Now open your Bibles, if you would, to Acts chapter 28. We will have one more message after this message. We've been journeying through this book. The book of Acts will be in Acts 28. Today, the name of the message is Paul Arrives at Rome. Paul Arrives at Rome.

Been a wonderful study, hasn't it? I know I've found great comfort, I hope you have too, from our sovereign God protecting Paul and his traveling companions and getting them to where he told them they must be. Providing, we're gonna even see today, providing for them. Showing favor in certain people's eyes. so that Paul was able to be with the brethren as we saw last week. Having seven days with them, just amazing. All because God had Julius favor Paul. And again, that's the same as the Egyptians. Remember, when God had the Egyptians see the Israelites in a favorable way and they gave them their gold and all these things that provided all the gold for the temple, provided for their journeyings. Just amazing. Now we can rest in Christ knowing that as we see our sovereign God at work in the book of Acts, we can rest assured that this is true for every believer on the Lord Jesus Christ. Every believer.

Something I'd like you to do sometime is look back on your life. Maybe this week meditate upon it. Look back on your life. And ask the Lord to reveal to you the times that he's delivered you. So I guarantee he is. Might have been a sickness. Might have been heartache. Might have been something with a family member. And marvel at how he's taking care of you and I through it all. Through it all. Look back and say, man, I could have died in that situation. But God preserved us.

And then we say, why me? Well, we saw the answer in Sunday school, because it pleased God to do so. But I want us to think about that. Because we've seen in this book of Acts, where Paul could look back, he even brought it up, he says, I was shipwrecked three times once. Three times, and I went through all these things. Meet with 39 stripes.

He can look back at these things and see how God delivered him from them all. And I guarantee you, before we were saved, there's a lot of times where God watched over us. Because you know, his eyes have never been not upon us. Isn't that amazing? That's amazing. Let's stand up and read verses 10 to 16. This will be our text for today of Acts chapter 28. Let's stand up and read this together. Acts 28 verses 10 to 16. who also honored us with many honors, and when we departed, they laded us with such things as were necessary.

And after three months, we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle whose sign was Castor and Pollux. And landing at Syracuse, We tarried there three days, and from there we fetched a compass and came to Rehigum. And after one day, the south wind blew, and we came next day to Putulia, where we found brethren. and were desired to tarry with them seven days. And so we went toward Rome. And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Epiphorum and three taverns.

Paul saw he thanked God and took courage. And when he He came to Rome. The centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard, but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him. My, oh, my. There's a lot packed in these little verses here. So Paul, as the Lord had told him, you must go to Rome and testify of me. We now see that by the grace and mercy of God, Paul has arrived at Rome. We're gonna read a little bit about before he gets there. Now, last week's sermon centered on the sovereign providence of our great God. It illustrated through Paul's shipwreck and his ministry on the island of Malta, where we saw divine orchestration.

Remember the storm came out of nowhere? Well, God had some lost sheep on Malta, didn't he? And there had never been a preacher go to Malta. So the question of, people always ask, again, I mention this three times, I'm going to mention it fourth now. When people say, well, what about people on a deserted island, never heard the gospel? And our answer is, if they're lost sheep, God will send them a preacher, because that's exactly what he did here.

They were not planning on going to Malta, but God had other plans, didn't he? They were planning on sailing above Cyprus, but the rough waters and the winds not being prevailing, they had to go down below Cyprus. They ran into a huge storm, and they were shipwrecked on the island of Malta. Why? Because God's got some lost sheep there. Oh, my.

Isn't it wonderful? And we know they were there for a few months, and what did Paul do? Well, he preached the gospel, didn't he? He preached the gospel. My oh my. And so he shipwrecked on Malta for an opportunity to preach the gospel to the lost souls on Malta. Paul doesn't know who the elect are, so he's preaching to everyone, right? Just like we do. I don't have a clue who they are, so I preach to everyone.

