Good setting. Open your Bibles,
if you would, to Acts chapter 16. We'll continue our study here.
Last Sunday, we looked at the conversion of Lydia and how it
was God who opened her heart. And that's true of every believer.
You must be born again. I was thinking that, Brian, when
you were reading about you put new wine in new bottles. We're
new creatures in Christ. My, oh, my. This is beautiful. We're new creatures in Christ.
We're not who we were at one time. It's just remarkable. So we saw how the Lord opened
Lydia's heart. She attended to the things that
Paul spoke, and we know what he spoke. He doesn't hide the
fact that he preaches the gospel whenever he can. And so God opened
his heart, just like every born-again believer, we've been born again
by the Holy Spirit of God. We now have ears to attend to
the Word of God that we didn't have before. Isn't that wonderful? It's absolutely amazing. Now,
today's message is called Persecuted for Christ. They're still in
Philippi, but we're going to see something occurs here, and
let us always remember that all these things are falling out,
number one, according to God's will and purpose. And we're going
to see something that by our minds, if it was occurring to
us or even to them, they, well, I don't know why this is happening,
We believe in God's will and purpose, and something will be
accomplished as a result of this, right? And that's not fatalism,
that's just trusting in the Lord. So whatever occurs in our life,
know it's occurring, good and bad in our eyes. It's occurring
for the furtherance of the gospel, and it's actually for our good
and for God's glory. So all these things here are
happening according to Again, for the fervence of the gospel,
for their good, and for the glory of God. And next week, we're
going to see the conversion of the Philippian jailer. And that's
why all this is happening, so that they can be in the spot
where that Philippian jailer is. Isn't that amazing? If they don't get cast in prison,
they're not going to be there when the earthquake hits. They
don't know there's going to be an earthquake. They don't know
God's got one of his lost sheep, the Philippian jailer, and not
just him, but his family as well. Oh, it's wonderful. It's just
wonderful. So let's read. Let's stand up
and read together. Verses 16 to 24 of Acts chapter 16. A little longer portion for us
to read. And it came to pass, as we went
to prayer, a certain damsel, possessed with the spirit of
divination, met us, which bought her masters much gain by Susane. 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
did she 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 of her the same
hour. And when her master saw that
the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and
drew them unto the marketplace, unto the rulers, and bought 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 majesty rent their clothes
and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes
upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to
keep them safely, who, having received such a charge, thrust
them into the inner prison and made their feet fast into stocks. So this is the prelude. We just
saw the Philippian jailer right there. He's being given charge
to keep them safe. My, because there might've been
some folks come in and try to kill him. But you know what these folks
don't know? They don't know Paul's a Roman. And you did not mistreat Romans. There was a way that Romans had
to be prosecuted. And they treated these folks,
they treated Paul and Silas and Timothy like Gentile dogs. And this is a Roman city, too,
remember. This is the first European city that Paul and Silas have
went into. No one knows Paul's a Roman.
They'd never met him before. In Antioch, they knew he was
a Roman. In the different churches he went to, they knew he was
a Roman. But next week, we're gonna see the importance of that
fact. Keep that in your mind, though,
that he's Roman. And keep in your mind, too, that
the only thing Paul and Silas are doing is preaching the gospel. The whole reason they get cast
into prison is for preaching the gospel. They cast out that
demon out of the woman, didn't they? But what else did they
do? They went around preaching the gospel. It appears Paul just
got fed up with her saying that. She was proclaiming the truth,
right? Because they were telling people about salvation. But see,
Paul doesn't want someone who's false proclaiming that. You ever see that before? I never
saw it until I did this study. Paul didn't want someone who
was falsely saying the truth saying that. God's people, God's preachers
proclaim the truth, don't they? God's people proclaim the truth
of salvation in and through Christ alone. This woman's just following
along, saying these things. And we saw, meanwhile, you know
why her masters are letting her follow? Because they're making
even more money. That's all it was about. It wasn't about what
she was saying. It was because they were lying.
Man, their pockets, they're getting heavy. They're lying in their
pockets. And Paul said, enough of that.
