Paul and Silas had gone to Macedonia. The Lord had led them
there to Philippi and they preached the gospel. And it's when the
Lord called Lydia. The Lord had called them to Philippi.
They preached the gospel and the Lord called Lydia and many
in her house. And there was a lady there who
had a spirit of divination, soothsaying, and some people made a lot of
money off of her. And Paul commanded that spirit
to come out of her, and it did. And so when they saw that they
lost their Cashcow, they got offended and they drove Paul
into the town center and the magistrates commanded he be beaten
and they beat Paul and Silas and threw them in prison. And
we pick up here in verse 23, 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. 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,
awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open,
he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing
that the prisoners had been 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 the same goes for
those in your house. And they spake 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 baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had
brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and
rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. Let's go to the
Lord. How gracious God and our Heavenly
Father We ask you, Lord, if you would bless the word to our heart.
We ask you to make it go forth in power by your spirit alone.
And Lord, cause us to behold our Lord Jesus, cause us to behold
your grace in saving your people. Lord, give us faith to believe
you, strengthen the faith in those that have it, and Lord,
We pray you'll be pleased to bless your word to one of your
lost sheep and give them faith in Christ. We thank you, Lord,
for your mercy. Thank you for your grace. In
Christ's name we pray. Amen. Now, this passage shows us God's
grace in saving this Philippian jailer. And he saved many in
this jailer's house. And this is an An example here
of how God saves sinners. It's how our Lord saves sinners. We see here what we must do to
be saved. Now, Paul and Silas had been
beaten. They were beaten, they were thrown
in jail for preaching the gospel. That was the main issue. And
they charged this jailer to keep them safely. And so he fastened
their feet in the stalks, and he's trying to keep them there,
make sure they don't escape. Now there's a lesson right here
for you who believe. This looked like God's providence
was against Paul and Silas. Anybody that would have judged
by providence would have said, the Lord must be against these
men. But this was the Lord's providence in putting his messengers
right in that prison because he had an elect child there where
God would preach the gospel, who God would preach the gospel
to. And it's just like Paul said when he was in prison another
time. He said, this has fallen out
for the furtherance of the gospel. And this is what God's always
working in us, brethren. So don't judge by providence. Judge by the word of the Lord.
and what he has promised in his word. It says in verse 25, And
at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and
the prisoners heard them. You know, when God seems to be
against His child in providence, by the Spirit renewing our heart,
He keeps us praising God. He keeps us believing the Lord,
praising God, praying to Him, casting all our care upon Him.
And His child knows, you know by the Spirit of God, by what
Christ has done for you, that God is for you. and he's keeping
you. We have God's covenant promise
in Christ. So Paul and Silas, they're in
prison, they're beaten, they're sore, they're bruised and bleeding,
but they're singing praise to God and praying to God. And the
prisoners heard this, verse 26, and suddenly there was a great
earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And
immediately all the doors were open and everyone's bands were
loose. Now who made this earthquake?
The Lord did. The Lord Jesus Christ did this.
He did this. This earthquake is an example
of what the Lord's gonna do in the hearts of his people when
he saves us. He's gonna, we have a false foundation
by nature. And just like he broke up the
foundations of the prison, that's what he's gonna do in our heart.
He's gonna break up our false foundation. and he's going to
turn our whole system of theology upside down. The Lord's going
to break this man's heart. He's going to show him Christ
the door. All the doors were open. He's going to show him
Christ the door. His bands, the bands were loosed,
and that's what he's going to do. He's going to loose the bands
of his captive child. Now, it appears here when you
look at this that it's Paul and Silas who are bound. Well, physically
they were. But they're not the one that's
bound, they're free in Christ. The one who's bound is this jailer. The natural heart being dead
in sin is bound. to our sin nature. You can only
do what's your sin nature. It's like walls in a prison.
You know, a man in a prison cell can walk around, do whatever
he wants to within that prison cell, but he can't get out of
that prison cell. And the sin nature is like the
walls of that jail cell. You can do whatever you want
to within the confines of what that sin nature dictates, but
you can't go beyond that. Can't do anything beyond that.
