you would turn back with me to
Acts 16. We will continue looking at this event that the Lord ordained
for the Apostle Paul to experience in Philippi. The Lord has forbid
him to preach in Asia, sent him over to Macedonia, found a woman
by the name of Lydia, whom the Lord opened her heart. And she
was baptized and took Paul and Silas into her
home. And then Paul continues to preach in Philippi, at which
time A damsel, the scripture says, who was possessed with
an evil spirit came along and began to try to endorse Paul's
ministry. But he would have nothing of
that. He did not want to be associated
with her in any way or her with him. And so he rebuked that demon
from her. And as a result of that, her
owners lost income. You know, this is not, this is
what man-made religion is really all about. It's a different spirit
with the purpose of merchandising men's souls for profit. And our
Lord made that very clear when he began and ended his public
ministry when he cleansed the temple and accused them of taking
the house of prayer and turning it into a den of thieves. You
are selling the gospel for profit, and that's what men do. They assume that gain is godliness,
and we see that in religion today. Oh, if we have If we have a big
crowd and a big influence, that gain is godliness. That's the
evidence that we have God's blessings on us. And if we don't, then
we don't. And men sell the gospel for profit. They give you something to pay
in order to have it. The Lord said, why do you? Why
do you labor for that which satisfies not? Come unto me, drink of the
water of life freely, freely. The gospel is free. Christ has
paid all the debt. All the price that had to be
paid was his shed blood on Calvary's cross. And God saw what he had
paid and God was satisfied. The debt has already been paid.
But here we have a an example of what we experience today in
terms of the hatred that men have toward Christ and toward
the gospel of his free grace. They want to make some contribution. They're offended by a gospel
that leaves them without anything to do. And these men were offended
to the point to where they arrested Paul and Silas and beat them
to the very end of their life. This wouldn't have just been
a, you know, slap on the hand. These men were thronged. Many
men died as a result of that. And they were cast into prison
and chained to the wall, a Roman city and a Roman dungeon. And
we pick up the story in chapter, in verse 25, where at midnight,
At midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and
the prisoners heard them." Oh, what a glorious example of God's
grace giving faith in time of need. look at myself in that situation.
I'd have been licking my wounds, I'd have been murmuring and complaining,
crying, you know, somebody help me. But then again, probably not. Probably not. Because when God
sends great trial, He gives with that trial, great grace. And
the greater the trouble and the greater the trial, the greater
the grace. He that has been forgiven much, loves much. And the more
the Lord shows you of your sin, the more grace he gives you to
rejoice in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, having put those
sins away. I guess Susan, you called me first
when I found out that that Lynn had gotten the call. We've been
praying for Lynn for many years about this. And she got the call
Friday morning from Columbus to go have the trance. She had
to be there within just a few hours. I called Todd. They were
scrambling in the house trying to get ready, getting things
to go, to get in the car so they could get up there. And I was so anxious for him
and for her I said, I know you must be feeling a lot of mixed
emotions right now with anxiety and hope and peace. And he said,
oh no. He said, Lord's given us great
peace. Don't give me your anxiety. God's given us great peace. But
isn't that the way it is? When God takes one of his children
home, The believer is given dying grace that their loved ones don't
know anything about and their loved ones grieve more over their
death than they do You know it's it so with great trial and great
trouble comes great grace The Lord always does it that way.
He always does. So we see these men, I mean,
they could have died from this beating and here they are praying
and praising God. And that's not to their credit,
that's to God's glory. That's to God's glory. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
five. The Lord gives, faith to believe him. And that's what faith is, just believing
God. The disciples say, oh Lord, increase
our faith. The sin that's not so easily
beset us is the sin of unbelief. We're so plagued by it. Lord, give me. And God sends
these great trials in order to strengthen our faith. Count it
all joy, my brother, when you fall into diverse temptation,
knowing that the trying of your faith, work of patience and patience,
when it is complete, makes you perfect and entire, lacking nothing,
looking to Christ for everything. Isn't that the way it is? With
great trial. It's just to believe God. And
God has to, we're going to see that the Lord is going to shake
the foundation of this prison and the Lord has to shake our
foundations. You know, we love comfort, we love ease. And yet
the Lord has to send trouble in order to remind us of our
dependence upon him. And what a gracious God we serve. How loving, it's his loving providence. It's not his anger. You know,
first thing we say, what have I done to deserve this? No, our
Lord doesn't do anything for his children but that which is
good for them. And he always does it out of a heart of mercy.
