I'd like for you to turn back
with me to Acts chapter 16. And I want to talk to you for
the next little bit about the conversion of the Philippian
jailer. I titled the message this morning,
When God Steps In. Now let me say this at the outset,
these were special and very unusual times. I don't expect when I
go somewhere to preach that an earthquake is going to attend
my ministry. I'm not expecting that. These
were unusual and very special times. The gospel age had begun. That's what this book of Acts
is all about. It's the Acts of the apostles
as they went out and they begin on these missionary journeys
to establish churches and carry out the will of God in the preaching
of the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ had appeared
on this earth, died on a cross, and was raised from the dead.
This was their declaration to the world. This man Jesus that
you despise, that you took out and hung and nailed on a cross,
God hath raised this same Jesus up from the dead. Not only that,
took Him up into glory and set Him at His own right hand. You appeared in this world as
a man in weakness and humility had ascended into glory, where
He now reigned with absolute power and authority over all
flesh. And before He left this world,
He gave commandment as to His will and purpose in these last
days, in this gospel age. The gospel was to be preached
to every creature, all nations of men. Go into all nations of
men and teach the gospel. Teach them. Teach them these
things that I have commanded you, and baptize baptizing those
who believe, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. A people was to be saved, it
tells us in the book of Revelations, out of every nation, kindred,
tongue, and tribe under heaven. And these men were not to be
left alone in these duties, but God Himself accompanied their
ministry. And He gave to them special and
unusual gifts. God the Holy Ghost would be sent
by Christ the King to accompany these men in their ministry.
Now you think about what I'm saying. I know today we talk
about the Holy Ghost and we think about men dancing and talking
in tongues and falling on the floor and all that kind of nonsense.
The Holy Ghost is God. This is God, the invisible God,
who created the world, who maintains the world, who arranges providence. This is God. God the Holy Ghost
was sent. We were poured out. We were buried
in the Holy Ghost. The whole church, all at one
time, He poured out the Holy Ghost on them, and He accompanied
these men. He accompanied them wherever
they went, whatever they did. The Holy Ghost was sent to accompany
them in their preaching. And also, in the beginning of
the last days, what we now call the Gospel Age, the New Testament
Scriptures would be written. And so He accompanied these men
also with gifts of the Holy Ghost. The ability to speak in foreign
languages without any formal training whatsoever. These men,
on the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit of God was poured
out, they preached to every man there in his own tongue and they
all understood what he said. Think about that. How complex
it is to learn a foreign language. And there was all kinds of languages
being spoken there. And these men got up without
any formal training whatsoever and preached and was understood. instructions given for the church,
clear and precise testimony concerning Christ and His work, and an adequate
revelation binding the Old Testament to the New. And to set these
early preachers and writers of Scripture aside from all other
men, God granted to them special gifts, gifts of healing, gifts
to exorcise demons, to cast out demons. and of spiritual discernment,
the ability to raise the dead. Why, they brought out sick folks
and laid them alongside the road just in case the shadow of Peter
would touch them as they went by and be healed. Now, I said all that to say this.
Most unusual circumstances led to the conversion of this Philippian
jailer. This man was not a religious
man. He was a jailer. He was a jailer. He was not seeking the Lord.
He was not a man repenting of his deeds and his wicked heart.
And he was not a sympathetic, soft-hearted man. He was a jailer. He was a rough, hard man. He'd heard all the sob stories.
He'd heard all the I'm innocent. Everybody in jail is innocent.
If you've ever been to one, you'd know that. Everybody in there
is innocent. Nobody guilty. He'd heard all
that. He'd seen the worst of men. And
this man was not affected by all the suffering of the men
within that prison. These men were beaten, Russell.
You probably couldn't even recognize them. They were beaten. The flesh
ripped off their back. This man took them down, stuck
their feet in a stock, closed that thing up, and locked it. And didn't weep while he did
it. This was a hard, hard man. He was not affected by all their
sufferings and the sufferings of the men and women in that
prison, and he wasn't turned by the words of these men of
God. But God had arranged this confrontation,
and God himself was about to intervene. He would, with a clear demonstration
of his sovereign power, take away the restraints that this
man had put upon his servants and bring this proud, hard-hearted
rebel to his wit's end in a matter of minutes. Now you think about
what I'm saying. The last man in that jail that
you would expect to be chosen of God was that jailer. But God had His love set on that
man, had His heart set on that man, and He's going to have him.
He's going to have him. This man, when he saw himself
in the circumstances beyond his control, that's where God has
to bring you. He has to bring you to that place
where the circumstances of your heart is beyond your control. That's where He brought this
man. He couldn't do anything about himself. God's providence
overwhelmed him, just consumed him with his power and presence
in this one act. And he knew that a horrible fate
would soon come his way. by the rulers that had charged
him with this life-threatening charge. And he drew his sword,
and he was about to take his own life. And Paul cried out,
said, don't do that. We haven't went anywhere. We're
still here. We're still here. Why didn't he leave? Why didn't
they run? I started thinking about this.
What would you have done if those stocks had been shaking off and
the door open? You'd have run. That's what I'd
have done. I'd have run. He didn't run. You know why? Because when God stepped in,
Paul knew why he was here. He knew why he was here. Do thyself no harm, we're all
here. Now, knowing a little bit about
these men, Knowing what this woman was saying, these men are
the servants of the Most High God. They're going to save you
by what they're preaching and so on. And she's mimicking them
and mocking them. He knew a little bit, just a
little bit about these men. A little bit about their ministry. He's convinced beyond all doubt
that their ministry is attended by a higher power. And he asked
this question. And I tell you this, if God ever
steps in, I'm not talking about a man who impressed you with
some words. I'm not talking about a feeling.
I'm talking about God's presence and power. If it ever comes into
your life, you'll have but one question on your mind. What must
I do to be saved? And you just have one answer.
There's just one answer. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. But I'll tell you this, this
man didn't have a clue what that meant. And neither does this
generation to whom I speak. Now I have a clue. If I just
come up here this morning and didn't tell you anything else,
and this is your first time here, And I told you to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, what would you think? You'd think what you
was told over there in religion years ago, come down an aisle,
shake somebody's hand, or join the church, or kneel down at
a mourner's bench, or speak in tongues, or whatever it is that
they told you to do, that's what you think you had to do. Learn
a creed, be catechized, join the church, whatever it is. And
you wouldn't have a clue what it meant to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. This man didn't have a clue who
Jesus Christ was. Who is He? Who is He? Why did He come? What did He
do? Where is He now? These are the
questions that a man has to ask to know who this man is so that
he might believe on Him. My whole generation has been
told to believe. to make Jesus their personal
Savior, to accept Him and love Him and follow Him. But absolutely
none of them out there are telling their hearers who He is. Who
is it that I might believe on Him? I dare say if you go house
to house to house and ask them who the Christ is, they wouldn't
know what that meant. This is the main point of his
office. He's Jesus the Christ. The Christ. Nobody is telling their hearers
who He is. And in Romans 10, verse 13, it
said, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. Now that's what these men are telling. Believe on the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's
a true saying. That's what the prophet said.
And here in Romans 10, Paul quotes the prophet, Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now His name
is who He is. It's inclusive of His titles,
His offices, His power, His dominion, and the glory of His character.
That's His name. But He tells us here in verse
14, How then shall they call on Him in whom they had not believed? And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they had not heard? They don't know who He is. And how are they going to hear
without a preacher? That's what God the Holy Spirit
tells us in the Word of God. In the Word of God. And how shall
that man preach except he be sinned? These men did not leave
this ignorant, unlearned heathen to guess the meaning of their
instruction. But he tells them here in Acts
16, verse 32, it says, they spake unto him the Word of the Lord. They told him, John, who he was. And not only to them, but all
that were in the house. He gathered together and sat
them down. He got up like I'm up before
you this morning. And he told them the Word of
the Lord. And this rough old jailer took
these men of God and tended to their wounds and submitted himself
to believers' baptism. and took them home to his house
out of the inner prison, and fed them, and rejoiced, believing
in God with all his heart." Now you think about that. I see in this jailer's experience
several things in common with every believer's experience when
God calls him out of darkness and despair to life everlasting.
And the very first thing I see is what I've been talking about
to you here this morning, the intervention of God. God. Now, we can talk all afternoon
and into the night about all the different aspects of salvation,
eternal predestination, divine election, the appointments of
Christ to His offices, His appearance on this earth, His condescension
from glory to become a man. His life's work, His death, His
resurrection, His ascension into glory, His commission to the
church, gifts of the Holy Ghost, and on and on and on. We could
talk about these things. But none of these things will
have any effect on you until God in sovereign power intervenes
and puts the fear of God into your heart. The one thing, after
Paul describes the sinner, he said, Being a Jew and having
the prophets and having the scrolls and having the Word of God and
having the ceremonies of God didn't do those Jews any more
good than the heathen with creation and conscience. It wasn't any
more effective on them than that conscience and creation was on
the heathen Hotentot. And he said the reason is because
they were all under sin. And then he goes through Romans
chapter 3 and he tells us, he describes for us the sinners.
None righteous. None that seeketh after God.
They're all gone astray. They together become unprofitable.
The poison of ash is under their lips. They are venomous reptiles. They hate God. On and on and
on he goes through Romans 3 describing the sinner. And he gets down
to the end and he sums it all up and he says, There is no fear
of God before their eyes. I don't know how many times I've
gathered folks together in this place and other places and preached
to them and they got up as flipping as if I was a comedian telling
a joke and walked out the back door. Why? Because there was
no fear of God before their eyes. That's why. When God intervenes
in a man's life, he sends in his heart the fear of God. He makes himself known. How does
he do it? I don't know. I don't know. He does it in different ways.
I can't begin to explain to you how God does these things. I
just know it's so. I sat in a pew, and I listened
to preachers for years, and they were just men, and I'd debate
about what they said. I'd like some, I didn't like
others, and on and on and on, until I heard Brother Mahan speak.
When I heard that man speak, God put the fear of God in my
heart, and I knew that little fellow, he wasn't tall as I am.
I feared him. I knew immediately this was the
servant of God, and I better pay attention to what he has
to say. Can you explain that? I can't,
but I know it's so. One minute, this old fella, he's
this hard-hearted jailer. He didn't have anything to do
with these men. He didn't want anything to do with them. He
didn't want to hear their sob stories, and he didn't want to
hear the hymns they were singing. He didn't want to know anything
about it. Next minute, he was washing their wounds and hanging
on every word they had to say. Now brother, you can't explain
that any other way except to say God intervened and when He
did, when He did, He set the fear of God in their heart. The
fear of God. God doesn't need to come down
here this morning and cause an earthquake to happen and shake
the doors off the church to convince you that He is. This book has
evidences and proofs dating back 6,000 years. And like I told you in my Sunday
school class here a week or so ago, unbelief says, show me a
sign. If God ever does, He'll establish
the fear of God in your heart. You won't need any more signs
or evidences. That would be sufficient for
you. God the Holy Spirit is more than sufficient for the task. I see the intervention of God. God works in the lives of chosen
sinners and in the lives of His preachers to bring them under
the sound of the Gospel. God began to work in the heart
of an old Ethiopian eunuch. And he said, I know what I'm
going to do. Now, he said this in worldly wisdom and philosophy,
using all the basic principles that we've been taught in school.
He said, I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to go down there
where those Jews meet. a little bit about the history,
and they go down there at a certain time, and they have these feasts
of the Passover, and they have all these things. This is the
culmination of all the ceremonial religion of God. I'm going to
go down there and learn everything there is to know about God. And
he went down there and came away as empty as he did when he went.
And he was right along in that chariot reading the book of Isaiah.
And there was a revival going on down here in Jerusalem. And
God took Philip out of the revival and sent him out here in the
middle of nowhere. You think about that. Out in the middle
of the day, he didn't even have a horse. And here he is. And he spots this chariot. And
he sees this man reading these scrolls. And he gets up there
and he runs along beside the chariot. And after a while, he looked
up at that eunuch and he said, do you understand what you're
reading? And he said, how can I? He said,
somebody tell me what this means. He said, scoot over. And he climbed
up in there and preached Christ to them. And you know what happened? Out of the opening unit, the
first time he spotted a good-sized mud hole, he said, I want to
be baptized. I want to be baptized. This old hard-hearted jailer They preached Christ to him,
Winston. As soon as they did, he said, I want to be baptized.
They baptized him and his whole 3,000 of the same crowd that
stood out there by the cross and said, give us Barabbas crucified. mocked him, spit in his face,
the same outfit. Peter came down and preached
to them in the power of the Holy Spirit, and God broke them. He established His power and
presence in their heart, and they believed that man that they
once despised. And 3,000 souls were baptized
the same day and added to the church. It don't take a smart, brilliant,
cunning man to stand and convince men of the gospel. It takes God
stepping in. That's what it takes. It takes
God stepping in. God has to turn that life upside
down. He has to bring you to your wits
end. He has to show you that you can't do anything for yourself,
and these preachers out here can't do anything for you, and
this preacher can't do anything for you. It takes God to do what
needs to be done. And he shows you how he accomplished
that and did that in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that
he rules, he rules to guarantee all that his work had bought
and purchased to be applied. He rules. I don't ignore invitations. I
don't ignore the means of God, the preaching of the Gospel.
I don't ignore inviting men to come to the worship services
or witnessing or tracts or CDs. I don't ignore reading the Scriptures
to your wives and children and so on. But in the end, the deciding
factor, God overrules the affairs of this life and draws men to
His Son. Irresistible grace. That's what
they call it in the doctrine. In John chapter 6 verse 44, he
said to the murmuring Pharisees who had cast aside all his instruction
and cast aside all that he told them and taught them, mocked
him. And he said to those murmuring
Pharisees who had been left to their own traditions and ceremonies
and left to their own understanding and philosophy, to that inherited
religion. He said, don't murmur. Don't
murmur. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him. And I'll raise him
up at the last day. Huh? Well, what if? I'll tell you when God steps
in, if steps out. That's right. Ain't no ifs when
God steps in. We can go on and on with the
ifs on our side, but there ain't no ifs with God. What will God do in your lives
to intervene? I don't know exactly. I've seen
all kinds of things. Might just be putting you in
the right place at the right time. God intervenes that way
sometimes. It may be the death of a loved
one. It may be the loss of a job. It might be the collapse of our
economy. It might be just a word in season. I don't know. But whatever it
is, it will result as an intervention of God. And I guarantee you,
you'll fear God. The fear of God will come into
your heart and you'll begin to see that God is. God is. And you ain't. That's right. And you're at His
disposal. The second thing I know is that
the ambassador of God and His true calling is going to take
precedence over everything, every other action of the day. Every
other thing in your mind is going to go, you're just going to see
Him as God's ambassador and you'll receive the Word from Him or
you won't receive it. Now that's just solid. I'll tell you how much so it
is. John said they went out from us. He didn't say they went out
from God. He said they went out from us
because they were not of us. For had they been of us, they
no doubt would have continued with us. That's what he said. I can't explain how these things
work except to say that whatever the events are that transpire,
they leave chosen sinners to believe God's preachers to be
sin of God. And that, he calls in the Scripture,
a godly fear comes out of their life. God spoke through His prophets. That's how He spoke to the fathers.
Well, what about them ones that went up on the mountain and built
them groves and went up there and hung all them statues and
had them little springs and fountains and waters? He didn't speak to
them. He didn't speak to them. He spoke
through his prophets. The condition of every natural
man apart from God's inner vision. is that there is no fear of God,
no fear of His divine presence, no fear of His divine purpose,
no fear of His divine power, no fear of His mediator, and
no fear of His chosen servants. One instance this old hard-hearted
jailer had no respect for them, and the next he was hanging on
every word. One moment he was unconcerned
with eternity. He didn't have the thought of
eternity. You've been there, and I've been there. Next minute,
that's all he could think about. God said, turn ye at my reproof.
Behold, I'll pour out my Spirit unto you, and I'll make known
my words unto you. But he said, I called. You wouldn't
answer. I stretched forth my arm. You
wouldn't pay me no heed. Now, he said, I'll mock when
your fear come out. It's coming. It's coming. It's not here today. Not here
today. You'd be trembling in that seat
if it was here today. Not here today, but it's coming.
It's coming. There is an effectual calling
involved in the salvation of sinners. It's defined in doctrine
as irresistible grace. Grace that overpowers the mind
and heart. Grace that superabounds over
our hostility and hardness. Grace that breaks a proud rebel
and makes him willing to hear and able to believe. My nephew
told me one time, he said, I'd like to have what you have or
say that you have." And he said, but you say that God sent you,
and this man down the street here says that God sent him,
and this other fellow here says that God sent him. He said, now,
I'm just a man, I don't know about any of these things. How
am I ever going to know who's sent of God and who's not? And
here's what I told him. But by the grace of God, you
never will. You never will. Now that's just
so. That's just so. You're going
to find one, pick one out, suit your temperament. Suit your philosophy. You're
going to be satisfied. You're going to make a commitment.
You're going to join the church and you're going to sit there
until you die and go out and meet God in judgment. That's
just so. God saved me by grace. Sovereign
grace. And if God ever intervenes in
your life, here's what you're going to have to say. What must
I do to be saved? You want to believe? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. God's preachers. Here's the next
thing I want you to see in there. God's preachers have what sinners
need. They have what sinners need. It would be of no consequence
for me to tell you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
then not tell you who He is or why He came or any of these things.
And I've got nothing for you. I'll just be honest with you.
I've got nothing for men and women who are trying to reform
their lives and turn over new leaves and make themselves acceptable
to God. I ain't got anything for you.
You're like those Jews who are ignorantly, they're going about
ignorantly trying to establish their own righteousness. and
would not submit to the righteousness of God. All I can do for you
is what Paul did for them. I can pray for you. But I've
got nothing for you. I have nothing for men and women
who hold to traditional religion, the religion of this world, and
try to judge my word by the doctrines of devils. What you're saying can't be so
because The priest said it wasn't so, or the preacher, the bishop,
the reverend, whatever he is. And you try to judge me by what
they say. Judge me by this book, what this
book says. Now if what I'm telling you is
not in this book, then we'll throw it out the door. We're
not going to have it. In 1 Timothy 4, verse 1, it says
that some would depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing
spirits and doctrines of devils. The Jews did not judge the person
and work of Christ by the word of God, but by their vain and
foolish traditions and understandings. And then thirdly, I have nothing
for those who hold to and judge my words by the fundamental basic
principles of this world. I want to talk about science
and all these things and mix all these things into the Word
of God. We are told over and over in
the book of Proverbs that there is a way that seemeth right unto
a man. And when a man grasps that way,
he gets in the broad way. And that way leads to death and
destruction. You can read about it in Proverbs
14 and Proverbs 16. And then in Isaiah 44, verse
20, it says, a deceived heart hath turned him aside. Turned
him aside. Why? He was deceived. He believed
a lie. A deceived heart hath turned
him aside that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, there is a
lie in my right hand. He don't know that. He's grasping
that lie in his right hand, in his hand of power. He's hanging
on to a lie. Defend it to the death, won't
you? And he can't deliver his own
soul. For that sinner who's been awakened
of God and made conscious of God's power and presence, I have
the very mystery of God that's eluded your soul all your life. My friend, the gospel is a great
mystery. Paul said, we speak the wisdom
of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained
before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of
this world knew, for had they known it, they wouldn't have
crucified the Lord of Glory. But as it is written, eye hath
not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man, fallen, depraved, confused man, the things that God hath
prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by His Spirit. Mysteries, great mysteries. These are the things we speak,
he said, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the
Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
But the natural man, that undisturbed, unregenerate, unenlightened man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness
to him. Why does the natural man look
on the wisdom and mystery and means of God as foolishness?
because he looks through the eyes of vain religion and natural
reasoning. That's why. Brother John brought a man in
here one day, a very smart, wise man. Educated to the max. Couldn't understand a single
thing I said. The gospel of God's sovereign
grace in Jesus Christ is revealed in the hearts of chosen sinners
whose lives have been interrupted whose person has been arrested.
Have you ever heard men talk about these old preachers talking
about being arrested? That's what happened to that
jailer. Now, he was used to arresting men, but he wasn't used to being
arrested. God arrested him. He arrested
him. God the Holy Ghost is sufficient
to make men willing and able to receive His gospel. That's why Paul said he didn't
use the wisdom of men when he did this. And he said, I do that
that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in
the power of God. New Testament preaching is a
declaration of the gospel. And the gospel, strictly speaking,
is a person. And as I preached to you so much
in the past, Jesus Christ is a representative person. He came
and He obeyed the law in the weakness of human flesh. And
by His faithfulness, He brought out for us a perfect righteousness
that has brought to a close the very law of God. That's what
it says. He is the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believes. Because He understands the mystery.
He understands the mystery of righteousness. By His perfect life and substitutionary
death, the Lord Jesus Christ has ushered in for us everlasting
righteousness. A righteousness secured in Him
forever. A righteousness not subjected
to a fall. A righteousness that has exalted
and honored the law. Men say, well, what are you going
to do about the law? You dishonor the law. We honor
it. We put it on a sign. We put it
on a plaque. We hang it up in the church. You can't honor the
law, honey, any more than you do when you look to the Lord
Jesus Christ, who has taken it as high as it can go. He fulfilled
everything it said. He's done that in motive, thought,
and deed. He elevated that law. You want
to honor the law? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Believe it. And in here in Acts 16, this
old heathen Roman jailer, brought into subjection to the authority
of King Jesus, took these prisoners home, cleaned up their wounds,
and immediately the same hour of that night, he was baptized. Maybe the Lord will be gracious
this morning, right here in this place. And establish the fear
of God in somebody's heart. And bring them to Christ. And
reveal unto them the mysteries of God. I tell you, if He does,
you'll be thankful forever. And you'll go away from here
rejoicing. Rejoicing.