to bring that contentment that the entire world lacks? The Bible tells us that godliness with contentment is great gain. Is it the spiritual, the earthly, the eternal treasures that satisfy? What satisfies you? One more recreational activity; another hour of sleep? "Learn of Me and I'll give you rest. Learn of Me."

"I found His Word and I ate it and it became unto me the joy, and the rejoicing of my soul." The Word of God is sufficient for me to bring me refreshing and rest. What is the treasure? That I might know You and that is eternal life. "My presence shall go with thee and I will give you rest." We talked about contentment. We talked about the blessings of the Lord and thanksgiving. How we need to, in everything, give thanks for it's the will of God in Christ concerning us. How that brings about the rest of God. The heart of thanksgiving, about being anxious, fearful for nothing, but in everything through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let our requests be known unto God, and the peace of God that passes understanding, and keeps our hearts and our minds through Christ. As Paul speaks to the Philippians there, we realize that there is no rest without thanksgiving and without prayer.

"The nights we have scheduled for prayer, it really cuts into our schedule of getting rest." You can't rest without prayer. There is no rest; there is no refreshing. You can go on two vacations a day, you're not going to get rested. It's like I was telling you the other day, I was laughing at my brother. He's retired, living in a resort, plays golf five days a week; the other two days he rests. Beautiful area right outside of Yosemite; gorgeous lake, caught a lot of fish down there, it's great. Beautiful. I called him not too long ago, I said, "What are you doing?" He said, "We're getting ready to go on vacation." I said, "How do you go on vacation, man, when you're playing golf every day? What are you going to do?" He said, "Well, we're going to Hawaii to play golf." Ah, some great golf courses. If you're able to go over there and you play Mauna Kea or Mauna Loa, and just see the emerald grass up against the black lava, with that pure white sand in the back, praise God, and see your ball going in that blue water!

What do you need to get rested? The Scripture tells us that the exact opposite of what the world tells us we need is what God declares will satisfy your soul. It's to stop being selfish. It's to stop looking for how much rest you can get, how greatly we can prosper; but if you want rest for your soul, the greatest in this kingdom is the servant of all, praise God. If you want to live, you've got to die. If you want to receive, you have to give. If you want to be great, you have to humble yourself. It takes a lot of work to cease from our own labors; that daily crucifying process that Paul said he involved himself in, so that he could enter rest. So he could say, "It's no longer I that live, but it is Christ that liveth in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God." There is a rest for the people of God, but you don't get there by resting, you get there by laboring. You get there by being diligent to die to self; to seek others riches and not our own, to say, "Not my will, but your will be done." You can only enter the divine rest through the Garden of Gethsemane, through the cup that has to be partaken of. The natural man cries and says, "If it's possible, let the cup pass." The spiritual man says, "Nevertheless, not my will," say it, "Thy will be done." That's the rest of God. I don't have to have it my way. I don't need to understand. I don't have to be in control. The Lord's good. The Lord is good.

Listen to Psalm 116, verse 7. "Return [we sang] unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with thee." Amen? Can you get your soul back to resting because of the bounty of the Lord? He always does good. He always gives us--but we're so fearful--but He always gives us exceeding, abundant, above anything that we can ask or think. You know, whatever plans you have that you're striving for, God has a better plan. We need to, then, rest in the great promises of God. A world that's in fear, and God's called us to rest. You know, just recently we've been through the different things here in the country with the World Trade Center. I don't know about you, they're talking about building this new building, or whatever it's going to be and the memorial. There's a word that's being thrown around and it really bugs me. I don't know if it bothers you. Okay, here's one of my pet peeves. They're making the new building a memorial for the "heroes" that were killed in the World Trade. "Heroes" because they went to work? What's heroic about going to work? They're not heroes, they're victims. There's a difference between being a hero and being a victim. We need to use words for what they mean, and stop cheapening words for our own sentiment. You want to know what makes those "heroes" in these people's minds? It's because they're fearful; they don't understand the rest. If they can make them "heroes," somehow we've elevated this to more than it really was. It was a tragedy, and these victims were murdered. Now, there were heroes there. There were heroic actions that took place, but not everybody that died there was a hero. The consequence of that showed how many people really are not heroic in their own hearts and most of us are not. Heroes are not people that are recognizable from anybody else; they're just people that in a moment make unselfish decisions.

