Every one of us here has a different story. that we could tell nearly everyone,
those that the Lord has revealed himself to. We all have a different
story that we could tell how the Lord in his marvelous providence
and saving grace brought us to hear the gospel for the first
time, believe that gospel. I was talking on the phone to
one of our ladies today. I just called her up. I was thinking
about her. and wanted to know her story.
I never really heard her tell me her story, her testimony of
how the Lord had revealed himself to her. Everyone here could tell
a different story. I've told you part of my story
about the young prodigal and the Lord bringing about many
things. I've just told you part of it.
There are so many things. and the Lord bringing me to myself,
just like the prodigal, and bringing me to himself. The Lord deals with each person
individually and in different and peculiar ways. He deals with each person individually
in different and peculiar ways, and bringing them to hear Christ's,
the way, the gospel. Everyone is saved the same way,
by hearing the gospel. We must hear that gospel and
believe that gospel, the gospel concerning God's Son. But the
Lord uses various different circumstances and events to bring us to hear
that gospel. And I'd be interested to hear
everyone's story, how he did that. The making up of the Philippian
church is no different. The making up of this church
at Philippi, there were many different people in this church,
and the way that God brought several of them in, he records
here, and it's just marvelous the way he did it, his sovereign
hand in all of this. We have the story of a merchant
woman, a seller of purple, Lydia. We saw that. and the Lord's marvelous
mercy and grace to her. You remember how Paul and Silas
wanted to go into Asia to preach the gospel in places around Asia. There was a town called Thyatira
in that region of Asia, and that's where Lydia was from. But the
Lord said, No, don't go there and preach. Go around that way,
go around Asia. and go across the ocean to a
place called Macedonia, a little town called Philippi. Why, Lord? Because that lady from Asia is
in Philippi, one of my sheep. You must need to go through Macedonia
to reach this sheep, this woman. She's not at the well, but she's
at the river. So you know her story. The story about Lydia, the merchant,
and then the story about the soothsayer. We looked at that
last week. That was an unusual story. Now,
tonight, we have a story of a jailer that the Lord miraculously and
marvelously and sovereignly saves him and his house. You'll wait and see in a moment
that the Lord saved not only the jailer, but saved his whole
house. which is what he did with Cornelius, which is what he did
with Lydia, and which is what God does in so many cases, if
not most cases. I'll prove that to you. God has
a family. His elect, his people, are his
family. He has one only begotten well-beloved
Son, and he delights in his above all else. He loves his son, and
that's the reason he made up the rest of his family for the
glory, the honor, the enjoyment of his son, to behold his glory. And also because he loved us. He set his love on a people.
God has a family. God instituted marriage. He instituted
the family. He told Adam and Eve just as
soon as he made them, he said, Now you multiply and replenish
the earth. Have a big family. I like families. I like the family
way, God said. I have a family, and I intend
to have a much larger family. God delights in the family way. So he often saves whole households that are under the sound of the
gospel. There's the key. that are under the sound of the
gospel. They must be under the sound
of the gospel. Now, he saved, if you remember,
Noah. Saved his whole household. Saved Noah and his house, his
sons and his daughter-in-law, daughter-in-laws, daughters-in-law,
his wife. God saved Abraham, Sarah. He said, I'm the God of Abraham.
Abraham's son Isaac, Abraham's grandson Jacob, and eleven others,
all his grandsons. God saved that whole bunch. David,
he saved David, and at least one of David's wives, and Solomon,
at least one of his sons. Peter, what about Peter? Well, Peter was married, it appears
that his wife knew the Lord, and Peter's brother, He called
them both at the same time, didn't he? Peter and Andrew. And incidentally,
it was one of the brothers went and got the other one, didn't
he? When he heard of the Christ, he went and got his brother and
said, I want you to come here, this man, this Christ. He saved
James and he saved his brother John, didn't he? It's the goodness
of the Lord. And Cornelius, I told you about,
and his whole house. Lydia and her whole household.
And I just believe that the Lord will do the same thing here.
