Good evening, let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 106. 106. Tell me the story of Jesus Write
on my heart every word Tell me the story most precious Sweetest
that ever was heard Tell how the angels in chorus sang as
they welcomed his birth. Glory to God in the highest. Peace and good tidings to earth. Tell me the story of Jesus Write
on my heart every word Tell me the story most precious Sweetest
that ever was heard Casting alone in the desert,
tell of the days that are past. How for our sins he was tempted,
yet was triumphant at last. Tell of the years of his labor,
tell of the sorrow he bore. He was despised and afflicted,
homeless, rejected, and poor. Tell me the story of Jesus Write
on my heart every word Tell me the story most precious Sweetest
that ever was heard Tell of the cross where they nailed Him Writhing
in anguish and pain Tell of the grave where they laid Him Tell
how He liveth again Loving that story so tender, clearer than
ever I see. Stay, let me weep while you whisper. Luck paid the ransom for me Tell
me the story of Jesus Write on my heart every word Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
304. 304. Savior, more than life to me,
I am clinging, clinging close to Thee. Let Thy precious blood
apply, keep me ever, ever near Thy side. Every hour, let me feel thy cleansing
power. May thy tender love to me, find
me closer, closer, Lord, to thee. Through this changing world below,
Lead me gently, gently as I go. Trusting thee, I cannot stray. I can never, never lose. my way. Every day, every hour,
let me feel thy cleansing power. May thy tender love to me, bind
me closer, closer, Lord, to Let me love thee more and more
Till this fleeting, fleeting life is o'er Till my soul is
lost in love In a brighter, brighter world above Every day Acts chapter
16. Acts chapter 16. Start reading
at verse 16. And it came to pass, as we went
to prayer, a certain damsel, possessed of a spirit of divination,
met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. The
same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are
the servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way
of salvation. And this she did many days. But
Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the Spirit, I command
thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came
out the same hour. And when her masters saw that
the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and
drew them into the marketplace under the rulers. and brought
them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly
trouble our city, and teach customs which are not lawful for us to
receive, neither to observe, being Romans. And the multitude
rose up together against them, and the magistrates ran off their
clothes, and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid
many stripes upon them, they cast him into prison, charging
the gaoler to keep them safely, who, having received such a charge,
thrust him 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 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, seeing the prison doors
open, drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing
that the prisoners had fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice,
saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here." We'll deal
with that here in a little bit. Our Father and our God and the
Father and God of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we come always
with thanksgiving in our heart. So thankful. Lord, we look unto
you for all things. We don't want to be left to ourselves,
don't want to be left to our own reasoning, to our own wills,
our own powers, our own ways. Lord, we want to be directed
by you, by your word, by your spirit, by the gospel, by our
Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, please leave us not ever
to ourselves. And Lord, meet with us tonight.
Let us feel your presence. You told us we're two or three
were gathered together in your name. There you'd be. So Lord,
I know we've gathered here in your name and we want to worship
you. We want to have your word. We
want to, Look into your word and be blessed by it, be taught
by it, be instructed by it. And Lord, now we pray for those
who are not with us through reason of affliction, reason of weakness,
weakness of inability of and because of sickness, they're
not with us. Lord, meet with us. Bring glory
to yourself. Have mercy, mercy, mercy upon
our lost loved ones. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus' name. Amen. Hymn number 233. Depth of mercy, can there be,
Mercy still reserved for me? Can my God, His wrath forbear,
Be the chief of sinners spared? I have long withstood His grace,
Long provoked Him to His face, Would not hearken to His calls,
Grieved Him by a thousand falls. Now incline me to repent. Let me now my sin lament. Now my full revolt deplore. We believe in sin no more. There for me my Savior stands,
Holding forth His worthy hands. God is love, I know, I fear,
Jesus keeps and loves me still. There certainly be many people
singing that song. Not very many people believe
it. They don't even know it's in the book. Can my God His wrath
forbear me, the chief of sinners spare? Only the Lord's people would
ever pray a prayer like that. Now back here in Acts 16, I want
to deal with power. Five pictures of power in these
verses that I've read and some on down below that. But there's
lots of ways that power is manifested. Lots of ways. You know, you take
the power of water. Water washes away homes, cars,
people. Power is very powerful. Water
is very powerful. Fire. Fire will destroy a home,
