I thought I might begin. We've
come here to focus our attention on the Lord Jesus Christ and
who He is and what He's done and what He is doing. And what
He's doing is fulfilling what He's promised to do all the time.
But there's a lovely Lovely beginning to Psalm 37. I won't read all
of it, I just wanted to look at some of these verses. It's
the Psalm of David. Trust in the Lord. The Holy Spirit
says to us, fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither
be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. for they shall soon
be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land
and verily thou shalt be fed. These are the verses I wanted
us to particularly think upon. Delight thyself also in the Lord,
and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way
unto the Lord. Trust also in him, and he shall
bring it to pass. That word commit means to roll
your cares upon him. It's delightful, isn't it, when
you think of the life of David. Commit thy way unto the Lord.
Trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. He shall bring
forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the
noonday. Thy righteousness, of course,
the only righteousness in the Scriptures and the only righteousness
the children of God have is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light.
When the light of the gospel shines on the Lord Jesus Christ,
we realise that He is righteous and He alone. And thy judgment
as the noonday. He suffered the judgment. of
Almighty God for our sins upon himself and the noonday. Rest
in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Rest in the Lord and
wait patiently for him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we do thank you for causing a pause in the busyness of our lives
that you gather your people together on this day, a day where you
cause your people to meet, not just in this assembly, but throughout
the world. Heavenly Father, you gather your
people together, that they might meet with you, and you meet with
them, and you might, by your grace and mercy in the Lord Jesus
Christ, reveal yourself to your people. Philip asked that question,
why do you reveal yourself, show yourself to us and not to the
world? Heavenly Father, it's the privilege
of your people to have you come and meet with them and speak
to them in ways that you do not meet and speak with the people
of this world. Our Father, we pray that we find
ourselves at rest and at peace in who you are. Bless our time
together, Heavenly Father. Bless those who are away and
those who are coming, that we might find ourselves delighting
in who you are yet again. For we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Acts 16 is one of those, as you're
going through the scriptures, you think this is a marvellous
story and I can't wait to get to it. There's a sense of anticipation. what is in it. In the story of
the Philippian jailer we have a remarkable picture of the salvation
of the Lord's people, but in the story of Lydia we have a
remarkable picture of the salvation of the Lord's people. You could
not wish to find two more different circumstances. One was a wealthy
businesswoman, a seller of purple, a wealthy businesswoman who worshipped
God as best she possibly could and gathered others with her
to worship God. The Philippian jailer couldn't
have cared less about God and couldn't have cared less about
the worship of him and couldn't have cared less about his servants
at all. And yet, both of them, both of
them, Like all of the miracle stories and all of the pictures
of salvation in scriptures, they are all there because they have
been chosen specifically and purposefully by God the Holy
Spirit to show us God's way of saving people. Let's begin reading
because I'd just like us to have the context in our minds. We
start with verse 6 of chapter 16, and these are verses that
trouble people who think that God loves everyone and He has
a great desire to save everyone, because the scriptures just don't
portray Him in that regard, and they certainly don't portray
a God who fails ever. They portray a God who is a God
of sovereign purpose. Verse 6. Now when they had gone
through Phrygia in the region of Galatia, they were forbidden
of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. After they were
come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia, but the spirit
suffered them not. For those of you who haven't
been here, the Lady Lydia came from a city called Thyatira,
which was in Asia. And as Paul went by that place,
God says you are not to go there. That doesn't mean that the Gospel
didn't come there later. It came there some years later
and came there with great success. But at this time, God is revealing
His sovereign purposes, and His purpose was for the Gospel to
come to Lydia, and He has no problem getting the Gospel to
His people. He has no problem getting Lydia
to the Gospel, and He has no problem getting the Gospel to
Lydia. Anyway, they passed through Mysia, verse 8, and came down
to Troas, which is the coastal city on the western tip of what
is now Turkey. And a vision appeared to Paul
in the night. There stood a man in Macedonia
and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help
us. And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured
to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called
us for to preach the gospel unto them. Therefore, loosing from
Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracea, and the
next day to Neapolis, and from thence to Philippi, which is
the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony, that
means it was a Roman colony, it was a special place in the
Roman empire, and we were in that city abiding certain days,
and on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a riverside where
prayer was wont to be made, and we sat down, and spake unto the
woman which resorted thither. And a certain woman named Lydia,
a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped
God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended
unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptised
in her household, she besought us, saying, If you have judged
me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide
there. And she constrained us. And it
came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel, possessed with
the spirit of divination, met us, which brought her masters
much gain by soothsaying." She was a fortune teller, made a
lot of money and created a lot of power for those who controlled
this poor girl. The same followed Paul and us.
and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the Most
High God, which show unto us the way of salvation. And this
she did many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned
and said to the Spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ
to come out of her. And he came out of her the same
hour. And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains
was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and drew them into the
marketplace under the rules. And they brought them to the
magistrates, saying, These men being Jews do exceedingly trouble
our city, and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive,
neither to observe being Romans. And the multitude rose up together
against them, and the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded
to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes
upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to
keep them safely, who, having received such a charge, thrust
them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in stocks. The stocks that they're talking
about there, according to the original Greek, are stocks that
actually not only spread your legs to an agonising width, but
also had another part that went up around your neck, and so you
were trapped in agony. At midnight, verse 25, Paul and
Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard
them. Come in, Jackie, and sit down.
