Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Acts chapter 19. We'll continue our study in this
wonderful, wonderful book. Now, the name of the message
is A Riot After Preaching Christ. A Riot After Preaching Christ. Oh, this book is wonderful. It
brings forth the things occurring during the early New Testament
church. Let's stand up together and we're
gonna read verses 18 to 22 of Acts chapter 19 together. God's holy word declares, and
many that believe came and confessed and showed their deeds, many
of them also which use curious arts brought their books together
and burned them before all men, and they counted the price of
them and found it to be 50,000 pieces of silver. So mightily
grew the word of the Lord and prevailed. After these things
were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit when he had passed
through Macedonia in Archaea, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After
I have been there, I must also see Rome. So he sent into Macedonia
two of them that ministered unto him, Timothy and Eurytus, but
he himself stayed in Asia for a season." So Paul has purposed
in his mind that he's going to go through Macedonia and Archaea. Archaea, we know from our previous
studies, is Greece. And then he's going to go to
Jerusalem, and then he desires to go to Rome. But he hasn't
left yet, because we see in verse 22, he himself stayed in Asia
for a season. But he sent Timothy and Eurytus
into Macedonia, so ahead of him. Now last week, we left off at
verse 20, where you've seen a moving of the Holy Spirit of God at
Ephesus. And that's where Paul is. At this time, he's in Ephesus. And in Ephesus is a temple to
Diana, a huge temple. Ephesus is the center of the
worship of the goddess Diana, a false god, a god that both the Greeks and
the Romans worship. And Paul preached there, and
we see, so mightily grew the word of the Lord and prevailed
in verse 20. And then we saw what happened. As a result of
that preaching, and God the Holy Spirit again doing all the work,
moving and saving souls, After these things were ended, we see
in verse 19, many of them also which used curious arts bought
their books together and burned them before all men. Remember
what happened? That demon in that man said,
Jesus I know, that's Gnoska, he knows him intimately, And
Paul, I know, different Greek word, he's acquainted with him,
but he said to those seven brothers who tried to cast him out of
that man, I don't know you. And see, Christ has all authority
over everything, over everything, and he was acknowledging that.
But after that happened, after the demon in the man, the man
jumped on them and ripped them, torn them apart, and that spread
all through Ephesus. And Paul's still preaching the
gospel, isn't he? And you see, it says they bought all their
books of curious arts, they bought all this stuff. 50,000 pieces of silver at today's
spot rate is anywhere between 1.5 million to $2 million worth
of stuff. And you know why they burned
all that stuff? Because they didn't want anyone else getting
their hands on it. They had repented. God had saved their souls. And
they were coming out of all that idol worship. Coming out of all
that idol worship, beloved. My. And we see that the Word
mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed. See, that's all
by God's power. Paul had nothing to do with that.
All he's doing is preaching the gospel, isn't he? Anytime the
Word of God prevails, anytime a sinner is saved, it's by the
grace and mercy of God alone. By the power of God. It's not
by anything we do. Now, do we run to Christ? Absolutely. Do we have faith in Christ? Absolutely.
But faith is a gift of God, isn't it? Not of works, lest any man
should boast. And the scripture says we're
made willing in the day of God's power to come to Christ. Someone
says, well, you're a robot. No, I'm not. I'm not no robot. No. God saved me. And God alone. I'm a receiver
of the mercy and grace of God in and through Christ. And that's
what I preach. Salvation's in Christ alone.
Flee to Him. I know if you flee to Him, it's
because God's making you will it. Isn't that wonderful? I know
if you have faith in Christ, and if you repent, it's because
God's given you that faith, and God's given you that repentance
before God. So who gets the glory? Amen. God gets all the glory,
doesn't He? All the honor, all the praise
goes to Him. So here these folks are, the
Lord saved a whole bunch of these Ephesians, and they're taking
the curious books, which is like fortune-telling stuff and witchcraft
and all that, and they're burning them all. They don't want them anymore.