destroy a forest, it's a very powerful thing. And then everybody
knows about the power of political office, the authority that goes
with it. They say that power corrupts,
absolute power absolutely corrupts. And here in our Lord Jesus Christ,
you're talking about power, He said, All power, all authority
in heaven and earth is given unto Me. all of it, ALL POWER. He said, Thou hast given him
POWER, POWER, MIGHT, STRENGTH, ABILITY, AUTHORITY over ALL FLESH
that he should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given
him. And I don't know if you've ever
been to Niagara Falls, but you're talking about POWER, all that
water running off them falls, you just couldn't see so much
POWER. But anyway, And the verses that I'm talking about tonight,
the first power that I want us to see is the power of sin, the
power of sin. Look here with me in verse 16
and 17. And it came to pass as we went to prayer. Remember Lydia,
they'd been in Lydia's house, staying with Lydia. And so that's
where they went to have prayer and they began to preach and
Lydia was converted. And it came to pass as we went
to prayer. They had three times a day that
they had meat to pray. And a certain damsel, possessed
with a spirit of divination, met us, which brought her masters
much gain by soothsaying. The same followed Paul and us,
cried, and Paul and us, that means Silas and Luke is the one
writing this book of Acts. So it's three people we know
we're talking about, Paul, Silas, and Luke. woman kept crying, saying, These
men are the servants of the Most High God, which show unto us
the way of salvation. And this is the power of sin,
the power of deception, and it said a spirit of divination.
She is a soothsayer. You remember Simon the sorcerer,
he was one who gave himself out that he was much power, and she
was a soothsayer, she was a fortune teller. And it says there in
the margin, Divination and Means of Python. Now, according to
Greek mythology, there was a serpent or a dragon named Python, and
Apollo, a god, had power over that python, that serpent or
that dragon, and he got his power from that. He derived power from
that snake or that dragon or whatever
it was, and it was a cult, and so she was under this power of
this cult, this power of this serpent, this power of this dragon,
and it's a Greek mythology. But anyway, she had a demon.
She was a damsel. She was a very young woman, and
possibly she was a nice-looking young woman, but she was demon-possessed. She had a devil, she was demon-possessed,
and she was also a slave. It says there that she brought
her masters, and verse 16, brought her masters much gain, made a
lot of money for them. made a lot of money for them.
And as a soothsayer, she knew just exactly what to say, and
exactly how to get along with people, and exactly how to expose
and deal with people, and soothe them, comfort them, talk to them,
and that's what she was doing here. She was a slave, brought
her masters, masters much money, and how sinful! You'd think SHE
was bad, and she was! But how sinful were her masters
that used her to make money from, used her and her power that was
given to her by Satan, used her to make money. And I tell you,
her services as a soothsayer, and they sold her services. And
she followed these preachers. She followed these preachers.
And these preachers, you know, Paul and Silas and Luke, The
same followed Paul and us, and she cried everywhere she went.
She followed them everywhere they went. And it says that went
on for many days, many days. So everywhere she went, she called
them the Most High God, servants of the Most High God. Now, you
know, whenever they got up to do something, they think she
starts hollering at. She starts preaching, no, these
are servants of the Most High God. If somebody done that in
this service, what would you think about it? That preacher
is a servant of the Most High God. He showed unto us the way
of salvation. Well, that's what she was doing.
Followed them day after day after day. Every time they opened their
mouth, she was there, hollering at them, hollering at them. And
also, there she was at this spirit of defamation. And listen, this
wasn't sincerely. No, no, she was, bragging on
these men and that she was Letting everybody know that she really
didn't want anybody to be saved. You know, they didn't want anybody
to come to Christ That's why she could interrupt him and talked
about him all the time She was that wasn't sincere. It's all
put on she bragged on them She said they were servants of the
Most High God You know the first time God was called the Most
High God the very first time When Abraham come back from saving
Lot, and all those 318 people there, and he went down there,
and he run across Melchizedek. And the scripture says he come
across Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High God. That's
the first time he is referred to as the Most High God. You
know the second time he is referred to as the Most High God? Satan,
in Isaiah 14. Verse 12 through 14, it says,
Satan thought within himself, I will ascend the throne of God
and I will be higher than the most high God. And God said,
oh no, you won't. And he brought him down and he
brought him down. And so you see, here she comes
and demons, demons said the same thing about Christ. She said,
these are servants. of the Most High God. She didn�t
know God. She didn�t know Christ. She didn�t
even know these men. And here she was, she came around,
and that�s the way they�ve done our Lord Jesus. The demons know
who�s who. You know, when our Lord Jesus
comes around and says, �We know who you are,� and it comes through
a person�s voice. It�s not a demon himself speaking.
