Turn with me to the book of Acts
chapter 19. Acts 19. We had previously looked. We
are going to start in verse 21 in a minute. But we had previously
looked at seven boys of a man named Skiva. And they were beaten and stripped
of clothing by a man that was possessed with an evil spirit. And this incident caused a great
stir there in Ephesus. Some of the folks feared because
they just didn't know what was happening. They were frightened.
Some of them feared because they had a respect before God and
they knew that Almighty God was on His
throne, in control. Now, last week, We look primarily
at verses 18, 19, 20, and really mostly at verse 18. The evidence
of a new heart had these four points, verse
18, and many that believed. There is evidence of a man God
has done something for. He believes God. Secondly, they
came. God's people. Truly, they come
and assemble themselves together. They want to be in fellowship
with God's people. But primarily, they come because they've come
to Christ. They trust Him. They rest in Him. They grow on
Him. Learn of Him. Thirdly, they confessed. They confessed the Lord in baptism. in obedience to the Lord's command.
And then lastly, they showed their deeds. They forsook their
old manner of false religion. There is an outward sign of new
life. A man or woman walks away from
that which does not honor God. They will not sit and listen
to that which is inconsistent with the Scriptures concerning
Christ. Well, the Scripture now is going
to deal with something that actually is stated in verse 23. This will be the crust. of the
study tonight, verse 23, is where we'll be. The same time there
arose no small stir about that way. We'll look at that in just
a minute. That which causes no small stir. But the scriptures begin in verse
21. And this is the first thing that
I want to consider. concerning that which causes
no small stir. Verse 21 says, After these things
were ended, Paul purposed in the Spirit, when he had passed
through Macedonia and Achaia, 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, Timotheus and Erastus, but
he himself stayed in Asia for a city. Now, here is the first
thing that causes no small stir. Those that are led by God's Spirit
bow to God's sovereignty. A believer is a directed servant
of God. Man, by nature, thinks that he's
the author of his thoughts and actions. What I'm going to do,
Scripture says, men will say, don't say, don't say in your
heart, well, we're going to go to this city, going to go to
this city, and we're going to do this, going to do this, and we're going
to work here about a year, and we're going to get gain, and we're
going to, you know. How do you know? How do you know? Those that are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God. Paul was purposing something
in his heart. I must go. I must go to Macedonia,
Jerusalem, Achaia, Rome. Paul's desires, like the desires
of all of God's people, was for the glory of God. Let me ask
you this, you that believe, is that not what you want? I desire
that. I desire to do that which is
pleasing in the sight. I don't desire to miss him. I don't want to be where he would
not have me be. I've said before, when I came
to Katie, I struggled for a while. But you know, when my heart was
settled that this is where I was going, I couldn't wait to get
here. I believed in my heart this is
where I had to be. And five years later, it's confirmation
to me. I told some, I think you'd have
to drive me out of here to get me to leave. It's where I want
to be. It's His desire. Psalm 37, verse
4, Delight thyself also in the Lord. And He shall give thee
the desires of thine heart." You know why? Because He puts
them there. He directs. He calls Paul to
purpose in his heart. There have been times that Paul
had said, I want to go to Asia. The Spirit of God wouldn't let
him. If Almighty God has purpose for
His people to be somewhere, Providentially, in their conscience. That's what
you just read, Brother Scott. He directs. He guides. Why are
you here tonight? Because you want to be. But why
do you want to be? What's the first cause of that?