He delights in showing mercy. And he always does it for a loving
purpose. And he always uses it for our
good and for his glory. And he gives us faith. Here's what our Lord said about
persecution. You have your Bibles open to
Matthew chapter five. Look with me at verse 10. Blessed
are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs
is the kingdom of God. Now to be persecuted for righteousness
sake does not mean that your friends who are engaged in some
sort of shameful behavior make fun of you because you don't
join them. That's not being persecuted for righteousness sake. Being
persecuted for righteousness sake is when you are declaring,
taking a clear stand that Jesus Christ is the only righteousness
that we have before God. And that left to ourselves, all
of our righteousness is filthy rags. When you, when you take
a stand for the gospel, which strips men naked of all of their
righteousness and leaves them with no hope outside of Christ,
they're going to hate you for it. We saw in the previous hour,
that's exactly what our Lord was doing in Luke chapter four,
when he defined Isaiah 61, he robbed them of their righteousness
and they wanted to kill him for it. Nothing's changed. The gospel
of God's free grace robs the religionist, robs the freewheeler,
robs the works gospel, robs the man who is priding himself in
how well he's keeping the law. It robs him from all of that
and leaves him with no hope, shuts him up to Christ, and he
will not have it. They believed God. They were
being persecuted for righteousness sake. And they believed that
this was, that this promise that the Lord had given them was for
them. Theirs is the kingdom of God. Look at verse 11. Blessed
are you, blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute
you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. For my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad,
for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you." Rejoice and be glad. Now, they were exercising
the faith that God had given them in this great time of trial
to rejoice and be glad. And you know what? If this had
happened to you and me, though we look at it from the outside
and think, I don't know if I would have done that, you would have.
God would have given you the grace in that great time of trial,
just like he gives you the grace right now to bear the burden
of whatever he's given you. in your life. He always does
that. He never, he never gives his children anything that he
doesn't give them the grace to bear it. Now, I'm not saying
he doesn't put more on than you can bear. Don't, don't, don't
misunderstand me. The Lord's clear, there is no
temptation taken you, but such as is common to all men, but
God is faithful. And he will not suffer you to
be tempted above that which you are able. And men stop right
there and they say, well, God won't put more on you than you
can bear. You won't need him if he doesn't. How's the rest of that passage
go? He will make a way of escape that you might be able to bear
it. Christ is that way of escape. The Lord ever puts our sin on
us, we'll have a burden we cannot bear and we'll have to have the
Lord Jesus Christ as our way of escape. And that's his promise. And he's provided his children. way of escape. That's why our
Lord said in Philippians chapter 4, be anxious for nothing. Oh
Lord, I can get so disquieted and so anxious and so fearful
and so worried about things and the Lord says be anxious for
nothing. But in all things by prayer and supplication let your
requests be known unto God and the peace of God. which exceeds
understanding. You know, we want knowledge and
understanding. You think about your job. Knowledge and understanding
on your job gives you some control over your circumstances, doesn't
it? It takes away the fear. Knowledge and understanding gives
you power and gives you control and gives you confidence. And
yet the Lord does things that are beyond our understanding.
These things are too wonderful for me. They're beyond our understanding.