If I had a demon, you wouldn�t hear the demon�s voice, you�d
hear And those demons would speak through those people and say,
we know who you are. We know exactly who you are.
You're Jesus, you're the most holy one. We know that you've
got the power. You can do anything you want
to with us. And that's the way this woman was. And I'll tell
you, it's no surprise. Now you keep Acts 16, look with
me in 2 Corinthians 11. Won't you look with me in 2 Corinthians
chapter 11? This is no marvel that this would
happen. And you know, she just followed
him around, says that over and over and over. You know, we're gonna get in
Acts 19, where there's this These Jews, they decided they was going
to start casting out some demons. Sons of Sceva, they thought,
they said, well, we're going to cast out some demons. Paul
does it, said, we're going to try it. And those fellows they
got a hold of go cast the demons out. You know what the demons
said to them? Paul we know, and Jesus we know, but we don't have
any idea who you are. But look what it says here now
in Acts, excuse me, 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 13. For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, now listen to this, transforming themselves
into the apostles of Christ. They claim to be apostles. They
transform them into this much power. And there's no reason
to marvel about this. There's nothing surprising about
this. For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore,
it's no great thing if his ministers, Satan's ministers, also be transformed
as the ministers of righteousness. And when it's all said and done,
when they get to the end of the way, they're gonna have to face
God for WORKS, not grace, for works and not grace. So let's
go back over here next, and this, Paul got tired of listening to
her, and these fellas got tired of listening to her, and it said
in verse 18, she did this many days, many days, but Paul being
grieved, and I tell you something, Paul being grieved, You know,
the church and preachers must NEVER be patronized by the devil
or profit from him or anything about him. And I tell you what,
look what happened. Paul said he was grieved, being
grieved, he was so aggravated with her, grieved with her doing
this, and he turned and said to the Spirit, that Spirit was
in that woman, he turned and said to the Spirit, And see how
it's in small letters, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ
to come out of her, and he came out the same hour. Now, first
of all, that's the power of sin. Now, there's the power of God's
Word. He said, I command you, I command you, and all mine,
and her deliverance was complete, and it was full, and it was free.
And look what He said, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth. See, there's POWER there in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's GLORY there in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's AUTHORITY there in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when He commanded, that devil
was gone, gone. And she was free from then on,
free from then on. then look here, it s the power
of sin, the power of the word of God, and look what else, look
at the power of sinful opposition. Look down verse 19, And when
her masters, because God done something for her, and when her
masters saw that the hope of their gains were gone, they caught
Paul and Silas, and drew them unto the marketplace unto the
rulers. Oh, my, their golden goose was taken from them. The woman that made their living
for them is gone. God took care of that. God saved
her from that. And her master's gain was gone.
And oh, that's what they said. She was the master made much
money from. Now they say it's gone. It's gone. And oh, my. And so they look
what it says here now. All their masters were selfish,
greedy, covetous, and that turned into maliciousness. You know,
the love of money, the Bible says nothing wrong with money,
but it s the LOVE of it, the GREEDINESS of it. You feel like
it s the ONLY END that there is as to nothing make money. And I tell you, the love of money
is the root of all evil. And that was what these men's
was. She brought them money, and when
God does something for them, they lost their money. And when
you take an appellant's pocketbook, he gets upset, gets upset. And that's the way they were,
malicious. And look what it says, and they
caught Paul and Silas. Now, they wasn't running from
them. They didn't have to run them down. Well, there they go,
let's catch them! And that's not what happened.