You're very welcome, my dear. I'll give you a Bible. So Jackie, we're reading the
story of these, Paul, the Apostle Paul and his friend Silas, who
were preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in what
is now modern day Greece. And they have been put in jail,
put in stocks and put in jail, beaten, beaten. And at midnight Paul and Silas
prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard
them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the
foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the
doors were opened, and everyone's bands were loosed. And the keeper
of the prison awakened out of his sleep, seeing the prison
doors open. He drew out his sword and would
have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had fled.
But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, for
we are all here. Then he called for a light, and
sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and
Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do
to be saved? And they said, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. their household. And they spoke
unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour
of the night, and washed their stripes, and was baptised, he
and all his, straight away. And when he had brought them
into his house, he set meat, he set food before them, and
rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. And when it was
day, the magistrate sent the sergeant saying, let those men
go. And the keeper of the prison
told this, saying to Paul, the magistrates have sent to let
you go, now therefore depart and go in peace. But Paul said
to them, they have beaten us openly, uncondemned, being Romans,
and have cast us into prison, and now do they thrust us out
privily, privately. No, verily, let them come themselves
to fetch us out. And the sergeant told these words
unto the magistrates, and they feared when they heard that they
were Romans. And they came and besought them
and brought them out, and desired them to depart out of the city.
And they went out of the prison and entered into the house of
Lydia. And when they had seen the brethren,
they comforted them and departed. As we've kept saying as we've
gone through this history of the early church, we have laid
out before us, as clearly as anyone could ever wish to see,
the work of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that happens
in the Book of Acts and everything that happens in this world has
the stamp of the Lord Jesus Christ upon it. He loves his people
with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness he draws
them to himself. And he draws them in ways that
are typical of him. typical of him who is the light
of the world, typical of him who is the way, the truth and
the life, typical of him who having borne the sins of his
people on Calvary's tree, now With righteous sovereignty, he
goes throughout this world to places where his servants would
never possibly imagine that they will meet one of his children,
and there they are. Paul, like all of God's servants,
was sent out on a journey. He was sent out on a journey
by God the Holy Spirit. He was sent out on a journey,
and the purpose of the journey is one simple thing, isn't it?
You glorify God and find his sheep. You find his sheep, and
you find his sheep by the preaching of the gospel. You find his sheep
as you bring light into this dark world. Europe was a dark
place, wasn't it? The worship of devils, the worship
of Satan, the worship of all sorts of demonic rubbish that
brought people into all sorts of captivity and depravity was
upheld and promoted by the authorities. It was paid for and supported
by the government. But the sovereign hand of our
God, He has His hand upon His little ones all the time. I'd
love for you to find as much love and joy in Ezekiel 34 as
I do, and I pray that it becomes a special part of your Bible
reading. He says in Ezekiel 34 that He
goes and He searches. He says, I, the Lord God, Verse
11 of Ezekiel 34, He searches for His sheep and He seeks them
out. had no idea as she went to prayer
that morning that she was going to meet personally with the Lord
Jesus Christ. She was going to meet the risen
Lord Jesus Christ, and he meets with his people in the preaching
of the gospel. Isn't it wonderful to think that
he's the one that searches out? He's the one that seeks them.
And he says in verse 12, as a shepherd seeks his flock in the day, so
he is among his sheep that are scattered. He had his hand of
love upon Lydia from the foundation of the world. He had her name
written on his heart when he suffered on Calvary's tree and
died there. He had the name of the Philippian
jailer on his heart. One thought she was seeking God
and didn't have a clue who he was. The other one had no interest
in seeking God whatsoever. But the Lord says, he'll seek
out his flock in the day and he's among his sheep that are
scattered. So I'll seek out my sheep and will deliver them out
of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy
and dark day. What a great description of this
world we live in. It's cloudy and dark. clouded from the glory
of God and darkness, a darkness that only the light of God can
penetrate. And I will bring them out, he
says, and I will gather them from the countries and I will
bring them and I will feed them. And they will lie, verse 14,
lie in a good fold and in fat pasture. He says, I will, verse
15, I will feed my flock and I will cause them to lie down.
