I'll turn back to the book of
Acts and we'll look at chapter 16 which I know is a very long
chapter to say that you're going to tackle in one message but
we're just going to look at two people in here, two very different
people, two very different people and that's the subject of the
message this morning, two very different people. Now you remember
that last time we were together we looked at Acts 15 at the Council
of Jerusalem and saw a matter settled. And what was the matter?
The matter was how is a person made right with the living God?
How is a person going to stand the judgment of God? How is a
person going to face an eternal God who is holy and just and
angry at sin and survive that and come through it and not be
condemned? And the question is, is it through
the works of Jesus Yes, nobody in Acts 15 had any doubt about
that. But there were those who added other things, that you
must do, that I must do. And they were saying, unless
you obey all the law of Moses and all of its precepts, and
you establish righteousness for yourself in your so doing, you
cannot be saved. You will get to the judgment
and you will be condemned. And the letter of the apostles,
the judgment of the apostles in Acts 15 was absolutely no. We're the apostles, they said.
We're Jews. We've been raised in this Jewish
way of religion, which was a foretaste, which was a shadow, which was
a type of the truth that is in Christ. And they said, not one
wit. You don't need any of those things.
We are saved in exactly the same way as these Gentiles, with no
religious tradition at all, with no tradition of truth of the
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. are saved on exactly the same
basis as them we're no better than them because we're circumcised
Jews and we've been in the temple worship not one whit we're on
exactly the same basis and that basis is Jesus Christ and Him
crucified so they wrote a letter don't trouble them you carry
on you believe what you're believing don't you be bothered by these
people who come and tell you you need to do this and you need
to do that and we said last time this is a message we so much
need to hear in these days when people are polluting the true
gospel of grace in Christ with endless works. They're wrapping
it up, they're wrapping up under the guise of sovereign grace
Calvinism, they're wrapping up all of these other works-based
religions and it's not true. The Scriptures are clear, the
Apostles have ruled, the matter's been settled. And so Paul says
to Barnabas, let's go and tell all the churches where we went
before when they went on their first missionary journey let's
go again and see how they're doing and in the process take
the letter with them and go and tell them and deliver to them
the ruling, the edict of the apostles, that simple edict no
burden believe Christ, no burden just don't offend your neighbors
don't offend the Jews around you because Moses has got his
disciples everywhere just don't do anything deliberately to cause
them offense Don't wave it in their faces, your liberty. Just
don't offend them. Steer clear of all the things
that really get them upset. And just stick to Christ. That
was the message. And so, yes, they were going
to go, but there was a disagreement between them over Mark. You remember
Mark who went with them? Barnabas' nephew went with them. And at a certain point in the
journey, he left them and went back to Jerusalem. And it clearly
upset Paul in some way. We know later on that Paul was
very endeared to this same Mark. It wasn't a permanent split.
He was very endeared to him. He said in one of his letters,
send Mark to me for he is profitable to me for the ministry. So this
was no permanent split. But at the time, and in the sovereign
purposes of God, they had their disagreements. So Barnabas took
Mark and off they went and we don't hear much more about them.
And Paul chose Silas and went with him. And they went back
to visit places. And so we come to chapter 16
and they go to Derbe and Lystra and they find Timothy, this young
disciple. He'd no doubt believed the first
time round. He was of a godly mother and
a godly grandmother. We know from one of the epistles
of Paul to Timothy about his mother and his grandmother, how
they taught him the things of God. She was a Jewess, but his
father was a Greek. So Timothy was an uncircumcised
man who believed the truth of the gospel. And he was very much
well reported, it says in verse 2, of the brethren at Lystra
and Iconium and Paul wanted to take him with him on their journey
because he was useful for ministry and in verse 3 we see an odd
thing you might think this is incredibly inconsistent of the
Apostle Paul and it may be true that there is some inconsistency
because you know all that he said we've looked at it in Galatians
and then in relation to the council at Jerusalem in Acts 15 that
circumcision is not necessary for salvation. And yet he takes
Timothy, who wasn't a circumcised man because his father was a
Greek, and he circumcises him because of the Jews which were
in those quarters, for they knew all that his father was a Greek.
