Well, good morning, church. What
a blessing it is to come here today and be able to stand before
you and preach and handle the Word of God. But also what a
fearful thing it is to stand before you and handle the Word
of God, knowing that I will give an account of what I teach. The same way we petition to be
an elder in this church and be called by God, oh, what a blessing
it is to shepherd and lead the God of people, but oh, what a
fearful thing it is. It's as though it's more fearful
than a blessing. And I take it very, very seriously. So I just,
as James said, I just pray that you'd be in prayer about that.
Knowing that if God stirs up your heart and stirs up my heart,
then it will be so. Knowing that He is a sovereign
God and in control of all things. The Lord will lead us to Acts
16 today with James getting ready to preach Philippians, the Lord
just kind of laid it on my heart to cover the start of the Philippi
Church. Though it's a lot of Scripture,
and I normally don't like to cover this much Scripture in
a sermon, but being that it's an account of the Philippi Church,
I feel like that's what God's called me to do and He will be
sovereign over it. And we will start in verse 16. It says this, Acts 16, 16, As
we were going to a place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who
had a spirit of divination, and brought her owners much gain
by fortune telling. She followed Paul and us, crying
out, These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim
to you the way of salvation. And this she kept doing for many
days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed,
turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of
Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out of her that very
hour. But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone,
they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the marketplace
before the rulers. And when they had brought them
to The magistrates, they said, these men are Jews and they are
disturbing our city. They advocate customs that are
not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice. The crowd
joined in attacking them and the magistrates tore the garments
off of them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when
they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into
prison and ordered the jailer to keep them safely. Having received
this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened
their feet. and stops. And about midnight, Paul and
Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners
were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake,
so the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately
all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened.
When the general awoke and saw that the prisoners' doors were
open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, but supposing
that the prisoner had escaped, but Paul cried out with a loud
voice, Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.' And the
dretter called for the lights, and rushed in, and trembling
with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought
them out and said, What must I do to be saved? And they said,
Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved in your old
household. They spoke the word of the Lord to them and all who
were in his house. And he took them the same hour
that night, washed their rooms, and he was baptized, he and his
whole family. Then he brought them up into
his house and sat through before them and rejoiced along with
his entire household that they had believed in God. Let us pray. O great God who
is sovereign, sovereign in salvation, sovereign in the seasons that
You have us in our life. Lord, I just pray, Lord, that
You would be with us this morning, and Lord, that You would speak
through me, Father, and that Your people would hear Your words,
and Lord, they would glorify You in hearing Your words, that
Lord, they would be encouraged, Lord, every time we sit behind
Your Word, it will cause us to press in more with You and to
walk closer with You and grow in worship of You, for You are
worthy to be worshipped every day of our lives, every moment
of our day. And Lord, I just pray that You
be glorified, that as my heart desires for You to be glorified,
not just by us, O Lord, but by all people, that all would come
to the saving knowledge of You. And we ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen. There's many things I see in
this passage. And I normally, like James said
a couple of weeks ago, I normally don't like to put titles on my
sermon. I just like to preach them and then you can assume
whatever title you want to label it to. But if I could title this
sermon, it would probably be the sovereignty of God in all
things. I can see the sovereignty of God in church planning in
this passage of Scripture. I can see the sovereignty of
God in suffering in this passage of Scripture. I can see the sovereignty
of God in leading His people in this passage of Scripture.
And I can see the sovereignty of God in salvation in this passage
of Scripture. And I can see the sovereignty
of God of the worship of His people in this passage of Scripture. How do we get to this count?
Well, Paul being an evangelist, Paul having a heart to go there
for and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, having a heart
to go there for and disciple people, having a love for the
lost people Paul was seeking to reach people with the Gospel.
And Macedonia, the Philippi area, wasn't in the first place. It
really wasn't even on Paul's mind. If we see 6 through... Ten, Paul was wanting to go to
Asia and the Lord closed the door. After Asia, after the Lord
shut it there, Paul was going to want to go to Bethany and
yet God closed the door. Was it wrong by Paul wanting
to go to Asia to preach the gospel? No. It was his heart's desire.