But that fear that gripped our nation. People were afraid to fly. I remember we flew out a day or two later to Disney World. It was great! You could lay across all the seats and run up and down the aisles. We were playing volleyball in there, and it was great, man! Everybody that was afraid was at home, and we're flying, Jack. Amen. Looked for a guy wearing a turban that was driving a taxi; he'd charge you less on that day, man. They were glad to be here that somebody wasn't shooting at them. What are you afraid of? The sniper. Everybody's hiding in their house, running from their jobs to their cars. Give me a break! You were more likely to die driving to work than to get shot by this guy, because nobody stops for red lights anymore. The point I'm making is this, when the rest of the world is in fear--how about the run in this country on gas masks, and masking tape or duct tape? You couldn't even find any, man. People are sealing their homes up. Now, around here, we need it for pollen. Beloved, He's given His angels charge over us, amen? The Master of our kingdom declares that we're to live in peace. "Peace I give you, not as the world gives." The Bible says, "There is no weapon [or Saddam] formed against thee that shall prosper." What weaponry can the enemy use that God is not able to resist? We talk about the peace that belongs to the children of God. To be spiritually minded is life and peace. The kingdom of God is not meat or drink, it is righteousness, say it, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Are you at peace this morning; do you have the rest of God in your hearts? The stock market! Are you at peace? The new virus in China! Are you at peace? Aids! Are you at peace? "I've given you all power and all authority over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means harm you, and I will give you rest."

Where are you? There's only one thing that scares me: it's a foreigner behind the wheel, man. These people haven't learned yet. You said that's kind of a racial statement. It is definitely; no doubt about it. I think it would be nice to return to when people that are given drivers licenses should be able to read English. They should know what S-T-O-P means! Somebody was telling me the other day, they were down at the Department of Motor Vehicle and a guy had failed his driving test for the 22^nd time. He had seven other counselors down there and none of them could speak English and they're all trying to pass this test. Get a bike and learn how to speak English, man!

I'll give you rest. Where are we today in our own hearts and learning the peace of God? This is something that just needs to saturate our hearts. "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). Study, labor, to enter into the rest.

Psalms 119, the Psalmists speaking in verse 165 what a great passage; you're very aware of it. "Great peace have they which [What?] love thy law: and nothing shall offend them." Nothing will take them away from the peace that My Word gives. Great peace have they which love thy law. You see, if you've tasted the Word of God, if you know it's true, and the promises are true, and sure to a thousand generations, every promise of God is "yea" and "amen." Heaven and earth will pass, but His Word will not pass away, the Scripture says. Then, how can you be uptight about the circumstances of life? O beloved, I want to share this, we have a God and He's alive and His Word's true. Amen? Great peace have they which love thy law.

Isaiah 26, verse 3. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is [What?] stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." Think about it. "Because he trusts in You." You see, it's not enough just to think about God; you've got to trust in Him. That's what faith is: trust, reliance, assurance. Do you trust in God? "Well, sure I do, it says it in my wallet, 'In God I trust.' Our whole country trusts in God, it says it." Where are we today in fulfilling the rest of God? Well, we never know until the circumstances change, do we? As we end up this morning in this series, we're just doing a little bit of review this morning, going back and encouraging ourselves in the Word of God. We saw that we really don't know our hearts until pressure comes on us and squeezes out whatever is in us. You never know who you are until you're under pressure, and what decisions you make under pressure. Don't judge a person by their first response to pressure; judge them by whether they come out victoriously or not, trusting God. You don't always go into the furnace in the best shape, but did you come out with the fourth man? Praise God. It would be great if we could all go in like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and say, "King, we're not careful to answer you in this matter; we just want you to know, bless God, we're not serving your gods. We will not bow our knee. Our God's going to deliver us, and even if He doesn't, we're not serving your gods" (Daniel 3:16). They go in and we studied that aspect of faith and rest, and how they were resting in their integrity, their integrity of their hearts to where they would not eat the king's dainties in the first Chapter of Daniel. We saw that God had put another spirit in these young men, and they had purposed in their heart not to defile themselves with the world. Purposed in their heart. Purposed in their heart. Purposed in their heart, not "I hope," purposed in their heart. "Some of those people are lucky." No, they purposed in their heart. It's not by accident that some people are victorious and others are not. God is no respecter of persons; He's given all of us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Have you purposed in your heart that you would not defile yourself with the natural course? When it comes to the glory of God, I will not bow my knee. When you've purposed, then, comes the rest. Now the circumstances will come and try to steal the Word of God out of your heart; we saw it with Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel, the leader of the pack.