I really believe that the Lord will save and is saving some
of our households. And he will bless. He will bless
those of you who faithfully bring your children to hear the word. which is able to make them wise
unto salvation." That's God's word. He'll faithfully bless
that. Be not weary in well-doing. It's
a wearisome task, isn't it, sometimes, just to keep bringing your children
to church. It's a fight. He says, fight
the good fight of faith. And sometimes that fight involves
fighting your own family to get them to come and hear the gospel,
your own children. Be faithful in a few things.
You can't save them, can you? If you could, you would. You
can't. The only thing you can do is have them under the sound
of the gospel, which is able to make them wise unto salvation.
And the Lord has honored his word many times. We talked about
young Timothy, didn't we? That boy right there is right
here, Wednesday night. He doesn't want to be here. Be
honest, Andrew. He'd rather be playing somewhere.
His mama has him here under the sound of the Word. When the Lord saves Jennifer
and Andrew, is it presumption for me to think that? Huh? He
saved me and my sister. When the Lord saves Wendy and
Kevin, when the Lord saves Stephen and Catherine and Brittany and
Jonathan, when the Lord saves our children
that we have under the sound of the gospel, it shouldn't be
any surprise to us. Should it, huh? When he does,
and I'm just going to believe that he will. We don't know when.
You have them under the sound of the gospel, and you trust
the Lord to save them, and I just believe he will. And when he
does, y'all are going to fight for this front row to thank the
Lord for doing it. There's going to be a fight for
the front row, to sit on the front row. We ought to be doing
it now for saving us. But when he does, my, how we'll
rejoice in that salvation. He doesn't have to. That's the
way he does things. That's our kind and merciful and gracious
Lord. He does that. He does that. Well, as I said,
as the Lord went through Samaria to get to that woman at the well,
then he sent Paul to Philippi, sent him down to Philippi, down
to the river for a woman of Thyatira. Now he puts Paul in prison. to find one of his sheep. That's
the way the Lord does things, isn't it? This fellow, he wasn't
going to find him in the synagogue. He wasn't going to be in church
on Sunday, this fellow. He had put Paul in prison to
preach to him. And Paul would rather have not
been in prison. But after it was all over, he
was glad he went there, wasn't he? Jailor sure was. And that's
how the Lord saves, isn't it? The Lord ends up saving this
man and his whole house. Let's look at it again. We read
it. Let's look at it verse by verse, beginning with verse 23
and 24. It says, "...when they had laid
many stripes upon Paul and Silas." Now, we can't enter into this. These men were beaten. within
an inch of their lives. Stripes, not talking about with
a hickory switch, we're talking about with a cat-of-nine-tails,
with an instrument of torture. Sometimes people didn't live
through a beating with these things. Many stripes were laid
on the backs of Paul and Silas, and the cast into prison. Now,
the prison there wasn't a country club like they are today. This
was a hell hole. This was a hole in the ground,
down under the ground, damp and dark, no light, no windows, straw
if they were blessed, something to lay on, vermin and roaches. It was filthy, vile. Many didn't
live through imprisonment, and they were cast into this prison.
It had many stripes upon them, sick, weak, I thought about this. I thought, why didn't Paul heal,
why didn't they heal one another? You know, according to these
modern charismatics, they just would have healed one another.
Well, they didn't. Rick, it says after this was all over, the
jailer washed their stripes. They weren't healed. They suffered
while they were in that prison with this bodily affliction. And they had every cause to be
depressed and dejected and afraid, didn't they? They didn't know
what was going to happen, and they were bound. They were men,
weren't they, Bess? They were men, and you know that
there were times of despondency, like I read about Brother Doug.
There were times when they, no matter how much faith they had,
they were men, and they became dejected. Remember John in prison?
When John sent to his disciples and said, Are you the one we
should look for?" Well, what did they do? They
were downcast, and they were dejected, and they were depressed,
and they were fearful of not knowing what was going to happen
to them in the future. It all looked bleak and dark. It looked like it was all going
to come to an end. What did they do? When they got
hopeless, when they got helpless, They called upon the Lord, who
said, I am a very present help in time of trouble. They prayed.
