Acts chapter 16. My subject tonight is, The Miracle
Grace Performs. The Miracle Grace Performs. In Acts chapter 16, verse 25,
we read, And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises
unto God, and the prisoners heard them. You know, the Lord works
His miracle of grace in the most unlikely places. And He uses
the most unlikely people. And He exercises His grace upon
the most unlikely people. And He uses what the world considers
as absolute foolishness. The rulers and the judges were
passed by. The multitude and the crowd who
had railed on Paul and Silas were passed by. And out there
by a riverside, he comes to a group of women. And there particularly
calls out a lady named Lydia, a seller of purple. And then
now in our text, God is working a miracle of His grace in a dungeon,
in a prison upon a jailer. in his household. And the Lord
is using a man who once opposed Christ and this gospel and persecuted
everybody who preached this gospel. And He's using that man to preach
the very gospel that man opposed. And this will be the beginning
of the church at Philippi. Look over at 1 Corinthians 1
verse 27. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world
to confound the wise. God hath chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and
base things of the world and things which are despised hath
God chosen, and things which are not to bring to naught things
that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. I've taken
my title the miracle Grace performs from this miracle that occurred
as Silas and Paul prayed and sang praises unto God. In Acts
16.26 it says, 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.
You remember in Hebrews, the Hebrew writer said in Hebrews
2, he said, How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation,
which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed
unto us by them that heard him, God also bearing witness? both
with signs and wonders and with diverse miracles and gifts of
the Holy Ghost according to His own will. Here's an example of
one of those miracles that God worked. Now, several places in
Scripture, whenever The Lord is about to perform a work of
grace through the Holy Spirit. An earthquake happened. An earthquake
happened. In Acts 4.31 it says, When they
had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together,
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake
the word of God with boldness. In Matthew 28.2 it says, And
behold, there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended
from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door
and sat upon it. In Revelation, we're told that
when the two witnesses have laid in the streets and the Spirit
of life re-enters so that the Gospel is once again preached
far and wide, when the time comes in that day that the Lord calls
them up, which is a symbol of Him calling out His elect and
calling them up in that great day, it says, in that same hour
was there a great earthquake. and the tenth part of the city
fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand.
The remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the God of heaven."
And tonight in our text, right when the Lord is about to do
a work of grace in a sinner's heart through the Holy Spirit,
He begins with an earthquake. Have you ever noticed, you know,
they tell you when you're preparing a message or you're preparing
a speech or anything like that, tell the people what you're going
to tell them. Then tell them. And then tell them what you told
them. Very often in Scripture, when God first begins in a passage,
He tells us what He's about to tell us. And then He gets particular
and He tells us. And then at the end, He tells
us what He told us. And right here, this earthquake, He's telling
us what He's about to tell us. How's that the case? How does
this earthquake teach us about how the Lord works in our day?
When God bears witness in the heart of a sinner, the Holy Spirit
turns everything upside down, just like happens in an earthquake.
And the foundations of the prison in which we're held captive are
broken up. They're just broken up. And the
doors of our prison are open. And our bands are loosed by Him
who alone can do it. And that's what God's fictions
show us. The Scriptures said in Psalm 146, 7, the Lord looseth
the prisoners. In that same Psalm it says, but
the way of the wicked He turneth upside down. And the fact of
the matter is, in our own sin and depravity, we're wicked.
And before we're going to see the way turned right side up,
our way's got to be turned upside down before we see Him. The glory
for performing this work belongs not to you and I, but only to
the Lord. Listen to Isaiah 42.6, I the Lord have called thee in
righteousness, speaking to the Lord Jesus Christ. 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, and to bring the prisoners from the prison, and them that
sit in darkness out of the prison house. I am the Lord, that's
my name, and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise
to graven images." So the Lord tells us here with this earthquake
what He's about to tell us. And we're about to see the miracle
of God's grace through the gospel of Christ working irresistibly
in this Philippian jailer and those in his household. Let's
see it. I'm going to show you three things here. First of all,
the effects the grace of God has upon a sinner. And then secondly,
the good news of the gospel. And thirdly, the obedience of
faith. So first of all, we see the effects
the grace of God has upon a sinner. Three things happen. Three things
happen when God works irresistibly in the heart of a sinner. First
of all, He awakens a dead sinner. And secondly, He removes all
hope of gain that we might have had by our own doing, by what
we would do. And then he makes a sinner call
upon God. Now, let's see that. Verse 25.