But the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, is the one who God sent
to free his people from the prison. Go over to Isaiah 42. Isaiah
42. Verse 5, this is the passage
that speaks of Christ being the servant of God. And he says in
verse 5, Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens and
stretched them out, he that spread forth the earth and that which
cometh out of it, he that giveth breath unto the people upon it
and spirit to them that walk therein. And he's speaking of
Christ here, and he says, I, the Lord, have called thee in
righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee,
and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of
the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners
from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison
house. I am the Lord, that is my name,
and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise
to graven images. And that's what we're about to
see. We're about to see our Lord Jesus bring one of his elect,
redeemed children out of the prison of his sin nature to faith
in Christ. We'll look at, first of all,
God's grace working within the sinner. Secondly, we'll hear
the good news of the gospel. And then thirdly, we'll see the
end that Christ brings his child to. Now, first of all, we see
God's grace working in that one he's being merciful to. Here's
the first thing that God does by his grace. This is what he
does in the dead sinner. It says in verse 27, and the
keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep. This is the
first thing our Lord's going to do. It's Christ alone through
the Holy Spirit that's going to quicken his child and awake
us. He's going to wake us up. He's
going to give us life. Ephesians 1, Paul said at the
end there, he said, God raised Christ, the God-man, gave him
all power. He's the head of the church,
and it's him that filleth all in all. He's the one working
this in this jailer, just like he worked it in you. He fills
all in all his church. And it's the very next word says,
and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin. So this is the first thing that
has to happen. We can't make this happen. And
no other man can make this happen. It's the spirit of God creating
a new heart, a regenerated heart that makes you awake. So now
you can hear. You have spiritual ears, you
have spiritual eyes, and you can hear now the word of the
Lord. And then when Christ has made
us alive spiritually, God reveals to us that all our works have
been vanity. Everything we had confidence
in was all false, and it was all vain. Verse 27, and the keeper
of the prison, awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison
doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself,
supposing that the prisoners had been fled. His job was to
keep those prisoners fastened in that prison, and he must have
been terrified of his rulers. Because when he saw those doors
open and thought those prisoners had escaped, he was ready to
kill himself. This is an illustration right
here of self-righteous religion. You think about this. In order
to keep Paul and Silas and these other prisoners in prison, this
jailer had to stay in prison himself. To keep them bound,
he had to stay in the prison. And brethren, any time men are
trying to bind others with the law, even trying to use gospel
precepts from a legal motive, they are themselves in bondage.
You can't put anybody else in bondage without yourself being
in bondage. They must remain in prison to
keep others bound. But when grace makes us alive
and the Lord begins to speak into the heart, our Lord is going
to show us that all our works have been vanity. You know, you
can just picture this jailer going around and checking those
cell doors and the locks and checking the locks to the chains
that had them bound and making sure everything was fastened
and secure and he was doing his job to keep these men bound.
And the Lord broke it all loose, and he realized all his work
had been in vain. And that's what the Lord's gonna
teach you and me, that everything that we have done to try to make
ourselves righteous or holy has been in vain. We have not accomplished
it. But God, through the gospel,
calls his child in the heart. And here's where the work is,
in the heart. He says, verse 28, But Paul cried with a loud voice,
saying, do thyself no harm, for we are all here. Don't you know
that was a comforting surprise to that jailer? He's just about
to kill himself. He thinks that they've escaped,
and he hears Paul say, don't do yourself harm, we're all here.
Oh, that must have been a comfort to hear that. That's what the
gospel does. Our Lord first shows you. He
breaks up your foundation. He shows you all your works have
been in vain, and you're ready to despair. You're ready to die
because you see there's nothing I can do. And then he cries out
through the gospel, and he begins to comfort you in your heart.
He begins to comfort you in your heart. God shines the light of
Christ, and the Spirit makes the sinner come to Christ the
light. When he shines the light in our
heart, he makes his child come to Christ the light. It says,
verse 29, then he called for a light. Everything was dark
there in that cell. He called for a light. Man by
nature will not call on Christ the light. Man by nature just
will not call on Christ the light. He won't come to the light. And
the reason is, if he comes to the light, his very best deeds,
those deeds that he put so much confidence in, and he thinks
that made him righteous and made him holy, they're going to be
measured against the true righteousness and true holiness of God, Christ
Jesus. And his works are going to be
made to be seen as what they are, as evil. It is not sin that'll
keep sinners coming from Christ. It is self-righteousness. It
is thinking we don't need Christ, that we are righteous without
him. But when Christ shines the light and God works in the heart,
that's when we behold Christ is the righteousness of God.