They're beyond our knowledge. Why? Because the Lord's not going
to have us in control. He's not going to allow us to
be confident in the flesh. And to feel like we can, you
know, we've got this under control. No, he's going to make us dependent
upon him. And he's going to cause us to
cry out, Lord, you're my way of escape, help me. And that's
exactly what's happening here. You know, we're so worried about
how's this going to end? Well, it's going to end exactly
the way the Lord purposed it to end. And it'll be for our
good. Turn with me to 1 Peter chapter
4. 1 Peter chapter 4. Verse 12. Beloved, think it not strange
concerning fiery trials, which is to try you as though some
strange thing happened unto you. I've been telling you about this
from the beginning. This isn't strange. This is the way of the
Lord, which is through the seas. And when we go to the book of
Revelation and John scenes heaven, and there is no more sea. Why? Because the turbulence and troubles
of this life. It's the way of the ship through
the sea is a hard way. And Dolores said, don't think
it's strange. but rejoice in as much that you
are partakers of Christ's suffering, that when his glory shall be
revealed, you may be glad with exceeding joy." Oh, there's our
hope. There's our hope. And we'll be
glad with exceeding joy. And that's exactly what the Lord
gives his children. You know, if a trial's not hard,
it's probably not really a trial. And the hope that we have is
that the harder it is, the more our Lord's faithfulness is in
giving us the grace that we need to bear. Go back with me to our
text. I want you to notice The last
part of verse 25, they sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard
them. Child of God, men are watching
and they're listening. Don't forget that. Now don't,
you're not going to be perfect, We can be consistent. Consistent. You know who's watching you more
than anyone else, mom and dad? Yeah, your kids. They're watching. They're listening. And they see
whether or not this is just some habit or some sort of sidekick
for you or whether this is your life. And they will follow appropriately. Raise up a child in the way it
should go, and when he grows old, he should not depart from
it. I'm so thankful for our young couples and young families that
are so faithful to be here Wednesday night, Sunday morning. Have your
children under the sound of the gospel. The prisoners. Who are the prisoners here? What
is the prisoner? The Lord Jesus came to set the
prisoners free. The prisoners are those who are
in bondage to sin. And the prisoners heard them. The prisoners were listening.
The prisoners took notice of the faith that God had given
them. You have your Bibles open of
2 Peter. Turn with me to 1 Peter chapter
2. 1 Peter chapter 2. Oh Lord, don't let me be a stumbling
block. Let me be, I want to be a A testimony
of God's grace. I want to be faithful. I want
to be true. And especially when the trials
come, that's when the real evidence of our faith shows, isn't it?
Look at, look at what Peter says in first Peter. Chapter two,
beginning at verse 11. Dearly beloved, I beseech you
as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war
against your soul, having your conversation honest among the
Gentiles, that whereas they speak evil against you, they may by
your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day
of visitation. Submit yourself to every ordinance
of man. Don't be a rebel. Don't be defiant
to authority. You show me a young person who's
defiant to authority and I'll show you a parent that's led
him right down that road. Isn't that the way it is? Submit
yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether
it be to the king as supreme or as governors, as unto them
that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for
the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God that
with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish
men. Yes, you're free. Yes, you are
free, but don't use your freedom as a liberty or your liberty
for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Don't
say, well, you know, I'm free. I'm perfect in Christ. I'm just
a sinner. So, no, we're responsible for
the example that we are at home and at church and on our jobs
and in the community, aren't we? This is what the Lord, this
is God's Word. This is the Lord admonishing
us and encouraging us. Honor all men, love the brethren,
fear God, honor the king. Jude speaks of those false prophets
who speak evil against the dignities, and that's the ruling authorities
of the government. Now, However evil our government
or any other government might be in this world, it doesn't
compare to the government that the first generation of believers
had to live under. I mean, Nero and the stuff that
they did and the murdering and the... You show me a single word in
the New Testament where any of the penmen of scripture speak
evil against that government. Not a word. Not a word. You submit to that authority.
People are watching. Prisoners are listening. Prisoners
are watching. The scripture is full of examples
of this. Go back with me. Did our Lord
not say, let your light so shine before men that they see your
good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven? Oh, Lord, make me that way. Make me that way. And as I said,
we're not talking about being perfect. We're talking about
being consistent, being consistent. He came to set the prisoners
free. Who are the prisoners? Those
who are in torment in the house of sin. That's who the Lord came
to set free. And that's what he's going to
do here for Paul and Silas. The difference between Paul and
Silas and the rest of the prisoners is that though Paul and Silas
were in prison in body, they were not in prison in spirit.
These other men were in prison in body and spirit. They were
chained just like Paul and Silas were, but they were shaking in
their boots as to what would happen to them in the near future. Paul and Silas weren't worried
about that. You got us bound here in body, but we're not here
in spirit. We're rejoicing in the Lord in
spirit. And so these other prisoners
who were there in body and spirit, they heard what was being sung. They heard what was being said.
They watched the faith of these men. The Philippian jailer saw
it and he came, what must I do to be saved? How can I have what
you've got? How can I have what you've got?