Because Almighty God has given you a heart to be here. You know,
that causes a stir with men. despise the sovereign grace of
God, God's sovereignty, God's power, God's might. You know,
one might ask, you know, well, what if my thoughts concerning
God's will are wrong? Well, if your heart is tuned
by God's Spirit for God's glory, the Lord will Direct your path. Act 16. That's what I just quoted, Act
16, 6. Now, when they'd gone through Persia, the region of
Galatia, forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,
after they were come to Mithia, they assayed to go into Bithynia,
but the Spirit suffered them not. Later, they did go to Bithynia,
Neal. They did, but not at that time. Why? Because the Lord restrained
them, constrained them. God's people are led by God's
Spirit. And man by nature thinks that
he's his own pilot. I don't see him as much as I
used to anymore, but I used to see those license plates, God's
my co-pilot. Years ago, I wanted to learn
to fly. If any of us has ever flown,
left seat is pilot. But when they're teaching you
to fly, that's where you sit when you're learning. Left seat.
Co-pilot is there just in case something, you know, is not able
to be taken care of by the pilot. In case a pilot on one of these
big jets, in case something happens, the co-pilot's there. Capable. God's not our co-pilot. That's
what man says. God's my co-pilot. No, no. I
tell you, He is the Lord. He is God. God Almighty. Sovereign. Job said in 42, 2,
I know that thou canst do everything that no thought can be withholding
from thee. No thought of the Lord is hindered.
God does as He will. That is what Nebuchadnezzar said. The army of heaven, the inhabitants
of the earth, and no man stays His hand. That causes a stir with man.
Men hear that concerning God's power, God's might. He works
all things after the counsel of His own will. For of Him,
through Him, to Him are all things. That'll cause a man to get stirred
up if God doesn't give him a heart. Secondly, here's this, the regenerated
saints are not of this world. Therefore, they are resented."
Look at verse 23 to 28. At the same time, there arose
no small stir about that way. What way is that? The way. Christ, who is the way. There was no small commotion. For a certain man named Demetrius,
a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana brought no
small gain unto the craftsman, whom he called together with
the workmen of like occupation and said, Sirs, you know that
by this craft we have our wealth. Moreover, you see and hear that
not alone at Ephesus, but also throughout all Asia, this Paul
has persuaded and turned away much people saying that they be no gods which
are made with hands, so that not only this our craft is in
danger to be set at naught, but also that the temple of the great
goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be
destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshipeth. And when
they heard these things, they were full of wrath, and cried
out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. God's people are resented because they worship
God Almighty. You would think men by and large
would just say, whoever is God, that's who I worship. You know
what causes no small stir? You know what causes a great
commotion, not just a way of saying it, a great commotion? When Almighty God is set forth
as the one true living God. Man has created a God of himself. No small stir arose. Paul was in Ephesus. And I can
tell you what Paul preached. He preached Christ. And you know,
a lot of men say, well, we preach Christ. What is it to preach
Christ? Many men use the name Christ.
They use the name Jesus. When Paul preached Christ, this
is what he did. You have to understand something.
Christ, the Messiah, the Sent One. Why was He sent? Because God Almighty had a people
chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and He sent His
servant, the Lord Jesus, the chosen, the elect one, the first
elect, God Almighty. It was the Lord Jesus Christ
in whom the Father trusted first, who first trusted in Christ.
We trust Him tonight, but who first trusted Him? Father, gave
unto him all of his elect." That is my beloved son in whom I am
well pleased. Paul came and preached the sovereignty
of God to send his son to redeem a chosen people. He came into
this world at the particular time and for the particular purpose
to lay down his life for the sheep. Paul preached that his
death was effectual, that it accomplished the purpose of God
Almighty. And for all that the Father had
everlastingly loved, Christ redeemed them. And every one that the
Father gave the Lord Jesus Christ, they were going to be saved.
Almighty God was going to have His people. Certain man, Scripture says in
verse 24. Religious man. Name was Demetrius. And he made little silver idols. Little silver shrines. Little
gods. Made whatever size you needed.