They're serving the one true living God now. And we're going
to see what happens. There's a fellow who makes idols. A silversmith. And he is steaming
mad. You know why? He lost some money. He lost a whole bunch of clients. See, Paul doesn't preach the
gospel for money. No. The true gospel preachers don't
preach the gospel for gain. We preach it for the glory of
God. For his glory, for his honor,
for his praise. This fellow's a little ticked
off, this guy. Because his income stream has got squeezed quite
a bit. My, oh my. Marvel, as many were
converted, the Word of God was given increase by the power of
God. Salvation in and through Christ alone was proclaimed by
Paul. And many were delivered from
the power of darkness out of the hands of Satan and translated
from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God's dear
Son. That's what happens when a person's saved. They get translated
out of the kingdom of darkness, and they're translated into the
kingdom of God's dear Son by the power of God Almighty. So
we give them the glory, don't we? We say praise his mighty
name. Look what God's done. He saved
my soul. I couldn't save myself. He saved
me. When did he save me? 2,000 years
ago. 2,000 years ago. How many of
my sins are forgiven? Just the past ones? Past, present, and future. Because you know why? How many
of our sins in this room, how many of our sins were future
at Calvary's cross? All of them. All of them. And because of the precious blood
of Christ, God says, there are sins and iniquities, will I remember?
No more. No more. Isn't that wonderful? Absolutely wonderful. Doesn't
give us a license to go live however we want, because we won't.
No believer will do that. We're still sinners, but no believer
is going to go out there and live a riotous life. That's a
life of an antinomian. That shows a person doesn't really
know Christ. But notice this in verse 20,
the word of the Lord powerfully continued. This is in the Greek
literal Bible. It says, so the word of the Lord powerfully continued
to spread and prevail, powerfully, by the power of God the Holy
Spirit. Isn't that wonderful? Marvel as the gospel goes forth
in power. Sinners are saved by the grace
and mercy of God. And the idol makers become angry. Angry. They're losing their customers,
beloved. My, oh, my. Look at verses 21
and 22. Paul, being led by the Holy Spirit
of God, purposes in his spirit to pass through Macedonia and
Achaia, which is Greece, and then to go on to Jerusalem, and
then on to Rome. But he didn't leave Ephesus right
away, we see in verse 22, but he sent faithful man, Timothy
and Eurytus into Macedonia to let the saints know of his plans.
Paul's coming to visit. Lord willing. Lord willing. And Timothy and Eurytus, as they
went into Macedonia, what would they be doing? They'd be preaching
the gospel, right? That's what they did. They went
from city to city preaching the gospel. They didn't preach how
to live a better Christian life. They didn't preach what you have
to do. They preach Christ, the only Savior of sinners. What's
the one thing we need as sinners? We need Christ. We need to be
saved from our sins. And praise God, the Scripture
declares that Jesus Christ came to save His people from their
sins. That's wonderful news if you're
a sinner. Just people don't think they're
sinners anymore. Huh? I'm saved and I'm still a sinner
from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. Are you? But
I'm a saved sinner. Not because of anything I've
done. God didn't look and say, well, that Wayne, he's a pretty
good fella. No. He looked and said, oh, he's dead in trespasses
and sins. And he saved me. And, you know,
we're chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world,
it says in Ephesians 1, 4, right? So when God looked down through
time, people say, well, when God looked down through time, he
saw who would have faith in him, and he chose them in Christ.
That's so anti-scriptural, it's not funny. Because when God looked
down through time, Brother Eric, he saw us all dead in trespasses
and sins, didn't he? And he chose to save some. Now,
who am I to argue with that? Who am I to argue with that?
It's a scriptural doctrine, right? Are we amazed, sister, that God
chose us and saved us? Hey, brother? It's amazing, isn't
it? It's just amazing that God would
have mercy and grace in and through Christ to send His Son, the Word
of God, into this world to save sinners such as we. and that
he would give his life, that he would shed his blood to redeem
our eternal souls. And the scripture says, having
obtained eternal redemption. It's eternal, isn't it? Brother
Chris, if we could lose our salvation, then it's not eternal. But the scripture says, having
obtained eternal redemption. He obtained the eternal security. He redeemed his people. Isn't that wonderful? By his
work. See, my salvation is not dependent upon my works. And
neither is yours, eh? If you believe. If you're truly
born again, you believe that it's all God's work. Because
if I could lose my salvation, then it's not God's salvation,
is it? And I'm going to tell you something,
too. If I could lose my salvation,
I would lose it a thousand times a day, if not more, because I
know what I am. I'm a saved sinner. But praise
God, we who believe can go through this life resting and trusting
in the crucified one, the Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh.