God does the saving, right? He does the saving. So despite human efforts and natural disasters and superstitious reactions of the islanders, God used Paul and his little missionary group. He preserved them. Remember, Paul throws a bunch of sticks in the fire, and a venomous snake comes out, grabs a hold of them, and he just shakes it off. Nothing happens to him. God used that for an opening with the people. They said, oh, he's a God. And Paul says, I'm not no God. I'm no God. I serve the living God. That's what he would have said. I serve the one true living God.

And then they bought, Pubius had them come into his home, all the shipwrecked folks. And he hosted them for two days, remember? And then Paul found out that Publius' dad was really sick, couldn't be healed, and by the power of God, the Holy Spirit, by the power of Christ, he's healed.

Paul's just an instrument, right? Like a scalpel in a doctor's hands, that's all he is. Once we realize we're just instruments, that it's not us doing the work, Oh my, what a burden that has taken off, isn't it? Isn't it, Brother Brian? We just—we just proclaim Christ and let—watch what God does. It's amazing.

So through all these things, once Pubius' father had been healed, Then a whole bunch of people from the island, they brought all kinds of sick people to Paul, and he healed them. And it was all by the divine will and purpose of Jesus Christ, and all by his power. Paul had no power. Wondrous. Last week, we saw God's sovereign will and purpose at work. In the message last year, I underscored the sovereignty of God in salvation. He's sovereign in providence. and He's sovereign in salvation.

And that's not up for debate, is it? It's not up for debate. There was a time when we didn't believe that, and now we wholly embrace it, don't we? And that's a miracle of God's grace, right there. That's a miracle of God's grace. My, oh my. So his sovereign will and purpose is at work, even today. And salvation, again, is entirely the work of God. He sends his preachers to preach the gospel. Sinners saved by grace, telling other sinners where to find bread.

And people say, oh, you guys think you're better than everybody else. You don't know me. Brother Tom, do we think we're better than anyone else? No. Brother Kevin, we think we're the chief of sinners, don't we? We think Paul says he's the chief of sinners.

No, it's me. And that's not no fake self-righteousness either. That's real. God's put it left to myself. I could be in jail for anything that anybody ever has done on this earth. Left to my own self. But for the grace of God. It's true, isn't it? Zane and I have talked, left to ourselves, we probably would have ended up in prison. But for the grace of God. But for the grace of God.

Paul's just a sinner saved by grace. He's wiping Christians out. One month, he's destroying the church. One month, the next month, the Lord saved him. And they all said, behold, he who persecuted us is now preaching the faith. Could you imagine the awe and wonder? And now here's Paul, he's going to Rome. And I love how we see the brethren are meeting him. We're going to see that today. This is incredible. God provides fellowship for Paul, not only with Timothy and the others that are with them, but with other saints as they get into the port. It's absolutely amazing.

And verses 1 to 10 of this chapter highlights the believer's assurance in Christ. I know we all doubt. We can all be rocked with doubt, can't we? But let us always remember the assurance that Christ will never lose one of his people. Why? Because it's not based on us. It's based on him. Now we all sin more than we want to, don't we? I wish I could never sin again. One day, that's gonna happen one day though, isn't it? Sister Barbara would never sin again one day.

Oh my. I'll tell you, that's enough to kick your feet in the air. My, I'd make a Baptist a Pentecostal for a little while, eh? My, oh my. It's wonderful. Oh my, so we see his sovereign will at work. There's lost sheep in that island, so God sends a preacher. Now, there's lost sheep in Rome too, isn't there? God's gonna send his preacher. Oh my, it's beautiful.

Let's look at verse 10 again. Look at this. The people were so overwhelmed at God's grace shown to them in Christ. Look what they did in verse 10. Now this is a picture, I've been telling a young believer, I've been talking with a young believer lately, and I've been telling her, God will provide for his people. He does it time and time and time again. He does it, he does that. And we just have to look back, and remember too, when you're looking back, look back before you were saved and look after you were saved and how the Lord took care of you.

And delivered you through all these different circumstances in your life. It's absolutely mind-blowing. Things that we never even perceived. And he's taken care of us through it all. He's brought us to hear the gospel. My, everyone here today is here by God's divine appointment. Everyone.