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. Now get this. And
the keeper of the prison, awaking out of his sleep. Grace awakens
a dead sinner. Grace awakens a dead sinner. Every sinner saved by grace is
born into this world dead in trespasses and in sins. But grace
quickens the sinner from the sleep of spiritual death into
spiritual life. That's what we read in Ephesians
2.1. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
in sins. Then, when made alive, grace
reveals that the hopes of gain by our doing is vanity. It's all vanity. Now look here,
verse 27 says, And the keeper of the prison awaking out of
his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open. Those prison doors
meant everything. to that keeper of that prison
as far as his hopes of promotion went with his masters. It meant
everything. Let me show you something. Look
back in verse 23. I want you to notice the jailer's
servitude to the judges and to the rulers. Now look. Verse 23
says, "...when they had laid many stripes upon Paul and Silas,
they cast him into the prison, charging the jailer to keep them
safely, who having received such a charge..." Look what the jailer
did. He thrust them. He thrust them. He showed the same contempt for
Paul and Silas that his master showed. And he thrust them into
prison. I can imagine he did this. right
in front of everybody, takes them and manhandles them and
thrusts them into the prison. And then he thrusts them into
the inner prison. He goes above and beyond what
his prisoners charged him with. They charged him to keep them
safely, so he puts them in solitary confinement. He puts them down
on death row, the maximum security lockdown. That's where he puts
them. And then not only this, but he made their feet fast in
the stocks. The jailer, like all unregenerate
men, is nothing more than a man-pleaser. Well, he was just doing his job,
wasn't he? Shouldn't all men do their job
like this? All men should do their job, but not to be seen
of men, but as unto the Lord. This man was doing this job because
just like Paul's accusers, just like the judges, this jailer
did what he did to be seen by those he thought would most benefit
him. This was how this man was going
to get promoted from being the warden of the prison. We see
an example of a man whose hope of promotion rested in receiving
honor from those around him. The Lord said, how can ye believe
which receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh
from God only? When we're dead in sins, we expect
great gain by our works. And the father of lies would
have us to think that by working feverishly to save others, that
we're in very deed saving ourselves. The Pharisees, the Lord said,
you compass land and sea to make a proselyte. Why? Because the more people we can
proselyte, the more that we've worked to earn God's favor. And
the more that we've given God a reason to show us special grace
and special rewards. But notice something, as the
jailer carried out his occupation of keeping others bound, he himself
had to stay in the prison. He kept himself bound in his
occupation of keeping others bound. I went to school with
this girl, and the first time I met her, we had a photography
class together, and the first time that I met her, I can't remember how the conversation
started, but the first statement she made to me, I think I asked
her where she was from. And the first thing she said
to me was, I grew up in Angola State Penitentiary. This was
in Louisiana, you know. And she said, I grew up in Angola
in the prison. What? Her dad was the warden. And so their house was in the
prison. And she grew up in the prison.
She lived there because his job, his occupation was to keep other
people bound. And to fulfill his occupation,
he had to be in prison. If you and I think we can come
to God by our works and in the process of trying to get other
people to do those works, we have to stay in that prison.
If we're going to keep them bound in that prison, we've got to
stay in that same prison. We were dead in sin and all our
efforts to save ourselves, we were the keeper of our own prison. And we were kept in prison. Well,
when grace makes all our works appear as vain, our very first
reaction is, our life's gone. That's the offense of the gospel,
is that salvation is of the Lord. And when that message comes,
it's offensive because my life, what I considered my life, up
to that point of hearing the truth, now it's... How many times
have you heard this statement? If what you're saying is true,
then I'm lost. If what you're saying is true,
I'm dead. If what you're saying is true,
I don't have any life. Well, look what his reaction
was. The keeper of the prison waking out of his sleep and seeing
the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have
killed himself, supposing that the prisoner had been fled. Grace wakes us up. It quickens
a sinner. And grace makes our works to
appear as vanity. But then grace causes us to call
on God. When God begins to call, God
continues to call. Verse 28 says, But Paul cried
with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all
here. You know when Christ spoke truth
in your heart and the gospel turned your way upside down?