I will save, verse 22, I will save my flock, and they shall
no more be a prey. That poor demon-possessed girl
that we looked at last week, she was just a prey, wasn't she? She was just a chattel to those
people. They used her, abused her, and
threw her out. They'll no more be a prey. Verse
25. says, and I will make with them
a covenant of peace, a promise of peace, and will cause the
evil beasts to cease out of the land, and they shall dwell safely
in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. And I will make the
places round about my hill a blessing, and I will cause the shower to
come down in his own season. And there shall be showers of
blessing, showers of blessing. There are some wonderful pictures
of salvation in Acts chapter 16. There is a picture of God's
servants mistreated in this world. There is a great picture of them
in the midst of the most extraordinary trials and the most extraordinary
injustice, them in a place of singing praises to God. There
is a picture of the foundations being shaken. When the Lord saves
someone, he shakes the foundations not only of this world, but he
shakes the foundations of their life. And he shakes their foundations
so that they can find themselves at rest and founded upon a rock. And in the midst of all of that,
he saves his people. He saves his people and he says
to his people, and he says to this world, As Paul cried out
to this jailer, do yourself no harm. Do yourself no harm. Let's go through this story.
We've tried to bring us up to the point where they're in prison. They were in stocks in prison.
Their feet held fast in stocks. And at midnight, At midnight,
when they are forbidden to speak to the crowd when they're locked
up in jail at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed. Paul and Silas
prayed and they sang praises unto God. What a glorious picture
of the fact that this world might shut out the word of God and
this world might do everything it can to shut out the relationship
of God's people with God, and yet in a prison, in darkness,
in pain, in agony, in the ignominy of being what they have just
been through, stripped naked and beaten with rods, and locked
in a prison, a dark, filthy dungeon of a place. They're forbidden
to do all sorts of things, but nothing stops the communion of
God with his people. It's a spiritual, spiritual communion
we have with God. Nothing can stop us praying,
and nothing can stop us praising God. in our little prisons, in
our places of darkness, in our places of despair, in our places
where we've been treated with the most gross injustices, publicly
and privately humiliated, we can still talk to God. We can
still talk and we can still praise. You see, genuine worship is not
based on our circumstances, brothers and sisters. It wasn't for Paul
and Silas. Genuine worship is just an acknowledgement,
isn't it, of the fact that they were there with a purpose from
God. Their life had a purpose. They couldn't see it at all.
If you'd asked Paul and Silas, as they sat there in their jail
with the wounds bleeding and their feet in agony in stocks
and their head in agony, if you'd asked them, what's God doing
in all of this, they would have said, I don't have a clue. And
so it is with us. In so many circumstances, we're
not given to know all of those things. All they knew is that
God had sent them there. There had been a call from a
man in Macedonia. They had been sent out by the
Holy Spirit to go. They had been sent out to find
the Lord's sheep. They had just found one in Lydia. They had
just seen the Lord's hand at work in casting out the demon
from that girl. putting her in her right mind.
And she, like all people who are put in their right mind,
are absolutely no use to the people of this world any longer,
and they get cast out by them. And we might be cast out. And
we might be all of those things. But true worship, true worship
is something that happens between a believer and his Lord. It's the reality, ultimately,
of the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's promised them, hasn't
he? He's promised them, I'll never leave you, I'll never,
ever, ever leave you, nor forsake you. It's based on his presence. And true worship is based on
his promises. Paul was promised that he was
going to suffer. He was promised that he was going
to suffer. The true worship, as Paul reminded
the Philippians later on, true worship, is directed to God alone. Just look at that little phrase
in verse 25, true worship. The world worships in such a
way that men will be seen of God. They go through all of their
rituals so that they can be seen to be religious and they can
seem to be pious and they can seem to be good, moral, religious
people. True worship, here it is, isn't
it, in this one phrase in verse 25, unto God. Unto God. Acknowledging His presence,
acknowledging His sovereign right, acknowledging His rule, acknowledging
the glory of His character. True worship is faithful worship. It rests on the fact that we
don't have to know the circumstances, brothers and sisters. We don't
have to know what will come from them. All we have to do is know
who He is. They sang praises to God. It was directed to Him. Directed to Him. And if you want
to know something of the power of prayer, and something of the
power of singing praises, just read the next verse. And suddenly
there was a great earthquake. Suddenly there was a great earthquake.
See the prayers and praises of God's people caused this world
to be moved. God shakes this world. You might recall the earthquakes.