Now, there may well have been some inconsistency. Let's be
in no doubt. It's only Popes that claim infallibility in this
life, and of course they're not infallible. There's never been
a claim that As men, the apostles were infallible. Think of Peter.
Think of Peter, how weak he was. He'd be the last person. Think
of what Paul said about himself. Do you know what Paul said? The
more and more he grew in grace and the knowledge of Christ,
the stronger and stronger he got, did he say, oh, I'm getting
better and better and much and much more sanctified. The older
I live, the more sanctified and better prepared for heaven I'm
becoming. That's what you would think he would say, wouldn't
you? That's what you would think would be the testimony of Scripture.
Oh, the older I get, the better and better I'm getting at being
sanctified and obeying the commandments of God and doing all these good,
righteous things that people say we should do. Do you know
what he says? He says, I'm the least of all the apostles. And
then he says, I can't, what's the middle one?
It's just departed from me. But he's getting worse. And then
the final thing he says is, I am the chief of sinners. The chief
of sinners. Says that in the last epistle
he writes. 2nd Timothy, the chief of sinners. That's his verdict
of himself. I saw a good piece in one of
the bulletins from our brethren across the water this morning
about what it is, I think I mentioned it in my prayer, being nothing
in the church. Paul Mahan had seen something
saying, come to our church, so it's this church advertising.
Ours is a church where everybody is somebody. And that tickled
him, you know, that sort of stabbed him in the ribs and it prompted
him to write something. Not a church where everybody
is somebody. A true church is somewhere where
everybody is nobody and knows that they're nobody and knows
that they're just a poor sinner and nothing at all. But Jesus
Christ is my all in all. That's the true testimony. I
am nothing. I am the chief of sinners. No
doubt there was some inconsistency here perhaps. But it was also
because of the Jews. So I'm going to be generous and
say that he was saying this. He would die in a ditch over
the fact that you do not need to add anything to the work of
Christ to give you any more righteousness in your standing with God, whether
that be for salvation or whether that be for the reward you're
going to get put on your head when you get to heaven. Not one
thing, not an iota of anything you do, whether it's circumcision
or law-keeping or whatever, But you know how the letter had said,
keep yourselves from blood and from things sacrificed to idols.
Just because the Jews who were there, the disciples of Moses,
you'll just unnecessarily rile them. You'll get them throwing
things at you and getting angry with you. Well, in the same way,
they all knew that Timothy's father was a Greek. Oh, we're
not going to listen to him. No. Oh, come on then. He circumcised
him. He circumcised him. Just so as
not to cause... You know how Romans 14 talks
about this? You know, there are principles of what makes us right
with God and we don't budge an inch on those things. We have
liberty to do all sorts of things. We have liberty to enjoy all
things that God has given freely. But if we're in the company of
somebody who, for whatever reason of tender conscience, is desperately
offended by the fact that you take a glass of wine, then although
you've got absolute liberty to take that glass of wine, then
for the sake of that one If he's of such a tender conscience,
just abstain from it when you're in his presence. Just don't offend,
just don't do anything that would unnecessarily cause offense.
And so that's what that is about. I don't want to spend any longer
on that at this moment. But the fact is, look at verses
4 and 5. They went through the cities and delivered them the
decrees for to keep. I believe that's the letter that
the apostles had given them. They delivered them the decrees
for to keep. that were ordained of the apostles
and elders which were at Jerusalem. You see, they went with the letter
and so were the churches established in the faith. No mixture, no
alloy of other impurities and they increased in number daily. So there was prosperity. There
was spiritual prosperity. They were established in the
faith and they increased in number. Doors were closed. Look in verses
6, 7, 8 and 9. You see, you might think This
is a good formula. There's prosperity here. There's
spiritual prosperity. This is a good area. They hadn't
exhausted this area, had they, with their preaching? I mean,
you know, there were still plenty who didn't believe. Although
they increased in number daily, there were still loads who didn't
believe. Surely they could go and they could start filling
the amphitheaters with people and so on and so forth. What
a winning formula there was here. So, as we often say, if it ain't
broke, Don't fix it. So why do anything different?