Was it wrong for Paul to want to go somewhere else to preach
the gospel? No. But it was not the plan of God. We see that
the plan of God was for Paul to be in Macedonia preaching
the gospel. That the Lord showed Paul a vision
of a man in Macedonia calling him for Paul to come. And Paul,
knowing that it was the Lord's will for him to preach the gospel,
went. He went. And when Paul arrived
in Macedonia, he did what he did in about every place that
he arrived. He went to the synagogue, which this place is called a
place of prayer. And the reason why it's called
a place of prayer is because if you didn't have ten men then you couldn't
have a synagogue. You had to have ten men to have
a synagogue that day, and if it was less than ten men, then
it would be called a place of prayer. So Paul, being he had
a heart for his Jewish people, we see this in Romans 9, where
Paul talks about how he would even give up his own salvation
if God would save the people, the Jewish people. So we know
that Paul, when he arrived at these new cities, he would go
to this place, these Jewish people, which I find mind-blowing because
Paul, used to being a persecutor of the church, why would he go
somewhere knowing that he would be persecuted right off the get-go?
Why would he go to a place where he would find opposition? Think
about that. I mean, in our nature, normally
we don't want to go somewhere where people isn't really going
to want to hear the gospel. We'd rather come in a church
service and talk about Jesus than rather go to the projects
and talk about Jesus. Or go to a Muslim sanctuary and
talk about Jesus. But Paul, Paul had a heart for
his people. Paul had a heart for God to save
his people. So Paul goes here. And while
Paul is here, he preaches the Gospel. And what does God do?
He opens the heart of a woman by the name of Lydia to receive
that Gospel. Oh, what power of God and salvation! Oh, what encouragement there
to us, thanks, that as Paul was giving the Word, not knowing
whom God would save, God opened up the heart. and save this woman
named Lydia. And you think of our own salvation.
Who opened up our hearts to receive the goodness of salvation? Was it us? No. Who unblinded us to see the glory
in us of Jesus Christ? Who undefined us to hear the
good news of God's Word? Was it you? Or was it God? So powerful, so encouraging,
that if we'd be a people who go there for and share the Gospel,
that God is mighty to open up the hearts of people to hear
the Gospel. Not only open up the hearts,
but powerful enough to cause them to receive that Gospel and
be saved. Do we believe that? Because the
one thing to say that we believe in, and I believe everyone in
here would mostly agree on that, but we believe in it in such
a way that we're carrying the gospel out through our day. Praying
for God to open up the hearts of individuals so they can be
saved. Then we see in 16, as we were going to a place of
prayer, as they were going to a place
of prayer. This was a custom of the disciples. It wasn't just
an everyday thing of the disciples to go to a place of prayer, which
we know that once they went and they preached the Word to the
people in the synagogues or anywhere they went and preached the Word
of God to the synagogues, they would continue going to these
people to preach the Word of God to them, to disciple them,
to meet with them, to pray with them. But not only with a group of
people, but with individuals, by themselves. They would go
to a place of prayer. They were devoted to prayer. They were devoted. to the fellowship
of the saints. We see that in Acts 2. How do
they know that the people in Acts 2 believed in the gospel?
Because they were added to that church. And how do they know
they were added to that church? Because they were devoted to prayer.