And we know he's led by the Holy Spirit to do that, right? Enough
of that. Oh my, what does that say for
false preachers who mix salvation with grace
alone for their gain? We see that, I'm going to say,
look at Joel. Man, he's got a house bigger
than all of us could fit in. He just preaches garbage. You
have to have a can-do attitude. Vicki does it really good. One
night I said, let's turn him on when we were in Oregon. And
he pulled out this can-do thing. That's not the gospel. Took me
about 30 seconds to shut him off. He's just a false teacher. And
you tell people that? I got a friend of mine, I tell
him that, he gets mad at me. I said, I'm telling you the truth.
All that man wants is your money. Gospel preachers, we just preach
Christ and say, come poor needy sinners such as we, flee to the
only one who can save our souls, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my. My oh my. And we've witnessed
all through our study in this wonderful book, the book of Acts, the manifestation of the eternal
purpose of God, right? Look at Paul. He gets stoned
in Lystia, and then he goes right back. How can he do that? Only by the power of God. And
we've also noticed the manifestations of the Holy Spirit of God in
delivering Paul and Silas and Barnabas from various trials
and tribulations. Taking care of them. Remember
in Thessalonica, they're being warned. The Lord let know that
those Jews were gonna kill Paul and Barnabas. So how'd they get
out, brother? They had to lower them at night,
didn't they? Down on the other side of the wall. God revealed
that was gonna happen to them if they didn't get out of the
city. And who provided the deliverance of the city? God did through
the saints, remember? It was our brothers and sisters
that lowered them down. Isn't that amazing? And we've seen time and time
and time again, Paul being delivered. We're gonna see a really neat
one near the end of the book when Paul gets shipwrecked. And
he says to the captain, don't have anyone jump over, or the
centurion, don't have anybody jump over, because none of us
are gonna die. And you know what? None of them
died at that time. They all died eventually, but
none of them died at that time. Isn't that amazing? That's God's
deliverance. It's absolutely incredible. So
we've seen that our sovereign God, our triune God, our great
triune God, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, His eternal
will and purpose shall be accomplished in all things that He's decreed. He lets us in on it. Every day
we see it. You know that? You want to know
what God's will was for yesterday? Read the news today. Isn't that
amazing? Oh, now actually you can find
out what happens an hour ago, can't you? Remember, we used
to have to read the newspaper, get the newspaper, and be reading
it. Oh, did you know this happened way over there? Now it's just
instantaneous now. My, oh my. But his sovereign
will and purpose must be accomplished. Remember they were forbade to
go into Asia, Paul and Silas? The Lord didn't let them go into
Asia, and then he didn't let them go into the next place,
Bithynia, I think it was. But here is Lydia in Philippi, and
she's from Asia. She's from Thyatira, but she's
not in Asia currently. She's one of the Lord's lost
sheep. She's in Philippi. So God forbids them from going
into Asia at that time, into Bithynia at that time, because
they have to be over here in Philippi and go down to a river
and preach the gospel to Lydia. Ain't that amazing? Do you know that at the exact
time you heard the gospel, wherever you were under whatever preacher,
that was all ordained by God. Isn't that incredible? It's absolutely
amazing. All ordained by God. Oh my, it's wonderful. So he accomplished his will and
purpose according to his appointed times. We get to live in these times,
but nothing catches God by surprise. Nothing. Lots catch us by surprise,
don't bother Brian. Whoa, where'd that come from?
But not the Lord. And think of this too. This will
bring you great comfort, okay? Whenever things happen by surprise
to us, know that God has already prepared the way for you. He already knows the end of whatever
that journey will be. and he's made provisions for
it. That's comforting, isn't it?
That's comforting. If we're going through a dark
time, that's comforting. The clouds will break, right? We get rainstorms all the time.
Come in, just come rolling in, eh? You see the black clouds
yesterday? Just come, you're looking, you're
like, oh, there's a storm coming. But after that, in the spring
and summer, The clouds break and the sun, now the sun's always
been there, hasn't it? Has the sun always been there?