Why change the pattern? Why not continue doing what they
were doing? I'll tell you why. Because God had said, take the
gospel to all the world. And you know how he caused persecution
in Jerusalem? Because they were too comfortable
there. And that caused them to spread to Judea and Samaria and
Antioch and to the uttermost parts of the earth. Well, this
is part of that spreading. And when they'd gone throughout
Phrygia and the region of Galatia, look at this. They were forbidden
of the Holy Ghost to preach the Word in Asia. Did you hear that? They were forbidden of the Holy
Ghost. God is sovereign over all these things. He is the one
who is in control. He is the one who directs. After
they were come to Micea, they assayed, they tried to go to
Bithynia. Let's keep going with this formula
that's working so well amongst these Turkish people, these Turkish
Gentiles, but the Spirit suffered them not. He wouldn't let them.
And passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas, to Troy, which
is the nearest place, you know, so it's just across that bit
of water from Europe. It's in Asia, but it's just across
the bit of water from Europe. And Paul has a vision. And in
the vision, these were special times, a man appeared to him,
a man of Macedonia, of Greece, of the other side of the water,
and prayed him, saying, come over here and help us come over
here and they saw that as God closing doors this is what he
says he does in the revelation he says to the churches he says
I'll close a door and if he closes a door no man can open it because
you know what the door really is the door is not our ability
to go and set up a crusade and do this that and the other the
true door is the door of the hearts of men and women And if
he's closed it, you'll have no progress at all. But he opens
other doors. And when he opens a door, no
man can shut it, he says. He opens a door. And so they
come to Philippi. And so the Gospel is now spreading
from Asia into Europe and to the uttermost parts of the earth.
And so they come to Philippi, which is the chief city of that
part of Macedonia, and a colony, a Roman colony. And we were in
that city abiding certain days. And you'll notice in the narrative
You see, we, so Luke is writing, he's part of the party now. We
were in that city abiding certain days. And they meet two people
in that city. Of all the people that they meet,
there are two singled out for mention. And these are the two
that I want to look at, because they're at opposite ends of the
spectrum of humanity that we find all around us, and especially
as we find in this small town of Nebworth. But in all places
of the world, a spectrum of types of people two different people,
Lydia and the jailer. One religious, one decidedly
not religious. One, a nice, lovely, respectable
woman loved by all of those around her. One who, in terms of society,
you'd love to have Lydia as a neighbor. I'm not talking about our Lydia
here, but you know who I mean. This Lydia here in Philippi,
you would love to have this lady as one of your neighbors, as
somebody living in the same street, or in the same place that you
live. She was a lovely person, she really was. And the other
man, the other one, the jailer, you probably would have steered
clear of him, because it sounds to me, I'm probably reading more
in than is revealed here, but you get the impression. He was
a tough guy, he was a hard man, and he was doing a hard job.
By the way, I nearly forgot, there's a bulletin with a summary
of this in, so don't let us forget that later. But he was a hard
man, doing a hard job. And, you know, that's all he
was interested in. He had his things to do and he didn't want
to be bothered with these other bits and pieces. People would
probably not have regarded the Philippian jailer as a particularly
nice sort of man to have as a neighbour or as an acquaintance. He'd be
rough. He'd be rough speaking. He'd be rough in every aspect
of his character, because he was dealing with rough people.
He was under threat of his own life if he didn't do his job.
You know, we might get fired. for not doing our job well. This
guy, when his job didn't go right, got his sword out to kill himself.
He was so worried about it. Two people, opposite ends of
the spectrum. Let's look at them briefly. Lydia,
we see in verse 13. On the Sabbath, we went out of
the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made. People
gathered for religious service by the river. And so, on the
Sabbath day, they're gathering, the Jewish Sabbath day, they're
gathering for prayer by the riverside. They're seeking the living God.
That's a good place for Paul and his brethren to go and to
proclaim the gospel. He wants to go there and proclaim
the gospel. So we went there and we sat down
and we spoke to the women which resorted thither. A group of
women came there with Lydia and in verse 14, a certain woman
named Lydia, a cellar of purple of the city of Thyatira which
worshipped God heard us. Of all the people that heard,
Lydia heard. A certain woman heard, Lydia.
