May it please the Lord to bless
us as we continue our meditation on the Acts of the Apostles.
In chapter 18, and this evening, we'll speak from verse 12 down
to verse 17. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter
18, and from verse 12 to verse 17. And when Galio was the deputy
of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection. They won accord against Paul
and brought him to the judgment seat, saying, this fellow persuadeth
men to worship God contrary to the law. And when Paul was now
about to open his mouth, Galileo said unto the Jews, if it were
a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that
I should bear with you. But if it be a question of words
and names and of your law, look ye to it, for I will be no judge
of such matters. And he drove them from the judgment
seat. And all the Greeks took Sosthenes,
the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment
seat. And Gallio cared for none of these things." Sometimes we perhaps wonder why
certain things are recorded in the Word of God. Some things
as perhaps we may not think appear to be particularly spiritual,
but nonetheless we see that God in his infinite wisdom has recorded
things which have occurred in the history of the church to
direct us and to encourage us and to strengthen us. And so
in these few verses we read about this man, Galio, who was the
deputy of Achaia. And we read of what action he
took or what action he didn't take. And to realise that sometimes,
when perhaps we might think that justice and judgement might be
carried out, and we find it isn't fulfilled in the way that we
expect, we should recognise that sometimes things happen different
ways to what we would recognize to be a right way. And so here
in this account we really follow that pattern because we read
here the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul.
Now you remember of course that Paul had been preaching here
and he was in Corinth and he'd been blessed in his preaching.
And he'd been in the synagogues, and he'd been elsewhere, and
obviously those who were not converted, those who were stood
in nature's darkness, disliked the things that they heard. And
they were trying to stop Paul preaching the gospel. And so
what they did, they made insurrection. They stirred up the people with
one accord, against Paul. and brought him to the judgment
seat. Now in so doing that, no doubt
they thought that he would not be able to give a good account
before Gallio and they weren't really anticipating that which
would follow. Well we see how God is a sovereign
in these things and can turn the heart of men. can appear
in a most amazing way. And it was so here, because they
brought Paul to the judgment seat and they said, this fellow
persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. Now they
didn't accuse him of teaching about the false god. They were
speaking here about the worship of God, but it was contrary to
the law in their view. But of course, the truth was
that Paul was preaching the Lord Jesus Christ who had come and
who had fulfilled the law. But they were still recognizing
their own religion of works. They didn't recognize that the
great blessing of grace and the great favor of faith And they
were therefore relying on their religion and works. And therefore
they were not receiving any adulation or any acknowledgement for those
things which they had done. And they were therefore annoyed,
so annoyed that they brought Paul to the judgment seat, hopefully
to be judged of those things and to be judged against them,
so that he might indeed be either imprisoned or perhaps executed.
Nevertheless here we see Paul brought there and they said this
fellow Persuaded men to worship God contrary to the law well
here was Paul then you can imagine before the judgment seat and
I'm considering what he should say to justify himself or what
should he say just purely to declare the truth of the gospel
and Because all said and done, Paul's great concern was to preach
the gospel. He wasn't very worried about
his own flesh. He wasn't very concerned about what would happen
to himself. His great concern was to preach
Christ. So no doubt he would have had
the opportunity and taken the opportunity to have preached
about his saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to proclaim his redeeming
love and blood. But here he comes, and when Paul
was now about to open his mouth, Galileo said unto the Jews, If
it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason
that I should here with you, but if it be a question of words
and names and of your law, look ye to it, for I will be no judge
of such matters." So here was a surprise for these enemies
of Paul, enemies of God, who brought Paul here, hoping that
Gallio would judge him wrongly. And Gallio turns completely around
and says, well, I'm not going to judge things of religion,
really. He would judge things according
to the moral situation of the land, but he wasn't going to
judge those questions which they brought before him. So, Paul
was really delivered, and what did he do? He drove them from
the judgment seat. Well, they must have been very
annoyed and very upset, and Paul hadn't had to answer, but he'd
been freed from that situation. Well, we can see the wrath and
the enmity of man rising up. And what did they do? They turned
on somebody else. They turned on a man called Sosthenes. Now, we only read really about
him again, and we assume he's the same person. We can't be
absolutely sure. Mentioned in the first chapter,
Paul writes to the Corinthians, first epistle. Paul called to
be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and Sosthenes
our brother. So if it is the same man, and
it would seem reasonable it was, this man Sosthenes, who indeed
was an important person, the chief ruler of the synagogue,
it would appear that he was probably a converted man, and he was a
spiritual brother with Paul, and perhaps he preached the gospel
in the synagogue alongside Paul. And therefore, as they had not
been able to take Paul, they now turned on this man, Sosthenes,
the chief ruler of the synagogue, and took him before the judgment
seat and beat him. before the judgment seat and
Galio cared for none of these things. And so we see here this
poor man Sosines was beaten instead of the Apostle Paul. But we recognize
here that God's sovereignty rules and reigns and it's wonderful
to realize how God may deliver one and cause another one to
perhaps suffer in his stead. God could have delivered Sosthenes
from these beatings. He could have also turned Gallio's
mind to say, no, move away. But no, he cared nothing for
these things. And it is important for us to
realise that we today still stand before a sovereign God, a God
who has a perfect right do with us exactly as he sees fit. We may not always like it, we
may not always appreciate it, but we should realise that we
are his people and God has a perfect right to deal with us as he sees
fit and ultimately it will of course be for his honour and
for his glory. So we see here, Paul was still
free and still able, therefore, to proclaim the glorious truths
of the Gospel, which he so loved to do. Now, as we look back on
the previous accounts, we know that Paul had suffered greatly,
and in times when he perhaps didn't expect to, but now is
the time when God saw fit that Paul should not be beaten, or
not be condemned, and was allowed to go free. Well, we need to
realise that the Word of God is for our instruction, and therefore
as we come into situations in our lives, in our perhaps providential
life, maybe in our spiritual life, and we find things not
going in the way we intended, perhaps not as bad as we thought,
or sometimes far worse than we thought. But we need to realise
and say, it is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good. Because we know God never makes
a mistake. He always does that which is
right and good. And we can be assured that if
the Lord has given us his grace, then that word is so true. As
Paul tells us, and we know, that all things work together for
good to those who love God. And remember, we only love God
if he loved us and are the called according to his purpose. Amen.