We can rest in his sovereignty. We can rest in the salvation.
And the scripture even tells us in Peter that we're kept by
the power of God. We're not kept by our power. Brother Chris, the only reason
we're going home when we die is because we're kept by the
power of God. He saved us and he keeps us,
which means this, he's the author and he's the finisher of our
salvation and everything between. That's a wonderful salvation,
isn't it? That's the salvation in Christ I preach. That salvation
is in and through Christ alone, by Christ alone, and we're just
receivers of the mercy and grace of God. That's what Paul preached. Preach the same gospel. It's
wonderful. Now, when I came out of religion,
I had to unlearn a lot of things. I had to unlearn a lot of things.
My, oh my. And one of them was my salvation
wasn't dependent upon a decision I made because I never would
have made a decision for Christ if Christ hadn't saved my soul
and drew me to him. Now, did I run to Christ? Absolutely. But I found out it was all God's
work from beginning to end. Isn't that wonderful? And so
Paul's preaching this wondrous gospel and folks are getting,
they're getting hopping mad. Because look at verse 23. Paul's
in Ephesus. What's he doing? He's still preaching
Christ, isn't he? He's still preaching that Christ
died, came to this world, lived the perfect life, died in the
room and place of sinners, was risen again from the grave, and
is now seated at the right hand of the Father. And look at this, verse 23. And
the same time there arose no small stir about that way. Now
notice that way. The people of God were called the followers
of the way back in the day. Because they follow the one who
is the way, the truth, and the life. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. So they were called the followers
of the way. And notice this, and there arose no small stir
about that way. In the Greek, stir there means
a disturbance, that is a tumult. There's a riot. People are going,
they're getting all worked up. Tumult is defined in our English
dictionary as a loud, confused noise, especially one caused
by a large mass of people. So we've seen things on TV lately
where people are rioting and doing, it's just like that. Now our Lord had delivered many
of his lost sheep under the preaching of the gospel. We saw that. Many
of them. They've turned from their idols.
They've turned from their wicked ways. And they're worshiping
God now. Burn up all these books and stuff
that they had studied before. Didn't want anyone else getting
a hold of them. And Paul and all of God's servants had faithfully
preached the gospel, the true gospel of God's saving grace
through the merits of Christ. Now that's important, through
the merits of Christ, not through the merits of their own, but
through the merits of Christ. If we're saved, we're saved through
the merits of Christ in Him alone. We're saved by His perfect work.
because not by works of righteousness, which we have done, we can't
be saved by anything we do, but according to his mercy, he has
saved us. Praise his mighty name. What a Savior, what a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ, our Lord. In the Holy Spirit of God, enlighten
the minds of those chosen blood-bought saints at Ephesus, and they not
only came away from all their false religions and beliefs,
But they also burned all the graven images and books and curious
arts, making sure they would not fall into the hands of others.
Now that would probably make this fella named Demetrius pretty
mad, because he probably would have bought them off him and
resold them. But these folks will have nothing
of that. God the Holy Spirit had given
these new converts the gift of faith to embrace the Lord Jesus
Christ. And his supreme sacrifice is
the only way to find favor in God's sight. And that is the
only way to find favor in God's sight. Not by anything we do,
but all by what Christ did. We saw it in the reading. This
is my beloved son, hear ye him. Right? And then the father says, this
is my, and another place in the scripture, this is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. Oh my. Now, God stirred up these false religiousness
in the city of Ephesus for his will and purpose. We've looked at several times
during our previous studies that there will always be those who
are opposed To the true gospel, whenever it's preached, people
say, I don't wanna hear that, I don't believe that, I've been
taught this way, and that's the right way. Well, I found out that I've been
taught the wrong way, and I believe that, and then
God showed me the truth, praise his mighty name, that salvation's
all of Christ and Christ alone. And here there's an uproar. God's
allowing it to happen. He doesn't have to do anything
to get these folks stirred up, does he? They just get stirred
up all by their flesh. What does God have to do for
a man to go to hell? Leave him alone. What does God have to
do for a man or a woman to go to heaven? Everything. Everything. And we are going to see that
God's sovereign will will be accomplished through this situation. His purpose of grace will be
accomplished. The uproar came to pass because
of wicked men with wicked hearts for wicked purposes. They set
themselves in opposition to the preaching of the gospel. May
God never let that happen to us. And they set themselves up against
our great God. They set themselves against the
free and sovereign grace of God in Christ, which says, salvation's
of the Lord, not by anything we do. My, oh my. Again, God just has
to leave these men alone, right? The only way we have faith in
God is if we're born again by God, and then he gives us faith
in repentance before him. Faith to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. If he doesn't give us that faith,
we'll never believe on him. You ever think of that? What
a gift faith is. We never would come to God if
he didn't make us willing and he didn't give us faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why it's a gift of God,
not of works, lest any man should boast. It's amazing, just amazing. Praise our almighty God and merciful
God. For the mercy he's shown to sinners.