It said they walked up to them and laid hands on them. That's
what it means, GOT THEM, CAUGHT THEM! And oh, look what it says,
And not only that, but DRAGGED THEM, DRAGGED THEM, DREW THEM,
and oh my, they was just a mob around there, and DREW THEM into
the marketplace, and in the margin, it said, the courts. Oh my! caught them, took them to the
rulers, and watch what happens now, and brought them and drew
them under the marketplace where everything was happening into
the courts, and listen to this, and brought them to the magistrates,
people of authority, the people that could do something about
it, and here s the first thing they accuse them of. They didn
t say anything about the woman that God had done something for,
that they lost their income from. But look what they said, and
brought them to the magistrate saying, these men being Jews,
that's the first thing that's against them. We're Romans, they're
Jews. These Jews, and listen to this,
do exceedingly trouble our city. Now they'd been in Philippi for
quite a while, been preaching there for quite a while. They
lived at Lydia's house. And here they says, do exceedingly
trouble. That's a false accusation. They
didn't trouble that. They trouble our city. And then
it says they teach customs that are not lawful for us. They trouble
our city, not lawful for us. We're Romans, we're not Jews. And they've got customs that
we don't have. And oh my, they drew them up
there and brought them in front of the fellows that's got the
power. And watch what happens in verse
22, And the multitude rose up together
against them. They stirred up a crowd, a whole
bunch of people. They said, Oh, listen, these
fellows are causing a lot of trouble. They just stirring up
everything. They got a great multitude of
people stirred up against them. And the multitudes rose up together
against them. A whole crowd of people got against
two people. Only two men. And what were they
doing? Just nothing but preaching. I
saw something yesterday. It really bothered me. But there was four or five men
and a woman. They was having one of these
here pride day parades. And if you don't know what that
is, I think everybody knows what that means. Pride, you know,
and they decided to have this big parade in Pennsylvania, a
little old town in Pennsylvania. And these fellas were standing
over here holding signs, you know, not agreeing with them.
And this one fella started quoting, he started to say, God is not
the author of confusion, and this cop walked up to him, there
was a bunch of cops there paying attention to all these folks,
and this policeman walked up to him and told him, he says,
Now, listen, don't you bother these people, you leave these
people alone, and they wasn't bothering nobody, there's a way
on the sidewalk way away from them, and that Man, he started
to mention God. That cop running back across
the street turned him around and handcuffed him. He said, that's it, that's it.
And he just said God. Fixin' to say God's not the author
of confusion. When they slammed him up against
the wall and some others come up there, I couldn't believe
it. And he said, what are you gettin' me for? That cop just
as soon as he mentioned God, he laid hands on him. He said,
that's all it takes. But they didn't go over and arrest
anybody over there acting like a fool. And when that cop got
a hold of that man, that whole bunch went to crowd shouting
and hollering, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. They thought that was
the greatest thing. I'm sure glad God's a judge,
you know what? But that bothered me to no end. And they took him a couple blocks
away and set him down. I hope they let him go. I hope
they let him go. And there was a fella following
him, recording what was going on, and then a cop run up to
him and asked him what he was doing. Had to show him his ID
and all that stuff. Oh, my. And that's what happens
here. They stirred up the crowd, a
crowd that hates God, a crowd that hates Christ, a crowd that
hates the gospel. THAT HATES THE LORD'S PEOPLE!
THEY STIRRED UP THE CROWD, THEY DIDN'T HAVE NO TRIAL, THEY DIDN'T
HAVE NO JUDGE, THEY HAD JUST ACCUSATIONS, THAT'S ALL THEY
HAD. AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENS HERE IN VERSE 22, THE MOLITUDE ROSE
UP AGAINST THEM, AND THE MAGISTRATES TOOK OFF PAUL AND SILAS' CLOTHES. THE MAGISTRATES DIDN'T TAKE OFF,
THEY TOOK OFF PAUL AND SILAS' CLOTHES, TORE THEM OFF OF THEM. And listen to this, commanded
them, now you beat them. I mean, I want you to give them
a good whipping, give them a good caning. Oh, I beat them. Oh, the sin that the love of
money causes men to commit. And look what it says there in
verse 23. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, many,
Paul said he was whipped three times with 39 stripes. I don't
know if they gave him 39 stripes here or not, but they took Paul
and Silas, took their clothes off of them and striped them
