Voddie Baucham - Death and deliverance

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, good evening. It is indeed good to be here.
I was not expecting to be here in this capacity
on this evening, but was surprised and honored and excited
to receive an invitation to come and share the first
message of the conference tonight. I'm excited about the preachers

(00:24):
that we have with us over the course of this week,
and I'm excited about this conference being a very unique
experience for me in that last year. On the Monday
of the conference, I leaned over to Pastor Ronald Californwood
and I said, Ronald, I just thought you should know

(00:47):
that while we were up in the Copper Belt that
Bridgian and I decided that it's time for us to
make a move in this direction, and we believe we're
going to bring our family to Zambia. We didn't say
anything about it then, but in the Lord's providence, just

(01:12):
a few hours ago, my family and I got off
an airplane and we have moved and we are now
residents of Lusaka, and so we're excited to be here,
excited about the work that we have the privilege of

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being involved in, Excited about the work of ACU, excited
about what the Lord is doing through there Rereformed Baptists
here in Zambia and excited about just the privilege of
being a small part of it. But as we have

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traveled these last twelve months, this journey of going from
and exciting decision in our lives to finally come into
a place where we have put boots on the ground
and we are here, we've learned a great deal about
what it means to walk with God and what it

(02:16):
means to trust the Lord. And oftentimes when we hear
stories about what God has done, we hear those stories
from the perspective of the end. Here's what God did.
And there are so many things that happened between something
that started and something that came to a conclusion that

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we don't actually hear the minutia of. But if we did,
we would recognize that walking with God and living a
God would life is not always a bed of roses.
Not every day from the time that we made that

(03:00):
to the time that we got here today has been
a bed of roses. Not even today. Traveling here with.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
My wife and seven children between the ages of eleven
and two for hours and hours on an airplane, not
even that was a bed of roses. But God is faithful,
And what we learn when we walk with God over
time is this a commitment to the Lord and a

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commitment to a godwarld life is not a commitment that
guarantees us ease. It's not even a commitment that guarantees
that we will see fulfilled all of those dreams and

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hopes and goals and desires that we have. But what
it guarantees is that we will be found in Christ
and that regardless of how it is, that God determines
to bring maximum glory to Himself through us when it
is all said and done, if our goal is God,

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then even our worst days are days for which we
can praise God because we know that He is maximizing
his glory in and through us, and oftentimes that's the
only thing that allows us to keep moving forward. We've

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been out of our home since the middle of June
because how long it takes things to ship here, And
early on after we were finally out of our home
and dealing with that sort of initial shock, I was
invited to preach at a church up in Minneapolis where
we had taken our oldest daughter and son in law.

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Philip was here with me on last year. He and
Jasmine were married in October, and now he has an
assignment in Minneapolis, and so we went up to see
them sorted it out, and I preached at the church
up there while we were there, and was assigned a
text that I really didn't think would have anything to

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do with the journey that we were on, But God
has used it mightily to just remind me of His
goodness and to remind me that serving God does not
always look like what we expect. And I want us
to look at this text tonight. It's Acts, chapter twelve,

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and specifically, I want us to look at this and
think about the individuals who are right here with us
in our midst and there are more than you know.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
Who hear this idea of the godward life and think
about how awesome and victorious it sounds and almost have
a hard time getting excited about it, because the fact
of the matter is the difficulties with which they are
wrestling often cause them to wonder whether or not their

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life is actually all that godward, Because, after all, if
you're living a godward life, shouldn't you be experienced experiencing
victory after victory and glory upon glory? If you're living
that godward life. Shouldn't people watch you walk into a
room and wonder if your feet are actually touching the floor.

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If you're living a godward life, you should be able
to be on an airplane for twenty hours and not
have offensive breath when you get off, because you're just
so godly that you can do that. But you know better.

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And as we examine this over the course of this week,
I just want us to remember that a godward life
is about God. A godward life is not about me.
A godward life is not a means to an end,
It's an end in itself. A godward life is not
something that we live so that we can maximize our comfort.