The first time you beheld that your hope of coming to God in
yourself was something you had done, hoping your good would
outweigh your bad and all manner of craziness that you were thinking,
your first thought was, now what? What am I going to do now? And
God presses us into that dark, sorrowful corner to cause us
to willingly cry out to God and say, God, what can I do? And
look what it did here, when Paul cried out here, he said that
God kept calling. In other words, when God used
Paul to call out to him and say, don't do yourself any harm, we're
all here. When God first starts calling, He keeps calling. And
He'll use His messenger to keep calling, and keep calling, and
keep calling. So that he makes you call. Let
me show you something. Look at some scriptures with
me. John chapter 3 verse 20. I found this, these two scriptures
very, very good. Let me, I want you to connect
some scriptures with me. John chapter 3 and verse 20. The Lord told Nicodemus this,
in verse 20, He said, Everyone that doeth evil hateth the light,
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. Now, understand this, that evil
deeds that he's doing, that he's afraid are going to be reproved,
are not necessarily what you would consider evil deeds. He
just don't want his very best deeds of righteousness he can
muster to be reproved as nothing righteous whatsoever. But now
look what he says here. But he that doeth truth cometh
to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are
wrought in God. Now turn to Isaiah 49. Isaiah
chapter 49. What makes a man come to the
light? What's going to make a man come
to the light? Look at Isaiah 49, look at verse
8. 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. He's talking to Christ. Now look,
"...that thou mayest say to the prisoners, go forth." Now look
at this next word, "...to them that are in darkness, show yourselves."
Show yourselves. He that is in the darkness hates
light. He won't come to the light because
he's fearful his deeds are going to be reproved. But when Christ,
who is the light, speaks in the heart, awakens a sinner, regenerates
him, and he strips him of all his so-called righteousnesses,
then he says to that sinner, now show yourself. Come to the
light. You're not going to be reproved.
You're not going to be ashamed. Come to the light now. Come to
the light. And look what the very next thing
is that this jailer does. Acts 16, 29. Then he called for
a light. Then he called for a light. When
Christ calls a sinner to show yourself, that sinner calls for
Christ's light. And look what he did, verse 29,
then he called for a light and he sprang in. Thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power. And look, he called for
a light and he sprang in and he came trembling and fell down
before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, Sirs, what
must I do to be saved? Now this is an altogether different
spirit in this jailer than when he thrust Paul and Silas into
that prison. Christ calling and causing you
to willingly call for the light is what the Spirit does when
He creates a true heart that fears the Lord. He came trembling. He came trembling. The fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. and the knowledge of
the holiest understanding, for by me thy days shall be multiplied,
and the years of thy life shall be increased." You know what
the Lord said. The Lord said, I say unto you,
ask, and it shall be given unto you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. But you know when a sinner truly
seeks the Lord Jesus Christ? You know when you truly ask Christ? When God has sought you. When He's sought you. When He's
come and He's quickened you. And when He's stripped you of
that thing that's keeping you from coming to Him. And when
He, by His grace, has made you willing to ask Him. Then you'll ask Him. And then
you'll receive. You'll receive. Fear of the Lord. That's the beginning of wisdom.
Now here's the good news. Look at the good news of the
Gospel. Verse 30 says, And he 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. And
they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that
were in his house. When we come to this place where
God has made us willing to truly, in fear and trembling, ask Him. To ask Him. To ask the Lord. You know, we just receive nothing
but good news. Nothing but good news. That's
all we receive when we truly ask Him is good news. Good news. And that good news, the good
news of the Gospel, is the Lord Jesus Christ. Look here what
Paul said. The jailer said, what must I
do? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know
what the ultimate, far extreme, opposite of working is? Believing. Believing. Can you imagine when
a person hasn't been brought to where this jailer had been
brought and they ask a question like what must I do to be saved?
They want to know what can I do to save myself. But when a person's
been brought to where this jailer has been brought to where it's
a a cry of desperation. And if we really look into it,
in other places where they were pricked in their hearts and said,
what must I do to be saved? And when the Lord said, this
is the work of God that you believe on Him whom He hath sent, Truly
what the Lord said when He said, this is the work of God that
you believe on Him whom He has sent, He's saying, this is the
work God has to do. And the effect of it is, you'll
believe on Him whom He has sent. And when a man's been brought
to that place where he realizes, I can't work the work of God,
then all that man wants to hear, and all that will be good news
to him is, you don't have to do anything. Just believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. But up until then, we want something
to do. But when He brings us to that
place, when we crowd in desperation, we want to hear, there's nothing
for you to do. Just believe Him. Trust Him.