It's just been obscured by some clouds. Remember, the sun's always with
us, S-O-N. Sometimes the clouds of life
just obscure that fact. But he said, I'll never leave
you, nor forsake you. And we see he's ever with Paul and Silas
and Barnabas and John Mark. He's ever with them. And his
power's being manifested, just like it's manifested in our lives. My oh my. It's absolutely wonderful. So again, the God-honoring truth
of God's sovereign will being performed and executed was shown
to us, really jumped out again last week, when Paul and Silas
were not allowed to go into Asia at that time. They were forbidden
by the Holy Spirit of God to go in there at that time, and
Bithynia, Someone would say, well, why did God forbid them
to go to those two places? Well, again, it's not his purpose. It's not his purpose. See, even
what we're going to see today with Paul and Barnabas being
beaten and all that, we look at that and say, that's awful.
But they had to go to that jailer, didn't they? Oh my. And we're gonna sing.
See, next week, you know what Paul and Barnabas, or Paul, Barnabas,
Paul and Silas are doing in that prison at night? They're singing
hymns. They're not in there going, oh, woe is me. They're singing hymns. Oh my. And you know what happens?
God gives you grace during those times. It's not natural for us
to sing if we're in prison, is it? But God gives grace. People say, I don't know if I
have dying grace. Well, you're not dying. Didn't
Jimmy say that? You're not dying. But when you're
dying, God will give you dying grace. Don't have to worry about
it, beloved. He'll give you grace to get through
these shadows of dark times. But eventually, them clouds will
break. Think of how this, think of how Paul and Barnabas, they
get cast in jail. What did they do? Why were they
thrown in jail? Because they was preaching the
gospel. That's really the only reason. These fellows are teaching
things that we Romans, you know the Romans believed in a pantheon
of gods. Multiple gods. They had different
gods for luck, different gods for all these things. Everything
they had, love, romance, all these different things. Businesses. Sounds like saints. A certain
church has all these different saints. Do you know there's a
saint for beer drinking? Isn't that crazy? I found that out
after the Lord saved me. I couldn't believe it. It's unbelievable. So they had this pantheon of
gods, and ultimately they believed Caesar was a god. So when they're
saying they're teaching things that are against what we believe,
they're saying we believe in these multiple gods and they're
teaching one god. Because there's only one true
living god, isn't there? Isn't that wonderful? And so
the whole reason they get thrown in jail is because they're preaching
the truth. They're preaching that there's
only one God. And that God himself became a man and died for sinners,
shedding his precious blood to redeem. And again, as our sisters
say, how deep the Father's love is an everlasting love. It's
an unchanging love. And that love was manifested
in such a great way that he sent his only begotten son into this
world to die and bleed for our sins. I ask you, have you ever
seen a greater manifestation of love than the death of Christ
for sinners? I've never seen one. I know how much my wife loves
me and my mom loved me and you guys love me, but it don't even
come close, does it? to the love that God showed us
when he sent Christ into this world to redeem us by dying. And God forsook God, remember
that. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? God forsook the Son that we'd
never be forsaken. My, so shall we what? Ever be with the Lord. Hmm. My, what a Savior. What a Redeemer is Jesus Christ
our Lord. My, oh my. God incarnate in the
flesh. So he forbid them to go into
these two places because he was leading them. He was leading
them to where Lydia was. And we're going to see next week
to where the Philippian jailer was. My oh my, God will send preachers
to his sheep. Someone say, I had someone ask
me one time, well what about if God has one of his sheep,
he's trying to get me, what if he has one of his sheep on a
deserted island and no one ever, God will send him a preacher.
That's just how it's gonna be. He will, he'll send a missionary. He will. If he has a sheep there,
he'll send someone to preach the gospel to them. My, oh, my. Or they'll hear a
preacher. That's what we love about sermon
audio. It goes out in the world. And maybe places where people
don't have preachers, they can hear the gospel preached. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, my. And so he wasn't leading them
to those places. He was leading them to right
where his sheep are. Not that there wasn't sheep there, but
it just wasn't their time of love yet. Wasn't their time to hear the
gospel. And our Lord Jesus Christ made
his purpose known through a vision, remember? Gave Paul a vision.
A man from Macedonia said, come, help us. So they made their way. And then, as we saw last week,
they preached the gospel, and the lady's heart was opened.