There are many in Scripture that are quite famous, aren't there? There is the earthquake at the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was a great earthquake
and the tombs were opened and the saints of old walked around
Jerusalem. A picture of the fact that in
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ was the new birth and the resurrection
of all of his people. All of his people died with him
and all of his people rose together with him. There is that earthquake,
you might recall, when the women went to the tomb that Sunday
morning. Who on earth is going to roll
away the stone? Who is going to reveal what's
in the tomb? Who is going to reveal the Lord
Jesus Christ to us? And they get there and a great
earthquake came. A great earthquake came. When God shakes the world, he
shakes the world so that we'll see who he is and what he does
in the saving of his people. He shakes the earth to reveal
things. But this is a miraculous earthquake,
isn't it? Verse 26, and suddenly there
was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison
were shaken. the foundations of the prison
were shaken. You would think that the next
person would say, and the rest of the building collapsed. If
you shake all the foundations of a building, the necessary
thing that happens is that the rest of it falls down. I lived
in India for a number of years and I was terrified when I found
out, not terrified, that's the wrong word, but I was conscious
of the fact, as I walked the streets of our town, what rubbish
concrete they use and what ridiculously high buildings they built with
an awful lot of concrete. on little, what seemed to me
extraordinarily flimsy foundations, and we were in an earthquake
zone. And I thought, if there ever was an earthquake here,
it would be absolutely catastrophic, as it has been throughout that
world. This is an earthquake. This is
an earthquake that didn't do any harm. The foundations were
shaken and no harm was done to the prison. This is an earthquake
from the Lord. The foundations were shaken and
their chains fell off. The doors were opened and everyone's
bands, everyone's chains, everyone's locks fell off. All of nature is subject to our
God. He reigns and rules over all
things. But this is a special earthquake. In verse 27, and
the keeper of the prison awakened out of his sleep. So it woke
him up. This is an earthquake to wake him up. And seeing the
prison doors opened, he drew out his sword and would have
killed himself. The prayers and praises of Paul
and Silas didn't wake him up. The guilt that he should have
felt over treating Roman citizens with such injustice didn't wake
him up, but this earthquake woke him up. He wakened out of his
sleep, saw the prison doors open and he drew out his sword and
would have killed himself. And the way they killed themselves
in those days is called falling on your soul. You bury the handle
of the sword in the ground and you put the point of the sword
to your chest and you fall on your soul. That's the phrase
that we still use. And there's a word. This is one
of the very few descriptions of the Lord saving someone from
suicide in the scriptures. There are stories of demon-possessed
young people brought to the Lord and they have thrown themselves
into the fire and they've thrown themselves into the water and
the Lord has cast out the demon and they've been saved. But this
is a great word from God about salvation from suicide. This
is a great story of God's way of saving people from suicide. saving people from harming themselves. And the best word to describe
it is in verse 27. If you look down there at the
last phrase in verse 27, he drew out his sword and he would have
killed himself supposing, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. You see, he woke out of his sleep
and he imagined He imagined that the prisoners had fled, and the
punishment for someone who is a prison keeper and they lose
their prisoners is immediate death. He knew that his life
was forfeit. But he was about to kill himself
because of what he supposed. He supposed. He imagined something
to be true, and it hadn't been true. it had not been proved. He said to himself in those moments,
and you've got to remember this was a crusty old Roman soldier,
normally these positions were given to those who through extraordinary
meritorious service had earned the privilege of being in these
what would have been for most Roman soldiers a very, very cushy
job. But he said to himself in his
suppositions, he said, didn't he, things that so many people
have said, he said, I can't live with this shame. I can't live
with the pain of the dereliction of this duty. I can't live with
the betrayal of this trust. I can't live with dishonouring
my family and myself." He said in his supposition, as he drew
out his sword, he says, I find this situation is so difficult
and I'm supposing that it will never get any better. He supposed that the problem
that he has to deal with He's so intractable, so unsolvable. He supposed that it was bad and
horrible, and he supposed that it wouldn't get any better, that
it'd just get worse. See, that was a supposition.
He supposed those things. He supposed something that was
a lie. People suppose things that are
lies on their way to suicide. He'd never proved one single
thing of those. He had no more idea of the future
that lay before him than Paul. And it's remarkable to think,
isn't it, that this man, who at one moment, because of his
suppositions, was about to kill himself, a few verses later on
is rejoicing. He's rejoicing for who God is,
and he's rejoicing for God having sent the gospel to him, and he
was rejoicing in the company of those who are God's people. The reality is the saints of
God are placed in situations that are extraordinarily difficult
all the time. You cannot read the story of
the scriptures and not see that God's people were again and again
and again and throughout time and to this very day placed in
situations of extraordinary pain. You think of what happened to
Joseph and the injustices that went in his life. You think of
David being hunted like a mad dog throughout Israel for probably
the best part of 20 years by a man who should have respected
him because he, on numerous occasions, saved his life. You think of
the pain of Daniel and all of the injustices that he suffered.
You think again and again, you look through the scriptures and
you find again and again that the Lord's people are again and
again placed in difficulties of great trial. And there does so often seem
no way forward. I often like to think of that
Red Sea experience, isn't it? The Israelites, there they were,
this great company of people, There they were at the Red Sea,
and in front of them were miles of ocean. And behind them was
an Egyptian superpower with all of its weaponry, and they had
nothing. They had nothing. They had nothing in front of
them that they could look forward to with any hope whatsoever.