Hasn't he been merciful to we sinners? He'd been merciful to
us, hadn't he? We've been saved from our sins.
We're born again by God's almighty power. He saved us. Well, we were dead in trespasses
and sins, not having to care about him. So we were in the same state
as Demetrius and these folks. You know what? Dead in trespasses
and sins. Let's read verses 24 to 28 now
of Acts chapter 19. For a certain man named Demetrius,
a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana. Ah, so this
is biting into his pocketbook, beloved. Bought no small gain unto the
craftsman, whom he called together. Now he's not only feeling the
pinch, but now he's gonna spread, and he knows, this fellow knows,
I'm gonna get all these other folks mad at Paul. mad at the
people of this way. And he knew all he had to do
was mention money. Right? You hit a man in the pocketbook
and, my oh my. Like this. whom he called together,
he called all the workers of that occupation, of like occupation,
and said, sirs, you know that by this craft we have our wealth. This is how we live. This is how we sustain ourselves. Moreover, you see in here, that
not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul
has persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they
be no gods which are made with hands. Praise his mighty name. Because there is no other God,
but our God is there. And these are nothing but dead
idols. They're gods of man's imagination. crafted in the furnaces of man's
mind. My. Look at this. So that not only this our craft
is in danger, to be said it not, but also that the temple of the
great goddess Diana. Remember there's a huge temple
in this city. This is the center of the worship
of Diana. that the temple of this great
goddess, Diana, should be despised, and her magnificence should be
destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshipeth. And when
they had heard these sayings, they were full of wrath and cried
out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. Now, Ephesus is
in Asia. Ephesus is a colony of Rome. It's a colony of Rome. Any kind
of riot, any kind of uprising would be seen by the Romans as
sedition. But these folks, we're going
to see, are so angry with their hatred towards our great God
that they're not even thinking about that. Demetrius was a silversmith,
a man who worked with his hands. He made things of silver to sell
for profit in Ephesus. Silver shrines for Diana. It was big business. He made
a lot of money, beloved. Diana was a false goddess made
from man's sinful imagination. And Demetrius made images of
the temple. Images of the Temple of Diana,
where people gathered to worship. He also probably made images
of Diana. Statues. This could have been
a very lucrative business, beloved. It would have made a lot of money.
And he wasn't just making a comfortable living. He's getting wealthy. He's getting really wealthy. Well, what about them false teachers
and preachers we have nowadays? You know how many times I preached
on giving here since I've been here for 10 years? Zero. And I don't plan on teaching
on giving unless it's in the text that we go through book
by book, verse by verse. And then you know what I'm going
to say? God loves a cheerful giver, period. That's it. We got these false teachers on
TV. Oh my, give me your seed money.
And if you give me your seed money, you're gonna get triple
back. That's so anti-biblical, beloved. So anti-biblical. You know, I
remember talking to someone who was a missionary, and he told
me he had to go around all these different places and begging
for money. You know, our missionaries never beg for money. Because
we find out, we Grace Churches find out together, if someone
has a need and we send money to them. It's like we did for
Tim when the flood went through. That's what we do. Moose Parks needed a new car.
They found out he was mortgaged in his house in Kentucky. The
church has sent him the money to pay off the mortgage that
he had incurred and got him a brand new truck. He didn't have to ask anybody.