He is the righteousness of God. He is the righteousness we must
have. That's when a man comes to Christ
confessing all his works, everything he's trusting in to be accepted
of God has been worked by Christ alone. Even the faith he's been
given to believe this, Christ gave it to him. Christ said,
Everyone that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to
the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. And men preach that
as just evil, profane deeds. That's not what's going to keep
you from Christ. When God makes you see you're a sinner, that's
when you'll come to Christ. But until we are told by the
Lord and made to see that all our best deeds are evil, we won't
come to Christ. But when he does this work, he
that doeth truth, and this is what doing truth is according
to our Lord Jesus, it's coming to Christ the light. And it comes
that he may be made manifest that all his deeds are wrought
in God. That means worked out in God,
by God, by the Lord Jesus Christ. Coming to Christ the light. And
the reason we come to Christ's light is all of Christ. The work of grace in the hearts
of Christ, and He turns you to see all the works He's finished
on behalf of His people. And coming to Christ is all of
Christ. Go back over there to Isaiah
49. This is the glory that belongs
to our Lord Jesus Christ. This is why it's so offensive
when men give men glory for being born again or for making a decision
for Christ or whatever, however they put it. This is why it's
offensive to anybody that's truly born in the Spirit because that
glory belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody else. Look here,
Isaiah 49, 8, again the Lord speaking to Christ, Thus saith
the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day
of salvation have I helped thee, and I will preserve thee, and
give thee for a covenant of the people to establish the earth,
to cause to inherit the desolate heritage. Whenever our Lord Jesus
Christ on the cross cried out, It is finished, That was the
acceptable time. God heard him. He had fully satisfied
God's holy law, established it for his people, declared God
just and justifier, and he raised from the grave to God's right
hand to work this in his people. He's the covenant, brethren.
The covenant is not a system of theology. The covenant is
a person, just like all these righteousness is a person, holiness
is a person, mercy is a person, grace is a person, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And here's what he does, this
is why he arose. Verse 9, that thou mayest say
to the prisoners, go forth, and to them that are in darkness,
show yourselves. They shall feed in the waves,
and their pasture shall be in all high places. They shall not
hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them,
for he that hath mercy on them. shall lead them. Even by the
springs of water shall he guide them, and I will make all my
mountains away, and my highways shall be exalted." Now, back
in our text, we see this typified in the jailer. Acts 16, 29. It says, Then he called for a
light, and he sprang in, and he came trembling, and fell down
before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out, and
he says, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? God's grace makes
his child to stop thinking we know that we know everything. God's grace makes us humble to
be taught by the messenger God sent to us. Before he was proud,
now he came trembling. Before he was in authority, now
he falls down before Paul. Can you picture this? This man
was in charge of the whole prison. Now he comes and falls down at
the feet of one of the prisoners. Before he thrust him in there,
now he's bringing him out. Before he was telling Paul what
to do, now he's asking Paul, sirs, what must I do to be saved? This is what grace works in the
heart. The first thing grace does is make a man willing to
be taught by the foolishness of preaching. A man's been truly
humbled by God when he's made willing to submit to Christ,
when he's made willing to submit to the nobody, the base thing,
the earthen clay pot, the man that God has sent to preach the
gospel to him. That's when he's been made submissive
to hear Christ speak. When he's been brought to fall
down and inquire and want to know, how must I be saved? That's
what happened to this man. Now secondly, we come to the
good news of the gospel. What must I do to be saved? What
must you do to be saved? This is so for God's elect beginning
to end. This is what you must do to be
saved. Verse 31, and they said, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. and thy
house." It does not mean that because this jailer believed
that God saved everybody in his house. Paul is saying it goes
for everybody in your house too. If they believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, they shall be saved. And they spake unto him the word
of the Lord. They preached the gospel to him
and to all that were in his house. Faith in Christ, truly believe
in Christ. Think about how impossible that
is for you and me by nature. Just think how impossible that
is. If it was just an easy thing, everybody would believe. And
men can't make themselves believe, they can't believe God is. Let's
believe they are sinners, ruined, and that Christ is the only righteousness
and holiness there is for his people. Faith is a gift of God. It's a gift of God's grace. And
faith in Christ, what does it trust? What does true faith trust? It trusts Christ's obedience.