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A godward life is not something that we live so
that we can maximize our benefit. A godward life is
not something that we live so that we can have
a bargaining chip with God so that we can name
and claim whatever it is that we want. A godward
life is rooted and ground it and the understanding that
we serve a sovereign lord who has the right to

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do with us whatsoever he wills, and who will do
with us whatsoever he wills, and when he does it,
he will do it in order to maximize his glory,
and that's what happens in Acts Chapter twelve. Acts Chapter
twelve is strategic in its location in Luke's narrative. It

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comes at the end of two important sections, one primary
section and one secondary section. The primary section is, you know,
the Book of Acts is really divided up into two parts,
and the first is sort of the spread of the
Gospel from Jerusalem, and Peter is the focus there. And
then at the end of chapter twelve we turn a

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corner and it's the spread of the Gospel among the gentiles,
and Paul becomes the focus there. And so Chapter twelve
is that bridge between those two episodes. It connects two
major movements of the narrative and also repeats major themes.

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A major theme that is repeated is the theme of death.
In this first section. There are two movements. In this
first section. There's the founding of the church in Jerusalem.
There's two verse one through chapter seven and verse sixty.
At the end of that first section, Stephen is arrested
and martyred. The second section is about the church being
scattered by persecution in eight to one through twelve twenty four,

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and that section ends with persecution and death. In chapter twelve,
he uses a number of literary tools. First, he uses
framing to highlight the theme of death. Chapter twelve begins
and ends with death. It's a frame. There are two

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portraits within the frame. In both instances, he makes it
clear that the events, like all events in the acts
of the Apostles, happened by the powerful and sovereign will
and hand of God, and they teach us something important.

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Death and Deliverance. The first frame the death of a
faithful follower. This frame is incredibly important because this frame,
along with the end of that first section where Stephen
is martyred, this frame, even more powerfully than that, reminds
us that living a godward life and serving God does

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not necessarily bring one ease. Chapter twelve, verses one through three,
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,

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this was during the days of unleaven bread. This is significant.
First of all, this is a significant death. James was
not only one of the twelve, but along with Peter
and John, was a member of the inner circle of
the Apostles the Disciples. Luke also uses the name Herod

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and not Agrippa in order to highlight the threat to
the Church because this is not just anyone. This is
a man with the power to do much harm. And
he also connects the persecute, connects the persecution of the
apostles to the persecution of Jesus, who was put to
death under another Herod. So this office is continuing to

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persecute the Lord by persecuting his apostles. This was also
the fulfillment of a prophecy. Remember when the sons of
Blood and Thunder were requesting seats at the right and
left hand of Jesus Mark ten thirty eight to forty.

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Jesus said to them, you do not know what you
are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that
I drink, or be baptized with a baptism with which
I am baptized? And they said to him, we are able.
And Jesus said to them the cup that I drink,
you will drink, and with the baptism with which I

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am baptized, you will be baptized. But to sit at
my right hand or at my left is not mine
to grant, but it is for those for whom it
has been prepared. You want it, boys, you got it.
They had no idea what Jesus was saying when he said,

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you'll drink the cup that I drink. You'll be baptized
with the baptism that I'm baptized with. Herod crucifies Jesus.
Herod puts James to death with the sword. He followed
Jesus in more ways than he ever imagined. This is

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also a reminder of the fragile nature of the mission.
The Church has always been the target of Satanic rage.
The Church always will be the target of Satanic rage.
And the enemy has always desired and sought out and

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worked toward our demise, and will continue to do so.
And the fact of the matter is living a god
would life. Living a life that marks you out as
one who belongs to Jesus Christ. Living a life that
marks you out as separate from the world also marks
you out as a known enemy of our adversary. It

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marks you out as one who does not go along
with the Prince of the power of the Air. It
marks you out as one who is a threat to
those who have a form of godliness but deny the
power thereof, and it marks you out as a threat
to those who are trying to march through life as
though God does not exist, and they can write their