That happened years before I even got here. That's how it is. That's how it is. But you got these characters
going up there telling you that you gotta give them money in
order to make money. I read, I got a cousin who's caught up
in that word of faith. You ever heard of that word of
faith stuff? Took everything I could to shut
that window down. She said this, and I was thinking,
Sister Kathy, I was thinking of you and Dan when this came
up. I thought, this is so damaging to people. They said, well, now
you're healthy. You claim that healthy. You're
not going to get sick again. You guys went through cancer
together. And we saw the grace of God at work bringing you through
that. We've seen many times within
this body, haven't we? She said, oh, just, you need
to claim that healing. If God wants to put someone through
something, he will. And didn't you guys testify that
it brought you closer to our King? That's what he uses trials
and tribulations for, beloved. Brian, you went through that
cancer. It brings you closer to Christ. Right? We don't understand them when
we're going through them. We're saying, what's going on? The Lord's taking
care of us, beloved. And He always will. He always
will. So this fellow, he's not just
comfortable. He's making a lot of money. He's
very wealthy. Nothing against wealth. But this
fellow, he's making false idols. And look what he says in verse
25. Sirs, you know, by this craft, we have our wealth. So he calls
all these other guys together. Oh my. So this is how we make
our money. These guys are cutting into our
wallet. And you know, the business of
religion is big bucks. Just look at the word of faith,
guys. Big money. That's just religion. There's
no salvation in that. You know, they care more about
their wallet than they do of the souls they're preaching to. I care more about your soul than
what you give. You know that. My, oh, my. Preaching the gospel
is vital. Religion's profitable, isn't
it? But not true grace. But it is for us because we're
rich in Christ, aren't we? We have all spiritual blessings
in Christ and Him alone. See, think of how religion is
big business. Trinkets, statues. I used to
be a Catholic. Statues, rosaries, all this junk. That's worthless. Religion's
big business, man. See all these bumper stickers?
Remember the little fish they used to put on the cars? My wife and I got a little fist,
we put it on the car, right? And I said, man, now I can't
get mad at people. But did it stop me getting mad
at people? No, because I was religious. Take that thing off, now I can
go, what are you doing, man? My, oh my. Think of this too. They're making
things out of wood and stone. And these things are important
to these people, but they're worth nothing. They're worthy
of contempt rather than praise. Now Demetrius, we see he's a
very persuasive guy, isn't he? We're gonna see, he gets them
all stirred up. He gets these folks all stirred
up. So much so where the whole city Whole city's worked up. Demetrius knew the minds of those
ungodly false religionists. He knew they idolized Diana,
which he probably did too. He knew they truly loved her
and looked at her with admiration. But she's worthless. She's a figment of man's imagination. She can't speak. She can't hear. She can't move. Men have to,
you ever think of that? When I was growing up, we had
statues of Mary everywhere, right? It was pathetic, they were everywhere.
But you know, when my mom was cleaning, she didn't say, move
away little Mary statue, and it swapped to the side. She had
to pick it up and clean underneath it. Because it's a worthless
piece of stone. Right? Yeah. My, oh my. Demetrius didn't know that he
was walking according to the prince of the power of the air.
He didn't even know he was under Satan's sway. The spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience, Ephesians 2 verse 2. And all these men and all these
people are in darkness. They're in darkness, which was
where we were before the Lord saved us. And think of this. He's in a rage. And he's talking
about Paul preaching the gospel, and he's in a rage. My oh my. He's influenced by the devil,
by the forces of darkness, but he didn't realize, he didn't
realize that all these things are under the sovereign rule,
will, and purpose of God. Remember Satan came to the Lord
and said, I see that fellow Job, and of course the Lord's seen
him, he's one of his servants. He says, if you let me get at
him, he's gonna curse you. The Lord says, just don't take
his life. See, he can go a certain, but
Satan is on a leash, beloved. God is sovereign. My Savior,
And if you're a believer, your Savior is sovereign. He's sovereign. Now, we go through
things, don't we? But He's right there with us, carrying us right
through it all. So He said, you can afflict Him,
but you can't take His life. The Lord preserved Him, didn't
He? He went through a lot. But the Lord preserved him, didn't
he? Threw it all. It's wonderful. God keeps his people. He saves
his people and he keeps his people. So all this is occurring according
to God's will and purpose. Demetrius didn't know that the
Lord Jesus Christ is in sovereign control of all things. Now the devil and the fallen
angels, they know. They know who Christ is. We saw
that last week. That demon said, Jesus, I know. He said, Jesus, I know. I know
him intimately. And remember, James says the
devils believe and tremble. Now, it's not a saving faith,
but they know who he is. And then we looked at the gathering
demoniac and the demon in him said, we know who thou art, thou
holy one of God. Thou come to torment us before
the time. They know He's the Holy One. Oh my. But isn't it amazing that some
professing Christians give more power to the devil than they
do to God? I was one of them at one time. After I came out of Catholicism,
I got religious. And then I used to give, I said
this, the most horrible thing, I said to my cousins, God's cast
a vote for you and the devil's cast a vote for you, now the
rest is up to you. That is the worst thing you can ever say
to someone. Because God's in sovereign control. I pray the Lord will give me
a chance to speak to that young man again, my three cousins again.