And all they could see behind them was pain and misery and
imminent death at the hands of Pharaoh. And God takes his people
to those places. again and again and again throughout
this life, where we are caused to see no hope in the things
around us, because God is in the business of making us to
see again and again, brothers and sisters in Christ, that God
saves not by our strength, but saves by his sovereign hand. Again and again, if you go back
and think through the gospel stories, you'll see that the
Lord Jesus Christ met people again and again who were hopeless,
helpless. They were lepers, they were demon-possessed,
they were blind, they had no hope for themselves. They could
look behind in their life like that man at the pool. For 38
years he'd been a cripple, which means that he'd been a beggar
for 38 years, and he had no one to help him at all. All he could
look back for was nothing. A life of misery and what he
could look forward to? Nothing. And the Lord comes along
and he saves them. He saves them by a sovereign
hand. He saves them by a sovereign
hand. The Lord's people, like the rest
of the people in this world, have their suppositions. And
our suppositions drive us barmy most of the time, brothers and
sisters. And our suppositions, our suppositions almost invariably
never come to pass. What we think is really bad turns
out to be not as bad as we thought it is. And sometimes the things
that we think are going to be good turned out to be not as
good as they are. But supposing this man supposed
a future and could see no reason to live. And his supposition
was wrong. His supposition was wrong. The reality is that no matter
how hard life is, and no matter how difficult the trials are,
our suppositions about the future are wrong, and our acting on
those suppositions is wrong. This man supposed. He supposed, he supposed, didn't
he, that there was no way forward, and he supposed that the way
out of this situation was to kill himself. See, people suppose
a lie and kill themselves. The devil is a liar and a murderer
from the beginning. The other pictures of suicide
in the scriptures are not pretty pictures. Judas killed himself.
Satan had entered Judas. Saul, King Saul, killed himself
because an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. There is a reality to the existence
of the devils. The casting out of the demon
of that girl typifies that. Suicide is a horrible thing,
brothers and sisters. I have had to witness it in the
most graphic and appalling ways, and I've seen the pain. I've
seen the pain of children whose fathers have died that way. I've seen the pain linger and
wound for decades. I've seen the pain, personally
seen the pain of parents who have lost children and it's unbelievably
difficult to imagine what it is to live with that. I've seen
and witnessed many, many times that the result of it is that
almost everyone associated with it feels some sense of guilt
about something that they could have done or something they should
have done or something that they did do that in some way contributed
to it. We don't want to lighten what
it says, but when God speaks words like this to us, I pray
that he'd cause us to listen. If you think about this word,
this just supposing, it just lies behind so much of the tragedy
of this world, isn't it? Supposing. It's a supposition. A supposition which is a lie. A supposition which is not established
by the facts at all. No matter what your life has
been in the past, there is absolutely no guarantee that that's what
your life is going to be in the future, ever. It's a supposition. It's a supposition without basis
in fact, because you don't know what the facts are, because you
don't know what the future is. Because the future's in God's
hands, not ours. The future is in His hands. And
verse 28, look with me in verse 28. It's the great cry of the
church, isn't it? It's the great cry of the gospel. Paul cried. But Paul cried with
a loud voice, Do thyself no harm. Do thyself no harm. It's a great cry, isn't it? It's
the first word that this jailer heard. He heard a word. He heard a word of truth in the
darkness. He heard the heart cry of the
church to all the people of this world, do yourself no harm. Do
yourself no harm. Paul saved this man's life. This
man with a sword about to pierce his heart. I pray that God would
make us lifesavers. Do yourself no harm, we say to
this world. Do yourself no harm, brothers
and sisters in Christ. He was this man on the very brink
of eternity. And God says to him, do yourself
no harm. And the jailer heard a word from
an unseen man. That's exactly what we want in
the preaching of the Gospel, isn't it? That you will hear
a word from an unseen man. You will hear a word from God. You won't hear the word of God
as a word from men. You'll hear it, as Paul would
say to the Thessalonians, you'll hear it as a word from God himself. do yourself no harm. The remarkable
thing is that he was supposing, and he hadn't established the
facts, he was supposing a future for himself based on his suppositions,
which was a lie. The other thing is, that this
is a remarkable picture, that in the midst of tragedy there
is hope. And the remarkable thing for this Philippian jailer, like
the remarkable thing for all those who do harm for themselves,
is that hope was nearby. Hope was in the very place, wasn't
it? Hope was within a sound of a
voice to him. Do your body no harm, do your
soul no harm, there is hope. Here's a man just about to perish.