Put them on your dash, Kevin. Put them out there in front of
your house. Put them over there by the door
of the church, Scott. Touch them and kiss them. Made
little silver shrines. And the Scripture says, He brought
no small gain unto the craftsman. He was making a good living at
this. His God, like His idol, was for
profit. You know, religion is big business. Don't think it's not. Lord willing,
in the book of Revelation, in the chapter we're in right now,
chapter 18, we're going to be dealing with the merchants, the
merchants of this world that are selling something. And they're
selling a bill of goods to folks and telling them, we've got what
you need to build yourself a haven of rest and to build yourself
clothing that you can wrap yourself up in, and a good ship. They
talk about building a ship, you know, and it's going to sail
across, you know, the mighty waters of this world. And Scripture
talks about them being the sailors of Tyre, T-Y-R-E. It deals just
exactly with this right here. These men were businessmen. Religion, false religion, is
a business. That's what it is. And they sell
men a bill of goods. You say, now, you're just kind
of stretching, you know. No, I'm not. They make merchandise
of your souls. That's what Scripture says. They're
in it strictly for themselves. God's honor was not Demetrius'
concern. The souls of dying men did not
matter to him. Do you know a man that is concerned
with your soul is a man that will tell you the truth, only
the truth. The truth alone sets a man free. A man that will lie to you, deceived,
I'll go along with that, they're deceived. But I'll tell you this,
they do not have the love of God in their heart for the souls
of men. The reason I know that is there's
no life there. They're preaching totally out
of themselves. Money was this man's God. Money. His heart was exposed
when his livelihood was threatened. And his allegiance to Diana was
solely on his gain. That's what it was. I tell you,
you find out what a man is not willing to turn loose of. and
you're going to find out what that man's God is. Whatever a man won't let go of,
that is his God. There was a rich young ruler
that came to the Lord Jesus Christ and asked the Lord, what must
I do to work the works of God? Matthew 19, 21, 22, Jesus said
unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell all thy hast, give
to the poor, I shall have treasures in heaven and come and follow
me. When the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful
for he had great possessions. What a man won't turn loose of.
I can't do that. Jacob, I made mention of this
last week. Genesis 32, 26, wrestling with
the man, the Scripture says, the Lord Himself. The Lord said,
let me go, for the day breaketh. And He said, I will not let thee
go, except thou bless me. Do you know what it takes to
say that? A heart that needs Him. Let me go, I can't. Let me go. I won't. I won't. Were pilgrims in this world sustained
by the grace of God, there was no small stir. Paul, the apostle, was preaching
Christ. And these fellows heard it. And
when they did, it caused no small stir. They got their folks together,
their craftsmen together, and they said, you know what? Our
livelihoods at stake here and our God, our livelihood first,
but our God, too. Don't get me wrong. I don't want
to forget her. You know, men don't really want
to be exposed. But they are. Thirdly, God exposes all things,
the sheep and the tares, through tribulation. How does God expose? Verse 29, And the whole city
was filled with confusion. And having caught Gaius and Aristarchus,
men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed in one
accord into the theater. And when Paul would have entered
into the people, the disciples suffered him not. And certain
of the chief of Asia, which were his friends, sent unto him, desiring
him that he would not adventure himself into the theatre. Some
therefore cried one thing, and some another, for the assembly
was confused, and the more part knew not wherefore they were
come together. And they drew Alexander out of
the multitude, the Jews putting him forward, and Alexander beckoned
with a hand, and would have made his defence unto the people.