If it be his will, tell him the truth about God's sovereignty. The Word of God proclaims that
our God is sovereign. He rules and reigns over everything.
He plainly declares that God, honor, and truth, Satan, and
the falling angels, and the elect angels, and all of humanity,
all the animals, all the weather, all things seen and unseen, are
under the sovereign control of God Almighty. I used to think
when there was a tornado or a hurricane, well, Satan, look what Satan's
doing. Nope. God's allowing that to happen. There's a reason and
a will and a purpose in it all that I don't know. Right? That's my Savior. And I know this. If he had left
me where I was, I'd still be dead in trespasses and sins.
I'd still be doing the things that I did. And I wouldn't have
a care in the world for my king. Now, I'm born again. I don't
want to tell other sinners. This is the only Savior of sinners,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Isn't He wonderful? He's so good. Jesus Christ is King of kings
and Lord of lords. That's our Savior. Praise His
mighty name. God's born-again, blood-washed
saints, we find great comfort in that precious truth, in the
fact that Jesus Christ is in sovereign control. What comfort
that brings us. Oh, it brings us such comfort.
Now look at verse 29 here, Acts 19, 29. And the whole city was
filled with confusion, and having caught Gaius and Artricius, man
of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with one
accord into the theater. Now, God's not the author of
confusion, is he? Scripture declares that for God
is not the author of confusion, but of peace, is in all the churches
of saints. Well, we see in verse 29 that
the whole city of Ephesus is caught up in confusion. And Paul was not available, so
some of these wicked men, who were aware of the acquisitions
of Demetrius, caught two men and Archaeus, Paul's traveling
companions, and rushed them into the theater. Now this theater was a gathering
place. It was a place where gladiatorial
games would be done. It was a place where there would
be feasts to Diana. It was a place where Men and
women were thrown to beasts. Now let's read verse 30 and 31. And when Paul would have entered
in unto the people, the disciples suffered him not. And look at
this. And certain of the chief of Asia, which were his friends,
sent unto him, desiring him that he would not adventure himself
into the theater. So we see here Paul's traveling
companions, they'd been rushed into the theater. Paul wants
to go, and he wants to go right there. What a dear brother. Eric
would be like, if you and Neil were taken captive, and I'd be
like, I'm going there! And Travis and them would say,
no, don't go, Wayne, don't go! My, oh, my. He has a sincere desire to help
his brethren. Paul's manifesting that Christian
love, isn't it? Spread abroad in his heart. Sacrificial
love. The love of God that God places
in our hearts for fellow believers, for Christ. The scripture says
it's shed abroad in our heart. It's not natural to us. Oh, Paul, he doesn't care if
it cost him his life. He wants to go in there. But he's held back by brethren. And you know why? All according
to God's purpose and will. And then we see in verse 31,
that some very prominent men, look at this, and certain of
the chief of Asia, which were his friends. These weren't brethren. But see, Paul, I love this. Paul had friends who weren't
saved. Yeah? Do we not have friends
who aren't saved? Yes, we do, don't we? Yeah? And certain of the chief of Asia,
which were his friends, sent unto him, desiring him that he
would not adventure himself into the theater. So even his unsaved
friends, think of this, God in His sovereign will and purpose
is using the brethren and using unsaved men to keep Paul safe. And we're gonna see later on
in the text that our great God is gonna use an unsaved town
clerk to keep our brothers safe. God's in control over everything. That's the God of the Bible.