And you know, the preacher, we can stand up and preach the gospel knowing that God will use it no matter what. His word will not return unto him void, will it? It'll go out and accomplish. Some it may harden, and some it may save. And the people of God who are already saved are comforted by the preaching of the gospel. Built up, as we looked at a couple weeks ago, strengthened by grace. strengthened by grace, that's through the preaching of the word, through the reading of the word, through the hearing of the word. My, it's glorious, isn't it?

And the word and the preaching is all about Christ, God in the flesh, who came to save his people from their sins. by the shedding of His blood, the giving of His life. And as Brother Tom prayed, that was wonderful, the rising from the grave. He rose for our justification and is now seated at the right hand of the Father, mediating for us. My. And look at this though, look at verse 10.

Who also honored us with many honors, and when we departed, they laded us with such things as were necessary. The things that they needed for the trip, because remember, what happened? What happened two months ago before this? They were shipwrecked. Where'd all the stuff go they had? Well, they may have recovered some of it, but I guarantee you a lot of it was lost.

Now, they're showing favor in the islanders, the people of Malta's eyes, and the people laden them down with all things that are necessary. Kind of reminds us of the three wise, or not, the wise men, we don't know how many there were, who came and gave gold and frankincense and mirth, right? And that was used for Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, to go into Egypt. It's amazing, isn't it, Tom?

All a provision. All a provision. You know, someone sent me a text about the world events this week, and I wrote back, you know, it's not hard to write back something that we want to pop off about, but I wrote a scripture back. The Lord is my shield and my redeemer. in whom I will trust. Right? That's our power. That's where our strength is. That's where we can glean power to get through this world of woe. And let us continue to pray for our nation. Let us continue to pray for our soldiers. Let us continue to pray for the people in the world who do not know Christ. Right? My.

Now, the Lord had used the miracle of Paul healing the father of Pubius and then healing a whole bunch of other folks on the island. And he'd done all this work. Paul would give all the glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, wouldn't he? He wouldn't take any glory to himself. He'd say, this is all God's work. God did all this. He did it all. And that would give evidence that he was not a god. Right? That he served the living and true God.

And so the fame of Paul spread throughout the island of Malta, and they brought all these folks. And then, they sent them away, loaded down. And so Paul never missed an opportunity to proclaim Christ. He never missed an opportunity to proclaim him. And we see here, Paul tells us, or Luke tells us, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, that the people of Malta honored Paul and those with him. Let's read verse 10 again. Who also honored us with many honors, and when we departed, they loaded us with such things as was necessary. Now, let's take a little word there, they departed. When did they depart?

At the exact moment that God ordained. The exact second. The exact second that God ordained. Do you know we were born into this world at the exact second that God ordained? Saved and lost. We're given breath to breathe by our great God, saved and lost. The rain falls on the just and the unjust, saved and lost. My.

You know, isn't it wild? I was talking with someone and they were all worked up about an AI thing, AI taking over and all this. And I said, you know, it's kind of sad that you fear something like that but don't fear God. You're afraid of something that God has allowed to come to pass, right? He's using it on sermon audio for putting the sermons in different languages so people all over the world can hear the sermons in their own native tongue. So, you know, God will harness it for good, but man will harness it for evil. That's just the same as everything, right? And then I have to remember what Chris and I have talked about before is we were there. And it gives me a perspective of where the Lord saved me from. Because I lived in fear, did you?

Fear of all kinds of things. And the scripture tells us not to fear man who can destroy the body, but fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell, and that being God. So natural man has no fear of God. Well, I'll tell you, when they meet him, they're gonna tremble. And they're gonna either meet him as judge or savior. Judge or savior. And there's no purgatory, there's no second chance, there's nothing like that at all. If you die in your sins, You're going to meet Christ as judge.