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own ticket. When they see you, they see the error
of their thinking. The Lord's protection and favor has always
been our only hope. We have no other hope but

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that the Lord will protect us. And even in that hope,
it's not the hope that says I have hope that
the Lord will protect me. Therefore I am not going
to fall to the sword. No, No, I have hope
that the Lord will protect me, so that if I
do fall to the sword, it will not be because
God blinked. He never swimmers, nor does he sleep. If

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I fall to the sword, it will be because that
is the way that He has chosen to maximize his
glory in and through my life. It's as though we
could say, and we wouldn't. But it's as though we

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could say, you can't kill me unless God lets you. Amen,
you can't kill me unless God lets you. The final
frame is death as well. But looking for verses eighteen

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to twenty three, now, when they 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

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put to death. So now the guards are put to death.
This was common practice. Then he went down from Judea
to says Aria and spent time there. Now Herod was
angry with the people of Tire and Sidon, and they
came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastos,

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the king's chamberlain, they asked for peace because their county
depended on the king's county for food or the country
rather depending on the king's country for food. On an
appointed day, Harry put on his royal robes, took his
seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them.

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And the people were shouting the voice of a god
and not of a man. Now, before we read the
next line, to just pause for a moment, one of
God's elect one of God's choice servants, was put to

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death with the sword. And if we're honest, every one
of us, deep down in that place that you don't
talk about in Sunday school, we ask God why didn't
you do something about that? Why didn't you vindicate your servant?

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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. God will not share

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his glory with another. Not every blasphemer dies on sight.
And there are some of us in the room who
could shout, Amen, Hallelujah, praise the Lord right now, because
there are those in the room who have been blasphemers
and who have been redeemed. And you're grateful that God

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did not strike you down on site. Amen. However, on
this particular day, with this particular blasphemer, it is as
though God has said to his people, you wonder if
I take care of things like this, You wonder if

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I am just. First of all, you shouldn't wonder if
I am just. You know that all men will face
me on the day of judgment. So don't ever wonder
if I'm just. But in case you were wondering, and
in case you need a lesson, keep watching this man

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the voice of a god, and not can you see him?
He's persecuting the church he's killing Christians, this faith that
is spreading abroad. He's going to put a stop to it.
People are coming to him, bowing down, asking for He
gives an oration. They praise him as the voice of

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a God and not a man. And his chest puffs
up to take another breath, and there is not one
to take. And so on the other end of the frame,

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we have the death of the wicked. On the one
side of the frame, we have the death of the righteous.
On the other side of the frame, we have the
death of the wicked. Both died. God was glorified in
both instances. If it's what's on the inside of the

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frame that helps us go back with me to verse six.
We have two portraits. The first portrait of a portrait
of drowsy deliverance. I like to call it verse six
and now again James has been put to death with

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the sword. Peter, James and John the inner circle. Herod
sees that the Jews are excited by the fact that
he put James to death with the sword. They want
these people stamped out. So he goes and gets the
top dog, the one whose name everybody knows, and he

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puts Peter in prison with a view toward Peter being
killed next. And so now Peter, having witnessed the death
of James, the other member, the other third of this
inner circle, is in prison waiting for his own execution.

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And here we pick up the story now when Herod
was about to bring him out. On that very night,
Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains
and sentries before the door, were guarding the prison. And behold,
an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and

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a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on
the side and woke him, saying, get up quickly, and
the 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

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and followed him. He did not know that 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

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own accord, and they went out and went along one street,
and immediately the angel left him. When Peter came to himself,
Now all that happened, and now Peter came to himself.