That's what he was saying. How can I be free like you? You
know, here I am the prison keeper, locking men up and putting them
in prison, but I'm in the prison of my own sin. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
break the chains of sin, to take away the penalty of sin, to take away the power. So what
is the real power of sin? The real power of sin is the
unbeliever's inability to believe. He is held in such chains of
darkness that he doesn't know he's not a believer and he doesn't
know he can't believe. He's bound by sin. And that's the change that the
Lord came to break, to make us willing in the day of his power.
He saves us. The work of regeneration is a
sovereign act of God whereby he stops a man in his tracks and
he shines the light of the gospel from heaven. and gives him a
new birth. And as a result of that, the
new believer says with the Apostle Paul, Lord, what would you have
me to do? Now, here's the statement I want
to make in light of what I just said. God saves his people completely
against their will and with their full consent. He regenerates them without any
willingness on their part to be regenerated. And as soon as
they are, they're willing. They're willing. He makes them
willing in the day of his power. What a glorious God we have.
Or do that for me. That's what the Lord does when
he sets the prisoners free. A fountain has been opened, Zachariah
said, for sin and for uncleanness. And that fountain is the very
veins of the Lord Jesus Christ out from which flowed his precious
blood as a covering for the sins of his people. Oh, he has by
the sacrifice of himself sanctified them, saved them. By one offering
he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. Perfected
in Christ. Put away their sin. The penalty of sin, the power
of sin. One day, every child of God longs
for that day when they'll be separated from the very presence
of all sin. They'll see him, we look through
a glass darkly now, but then face to face in that day we'll
see him as he is and we'll be made like him without any remembrance
or without any experience of sin whatsoever. What a glorious,
glorious day that will be. You know, I was thinking about men
that are released from prison, we call them ex-cons, and they're
generally treated as outcasts by society. You know that's what
God's people are. We're a bunch of ex-cons who are treated as outcasts by
society. And we've come together to rejoice
in the freedom and the liberty that God has given us in delivering
us from the penalty and the power and the presence of our sin.
What great hope. I was preaching in a prison one
time and And the chaplain made a statement to me that I thought
was interesting. He said, you know, the only difference
between the guys in here and the rest of the folks out there
is they got caught. And I thought, you know, that's the difference
between a believer and an unbeliever. We got caught. Most folks haven't
been caught. God catches you in your sin. A sinner is a precious thing. A sinner is a rare thing. A sinner
is a miracle made by God. You remember what we saw when
the Lord lifted up the serpent on the pole and God said, if
any man be bitten, when he looks, he shall live. Not everybody's
been bitten. Not everyone was bitten then.
Not everybody's bitten now. You say, well preacher, aren't
all men sinners? Yeah, but they don't see themselves as sinners.
God has to make you to see yourself as a sinner. God has to show
you that you have no righteousness. Sinners are a very, very rare
thing. And, uh, Pray God would catch somebody
today or just stop them in their tracks and arrest them. Arrest
them. That's what the Lord has. That's
the only difference between the believer and the unbeliever.
Some of us have been arrested and the Lord just keeps arresting
us. Every time a ugly head of sin rears itself in our hearts,
the Lord arrests us again. Lord, arrest me again and again
and again. If you're his, he will. No question
about it. God makes you be a sinner. You're
going to be a sinner the rest of the time you're here. The rest of the time you're here,
you're going to be a sinner. And well, I need to get, I need to
be done with it. No, well, you're not going to be done with it until you
get rid of that flesh. That's the only time you're going
to be finished with it completely. But before God, before God, it's
been put away and put away. What a glorious picture. Look
at the next verse, verse 26. And suddenly there was a great
earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and
immediately the doors were opened and everyone's bands were loosed. What a glorious picture of the
death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let
me show you that. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
27. Matthew chapter 27. Look with me at verse 50 in Matthew
chapter 27. Jesus, when he had cried again
with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. What did he say in
that loud voice? It is finished. Father into thy hands, I commend
my spirit. He had been faithful to the father
to fulfill all that he agreed to do in the covenant of grace
to atone for the sins of God's people. And now he was trusting his father
to be faithful and not allowing him to see corruption, but rewarding
him for his faithful work by raising him from the dead. And
so he said, it is finished. Everything that God requires
for the salvation of his people was accomplished by the Lord
Jesus Christ. Nothing for us to add to it.