Daniel a man of integrity. They said, "We can't find a thing wrong with this guy, the only way we can get something on this guy is with the laws of his God. He will defend the Word of God above anything else. If we can find some way to trick him to where he has to make a decision between the law of the land and the law of his God, we know he'll choose the law of his God. Then, we've got him." That's what's going to get some of us here in the future. People who will not compromise the law of God. I shared with you the other day, it's already against the law in churches for pastors to speak in a way that may be derogatory of those who have chosen an alternative lifestyle. Derogatory speech of those who have chosen an alternative lifestyle really means that homosexuals are an abomination to God and deserve to die, is kind of what that means but in different language. They can pass all the laws they want; we're going to say what God says. Now, that doesn't mean it's open season on homosexuals and they're all supposed to die, and so you go out and kill them. God will take care of that, but you tell them, "What you deserve is death. Your behavior is an abomination to God and within the kingdom of God, anyone who was found involved in that behavior within Israel, within the chosen of God, was killed. It was to be put from them." In our generation, we not only protect them, we give favors, and give them privileges over the masses, and so you're going to have to make a decision somewhere down the line, whether you're going to do the Word of God or bow your knee to the image. Do you have the rest of God? Where can you compromise, is there any place? Surely, Daniel could have said, "Look, it's only for 30 days, I'll just stop praying for 30 days. God knows my heart," or "I'll pray in secret; I'll keep the windows closed. I'll pray silently."

Do you have the rest of God that you could throw the windows open knowing what the decree of the king was and as you always did before, you pray; and you trust God. "Yeah, praise God, I believe that's something that I can do and I just believe God will protect me." What's your perspective on the protection of God? Does that mean that no one will come into your house and arrest you? "Yeah, because if I do what's right, then, God's going to protect me." They came and arrested him. "Yeah, but I was obeying God; surely, nothing bad will happen to me." Define "bad." Bad is going to hell. Bad is being out of fellowship with God. Bad is resisting the Word of God in your own pride and having God resist you. God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble. Amen? Define bad. "Well, I mean bad, like they might kill me." Well, "bad," to be absent from the body is to be? Present with the Lord. Now, what's bad about that? Isn't that what we're working toward? "Yeah, but, you know, I'd kind of like to go out in my sleep." Oh, so we're not talking "bad," we're talking "preference;" we're talking "ease and comfort of life." We're talking no resistance. We're talking hammock, not warfare. We're talking silk jammies, not the armor of God. We're talking about Utopia, not a roaring lion going about seeking whom he may devour. Why don't we come to grips with reality and understand the world that we're living in that's racked with sin and dominated by a devil? "The god of this world," 2 Corinthians 4 calls him, and our kingdom of light is running parallel, and "yes," Jesus is your Lord, and "yes," He has usurped all of the power of the enemy, but He has not yet absolutely dominated that kingdom. He is allowing it for His own eternal purposes to continue to run, but the day's coming when every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that He's Lord. Amen? But until that day, we have rest. Until that day, there's going to be an enemy of your soul; and until that day, Satan will oppose. Until that day, God will sovereignly apply His different methods of deliverance. God can deliver you from the sword and God can deliver you by the sword. I don't mean giving you a sword and you killing somebody. I mean being beheaded, sawed asunder.

Hebrews 11 tells us that those men went out in faith, praise God. What are the methods that God uses? Here in Daniel's life, and in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, God injected His will into their lives to humble that nation. It was for the purpose of God, it wasn't just for those men; to preserve those people during their 70 years of captivity that Jeremiah prophesied. God was preserving a nation so that He could bring them out, and restore them back to the land to fulfill the Abrahamic covenant. It was about the promise of God, it wasn't about individuals. It was about what was best for that community. In that purpose, He showed Himself mighty, and He delivered them from the fire of the furnace, and He delivered them from the mouth of the lion. We all like that way of escape, praise God. Now, we actually even prefer the type that doesn't even cause us to go into the fire. We like the type where God would smite our enemies with blindness and they can't find us. We like the type where we could fall on our face in humility like Moses and God will open up the ground, and swallow Korah and Dathan, and all of our opponents. That's the kind of deliverance most of us like. We don't even like winning the battle; we just like not having to go. Now, don't misunderstand what I'm saying, that's the kind I like. I'm for that, praise God! Don't you wish, you know, when the enemy opposes us--turn to the book of Acts for just a second as we finish our review.