But God's will was made known to his servants. Paul and Silas and those traveling
with them, when they got to Philippi, the chief city, they were led
by God on the Sabbath day to go down to the river. Some say,
well, why'd they go there? Because God's sheep are there.
There's a lost sheep there who God's gonna save. Her name is Lydia. Look at verse
16, and notice that word certain again in our text. It distinguishes
her from the other women. Verse 16, Acts 16, 16. It came
to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel. Oh, this is,
I'm sorry. I was in the wrong spot, guys,
I'm sorry. Look at verse 14. And a certain
woman named Lydia, certain woman again, a seller of purple, of
the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, heard us, whose heart the
Lord opened, and she attended unto the things which were spoken
of Paul. And then she was baptized. She
followed the Lord in believer's baptism, identifying to the people
around her, the Lord has saved me. So baptism has no saving
power, but it identifies us with Christ. Oh my. With the death, burial, and resurrection
of Christ. Oh my. Let's look at verses 16
to 18 now. We're gonna start to look at
this, what happened here. So Lydia's being saved. They continue
on through the city. look what it says, and it came
to pass, verse 16, as we went to a prayer, again a certain
damsel, so that again the certain there is indicating her, is pointing
her out from all the other women that were there too, possessed
with a spirit of divination, menace, which brought our masters
much gain by soothsaying. The same followed Paul and cried,
saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God, which show
unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But
Paul, being grieved, he's just fed up with it. He's grieved
with her doing this. Turned and said to the spirit
I command thee now look who he says it in in the name of Jesus
Christ To come out of her and he came out the same hour My oh my look at that In the name of Jesus By the power
of Christ Not Paul doesn't have no special power He has apostolic
gifts But this happens by the power
of God. Just as the healings in the book
of Acts happen by the power of God. In God alone. And he uses the name of Jesus,
the name above all names. The only name whereby a sinner
can be saved. The only one who can save a sinner. The emphasis is on Christ. And
this young lady in our text, we see she was demon-possessed. And her masters, they were making
a ton of money on her supposed soothsaying. They were making a lot of money. You know, when someone starts
making a lot of money, they want more, don't they? I have a brother who's a millionaire
in Canada, and he's working like crazy,
and my other brother and I kept telling him, you know, you got
enough money, you can retire now. He just wanted more. He'd never have to work another
day in his life. Can't stop working. And I understand. But we said, you could slow down. Enjoy some of that money in case
you just drop, how many times have you heard somebody retire
and drop dead? Happens, doesn't it? My oh my. And then what does
the scripture say? Everything you had is given to
someone else. I love what you said, Neil, about
buying a new chainsaw. I've never forgotten that. Neil
said, why should I buy a new chainsaw? Someone else is just
gonna get it. Just fix the old one to make
it work, right? I love that. Brian will just buy his own chainsaw,
right Brian? Oh my, but I never forgot that.
That's wise. That's wise. So keep in mind
here that Paul and Silas and those with them in Philippi,
They're there according to God's will and purpose. And even this
situation is happening according to God's will and purpose. It
manifests the power of God, doesn't it? That he is Lord of Lord and
King of Kings. He has all power over everything. The demons bow to him, beloved.
Remember when we looked at the gathering demoniac and they said,
we know who thou art, thou son of the Most High. The scripture
says in James, the devils believe and tremble. Now that's not a
saving faith, but they know who he is and they tremble. They tremble. Later on, we're
gonna see a couple, I think it's a bunch of brothers, they get
together and they think they can cast out a demon. And the
demon says to them, I know Paul, but I don't know you. And this
demon possessed guy will jump on them and just tear them to
shreds. See, at the name of Jesus, that's
the name of power, beloved. That's the name of power. My,
oh, my. I love that song we sang, right?
There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins,
and sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty
stains only because of Christ and his precious blood. Rejoice, beloved, all our sins,
past, present, and future are forgiven. Oh, and that dying thief, eh? You ever think of him? That dying
thief, he was condemned by the law. The law condemned him. He was guilty of the sin that
he was being crucified for. He was condemned by the law.