She was a businesswoman. She was in trade. She was, she
was, you know, she had initiative in business. She was, she was
prosperous, no doubt. She was clearly kind to those
around her because many resorted there with her. She wasn't, no
disrespect to the Dragon's Den on the television, but you know,
she wasn't, she wasn't, it sounds like she wasn't an aggressive
businesswoman, but she was a kind, honest, upright businesswoman,
a good employer, respected, and clearly religious, because she
wanted to worship God, and the God she wanted to worship was
not the God of idols of the society around her, it was the God of
the Jews, the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
the true God. She wanted to worship this true
God. She knew, she knew that she was fearfully and wonderfully
made. She knew, as she looked around her and considered the
stars and the sky and the heavens and the universe and everything
in it, that there was a God who is great and mighty and awesome,
who dwells in unapproachable light, who is a God who I must
reckon with. I'm a mortal soul and I know
I'm going to... How am I going to be right? The Jews' religion
seems a good religion. Let's do things right. Let's
not follow all this superstition and idolatry that's all around
us. So let's seek to worship the God of the Jews. This is
what she did. And those that resorted there with her. Seeking
acceptance with the true God. If you're going to be right with
God, make sure it's the right God that you're right with. She
wanted to be right with the God who was the true God of the universe.
And that's why she resorted there. She was religious. She was trusted
by those around her. and she was like so many. Oh,
my friends. How my heart goes out to many
that we see. We live in an utterly irreligious
age but at the same time there are an awful lot that are seriously
bound in religion. As we drive here on a Sunday
morning you notice how crowded the road is with cars parked
for the various places of worship. People are religious. Some of
it is just for being seen socially Some of it is just because it's
the tradition that your family has done and you always do it.
But I'm sure in many, many cases it's out of a sincere desire,
honestly, truthfully, to know God, the true God and to do the
right thing. And that there's more than the
atheists tell us to this life. And I want to be right with...
People like that are all around us. Worshipping the true God
in an outward sense, in outward form. Wanting to be right with
the true God. but she heard Paul a certain
woman heard us she heard she heard Paul as Job says you know
Job says in Job 42 verse 5 I have heard of you with the hearing
of the ear but now my eye sees you my eye sees you with the
heart my eye sees you I know I'm mixing the metaphors but
you know what I mean there's an external hearing about God
There's a hearing about God. You can hear all about God, but
not hear God. But you know when God is speaking
to you. I'm not talking about in mysterious voices. I'm talking
when that message of truth, of grace, of salvation in Christ
is just... He's speaking to you. It's there. Hearing God. And the Lord, it
says, whose heart the Lord opened. The Lord opened her heart. She didn't have any ability to
believe. Please understand this. This
is an error which is rampant. There are churches and organizations
all around us that call themselves Sovereign Grace. They believe
in the doctrines of Sovereign Grace, that it is all of God,
and yet in their practice and the articles they write and the
things they preach, increasingly, just as there was in the days
of Spurgeon, there is a serious downgrade taking place. It's
Arminianism. It's man's religion dressed up
as sovereign grace. And be not deceived. The elect
of God are not deceived. It's a lie. And it must be resisted. And we mustn't have anything
to do with it. And steer clear of it. There are those who write
things like raising Christian children in a certain newspaper. As if we have got the ability
to raise Christian children. It's God who raises Christian
children. It's the sovereign God upon whose
mercy we cast ourselves, who raises Christian children. It's
not us. It's not of Him who wills, nor
of Him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. So watch out for
it and beware of it, because it's all around us. She did not
have the ability, but the Lord opened her heart. And this is
what the Lord does for all of His people, all in sovereign
grace, whom Christ has lived for, whom Christ has died for,
the sheep whom to him from before the beginning of time as the
lamb slain from the foundation of the world and in time he comes
at the right time born of a woman born under the law to redeem
those under the law he goes to the cross he bears the sins of
his people he who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him he establishes justice God's justice is perfectly
satisfied in the Lord Jesus Christ and then in time each and every
one of them dead in trespasses and sins children of wrath even
as the others the Holy Spirit comes and makes alive and gives
ears to hear and eyes to see and opens this word and the Lord
opens the hearts and the Spirit comes and it's not of the will
of man nor of the will of flesh of the flesh it says John in
John chapter 1 but the will of God and he brings he opens her
heart and brings her to hear he opened her heart gently ever
so gently He opened that door ever so gently. Paul preached
Christ. What did he preach? He preached
the substitute for sinners. He preached to those ladies that
were there seeking to be right with the living God that there
is none of the name under heaven whereby we must be saved. For
in the Lord Jesus Christ is all the righteousness that you need
to be accepted by God, to be welcomed by God, to have those
everlasting arms cast around you and drawn into His protective
glorious presence. He preached that. He preached
that the sin burden with which we must all leave this life if
we're outside of Christ for those who are in Christ was loaded
onto Him and He bore it and there is no more sin. There is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. What a glorious, glorious thought.