They were devoted to the fellowship of the saints. They were devoted
to the apostles' teachings. They were devoted to the word
of God. They were devoted to meeting with each other. That was how they knew they were
born again. Are we devoted? Are we devoted meeting with the
saints? Are we devoted to prayer? Are we devoted to the study of
God's Word? We can have the right theology
of the Scriptures, but what good is that if we're
not devoted to the teachings of the Scriptures? The application
of the teachings of the Scriptures in our life? Paul and them were headed to
a place of prayer. And the scripture says, we were met
by a slave girl who had a spirit of denomination and brought her
owners much gain by fortune telling. Now here's Paul and them going
to the normal place they're going to. And then we had this woman. Spirit of divination, what is
that? It's the practice of seeking
knowledge of the future, unknown knowledge by supernatural. Makes me think of some of these
fortune tellers of our day. You know, people pay money and
they go in these buildings where you can't see them and they have
their life told to them. I remember when I was in New
Orleans a couple years ago at the Super Bowl preaching on the
streets. They didn't have their own separate building. They just
set up on the street And I will never forget that I walked by
this woman as she was sitting before this woman as she was
had her cards laid out And she was telling her the forthcoming
things in her life and just the fear On that woman's face as
she was having her foretold life to her Get it sub demonic. It's of Satan and We know it's not of God. In the Greek it says the python
spirit, which is foretold that it was a serpent that guarded
the temple of the goddess Apollo. But really we can just cut to
the chase and we know that it's a serpent. It's a deceiver. Kind
of think of the snake in the garden in Genesis. How the snake went in and deceived
the people. It deceived Adam and Eve in such
a way that they ate of the fruit. It deceived these people in such
a way that they would bring their money to these people to have
the unknown told to them. And how would they believe it?
They would believe it just like the people who walk in the buildings
today and have their unknown told to them. Pay their money. But even though when I think
back at the fearful thing of this woman's face that I remember
seeing her life told before, what's even more fearful to me
is the pastors in churches today foretelling people's future to
them. Prophesying to them. And how
do men believe it in such a way? They give them their money. Do they not? In churches all across America,
men prophesy, thus says the Lord. And the things they prophesy
is nowhere in Scripture. And it's always good, good to
your itching ears. Oh, let us stay away from these
people. For they will deceive us if we continue going back
and listening to them. Verse 17, and she followed Paul
and was crying out, these men are servants of the Most High
God who proclaim to you a way of salvation. And this she kept
doing for many days. And Paul had become greatly annoyed,
turned and said to the Spirit, I command you in the name of
Jesus to come out of her. And it came out of her that very
hour. Notice what this woman was doing. She was seeing Paul
and then walked by her every day and she was going, these
men, Tell you the way of salvation of the Mosai God. Now when you
see Mosai God, you can find that reference probably 50 times in
the Old Testament. But in that day, I've heard through
studying that they might have said that when they said the
Mosai God, that the Gentiles would have thought they were
talking about Zeus. And then the Jewish people might have
thought they were talking about the Hebrew. But I take it to mean that I
think they were talking about the God of Hebrew. And why would Paul, even if she
was saying, because it was true that these men proclaimed the
way of salvation, why didn't Paul just welcome her in and
say, yes, she's right, we proclaim the way of salvation. Come to
me and let me tell you the way of salvation. I mean, can you
imagine walking by a woman telling you, hey, this is a child of
God. They preach the way of salvation.
I mean, most of us would have smiled, yeah, that's right. Why didn't Paul do that? Because
Paul didn't want a false prophet in his ministry. He didn't rejoice over the fact
that this woman knew that he preached the way of salvation.
He's more disturbed over her deceiving people and them trying
to say that they're serving the same God or something. That,
hey, I'm with them guys. I can see she doing that. And
the way Paul perceived it. Just like most of these false
prophets today, they preach Jesus. But are they preaching Jesus? They say the name Jesus. But
is it the Jesus of the Bible? No, it's not. They preach another
Jesus. They preach a Jesus that they've
created. A Jesus that's going to give you everything. A Jesus
that's going to bless you with wealth. A Jesus that's going
to give you health. The prosperity gospel. They preach
another Jesus. And it's demonic. It's demonic. It's upset. What
better way to deceive people than say, hey, this is the Jesus
of the Bible, yet teach you a false Christ. Twist the Scriptures. Is that not out of Satan? Is
that not what Satan also did when we go back to the garden?