We're trusting Christ himself. We're trusting Christ's obedience.
The obedience of faith is submitting to Christ. It's coming and submitting
and trusting that we're made the righteousness of God by the
obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. They said to him one day,
what shall we do that we might work the works of God? This is
very similar to what the Philippian jailer just asked. Same question. And here's what the Lord Jesus
said. Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of
God that you believe on him whom he hath sent. Through faith,
this is the good news of the gospel. Through simply believing
the Lord Jesus, The believer has done all the works that Christ
has done through simply believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
done all the works that the Lord Jesus did without moving a muscle because Christ did it all. That's
what faith really believes. True faith believes that by the
obedience of Christ, I have perfectly fulfilled all righteousness in
precept and in penalty. I have obeyed God in the precept
and perfection, and I have died under the justice of God in perfection. Faith believes that by the perfect
heart of Christ Jesus, by His sacrifice, by His willingness,
I am sanctified. I have been set apart, I have
been separated, I have been made perfect by His one offering.
He is all my acceptance with God, and faith even gives Him
the glory for giving me the faith to believe Him. When you believe on the Lord
Jesus, God imputes, He reckons, He charges you with the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He declares in the conscience,
and He makes this known in your heart, He makes you to know,
that everything God requires, you have done it, and you've
done it in perfection, and you're accepted in Christ Jesus because
Christ did it on behalf of his people. This is what the Lord
makes you know. That's what makes us stop and
cease This is the essence of repentance. It makes you stop
from trusting yourself in any regard. It's what makes us cease
from all our vain legal works. This is what the Hebrew writer
said of those sacrifices. If they had ever put away sin,
he said, then would they not have ceased to be offered? And
here's why. Because that the worshipers,
once purged, should have had no more conscience of sin. Why
do men keep working for acceptance with God? Because their conscience
is guilty, and they always think they've got to do a little more
and do a little more, and they're never satisfied that they've
done enough. When Christ speaks into the heart,
and He purges your conscience, and the Lord makes you to know
you are perfect righteous, holy, accepted in the Lord Jesus, he
purges your conscience, and you cease from trying to come to
God by anything you do. You don't have confidence in
your flesh anymore. That's what true repentance is.
Completely, totally denying ourselves. And the thief on the cross, I
just think that's the best example. That is just such a good example.
He did all the works God requires. You know, every commandment God
gave, he fulfilled every single one of them. And he had his hands
and his feet nailed to a tree. He worked all righteousness.
He kept the whole law. He had that holiness without
which no man shall see the Lord. And he had his hands and his
feet nailed to a tree. How so? God gave him faith in
Christ. It was all in Christ Jesus. That's what, you know, and this
is what the Lord is continually teaching you who believe. He's
teaching us in these little trials he's sent, he's teaching us,
believe me. Believe me. And he's showing
our folly when we don't, he's showing our folly when we try
to work it out, and he brings it to nothing. And he brings
you again, just like he did this Philippian jailer. He turns your
foundation all upside down, and he brings you to come trembling
before Christ and fall down and just trust the Lord. He just
keeps working this. Keeps working this. We keep sinning,
and He keeps showing us His grace, and that He's our only acceptance
for God. But Christ bearing the sin of His people, you just think
about it like this, when it says He's the head, and He's the representative,
and He's the substitute of His people, Christ is the one man
that God looked to, that He has ever looked to, and shall ever
look to to save his people. He is the one man. And when Christ
bore the sin of his people and bore the curse of God's wrath
in our place and then rose to God's right hand, our old man
of sin was crucified and died in Christ. And our new man arose
righteous and holy in Christ Jesus. And the good news of this
gospel is that everything that his elect could never do have
never done, and could never do, and shall never be able to do.
Christ Jesus has accomplished on our behalf. And that's what
God imputes to you. His perfect righteousness. The work is finished. That's
Christ's word. The work is finished. Christ
said, I am the way, the truth, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by man. That's in every way you can think of. Prayer, trusting Him in providence, being accepted of God in the
end, whatever way there is of coming to the Father, Christ
is the only way. Trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. Why is He the one way? Because
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's why. That's why. Now, here's the end
that Christ works through faith. Acts 16, 33. When he took them,
the jailer took them the same hour of the night and washed
their stripes. This is an example of what repentance,
what has happened when a man has been granted repentance.