The work's done. It's finished. And then look, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know who, whom you believe? Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. He said, I'm persuaded that he's
able to keep that which I've committed to him. Look at this. Scott was pointing out there
that faith's not just believing historical facts about Jesus,
but faith is relying totally upon the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. This word Lord, Jesus Christ
is Lord. I don't make him Lord and you
don't make him Lord. Your believing don't make him
Lord. He's Lord. He's Lord. But if Christ is your
Lord, then what you admit is that Christ Jesus owns you. That's one of the aspects of
being a Lord, is to be the master of someone, to be their owner,
to be the rightful owner of that one. And He rightfully owns you
who know Him because He purchased you with His own blood. And this
word Lord means that He has the power and the right to do with
you whatsoever He's pleased to do. And the whole disposing of
every aspect of your life is in His hand. The lot's cast into your lap,
but the whole disposing is of the Lord. And if Christ is Lord
to you, then you call Him Lord because of the fear and trembling
He's created in your heart so that you call Him Lord as a title
of respect and reference. We say, President Barack Obama. We say, King so-and-so. Queen so-and-so. We say, Doctor
so-and-so. Some even go as far as saying,
Reverend so-and-so. talking about men, and then turn
around and pray in Jesus' name. Let me ask you something. If
you went to the White House to meet Barack Obama, would you
walk in and just say, Barack? Or would you walk in and say,
President? If you went to meet the King of England, would you
just walk in and call him by his first name, or would you
call him King? as just a mere token of respect and reverence,
you call him king. This one is Lord of Lords and
King of Kings. And those who have truly had
their heart broken and made to see that He owns them by purchase,
that He has the right to do with them what they will, that one
comes to Him bowing in reverence and respect and says, Lord, what
wilt Thou have me do? And then this name Jesus means
He's all salvation. It means He is all salvation.
If I believe the Lord Jesus, then I confess that God had to
send His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to condemn the
sin that I am in the flesh that the righteousness of God's law
might be fulfilled in me. For what the law could not do,
and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
His name is Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sin."
There's a lot in a name. Everything in a name. Do we know
whom we have to believe? I feel for folks who just trust
Jesus. Little, poor, helpless Jesus.
I worship the Lord Jesus. And He's Christ. That means God
chose Him. That means God chose him. And
when God chose him, and created everything by him, and through
him, and for him, God said, I like him. I'm so well pleased with
him, I'm gonna have more just like him. And he anointed him. He poured out his spirit on him. And he's well pleased with him. And if I believe that he is the
Lord and Christ, that God has made him both Lord and Christ,
Jesus, the God-man, seated at God's right hand, then what I
confess is there's absolutely no worthiness in me. There's
absolutely nothing in me but a fearful, trembling, man who's
been quickened by grace, stripped by grace, made to fear and tremble
by grace, and who comes by grace and says, Lord, I believe you. Help my unbelief. I believe you. Help my unbelief. And he says, and thou shalt be
saved. Do you need to be saved? You know, what do you need to
be saved from? What we need to be saved from
has everything to do with how we believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's not until you behold the
utter deadness of this flesh that you'll believe on Christ
alive. It's not until you behold the
exceeding sinfulness of this flesh that you'll cast yourself
on Christ the righteous. It's not until you behold how
utterly powerless you are that you'll cast yourself on Christ
the power and the strength of God. It's not until we behold
how deceitful this heart is, how deceitful our own heart is,
that we'll cry out to God for Christ to be our wisdom. And once we begin calling on
Him, we can't stop calling on Him. We continually ask Him to
be our salvation. We continually cry out to Him
to be the power and the strength and the wisdom because we've
got none. And the farther you go, you're not going to see yourself
getting better and better and better and more ripe for heaven.
You're going to see yourself getting more fit for hell every
single day. And the more you see that, you
know why you're going to see that? Because the more you see
the light, the more you see the darkness in yourself. And the
first evidence that you're going to show when God begins to work
in your heart is this. You'll want to know what the
Lord says about you and what He says about Himself in His
Word. You'll actually one day, for
some reason, you'll decide, I'm interested in knowing what God
says about this. You went for years and years
and years just passing by this book because it just wasn't something
you wanted to pick up and look into. But then you'll go to where
you start realizing, I need to read this book. This book is
true. This is what God says. This is
what God says about Himself. And this is what God says about
me. And that's what we read here. And they spake unto Him the word
of the Lord and to all that were in His house. How are you going
to know who the Lord Jesus is so that you might believe on
Him? How? You know, one day, when
those come before God who have not trusted Christ, the books
are going to be opened, Scripture says. And men are going to be
judged out of the books. Our Lord said, in the volume
of the book, it's written of me. You know what would be a
sad, awful, awful case would be to come before the throne
of God's judgment And for the question to be leveled against
you, why didn't you believe on my son? Why did you keep trying
to do things? Why didn't you believe on him?