See, the God of religion is, well, God wants to do these things,
but he can't unless you let him. That's not the God of the Bible,
beloved. The God of the Bible has his
ways, and the armies of heaven and all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing. And that's humbling, isn't it?
That's humbling. But God loves his people, doesn't
he? With an everlasting, unchanging love, that's magnificent. How long has God loved us, Brother
Brian? For eternity, hasn't he? My, oh my, oh my. That's three
my's for you. It's wonderful, isn't it? That's
a wonderful truth, isn't it? So those he loves, he's going
to take care of, isn't he? Those he saves, he's going to
keep. He's going to take them to heaven,
isn't he? Now, certain things will happen to God's people on
this earth, which are the same as what happens to unsaved people.
But we have a hope. We have a peace. We have a God
and a Redeemer who is sovereign over all things. My Some of the very prominent
men of that area were friends of Paul. They sent messengers
to Paul saying, please don't go into the theater, please don't. Now it's possible that his preaching
may have made a great impression upon them, we don't know. They
may, the Lord may have saved them later, we don't know. But
they were his friends. I have people across the road
and different places in town here that I've got to know and
they're my friends. They're not my brethren, but
they're my friends. I pray for their salvation. And I hope the Lord will save
them, but they're friends. And we see that several of the
prominent men, the chief of Asia, these are high ups. They knew that there wasn't anything
that even they could do to calm down that angry mob. They knew
it. So they let Paul know it wouldn't
be wise for him to go there. Look at verse 32. These folks
were so confused that some knew why they were there and some
didn't. They were just along with the mob. Have we not seen
that? I've seen guys go out and interview
people on mobs lately, and they're asked, well, why are you here?
Well, I don't know. That's what was happening. I'm just here because my body's
here. My, oh my. And then look what
happens. And they drew, look at verse
33 and 34, and they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews
putting him forward. And Alexander beckoned the hand
and would have made his defense unto the people. But when they
knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about, the space of
two hours, they cried, great is Diana of the Ephesians. Now
here's these two brethren, and this Alexander guy, and all around
him is these pagans, like the whole city. They're rioting,
they're gathering together. And they're all yelling, great
is Diana, for two hours. Could you imagine standing there and you're a believer in Christ,
and all these people, they hate you so much. They hate the God
you worship, and they hate you because they can't get at God.
And they're yelling and screaming, great is Diana. And probably
going through their mind is, well, we might be going home
today. But I believe God gave him a
peace, because that's what he does. You ever notice when we
go through things, certain things that happened, God gives us a
peace, He gives us a peace. He gives
us grace in time of need. It's like Jim used to say to
you all. Somebody said to him, well, Jim, I don't have dying
grace. And he said, well, you're not dying, are you? But when we're dying, God will
give us dying grace, won't he? When we're going through a trial,
God will give us grace to get through that trial. Right? Oh, yeah. I've lived that. He does. He gives grace and mercy in time
of need. My. So these Jews didn't know what
would happen to Alexander. They didn't really care. Because
of their hatred for Paul and the gospel he preached, they
were hopeful that Alexander might persuade the angry mob of the
Ephesians to put the whole blame on God's apostle. That's what that fellow was trying
to do. He was trying to put the whole blame on the apostle. And
look what happened. The angry mob saw, and some of
them knew that Alexander was a Jew, and knowing that the Jews
did not worship their God, all with one voice, about the space
of two hours, cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. They
are worked up into a frenzy. Now, let we who are the redeemed
of the Lord always remember that no matter how things might seem
out of control to us, in this world, that all things are under
the sovereign control of our great Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ. My son can't figure out why Vicki
and I don't get worked up about politics anymore and don't get
worked up about the things in the world, because I know who's
in control. I keep telling him, I know who's in control. Right? When Biden was president,
God put him in power. Trump's president, God put Trump
in power. When the next president comes
up, God's gonna put the next president in power. Right? That's a biblical truth. He raises
up whom he wills. Huh? I'm just gonna keep preaching
the gospel. That's what's most important,
isn't it? We just keep sending it out into the world. That's
what's most important. Yeah? Now we're gonna see in these
remaining verses, I gotta wrap this up, we're seeing these remaining
verses that the scriptures reveal to us that how the Lord Jesus
Christ uses an unbelieving town clerk to calm that angry man and dismiss
the false accusations against Paul. And those angry mob calms them down. As far as that town clerk knew,
they had not even mentioned the name of Diana. Paul hadn't mentioned
the name of Diana. So he told those Ephesians, they're
not blasphemers of your goddess. Paul's preaching Christ. He's
not preaching Diana. When you preach Christ, Idle worshipers are going to
know that you believe your God is the true God, which he is.