What a magnificent, majestic hope of eternal glory, being
right with God for all eternity. And God gave Lydia the gift,
which is a gift, the gift of God, to see the truth of the
gospel of Christ. It's that light that I so often
refer to in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 6, the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ shining
into the heart and giving an ability to do that which by nature
you cannot do. For the natural man..." They're
all around us in Nebeth. The natural man cannot see the
things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them. They're
foolishness to him. He doesn't understand them. But when the
Holy Spirit comes and opens eyes and gives that light and gives
that gift of faith and that grants repentance to see things differently,
faith comes by hearing. The means was there. Paul was
there preaching. And faith came by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God that was preached. And in the case
of Lydia and all who believe, mere respectable religion, because
that's what so many follow so sincerely, mere respectable religion
was replaced by living faith in Christ. And a new man was
born inside, a new man, a new being. Ezekiel 36, 26, I will
take the stony heart, that hard, cold, unfeeling heart out of
your flesh, that heart that is deaf to the things of God, that
heart that is unfeeling to the things of Christ, and I will
give you a heart of flesh." And he does that. He does a heart
transplantation. I don't know how many years it
is since the very first one, when a man in South Africa, Professor
Barnard, that was it? Professor Barnard, there's a
good quiz question, who did perform the first Heart transplantation. It must have been 1960-something,
because I remember I was at school a long, long time ago. God has
been doing heart transplants for much longer than that. They're
spiritual heart transplants. Taking stony hearts out and putting
hearts of flesh in. Making a new creature. For behold,
says Paul, 2 Corinthians 5, 17, if any man is in Christ Jesus,
he is a new creature, a new creation. All things have passed away.
All things have become new. He gives the gift of repentance,
rethinking, turning around, turning away from old habits, from old
dependencies of religion, from old dependencies of tradition
and family, from old dependencies of how I'm going to be right
with God. A rethinking, turning away from those things, from
empty religion, from confidence in the flesh, so that we become
the true circumcision. You know, the circumcision has
always been a picture in the scripture of the true people
of God, symbolized by the Jews in that rite. But now we know,
Philippians chapter 3 and verse 3, for we are the true circumcision,
all true believers who worship God in the Spirit, not in places,
not in places. Which mountain should we worship
in, said the woman to Jesus at the well? Not in this mountain,
nor in another mountain. The time is coming when those
who worship Him, God desires true worshipers, and those who
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth, wherever
you are, not in places, who worship God in the Spirit, who rejoice
in Christ Jesus, not in what they are. They rejoice in Christ
Jesus, for He is my all in all. I'm a poor sinner, nothing at
all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all, and have no confidence
in the flesh and what I am. And so we pray that the Lord
would do the same for people here in Nebworth. Open hearts. Make that your prayer. The old
man, the flesh, is still present with us until death, but this
is the thing at conversion. when the Lord opens her heart,
a new man is in charge. That new man, which is born after
the Lord Jesus Christ, is put in charge. He's put in charge. So let's look then at the jailer.