That's the first thing they did, didn't it? They prayed. When
they had laid many stripes upon them, they were cast into prison,
and they charged a jailer to keep them safely, who, having
received such a charge, thrust them thrust them into the inner
prison and made their feet fast and stopped. This fellow roughly
treated them and threw these handcuffs and these leg irons
on them and threw them into prison and walked on out. Evidently he lived right next
door to the prison. Evidently his house was joined
right to the prison. You'll see why in a moment. Here
they were in that prison, feeling down and downcast and helpless,
and they began to pray. Verse 25, and at midnight, in
the middle of the night, this is significant. There is a psalm,
Brother John, that David said, I will arise at midnight to give
thanks unto thee. Maybe Paul thought about that.
Maybe he couldn't. Well, I doubt if he could sleep. He couldn't lay comfortably.
no part of his body that wasn't sore and hurting. He couldn't
sleep, and he got up and thought about that at midnight, and it
says, Paul and Silas prayed. The first thing they did was
they prayed, and this encouraged them. It encouraged them so much
that after they finished praying, they started singing. They started singing, and this
reminded me of Psalm 13. Spurgeon called it the Howling
Psalm, because four times, more than that, he says, How long,
how long, how long? David was in a miserable state
when he wrote this, and he said, How long wilt thou forget me,
O Lord? Forever, how long wilt thou hide
thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel
in my soul, having heart sorrow in my heart there. How long shall
my enemy be exalted over me? How long? Howling. The howling
song. A virgin or somebody said, David
went from sighing to suing. That's an old Puritan word for
beseeching the Lord to have mercy. Sue him for mercy. That's an
old, good word. Sue him for mercy. Take him to
court. Say, You promised. Take him at
his word. You say it. Sue him at his word,
that you will have mercy. So David said, Consider me. David
began to pray. Consider me, hear me, O Lord. Went from sighing to suing, and
in the last two verses he went to singing. From sighing to suing
to singing. He said, But I have trusted in
thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy
salvation. I'll sing unto the Lord, because
he's dealt bountifully with me. From siring to sooing to singing,"
or somebody said, from pining to praying to praising. Pining,
you know that old word, don't you, Nancy, from the sticks? Pining away the hours. We all
do a little pining, don't we? Oh, woe is me! Well, when you
get into that, start praying. And you'll find out that you
have a whole lot more to be thankful for than you do to pine about. And after you get through praying,
the Lord will set your heart to praising, to singing. That reminded me, too, of Christian
and faithful in Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress. When they got caught
by the Giant of Despair and he cast them into Doubting Castle. Do you see the picture? They
were down in the dungeon of Doubting Castle, captives to giant despair. And they were laying there in
all their misery, when all of a sudden, Faithful, the companion
of Christians, Faithful remembered something. He said, Well, look,
I have here, right next to my heart, a key. that will let us right out. Had
it here all the time. A key. What is that in the heart? Thy word, God's word, has he
written upon our heart. It is the key that unlocks the
doors of difficulty and mysteries and removes troubles and trials. The word written on the heart
is to be used when needed. We cry to the Lord, that's when
he sends this word, the word of faith. Paul said, The word
is nigh you, even in your mouth. What's the word, Joe? It's a
person, isn't it? Lord, Jesus Christ, help me. The word is nigh you, the word
of faith, even in your mouth, even in your mouth. Very near,
it's a key, lets you out of doubt and castle, free you from giant
despair. right on your tongue, right in
your heart there. Call upon him in a time of trouble."
So they prayed to the Lord here. At midnight, Paul and Silas prayed,
and after they prayed, the Lord encouraged their heart, and I'm
sure sent many scriptures to their heart, and maybe sent this
one, Isaiah 41. Then they began to sing. They
began to sing, "'Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
for I am thy God. I will still give thee aid. I'll
strengthen thee, and help thee, and cause thee to stand, upheld
by my gracious, omnipotent hand." Isaiah 41, and several other
places. Paul looked over at Silas and
said, Let's quit worrying, Silas. Everything
is going to be all right. Everything is going to be all
right. 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. All the doors were opened. You
know, the Lord is making up the Philippian church here, and I
thought of Paul's letter written to the Philippians from jail.