And I used to, I remember being with my friends and we'd say, oh, we're going to party in hell together. I remember doing that, saying that stuff, all kinds of stuff, just stupid stuff. But I said it all the time. See you in hell, man. And I didn't have a clue. I didn't have a clue that I was spitting in the very eyes of my Savior. And you know, left to myself, you know where I would go? To hell.

But for the intervening grace of God, right, in all of our lives who believe, if he hadn't intervened in our lives, if he hadn't saved us and we died in our sins, we would have went straight to hell just like everyone else. The only thing that made us to differ is God. So there is, there is a hell to shun and a heaven to gain. For me, to die is gain. To live is Christ, and to die is gain. Right?

When our brothers and sisters depart from this world, they've gained. They've gained, beloved. We have the loss of them being gone, but we have a hope. We're going to see them again, aren't we? Oh yeah, we will. Face to face, just like we're going to see our Savior. Face to face. So Paul here, he's going, he goes out and preaches the gospel, knowing, right? To live is Christ and to die is gain.

And he fears God. There was a time when he didn't fear God, right? Because he was out slaughtering the church, wasn't he? He was destroying the church of the Greek. But now, he loves the brethren, he's born again, he loves the brethren, he's been given faith to believe on Christ, and he's proclaiming Christ wherever God sends him. It's wonderful. What a change God has wrought in him. What a change, and that's true of every believer, right? What a change he's wrought in us. You know? It's absolutely amazing. My oh my. So the people on the island gave honor where honor was due. John Gill stated in his commentary by expressions of respect and gratitude.

And that's exactly what's in the hearts of God's people towards his preachers and teachers. All those who are called to teach the priest the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture says this, and we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you. and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake and be at peace among yourselves. You guys honor the position I'm in. It's wonderful.

But I'm just a sinner saved by grace like all of you, right? And what does the scripture say? We're to esteem others better than ourselves, aren't we? That starts right at the front, right here, doesn't it? Right to all of us. Right? And when we have a visiting preacher, where am I sitting? Right with you. Because I'm a sheep and I need to hear the gospel. My, we're to esteem others better than ourselves. Look at verse 10 again. Look at this again.

And when we departed, they laded us with such things as were necessary. And look at verse 11 now. And after three months, we departed in the ship of Alexandria, which wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux. So this ship that they are going to go on to now has wintered there. Now, think about this. Think about this. And this is what I was telling someone how God provides for his people.

Okay, so their ship comes in and it gets shipwrecked, right? And some of them are floating in, remember? Some are swimming in, some are floating in on debris of the ship, right? The ship is gone. It's destroyed. But God's already got a ship in another part of the island waiting for him.

He's already provided before they even knew it. You know, before there was ever a sinner, there was a Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. Before there was ever a sinner, there was a Savior. Isn't that glorious? Do you see God's provision for Paul and his companions? And then we see God's provision for us in the before we were ever born, before we ever were, before the universes were already laid, before they were even laid, Christ is the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. My, isn't our God glorious? God himself has saved us. God himself in the flesh has saved us, beloved. It's wonderful, isn't it? Absolutely wonderful.

So God's already, they're there three months after their shipwreck. And now it's God's appointed time for his servants to leave. And we see that they're grateful recipients of God's mercy from the people of Malta as they laid them down with everything that was necessary. And this is just God's grace poured out upon them.

He uses saved and lost, doesn't he? They're all instruments in his hands. instruments in his hands. So the Lord provided them, though, with another ship. It had already been wintering there. They didn't know, but there it is. God's already provided a ship for them. It's wintering in the island of Malta. And the captain of this ship knew it was dangerous to travel. God gave him some wisdom, didn't he?

Huh. Imagine that ship just being right there. People say, you know, the world says, oh, that was lucky. Well, you know, I like what Spurgeon said. We Christians should just strike the word luck out of our vocabulary, because that's divine providence. That's God at work. Remember, even the casting of the die is ordered by the Lord. Oh, my. Remember a bird? There's not a bird that falls to the ground without our Heavenly Father knowing. Just a little sparrow.