I was condemned by the law, the law of God. I'm guilty of all
the sins I do. So are you, right? The law says,
the soul that sinneth, it must die. Praise God. What did that thief say? Lord,
just remember me. He said, today thou shalt be
with me in paradise. And we who are the redeemed of
the Lord, There's someone else who died in our room and place.
The great substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. And because of
his perfect work, all our sins are forgiven. All of them. We're
washed in the blood of the Lamb. My, oh my. So here's this certain
damsel. She was a soothsayer, demon-possessed. She was practicing the satanic
craft of fortune-telling. And it is satanic. Oh my. Now, those things and
all other forms of witchcraft are satanic. I remember talking to someone
one time that was dabbling in witchcraft, and I said, you have
no power. She said, oh yeah, I do. I said, you have no power
at all. Nothing. I said, my king has all power. He is all might. My, oh my. Someone tells you
they're into this, there's no power there. Our King is the mighty conqueror
and in Him we are more than conquerors. Now don't dabble in that stuff.
Don't even, I just stay away from all that stuff. I used to be in the New Age and
all that stuff before the Lord saved me. That's trippy stuff. Just stay away from it. Stay away from it. That's my
advice to young people who I meet. Stay away from it. My, oh, my. You know, we wrestle
not against flesh and blood. Right? There's spiritual warfare going
on. I know folks don't talk about it all the time, but there is.
There is. Say, well, we Baptists, we got
to... No, there is. There is. But praise God. Greater
is He that is in us than he that is in the world. We're no match for the enemy,
are we? But He's no match for our King. In the name of Jesus, we invoke
the name of Christ, don't we? Oh, yes, we do. Oh, my. So we see here in verse 17 that this young lady followed
them for several days. And again, her ungodly masters
were having her do that because they're making a lot of money.
If they weren't making any money, they'd have peeled right off
and went somewhere else. But they're making money following
Paul and Silas and Timothy. Oh my. And she's saying these men are
servants of the Most High God, which show us the way of salvation.
Now what she's saying is true, but her motive was evil. Her motive was evil. She wasn't
saying that for the glory of God. She was saying that for the gain
of her masters. There's a difference, isn't there?
There is a difference. Oh my. Remember, she has a spirit
of divination. And this spirit's bringing her
masters a lot of money. See, what was the motive of her
masters? The riches of this world. Now
we need things to live, don't we? We do. But the difference
with God's people And the world out there is we're content with
what we have, what the Lord gives us. Some are rich, some are poor,
some are right in the middle, right? But all are taken care
of. God's people are always taken
care of. We don't always have what we want, because the scripture
says we consume not with our lust, but we always, have you
ever noticed? You always have what you need.
I've noticed that. I always have what I need. The Lord always takes care of
me. We've seen it in our marriage time and time again. It's just
amazing. My oh my. But these men, they
wanted wealth, they wanted power, they wanted influence. And they
had that with the soothsayer. Well, guess what's gonna happen? Their well's going to dry up
real fast. Real fast. And think of this,
too. God's preachers have a concern
for your eternal welfare. That's why we preach Christ. False preachers, they want what
they can get off you. How do you know that? Will you
ever hear these fellas say, just put your seed money in there? And what do they do? They, after
that meeting, they get on their jet and they fly off somewhere. They don't ride with the common
folks like you and I. No, no, no. Oh, I don't, I've got to stop. We preach the gospel because
we love Christ. I have a concern for your eternal
souls and the eternal souls for whoever will listen to these
messages, that God would save them. And if you're a believer,
that God would build you up in Christ. If you're not a believer,
that God would save your soul. But if you are a believer, oh,
that God would just build you up in the faith that we have
in Christ, build you up in Christ. Prepare us for the week that's
coming. We don't know what's gonna happen,
but God does. Give us strength. Strengthen
us through the preaching of your gospel, Lord, please. Oh my. And we see in verse 18 that at
God's appointed time, remember this, at God's appointed time,
Paul was grieved. Not by chance, not by luck, not
by, oh, I'm so fed up with this lady, I'm just gonna try, I just
need to shut her up. Not that. No. And if it was a guy, just shut
the guy up, right? But it's just the time that God's appointed. And Paul's spirit is grieved
because he knows they're making money. They're not in it for
the glory of God, they're in it for gain. And look at this. And this did she
many days, with Paul being grieved, turned and said to the Spirit,
I command thee in the name of Jesus. take note, the name of Jesus
Christ, to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. Like all God's preachers, Paul
didn't desire the praise of man, did he? We who are preachers,
we don't desire the praise of man. We love you. But we're not preaching for the
praise of man. As a matter of fact, like Tom
told me one time, he said, what you preach, men don't want to
hear. Except the Lord's people. Because
he said, you tell us there's nothing we can bring to the table
for our salvation. Oh yeah, that's right. Isn't that right? Salvation's
only in Christ and him alone. And what do we say as God's people?