He deceived them by twisting the Word of God. And hundreds and thousands pack
in to these churches every week and they are deceived by these
false prophets. And we can say amen to that,
but praise be to God that we ain't one of them. Because if it was not for His
mercy and grace towards us, church, would we not be deceived? It
goes back to God opened up the heart of Lydia. What man could
understand the truth of God's Scriptures unless God gives him
revelation of it? I think at the end of Luke, it
talks about how Jesus was already resurrected from the grave, that
He finally gave the apostles revelation to understand the
truth of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Well, Paul wanted nothing to
do with this woman, so what did he do? He called the demon to come out
in the name of Jesus. So whatever God this woman was
proclaiming, or whatever God these people were perceiving
her to be claiming, Paul let it know right then who was the
God of the world. By calling the demon out of this
woman. Is there not power in the name
of Jesus to set people free from the bondage of the devil? Many of us would see this woman
and we'd be like, there's no way she can be saved. She deceived
so many people. She has stolen their money from
them. There's no way that she can be saved. There's no way
that she can be set free from the bondage of Satan. There's
no way that Joe Olsen can be set free from the bondage of
Satan. And to believe that, do we really
believe the Gospel? Do we really believe the gospel
that some of these false prophets can't be saved? There's power in the name of
Christ. And why would I mention this woman being saved? The Scripture
doesn't tell us that she was saved. But we know when we look
through the Scriptures, in the New Testament with Jesus, most
of the time when He rebuked demons out of people, most of the time,
He saved them. We know that when he went across
the sea to save the demon-possessed man who the city wanted nothing
to do with, Jesus went across the sea and saved the wickedest
man in the area. And all the good people came
out and told him to be gone. There's power in the gospel. There's a power in the gospel. So I believe this woman was a
born again believer. We know there was a change in
her. Such a change that evidentially she couldn't fortune tell no
more. She couldn't deceive people. So it caused her owners, her
masters, to what? Well, the scripture says, But when our owners saw their
hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them
into the marketplace before the rulers. And when they had them
brought to the magistrates, they said, these men, our Jews, are
disturbing our city. They advocate cussing that aren't
lawful for us as Romans to accept their practice. The crowd joined
in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off of them
and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had
inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison and
ordered the jailer to keep them safely. Having received their
order, he put them in a prison and fastened their feet and stocks." Paul rebukes the demon of this
woman in thinking, you know, most of us think Paul defeated
the enemy. But yet it caused the enemy to
come out even greater. It caused the enemy to come out
even greater. To a point that these men were
so outraged over their loss of their money, they dragged Paul
and Silas to the master race to have them beaten. They beat
them. Why Paul and Silas? Why not Luke
and Timothy also? For they all were together. Well, I believe in that day,
the Roman Empire didn't want Jewish people in Rome anymore,
so therefore, because Paul and Silas were Jewish, they took
them instead of Timothy and Luke who were not Jewish. Well, we
know Timothy was half Jew, half Gentile, but they didn't take
them with them. Which I find hard to believe,
because I just imagine Timothy and Luke there like, okay, these
brothers were taken, why weren't we taken? You ever struggle with that a
little bit? Why does this people seem to be going through suffering
but God isn't taking me through that suffering? Why am I living
in America where I'm not beaten or possibly having my head cut
off with the gospel but Christians across the seas are having their
heads cut off with the gospel? God has a purpose and a plan
in it. But Paul and Silas were dragged
in, falsely accused, weren't given a fair trial. You look
over church history, most Christians who were dragged in never had
a fair trial. They were always falsely accused. Is this the plan of God? Was
it the plan of God for Paul and Silas to be dragged in and beaten? Well, we know what the call of
Paul was. that he'd go and preach to the
Gentiles and the Jews and the kings and how much he must suffer
for the name of Jesus. The wonderful plan of God for
Paul's life. We hear pastors many times, and
I just cringe when I say, what do you mean by that when you
tell people God has a wonderful plan for your life? Do you really
want God's wonderful plan for your life? Because it might involve
suffering. See, they leave that out. To
our nature, that's not a wonderful plan. Me having a miscarriage isn't
God's wonderful plan for my life. That's lack of my faith. Me being
persecuted for the name of Jesus, that cannot be the plan of God
in my life. But the Scripture says it is.