My, oh my, that's our Savior. That's our Redeemer. That's our God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Word of God, the second person of the Trinity in the flesh, who came to save His people from their sins by His blood and righteousness. I'll tell you what, this is a wonder of salvation, and it's free.

I was talking to Vicki the other day, and we got a thing in the mail. Get this free dinner at the White Horse Inn. It's free dinner. If you just go to this retirement thing, and talk to him about your retirement. And I said, well, let's go get a free meal, hon. She goes, I don't want us getting reined in on something we don't need. And I said, well, you're right, but it's a free meal.

And she goes, there's always a cost, isn't there? I'm like, oh, yeah, you're right. There's always a catch. And the catch is you've got to sit through three hours of the most boring stuff you're ever going to hear. My, but salvation's free. And it's full. And it's completed. And it's in the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul told that Philippian jailer. Why? Thou shall be saved. Remember what he said first? What must I do? Well, there's nothing you must do, Mr. Philippian jailer. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. How do we believe? Born again, given faith to believe. And do we exercise that faith?

Absolutely. And what did that Philippian jailer do? He was born again, wasn't he? What'd he do? I believe. Paul says, let's baptize you then. Oh my, it's wonderful, isn't it? It's wonderful. So here we see again, God providing for his people. He's already provided another ship for them.

God sent a preacher to a bunch of people. Some lost sheep in there. Paul preached the gospel, the Lord saved them. He preached salvation through the blood and righteousness of Christ alone. And God had a storm come up, right? Had him shipwrecked there. so that Paul could preach the gospel to them.

And sometimes tragedies which we go through as God's people, and we all go through them, are often a blessing to the people of God, although they don't feel like it at the time. They don't feel like it at the time. But what do those things do? They drive us to Christ. And Sister Barb Patrick told me something years ago, and I've kept that and held on to that. These trials and tribulations is God weaning us from this world. This world's not our home, is it? No. We're bound for the promised land. We're bound for Canaan land. where we shall see our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, face to face. And it'll be glorious. My. My, oh my.

And every believer has a concern for their family members, whether it be their children or their brothers and sisters or sons and daughters and grandkids. We all have a burden for our family members, don't we? And we lift them up and we pray for them. Paul said this about leaving this world. Philippians 1, 23 to 24. For I'm in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. It's far better to be in glory, isn't it? Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. Do we not have a desire to go home? Hmm.

But God has us here for a reason, doesn't he? Every one of us, too. Every believer. My, oh, my. And let us remember when this vessel of clay, that we're sailing in, this body of flesh, when it's destroyed, when we're put into the ground, another vessel will just take our place. We're not indispensable, are we? Praise God He uses us. Praise God He saved us. But when our time on earth is done, He takes us home to be with Him forever.

And not one of us is I remember, I remember, I'm not going to say who, but I remember someone said, well, without us, that church is going to fail, speaking of this church. Now, that's making yourself too big for your britches. Because when we die, someone else is going to take our spot. When I die, another preacher will come in. as long as the Lord carries. Now, it wouldn't be wonderful if we were all alive, even in the service, and the Lord come back, took us all home, that would be glorious, wouldn't it? Wrap the whole thing up, that would be amazing.

Oh, my. But here we are, brought together, and we each need each other. I need you. I need you. You guys sometimes just smiling and just giving me a hug or, you know, helps me so much. Or just talking with me. And I hope it's the same for you when I talk with you.

We want to be a blessing to one another, right? We want to encourage one another. That world out there tears us down for seven days. And we come in here and we're comforted together, knit together in love. It's wonderful, isn't it, Brian? And we still get to video meet on Thursday, right? And pretty soon we'll start up our Wednesday nights again.

And isn't it wonderful that God's provided this for us? It's amazing that we might be comforted And we're gonna see here in the text that our Lord sends Paul some brethren. Some brethren. Our God is Jehovah Jireh, which means the Lord will provide. He provides everything we need, doesn't he?