The parallel that takes place here in Acts, Chapter 12, verse 1, it says that, "...Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church." The government now reaching out and--whatever government it happens to be. It could be the government of the United States, it could be the new worldwide coalition under the Antichrist in the preparation for the Antichrist. I personally, my doctrine, I'm a pre-tribulationist. I don't believe that we're going to go into the tribulation. People say, "Well, that's a doctrine based upon fear." No, it's a doctrine based upon the Word the God. "He that now restraineth will restrain until he be taken out of the way, and then shall the Son of perdition be revealed." I believe in a powerful church. I believe the church of Jesus Christ is a restraining force. I don't believe that Antichrist can come while we're here. That's how powerful the church is. That's how powerful our faith is, our influence of light. Thessalonians says we've got to be taken out of the way and then shall the man of sin be revealed, the Son of perdition. I believe in a victorious church--not a visible church, not the established church, not the signs that you see on every corner. I'm talking about the church, the church that doesn't have denomination, the church that transcends nations, the church that's found in Sterling, Korea, and Africa. The true believers, the bride of Christ, the body of Christ. We are a restraining force, but the church has always been hated of the kingdom of darkness. The church has always been opposed by the puppets of that kingdom, the kings, whether by the hatred of the Idi Amins of Uganda who would kill and eat Christians; the mouths that would kill by the millions those that professed the name of Jesus. The nations that would rise against the kingdom of God and one day, Daniel says, there's going to be a little stone that's cut out without hands that's going to break asunder all of these nations. The angel said it this way, "And of His kingdom, there shall be no end." But until then, we're in opposition to this kingdom and they're in opposition to us. "...Herod the king stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the church. And he killed James the brother of John [One of the sons of thunder. Great man of faith. The destruction, the opposition to the leadership of the church.] And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also"(Acts 12:1-3). The government sees that it pleases the apostate religious system, the whore of their day. It's going to become open season. It only takes one action and it becomes open season. Are you at rest?

So, they take Peter also. Now, why didn't God deliver Peter? Why didn't God protect him? Why didn't God just tell him to leave town? There are times that will happen. Paul and his company, there were times when they fled the persecution. They left, they fled for their lives and there are other times they refused to leave because of the honor of the name of the Lord, and God sustained them. Or, in the great philosopher of our day, "You got to know when to hold them, and know when to fold them." We need to be sensitive in the spirit as to when to stand and when to flee, but we have to be absolutely confident in the sovereignty of God that He does everything according to His eternal purposes, and that no weapon formed against us will prosper. He is for us, and nobody can be against us, praise God, and we just rest.

Now watch what happens here, and we'll end with this for this morning; it's really cool. They delivered him into the prison and here's this special ops group that's holding him, one old fisherman. They intended after Easter to bring him forth to the people. Peter was therefore kept in prison, and the church went out through their congressman, and lobbied to get this leader free, because we are a Christian nation. We are a Jewish nation; we're a people that are the children of Abraham. This is a man that's trying to do the work of Yahweh. With protests, placards, demonstrations, and TV spots, they sought to stay his execution. No, oh, that's the new American version; let's see what the Word of God says. But prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. That's a unique method. You mean prayer that really works? Prayer that would just dare expect God to manifest His supernatural power? How much rest do we have this morning in the promises and the methods of God? Then, when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night--don't you love God's timing? We like plenty of warning and we like to know what's going to happen. "The same night," it's the night before the execution. Why does God always wait like that? God's not waiting; God's eternal. It's not like God's going, "Okay, now, I'm just going to wait." God is. There is no time and space; God is eternal. God is omnipresent. God is omniscient. Hey, He already knows how it's going to come out. We're the people that invented watches and calendars that we try to get God to operate by. God doesn't recognize watches. The closest thing to it is: it's light it's dark, sufficient to the day. Day by day. Give us this, our daily bread. He wants us to live momentarily. He wants us to live understanding that today is the day of our salvation.

The night that he was going to be delivered--interesting--the church is praying. Peter, Acts 12, verse 6, seems to have found something. What is it? Rest. How about the night before your execution? "...Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains..." Then, verse 7 tells us why we should be at rest, the messengers of God that have been given to us.