But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice, about
to space about two hours, cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians." Confusion. You know, if you watch false
religion, it's confusing. It's confusing. Now, I'm going
to tell you this. Primarily, and I do know that
there's times when it's just a lot of ruckus going on. I know
that. But that's not the confusion
I'm talking about. The confusion is the inconsistency
of the message. Listen to anything that is not
the gospel of free grace, the gospel of God. And it won't hold
water. As I've said before, men say,
we believe in salvation by grace. They say, now all you've got
to do, God offers salvation, all you've got to do is accept
it. The Lord, you know, is reaching out His hand. I say, well, wait
a minute, then that's salvation by your works. No, no, it's not salvation within
what you call it. Men will say Jesus Christ died
to save all men, make salvation possible. Died and put away all
of men's sins. Well, then if God sent one man
to hell, God's not just because all of their guilt was put away. Confusion. There's only one message
that's solid. that's founded on the foundation
of God's grace and mercy and power, and it's the gospel of
God. Confusion. Well, there was great
confusion, the scripture says. The whole city was filled with
confusion. And this disturbance was made
to appear to be over the city's love for Diana. That's what they're
going to fight over. We've got us a God. They started
crying. Verse 34 says, two hours. That's all they think of. They
couldn't think of anything else, Mark. So they just started screaming,
for two hours, great is Diana, the Ephesian. Lifting up her praises. But you
know the reason for the confusion? is because they loved darkness
rather than light. What actually came out of this
confusion was an exposing of some that were faithful and some
that were not. Gaius and Aristarchus were shown
to be firmly planted by God's grace and kept. They were men
of Macedonia, verse 29, Paul's companions in travel. They stayed,
they kept, they didn't deviate. God kept them. Paul was really
the one they was after. He started to go in there and
they told him, don't do it. They caught these two guys. But
then there was another fellow. When all of this confusion started
coming up, there was another fellow. Alexander, verse 33,
drew him out, put him forward. He beckoned. I'm going to speak. But Paul later revealed this
man right here, Alexander. In 2 Timothy 4.14, he said, Alexander
the coppersmith. He made those little trinkets
too. He said, Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord reward
him according to his works. You know, we're providentially
brought. under trials by the sovereign hand of our Heavenly
Father. Everything that comes our way
comes our way by God's good pleasure and is for our good and His glory. That's what Romans 8.28 says.
All things. He works those things for His
pleasure to teach us, to show us of our need of Him. Our faith
will be, it must be tried. And it's proven. It's shown.
You know what a proving ground is when they take a car out?
You know what that is. They take it out there and they
prove it. They show what it is. What it's got. What it's made
out of. James 1, 3, knowing this, that
the trying of your faith, the proving, the trustworthiness
of your faith, worketh patience. By our trials we know whether
or not we are leaning upon Him for strength or whether we are
leaning upon the arm of the flesh. Am I a stony ground here? That sower that went sow and
that seed fell on stony ground sprung up quickly. But when the
The son of that persecution comes out for the sake of the gospel.
When the gospel is the issue, when that's the issue, that's
where you'll find whether or not God has kept a man or whether
He hasn't. The trial of our faith manifests
what we think of Christ. Turn to John 6. John chapter 6, verse 64. John 6, 64, there are some of
you that believe not. Now here's the sovereign master,
the omniscient, knows all things. He's speaking. There's some of
you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not and who should betray Him. And
He said, therefore said I unto you that no man can come, no
man has the ability to come unto Me except They were given unto
him by my Father. From that time, see what he's
done now? He's set forth the distinguishing
grace of God. Mike, that's what he's done.
He's set forth that unless my Father allows you to come, you
can't. From that time, many of the disciples,
not his apostles, many of the disciples, those that were following
him, went back and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus
unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered
him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God. You will know a man by his fruits. You'll know a man by his consistency.
You'll know a man whether he stays. Scripture says he went
out from us. Why? Because they weren't of
us. If they had been of us, they would have remained right here.
They'd have been right here. I think about that prodigal.
Man, I'm so thankful for that story. The prodigal son left. Still a son. Spent everything
he had in riotous living. Came to himself. Started coming
home. Father saw him a long way off.
How often do you think the father was watching? Braced him. Kissed him. Fourthly, here's the last point.
Preservation. Perseverance for the saints of
God. is according to the good pleasure
of God Almighty. Verse 35, back in Acts. Now let me get back in Acts 19.