This man has denied himself lock, stock, and barrel. He believes
on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's got a new mind created in
him so that he sees there's no way, no reason that he can put
any confidence in himself. He turned from inflicting stripes
on them to washing them, their stripes. He turned from rejecting
Christ to believing Christ. That's what he did. And secondly,
the believer submits to Christ and publicly renounces that all
his former religion was a lie. All his former works and his
covenants was a lie. All of it was vanity. And he
does this by confessing Christ publicly in believer's baptism.
Acts 16.33, and he was baptized he and all his straight way.
That's what baptism is. It's the public confession. that
we renounce all our former religion, all our works, as nothing but
a lie. We were not saved by it. Water
Baptism is confessing I was baptized when Christ was baptized. Yes,
we were baptized when he was baptized in water, but I'm saying
that baptism Christ was baptized with on the cross. When he was
immersed in the fierce fury of God's wrath, and then he went
into the grave, we were confessing our old man of sin was crucified
and buried and put away forever in Christ, so that God does not
regard our sin anymore. He said, I've put it away as
far as the east is from the west, And then when Christ came out
of that grave to God's right hand, we came out of the grave
with him to newness of life. And now Christ has the reign
in our heart. It's the only way you believe
Him. It's the only way you continue believing. Sin is still with
us. Sin, our old man, can still bring
us into captivity. But Christ Jesus the Lord has
the dominion in the heart of His child. We're yielding to
Christ by His Spirit, by Him working in us. We yield to Christ
rather than to sin. We're walking in newness of life.
We trust Christ for everything. He doesn't just do this work
in the first hour. He keeps saving. and doing this
same exact thing again and again and again and again in the life
of the believer. We're saved by him when he first calls you
to faith in Christ, but he keeps showing you over and over it's
him that does the saving. And he's making you, he's making
himself increase in your heart and he's making yourself decrease
in your heart. He's making you put more confidence
in him and have more rejoicing in him and having no confidence
in your flesh. And that's what true growth is.
That's what truly growing in the grace of our Lord is. And
then he loved the brethren. He loved these men who preached
the gospel to him. It says, verse 34, and when he
had brought them into his house, he set meat before them. The
love of Christ ruled this jailer's heart now. Paul and Silas were
the closest thing this jailer could get to, to Christ himself. And that's so if you and me,
the closest thing we have to Christ is his brethren, his people
in whom he dwells. And so he did for them what he
wanted to do for Christ. And in doing it for them, he
did it to Christ. The Lord said, whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God and everyone that loveth him
that begat loveth him also that's begotten of him. And then fourthly,
the believer rejoices and continues believing on God unto the end. He keeps on believing Christ
unto the end. Verse 34, he rejoiced believing
in God with all his house. Look over Colossians 1. He kept
on believing. He kept on trusting the Lord.
He was one of the first ones God saved in Philippi in the
church of the Philippians. Colossians 121. Let's look at
verse 19. It pleased the Father that in
Christ should all fullness dwell. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things, all
his people unto himself, by him I say whether they are his people
in the earth or in heaven, you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unapprovable in his sight." And here's the
proof right here. Here is the evidence if he's
really worked this in the heart of his child. if you continue
in the faith, grounded and settled, and do not move away from the
hope of the gospel which you've heard and which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made
a minister." That is the proof that you've really been called.
You'll keep looking to Christ and believing Him until the end.
So, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and do so until the end. Trust Christ until the end and thou shalt be saved. Let's
go to him. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
for your word. Thank you for your son. Thank
you for all spiritual blessings in him. Lord, we're thankful
that you gave us faith, that you granted us repentance, and
made us cease trusting ourselves and rejoice in Christ alone.
Lord, thank you for these abundant, amazing blessings of your grace. Thank you for continuing to teach
us and continuing to save us by grace, showing us over and
over again. We haven't merited anything,
and we demerit it, and you just keep showing us grace, grace,
grace. Lord, keep us believing, keep
us trusting Christ, and pray, Father, you bless this word now
The hearts of your people, whether they know you or you're just
drawing them for the first time, we trust, Lord, you to bring
glory to your name. It's in Christ we ask it. Amen.