I'm not talking that health, wealth, prosperity garbage that's out there either. I'm not talking about that stuff. I'm talking about what we need. And we all have serious concern for our loved ones. But you know, we're not to fret and worry. Is it easy for us to fret and worry? It's not hard, is it? We'll be honest here. That's the thing I love about you guys. We're honest with each other.

We can fret and worry, drop of a pin, can't we? But we're not to fret and worry. We're not to do that. And the only way we won't fret and worry is by the grace of God's strength in us. I've been in religion. I've tried not to do this and tried not to do that and fallen flat on my face. How do we not fret and worry? Give it to Christ. Rest in Christ. My.

He's the answer to everything, isn't He? All we need is in Christ. We're told all spiritual blessings are in Him. That's for salvation and for providence. Everything we need is in Christ. Everything. So we're not to fret and worry. True saving faith believes God. Right? Believes what He says. But I'm not saying we don't all fret and worry, because every one of us does. Every one of us does. But we're learning to trust God and to trust His will and purpose, aren't we?

We're learning that. And you know what? I'm a slow learner. Are you? I'm a slow learner. But praise God I'm saved. Just say that. Right? Praise God we're saved. Washed in the blood of Christ. Think our, you know, our parents provided for us all we needed, right? As best as they could. As best as they could. Others helped out. How would God not provide for us then? As our Heavenly Father.

And I'm not talking again, you know, Health, wealth, that's just a bunch, that's men stealing money off other people. Those false preachers on TV, just shut them off. Best thing you can do is go, shut that button off. Spend a half an hour listening to a sermon rather than watching one of them fellows. Oh my.

So our parents provided for us. Why wouldn't God provide for us? And remember, our parents were just instruments in the hands of the Lord, providing for us before we were even saved. See how you start to look back? It'll leave you in awe and wonder. You know, I didn't come from a rich family, but we always had clothes, and we always had food. And when dad and mom ran out of money, dad would go work a couple, he worked Saturday and Sunday then, down at the gravel pits, fixing trucks. And we never knew we were in need. We boys. But from what my mom told me, there were some pretty tight times. But the Lord provided my dad work, and my dad wasn't even a believer, nor my mom.

Isn't that amazing? And we who are the redeemed, let us be in awe and wonder as our sovereign God provides everything we need spiritually in Christ. Everything we need. All that a sinner needs is found in Christ. The question is, are you a sinner? Most people say, I'm not a sinner. But yeah, you are, whether you believe it or not. Sure are. Let's read verses 12 to 14 now.

In landing at Syracuse, we tarried there three days. And from thence we fetched a compass and came to and after one day the south wind blew again by the province of God and we came the next day to Put-i-Olai where we found brethren they desired to tarry and were desired to tarry with them seven days and so we went toward Rome Syracuse now Syracuse was a seaport a city on the southwestern coast of the island of Sicily. And we see that they stayed in the city of Syracuse for three days. For three days. They fetched a compass there. And then they came to Rigum, where they only spent one day. And Regom was a city in a certain region of Italy. And the reason they only spent one day was because they were waiting for the south wind. Who's going to send that wind? God. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It's hard to sail without wind back then, wasn't it? Gotta have wind.

And when our Lord sent the wind that they needed, they came to put Eoli. And the next day, they went into the city. And this was a city in Italy. And by God's providence, who do they run into? Believers. Well, how would they know they were believers?

Well, Paul's going around talking to people about Christ, isn't he? And by God's grace and mercy, in verse 14, where we found brethren, and they desired to tarry with them seven days. So they want Paul to stay with them seven days. So Paul would have to go to Julius, wouldn't he? The centurion. And Julius allowed it. Now, think of those folks. They've got Paul there now, and if they're there for a week, what's Paul going to do?

He's going to preach to them, isn't he? They're going to get the fellowship with the Apostle Paul, with Timothy, and with others. They're going to get to hear Paul preach the gospel. Now, we know what Paul preached because it's in the scriptures, isn't it? He preached Christ. He said, I'm determined to preach Christ. You can get caught up in all these other things. So what a time of rejoicing and what a time of refreshing for Paul and Timothy and the other companions with them. They found brethren. The gospel has already went before.