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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.
You know how awesome Peter's faith was. Here's how awesome

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Peter's faith was. Because this is what we believe, right,
Peter was delivered from prison because its faith was so awesome.
It's faith. It's your faith. It's your faith, it's your faith.
Well up, huh, put your clothes, let's go. Okay, past

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one guard, past two guard, past one gate, past two gates,
down the street. So all of this has happened, and
Peter just sort of sleepyyyd walking in the hill home.
They take him around the corner he's out of harm's way,
and then when he's finally out of harm's way, after
all of this has happened, stands up and he says, now,

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I know, can't you? You know the image that we
have because if our wharped view of faith, the image
that we have would have had Peter in the cell
waiting on the angel wondering why he was taking so long,

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would have had Peter on his face praying, claiming his
deliverance from the cell would have had Peter already with
his clothes and shoes on, saying, what took you so long?
But that's not how it happened. Peter wasn't up praying,

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he was sleeping. This didn't happen because it's exactly what
Peter asked for. He was surprised by it. Don't you
know that if Peter had said, Lord, please send your angel,
please come get me, Lord, please, do you take this?

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You don't think that you're seeing a vision when that happens.
Does this mean that Peter was faithless? No, it doesn't
mean that Peter was faithless. You know he was faithful
because he was sleep Hey man, let me see if
somebody tells you they're gonna kill you tomorrow if you

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sleep well tonight. But his faith seemed to have been
pointed in a different direction, more of a Lord, help
me die well, help me finish well. Newsflash, saints, that's

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a godward life. The godward life is not just the
one who says, Lord, I'm trusting you to get me
out of here. The godward life is the one that says, Lord,
if you don't I'm trusting you to give me what
I need to die tomorrow in a way that brings
you honor and glory. And until your faith can encompass

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getting broken out of jail by an angel and being
executed for the cause of Christ, then you don't understand
the God would life. Because if the only thing that
you can see in your mind's eye as being faithful
is getting out whether you've got two problems. Number one,

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I want to be there when you tell James that
he was executed because he didn't have enough faith. If
you died before me, don't ask him that till I
get there. Problem number two, You've just taken away God's sovereignty.

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God is not sovereign. He's a puppet and he's going
to do whatever it is that you determine he's going
to do. And if you have enough faith and imagination
to ask him for this versus that, then that's what
you'll get. God is sovereign. God was sovereign when James

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was walked out of the prison by the guards who
would execute him. And God was sovereign when Peter was
walked out of prison by an angel. The second portrait,
so we got the drowsy Deliverance how about the doubtful prayer. Yeah, well,

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Peter may not have been believing all those people who were
praying for him verse twelve. 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. Now they're gathered together and they're praying.

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The text doesn't say this, but I feel rather safe
and assuming that they're praying for Peter to not experience
with James experienced. And when he knocked on the door
of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer.
Recognizing Peter's voice in her joy, she did not open

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the gate, but ran in and reported that Peter was
standing at the gate. They said to her, girl, what
did you expect? That's what we were asking for. They

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said to her, you are out of your mind. Now
you go back to the wee can pray for that man.
But she kept insisting that it was so, and they

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kept saying it is his angel. First, you crazy. Secondly, okay, okay, okay, okay,
maybe you did see something. That's fine, sweetheart. We don't
want to you know, we don't want to crush your
faith and everything and that that's good. But what you
see in pop you saw his angel. Okay, we'll give
you that you saw his angel. Now can we go

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finish prayer for Peter. 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

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and to the brothers the other James. Then he departed
and went to another place again. Peter's response doesn't sound
like this overwhelming, victorious faith response, and the individuals who

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were praying most assuredly do not sound like they had
an overwhelming faith response. But saints, I want you to
notice something. In spite of this, God got him out.

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God got him out. Why because God is sovereign, and
because God was not done maximizing his glory through the
life of Peter Mar twenty four. Jesus answer them, have

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faith in God. Truly. I say to you, whatever whoever
says to this mountain be taken up and thrown into
the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but
believes that what he says will come to pass. It
will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, whatever
you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it,
and it will be yours. Jesus doesn't tell us to

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pray like this in order to get the stuff that
we want, But he's making a statement about God's power
and about God's goodness and about God's care for his people.
The godward life won't even take credit for this. There

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are those out there who argue that things like this
happen because of their faith. The godward life doesn't even
say this. The godward life says God was good, God
was gracious. God was kind. Not I twisted his arm
so violently that he had to give me what I
demanded from him. No, even when God gives me what

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I've asked for, it's because he was kind, he was good,
he was gracious. This is what the God centered life
looks like. Some application application number one, and this is

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always an application. In the Book of Acts. Narrative is
not normative. Narrative is not normative. I believe if Chapter
twelve teaches us anything, it teaches us that the Book
of Acts is not there in order to give us
a blue as to how to get certain things done.