And every time you pop open your mouth to try to defend yourself, as it is written, it said right
here, Christ. Well, but I, this right here said Christ.
But I thought I could... It says Christ right here. Did you never look at this book?
I gave men's lives to provide it for you. I ruled everything
in heaven and earth to set it on your coffee table. Why'd you
use it as a coaster all your life instead of opening it up
and reading it? Because this book is the book you'll be judged
out of. And this book from cover to cover said, Believe on Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Where's all your arguments? They're
all... The mouth of the gainsayer is
shut right here. Right here. So, let me show you
something. Look over at John chapter 9.
John chapter 9. I like this. This is a good,
it's not a good, it's a great question. This is a great question.
That blind man had been brought before the synagogue and the
rulers in the synagogue and they had asked all manner of questions
of him. All manner of questions they
had asked him. And they kick him out. And the Lord comes to
him. And Jesus heard that they had cast him out. And when he
had found him, John 9, verse 35, And when he had found him,
he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? Now listen
to what this man said. And he answered and said, Who
is it, Lord, that I might believe on him? What a, what an excellent question. You know what that question says?
That question just completely shows an utter stripping of all
pride and arrogancy. How many times when people try
to tell you something, Do you find yourself trying to tell
them how much you already know about what they're trying to
tell you? I think of poor Martha when the Lord came to Lazarus'
tomb and she was just telling the Lord everything she knew.
That woman at the well was telling the Lord everything she knew.
He's trying to tell her the Gospel. She's telling Him everything
she knew. This man right here had been brought to where, oh,
I pray God would bring me to this place, right here, to where
I can just, no pride, no arrogancy, nothing but just honest seeking
to say, Lord, who are you that I might believe on you? Who are
you that I might believe on you? What a great question. What a
great question. And you know that, man, Jesus
said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh
with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe.
And he worshipped him. Do you know what that word worshipped
is? He believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ. The word is worshipped there. The word is he licked his hand
like a dog walks up and licks his master's hand. That's what
the word conveys. He worshipped him. When the Lord
says, show yourself, and He brought you to the place where you come
out into His light, I just say, Lord, who are you that I might
believe on you? He doesn't shame you. He doesn't
reprove you. He doesn't run you back into
the darkness. He does that to that one who
won't come to the light, who hates the light, who loves his
deeds and will not have Christ tell him they're not righteous.
But that one who's been stripped by His grace and been brought
to truly seek Him, He says, I am He that talketh with thee. And
that man's able then with no shame, with no embarrassment,
not being confounded, not being disgraced by the Lord. He's embraced
by the Lord so that you can come to Him and just truly lay hold
of Christ and worship Him. Just come up to Him. Nothing
to show, nothing to try to prove. Just come with a pure heart and
worship. Somebody asked me Sunday after
the message a good question. You know, the message was that
the believer is in the Spirit, not in the flesh. Our Lord is
the God-man seated in the heavens. glorified flesh, His Spirit,
and that His Kingdom is spiritual, and that the rest He gives us
is glorious rest. And somebody asked a question,
a good question, an honest question, and they were sincere. They said,
what about those who try to abuse such a teaching? such as the
Gnostics, who would say that Christ wasn't a man, but that
He was spirit only. How would you answer somebody
who would take your message, what you preached, and take it
there and say something like that? There's only one answer. I've only got one answer. Same
answer for the man who would hear that Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to all that believe and think that
we're not under any authority whatsoever. Same for the man
who tries to come in his works of what he's done. Same for the
man who just twists God's Word. We've got one word for him, and
it's, Thus saith the Lord. That's it. God said, I'm not
of this world." Christ said, I'm not of this world. He said,
my kingdom's not of this world. And he said, you're not of this
world. Now men can take it and twist it all they want to, but
all we have to do is just say, this is what the Lord says. This
is what the Lord says. That's all we say. This is what
the Lord says. And that's what they did with
this jailer. They said, this is what the Lord says right here.