It teaches that it is. And we must bear on cross. that
if they hated Him, they would hate us also. I mean, have you ever read, what,
2 Corinthians 11? Where Paul was stoned, at shipwreck,
lost at sea, constantly anxiety over all the
churches he'd been to, fear of them falling away from the Lord? Then when suffering comes our
way, we scratch our head and go, man, is this really the plan
of God for my life? Is this really God's plan? It is, church. This was the plan of God for
Paul and Silas. How could it have went down like
that unless God ordained it to? It's the plan of God. But praise
God that it's the plan of God. That He has me exactly where
He wants me. For my good. To prune me and to reshape me
into the image of Christ for me to bear more fruit for His
glory. And then Paul and them were dragged
in this inner prison after being stripped down naked and beat
with rods. And then they were put in this
inner prison where it was dark, with stocks on their legs so
that their legs were spread so far apart that they would have
cramps in their legs. I can't even imagine. I mean, I've had some suffering
in my life, but I don't think nothing to that account. Especially nothing when you read
all of Paul's life, nothing to that account. And what was the outcome of this
happening? You figure they would have been in the prison crying
and moping and down, having their own pity party. What's the Scripture say about
midnight? Paul and Silas were praying and
singing hymns to God. And the prisoners were listening
to them. Wow! You've got these two Hebrew men
strapped up to a wall Naked, been beaten. Sores all over them. They can't rub them. And these
then break out in a singing of hymns to Jesus Christ. Oh, how powerful is that? How powerful it is when you hear
of our foreign brothers and sisters in Christ across things. When
you read the martyrs over the history of how some of them sung
joyous songs as they were heading to the place that they had their
heads cut off. That they would sing joyous songs as they were
in the pit with lions about to attack them. Probably tears in
their eyes, but yet joy in their hearts. Singing to the Lord their
God. See, you know that's the power
of the Holy Spirit because nobody in our own nature can sing hymns
of joy in that time. Because our nature is to be down
and to flee from God. Oh, but didn't God comfort them? See, I can't really give credit
to Paul and Silas here. I had to give it all due to God
of the heavens who stirred their heart up for worship. As the
trial was in their life testing them to see if they would be
faithful, God kept them. He stirred their heart up for
worship. In the midst of your suffering, which this church
as a body has suffered, Is God stirring your heart up for worship? Because if you are His, He will
stir up your heart for worship. And if you can't worship Him
through the suffering, it's a good possibility you might not be
His. Because anybody can praise God
when everything is going good in their life. Anybody can. But when hell falls down around
you, when hell is attacking your life, do you still have joy in
the midst of it? When Satan is unleashed upon
you by the grace of God, is there still joy in your life? And if you're not suffering in
a great way, Yet, it's coming. James warns us, don't be alarmed
when you go through fiery trials in this life as though something
strange is happening to you. It's coming. And the only way you're going
to prepare for it is to be in God's Word every day and to be
in prayer every day. And we're going to worship it
through it as to have our eyes set on Jesus Christ and not on
our circumstances. Paul and them went looking around
at what was going on in their life. They were looking to Christ,
and therefore they were looking to Christ and the glory of Christ
that would be revealed one day. They worshipped. And as they
were worshipping through their suffering, some prisoners were
listening. Praise God! In the midst of these men's suffering,
God was stirring up their hearts to sing the gospel through their
hymns. And here we have some wicked thieves, possibly murderers,
rapists, child molesters, or whatever else might have been
in there, listening to them. I mean, wouldn't you have been
listening? You probably heard the commotion
of these men coming in. And what they did, these men
were saying something about some unknown God, and yet this happened
to them? and hear these men beaten and
bruised, hung up to a wall singing hymns, you better at least, I've
been listening to them. A lot of them probably go, these
men are crazy. How are you singing hymns and rejoicing in God and
yet you look like that? But they listened. They were listening. And the Scripture says, And suddenly
there was a great earthquake, so that the foundation of the
prison was shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and
everyone's bonds were unfastened. Let's stop there. So as they
were singing hymns and praising God, God caused the earthquake
to fall upon the place. Why an earthquake? Because that
was God's sovereign plan. Why didn't He just lead them
out by an angel? Like He did with Peter. Could He have not
done that? Of course He had, but God had
a different purpose in this account. He could have done it the same
way He did with Peter, but He chose not to. Just like He could have
chose to have Peter's life ended just like He had James' life
ended. But He chose not to. Because He had a different purpose
in it. A different plan in it. And God caused the earthquake
to fall. And it fell in such a way that
it even loosened the stops, or what we would say, cuffs, off
of these men. And the walls probably fell down
around them. Now we have a sheriff in here with us. I imagine if
his walls fell down around his thing and there were jailers,
most of them probably would escape. Or at the prison I go to where
you got men that are serving life sentences, if the walls
fell down, them men are gone. No questions asked. Even the
ones probably just serving 10 years, they'd probably be gone.