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Because in this very chapter, on the one hand, we
have James, faithful servant of God, who is executed, and Peter,
faithful servant of God who is delivered both death and
deliverance in the life of faithful servants of God, and
the people prayed for both faithful servants of God. Pray

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for one faithful servant of God and he dies, pray
for another faithful servant of God and he's delivered. You
cannot read Acts chapter twelve and come away thinking that
you have a blueprint for how to make things happen
through your prayers. That's not what's intended here. What we're
intended to see here is a picture of the sovereignty

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of God and the picture of God's faithfulness to himself
and to his plans. Therefore, when we live this god
would life, this God sinnered life, what we're in living
for is God's plans. And when we're living for God's plans,
it doesn't matter what happens to us, because God's plans
will not be flwarded. So if I am living in

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accordance with his will and I'm living for his plans,
then whatever it is that happens to me, I can rejoice.
I can say with job, though he's slay me, yet,
will I trust in him? Because I know this. God's
not always gonna be on my side, but he's always

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gonna be on his own side. God can't always be
on my side because I'm not always right. If you
can't say amen, you always say elch. So for God
to put himself in a position where he's always got
to be on my side would mean that God would
have to be on the wrong side from time to

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time in order to back me up. God is always
on God's side. Therefore, it's incumbent upon me to always
be on God's side, because if I'm always on God's side,

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I'm always on the side God is on. That way,
you might as well be on my side. Secondly, death
and deliverance are in God's hands. Both death and deliverance

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are in God's hands. Do you know what the tendency
is for us saints? Here's our tendency. Our tendency is
to get the news that James is dead and then

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to drop our hands and question whether or not God
is still with us. What did we do wrong? Where
did we go wrong? What did we not do that
we ought to have done. What power is this that

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is now able to challenge God like this? These are
the things that we think when we forget the sovereignty
of God. And then when deliverance happens, we say, well,
we must have done something right. That's why I love
Acts Chapter twelve. This deliverance happened because of our great faith.

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This deliverance happened because of our great No. No, this
deliverance happened. And Peter didn't even know what it was
already done. This deliverance happened, and they tell you, Rotter,
she was crazy. This deliverance happened because God is a deliverer.

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And thirdly, remember that when you live a God word
life and you remind yourself that God always acts on
his own behalf and for his own glory, then that

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means what you are eventually going to have to come
to grips with by God's grace, is redefining providence. See,
most of us don't belie leave the biblical definition of providence,

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the historical reformed definition of providence. Most of us believe
like this. If I'm riding down the road and I
almost get an accident, and then I swerve and barely
miss the tree. Then I say, by God's providence, I
did not hit the tree. But then the next time

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something happens. We're riding down the road and we swerve
and try to miss the car, and we instead of
you know, trying to miss this car, we hit another car,
and then we end up in the ditch. Then we
believe that we did not experience God's providence. So basically,
most Christians basically define providence as Christian luck. It is

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not until you understand that God's providence covers the swerving
and missing and the swerving and not missing, that you
truly understand the providence of God. God's providence orders all
things according to his will. And as we mature as believers,

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what happens. See, what happens when we mature as believers
is that we are able to hear the news It's done,
James is dead, and walk into a room where immature
believers have their shoulders down and their heads down, and
they're weeping and wailing, and they're saying, God, Why God,

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how could you do this? What we're wrong? What did
we do? See? The mature Christian who understands God's providence
can gently come in to the younger believer at that moment,
and say, dear one, do you know where God was
the moment James was killed. He was in the same

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place that he was when his son was killed, on
his throne, directing all things to maximize his glory. And
do you also know that from the moment the sword
took his head off, James walked into a reality that

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he would never in a million years trade for another
day with you. James is dead. God is on his throne.