Maybe the Lord saved some sailors and they carried the gospel to the differing places. Maybe the Lord saved some Roman soldiers. And he took the gospel back to Italy. Maybe the Lord saved some merchant people. We don't know. The gospel's there though, isn't it? Paul hasn't been in Rome yet. There's the gospel. Oh my. It's amazing.

Verse 14 says, where we found brethren and were desired to tarry with them seven days. And so we went toward Rome, Syracuse. Again, Syracuse was a seaport in the island of Sicily. So they're making their way to Rome. And our Lord sends them, our Lord sends them some brethren that they could be refreshed. Paul's allowed to stay with them for seven days. They probably had some wonderful time together, talking about Christ. And we see that it was granted, the request was granted. Again, it'd have to come through the permission of Julius. And God is now showing a lot of favor in Julius's eyes towards Paul, hasn't he? I'm wondering if we're going to meet Julius in heaven. We don't know, do we? We may. If the Lord saved him, we will. We will. My. Now let's read verses 15 and 16.

Text says, when they left, put Eoli, that they went toward Rome. Now look at this. And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us. as far as Apai Forum in the three taverns, whom when Paul saw, he thanked God and took courage." Now look at this. We have a little glimpse into the fact that Paul is a sinner, saved by grace, just as we are. He saw the brethren and took courage.

Paul's a little down. And he's going to appeal to Caesar, man. But Paul gets low like we do, don't he? We know David did. Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and wilt thou disquiet me? Hope thou on God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. David's down there.

They're humans just like us. Let us never vault the characters in Scripture above anything that we are, because we're all flesh. They have the same faith as we have. They have the same Savior as we have, right? Same God as we have. They're born again by the same Spirit. They're just like us. They're sinners saved by grace. And so here, Paul, He takes courage.

How do we feel when we get together with believers? We feel refreshed, don't we? We feel, we are strengthened by that. As we talk about Christ and the wondrous things He's done, we're strengthened by God's grace. How do we feel when we're listening to a message? We're strengthened by God's grace. My, it's beautiful.

And then we see here in verse 16, and when we came to Rome, the centurion, that's Julius, delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard, but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him. So we see in verse 15, when the brethren came, they heard of Paul and they traveled out to where he was so that they could be with him when he comes into Rome. That's Christian love, isn't it? That's love in action, beloved. That's love in action.

And what a comfort it would be to Paul. My, it strengthened. We see it strengthened Paul. It gave him courage. And that all came from the Lord, didn't it? That all came from the Lord. So we see that true faith produces a heart of sincere love for God's people. Sincere love for God's people.

And we're sometimes sent, we don't even know it, but sometimes we're sent to encourage people and we don't have a clue. We don't have a clue. Just meeting with you and talking to you is encouraging, isn't it? To one another. We're not going, well, I'm gonna be an encouragement to people today. That's religion, right? And whenever we try to be an encouragement to someone in our flesh, We fall flat on our face, don't we? Just be yourself. Be who you are in Christ. Sinners saved by grace. That's what I love about our group. We're sinners saved by grace. And fellowship is fellows in a ship. We're all rowing, aren't we? I love that. Bruce Crabtree said that one time. I love that. That's what it is.

My, and so we see here Paul's delivered by Julius to the captain of the guard in Rome. And look at God's grace again at work. He's allowed to stay in his own place. And he's got, remember our study in Philippians? He's got a guard with him, and those guards, there's four different guards in one day, right? They have four watches. Paul's got an opportunity to preach the gospel to four different guards in a day. And no doubt Timothy would be there. They'd be talking about Christ, talking about the gospel.

And then it tells us in Philippians chapter one, that some of the imperial guards, some of the Praetorians, which are the only soldiers allowed to be with weapons in Rome, the Lord saves. my oh my look at that ain't that glorious isn't that glorious that's just so wonderful i'll tell you what so wonderful god is so good to us all the time isn't he brother brian could you close us in prayer