Acts 19, verse 35. And when the town clerk had appeased
the people, he said, You men of Ephesus, what man is there
that knoweth not how the city of the Ephesians is a worshiper
of the great goddess Diana? and of the image which fell down
from Jupiter, what he said is, fellows, wait a minute. All you
guys are in an uproar and a tumult. Who doesn't know that the goddess
of the Ephesians is Diana? You know the one that supernaturally,
you know, all he's doing is rehearsing the story that everybody had
about how she got there. Jupiter sent her down. You all
know that. Seeing then that these things
cannot be spoken against, ye ought to be quiet and do nothing
rashly. For ye have brought hither these
men which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers
of your goddesses." See what they did? They didn't come in. Paul didn't come in and start
destroying their God. What he did is set forth the
true and living God. And when the true and living
God is set forth, men hear what you say about their
God. They hear you. If you set forth that Almighty
God is sovereign, that He does as He will, He calls who He will,
He chooses who He will, He saves who He will, they hear that you
say that man doesn't have a free will. That's what He said. Wherefore? Verse 38, if Demetrius
and the craftsmen which are with him have a matter against any
man, the law is open. They're deputies. Let them implead
one another. But if you inquire anything concerning
other matters, it shall be determined in the lawful assembly. For we're
in danger to be called into question for this day's uproar, there
being no cause whereby we may give an account of this concourse. And when he had thus spoken,
he dismissed the assembly. Now, what actually happened right
here was there was a fellow that stood up and he calmed everybody
down. He said, wait a minute, wait
a minute. These guys hadn't done anything
against the law. They hadn't done anything concerning
our goddess. They hadn't robbed any churches. Now, you fellows are going to
start such an uproar that you all are going to cause the community
around here to look around and say, you know, what kind of a
people are these? What he did, actually, was he,
by the grace and the power of Almighty God, used the law of
the land to calm them down. And God delivered His preachers
through the natural laws of the land that God Almighty was the
author of. 2 Peter 2.9 says, The Lord knoweth
how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve
the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. The Lord keeps
His people in whatever means God is pleased to keep them.
He is going to keep them. Turn to Romans 13. Romans 13,
1-4. Last scripture. Romans 13. That fellow stood up and said,
Leave these guys alone. Now, there were times that the
Lord delivered Paul through a basket hole in the wall. There was a
time that the Lord allowed him to be put into the deep and delivered
him through a shipwreck. But this time, God was pleased
to use the laws of this land. Lawful, lawful. Does that mean
that God Almighty Didn't deliver him, no, God Almighty delivered
him, it's the Lord, the Lord kept him. Romans 13, let every
soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there's no power
but of God. The powers that be are ordained
of God, ordered by God. The sheriff of this town, of
this county, all of the deputies, The FBI is sitting over here
on the hill. All of that is ordered by Almighty God. Everything is
in order. Every judge, you say, yeah, but
we got some crooked ones. Let me tell you something. They're
still the servants of Almighty God. He does as He will. He put
them there, and God Almighty will direct every thought to
be turned for the good of his people, whether we think it is
or not. All things work together. Whosoever therefore, verse 2,
resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. And they
that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers
are not a terror to good works, but to the evil, if thou then
not be afraid of the power. Wilt thou not then be afraid
of the power? Do that which is good, and thou
shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister." Who
is this? Everyone who is sitting in a
position of authority. He is the minister of God to
thee for good. But if thou do that which is
evil, be afraid. For he bears not the sword in
vain. He is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon
him that doeth evil. God Almighty has chosen His people
in Christ. Christ redeemed His people by
His grace and power, and Almighty God is going to keep His people
through this world right here. And by God keeping His people,
it will cause no small stir. God's people live by God Almighty. They trust Him. They are governed
by Him. And man by nature hates it, despises
it. May the Lord bless His Word to
our heart and teach us. We are pilgrims in this world.
We are just traveling through. Just for a moment. Just a vapor. This life is over. We'll then
see and know as we're known, and we'll see that all these
things, God worked them out for His glory and our good.