and he's going to start rejoicing in God. Do yourself no harm. I love how Isaiah describes and
foretells of these works of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Isaiah
27 verse 13 it says, And it shall come to pass in that day that
the great trumpet shall be blown. And the great trumpet is the
great trumpet of that Jubilee. victory of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that jubilee trumpet that says all the prisoners are free, that
jubilee trumpet that says that everything that you have lost
by the way you have lived your life is going to be restored
to you, everything that God promised you is going to be. That great
trumpet shall be blown and they shall come which were ready to
perish in the land of Assyria and the outcast in the land of
Egypt They were ready to perish and shall worship the Lord in
the holy mountain of Jerusalem. Check your suppositions. Do yourself
no harm. Let's read on. Paul says to him,
do yourself, this earthquake was a remarkable earthquake in
many ways, wasn't it? Not only did this remarkable
earthquake not do any serious damage to the jail at all, this
remarkable earthquake let all the prisoners free, and this
remarkable earthquake kept all the prisoners in jail. It was
a remarkable earthquake. Why did God keep them all in
jail? Because Paul was about to preach the gospel to the jailer. He was about to preach the word
of God to him. They were all there to hear the
gospel. And here is a picture. Here in this jailer is a picture
of a man about to perish who comes to hear the gospel. God
in providence brought the jailer and a gospel preacher together. God in providence caused the
Lord Jesus Christ to be met with that night. But look what he
does in verse 29. All of these are great pictures,
aren't they? Verse 29, he called for a light. It's remarkable,
isn't it? In a jail where he was in charge,
he had to call for light. It's a great picture of spiritual
death, spiritual deadness, isn't it? He had no light in himself
naturally and he had no light on him naturally. The light he
needed to see, the light he needed to understand the truth doesn't
come within us, brothers and sisters, but it must be brought
to us. God must shine the light of the
glory of God in the Gospel in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God shines a light. God who creates light says, let
there be light, let there be the light of the Lord Jesus Christ
in this person, because they have no light in themselves.
All they are living on is the basis of suppositions, suppositions
that bring harm to themselves. We need light from above. It
doesn't matter how much religion someone has. Nicodemus was the
most religious, pious man in all of Israel. And he is a picture,
isn't he? He came out of the darkness.
He came into the light of that night to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the Lord Jesus says to him, you are as blind as a bat, Nicodemus,
nor your religion is worthless, useless, hopeless, helpless. And it's done you no good whatsoever.
You've memorized the whole Old Testament. You don't have a clue
what it's about. You cannot see the Kingdom of
God unless you are born again. And then the next thing he does,
he calls for a light. The next thing he does, he sprang in.
In matters of eternal salvation, everything is urgent, everything
is significant, everything is necessary now. But he came also
with his light. He came in urgently and he came
trembling. He came trembling. He came with
a deep and serious and God-wrought sense of conviction of what lay
before him. He came trembling. God's people,
when they meet him and when they come to him, will come trembling
and they'll come humbly. He fell down before Paul and
Silas. He fell down before Paul and
Silas. He spent his life falling down before Roman gods of all
different sorts. Jupiter and Diana, and no doubt
when he got over there into Greece, he joined the Greek gods with
the Roman gods and worshipped as many as he possibly could
to give himself as much security as possible. But he fell down
before Paul and Silas. The genuine humility has the
Lord and his servants in view. You might as we go through this
story remember that this is a picture, isn't it? Paul says in 2 Timothy
that his conversion story on the Damascus road and in the
preaching of Ananias to him in Damascus, is a pattern. Paul
is a pattern. Lydia is a pattern. The jailer
is a pattern. All God's saved people are patterns. And he cries out. He cries out,
doesn't he? And he brought them out, verse
30, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? What must I
do to be saved? See, no lost person knows what
to do to be saved. They might know all sorts of
morality, they might know all sorts of things in this world,
but they have no idea about salvation. The only people who cry out seriously,
what must I do to be saved, are those who know they are lost.
It's only the lost people. It's only the sinners who cry
out to God to save them. Most people, no matter what their
circumstances are, live on the basis of supposition, and their
suppositions are a faith system, aren't they? The agnostics and
the atheists have a faith system, and it's based on suppositions.
All the religions of the world have a faith system that's based
on suppositions. What we are looking for, God's
servants, and what God's people long for and delight in, is not
the work of man, but the work of God. And it's the work of
God to cause people to see that they are lost. It's only when
people realise that they're lost It's only when people realise
that they're helpless, it's only when people realise, like that
bleeding woman, when she crawled through that crowd to the Lord
Jesus Christ, she said, I just touched the hem of his garment,
I'll be made whole. God's people have a need. God's
people have a need. The great problem of false religion
is it gives to a whole lot of people a sense of peace when
they've never had a sense of their lostness. There are two
great mysteries, aren't there? There are three great mysteries
in the world, but the two great ones that we see in this story,
and there are really three, aren't there? He came to know that he
was lost. It's a great mystery, isn't it?
He could throw God's preachers into prison. He could put them
in the stocks and he could go off to sleep soundly like anything.
He could sleep through prayers and he could sleep through praises.