The jailer. We don't have many minutes left,
and so this isn't going to be very deep at all, but I just
want you to look at him. To cut a long story short, Lydia
must have had a substantial household, with servants and family, wider
family, And many of them believed as well. They heard the message
and they believed and many of them were baptized and she offered
hospitality to Paul and his companions. And they stayed with them several
days and taught them, no doubt. And great things were being done
there. Marvelous, marvelous. No doubt
God was raising up preachers in that area under the preaching
of Paul and those that were with him. So that when they went on,
By God's grace, they had still that word of eternal life preached
in their midst. And to cut a long story short,
an incident happens with people who were keeping for profit a
girl who was possessed of evil spirits. And Paul cast this demon
out of the girl. And her master saw that their
hope of gains through this were gone. And they were furious about
it, that Paul and Silas, having released this poor girl from
this demon possession out of which they made money, they were
furious that their source of living had been taken away. You
can think of it in our day. I won't go into any explicit
details, but we know the sort of exploitation that is happening,
even on streets not more than about 25 miles from where we
are at the moment. Terrible exploitation of young
people. And people have got such an evil
spirit that they They're doing this exploitation of them. And
these men were furious that Paul and Silas had done something
which took away their hope of gains from this girl. And they
brought them before the magistrates. And in what looks like extremely
rough justice, they ripped the clothes off Paul and Silas, they
beat them with rods, and I'm talking about a severe beating,
not the sort of canings that used to go on in the state schools
in this country, but the sort of beatings of a really unpleasant
nature, where stripes and wounds are inflicted across the backs
of these people, of Paul and Silas. And terrible treatment,
and be in no doubt, don't think for one minute that this didn't
hurt, because Paul in other places says how badly treated they were
here, how terribly treated. It really was a gross evil and
injustice, a dreadful thing to do, and they threw them into
prison. and not only into prison, but they put their feet in the
stocks, verse 24. And so there they are, Paul and
Silas, in that dreadful situation. And the jailer, this jailer,
this rough jailer, what was he doing? He's just doing his job.
Just doing his job. Nothing to do with me. I don't
judge whether the justice is right or not right. I've just
got a job to do. And you know the expression,
it's more than his job's worth. Well, it was more than his life
was worth. not to keep Paul and Silas in the stocks. He was just
indifferent to it. He was just doing his job. What
did Paul and Silas believe? Do you know what I'm inclined
to think in my weakness that I would be doing? I'd be banging
and making a row at what an awful injustice this was and how dreadful
it was and can somebody get me a lawyer to get me out of here
and so on and so forth. But Paul and Silas believed,
believed in the grace of God that this was all in God's purpose
to save his people. that they were being taken through
all sorts of things for all sorts of purposes with the ultimate
objective that God's people would be called out wherever they were
that he had people to call out there under the sound of the
gospel as Jesus must needs go to Samaria he didn't if you look
at the map he didn't needs go through Samaria he could have
bypassed it quite easily it was a straighter line to bypass it
But he must needs go through Samaria. Why? There was a woman
there and there were lots of other people who needed to hear
the gospel. There was a woman called Lydia on the riverbank.
So Paul and Silas went there. The Spirit directed them. Because
there, there was a woman whose heart was going to be opened.
As Paul preached, it pleased God through the foolishness of
preaching to save those who believe. And so they ended up in jail
with stripes on their back, with their feet in the stocks, No
doubt those wounds were starting to get infected. They hadn't
been bathed. They were in a terrible condition.
And they were there that this man, this rough jailer, might
come to believe that he was one of Christ's sheep, for whom Christ
died. And they saw it, I'm sure, as
an honor to be suffering for the cause of Christ and for his
gospel. Oh, that he would give us grace
to have that view. the ends which is the salvation
of his people they could tolerate the means which was so unpleasant
you know it reminds me of an incident where the disciples
were fishing after the resurrection and it was before Christ had
ascended and it was an early morning and I can imagine the
scene, can you? one of those incredibly still
mornings where the lake, the sea was as flat as a mill pond
And you know the sound carries. I've been by the lakes up in
the Lake District on a very, very calm day when the water's
been as glass and people on the other side, half a mile away
on the other side of the lake, you can hear them talking as
if they're five yards away. It's just so the sound carries,
you know. And they'd been fishing. These
were professional fishermen. They'd been fishing all night
long. They'd seen the risen Christ, but what do we do now? We don't
really know. well I'm going fishing says Peter
and so they go fish we're gonna go and catch a load of fish let's
go back to our trade of catching fish and they fish all night
long and they catch nothing and Jesus comes walking by the shore
and he shouts across to them have you caught anything? no
all night long not a thing put your net down on the other side
perceived who it was they put the net down on the other side
they nearly sank the boat with the weight of fish that was in
it. Do you see the picture? Do you see the analogy? God directs
His people to where He has those whom He saved in Christ. He directs
the fishing. I will make you fishers of men.