with whips and beat them with whips. For what? For what? Men would rather believe a lie
and be damned as to believe the truth. And I tell you what, then
look what it says. And they beat them with many
stripes, laid many stripes, beat them. It said, beat them. I want
you to beat them. I don't want you to give them
a love tap. I want them beat. And oh, they laid many stripes
upon them, and then they cast them into prison. And then they
told the jailer, said, now listen, You don't let these fellas go,
you keep these fellas, these two men right here, I want you
to keep them safe. I want them in jail and I want
them in jail and I want no opportunity for them getting out of jail,
okay. And so it says in verse 24. Oh my, huh? KEEP THEM SAFELY, DON'T LET THEM
ESCAPE, DON'T LET THEM GET OUT, AND LOOK WHAT HE SAID, THE JAILER,
WHO HAVING RECEIVED A CHARGE, OR A COMMANDMENT, TOLD TO DO
THAT, NOW LISTEN, IT'S BAD ENOUGH JUST TO PUT THEM IN PRISON, BUT
LOOK WHAT HE DONE, HE SAID, THEY TOLD ME TO KEEP THEM SAFE, I'M
GOING TO JUST PUT THEM IN ANY CELL, I'M GOING TO TAKE THEM
WAY DOWN DEEP INTO THE PRISON, I'm going to take them into the
INNER prison! I'm going to take them to a special
place for men like this." And look what he said, and then when
he got them down there, they had stocks and put both their
feet in stocks. They got to set up. How are you
going to lay down with your feet in stocks? Oh, my! But oh, that's the power
of false, sinful opposition. Oh my, and then look at what
happens now. God, look at the power of God for His elect. And
look what Paul, now it's midnight now. It's right in the middle
of the night. And Paul and Silas prayed. They
started praying. That's what they was doing. They
went to pray when that woman started following them around,
making fun of them. At midnight, Paul and Silas began
to pray, and after they prayed a while, they began to sing praises
unto God. You know, they were singing psalms,
no doubt that's what they were singing. And it says, and the
prisoners heard them. Everybody in that prison heard
what these fellas had to say. Heard them pray, heard them sing,
they was listening to what these fellas said. They were JOYFUL! They didn t say, Boy, bring us
some pain pills in here, you know, we re hurting here, our
backs is hurting, our feet s hurting. Oh, no, no, they were JOYFUL,
singing, singing praises unto God! That's why David asked twice
in Psalm 45, Why art thou disquieted in me, O my soul? Hope thou in
God. And he asked it again, Why art
thou disquieted in me, O my soul? Hope thou in God. And that's what these two men,
instead of being disquieted, they had their hope, they had
their salvation, they had the, you know, when it says God's
grace is sufficient, right here is proof of it. Right here's
evidence of it. These fellas are in stocks. Their
backs is bloody. They ain't got no clothes on. And look what happens. You think
God's gonna, prisoners hurt them. You reckon any of them was converted?
I think some of them probably were. And now look what happens.
And suddenly, Suddenly, what happened? There
was a great earthquake. Now listen to this, you've got
to listen to this now. So that the foundation of the prison
was shaken. Just one spot, God sent an earthquake
to one building, one building, and all He did was shake the
foundation. of that one building. What building
was it? His electorate. And look what it says now. And
the prison, the foundations of the prison were shaken. And look what else happens now
because of this earthquake. Didn't happen, you know when
an earthquake comes, it tears buildings down and people get
killed and everything falls all to pieces and ground shakes and
splits open and all that, but not this earthquake. This earthquake
hit nowhere but where God's elect was. That earthquake shook nothing
but the prison and the foundation of the prison. Now watch what
happens. The doors, immediately all the
doors opened up. Every door in that prison, every
cell in that prison opened up. And listen to this, and everyone
s bands were loosed. Now, wait a minute. God tears down man's foundations,
and if you ain't got a foundation that's on the rock, that foundation's
gonna be destroyed. And when you mess with God's
people and God's elect, God will not let that go on. Look what
happens now. Door opens. Oh, doors that were
shut, they were opened. And listen to this, and everybody
that had bands, you know, chains on them, ever how they was held
in prison, ever how they was held in jail, and Paul and Silas,
their feet were in stocks. And watch what happened, every
band, they were all gonna know that this was an act of God.
Now let me tell you something about an earthquake. Earthquake
didn't destroy the building, all it did was open the doors,
and earthquakes don't lose the bands off of prisoners. Earthquakes
don't open handcuffs, and earthquakes don't open the stocks that those
two prisoners was in. But they do when God sends one.