Man, this is the easiest breakaway we've had. but these men didn't leave. Is that not strange to you? I mean, because we know on that
day that if you got put in the jail, normally it was a death
sentence coming. We know the two thieves with
Jesus Christ got crucified just for stealing. So we know that
whatever these men were in there, no matter how many we know that
they were in there with Paul, that they were pretty much facing
a death sentence coming their way. And none of them left. Could it be that God, through
the singing of the hymns of Paul and Silas, saved these men? Because what else wouldn't cause
them to leave? Through their worship and their
praising of God, God saved sinners. See, it wasn't just for Paul's
good, but sometimes our suffering is good for everyone. If we continue
to worship in it. It's good for the church. How's
it good for the church? When we see the church suffer,
or an individual will suffer in a church, and we see the outcome
of the praise of God through them, then I'm encouraged. Are
you not encouraged that God will supply comfort and peace and
bring me through this? and hold me and not only bring
me, but I know those people, when they come out of suffering,
they come out even more stronger in the Lord through it. More
trusting in the Lord through it. And for the lost people,
you don't realize when we suffer and the lost see it, they're
watching us? You see how we respond? Oh, let's see how this Christian
does with all this in his life. See how he does with his life.
I know when I had a lot of suffering in my life a couple years, probably
three years ago, I had people come up and tell me by word of
mouth from someone else saying, oh, he's going to fall away. But grace be to God, I didn't. That he's able to keep his own. Kept preaching the gospel through
it. Worshipping God through it. Seeing God have impacts on other
people's lives through Him. That's the outcome of us worshiping
Jesus Christ through our suffering. That we never know His purpose
and plan behind it, but we know in our hearts we must worship
Him and that He causes something around us to happen. Then in 27, when the jailer woke,
and saw that the prisoner's doors were open, he drew his sword
and was about to kill himself supposing that the prisoners
had escaped. So you see this jailer, who probably was one
of the ones dragging Paul in there and throwing him against
the wall and strapping his stocks on him, he awakes and he automatically
draws his sword because he knows he must take his life because
his life is already going to be taken. Because these prisoners
have escaped. Because in that day, if you let
the prisoners escape, it pretty much was a death sentence towards
your own life. Which is, praise God, it's not like that anymore.