In which he said this, listen, see if this doesn't apply to
this case. When the Lord led them to pray, and after praying
the Lord comforted their heart, they began to rejoice and sing.
And this is what Paul wrote to the Philippian church later on,
this same church later on. The jailer, Lydia, when Paul
was back in jail again, this is what he wrote to them later
on. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice. Be careful for nothing. Don't
be overly concerned for anything. But in everything, by prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known
unto God in the peace of God, which passes all understanding."
It will pass the natural understanding and enable a man that's in prison
to rejoice. That passes understanding. Enable
a person lying on the deathbed or the sickbed to rejoice in
their affliction. That passes natural understanding.
That passes understanding and shall keep your hearts and your
minds through the Lord Jesus Christ. It will keep you wherever
you are. The Lord put him there so that
he would write that letter to the Philippians later on. Well, the doors opened, it said,
the prison doors, and the bands were loosed. And I thought about
this. If we will, in everything, like Paul said, in everything,
by prayer with thanksgiving, rejoicing the Lord with supplication,
make our request known, the door of your heart and your understanding
will fly open. And his word, like a light, will
come flooding into your soul. Doesn't it? You've had it happen.
chains will fall off. Bands of doubts, bonds of doubts
and fear will fall off. And you'll have some answers
while you're there. Verse 27. And it says that when
the keeper of the prison, the jailer, awaking out of his sleep
next door, he was right next door, seeing the prison doors
open. Now, these fellows had such a
charge placed upon that if they lost one prisoner, no matter
what the circumstance, especially due to neglect, that they would
lose their lives, that they would be killed for it, beheaded or
hanged or something. This jailer thought that he would
be hanged, so he took out his sword and would have killed himself,
supposing that the prisoners had gone, had been fled. Paul
cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, we're all
here. We're all here. I thought about some of you all.
There have been times when some of
you have been in such deep despair and depression and and trouble
and heartache and feeling that all is lost, and I want to cry
out to you, fear not! We're all here. We're all in
this thing together. We're here for you, and we're
here in this, too. We're going through some troubles
and trials, too. We're all in this world of tribulation
together, sorrow, trial, troubles. We're here, but more importantly,
Jehovah-Shammah The Lord is present. The Lord is here. He said, Am
I not a God at hand, and a God afar off, too? He said, I'll
never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Fear not. We're all here. And we're here for you when you
get down like that. And certainly the Lord is there
for you. He's as near as a call. The word is nigh to you, even
in your mouth. Don't get down like Pyrrhon.
He's here for you. Verse 29, Then the jailer called
for a light. Give me a light. I'm in darkness. I want to see this. He called
for a light, and I tell you, call for a light. If you feel
like you're in a dungeon of despair and darkness and distress and
downcast and so forth, call for a light. What's the light? Once again, it's the light of
his Word, the light of Christ, that will enlighten your darkness.
Don't go around in the darkness for answers. Are you with me?
Somebody get some comfort out of this. Don't go around in the
darkness for answers. Oh, woe is me, and the Word is
mine! It's even in your heart, and
if it's not in your heart, it's on your coffee table. Right? Call for money! Don't get too
down. This is a light that will lighten
your path. Now, word is a light unto my
path, a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Right? So this jailer called for a light
and sprang in, and came trembling, came trembling and fell down
before Paul and Silas. Now, just a little while earlier,
he had grabbed these two and threw them in prison, a proud
jailer. He was a nothing, a nobody from
nowhere, but he thought he was something. Boy, he'd brought
down mighty fast. God just shifted earth a little
bit and brought this worm down to where he belonged. God's shaking
the earth these days, isn't it? I thought about it out there
in Hollywood, shaking the stars. They're going to all fall, aren't
they, these falling stars? But God can just shake the ground
a little bit and make a haughty man know that he's just a worm.
Bring him down for a little while anyway. He'll realize it at least
while it's happening. Bring him down a little bit.
And the jailer sprung in, verse 30, and he called for a light
and saw that they were still there, and grabbed ahold of them. I bet he hugged them. And brought
them outside into the In the courthouse, I think he brought
them home with him, is what he did. Brought them out of the
jail, the jailhouse, took them next door to his house. And this
is what he said, Sir, after he got them over next door, Sirs,
what must I do to be saved? What must I do to be saved? Now, I don't know what he knew.