It all meant nothing to him. He cared nothing about them.
He cared nothing about himself. He was asleep and comfortable
and his little world was as secure as you could wish it to be. And
now this same man knows he's lost. It's something very important,
isn't it? You'll only know you're lost
when God shakes the foundations of everything that you hold dear,
when God shakes the foundations of all of your suppositions.
There are countless millions of people billions of people
in this world who are just like the Philippian jailer, and they
are doing themselves harm because they're living their life based
on a supposition which is not true. They have been told lies
about themselves by religious hucksters, and they have a piece
because they think that salvation is something that they can do. It is the work of God in the
hearts of His people. It's the spiritual work of God
in the hearts of His people to cause them to know that they
are lost. And when someone is lost, they're
going to say, how can I be saved? Lord, help me. Like the apostles
on the boat, Lord, help us. Lord, save us or we'll perish.
It's a great mystery. that God reveals to people that
they're lost. The second great mystery that
God reveals to people is the way of salvation. The way of
salvation. The way of salvation is much
simpler than people think it is. He just said you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. We mustn't forget that Paul preached
to this man. This man didn't know who the
Lord Jesus Christ was, and a few minutes before this he couldn't
have cared less about who he was. Now he wanted to know one
thing, and one thing only. It's interesting, isn't it, that
Paul could have said a whole lot of things. In this religious
world he'd be told to go and do penance. He'd be told to go
and do some things in a church. Paul didn't say there's nothing
you can do, and yet that's right. Paul didn't say he needs to pray. Paul didn't say you need to go
and read your Bible. Paul didn't say you need to go
to church. He didn't say any of those things. He told this man He told this
man what this man needed at that time in his life. He could have
told him a whole lot of things that are true. He could have
given him a whole bunch of theological lessons. He could have given
him some wise direction about what he had to do. But this man,
this man is a picture of the fact that the gospel meets people
where they are. And the scriptures say that he
that wins souls is wise. And Paul had this great wisdom
from God about what this man's situation was. He came trembling,
he came falling, he came convicted, he came about to die. He didn't
need to know any of those other things at this time. He said,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Why
did he say that? Why didn't he say all the other
things? Why did he say believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
you shall be saved? He spoke exactly what that man
needed at that time. This man was in trouble, and
he knew he was in trouble. He was in trouble with the Roman
rulers. He was in trouble with his family. He was in trouble
with God. He was fearful, confused, and he was trembling, and he
fell on his feet. He didn't need to hear anything about himself. So much of religion is telling
men about themselves. He didn't need to hear about
himself. He didn't need to hear what he had to do to get his
act together, that you have to do all these things to make yourself
better. You need to pick yourself up and dust yourself off and
get yourself organized. He didn't have any of those needs.
He didn't need to hear about the four spiritual laws. He didn't
need to hear about the Romans' road. He didn't need to hear
two ways to live. Gospel preaching takes all the
emphasis off you. and puts it all on the Lord Jesus
Christ. This man, like all of us, had
made a mess of his life. This man, like all of us, had
a problem. This man, like very few of us,
had a problem that was so evident and so urgent, because he had
a problem that he couldn't do anything about himself. The Gospel
keeps saying to people, quit thinking about yourself. This
world and your flesh and the devil and everything in this
world wants to tell you how special you are and how badly you've
been done by and all of these things. It's all about me, me,
me and I, I, I. The Gospel's about the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Gospel is turning you away
from yourself, turning your eyes completely away from yourself,
thinking about yourself and thinking about the suppositions and the
faith system that you have with your suppositions. It turns you
to the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, looking to you is only
looking into the mess. This man had got himself into
a terrible mess. Looking to him wasn't going to
solve his problem. It takes a miracle of grace to
turn your eyes away from yourself and to cease from you being the
centre of this universe and it all being about you. So Paul took the emphasis off the
man and he put the emphasis where it should be. He placed the emphasis
exactly where it should be. You believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. He took all the emphasis away from this man's misery and
his loss and his failure and his circumstances and he turned
his eyes to the Lord Jesus Christ. He turned his eyes to him. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You can't save yourself, brothers
and sisters. You are like the Philippian jailer.
All of us are on the brink of eternity all of the time. All of us. God's people need
a saviour. We need to save you, someone
outside of all of this, and beyond all of this, and above all of
this. Salvation is looking Him. Salvation is looking away from
ourselves, looking to Him in the glory of who He is as God,
the glory of who He is as God the Son, the glory of what He
did on this earth when He came to seek and to save the lost.