Father into thy hands, I commend my spirit and behold the veil
of the temple. You remember that veil? It was
blue on the top and it was scarlet on the bottom. The deity and
the humanity of Christ and where those two colors came together,
it was purple in the middle. And here we have the dual nature
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some people say, well, Jesus
became a man when he was on the cross, or he gave up his deity
at this point. No, no, no. No, that veil was
rent from top to bottom. The entire thing was rent. His
deity was rent. His humanity was rent. And however
it is, the mystery of those two natures can come together. The
God-man was rent for the sins of his people. And now the priest
didn't have to warn the people by saying, stay away, stay away.
Now the spirit and the bride say what? What do we say? Come,
come. We have an anchor for our soul
that has gone into the holies of holies. He has put his blood
on that mercy seat in heaven. We can come before the throne
of grace with boldness, confident that God is satisfied with what
the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished. And so our Lord lifts up his
voice so that all men are without excuse. He's not crying in the
streets. He's not trying to convince somebody
to believe him. He's speaking with such clarity,
with such unambiguity, if I can say it
like that. There's no confusion about it.
They're all men without excuse. Behold, the veil was rent in
twain from the top to the bottom and the earth did quake and the
rocks rent and the graves were open and many bodies of the saints
which slept arose and came out of the grave after the resurrection
and went into the holiest city and appeared unto many. Now,
I don't know who those saints were, God doesn't tell us. But
they were believers who had died before the Lord Jesus Christ
died. And they couldn't come out of the grave until he had
come out of the grave. He's the firstborn among many
brethren. He's the one who conquered death.
Oh, grave, where is thy sting? Death, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, we have
the victory through Jesus Christ. He is, Michael, as you read,
the end of the law for righteousness. And so they come out of the grave. Earthquake. We were in. Yellowstone, a couple
weeks ago, when I went out to Montana, we went down to Yellowstone.
They were telling us about this great earthquake that took place
back in the 80s or sometime. And all of a sudden, springs
started coming up in places where they had never been before. You
know, there's a lot of hot springs there in Yellowstone. And I thought,
well, that's what, Lord, he sends this earthquake. Now springs
of water start coming up where there was none before. This is
a great earthquake, that this is a literal earthquake that
takes place. And now when the centurion and
they that were with him watching Jesus saw the earthquake and
those things which were done, they feared greatly saying, truly,
truly, this was the son of God. They were convinced the son of
God had just given up the ghost. I look over in chapter 28 at
verse one at the end of the Sabbath. That was on Friday when our Lord
died on Calvary's cross, and now at the end of the Sabbath,
which would have been the sunrise on Sunday morning, as it began
to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene
and the other Mary to see the sepulcher, and behold, there
was a great earthquake. For the angel of the Lord descended
from heaven and came, and rolled back the stone from the door,
and sat upon it, and his countenance was like lightning, and his raiment
white as snow. And for fear of him, the keepers
did shake and became as dead men." What is your point, preacher?
These are three literal earthquakes, one at our Lord's crucifixion,
one at his resurrection, and one here when Paul and Silas
were in prison in Philippi. What is God saying to me and
you? That for him to reveal himself to us, he's gonna shake those
things which can be shaken in order that those things which
may not be shaken or cannot be shaken might remain. What are
the things that can be shaken? All the temporal things of this
world. All our hopes outside of Christ are the things that...
Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. Here's the application of what
I'm trying to say. Verse 25, see that you refuse
not him that speaketh, for if they escape not who refused him
that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn
away from him that speaketh from heaven, whose voice then shook
the earth. But now, as he has promised,
Saying, yet once more, I shake not the earth only, but also
heaven. And this word, yet once more,
signified the removing of those things which are shaken as of
things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken
might remain. What is the removing of those
things that can be shaken? Men believing that they have
some righteousness before God? Some ability to apply the work
of Christ to their lives? Free will? And when God shakes
the foundation of your religion, you come to realize I was dead
in my trespasses and sins. There was no way I could have
willed to be saved. Now, if by free will men mean
that they are free to do whatever they will, I will take that a
step further and say, you've never done anything that you
didn't will. Yes, you're free to do whatever
you will. Whatever you will, you're free to do it. Matter
of fact, everything you've ever done, you did it because you
freely willed it. But if by free will, you mean
that you are free to will something that's contrary to your will,
that's impossible. That's impossible. I'm not trying
to be complicated here, but man, men are not free to will. God
doesn't have a free will in that sense. God can't will something
against his nature. He can't will to condemn someone
that Christ died for. He can't change. He can't decide, well, I'm not
gonna fulfill that promise. Or, He can't do it. He can't. Omnipotence cannot
become impotent and omniscience cannot become ignorant. And omnipresence
cannot become limited to time and space. It just can't happen.
