Open your Bibles with me, please,
to Acts, the 16th chapter. Acts chapter 16. Let's read beginning
at verse 23. When they had laid many stripes
upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to
keep them safely. having received such a charge,
thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the
stops. And at midnight Paul and Silas
prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard
them. And suddenly there was a great
earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and
immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bands
were loose. and the keeper of the prison
waking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open,
he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing
that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice,
saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here. Then he called
for a light and sprang in, and came trembling and fell down
before Paul and Silas. and brought them out, and said,
Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And
they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that
were in his house. And he took them the same hour
of the night, and washed their stripes, and was baptized he
and all his straightway." And when he had brought them into
his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced, believing
in God with all his house. And no sooner had God begun to
work at Philippi than Satan raised up a mob to drag Paul and Silas
before the magistrates who had them beaten and thrown into prison.
Those people at Philippi whose business had been disrupted because
of the power of God thought to themselves, now we're done with
these preachers. We will hear no more of their
prayer meetings and Bible readings. We'll hear no more of that crude
preaching about that Jew, Jesus of Nazareth, whom the Jews crucified. It would appear to a person who
sees things only with a carnal eye that the gospel of God and
the purpose of God had at least for a time failed at Philippi.
that Paul and Silas must now seek some other place to go preaching
and to spread the gospel of God's grace. But we dare not, we must
not judge things by the eye of flesh. We must not look upon
things merely with carnal reason. We should never be discouraged
by opposition. When things seem to run counter
to our plans and our purposes, we ought to realize that God
has better plans and better purposes for us. God has a way of providentially
driving us out of shallow waters so that we can cast our net into
deeper waters and make a greater catch of fish. And so the Lord
took Paul and Silas into this prison. And the fact is that
in doing so, the very best thing that could have happened did
happen. Paul and Silas would not have
chosen imprisonment, but they must go to prison because there
was an elect sinner there whose time of mercy had come. It was
the time for this Philippian jailer to be converted, and he
must be converted. But this stern jailer would never
be found down by the riverside at one of those prayer meetings
among some Jewish women. He would not come to the preacher,
so the preacher must go to the jailer. This is another of the
many examples of the soul-cheering truth of God's sovereign providence.
Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder
of wrath wilt thou restrain. In the midst of evil, God is
doing good. God wisely, mysteriously, sovereignly
employed the angry rage of a wicked the illegal actions of a corrupt
magistrate and the tormenting hiss of the old serpent to accomplish
his will, to accomplish the salvation of one whom he had chosen. No,
God did not cause the mob to be angry. No, God did not cause
Satan to rage this raging torment against his people. No, God did
not cause the magistrate to illegally imprison and beat Paul and Silas. But God did sovereignly use those
things to bring Paul and Silas to this place to preach the gospel
to this jailer that his sheep might be called. My friends,
God always knows and always does what's best for his own. He knows
the best place for his service and he knows the best condition
for us to be in. If God determines that Paul and
Silas will be more useful after they have been beaten with many
strikes and after their bodies have been shackled in prison,
then they must gladly bear in their bodies the marks of the
Lord Jesus and rejoice to suffer shame for his sake. None of us
would ever choose a bed of sickness, a path of pain, or a season of
sorrow. But when our Heavenly Father
brings these things to pass, let us rejoice before him. God
knows and does that which is best. He always does. I wish,
I pray that God will enable us by his spirit to believe him,
so that we may leave everything in the hands of God and be at
peace. I'll tell you this, a real heart
faith, a real heart faith in God's providence, all that we
might believe his providence. Hubert read the passage of Matthew
6 back in the study a few minutes ago. Our Lord says, look at the
lilies. They don't spin and they don't
toil, but Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one
of these. Now God's not in love with lilies. God's not, he's
not affectionate toward lilies. Rex, God's in love with you and
the purpose is to teach you and me that he'll clothe you. He'll
feed us. He'll care for his own. Our Lord
said, Oh, give little things. If we had, by the grace of God,
a real heart-faith in God's sovereign providence, our hearts would
be at peace. It would give us a great quietness
of heart. Well, in this passage, at the
time appointed, this Philippian jailer who was loved of God,
chosen and redeemed by Christ, was converted by the grace and
power of God the Holy Spirit. And I want to call your attention
to three things in the passage as quickly as I can. First, let's
look at the jailer's character. What kind of man was this Philippian
jailer before God saved him? Now, we obviously do not know
a great deal about him. We don't know what his name was.
We don't know much about the person himself other than what's
recorded right here in these verses that we read. We don't
know a great deal about this man's activities other than just
his activities as a jailer. But from the record we have,
I'm inclined to think that this jailer has been greatly misjudged
by many. Most of what I've read and heard
about this jailer portrays him as a man who was very cruel,
a brutal, beastly man. Now, I know that he was, like
you and me, full of iniquity, transgression, and sin. But I
see nothing in this passage to indicate that he was a notoriously
wicked man. In fact, I see just the reverse.