You know, there's been in our generation a lot of hokey books written about angels. Some real squirrelly books out about angels. I'd like to recommend a good book about angels and after this [holding up Bible] you don't need any other books about angels. God's told us sufficiently what their methods and purposes are, these ministering spirits, messengers to declare, to herald the good news of God. No special messages. There's no angels coming, Moroni's of our day, the Moroni's. You all know who Moroni is? The angel that appeared to Joseph Smith. Joseph had one too many pizzas that night. They don't come with new messages; everything has to be compared with the message, there is nothing added to, and nothing taken away from this book. We understand, then, that God does send His angels. It was the angels that shut the mouths of the lions that Daniel spoke of. It was the angel of the Lord that entered into the furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They ride with you on the Beltway. They're all bruised and beaten, but they ride, praise God. He's given His angels charge over us. So, do we look for angels and pray to angels? No, you trust in the Lord; He'll send them when it's time. You don't ask Him to send them. You don't look for them; they show up.

So, he's sleeping, the angel shows up, kicks him in the side, Acts 12, verse 7, raised him up and said, "...Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands." Don't you like that? "Rise up quickly!" You know, if you stop and think about it, "Well, I can't rise up quickly, I've got chains on." Just do what you're told, praise God. "Rise up quickly!" He rises up, chains fall off of his hands. "And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself..." We're leaving. "We can't leave, man, there are guards out there, and there's this big metal gate, and there's... We've already cased the placed out. Clint Eastwood and I have been digging this thing over here on the side, and we're going to tunnel out of this place. There's no way out." "Yeah, we're going out the front door, praise God. Now, gird yourself up" verse eight, "...Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me."

He went out following the angel and didn't know whether this was even true. He thought he might be dreaming or having a vision. "When they were past the first and the second ward, [verse 10] they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord... [The angel had this remote.] And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know..." (Acts 12:10-11).

Many of us don't understand how faith works. I've been there so many times, man. You're moving as God's Sprit is moving you, and the angel of the Lord, and it doesn't seem real. It's not like I've got this all together, I'm cool; I understand the beginning to the end. You're going through this thing and you're aware that God's doing something, but you don't have a clue, man, until you come out on the other end of it and you say, "Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod..." Faith doesn't know all going in, but it does coming out, praise God! It knows that God was the Deliverer that it's for the glory and the purpose of God. As we finish up for this morning just that belief in the supernatural, and we've talked to you about how God can blind the eyes of our enemies where they don't even see us, or He can smite them down, praise God, in a moment's notice. It doesn't matter what method God chooses, His purpose is to deliver us. Then there are times, like with James, that He will deliver us by the sword. There's a time to die in faith, but that's left up to God. We need to believe for deliverance. We need to believe for the glory of God to be seen in us being preserved so that we could continue with this gospel. Not hokey stuff. You're not praying and believing God. This stuff just happens, beloved, as we're seeking God. You don't pray for these things. Peter wasn't praying to have the chains fall. He wasn't praying to be made invisible such as Jesus walking out of the midst of the people. They didn't even see Him, the Scripture says, when they were going to throw Him over the hill in Nazareth.

I know the one time I experienced that I didn't pray about it, didn't ask God, I didn't even know it was happening. I've shared this story; how God told us to go down to Fairfax Hospital and pray for a person in intensive care. I received a call; someone asked me to go down there and pray for this man. I said, "No, I don't do that really. I don't know the person or whatever, so I don't do that." The Lord spoke to me and said, "Yeah, I want you to go" and I said, "Okay." He said, well, he's in intensive care, in this particular room, etc. I've been to way too many hospitals over the years and praying for people, I know how hospitals work. That particular day as I was down there on the lower floor in the Fairfax Hospital before all of the addition there is now. I can still envision it. I can remember walking down that hall, and, you know, how the doors are locked. The nurses have to let you in, so they buzz you in, or in those days there was a speaker. They had to come and let you in. The doors were always locked. I'm walking down that hallway and as I got to the door, I just pushed it open and walked through. I don't know why I did that; I know to stop and call for the nurses. I just pushed it open and thought, "That's interesting." So I don't even know who this guy is, and I'm walking in and I'm looking around for him. I finally see the guy, and I walk in there, lay hands on him, and pray for him. He was on a life system, respiratory, and all the different things. I remember there were no brainwaves. I remember praying for him and commanding death to be overcome by the resurrection life, and for him to be healed in the name of Jesus. The next thing I know, there were bells, buzzers, and the room was full of nurses, and doctors. They were pulling stuff off of him, sticking stuff in him, people were running around, and I'm just kind of standing there. I took a step back as people are running around; I'm watching all of this stuff going on there. I'm checking it all out, and he looked pretty good to me, so I left. Nobody said anything to me; so I left and went home.