God has a nature that he cannot will against. And you and I are born into this
world dead in our trespasses and sins at enmity with God with
no will and no desire and no nature for God. Men think, well, I'll just decide
to accept Jesus. No, you won't. No, you won't. God's got to make you willing.
He's got to give you a new nature. Well, wait a minute, preacher.
What you're saying to me is shaking the foundation of everything
that I believed and everything I've trusted in all my life.
Yep. And that's what the gospel does. That's what the gospel does.
You mean all the good things that I've done don't earn me
any favor whatsoever with God. Yep. Well, I'm not going to have
that, but you won't have Christ. You won't be saved. He's going to shake the foundation
of your prison. Men are in. in darkness, they're
in chains. And if God doesn't open the door
and loose the chains and set us free, well, wait a minute,
I just believed all my life that God loves everybody. God's going
to shake that foundation too. He loves Jacob. Esau, he's hated. He loves righteousness. He hates
iniquity. He's angry with the wicked every
day. They're vessels of wrath fitted
for destruction. God's not in heaven begging men
to let him have his way and loving everybody and wishing that they
would love him back. He's not a jilted lover. No,
that's another God. That's another gospel. That God
can't save you. Wait a minute, preacher, what
you're saying is shaking the foundation of everything I've
ever hoped in, everything I've ever believed. Oh, I hope so.
I hope so. You mean I have absolutely no
righteousness whatsoever? Yep. It is not of him that willeth. It is not of him that runneth.
It is of God that showeth mercy. I will have mercy upon whom I
will have mercy. You mean to tell me that Christ
didn't die for everybody? Yep. He died for his people and
he successfully redeemed them when he bowed his mighty head
on Calvary's cross. You mean it's not my promises
to God that saved me? Yep. It's the promise that God
made to God. You see, this is the, this is
the prison that men are in, isn't it? And many of you have had
that foundation shaken and God has set you free. You don't believe
anything you used to believe. You know, the truth and the truth
has set you free. What a glorious, glorious God
we serve. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
two. Isaiah chapter two. Verse 19. And they shall go into the holes
of the rocks. This is what God's people do
when God shakes their foundation, they run to Christ. They shall
go into the holes of the rocks and into the caves of the earth
for fear of the Lord and for the glory of his majesty when
he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. In that day, a man
shall cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which
they have made each one for himself to worship to the moles and to
the bats." Oh, and God shakes the earth.
You just cast away your idols, don't you? That free will idol,
that good works idol, that God loves everybody, Christ died
for everybody, God wants everybody to be saved. Those are all idols,
imaginations of men's mind. to go into the clefts of the
rocks and to the tops of the ragged rocks for fear of the
Lord and for the glory of his majesty when he ariseth to shake
terribly the earth. Now look at verse 22. Cease ye
from man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to
be accounted of. When God shakes, The foundations
of our prison, we're brought to cease from man, cease from
our own labors, cease from the opinions of man. But what does
man have? What can man do to help me? What
can I do to help myself? I've got to flee to that rock.
I've got to be found in Christ. And when the Lord shakes everything
that can be shaken, You know what's remained? That which cannot
be shaken. He sets the prisoners free. Free. Our merciful heavenly Father,
we pray for your omnipotent, sovereign work of grace to deliver
us from the bondage of our sin, to give us the grace to pray
and to sing songs of rejoicing, to believe you, all that you've
declared and all that you've revealed in your word, to rest
all the hope of our salvation on thy dear son, for it's in
his precious name that we ask it. Amen. Tom, you come, please. 190, just remain seated. We're
going to, maybe we should stand for the first time. Okay, let's
stand number 190 in the hardback ten.