Amen. In Acts chapter 16, we're
gonna continue to take up our contemplation of the imprisonment
of the apostle Paul and Silas as we read in verse 25. So we'll
be taking up point number three, fundamentally in our outline
and in our PowerPoint, the joy of the gospel heard in tribulation. And we'll continue to work through
our five points. The joy of the gospel heard in
tribulation, verse 25, and at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed
and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them." They
prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard
them. So four things are lifted out of verse 25, it was midnight. And we talked about that last
week just on a literal level that in this kind of prison system,
you didn't have fluorescent lights, you didn't have big booming,
beaming lights like you and I have in this room. Vision was a very
sparse thing for the prisoners. In fact, prisoners didn't have
any rights whatsoever, as is the case for us today in our
nation. They were put in dungeons, put in very precarious situations. And as we learned in verse 24,
the apostles were put in the inner prison and the inner prison
was even more obscure and dark and cold and of little air and
oxygen and was a threat to their very health, and then they were
put in the stocks. So they were in a very humiliating
and difficult circumstance as if they had really, truly committed
a crime. But when we investigated last
week, we understood that they were falsely accused, placed
in this situation, and it was designed to humble them and humiliate
them, and maybe even to provoke them. If I were to drawn aside
of what took place in terms of their imprisonment. As we'll
see after we deal with the Philippian jailer, the apostle Paul said
they were abused and they were, they had been abused by the legal
system of their day. Look at verse 37, but Paul said
unto them, they have beaten us openly, uncondemned. In other words, no court decision,
no habeas corpus, no trial, no just and fair trial, being Romans
and have cast us into prison. And now do they thrust us out
privately, nay verily, but let them come themselves and fetch
us out. The apostle Paul is now going
to capitalize on his being a Roman citizen and demonstrate how that
where they are in prison is a consequence of a travesty of justice. little
bit of application today, right? We would think that our judicial
system is a fair system and takes care of its citizenry. But if
you know anything about the law enforcement agency, you know
that there are all sorts of infractions, all sorts of errors and mistakes
made on the part of those who have the ability to incarcerate
you. And what the apostles experienced
here is what people experience commonly. And sometimes we don't
even have recourse. The apostle Paul felt very confident
that he had recourse, um, that his, uh, being a Roman citizen
would bring about a, um, a satisfaction of justice to the point is that
they were suffering a form of abuse and they were thrown in
the inner prison. And we raised the question last
week, if you were in this situation, would you be singing or would
you be complaining? Right. So we're simply addressing
a dynamic of the gospel that we're not used to. We're addressing
an aspect of ministry that we're not used to. I also said last
week, if we were to contextualize this in terms of a theological
concept, what would be the overarching theological concept that God
is pressing in the book of Acts and particularly in this case
scenario? What would it be? Evangelism. evangelism would
be the overarching concept that you and I would be facing. Now,
we might not want to look at it this way, but certainly what's
taking place is evangelism. And if I were to give a sort
of a biblical text example of what's taking place with Paul
and Silas, it would be the parable of the sower and the seed. Whether
it's Matthew's gospel chapter 12, Luke's gospel chapter eight,
Mark's Gospel chapter four, either one of those, the parable of
the sower and the seed is in view. And then if we were to
use Matthew 13, where it speaks about the seed of the kingdom
being the children of God, here, the apostle Paul and Silas are
like seed being thrown into the soil of the government and the
society, Asia minor here, the Roman empire, and that seed that's
being sown now is impacting its environment, isn't it? But its
environment is also what? Impacting them. So when we are
actually doing legitimate and biblical evangelism, what we
can understand is that there's a two-way relationship that's
taking place, right? We are impacting, hopefully,
if we have truth, but we are also being what? Impacted. Is that true? If we're really
doing evangelism, we should be being impacted. In other words,
another word that I would quickly draw to your attention is the
doctrine of sanctification. Can you see that? Can you see
God working in the life of his apostles in a sanctifying way? Things like humility. Right. How about trust? How about dependence? Another word, dependence. How
about patience? Is that true? So is sanctification
working in a context of evangelism, where in the grace of God, in
the obedience of the gospel, we are sharing the gospel with
people? As the proverb says, he that watereth, he himself
shall also be what? Watered. Can you see that in
your context? Can you see how that the spirit
of God is graciously and internally and dynamically conforming Paul
and Silas to the image of Christ, while at the same time using
them to share the gospel with others. Can you see it? Ah, that's
the hard part of evangelism. What do you mean? Evangelism
is hard in that nobody gets away with anything. The sower doesn't
get away with anything. The auditor doesn't get away
with anything. God is doing several things all
at once when we are in a context of sharing the gospel. Do you
remember that occasion when in sharing the gospel you were humbled? humbled by deficiencies, by a
lack of preparation, by the presence of pride, by circumstances going
awry, and you coming to discover that your motive was flawed,
your motive was wrong, your arrogance dominated you, and it all looked
like it was going bad. Really on that day, which God
had ordained before the world began, his job was to change
you more than changing them. All right, so a lot of times
when we're looking at narratives, we want to be careful to see
the narrative from God's standpoint. This is what we mean by theology.
When we talk about theology in scripture, we're talking about
seeing things from God's standpoint. So we have a five-fold hermeneutical
system, right? Literal, historical, grammatical,
theological, and what? Redemptive. So a literal, interpretation
of scripture is simply reading the scriptures for what they
say in their context. A historical interpretation is
understanding the times, the chronology, the circumstances
surrounding that particular event. We are between 8033 and about
8041 at the present time. A relative text for our church
history class on Sunday and the surrounding events that are taking
place No massive persecution is happening, but there are always
little sparks of persecution happening to believers in this
context because the gospel was never, ever accepted in the Roman
empire until almost 381 AD. It was almost never accepted. When you shared the gospel in
the Roman empire in the days of the apostles, pre-Nicene,
post-Nicene, up to 381, which we'll deal with in church history,
you were always in danger of going to jail for sharing the
gospel. You have to really contextualize
our studies, because we will read into our studies, our present
contemporary situation. And the two are often very alien. Does that make sense? So when
we're reading the text as we are and we read a simple narrative
like in at midnight, Silas prayed, Paul and Silas prayed and sang
praises unto God in the inner prison where there was no light
and no air and no water and they were in the stocks. We better
back up and say, Lord, teach me everything I need to know
about this context so that I don't misrepresent evangelism. As I
go out and I'm going to evangelize and I missed the bus and I complain,
right? The apostle Paul and Silas are
definitely on their mission, aren't they? We are headed to
Macedonia Acts chapter 17, can't wait to get there. On the way,
God is using them, stopping and saving people in Asia minor,
particularly Philippi, because Philippi is going to be one of
the local churches that faithfully support the apostle Paul until
he dies, when many of the other churches will abandon him. So
for Paul, this experience, he does not know it, is going to
become precious for him. So what's going on in the soul
of a believer when the external circumstances are so averse to
them, and even to the point of metaphorically speaking, being
midnight, the darkest hour of the night for them, and then
they still have the grace and poise to pray and to sing. What's being manifested in their
character? Maturity. maturity is being manifested
in their character. So as we were looking at our
third point, and we just want to kind of draw that out, the
joy of the gospel heard in tribulation in verse 25, there are two sub
points I want to affirm. Praying and singing in the midst
of trouble is what was prescribed by James in 513. We saw it last
week, didn't we? James said, If you are afflicted,
you are to what? Pray. You're afflicted, pray. And these men are being afflicted,
aren't they? Then he also said, you know,
sing psalms and hymns. And then we went to Matthew chapter
26, verse 30, and noted that Christ sang a hymn with his disciples
before he would go into the Garden of Gethsemane and be accosted.
What kind of frame of mind is taking place where it can rejoice
and sing sing and rejoice, sing and pray and rejoice in the midst
of what will be now a very controversial scenario. And then we looked
at sub-point B, the evidence of the Spirit's what? Grace. So it's very good sub-point observation,
I really believe. You know how sometimes you get
in a situation where normatively your Adam one nature will take
over? Normatively that idiosyncratic
peculiarity that is exclusive to your nature and makeup, the
consequences of 20, 30, 40, 50 years of you living life and
you being used to kind of saying your mind, normally that Adamic
principle would rise up, you know what I'm talking about.
And yet on this occasion, you find a level of peace and grace
and otherworldly joy that allows you not to behave in that fashion
this time. We must call that the Spirit's
grace. We must not assume that you grew
overnight. We must assert that what's taking
place for me to have such an internal rest that leads to a
quiet prayer that abounds into a joyful singing unto God is
the presence of the Spirit of God. Watch this now. Unearned Anybody know what I'm talking
about? Y'all probably don't but On that occasion where there's
a level of poison grace that you just have to say this is
the Lord That's the Lord. I'm today. I'm real cool. That's
the Lord And I'm actually singing spiritual songs. That is the
Lord Romans 5 chapter chapter 5 verses 3 through 5 would affirm
what I'm talking about here to kind of build into the psychological
makeup of our two brothers relative to this before we move forward.
The importance of peeling back these kinds of implications when
you read your Bible is again what we call doing theology. The importance of peeling back
these implications is what we call doing theology. What is
God up to? If we just have a flat interpretation
of the text without dealing with the peaks of everything inherent
in those statements we miss God's glory don't we and so we read
in Romans 5 3 and let me start back at verse 1 and make our
way here because verse 3 is what we want therefore being justified
by faith we have what with God peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ now verse 1 is underscoring justifying peace it's not underscoring
sanctifying peace. And I mean by that is this is
not underscoring a subjective peace, but rather an objective
peace that is a consequence of our knowing that we have a right
standing with God. There's a difference now. When
a man or a woman is justified before God, they have peace relationally
with God. Even though internally you may
be filled with all sorts of turmoil, circumstantially, it doesn't
threaten your peace relationally. Does that make sense? So when
you understand the gospel that the ground of your acceptance
is really justification, You won't be moved by your experiences
or your feelings of peace or absence of peace because your
hope is rooted in justification, not sanctification. Though sanctification
is a necessary outcome of justification, some days you don't feel sanctified. But what does feelings have to
do with it? the relative transient sense
of the matter of sanctification so our joy is rooted in justification
which bears the fruits of sanctification as will be set forth in verse
2 mark this now by whom we also have access by faith that is
Christ to whom by faith faith being the absence of human works
as the grounds upon which we have this blessing right so faith
is the substance of things what The evidence of things what?
So by faith we have this access into this grace where we stand. What is the grace? Justification.
And the merits that come with justification is what we call
the grace of God. I stand in the grace of God who
has done all things for me to make me accepted in the beloved.
Resourcing me with everything necessary for life and godliness
through a knowledge of him. We go on to say we stand. And
not only do we stand, but we what? Rejoice. Now this is what
we call biblically an eschatological rejoicing. It is an eschatological
rejoicing. It's a rejoicing in the finish
line. It's a rejoicing in glory. It's a rejoicing in the hope
of glory. It's a rejoicing in the ultimate
promise. It's not a rejoicing in the moment. You guys hearing what I'm saying?
So it's another area in which this is why you need to hear
the word of God over and over and over again. Because our brains
are so malleable and because of so many things that we give
ourselves over to, it's shot through with the BBs and pebbles
of the world system. so that biblical truth leaks
out of our brains, spiritually speaking, so that what should
be there sustaining our concrete affirmation of salvation is absent. So I need to hear the word over
and over again to fill all those holes where the BBs of the shotgun
of this world system have tried to blast my mind through to keep
me from being rooted and grounded in Christ. Is that good? It's
important to know. It's important to know because
everything is stolen in the category of faith where you and I are
not asking God to preserve our mind. Everything is stolen. Your joy is stolen. Your confidence
is stolen. Your hope is stolen. Your boldness
is stolen. Your mission is stolen. Your
vision is stolen. Everything is stolen where the
mind has been now shot through. with the BBs of this world system
and every promise of God has leaked out. That's good, isn't
it? Right, so this is why wise believers
sit under the word consistently. Ignorant, naive believers don't
believe they need to be under the word as much as we do. But
some of us know we need to be under the word more than we are.
If God would have his way, I would be under his word every day.
and maybe all day, but because we are missionally driven, he
has to give us recesses, call life. But we need to be in the
classroom as much as possible because our brains, our minds,
the spirit of our mind, this is what we're talking about,
are like wicker baskets. Pour the water in and it just
gradually leaks out. Wicker baskets. So a wise believer
does not stay away from the word of God long at all. So rejoicing
in hope of the glory of God is a mature understanding that our
ultimate joy is the security of eternal life through Christ.
So that as I make my way through this world, um, I retained that
hope no matter what the circumstance, but now look at verse three,
here it is. And not only so, not only are
we rooted in justification, accepted through Christ and walking by
the faith of what the word of God has promised to us relative
to glory being secure, but also we glory in what? Ah, no, we
don't. That again is for what I'm going
to call mature believers. glorying and tribulation is only
for mature believers, right? It's just true. Most of us do
not glory in the midst of trouble. So I'm going to now take this
out. I'm going to lift this statement out, but we glory in tribulation. Line number two, not only so,
but we glory in tribulation. We glory in tribulation and use
that as a premise for Acts chapter 16, verse 25, that what Paul
and Silas are doing while they pray and sing praises unto God
is glorying in tribulation. Do you guys see that? My argument
is that what's taking place in verse 25 of Acts 16 is they're
glorying in tribulation. They're boasting in the midst
of tribulation. They're lauding God in the midst
of tribulation. They're worshiping God in the
midst of tribulation. They're choosing to interpret
tribulation as a gift from God for the reasons for which the
last line of Romans 5, 3 is underscored. This is also a consequence of
a level of maturity that one must have. Verse 3 of Romans
5. Listen to it. He says, not only
so, but we glory in tribulations because we know that tribulation
produces what? Man. See, that's a, that's a
mindset that is mature in nature. So here is what, here is what
the apostles know that what they're going through, what they're going
through is going to create in them endurance. He said, watch this for the next
one. For the next one. So, you know,
when we go through these trials in the midst of the trial, if
we're not already set upon these things with them being clearly
and vividly and concretely affirmed in our mind, that trial upon
trial upon trial builds our faith. It builds our understanding.
It builds our relationship with God. It builds our ability to
operate and navigate and negotiate a trial. If we're clear on that,
we rejoice in the tribulation because we know it's gonna work
that virtue in us. You guys got that? If we're not
clear and we don't know, we won't rejoice. But if we are clear
and we do know, this is what we know. When I get out of this
one, there is going to be a measure of growth in me that even though
I don't feel it now, I know it will be there because I've been
here 10 lessons ago and I'm a lot better in this lesson than I
was 10 lessons ago. That's right. That's exactly
right. That's exactly right. But here's
the thing that they're doing. That's amazing to me. We often
will only after the trial and after recovery and after reflection
and weeks or months or maybe years after the trial, having
complained about it in custom fuss and saw no good thing in
it. Having just tore up our testimony,
look back and say, Lord, I thank you. You took me through that.
Two years later. Yeah. But when we get to a point
where we can rejoice in the midst of the trial for the benefits
of that trial that are going to come six months down the line,
then we have matured. Haven't we? This is where I believe
the apostles are, that they know that tribulation will work for
them endurance. And endurance is another word
for strength, for strength, strength of character. Don't you hate
collapsing under trial and falling apart and not being a testimony
of grace? Don't you hate it? You ought
to. Because where we do, we recognize
that we've been wasting our time prior to that. And here comes
the trial and we collapse again. It means we've been wasting our
time. There's no magic pill you take. You don't just grow up. You don't
wake up one day mature. I know all immature saints, totally
immature because they waste their time. And so you just don't wake
up mature. And so for them, the apostles
are an amazing testimony to me because they're not only settling
with the trial, they're rejoicing in the trial. And what that says
to me, according to verse four, look at verse four is this impatience. works experience and experience
hope experience being another term for character and and experience
hope and here it is verse five here it is and hope make it not
a shame so watch watch this we know that the apostles are operating
out of a faith paradigm, right? Because they're doing what God
called them to do. They're also operating out of a hope paradigm,
aren't they? Because they're believing that
the outcome of where they are will be the advancement of God's
glory and the salvation of sinners, right? We plow in hope and we
sow in hope. If we didn't have hope, we wouldn't
do the gospel. So it says, and hope make it
not a shame. What that means is they are in
a situation, they're in a circumstance, they are in an event that existentially
and outwardly they are now made to look bad. They are in the inner prison
as if they are rank criminals. And as I stated last week, if
we were to operate out of a narcissism to where we are always using
our own personal being as the gyroscope or the gyrometer or
the point of reference, they would be complaining that they
are being abused, but because objectively they understand that
they're being led by the spirit of God and because they've been
here before. They've been here before. They've
been accosted before. They've been beaten before. Paul
has been persecuted before. You know, after a while, this
dance becomes normal. You get knocked down, you just
jump right on back up. I've been hit before. You have
hope because you know you survive the assault. Then not only do
you survive the assault, but the outcome of the assault God's
glory is advanced. Does that make sense? And you
get to say God advances glory through my suffering. That's
your rejoicing. Now watch this. Here it is. Because
the love of God is shared abroad in our what? Ah! Is love operating
in their hearts? And if love is operating in their
heart, what is manifested in their life? Faith. Why? Because
faith works by what? And faith has its ultimate goal,
hope. Remember, hope is the opposite
or a total other end of faith. Faith leads to hope. Faith is
rooted in love. The love of God is poured in
by whom? The Holy Ghost who is present
with them. These are basic Bible principles.
We've talked about them before. but it merits us analyzing the
text along these lines. Otherwise we will attribute a
human virtue to the apostles singing. When what we must attribute
to this is the work of the spirit of God, right? We must attribute
to their singing and praying in the midst of prison, in the
middle of the night, in the stocks, like a common criminal, the presence
and outpouring of the Holy Ghost. We must attribute it to that.
We have to, I mean, because when the Holy Spirit is absent in
our life, you and I are a mess. So I'll say it again. Hope makes
not a shame because the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. Let's go back
to our text. Let's go back to our text and
begin to work some other considerations. Is that a valid exegetical and
expository approach to verse 25? You guys get some out of
that good because it's important to know That when we look at
verse 25, we don't have a right to simply say, oh, that's paul
and silas No, that's every believer for whom the process of maturity
is operating in the context of the gospel And they're willing
to be sanctified And when they experience growth patterns in
their life They do rejoice don't we? verse 26 and suddenly See
that phrase suddenly. So that's Luke's term, even though
he's a doctor under inspiration of the spirit, he uses that term
when God is intervening into a circumstance for which God
is highly pleased. And suddenly it's Luke's term
to indicate that God is intervening in a circumstance for which he
is highly pleased. This is a largely theological
concept that when the earth quakes, God is showing up to let people
know that he is present with his servants. Does that follow?
Right. So you read about earthquakes
in the Old Testament, the Lord thundereth mightily with his
voice, the earthquakes and it underscores God's presence and
his power. The opening of the book of Acts,
there was an earthquake, was there not? There was a shaking. And then again, we found another
earthquake in the days in which Peter and John and James were
being persecuted in Acts chapter four. So earthquakes are an accompanying
sign of God's power and presence in the ministry of the church. And so we have it here as well. And suddenly there was a great
earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were what? Now,
we are now dealing with, though it is a historically legitimate,
plausible account. We're not assuming for even a
picosecond that Luke is exaggerating or lying or anything. We believe
this literally and historically. If you are conditioned to believe
the Bible to be the Word of God. Now, if you're not, I don't know
who I was talking to earlier today about the I was talking
to Gerald about the rank hypocrisy of liberal progressive Christians
who pretend to be Christians and use the Bible as a source
material for their messages or for their ministry, though they
do not believe the Bible in its literal, historical, grammatical
interpretation. They do not believe the Bible
is actually the infallible, inerrant word of God. They don't. and
they will pretend they do so that they can continue pimping
people out of money as they preach, though while they are reading,
their conscious is plagued with this reality, I don't believe
this to be actually true. That's exactly right. I do not
believe Jesus is God. I do not believe that he was
born of the Virgin Mary. I do not believe that he died
on the cross to atone for sins in a cosmic judicial outpouring
of God's wrath for a precise people. I do not believe he rose
again on the third day. I do not believe he's Seated
in heaven. I do not believe that he is ruling over the universe
I believe that he was a historical person, but he was not God in
the flesh I do not believe the miracles of the Bible. I do not
believe those things they don't and yet they'll talk like they
do and If you are a shallow listening Christian, you'll think they're
preaching a great message, but until they actually preach the
gospel You have not heard the gospel Even though you've heard
a historical narrative of a good man, Jesus, of whom they say
he did miracles. That's how they cast the language.
They say he did these miracles and because they believe in lies.
Well, it's okay to lie so long as you're edified by it, right? It's okay to lie as long as you're
edified by it. After all, we have so many books
that are nothing but fables and stories and exaggerated tales
that have brought comfort to people in different tribes and
nations all around the world for millennium. Why not the Jewish
people have their own set of fables? And now we as Christians
can continue to perpetuate these fables too. And everybody can
believe them, although they are not true. This is the conviction
of your liberal progressive culture today. So I wouldn't stand foot
in any of those liberal churches, the rank hypocrisy that dominates
that society. And so I say that to say that
verse 26 is given purposely. purposefully so that we might
understand a pattern that God engages in both in the old and
the new. The God of the old is the same
as the God of the new. He acts the same way. He does
not change. He shows up when his people act
up. That's right. He shows up when
his servants act up. He shows up when his servants
boast in him. God shows up. So what's taking
place here is on a larger theological level, an affirmation of what
Christ stated in Matthew 16, verse 18 and 19, when he said,
I will build my church. I will build my church, future
indicative verse one, and the gates of hell will not prevail. That's what he said. And every time the earthquakes and the foundations of these
secular systems shake, that truth is coming to pass. Every time
the chains and shackles are loosed and the gates swing wide open,
that truth is coming to pass. It happened for Peter, just in
Acts chapter 12. It happened for Christ in Matthew
28, when upon his resurrection, the earthquake and the apostle
said, because it was impossible for him to be held down by death,
God loosed him. Remember what we learned last
week? The devil binds, God loosens. And if the king broke through
the gates of hell, to come out in a resurrected state of power
and glory are not his subjects coming out with him each one
at his own time in that spiritual resurrection when the gospel
is preached in power are the gates of hell going to swing
open and let god's elect ones come out what's the answer y'all
don't act like it you don't act like it so what you see in this
little verse heaven's insignia of the sovereign power of God
to just shake this little prison in Rome and say, let my people
go. Do you see it? That's what's
going on right here. All because of a prayer and a
song. See it? All because of a prayer
and a song and suddenly there was a great earthquake so that
the foundations, the foundations of the prison were shaken and
immediately all the doors were open. Coincidence? Physiological
manifestation of some type of very earthly, natural, powerful
event. Now how all the doors gonna open?
How the earthquake gonna just knock all the doors open? Was there the presence of that
other dimension? Which we call the spiritual world
and the angels of the Lord flew in as they did with Peter and
just slammed all the doors open So that God could be glorified
in the power of his gospel manifestation The latter is true, right? Do
you believe that this is why I have up here manifestation
is what you see in verse 25 and 26 is what we call manifestation
It's an inward manifestation of power in Paul and in Silas,
an outward manifestation of God upon the prison. An inward manifestation
in Paul and Silas, an outward manifestation of God in coming
in and busting the prison open. You guys see that? So, this is
the promise of the gospel when it's attended by power that wherever
it is preached, it will set captives free. Am I making some sense? Right. So interestingly enough,
what this also infers when you think it through is this. If
you and I are willing to be used by God in the proclamation of
the gospel, we have to accept trouble as a fundamental component
of the process. You have to accept trouble. You
have to accept misunderstanding. You have to accept opposition
and assault. You have to expect the enemy
to do his part so that God will do his part. You have to expect
people not to like you, not want you, reject you, oppose you,
condemn you, slam you, lock you down, bind you up. God will let
that happen before he breaks in. That's if you really want
to see people saved. That's if you really want to
see people. Now, if you want people saved without any trouble,
you don't have the true gospel. See, because the true gospel,
we've already been told in Romans 1, 16 and 17, is the place where
God's righteousness is revealed. Isn't that what it says? It's
the place where God's righteous character is manifested. Is God right? to let his people
suffer while they are obeying him as a prerequisite to God
intervening to manifest his glory and delivering them and saving
the objects of his love for whom they are preaching the gospel.
Is God right to do that? How do we know? Christ, Christ. What did the master say
in John chapter 15 and Matthew chapter 10 and many other places?
If they've done it to me, they're going to do it to you. This is
the model and paradigm of the gospel. Don't think you're going
to share the gospel and topple over people and get them saved
laying on hands on them. They fall down backwards, get
saved. Pow, the power of God. Pow, the power of God. Pow, the
power of God. Nope. Nope. That's not the power
of God. That's the power of folly. So generally the way the power
of God works is in the dialogue with people who are in the dark
kingdom, while light is being infused propositionally, it's
creating internal turmoils and conflicts. And there are tensions
and battles and debates going on between the believer and the
non-believer. And if one is hanging in there because they believe
they are on assignment from God, they will see how God will keep
them while the earth is shaking and while it often is getting
dark because you're not walking by faith, but rather by sight.
So as you stay in your assignment, you say, okay, God, you brought
me here. You got me here. I'm still clear on my message.
Plus you've given me poison grace to keep talking. So I'm going
to keep talking, even if everything is falling apart, because I know
that you have a purpose behind this. But see, if you're not ready
to deal with the gospel paradigm of proclamation and persecution
leading to manifestation, then you're going to pull out. soon
as they spit on you, right? Like little John Mark and Barnabas.
That's why we don't ever hear about Barnabas again. Bless his
soul. He babysitting brother Mark.
But we don't hear about him again, do we? Brother Barnabas disappears
off the page of the scripture because he wanted to meet the
felt needs of his little nephew. Paul said, listen, I'm up. Let's
go. I need soldiers. I'm up. Let's go. I need soldiers. Can
you see why he wouldn't want Mark here? Can you see it? You can't have a brother running
over the demon and he hadn't even been thrown in prison yet.
And so we're thankful for the outcome of Mark. We have it in
the scriptures, but he disappears from the book of the acts as
well as Barnabas, because the work of evangelism is like the
seed sown into the ground. It must die before it brings
forth fruit. That's very clear to us in our account. So suddenly
there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the
prison were shaking. Immediately all the doors were open and everyone's
bands were loose. Two sub points then. A shaking
of the false kingdom. You guys see that? A shaking
of the false kingdom. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 25 through
29. Let's just look at that briefly.
A shaking of the false kingdom. Which means to me, this is quite interesting as
I think it through. It may not be true in every part
of the world, but I know it's true in America. It may not be
true in other parts of the world because I don't have that sort
of eternal perspective or I'm not everywhere present. I don't
know what God is doing in other places. I know what folks say
God is doing, but I don't really know what God is doing in other
places. I know what he's not doing in America. What he's not
doing in America is this. Do you understand that? He's not shaking the foundations
of our system. He's not doing it. It's not happening. Please don't be under any illusion
that Christianity is marching through and conquering souls
for the glory of Christ in America. It ain't happening. We have enough
technology to know that if what was happening in Acts chapter
16, verses 22 through 25 were occurring, you would have news
cameras everywhere where conflict and debate and argumentation
and manifestation would be taking place all in America. Do you
hear me? It's not happening in America.
It's just not happening. Verse 25 through 29. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 25.
Are we there? See to it that you refuse not him that speaketh
for if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth much
more shall we not escape if we turn away from him that speaks
from heaven the writing to the Hebrews is talking about the
Jerusalem which is above and The church of the firstborn the
general assembly of all saints with christ as the head Christ
is the one of whom he is speaking saying that he is speaking verse
26 Whose voice then in the days of moses shook the what? Didn't
the earthquake in the days in which the children of israel
received the law? Sure, it did But now he promises saying yet
once more I shake not the earth only but also what heaven this
word yet once more signifies the removing of those things
that are what as of those things that are made that those things
which cannot be shaken may what so so verse 26 and 27 in a utilitarian
way says when the gospel prevails when the gospel appears and power
attends it there's a shaking of the tree of humanity so that
everything that can be loosened from that shaking will be so
that that which is authentic and divinely ordained stands. That's right. That's right. So
that's all. So if we were to narrow down
on a more microcosmic level, here's also what you can take
into consideration. If you're ready to go out and
do some work for God, your job, your desire is to go in and see
a family saved. uh, the family of a friend you
love and a husband, wife, five kids, whatever. And you just,
you want them all saved and you would love for it to be the consequence
of a nice, quiet Bible study. You go in having prayed up, studied
up, humbled up and God uses you and it blows the family up. Boom. Husband and wife are arguing
with each other. Children are agitated that a
Bible study is taking place in the house. Conflict is arising
and you're wondering, Lord, what is going on here? He's shaking
that kingdom because that kingdom was built upon false premises. Now here comes the kingdom of
God talking about establishing its authority, its flag, its
rule, every false notion, every false idea, every false refuge,
every carnal thing, every demon, every devil, every hellish thing
that has claims and rule over the house is getting shaken now. That's actually how the gospel
works. been doing the gospel for 37
years, preaching the gospel. It's only God's mercy when an
opportunity for a true gospel preacher or a person who actually
knows the gospel and is under God's anointing is able to go
in and save the whole family. Only God's mercy. Very seldom
does it happen. especially if the kids are teenagers
or full-grown adults. Do you hear me? Very seldom does
it happen. The gospel is hunting down the
elect. And the non-elect hate the gospel. And it refuses to submit to the
crown rights of Christ. And now Matthew 10 comes into
play. I did not come to bring peace
or unity, but a sword. And I'm separating parents from
children, mothers from daughters, sons from fathers, et cetera,
because I'm saving my sheep. That's what he said. And that's
exactly what it does. That's exactly what it does.
So while if the family is such that it's small enough, this
is why we, I say it all. If people ask me frequently,
pastor, how do I bring my kids up in the fear and the nurture
of the Lord yesterday? How do I bring them up under
the gospel 10 years ago? How do I, how do I make sure
that they conform to the claims of the gospel before you had
them? while they are in your wife's
belly, the day they come out of the womb, sing hymns, read
scripture, imprint upon their audible hearing at the moment
of their conception, the authority and crown rights of Jesus Christ
as Lord, bring them up in the church, train them in the word
of God, commit yourself to the glory of God, Lay down your life
for them for the first 18 years of their life so that if god
is pleased as he said he is To save them because you lay down
your life But if you're gonna play footsies with the world
And kind of tiptoe in and out of church with your kids You're
gonna lose your kids That's old testament and it's new testament
That's Old Testament, it's New Testament. And I'll share the
reason which you are right now for those of you who are deluded.
Those children are not yours. That's where the mistake is made. That's where the mistake is made. But if you wanna pin it down,
where did I go wrong? You thought they were yours When they were God's all alone
And they were on loan to you for just 13 to 16 years That's
all And you fail to realize that you were a servant of Jehovah
the handmaiden or the hand servant As Mary said, your handmaiden,
your slave girl, that's all I am. Be it according to your word.
Y'all hear what I'm saying? See, so people, I want to get
married. I want to have children. Why? Why? Why would you want to have children
in this mess in which we're in, especially what's coming down
the pike? Why would you want to raise kids
up in this mess? then do it under the false assumption
that they're yours and not his You're damning your children
to hell as Job said The authority upon which I'm stating this is
both my own experience as well as the Word of God back years
ago when my kids were little and we're gonna be heading there
next next study because obviously the text will talk about how
the jailer and his household being saved. And I will help
you understand that contextually. It's not talking about babies
being baptized as we have with our Pato Baptist brethren, even
though they use these texts to argue that because his household
was saved. Isn't that what it says? We'll deal with that on
a larger theological level next time. But when you are young
and you are having babies, this is the greatest time to really
understand what the scriptures teach about children. This is
the best time, the best time to be clear on what the word
of God teaches about training and teaching and nurturing and
building into the children, the kingdom of God is when they are
young. Because by the time your kids
are 12 or 13, 14 years old, you have no more authority, none. You're deceived if you think
you do. Your influence starts before
they're conceived, in the womb, in the first eight or nine or
10 years of their life, if they're gonna be shaped and groomed to
have a humility to live under the auspices of the gospel. Are
you guys hearing me? Because it takes humility for
a teenager to submit to a gospel household. It takes humility for them to
submit to a pattern of life where mama and daddy are still attending
worship and Bible study and the home is framed by the word of
God. And what's emanating through the home are biblical realities
consistent with the kingdom of God. So that your children are
not bumping into these radical contradictory elements. Radical. Subtle, yes. Radical, no. This household is a gospel household. Can I stay on this point for
the record? So I was deceived as a young man to actually believe
that if I train my children up in the fear and the nurture of
the Lord, God would bless it. And he did. Do you hear me? But something
deep down inside drove in me a level of tenacity that I intuitively
perceived was necessary. Because as they got older, three,
four, and five, every stage of their development, three to five,
five to eight, eight to 11, It became very evident that I was
in a warfare in my own house. Very evident. And that the last
thing I could do was get off the gas pedal. Because the natives
would jump out the track if I slowed down. By the time I get to my destination,
the only person there is me. So I kept it on the gas. Jump
to your own endangerment now. And I really mean that. And even
now, the reason I can look back and reflect upon it is because
it happened so quick. It happened so quick. My kids
grew up so quick that If I had known how fast it was going to
be before it happened, I would have been even more diligent
in areas where I thought, well, just slack off a little here,
slack off a little here. You understand? But the enemy
is waiting for you to slack off here and slack off there because
he wants to put his brand on them. He wants the mark of the
beast to be stamped on them so they can make their decision
to leave the kingdom as soon as they have authority. That's
exactly right. I'm sharing with you guys some
not only personal things but powerfully relevant things right
now. Because one of the greatest pains
we have as Christian parents is the pain of our children growing
up lost as a consequence of our slothfulness. That's exactly right. As a consequence
of our disobedience and brother Arthur, unbelief. We collapse
under the world's pressure. Quit being so, just quit being
so tight. Quit being so zealous. Quit being
so over the top. Just, just stop it. Give them
some breathing room. Let them live their life. Let
them make their decision. They didn't already made their
decision. They're Adam's children until they're converted. They
want hell. They want the world until they're
converted. But as children, they are conditioned
by nature to accept the environment and atmosphere that mom and dad
sets on them. And to the degree that one does
that the way that God pleases, you get the promise. You get
the promise. You get the promise. Does anybody
know the promise? That's right. You get the promise
when you practice the principle, train them up. I'll catch him.
You train them up. I'll catch him. I'll put a hook
of grace on their ankle that once they start to run, I'll
slow them down on my time and I'll start reeling them back
in. The next thing you know, they're back. but you have no
confidence of that at all where you have been slothful in establishing
an atmosphere for the spirit of God to do that. You guys hear
what I'm saying? And so Job says the children
of the wicked are given to the sword. And again, the biggest problem
is we think they're ours. If we would be, if we would have
a revolution in our mind, If our mind could be washed from
this notion that we have the power to produce life, conceive
life, bring forth life in a healthy fashion, raise up life. You know
we're acting like God when we talk like that, right? Do you
do? You do know that, right? You know you're acting like God
when you say we can make a conception occur. We can bring it to term. We can deliver it safely and
we can raise it up. All of that is humanism. And it prevails in the church. I taught this years ago when
I was pressing home, the reality that you are, your children are
on loan from God for about five minutes. Jacob looked up and
he had 13 kids. I was trying to just, Bob
said, uh-uh. After Trent, uh-uh. Brother,
we done. We done. After Trent, we done. I was thankful I got my eight.
I like, okay, I'm cool. I ain't gonna push too much.
I'll be able to be sleeping out with the dog. But Jacob having went 20 years
watching his children grow on his own, leaving, runs across
his brother Esau because things come full circle very frequently
to see whether or not you've grown up. He decided to throw
all his family and everybody out in front. Remember that?
Y'all go see Uncle Esau. That brother crazy anyway. I
hope he let you live. And finally, when Uncle Esau
gets to Jacob, Esau says, the Lord has really blessed you.
Look at this family. And Esau was so glad to see his
loved ones. It's a wonderful reunion. And
I remember this distinctly when I read it for the first time,
I must've been about 23, 24 maybe. Jacob says, these children are
the children whom the Lord hath given me. They're not mine, they're
the Lord's. It became clear to Jacob that
those children were not his children. You got that? When you get that,
then you will behave more responsibly. Otherwise, you'll steal God's
glory. Because you'll be saying things to your kids like, I,
I, I, I, I brought you into this world and I will take you out. I feed you and I clothe you and
I put a roof over your head. I, I, I, I. And God is going,
oh? Oh? you guys hearing what I'm saying?
And because we have not impressed upon our children that our children
are the Lord's, all the fruit of the womb is the Lord's. All
of it. All the souls are mine. Says
Ezekiel. All of it. We stole God's glory
and we cut them off from the blessings. Cuz now, they get
to legitimately argue with you. Don't they? Because we didn't
pull back the curtains and show them that the source of all life
was the God that brought them into existence. And that you
were the little bitty Lilliputians that God had hired to take care
of them. So that their arguments would
really be with God. So by the time they're 12 and
13 and 14, they're not struggling really with you and me. They're
struggling with God. Cause the parents have connected
them to the God that made them and got out of the way just enough
for the kids to know that mom and daddy just doing what God
said do. Now, if I'm going to have a beef,
I got to have a beef with the God that made me. That's good. Isn't this good?
Right. And we miss this today because humanism dominates our
churches too. And we idolatrize our families.
You do know that, right? So when we're talking about the
earth shaking and kingdoms being bust open, we're not only talking
about us going outside these four walls. The biggest battle
is in our homes. Is that true? Verse 28. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us have what? See? See? That there's a request. The promises
were receiving the kingdom that cannot be moved. Therefore, give
me grace. Is that what it says? Let me
have grace. Watch it now. Whereby we may
what? Ah, there it is. There it is.
That's the term. See it? Is that the term? I need
grace to serve God in the context of my family. need grace to serve
God in the context of my family. Otherwise, I'm gonna serve myself
and I'm gonna serve my family but I'm not gonna serve God. You guys hear what I'm saying? Acceptably with reverence and
what? Godly fear. I could take you
through case after case after case after case with myself.
I'm I'm not I don't know about anybody else, only know about
me. And I'm so glad, I was thinking about this the other day. I am
so glad that I'm down to my last one. I am so glad that Trinity
is already driving now. She's just got out of her sister's
car, big sister's car with her yesterday. Daddy, we just went
driving. Uh-huh, cool, cool. Cause she getting ready to get
out on her own. Cause she watched her big sisters, you know, start
driving at 15 and 16 and doing their own thing. I'm happy. I
don't have to take a hith and yon, you know, you're, you, you
are a servant for many, many years to these little princesses
and princes and little, you know, Madonna's and cause you're a
servant to them for many years. And it's so good to know I don't
have to get up just cause I got to take her to school. I go here
and go there. Few more years, few more years. But the reality is what I have
seen, and this is why I can speak boldly and confidently about
it. Although I don't do it a lot, because we are so tore up in
our generation that it would be a burden to press it home.
I actually don't believe in churches that spend so much time talking
about the family that it just creates a burden. Because idealisms,
while they should be acknowledged affirmed and pursued idealisms
should be acknowledged, affirmed and pursued. And they should
be acknowledged, affirmed and pursued because they are realities
for those who actually do it God's way. That's what I'm saying. If I had been an abysmal failure
at raising my kids and have been haphazard about training them
up accurately in the Lord, I wouldn't be able to talk to you the way
I do. And I wouldn't have been able to do it over the 30 years
of ministry that I've been engaged in. How can you tell somebody
something about something that you have failed to accomplish,
right? So, but I don't talk about these things a lot because there
are churches that spend a majority of their time talking about family,
family, family, family, family. And I think they heap levels
of condemnation because their words outrun their testimony. I'm gonna say it again, so that
millions of people can get this when they hear it on the radio.
No, we have, again, I'll be dealing with paedo-baptism next week
as we deal with our context as part of the argument among our
Presbyterian brothers and our child baptism brethren is that
these texts affirm that you can baptize the children. And nothing
in the scriptures explicitly even affirms anything like that.
But again, in church history, we'll see that the church split
over baptism of children versus baptism of mature believers. Well, once we capitulated to
baptism of children, we created a family-centered theology that
shifts the weight from the centrality of Christ and the singularity
of the gospel on a personal level to every child, to the whole
family paradigm. Did you guys get that? And now
we are a Neo-Judaistic construct all over again, where we are
creating an external Christianity versus an internal one. In other
words, the 12 tribes, all those knucklehead people wanting saved,
They had a form of godliness. You guys know that. And so what was a national model
in the Old Testament to get us to Christ has become today a
personal model of conversion and salvation for individuals
in the household. Or else what Christ said in Matthew
10 and 12 would have been stated in the Old Testament as well.
I didn't come to bring peace, but a sword. So that men and
women have to make a personal confession of faith as to the
radical impact of the gospel in their life. Daddy and mama
don't get to say that their children are saved. This is why you shouldn't
be letting your children partake of the Lord's table. We see people doing, we try to
quietly tell them, hey, You're heaping judgment on your child.
They don't know the Lord. They're just doing it because
you say do it. That's Catholicism all over again. What you think
they're going to be converted because of a little wine and
a little bread that they take and they don't know Christ. Are
you guys hearing what I'm saying? That's Catholicism. As we will
see. People think they're cool because
they eat the wafer, drink the cup. The priest did all this. He didn't taste it. And transcommunicated
Christ to him, right? That's a complete shift from
the cross and the person and work of Christ as the grounds
of their confidence. But see, that's the goal of false religion
to shift away from the centrality of Christ to other things. So
we have this sort of idolatry of the family and some of our
denominations where our kids are saved simply because we're
a covenant family. No, they're not. I remember telling a couple of
young couples maybe three or four years ago who had come to
me and they all jazzed about, you know, family salvation. I
said, here's what you're going to discover. Here's what you're
going to discover. You're going to discover that
for a while it's going to look all good as you are reading and
singing and praying and you're talking to your kids like they're
saved. And they're going to be quoting Bible verses and stuff
like that until the gorilla starts coming out in them. Once the
gorilla starts coming out in them, you're going to be struggling
in your own faith because you will have assumed that they were
saved when all they were was religious. They were just religious. And then they're going to leave
because their natural Adamic state is going to drive them
away. And if they ever get saved for real, they're going to wonder
what in the heck did you do? What was that all about? Why
didn't you tell me that I was a hell-bound sinner under the
wrath of God in need of saving on a personal level between me
and God? Why did you make me assume that
I was a child of God when I wasn't? Why did you forbid for me the
internal struggle that God demands for every soul to fall before
God and say, what must I do to be saved? Why did you make me
assume I was saved when I wasn't saved? this is how lots of people leave
the catholic church because once they get actually truly born
again they realize they were hoodwinked and they leave reformed
churches because they were hoodwinked it's amazing if you let your
children actually uh be honest with you now that's you got to
be brave to do that you parents got to be brave to let the kids
tell the truth because they'd be wanting to sometimes Can I
just tell you the truth one time, mama and daddy, about this crazy
stuff you got me doing? They would let you know that
in their own perspective, all they see out of mama and daddy
is hypocrisy. They would let you know that.
And they would let you know that they don't get anything out of
all of this external externalism that we're engaging in. And if
they could be honest, they don't feel nothing about Jesus. Not
that. But you telling me to pray and
you telling me to say this and you telling me to pretend that
I'm a Christian, but I ain't feeling this. This is what we did when God
brought us into grace 20 years ago. And many of you who are
members here at grace, we'll hear the story again on Sunday in
our second, second meeting, as we talk about some critical future
events is once we came out of the Christian reform denomination,
we re established the historical, doctrines of the church and affirm
the biblical principle that if the scriptures do not set down
a doctrine imperatively and by precedent, we don't get to hold
it or declare it. the scriptures don't lay out
for us the imperatives that is what we are to do and believe
explicitly and by Precedent that is practice Demonstrate that
that's the way we are to do it We don't impose any kind of teaching
upon anybody where we can't explicitly demonstrate from the Word of
God. That's what it says Explicitly and that's what it demonstrates
as a precedent and I'm waiting after 38 years of being saved
for somebody to show me where they took infants and dunk them
in water in the scriptures And that becomes a law for us to
follow You guys understand it But what I do know is well, we're
not serious about sound doctrine We'll play church And here's
the thing Because it is so hard To be committed to the gospel
at the area of your family, you will substitute faithful commitment
to biblical principles with ceremonialism, hoping that ceremonialism will
cover them. Who didn't understand what I
just stated? You guys got it? Pastor, dedicate my baby. OK,
for what? What, is that going to get them
closer to heaven? Dedicate your baby so you can continue living
like hell rather than training them up in the fear and the nurture
of the Lord and being consistent in your own walk with them rather
than keeping a radically cross-centered theology in your home. Let your
kids know you a hell-bound sinner apart from the grace of God just
like them and y'all all need a labor to jump in every day
and be washed in the blood of the lamb. Are y'all hearing what
I'm saying? No, dedicate my baby. Can I get
my baby baptized? My baby five years old, she say
she saved. I know she saved pastor, she
can quote John 3 16. So can the devil. Let's see if she saved at 15
instead of five. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? These are critically important
because the enemy is always looking to give us a substitute for commitment
to his word. consistency in our service of
him as the grounds upon which we can have the promise that
if we train up our children in the way that they should go,
when they are old, they will not utterly depart from it. And
I hung on to that scripture and I did the best I could. And God
has been gracious. And I don't, I don't see any
other way to do it other than authentic Christianity in the
presence of your kids. I'm talking about, I think I'm
don't play, don't play no church. Don't, don't be a hypocrite.
Don't lie to your kids. Don't lie to them. You're a worse
center than they are. You're worse than your kids. You guys hear what I'm saying?
You're worse than your kids, but y'all both the same. You
all need a savior. Come on, let's hold hands and
pray that the Holy Ghost would save us all. Lord Jesus, save
me and Sally and Jim and Sam and Betsy. Save us all. We need you. Right. All right, let's pray.
Father, thank you for this time. Thank you for your word. Thank
you for the saints. As we go our way, give us traveling mercies. Prepare
us for Sunday. We pray in Jesus name, amen. God bless you guys.