And their God is a false God. But marvel at God's protective
hand. This is incredible. Marvel at God's protective hand.
We see this town clerk let these men of Ephesus know that what
Demetrius and his sailors did was actually contrary to the
laws of the city. Look at verses 38 to 39. Wherefore,
if Demetrius and his craftsmen which are with him have a matter
against any man, the law is open. You bring him before the law.
And there are deputies, let them be and plead one another. But
if any inquire anything concerning other matters, it shall be determined
in a lawful assembly. So the town clerk knew that Demetrius
and those who he influenced were the ringleaders. He points them
out. The one who caused the chaos
in the city, the riot in the city. And they could have and
should have bought this matter legally before the magistrates. Now this clerk spoke with a lot
of wisdom, didn't he? Wisdom that God gave him. But
we must not lose sight of the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ
is in absolute control of this situation. In all situations. He's accomplishing his predetermined
will and purpose. Through this whole situation.
Now look at verses 40 and 41. Now he's gonna bring forth that
we're in danger. Acts 19 verses 40 and 41. For we are in danger to be called
in question for this day's uproar. So them being a Roman colony,
he's saying we're in danger of sedition here. The Romans could
come in and wipe us out, which is what they did sometimes. They'd
send a legion or two in and clean house. They didn't mess around. There being no cause whereby
we may give an account of this concourse." So they're saying,
he's saying to them, we don't even have a reason why this is
happening. These men have not blasphemed
against your goddess. And so if the Romans get wind
of this, and they say, what is going on in Ephesus? Send a few
legions down. We're going to quell this real
fast. And there's going to be blood on swords, beloved. My oh my. Look at this. And when he had
thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly. God used an unsaved
town clerk to deliver our dear brothers.
And all they were doing was preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and salvation is in and through him alone. My oh my. And the town clerk in verse 41
commanded the people to break up that assembly and go home.
And marvel, beloved God, even the wrath of wicked men is used
by God for the good of his elect. By
the means of this uproar and persecution, God's church was
refined. Refined in the midst of trial,
Gaius and Archaea stood firm, while Demetrius, the silversmith,
withered before the furnace of God and the furnace of his wrath. When have we also seen where
wicked men did something and it glorified God? At Calvary's cross. Wicked men
took our Savior and nailed Him to a cross. For accusations that were not
true, they accused Him of blasphemy. The Jews and the Gentiles hung
Him on the cross. And what man meant for evil,
God used for good. Those men wagged their finger
at him and said, he saved others, he can't save himself. And meanwhile,
he's dying on that cross, saving a number that no man can number
by the shedding of his precious blood. What man meant for evil, God
used for good. And are we not recipients of
that? Grace and mercy. Scripture says, grace and mercy
kissed each other at Calvary's cross. Oh my, in the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Marvel at God's sovereign power.
One way or another, sometimes by friends and sometimes by foes,
our great God keeps his church, his people, from being destroyed. Let us marvel at how his hand
is not shortened. And it's still true today, isn't
it? His hand is not shortened, is it? He delivers his people. And if God will give us the grace
to understand that all things are under his absolute control,
and to trust in his wisdom, and trust in his love, and trust
in his grace towards us in Christ, and we will worship Him, we will
trust Him, and we will give thanks to Him at all times, won't we?
We won't have to be told to do that. We will do it. Paul wrote this in 1 Thessalonians
5, 16 to 18, and think of this in light of God's absolute sovereignty.
Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything
give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ, Jesus
concerning you. Amen.