It was a short time later, I can't remember the exact time, a guy called me and said, "Did you hear about what God did to this brother in Fairfax Hospital? He was legally dead, and this and that, and God raised him up. Praise God!" I said, "Really?" He said, "Yeah." I said, "Man, cool, isn't God good?" You say, why didn't you tell him that you prayed for him? I wasn't there. Nobody saw me, I wasn't there. I was a messenger; God had a purpose of keeping me invisible.

Can He do that for you? Can He do that for me again? Yes, I believe that, but He orchestrates it. I just share that with you to encourage you again in the God that we serve, and that the smiting of the eyes of the Assyrian armies, and whatever, it's not just for that day it's for our day. There are other contemporary stories that we could share that you've heard of other brothers and sisters that we've experienced in our own lives. The question I want to leave with you as we close this morning is have you entered into the rest? Have you taken the yoke upon you? What have you done to labor, to live in the supernatural, to expect the miraculous, to expect the supernatural, to stop spending your time building your own natural safety net and be willing to step out of the boat and walk on the water with Jesus, and believe God so that men could see our good works, and glorify our Father which is in heaven?

Father, we thank You for the Word of God this morning and we just ask that You would stir us, and cause us to see that in this generation of technology, this generation of humanism, the generation that deifies man that You're looking for a people that will walk in the glory of God. We want to be that people, "Here am I, Lord, send me." So much of the church is interested in building their earthly kingdom, fitting in with the government, getting their grants, and being accepted, and we just want to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant," as we continue about Your business. Let this mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus. Bring about that meekness and that humility as we yoke ourselves with You. Help us to see that this yoke is not about planting for ourselves, it's not about a harvest unto ourselves, it's a yoke that brings glory and honor to God; fruit that remains. Can we cease from our labors? Help us, Father, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.

Let's stand before the Lord. As Gary plays for us here just a moment, and we reflect on the biblical principles: to be carnally minded, naturally minded, earthly minded is death. To be spiritually mind is life and peace. The world's bound in fear today, it knows that it's dying. You've got all your little Greenpeace organizations, they know this thing is dying. The Bible says it's dying. The world is reeling like a drunk man, waiting its day of redemption, the Scripture says. Greenpeace isn't going to do anything about this. Jesus is going to cleanse this planet. Even the preservative in the Twinkies will pass and God will bring about a new heaven, and a new earth. Are you looking to the supernatural? A man on TV the other day, he was really concerned because in the year 2280 we're going to get hit by something. He probably got hit by a car that night going home. Don't worry about 2280, today is the day of our salvation. Are you ready today, praise God, for the visitation of the Lord? When the secrets of all men's hearts are revealed, can you stand and say, "Lord, I trusted in You." I put my hope in no one else. For there is no other name given where by men can be saved but the name of Jesus. You were made sin with my sin that I might be made righteous with your righteousness. You died that I could live. You've ascended and You ever live to make intercession for me that I could be changed into Your image. One day we'll see You and we'll be like You and so shall we ever be with the Lord. That will bring some peace.

Let's sing it together and just worship Him this morning. "Lord, You are, so precious to me..." Oh, just bless Him as you sing it again. You are Lord. Just tell Him how much you love Him this morning. Take a moment, just tell Him how much you love Him. Just thank Him for His blood that was shed. Thank Him for the Spirit that indwells us. Thank Him for His great promises. Oh, we do delight in You, Lord, and we thank You for every promise. Cause us to be faithful now, cause us to take the cup and live lives that are not our wills, but Your will being done. We'll give You the glory Father, in Jesus' name, amen. Hallelujah.

We're going to take communion about the last ten minutes of prayer this evening. So, make sure you're here in time, and in prayer. We'll be taking communion at that time, and just seeing what the Lord has for us in the evening service. We believe God's going to speak to us. Be prayerful and let's hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to the church.

Before you go, turn to someone and say, "Get yoked up!" Praise God. Amen. Go in peace, God's love go with you.

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