Nobody does, and the Lord knows. But perhaps he knew this much,
that he recognized immediately that these men were in prison,
but he was the one in chains. Sin and corruption, perhaps he
knew that. These men were captives, but
it was he who was bound by his own evil nature. that he wanted
to be rid of. He knew that these men had nothing,
yet it seemed like they had everything. Something he didn't have. They
had nothing, but they had something that he didn't have, that he
wanted. And that they had lost all, but yet evidently they found
peace and joy. That he had everything, but he
was lost. that these men were poor, yet
they were rich." They are them, that's what the proverb says,
that have nothing, yet are rich. And them that are rich, but yet
are poor. And he said unto them, What must
I do to be saved? What must I do to obtain this
peace, this joy of heart, this inward peace that you have, to
know this God that you apparently know, to find this joy of heart
and soul, this inner peace that you have? What must I do to know
this God who has evidently brought you out of
this prison in such a miraculous way? Here's your chance. Here's your chance to win him
to Jesus. What are you going to tell him? Huh? What are you
going to tell him? What did Paul tell him? Well,
he ran him down a Roman's road. Paul told him, he said, Now,
Mr. Jailer, you've been a terrible fellow, haven't you? And if you'll
quit your evil ways and quit your drinking and your smoking,
and your cousin in the jail, and your cruelty to prisoners,
and you'll turn over a new leaf, God will save you. After all,
God loves you, and Jesus died for you and has a wonderful plan
for your life." Is that what he said? No, that's not it. If
you accept him as your personal Savior, everything will be all
right." No, he said there, verse 31 and 32, and he said, "...believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in your house."
If they believe on him, they'll be saved. Believe what? Jailer, I'm sure, said, well,
what? Is that all he said? That's not what it said. No, it's not. Look at verse 32. And they spake unto him the word
of the Lord. He preached the gospel to him. He started his message out this
way. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved, and your house. They'll be saved
if they believe on him. What about him? Who is it, Lord,
that I must believe? Who is this Jesus? Well, let
me tell you. And he preached the gospel to
them. It wasn't easy to believe Now, he preached the gospel to
him. The word which Peter said is the gospel which we preach
unto you. And Paul said he may have said something like that.
He said, well, I'll tell you who he is. He is Lord. It was him who shook this prison. It was him who made us. He's the creator The ruler, he's
God, that's who he is, and we are in his hand, and especially
those he loves are in his hands to protect them, to preserve
them, to keep them from all harm. And we are two of his chosen
elect people, and we are in jail, and God said, You're not going
to stay there. The Lord said, You're not going
to stay there, and he shook this prison and is bringing us out.
And nothing you could do, nor all the armies, nor the gates
of hell won't prevail against us when the Lord says so. And
he was bringing us out. It's he! Who? Who's this Lord? Well, his name
was Jesus. You've heard of him, have you,
Mr. Jalen? This man over in Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, raised up
in Nazareth, Jesus, the son of the carpenter, the son of Mary,
the virgin? That's no mere carpenter, boy.
That's no mere man. His name was Jesus, but he was
Lord. And his name Jesus means something,
it means Savior. God named him that. God first
said, Call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted, God
with us. And then call his name Jesus
because it means Savior. And this one came down to earth,
he came to live. He came to live the life that
God demands of us. God said, Be ye holy, for I am
holy. It shall be perfect to be accepted. Mr. Jaylor, you're
not perfect, I'm not perfect, Silas is not perfect. We're all
sinners before this Holy God, and God is angry with the wicked
every day. But Christ he's not angry with. Jesus he wasn't angry
with. He was a man approved of God,
and he came down here not to do this just to show us he could
do it, not to show us how to do it, but to be something, to
be a representative. to be a righteousness that God
will accept, to be the substitute for sinners like me, like Silas,
and you if you believe. And you believe him and call
upon him and ask him to do this for you, he'll do it for you
too. And he lived this life of righteousness and God said, I
accept this man and I accept all on his behalf. And then he
died because God said the soul that sins must surely die. You've
heard of the crucifixion? Well, this same Jesus hung on
a cross on Calvary's tree not many years ago. Everybody's heard
about it. Who killed him? Mr. Jailer? The Roman soldiers? The Jews? No! God put his soul
to death, put him to death, made his soul an offering for sin.