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Peter's free. God is on his throne. Because here's what
you need to know, saints. Eventually Peter was killed. Also,
you see, we forget that, and so we run to
our passage like this and we say, you see, if

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you live by faith, and if you have this, and
you have God's favor, you have all this, then you
can walk. The only way you do that is if
you ignore the fact that years later the angel didn't
walk them out of jail, but walked him into glory.

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God was sovereign when Peter was delivered, and God was
sovereign when Peter was martyred. I've said it before and
I'll say it again. The last time I checked, the
death rate was one per person every one of us

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is going that way. And when you understand that, you
recognize that your deliverance, great though it may be, is
always temporary, because there is a date you must keep.
And unless the Lord returns and we are here when
he cracks the sky, every one of us will face

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that last enemy. So our prayer is, God, when that
day comes, grant by your grace that I might die well,
Grant by your grace that I may be ushered into

(43:56):
your presence, believing you as sincerely as I believed you
on the day of my greatest victory and my greatest deliverance. No, no, no, no, no, God,
more so more so I told you I had a

(44:21):
preach this right after we had left our house, and
there was a series of events that had happened after
we had decided that that we were you know, we
were coming, and I mean just a series of it
was just it was just magnificent. It was just one
thing after another, the Lord just smiling on us, and

(44:44):
us smiling all the way, and then all of a sudden,
late spring, early summer, one thing after another after another
began to go in the other direction. And there's that tendency.

(45:09):
Do you think maybe we miss God, do you think
maybe we made a mistake. Do you think maybe he's
trying to say that we ought to not do this?
And I had a wonderful saint friend and brother to

(45:32):
remind me of something that I had heard before and
just carried us all the way to getting off the
plane today. He said, Brother, you know, bomber pilots have

(45:53):
a saying. The flack is always thickest when you're right
over the target. If you're flying over something that the
enemy doesn't care if you bomb, it's usually clear sailing
blue skies and no opposition insight. But when you get

(46:17):
to something that he wants to protect. I don't know
who you are tonight, but I know you're here, and

(46:38):
I know that you're at that place that all of
us come to from time to time where we doubt
the Lord's love and care for us. But here's what
we all need to remember. If there is ever a
moment when you doubt whether or not God loves you,
you do not look at your circumstances, look to the cross.

(47:06):
And when you look to the Cross, you come to
a place where you say, God never again has to
do anything to prove that He loves me. God has
demonstrated his love for us in this that while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We have been

(47:28):
adopted by God. We are his children. He is sanctifying
us and conforming us to the image of his son,
whom he has loved for all eternity, and he is
preparing a place for us. He will usher us into
his presence in the eternity, and between now and then,

(47:50):
he is merely preparing us for that. So whatever it
is that God has taking you through, don't you dare
allow it to cause you to question whether or not
the Cross still means what it meant. Because it does

(48:15):
and it always will. And because of the Cross, we
have hope. Whether the news is James is dead, whether
the news is Peter is free. God is still on
his throne. He's still working all things together for the

(48:39):
good of those who love him and are called according
to his purpose. And he is still going to stand
victorious and glorified and vindicated on that day. And when
he does, you and I will rejoice even over the

(49:01):
worst moments that we've ever experienced. As we follow God.
Let's pray, Gracious God, our father, We thank you, we
praise you for your goodness and your mercy and your

(49:25):
kindness toward us. We thank you for those days when
things happen that just scream to us God loves me,

(49:46):
God is with me, God is for me. But God,
we also thank you for those days that cause us
to doubt whether or not that's true, because we know
that in those days you love us no less. You
are no less with us, and you are no less

(50:07):
for us. Grant by your grace that we might walk
in this truth, that we might be marked by it,
that we might be shaped by it, and that we
might bring you glory as a result. This we pray

(50:29):
in Christ's name for his sake. Amen.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
Yeah,