Boy, that does mean something for me. Oh, my. You know, earthquakes,
only effect it had on that thing was opening every door and letting
every prisoner free. If you was bound like this here,
you was free! If you had your feet bound, you
was free! And as the doors opened, man, I can get out of here! I
can get out of here! Well, look what happened in verse
27, And the keeper of the prisoner, the jailer, and the keeper of
the prisoner woke out of his sleep, and he woke up and went
outside and he looked, and so the He woke out and seen the prison
doors open. Oh my. You know why I said I'm
going to kill myself? Because he knowed that those
fellows that put him in charge of that jail was going to kill
him. That's exactly, you remember when Simon, when the angel come
and got Simon Peter out of jail? Over in Acts 13, they got him
out of jail, and he brought him out of jail, and Peter went to
knocking on the door, and he got him out of there, and he
went knocking on the door, and they sent him the next day to
go get Peter out of jail, and they went down there, and they
said, well, he's not there. The door's shut. The guards that
was with him, they're still there, but he's not. Why? The Lord went and got him. The
Lord went and got him. You know what Herod did? He killed
every one of those guys that was in charge of keeping Peter. He had them slew. You can look
at that in Acts chapter 12. He had all those men that was
in charge of keeping Peter, those two guards that was there, and
the fellow that was standing outside the gate. He had two
guards inside, one outside, guarding one man. And he got set free
and Pop Harris said, Listen, kill them, kill them. And he
killed all of those men that was in charge of Simon Peter.
So that's why this fellow said, They're going to kill me anyway.
He got his sword, fixed it, kill himself. Huh? But oh my, I'll
kill myself. All the prisoners have escaped.
That's the first thing he thought. And oh my, supposing that the
prisoners had been fled, so he gonna kill himself. But look
at what Paul says now. Paul cried out with a loud voice,
he saw him out there. He said, don't you do yourself
no harm, for everybody that was in this jail is still here. God
wasn't gonna let none of them go. Everyone of them's still
right here, still right. You know why I think they stayed?
God caused them to stay. But I think because of those
two men, the way they acted after they'd been treated so badly
that they said, I'm gonna see what's gonna happen to these
two men here. And oh, listen. So okay, here we go with the
power of the gospel. This is my last one, last point. The power of the gospel. And
Paul cried with a loud voice, ìDo yourself no harm, for weíre
all here.î Then look what happens, look what the jailer does. Then
he called for a light. Itís dark, itís dark. He was in darkness. It was night,
midnight there, I mean he was way up in the night. He said,
ìGive me a light!î Oh boy, he went running in there. Said he sprang in there. I mean,
that boy was taking big leaps to get in there. He said, I gotta
see what's going on in here. He had to have a light. He didn't
have, Paul didn't need no light. Silas didn't ask for no light.
But this prisoner said, ah, listen, he's called for a light. And
sprang in, and here's, look what a change in him. Look what a
change. He came trembling. He was shook
up. Came trembling and fell down
before Pilate's eyes. His one beat him. Now he's trembling
and falls down before him. Oh my. And then look what it
says. He brought him out. He said,
you fellas come on with me. Come on, come on. And while he
was bringing him out, you know what the first thing he says
to him? He said, sirs, sirs, Boy, he shows a little respect
now, don't he? Oh, he had to have a light. Came
trembling, fell down. Oh my. And here's the most, here's,
he asked the most necessary, the greatest question a lost
soul can ask. He says, sirs, and see how they're
not just preachers now, not somebody beaten now. What must I do for
me to be saved? He automatically assumes that
he has to do something. There's something I got to do.
Well, Paul answers that question for him. This here ought to tell
everybody. You know, it's like the rich
young ruler. What good thing can I do? And oh, he's respectful now.
What must I do to be saved? What a question. What a question. The only answer a man can give
who knows Christ and knows the gospel. First thing he says,
believe. There's faith. You gotta believe. Don't work! You ain't got any
merit. Don't need no incense, don't
need no priest, don't need no rabbi, don't need no altar. Oh my. Here is a sinner saying,
Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and God will save you, God will save you. And you know what the
scripture says? With the heart, with the heart,
man believes under righteousness. And with the mouth, you confess
that there ain't no righteousness but Christ. And you confess that
Christ. And look what happens now in
verse, and they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou
shalt be saved and everybody in your house too. Everybody,
this is all your children, your servants and everybody else.
And now look what happens now. So they went into his house and
they spake unto him the word of the Lord and to everybody
in their house. They start, you know, they preached
to them. They preached to those people
in their house, and they began to tell Him the Word of the Lord,
you know, and preached the Gospel to them and to everybody that
was in that house. And look what He did. He's talking
about a change now in a fellow's way He does things. And He took
them the same hour of the night. Oh my, He put stripes on them,
then He washes them. He takes some wonderful water,
precious water, probably very tenderly, very easily, and He
began to wash their stripes, began to wash their backs, began
to wash the things that was on their back. He had some compassion
now. He began to wash their stripes,
and listen to this. After He'd done that, He said,
let's go get baptized. He was baptized in the middle
of the night now, it's probably one or two o'clock in the morning.