And here they were in the jail because they were fishers of
men. And in that situation, that must have been their view. They
were here because there was somebody, they didn't know who, to call
out. And they were witnessing. They weren't despairing. They
weren't crying injustice. They were witnessing in prayer
and singing. They were witnessing to the eternal
hope that they had. And the prisoners all around
them heard that eternal hope. They heard them singing of the
fact that despite the stripes on their backs, they had this
glorious Lord who had saved them. And they had a confidence of
heaven. And they were going to heaven. But where was the jailer?
He was asleep. He was asleep. He was sound asleep. He was asleep physically. And
no doubt, he was in a soul sleep. A soul sleep. People all around
us are in a soul sleep, their souls are asleep, dead in trespasses
and sins. We see it on the buses in London,
that advert, that infamous advert, there's probably no God, therefore
stop worrying, don't be bothered about it. There's probably no
God, so just carry on as you are, don't worry. And in the
middle of it, there was an earthquake, a miraculous intervention. I
don't believe it was a widespread earthquake that affected the
whole area. I believe it was a miraculous
intervention there. And its purpose was not to release
the prisoners, because they cried out, we're all here, none of
us have escaped, don't worry. The purpose of the earthquake
was to awaken the jailer. And I'm going to finish with
this, I'm not going to go much further. What an awakening that this jailer
had. Not just from his sleep, but
somehow in that time he took his sword, because he thought
they'd all gone, supposing the prisoners had been fled, And
Paul cried with a loud voice, Do thyself no harm, for we're
all here. So he called for a light and
sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and
Cyrus. Why did he fall down? I'll tell you why. He'd had an
awakening that was more than just being woken from his sleep.
He'd been woken from his soul sleep. He had a sudden awareness
of eternal peril. He suddenly was aware. Whereas
Lydia's heart was opened ever so gently, the jailer's heart
was wrenched open by the eternal God. who would not let this sheep
get away, who would not let this sheep perish over the cliff.
He went for him and he grabbed him and he got him and he brought
him. He dangled him over eternity in a moment. He showed him his
true state, the state that we're all in by nature. He showed him
the justice of judgment and how it was ever so right. He showed
him the truth and the reality of hell and how that was his
destiny and that's how he would end up Because it's appointed
to man to die once, and then comes the judgment. He showed
him those things so that the man cried out all that he could
cry out. What would you cry out? You're
in a freezing cold sea. You've fallen overboard. What
would you cry out? What must I do to be saved? What must I do to be saved? I'm
helpless in and of myself. What must I do? And the answer
comes, there's only one thing you can do. And in a sense, it's
nothing that you do, for it's the work of God. This is what
you must do. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Trust your soul's eternal safety to the One who alone has done
everything necessary. You see, believing is not a work
that you do which God rewards with salvation. Absolutely not. Don't ever think that. Believing
is the gift of God for you to see what Christ has done for
you already, that you might be right with God and that you might
be saved. You know, no man can come to
the Father. No man can come to Christ unless
the Father draws him. This is what it says in John
chapter 6. This is what Christ said. No man can come except
for the sovereign grace of God. To preach that everybody has
the ability is not true. No man can come unless God draw
him. But here's the corollary of it.
He says, but whoever comes to me, I will in no wise cast out. So sinners, poor and needy, looking
to Christ, knowing that in him is all their hope don't fear
don't hold back the only fitness said Joseph Hart in his hymn
the only fitness he desireth is to feel your need of him and
this he gives you this he gives you that need of him this he
gives you tis the spirits rising something or I can't remember
the words how it goes exactly God grants repentance and faith
two very different people one ultimate end one ultimate objective
it's the same today I don't care who they are on the spectrum
from Lydia to the jailer in the village of Nebworth in the town
of Nebworth I don't care who they are one way of salvation
one way of being right with the Eternal God no other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved other than our
Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone