That's a great thought to begin. He holds me in his mighty hand.
It is remarkable, isn't it, when Satan raises up and stirs and
interrupts the people as they go to prayer and harasses and
makes the public Nuisance, as it were, of the people of God.
God's purposes are there, aren't they? The whole purpose of this,
of course, was that just down the road from this damsel was
a jailer who had no thought, probably, of God whatsoever,
and a household with him. who hadn't contemplated the Lord
Jesus Christ dying on Calvary's tree, probably contemplated myriads
of other gods and hadn't taken much notice of the God of the
Jews, the great God who is the only God. There weren't enough
people in Philippi to even have a synagogue, so there were less
than 10 men there, which is the number required for a synagogue.
But the remarkable thing is that when Paul did finally find some
people who were doing the best they could in the light they
had to worship God, there were only women there. Isn't that
remarkable? Not one single man there. There's going to be a man in
the Philippian church in no time at all, and he's going to be
a crusty old Roman jailer, and God's got to get him. Such is
the power of our great God. that the demons end up being
his servants. But that doesn't excuse the wickedness
of these men. Let's go back to Acts chapter
16. And when her master saw that
the hope of their gains were gone, they caught Paul and Silas
and drew them into the marketplace under the rulers, and 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 observe. We are Romans, being Romans. And the multitude rose together
against them, and the magistrates rent off their clothes, that's
Paul and Silas' 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 the stocks. It's a great story, isn't it?
It's a great story of our Lord Jesus Christ going to these places. He has these sheep and he must
bring them in. The Gentiles are going to bring
praise to God when he builds that temple, the temple of these
living stones, there will be these gathered from all these
sorts of places. So what they look like in the
flesh to the eyes of men means nothing. God looks at the heart.
God always looks at the heart. But these men, these men are
so typical of the rest of men, aren't they? They use other people
for their gain. So this poor girl was demon-possessed
and all it meant for them was an opportunity to make money
and gain power and to use her for their own ends. Verse 19,
when the Master saw that the hope of their gains were gone. So they immediately knew something
had happened to this girl that we are not privy to. But something
happened to her immediately that they knew that she was no longer
of any use to them. So all they were concerned about
was their gains. They only thought about their
gains. They had no thought for her gain at all. Such are the people of this world.
They had no thought for her gain. She was just a chattel to them. She was just someone to be used,
to be abused, and when they'd finished with her, to throw her
out. It's a salutary reminder, brothers
and sisters, isn't it, that the greatest friends that you'll
ever have in this world are those who love the Lord Jesus Christ
more than you. The greatest friends you'll ever
have are those who have a serious concern about your eternal soul. That one day, all of us here
will meet the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who care for your souls
love you most. They do love you most. See, Paul
and company came as servants. As the lady said, the damsel
said, they are bond slaves. They are servants of the most
high gods. They are servants of the Lord
Jesus Christ. See, to have Christ's friends
as your servants is the greatest blessing. Because if you have
them, you have him. The natural man sees nothing
of that at all. These natural men, these natural
religious men saw nothing of that in Paul. They didn't care
about her and they didn't care about them. So this now Satan
came subtly complimenting these men and stirring up people against
them. But now these men seeing that their gains have gone, verse
19, they caught Paul and Silas and drew them into the marketplace
unto the rulers. And they brought them to the
magistrates, verse 20, saying, these men being Jews do exceedingly
trouble our city. The reality is there'd be no
trouble in the city at all. There's no trouble. The only trouble was that their
gains were gone. But what they want to do is say
that because we've been, we've lost something, then everyone
else has lost something. See, what were their gains? Their gains were money, their
gains were power, their gains were privilege, their gains were
control. It's a horrible thing, isn't
it, when people gain by control. So the Lord's people, the Lord's
children gain by being servants. She was right about Paul and
Silas. They came as servants. They came with nothing to gain
for themselves whatsoever. They came for the gain of all
of the Lord's people. They came for the gain of all
of those societies that had been, by the grace of God and the mercy
of God, turned from the wickedness of so much of that idolatry that
troubled that world so terribly. These men, being Jews, do exceedingly
trouble our city. There's no trouble. They were
lying. The first thing they do, the
first thing they do publicly is lie, is tell lies. See, they've tolerated so much.
In Philippi, as in Athens, as in the rest of the world, you
can worship anything you like. There's a smorgasbord of religions
out there and you can go and pick and choose all of them you
like. It's like the broad church, isn't it? Franklin Graham's coming,
and if you look on the website, they've got this advertisement
for him coming. And it's just the most blasphemous
nonsense, but anyone can join in. Anyone can join in. See, in the broad church, anything
is tolerated, isn't it? You can be Armenian, you can
be reformed, you can be pre-millennial, you can be charismatic, you can
be traditional, you can be contemporary. There's only one thing not tolerated
and that's the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ as he is. When the Lord Jesus Christ came
to Israel, Israel was a nation so much like this religious world
here, wasn't it? There was every variety of Christianity,
for want of a better word, you could have there. There were
those that followed their traditions, there were those like the Herodians
that mixed their worship of God with the power that they had
from association with Herod, there were those who were zealous
for the law and separate like the Pharisees. They were the
ones that hid themselves in caves. They were the Sadducees who were
philosophers and joined Greek philosophy with religion. But
in one way or another, despite all their difficulties, they
tolerated each other. And what happened? When the Lord
Jesus Christ came, he didn't say, you were right and you were
wrong. He said the whole lot. is empty
and vain. When he sets people free, those
that are really entrapped rise up against them, don't they? This world has many that profit
from demonic affliction of others. There is just so much in this
world that is profitable to man, but in fact all it does is bring
great harm to men. When the Lord comes and declares
himself as a successful, sovereign, substitutionary saviour, and
he says, I'll have that one, he's mine. And I'll have her,
she's mine. Then all of a sudden there is
a stirring. In all of our journey through Acts, we have seen that
when the Gospel comes, there is this division, isn't it? There
are some that are set free and rejoicing, and then there are
others who are stirred up against them. See, man under Satan's
influence is a prey to legalism and works of all sorts, isn't
he? Now I wonder Paul in Galatians 4 verse 9 says that to the Galatians,
to go back, these pagan Galatians, to go back from the Gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ into Jewish pharisaical legalism with a mask
of the Lord Jesus, a cloak of the Lord Jesus over the top of
it. He says that it's the same as going back to idolatry. He
says, well how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements
whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage. The Gospel comes to set people
free. The Gospel comes, when the Lord
Jesus Christ comes, to take a people out by the revelation of himself.
He says, if the Lord makes you free, you're free indeed. You're free from all of that
demonic activity. You're free from all of that
legalism. You're free from the poison of
Satan. You will be as gods. But the people who get gain from
the use of others will be offended by it. You see, in religion, if you
turn over in Galatians to chapter 6, what's the purpose of men
in religion? What's the purpose of men in
works religion? At the end of verse 13, you have
the whole purpose of all of work's religion, all of religion outside
of the Lord Jesus Christ. At the end of verse 13, that
they may glory in your flesh. That's what religion does, isn't
it? The first question we're asked about our church all the
time is how many people do you have there? How many people do
you have there? As if somehow the number of people
here is a measure of the faithfulness of God. The Philippian church
just had a few, and it seems from the records that even later
on it was only a small church. The numbers aren't the issue,
brothers and sisters. Is the Lord Jesus Christ here?
That is the issue. What do they do? They want to
boast. in your flesh. Verse 12 in Galatians 6, it says,
as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh. What do they
do? They constrain you. They constrain you. And they
do it They constrain you to be circumcised only lest they should
suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. To proclaim the cross
of Christ is to suffer persecution from those who use other men
for their gain in this world. when we were in religion, they
were quite happy. They're quite happy, aren't they? They're quite
happy for people to believe in their Calvinism, as long as you
don't rock the boat and say that the Lord Jesus Christ is really
God. They're quite happy to talk about
God being sovereign, but when you say that he's sovereign on
the cross, they're quite happy. They disagree with it. They're
quite happy to have the Lord Jesus Christ dying. They're quite
happy to talk about the necessity of his blood. But you tell them
that his blood was shed specifically for his people. and you'll find
an opposition. You'll find an opposition which
you had never anticipated coming, and you'll find an opposition
that comes in a way which is shocking because, like these
men, the first thing they say is a lie. The first thing they
said is they exceedingly trouble our city and they teach customs
which are not lawful for us to receive. What trouble had Lydia
caused in this city? What trouble? What trouble had
that little group caused? What trouble had Paul caused?
and they teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive. They receive anything. The Romans
would tolerate you doing anything, as long as you accepted Roman
religion. The false church of this day
will tolerate anything except the Lord Jesus Christ and Him
crucified, declared as He is revealed in the Scriptures. And
that's how they see Christianity, don't they? It's one custom among
many. And when we say it's the only
one and the only truth, when we declare the simplicity of
Christ and him crucified, and when we stand, as Paul did, for
the truth of the gospel, then opposition comes in an irrational,
and unexpected ways, except we ought to expect it. We're reading
in Acts the history, not only of the beginning of that church
in Europe, as I keep reminding you, we're reading the history
of our own church and we're reading the history of believers. As you go to worship, you will
be harassed by them. When you stand for the Lord Jesus
Christ, and when it's evident that the Lord Jesus Christ has
done a work in his people and he's gathered them out, then
there'll be opposition. And they'll tell lies. They'll
say that they teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive.
They can receive anything. They teach customs which are
not lawful for us to observe. They were observing all sorts
of customs. The other aspect of it is that
when opposition to the Gospel arises, when the Lord Jesus Christ
reveals his glory and his grace in gathering his people to himself,
there's always a multitude. If you notice as we've gone through
Acts, there is no trouble to get a multitude organised. It's
no trouble to get a multitude. The Jews were able to stir up
multitudes, both of Jews, and when they went to Iconium, they
could stir up a multitude of others. In Lystra, they could
stir up a multitude in a heartbeat. In one moment, they were declaring
Paul and Barnabas to be gods, and the next minute, the Jews
got there and a multitude took them outside of the city and
stoned them to death, stoned Paul to death, as it were. You
can always find a multitude. always find a multitude in opposition
to the gospel. The Jews had no trouble in Jerusalem
finding a multitude that would say, crucify him, crucify him. That there was that powerful
man Pilate, with all of his army surrounding him, was brought
to quiver and quake before a multitude. Crucify him. When the Lord Jesus
Christ is revealed, there is a stirring. We want for peace
in this world. But where the gospel comes, there
will be a stirring. there will be a stirring against
the children of God. Ultimately the stirring is a
stirring against the Gospel. It will come from demonic forces. It will come from those who have
lost their power. They have lost their power to
control men. They have lost their power to
control and manipulate and use people for their own gains. and they'll take it to the highest
courts, won't they? The magistrates, verse 22, the
magistrates rent off their clothes. They will, this multitude gathered
against the gospel, they will want to bring as much shame as
they possibly can. So there they are, these men. Go to the magistrates saying
these men trouble our city and they teach customs which are
not lawful for us to receive and the magistrates, the very
first thing the magistrates do is what? Break the Roman law. They always break the laws they
make. That's what Paul said of the people in Galatians chapter
6, isn't it? They put you under the law of
Moses and they never obey it themselves. All of the constraining
and all the rules they put you under, they're always, they're
always the activities of hypocrites. God's servants. wait and trust
God to work in the hearts of his people, just as he did with
Lydia. Not once in the book of Acts
thus far, and it will stay that way to the end, not once are
people put under a bondage of law and works, ever. Why? Did Lydia need some rules? In fact, Lydia's whole operation,
like the jailers, Lord William, we might see next week, was exactly
the opposite to that, wasn't it? They weren't saying, tell
us what to do. They were saying, can we do something
for you? Can we do, abide with us. Come,
our house is your house. Come and live with us. Come and
let us care for you. God rules His Church through
His Spirit by the constraint of love. He constrains and He
compels His servants always. We don't have to rule and control
other people by legalism. Because everywhere it's used,
like it was with these magistrates, immediately it begins with a
lie, and then they break their own rules and regulations, don't
they? The Majestates read off their clothes and laid many stripes
on them. It was illegal to beat a Roman
citizen. It was illegal. It was illegal
under Roman law to do this to people without there being a
serious trial that would have gone on. Just like at the crucifixion
of the Lord Jesus Christ, those legalistic Jews broke every rule
in their book so that they could put him to death. Don't expect
enemies of the gospel to play fair, brothers and sisters. But also don't expect that our
Savior will have anything other than a glorious victory. And
don't expect, as Paul's journey will show us here, we mustn't
expect that our journey in this world is going to be one where
we win acceptance of the people around us and that we have approval
for those in places of authority. Paul was sent on a mission by
the Lord Jesus Christ to go to the jailer. And the way he got
to the jailer was a demon-possessed girl harassed them until they
got sick of it, and he cast a demon out of her, and her owners then
did all of this, and Paul ended up where? Ended up at the feet
of the jailer, didn't he? God has his people, and all of
his people are trapped, aren't they? He's come to set the prisoners
free. All of them are trapped, and
all of them, none of them know that they're trapped. The jailer
thought that he was in control, but someone much bigger was in
control. Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it wonderful how God works
in the hearts of his people? So they'll break their own laws
and they'll operate, they've laid many stripes on them, they'll
operate in direct contravention of their stated beliefs. There is no hypocrisy in this
world like the hypocrisy of those who stand opposed to the gospel.