We're going to say this in heaven. Hallelujah. Praise the name of
Jesus. Because if salvation depended
on me in any way, I would mess it up. How about you? Oh, my. I know I would. Oh, my. So Paul didn't desire the praise
of man, especially from unregenerate Christ-hating men and women.
And being led by God the Holy Spirit and using apostolic power
Paul commanded the evil spirit in the name of Jesus Christ to
come out of her. Beloved, that evil spirit had no choice but
to come out of her. Didn't have a choice. Paul didn't say, well, come out
of her if you can exercise your free demon will. Nope. Just come out of her. Get out. And by the power of God, that
evil spirit had no choice but to come out of her. And remember,
Paul and his companions are traveling around the city of Philippi.
They're preaching the gospel of salvation alone through Christ
alone. Right? People are hearing this.
And we know the Lord's saving people. He saved Lydia. And what
are they doing? They're probably telling other
people, too. Oh, my. And Paul and his companions are
proclaiming Christ as the God-man, the only Savior of sinners. They're
proclaiming His death upon the cross, His resurrection from
the dead, and the fact that He's right now seated at the right
hand of the Father. Let's read verses 19 to 24 now of Acts chapter
16. Acts chapter 16, again, verses 19
to 24. And when their master saw that
the hope of their gains was gone, their well of money dried up. They caught Paul and Silas and
drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers and bought them
to the magistrates." They bought them to the judges of the city. Saying, these men being Jews,
they don't know one of them's a Roman, who's also a Jew, a
free man. Oh my, do exceedingly trouble
our city. and teach customs which are not
lawful for us to receive, neither to observe. And this being Romans,
I could just picture it being said smugly. Because the Romans
thought they were the creme de la creme. Being Romans. Oh my. And the multitude rose
up together against them, and the majesties rent off their
clothes and commanded to beat them. Notice there was no trial. No, just, they're Jews, just
beat them. We're gonna see these same magistrates
terrified when they find out Paul's a Roman. Terrified, they're
falling over themselves for them not to say anything. And doesn't
Paul say, I'm gonna go to Rome? Oh my, oh my. Look at this. And when they had
laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging
the jailer to keep them safely, which is securely in the Greek.
So there's God, again, sovereignly protecting them from a mob, who having received such a charge,
thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in their
stocks. That's they fastened their feet
in iron. They're now prisoners. For what?
For preaching the gospel. Oh my. Again, they weren't guilty of
anything. All they were doing was preaching the gospel. They're
not troublemakers. They're not insurrectionists.
They're not forcing doctrinal truths upon anyone. They preached
the gospel with authority and by God's power, and they had
an uncompromising spirit. We saw that, didn't we, in Acts
15 with the Council of Jerusalem. We saw that. Judaizers say you
must do this to be saved, along with faith in Christ, and Paul
and Barnabas have a contention with them, which was an argument.
in the Greek, and say, well, up we go to Jerusalem. Got to
get this settled. You say they sent you. Let's
go to the Church of Jerusalem, then. And they settled it. They
said, we're all saved the same way, by grace alone through Christ
alone. So these men are cast into prison. They preach the truth and love,
leaving the results of their preaching in the sovereign hands
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one who can make
the gospel factual, right? Yeah. I'm just blowing a trumpet. Salvation's of the Lord. Salvation's
only in Christ. That's what they were doing.