Don't do any good to argue. It doesn't do any good to try
to logically out-doctrinate somebody. It won't do any good. Just, this
is what the word says. The effect grace has upon a sinner,
when it quickens and strips and makes him call out, is that it
brings him to the good news of the gospel, Jesus Christ the
Lord is all our salvation. And then look, the obedience
of faith. First of all, the believer falls
in love with Christ Jesus the Lord. Look here in Acts 16.33.
That jailer took Paul and Silas the same hour of the night and
washed their stripes. He did this to Christ. He did
this to Christ. I know he did it to Paul and
Silas, but Paul and Silas was the closest bodily that he could
get to Christ. And his first reaction, his first
act, was one of showing how grateful he is to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He took Christ's messengers and washed them. And you see repentance
and faith in this? Before, he was inflicting stripes. He turned from that. Now he's
washing them. You see that? You can't have faith without
repentance. They're together. And then look,
here's the second thing. The believer submits to Christ. and he was baptized, he and all
his, straightway. He obeyed the Lord. He trusted
him, he loved him, he obeyed him. The Holy Spirit declares
here that he and all his were granted faith and repentance
to believe on Christ and therefore they submitted to the ordinance
of baptism in obedience to Christ. You know that only the Holy Spirit
can make a sinner obedient to Christ. That's right. Only the Holy Spirit can do that.
You're not born of blood. You're not born of the will of
the flesh, and you're not born of the will of man. You're born
of God. No man, speaking by the Holy Spirit, can call Jesus accursed,
and no man, speaking by the Spirit, can call Him Lord. No man, blood
by the Spirit, can call Him Lord. You know, it's total This is one of those cases that
I'm talking about when you have to just say, thus saith the Lord.
When you behold the grace of God in a passage like this, you
shouldn't even have to say a word about the impossibility of me
baptizing you, one of my children, into the covenant of grace. Or
that I could do something to bring them into the covenant
of grace. But men take this very scripture and try to say that
with it. That he baptized those in his household because Paul
told him, if you believe, thou shalt be saved in thy household. Paul was telling him, if you
believe on Christ Jesus Lord, you can be saved. And the same
goes for those people in your house. If they believe on Christ,
they'll be saved too. And that's what the Lord told
Cornelius. He said, you go get Peter and
he's going to come and he's going to tell you the words whereby
thou and all thy house shall be saved. And Cornelius and his
whole house were baptized. And Peter tells us later, God,
which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness, giving them the
Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us, and put no difference between
us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. That's why his
household was baptized. That's why he was baptized. God
purified his heart by faith. And when the heart is purified
by faith, that person will obey Christ. He'll follow after Christ
and confess to the world that he's the possession of Christ
Jesus the Lord, and he's following Him now, lock, stock, and barrel.
And then here's the third thing. The believer falls in love with
Christ's brethren. Verse 34, and when He had brought
them into His house, He set meat before them. This is an example
of what we saw back in Isaiah 11, verse 6, that the wolf also
shall dwell with the lamb. You know, He was thrusting them
in there into that prison. He was putting their feet in
the stocks. He was doing all those things to them. Now He's
bringing them into His own house and setting them down and feeding
them. He loved Christ, he submitted
to Christ, and he loved his brethren. Those who are begotten love those
who are begotten. Those who love Christ who does
the begetting love those who are begotten of Christ. And then
fourthly, the believer rejoices and continues believing God.
These are four things right here that is obedience of faith. Love Christ. Submit to Christ. Love the brethren. And continue rejoicing and believing
God. Rejoicing and believing God.
Look there, verse 34. And rejoiced, believing in God
with all his house. And here's the application. Here's
my prayer and here's what our prayer needs to be for our own
house and for all those that we're able to minister the Word
of the Lord to. It's what Paul said to the Romans,
Romans 15, 13. Now the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through
the power of the Holy Ghost. That's all I want for my children.
That's it. That's it. The God of hope to
fill them with all joy and peace in believing that they may abound
in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. That's all. That's
all I want for them. That's it. I can't buy it. Nothing I can do. can give it to them. I have to
cast myself on Christ and just trust Him. Lord, I trust You. But I know whom I've believed
and I'm persuaded, absolutely persuaded, that He's able. He's able. He's able to keep
that which I've committed to Him. And he's able to save and
shall do this right here, what he did for this Philippian jailer,
for every single soul that he redeemed and bought with his
own blood. Not a possibility that he won't do it. He'll do
it.