It's extraordinary, isn't it, that the people came to deceive
the Lord Jesus Christ. In turn to Luke 20, I'm fascinated
by this verse, because it is just remarkable what they would
do. It says in Luke 20, 20, they watched him. They're always watching
him. They watched him like a hawk. They watched him and sent forth
spies which should feign, I'll wait till you get there. They
watched him, they were looking for him, they were looking for
an opportunity. They watched him and sent forth
spies which should feign themselves just men. They sent people to
him and said, when you go to him, we want you to pretend to
be righteous. Isn't that remarkable? Such is
the blindness of religious people in opposition of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We want you to look like you're righteous. I don't know
what righteousness looked like then, but the Lord Jesus Christ
saw all the way through it, all the way, that they might take
hold of his words. Dear, oh, dear, man in opposition
to God is an absolute fool, brothers and sisters, always. They might
take hold of his words so that they might deliver him under
the power and the authority of the governor. And then they ask
that question. But they begin, don't they, as
this demon-possessed girl did. We know, master. They said, master,
we know that thou say'st and teach'st rightly. Pat him on
the back and tell him how good he is. that thou sayest and teachest
rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest
the way of God truly." That's really nice, isn't it? That'll
soften him up. That's pretending to be righteous,
isn't it? And then they say, their cunning
craftiness, is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar
or no? But he perceived their craftiness. Don't play games with God. He
sees right through everything all the time, brothers and sisters.
And he said unto them, why tempt ye me? And the next verse is
really incredible. Do you want to see what it says?
He says, show me a penny. Because as far as the really
strict legalistic Jews were, on that penny, on that denarius,
was the image of Caesar, who they claimed to be a god. If
he had touched it, they would have said, you're defiled. You're
defiled. We know how defiled you are,
which is why they hated the tax collectors so much. He says,
show me a penny. He said, I'm just going to look
at it. Our God reigns, brothers and sisters, over all this thing. Whose image is on it? Caesar's. He says, if Caesar's
image is on your coinage, then you have sold yourselves out
by your wicked disobedience to God to have him reign over you. which is what these Pharisees
were forced to say in the presence of the Lord, weren't they, before
Pilate. We have no king but Caesar. It's
the only true thing they said, other than the things that they
were forced to. Such is the opposition. Such
is the opposition that happened to the Lord Jesus in his flesh,
such is the opposition that happened to the apostles, and such is
the opposition that happens to all of his people. So being Jews,
and here they go, they want to compliment them, we being Romans,
Acts 16.22, we being Romans, There they are, they're actually
pulling out the patriotic banner now, aren't they? We're serious
patriots. We don't want to go follow these Jewish customs at
all. We being Romans. See, they pretended to be patriotic
when really they were concerned about their gain and their power
and their money. And they did. as they did at the beginning
in Jerusalem. What do they want to do? Peter,
don't speak. We're going to lock you up in
jail. Don't speak. They want to silence the word
of God. They want to hide the word of
God. And our God, our God reigns. This world lives in darkness
and it hates the light. because the light exposes its
deeds. But the light shines in the darkness.
The light shines in the darkness. The light shone in the darkness
of that jail. Now God reigns. We might finish with the way
Paul spoke to these Philippians later on in Philippians chapter
4 verse 8. He speaks about the peace of
God. He says, be careful for nothing, but in everything, by
prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known unto God. And the God of peace, which passeth
all understanding, men can do all of their conspiring and everything
else, but the peace of God passeth all understanding, shall keep
your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren,
whatsoever things are true, this is a great description of the
Lord Jesus Christ, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things
are righteous, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be of
any virtue, if there be any appraise, think on these things, those
things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen
in me do." It's a lovely description, isn't it? Paul and his work amongst
them. And the God of peace shall be
with you. Opposition is not the issue,
brothers and sisters. Our God reigns. Our God reigns. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we thank you for your absolute sovereignty of all things and
we thank you that that it is you alone who expose man for
what he is in this world. You expose the depravity of the
hearts of people, Heavenly Father. You expose the depravity of our
hearts that we seek for our own self rather than seeking the
good of others and especially seeking the glory of your dear
and precious son. But Heavenly Father, What a glorious
Saviour we have. What a glorious righteousness
that He's won for us by His doing and dying. What a glorious death
He died, Heavenly Father. bearing the sins of all of his
people in his own body on the tree, that he can go throughout
this world through the preaching of the Gospel and say to his
own, you are mine, come to me. Father, cause us to come, cause
us to look, look upon him who we have pierced. cause us to
mourn for what we are, Heavenly Father, but cause us to rejoice
in who He is. We thank you for His sovereign
rule over all things, for the gathering of His church together,
for their safety and for their security, and for their protection
in all the trials of this world. Heavenly Father, make us to be
worshipping people. Make us to have our eyes fixed
upon Him. Make us to remember Him now,
our Father. For we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.