He was baptized, immediately was baptized straightway, straightway. He and his house were baptized
straightway. I mean, he got up, people wanted
to say, well, I'm gonna wait, I'm gonna wait. This fella didn't
wait, nobody else in the New Testament didn't wait. Oh, listen,
I got a big, he was baptized straight away. And then look
what he did. And when he brought them into his house, oh my, he
brought them into his house. What'd he do next? He fed them. Fixed them a meal. He told his wife or whoever's
running the house, get, feed these fellas. They're hungry.
They've been mistreated. Feed them. And listen to this,
and he started rejoicing. He rejoiced believing. That's something to rejoice about,
ain't it? Believing, I rejoice that I'm
a believer. I rejoice that I'm a believer.
And rejoiced believing in God with everybody in his house,
everybody in his house, all of his children, his wife, everybody.
Oh my. And I tell you, he believed God,
they rejoiced. Now let me wind this thing up
here pretty quick. So the next morning comes along.
Next morning comes along, it was day. And the magistrates,
the people that had stirred up this mob and beat these men and
told them to put them in jail and to beat them and stripe them.
They sent the sergeants, they didn't go, sent some potties
to a little authority, said, let those men go. Go down there
and tell them to let them go. And the keeper of the prison
went and told Paul, this saying to Paul, the magistrates have
said you can go, now therefore depart and go in peace. You're
free, go on. But look what Paul done. He's
talking about some some conviction, and some power, and some authority,
and fearlessness. Paul said unto them, They have
beat us openly, cast us uncondemned, beat us openly, uncondemned,
no charges against us, being Romans, and have cast us into
prison, and now they want to thrust us out and want to do
it privately so no one will have to pay for what they've done?
He said, but let them, let the ones that done this to us, let
the ones that had this done to us, let the ones that put us
in jail, let the ones that had us be, you let them come, and
you let them get over here and tell us, and say, I want you
all, we're sorry, come on out of there. Well, the sergeants
told these words unto the masters, and look what happens, they got
scared. No, anybody can get out of jail,
they'll get out of jail any chance they get. Paul said, I ain't
leaving. I'm not leaving, I'm not leaving, I'm not leaving
this man's house, I'm not leaving this jail, I'm not gonna do it.
And when they heard that they were Romans, and they came themselves,
they came themselves, and I believe they went in there and said,
now you fellas, Come on, I believe they apologized, I believe they
were sorry, and they brought them out and said, listen, would
you fellas just please just leave? Just go ahead and leave, you
know, we're in enough trouble as it is, we all just leave.
And they went out of the prison, and look where they went, right
back where they, they went back to the house of Lydia, went back
to Lydia's house. And when they had seen the brethren,
all the brethren that were there, look what it says, they comforted
them. All the brethren got around them
and said, oh, they started comforting Paul and Silas. Oh, encouraged
them, comforted them, talked wonderful things, said wonderful
things to them. Oh, my. I tell you, the Lord's
way of dealing with His people, the world, look how the world
Treated them, and look how they treated the world. Difference day and night. Our Father, oh blessed Savior,
great and glorious God in heaven, thank you for allowing us to
meet here tonight, thank you for your word, thank you for
the power of God, the power of the gospel, the power of the
word, power over sin, Power that saved that poor woman that was
demon possessed. Oh Lord, you've got all power.
And it was by your power, your might, that you saved us. Oh
Lord, we had no might, we had no strength, we had no abilities. But Lord, you've got the ability,
you've got the power, you've got the authority, you've got
the might, you've got the strength. And Lord, it's to you to whom
we look. Be our strength, be our stay.
Uphold us by your blessed spirit. Bring us to Christ. Keep us before
Christ. Keep us looking to Christ. Bless
these dear saints now as they go their way. who ask these things
in our Lord Jesus name, amen, amen. ♪ There is a name I love
to hear ♪ ♪ I love to sing its worth ♪ ♪ It sounds like music
in my ear ♪ the sweetest name on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Because he first loved me. See you Sunday, God willing.
Good night and God bless you. Thank you.