And these men became angry. They became angry, number one,
the masters became angry because they lost their money. They were probably rolling in
it. And all of a sudden, just like that, it's done. Oh my. And you know what? These evil
men would not have put a change to anything if the Lord had let
them keep going. That poor girl, they either used
that girl just to keep gaining money. And it says that they
were her masters, so she may have been a slave. She wasn't
getting a whole lot from that, was she, if she was a slave? Oh my. These ungodly men were
gaining riches, and they just kept going the way they wanted
to. And they would have kept going, but the Lord put a stop
to it. The Lord put a stop to it. Oh my. There was some Word of
Faith guy, I think it was last year, he claimed that he was
going to live till a certain year in the future. He dropped
dead the next week. My, oh my. Don't mock God. No, no, no. No, no, no. So these guys here, they were
making their money. They didn't want to lose their money source,
their hope of gains. Let's read verses 20 and 21 now.
We see how wickedly our dear brothers were treated for preaching
the gospel, for casting the demon out of that poor girl. Look at verse 20 and 21. And
bought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews,
do exceedingly trouble our city. So they're trumpeting it up,
aren't they? They're making it more than what
it is. And teach customs which are not
lawful for us to receive, neither to observe being Romans. So again,
they believe in a bunch of different gods. Paul and Silas are preaching
there's only one God and only salvation in Christ alone, the
Son of God. And they, according to their
laws, do you know that if you believe that you could be killed?
According to Roman law. If you said that the emperor
wasn't God, you could be killed. Why do you think they put all
our brothers and sisters in the Coliseums and had those animals
tear them to pieces? They didn't think anything of
it. See how horrible we can be in
our depraved state? And we were all there. And we
still struggle with sin, don't we? Oh my. So they were falsely accused
of the crimes they did not commit. And when the magistrates heard
this, they agreed with the false accusations. And we see the multitude,
the city, rose up against them. Look at verse 22. Anyways, the multitude that was
within the square. And the multitude rose up together
against them, and the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded
to beat them. They just shred open their clothes.
and then they command to beat them. Has there been a trial? Has any of them been able to
speak? Has Paul, as a Roman, been able to speak for himself,
which is the way it should have been? They think they're just a bunch
of Jews, so we're just gonna beat them, throw them in prison. Oh my. But before they threw
him in prison, They beat him. Look at verses
23 to 24. Many stripes laid across their
backs. And when they had laid many stripes
upon them, you know how painful that would be? And charging the jailer to keep
them safely, who having received such a charge,
thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in stocks.
Now again, there's something that the magistrates and the
people don't know. They don't know Paul's a Roman. They're
gonna find out and they're gonna be terrified. They're gonna be
terrified. They also didn't know that the
ones who bought this false acquisition against them You notice they
didn't mention anything about their gain? They didn't say we lost our money
source. They just said they're teaching
things contrary to what we as Romans are supposed to hear.
The whole reason they bought them there was to get them in
trouble. But God has a plan, doesn't he? He's at work. And they get put
in jail. Where there's a felon called
the Philippian Jailer. Oh my. And all this happened
according to God's will and purpose. And there's a Philippian Jailer
who's going to hear the gospel. And the Lord's going to save
him and some members of his household as well. Isn't that amazing? They meant
it for evil. God's going to use it for good. Think of the cross. Man meant
it for evil. God used it for good to redeem
our eternal souls by the shedding of the blood of Christ. Oh my, let's read verses 23 and
24 again. And when they had laid many stripes
upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to
keep them safely, who having received such charge, thrust
them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks. Notice again in the province
of God, God is protecting his preachers, protecting his people.
The mob can't get at them, can they? That jailer will kill anyone
who comes in to try to harm them. Because if the jailer allows
any harm to come to Paul and Silas and Timothy, he's gonna,
according to Roman law, if he was a jailer and he let anything
happen to those prisoners or let any of them escape, they
kill him. We're gonna see that next week.
He's ready to fall on the sword and Paul says, we're all here. How
did a bunch of prisoners, who normally, if a prison was open,
would just, what'd they do? Oh, were gone. By the power of
God, beloved. By the providence of God. By
the restraining grace and hand of God. Not one of them left. Not one of them. Oh my. Isn't it amazing? Isn't God so
good? Absolutely incredible, beloved. absolutely incredible.