When He came and had all those accusations of men against Him
and then He was declared to be a friend of sinners. He came
to seek and to save the lost. And we are saved not by our doing,
not by our doing, but by His doing. We're saved by His doing
and His dying. And we're saved by His rising. The mess that we've got ourselves
into is a mess of sin. The only way we can live in the
presence of a holy God is for us to be made as holy as Him. Salvation's not about us, brothers
and sisters. We are the recipients of His
salvation. And salvation for the Philippian
jailer began with him looking away from himself. And if in
the providence of God, the pain that he puts you through causes
you to look away from yourself and look to him, then it might
be like it is for the Philippian jailer, a sign not of God's anger
towards you, but a sign of his love. He says to believe. Believe because you have to look
away from yourself. Believing is the one thing that
we can do in this world. And it's the gift of God, but
it's the one thing that we do in this world that honours God. We don't honour God by having
faith in our suppositions. We honour God by believing simply
what he said about himself, about how he saves sinners. So Paul does a marvellous thing
in preaching to this man, doesn't he? He takes the emphasis off
the jailer, because there was no hope in the jailer. He put
all the emphasis where it really, really belongs. And he simply
says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the glory of preaching the
gospel, brothers and sisters, that God comes and he shakes
the foundations of this world, and he shakes the foundations
of your suppositions in this world, and he shakes all of those,
because one day he's going to shake this world. And he shakes
this world with a purpose according to Hebrews. He shakes this world
so that people will know that there is one that shakes everything,
one that is able to shake everything. And he who shakes everything
is unshaken. He's unshaken by the circumstances
of this world. He's unshaken in his covenant
promises. He's unshaken in his love to
his people. He's unshaken. in his sovereign
will and purpose. And he's unshaken. He's unshaken
in his ability to get his people to do what he wants them to do. People want to put people under
all sorts of bonds, don't they? People want to give rules and
regulations. It's one of the remarkable things
as we journey through the Book of Acts that we find that God's
servants just respond in gratitude and love. You see what he did? Look with me. Verse 32, they preached to him.
They preached unto him the word of the Lord and to all that was
in his house. And what did he do? How did the
jailer respond? Do you remember Lydia's response?
Immediately she says, you come to my house. My house is your
house. My food's your food. My people
are your people. You are mine. You belong and
we belong together. What does the Philippian jailer
do? He took him at the same hour of the night. What did he do?
He washed their stripes. He probably put the stripes on
them, this Philippian jailer. He washed their stripes and was
baptised. He was publicly acknowledging
that he and the Lord Jesus Christ are one in his life, in his death,
in his resurrection, and all his straight away. He publicly confessed the Lord
Jesus Christ. Verse 34, and when he brought
them into his house, he said, meet before them. And he rejoiced. He was a man on the basis of
his suppositions about to kill himself. And here we have just
a few verses later, and maybe just an hour later, he's rejoicing.
Rejoicing. If you read the letter to the
Philippians, you'll see that the word rejoicing is used over
and over again in Philippians. Rejoice. When God shakes your
foundations and destroys your suppositions and reveals the
truth, then rejoicing comes naturally
to God's people. We rejoice in hope. As Isaiah
61 says, we have beauty for ashes, the oil of joy, and the garments
of praise. We are joined together with him. This is our brother, this Philippian
jailer. He and Lydia. And Paul and Silas
and all the saints of God are rejoicing and have been rejoicing
in the presence of the living and reigning Lord Jesus Christ
for this past 2,000 years. And all of God's servants, all
of God's children will have their foundations shaken, their suppositions
turned to what they really are, and they'll have an unshakable
foundation for the very person and the presence and the promises
of our great God. I pray that he's been shaking
your foundations. I pray that he will continue
to shake our suppositions. I pray that he might cause us
to be soul winners. I pray that when we meet people
who are despairing, that we might be able, by the grace of God,
to say a word. Don't harm yourself. Do yourself
no harm. There's a saviour. There's a
saviour for lost, helpless, hopeless, despairing sinners. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you,
Heavenly Father, that He comes to His people, and He comes in
remarkable ways, in providence and in promise, and in provision
for them in their time of need. Heavenly Father, please make
us needy people. Please cause us not to be dependent. upon ourselves and our abilities
in any way at all. Please, Heavenly Father, shake
the foundations of our lives that we might find ourselves,
casting our lives upon a rock which is higher than us. Heavenly Father, we spend our
lives building our houses on foundations of sand in this world,
and we pray, Heavenly Father, that you would shake those foundations
and find us with our home, our refuge, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the rock of salvation. Heavenly Father, cause us to
remember him as we eat and drink in remembrance of his broken
body and his shed blood. Please be merciful to us, Heavenly
Father, and cause us to be soul winners and cause us to be people
who go into this world and cry out by your warrant, Heavenly
Father, to the people of this world, do yourself no harm. Come and hear, come and see,
and come and believe a Savior. We thank you, Heavenly Father,
for such a great salvation that reaches, reaches to the ends
of this earth and reaches to the depths of where we have put
ourselves by our sins and circumstances in this world and cause us to
rejoice in our Saviour and our God, the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray in his name. Amen.