Why? Because he had the sins of all his people on him. He
bore their iniquity, their sins, upon his body on the tree, and
God saw all his people, all his elect, sinners, those he chose,
those who would believe, saw them there, and he punished their
sins in Christ on Calvary tree. And he died the innocent for
the guilty, the just for the unjust. that God may be just
and justify the likes of you and me." But he didn't stay there,
Mr. Jaylor. Oh, no. Because he's Lord, and
he's Christ, and he's Messiah. And the same one that came the
first time, went back to heaven, sat down, and he's waiting to
come back again. He's coming back for all his
elect, all those who believe on him by the work of the Holy
Spirit. Do you believe this, Mr. Jaylor?
I believe. Yes. He didn't hesitate. It says in the same hour, look
at it. And when he had brought them into his, or it says, they
spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in
his house. Everybody was hearing this, his children, his servants
if he had some, his wife. They all heard this message.
And he took them, and he was so grateful, and so happy. He said, I believe, I believe. And maybe, Joe, he might have
said this, as old Jader might have said to Paul, he said, You
reckon the Lord, you reckon he'll save the likes of me, an old
sinner like me? Paul looked at him and said,
I reckon he will. He said, Mr. Jader, I did the same thing you
did. I was doing the same thing. people,
hauling them off to jail. I reckon he will. This is a faithful
saving, Mr. Jaylor, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief. You're
not the worst, I'm the worst. He saved me, I reckon he'll save
you. The jailer said, and he was so
grateful, show his gratitude for the gospel and his sudden
change. Boy, a sudden change came over him, didn't it? He
was a changed man. That's the way the Lord does
things. Verse 33 and 34, He took them the same hour of the night
and washed their stripes. The same hour, all within an
hour. He says it didn't take long.
No, it didn't. Paul preached thirty, forty-five
minutes. I preached thirty-five minutes, and I don't know what
the problem is. Thirty-five minutes, that's about
how long Paul preached. This all happened within the
space of one hour. He preached the gospel, his men
heard it, and his house, everybody in the house heard it. And Paul said, Believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. Just believe. You believe
the record? This is the record. He that believeth
is baptized. Confessing it shall be saved.
He believed not, shall be damned. He believed. The jader said,
I believe. The wife said, I believe. The son said, I believe. The
daughter said, I believe. The servant said, I believe.
Who else? I believe, I believe, I believe.
You believe, I believe. And they were baptized. Where's
the water? Where's the water? They took them outside. There's
a creek running by, and they baptized them all within the
space of sixty minutes. When he had brought them into
his house after they were baptized, straight away, right away, they
didn't wait. They didn't wait. What were you
waiting on? Leave, be baptized. When he had
brought them into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced. Boy, they had a good supper that
night. Believed in God with all his house. And maybe the old
jailer led them in prayer. Mr. Jailer, would you like to
give thanks for this meal? Or would I? This is going to
be the best supper I ever did at, me in my house, around the
gospel, nightish week. And I just believe. I believe
the Lord is doing it for one thing, and I don't call their
name for Not embarrassing, but I believe he's saving a whole
lot. Kitten for boodle. All right, maybe he'll do it
for you. He does things that way. He's a good guy. Let's stand. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for this glorious and blessed story. and even more for that so great
salvation which Christ wrought from Calvary's tree. And Lord, we believe, we believe,
we believe. Help thou our unbelief. Lord, again, we pray for those
who do not yet believe and hope and pray, Lord, that they will
believe through the preaching of the gospel someday. that you
will take this word and plant it as a seed down in their hearts
and their very souls, and someday water it. May the Holy Spirit
water this word until it breaks forth into faith and praise and
singing, the Lord that saved them. Lord, we ask you for your
glory and your honor to do this in our midst, and we will rejoice. In Christ's name we pray. thankful
for this time together. Amen.