But in that day, that's the way it was. So instead of having
his life taken by his Roman emperors, he said, I'm going to go ahead
and end my life right now. But Paul, Paul cried out with
a loud voice, do not harm yourself, for we are all here. And the
jailer called for the lights and rushed in, and children with
fear, he fell down before Paul in silence. Then he brought them
out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Wow. Wow. Here you have a jailer. watching
over these prisoner earthquake hits, he wakes up about to take
his life knowing they escaped. And Paul cries out to him. Do yourself no harm. I'm here. Silas is here. And all these
other criminals that's in here, they're here. Not one of them
has escaped. He also probably heard the hymns
that they were singing. And he's seen the power of God
through the earthquake and the power of God, through the jailers
not leaving. And he fell down before these
two Hebrew men who had been beaten and asked him, what must I do
to be saved? Now you've got to think about
the power of the gospel here now. I mean, it's like, could you imagine
going before two prisoners who you consider to be criminals
and falling down before them and asking, how can I be saved? What humility that would be in
that. Begging a criminal that you've heard to be a criminal,
how much must I do to be saved? The power of God. The sovereignty
of God. That this man falls down and
cries out, probably with tears in his eyes, strolling down his
face, what must I do to be saved? Knowing these men truly do proclaim
the way of salvation. That it was no lie. And they said, In verse 31, believe
in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household. Wow! All I know is Christ crucified. The only way you can be saved,
my beloved brethren, is through Jesus Christ, through believing
upon Him. If you believe upon the Lord
Jesus Christ, you will be saved. The Jesus of the Bible, you will
be saved if you believe upon Him. But what else does He say? He
says, not only you, but your whole household will be saved. Not only you, sir, but God's
power, not only to save you, but through the same gospel that
I preached to you, God is able to save your whole family. See
how encouraging this is? Because I mean, I've got some
family members, some of my siblings that are lost. Some of my parents, many parents
I have, they're lost. Some of them. Some of them are
lost. And Paul says here to this jailer,
that if you'll believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, not only will
He save you, my brethren, but He will also save your whole
family. Do we believe that? I mean, who in here hasn't pleaded
with the Lord their God to save their lost family members? Do you believe God can save them? To not believe God can save them,
my brethren, is not to believe in the Gospel. But it's also
to make yourself self-righteous in your own thinking. To think
you're not as evil as they are. I wasn't as evil as that guy
when God saved me. You see that? That God saw something
good in me when He saved me. No, I was just as evil. Or even
more evil. The only difference between me
and Him is He might have brung out more of His thoughts than
what I brung out of my thoughts. He done it. I didn't do some
of it. But I'm just as guilty. Oh Isaiah, oh Lord, your enemies
have trespassed against you with their minds. Sinned against you
in their minds. There's power. God can save our
family. He can save people in the city.
He can save people in Statesboro. But we must go out and tell them. Believe in the Lord. Repent of
your sins and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and
you can be saved. All who call upon the name of
the Lord will be saved. And we know that isn't just a
one-time calling. That if God saves you, you will
always be calling on the name of the Lord. In 16, 32 and 34, And they spoke the word of the
Lord to him and to all who were in his house, and he took them
the same hour of the night and washed their wounds, and he was
baptized at once. He and all his family. And then
he brought them up into his house and set food before them and
rejoiced along with the entire household that he had believed
in God." He continued to speak the word
of the Lord to him. Paul was a preacher. He was an
evangelist. He wasn't just going to give
you one scripture. He was going to give you the whole Bible. Because
he didn't just want to see them learn about Jesus. He wanted
to see them grow in the Lord. He wanted to see his family be
saved. So Paul went and told his family the Word of God. Our Presbyterian brothers and
sisters in Christ would take this verse and the one in Lydia,
about Lydia's whole house being baptized, and I'd say there's
proof of instant baptism. But there's no, there's nothing
in here about infant baptism. And we know that Paul said, not
only will you be saved, but your whole family will be saved. And
we know Paul, when he preached the Gospel, and men believed,
they baptized him. I believe in Lydia's case and
her family, because we don't know the age of anybody. And
in the case of this man's family, the Jerusalem family, that these
men heard the Gospel and they believed, so therefore, they
were baptized. This doesn't support infant baptism
anywhere. They were baptized because they
believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. God put it in their hearts, after
hearing the good news of Jesus Christ, to be obedient to the
Scriptures, to be baptized. That Paul didn't have to beg
them to be baptized. You know a lot of people today,
they walk an aisle, say a prayer, and then the pastor has to get
one of them four or five times. You know you got to be baptized.
You know you got to be baptized. No God in His sovereignty puts
it in men's hearts. That I need to be obedient to
the Scripture, so therefore I must be baptized. There's no begging. I imagine every man or every woman,
every kid in this man's household, when the Holy Spirit fell upon
them from hearing the good news of Jesus Christ, they had to
be baptized. There was no rest in their souls. until they were baptized. But isn't that what God puts
in our hearts? That when we know that there's
Scripture and we're not lining up with
that Scripture, it's a burning desire in our heart to be obedient
to that Scripture. That there is no rest. Praise
God there is no rest. We praise God that He stirs our
heart out, our hearts up to be obedient to His Scripture. So
what was the purpose? What was the purpose of Paul
and Silas being beaten and thrown into prison? What was the purpose
of this? So God could go and get His lost
sheep. That was the purpose. So God
could go and get His lost sheep. We know God's sheep are scattered
abroad. His lost sheep are. And God allowed
Paul and Silas, or purposed for Paul and Silas to be beaten and
thrown into prison and He stirred their heart up for worship and
He caused the earthquake, caused them to preach the gospel through
it before the earthquake. And then God opened up the hearts
of these jailers and opened up the hearts of these prisoners
and opened up the hearts of this jailer's family and saved them. Their suffering wasn't pointless. This jailer was part of the Philippi
church. He was part of the Philippi church,
so we know it wasn't pointless that God wanted this man in his
family. Not only in his family, but he
wanted to be one of the men in this church that God was going
to start in Philippi. And not only him, but his family. So whenever Lydia was in this
church, supposedly the demon-possessed woman could have been in this
church. This jailer and his whole family
was in this church. And we know the outcome of salvation
is what? Automatically just like Lydia
did, this jailer did, they served the apostles. They served the
body. Right away. I mean it wasn't
a ten month later thing. Right around here. And that. But it wasn't a ten month later
thing. They started serving the body right then. Right then they started serving
the body. Are you serving the body? Well, I will later on when I
get my life right. No, God calls us to serve His body. And when
we look through Scriptures, When men were born again, they automatically
started serving the body. What did Jesus went in and He
healed Peter's mother-in-law? At the time He healed her, she
jumped up and started cooking for Him. I mean, it's everywhere in Scripture. We know the rich man, who was a ruler and chief tax
collectors. God saved him. And after he'd
come down the tree, he'd come down the tree joyfully. And what
did he do? He welcomed Jesus and them into his house. Invited
all his friends. He served the body. That's the
outcome of our salvation, that it isn't just about us, but it's
about everyone else. It's about everyone else. And
we must be praying, God, how can I serve your body? It kind
of goes along with what James preached last week. About serving
the body of God. That's what we've been called
to do. But will we do it? And if we find ourselves not
serving the body of God, then we need to be praying for God
to stir up our hearts. To give us no rest until we be
obedient to His Scripture. Until we be obedient to His Scripture. And that was the sovereignty
of God and the planning of the church of Philippi. Let us pray. Father God, we are so thankful
for this time together. Lord, so thankful for Your sovereignty
in all these accounts in Philippi. And Lord, we know that You are
sovereign over our lives. Lord, You're sovereign over our
sufferings, You're sovereign over our body, aches. And Lord, I just pray, Lord,
that You would give us the grace and the mercy to worship You
through all of it, Lord. That You would stir up our hearts,
Lord, that we might be a witness that You are a true God who comforts
His people and gives peace to His people in the midst of suffering. Lord, that You would be glorified
through our suffering. And Lord, I just pray for me
and I pray for the whole body of grace. True Lord, that You
would give us grace to serve You in the way that You would
have us serve. Lord, that You would stir up
our hearts to love on each other, to fall deeper in love with each
other. Oh Lord, that we would truly
look upon each other and see each other as being family. siblings
of your family, that we would see our brothers and sisters
in Christ and wouldn't just think of them as that because it's
a tradition to say, Father, but it would truly be our heart when
we look at them and say, oh, my brother and my sister in Christ.
Oh, Lord, let us spend our lives for each other. Let us give our
possessions to each other. Let's lift up our prayers for
each other, Lord. Let us build each other in Your
Word. Let us not neglect meeting together. Let us come together
always. Let our hearts burn each week
for each other. We love You and we praise You.
In Jesus' name, Amen.