Some imply that since he was a soldier and a jailer, he was
a cruel barbaric man. Well, I'm thankful for faithful
soldiers. The reason we have the liberties
we have now is because some soldiers have died to give it to us. I'm
even thankful for kind jailers, for were it not for a few, I
wouldn't be here now. I'm thankful that not all soldiers,
not all jailers are barbaric men. It appears that this jailer
was a man of moral principle. One whose character in many points
is commendable. He appears to have been a fine
specimen of Roman military order and discipline. Indeed, he was
probably a man who commanded the respect of his peers and
the admiration of his family and his servants. This jailer
showed respect for and great submission to all lawful authority. That's a commendable thing. You
read the 14th chapter of Romans, and you will find that the Apostle
Paul instructs us plainly to give proper respect to those
who are in authority over us. You men, most of you, work for
another man. That being the case, that man,
by law before God, is in a position of authority over you. You ought
to treat him as such. We live in this society where
we have laws to regulate our lives. We may not like the laws,
we may not be in favor of the laws, but it's our responsibility
insofar as law does not conflict with our gospel and conflict
with our conscience before God, it's our responsibility to be
submissive to the laws that are. God in his providence has placed
over us such rulers as we have. This man was a jailer. It was
not his job to judge the innocence or the guilt of his prisoners.
It was his job simply to obey the orders of the magistrates,
and he did so with diligence. Look in verse 23. When the magistrates
had laid many stripes upon Paul and Silas, they cast them into
prison, and this is the charge the magistrates gave to the jailer.
Keep them secure. Don't let these fellows escape.
Verse 24. who having received such a charge,
did exactly what he was told to do. He thrust them into the
inner prison and made their feet fast in the stops. Now, I do
not pretend that the man did not enjoy his work. I don't pretend
that at all. I expect most any just man would
fairly well enjoy punishing men he thought to be prisoners, imprisoning
them. There was something about us
that has that kind of a nature. But even after this man had been
converted by the grace of God, though his heart was knit to
Paul and Silas, though he loved them dearly, you read in verses
35 and 36 that even after he was converted, he still kept
Paul and Silas as prisoners. He still held them and would
not let them go until he received a command from his magistrates
to do so. He was a man under authority,
and he obeyed the orders given him without question. Paul and
Silas were securely shackled in the inner prison. Before this
fellow went to bed at night, he saw to it that according to
law, all the lights were out at the ordered time. In fact,
he did not even provide for any extra luxuries for himself. He
didn't snitch a little extra oil and take it up to his room
at night, and there he could burn a little extra oil. But
when he came down and wanted to go into the prison, it's told
plainly, he called for a light so that he could see the way
to get into the prison. He was a very conscientious man
in those days, as in ours. If you greased a fella's palms,
you could get most anything, but this man didn't take any
bribes. He didn't assume anything for himself. He didn't take anything
that didn't properly belong to him in his work. And when the
jailer was awakened by the earthquake, his first thought of concern
was not for his family. His first thought of concern
was not for his own household, was not for himself. But his
first thought of concern regarded his beauty, the security of his
prisoners, those who had been entrusted to his charge. And
even as an unenlightened, unregenerate man, this jailer was implicitly
faithful to those who employed him, and he was implicitly exact
in fulfilling the responsibilities he had undertaken. When he saw
the prison doors open, he was sure that the prisoners had all
escaped. and he feared being publicly disgraced. And so he
drew out his own sword to take his life by suicide, preferring
death by his own hands to public shame and dishonor and almost
certain death as a matter of public execution of an irresponsible
soldier. He had some principle and some
integrity. This jailer was a man of honor,
a man of integrity, a man of moral principle. He was a man
whose conduct was manly. exemplary and honorable, but
he was lost, guilty of sin, and in desperate need of a savior.
As I read this story again today, my mind kept coming back to our
own event in history a few years ago when the Watergate scandal
was greatly publicized. There was one man in that whole
mess that stood out. He still stands out as an example
to me of manliness. An example to me of faithfulness,
an example of what a faithful servant ought to be, G. Gordon
Liddy. Through the whole affair, he
never opened his mouth. He suffered whatever came. Now, I don't suggest
that he was right or that Mr. Nixon was right. I'll leave that
for history to prove. But what I'm saying is that Mr.
Liddy did exactly what was expected of him and what his conscience
required. He was a man of moral principle, a man of moral integrity,
but at the same time, a man without any knowledge of righteousness
in Christ. This jailer was a man of principle.
He was a man, a man whose actions could be very well commended,
but he didn't know Christ. And I suspect that perhaps some
of you are just like this jailer. You're a model of morality, a
representative of responsibility, a picture of politeness, an example
of excellence. Compared with other people, you
stand out head and shoulders above the crowd. But I warn you,
your show of goodness outwardly may win the esteem of men. It
may win the applause of men, but it may very well be your
eternal ruin. God will never applaud outward
goodness. God will never approve of outward
morality. God will never approve of outward
integrity. God will never approve of those
things that cause men to stand back and applaud you and say,
I wish that my husband were that way or my wife were that way
or my children were that way. I wish that everybody in society
could be like you. God will never approve of it.
Turn over to Luke chapter 16. I'll show you. Luke the 16th
chapter. Men are impressed quickly and
lastingly with outward things, not God. Luke chapter 16 and
verse 15, our Lord said, ye are they which justify yourselves
before men. But God knows your hearts for
that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in
the sight of God. The rich young ruler, came before
our Lord and he said, Good Master, what good thing shall I do that
I may inherit eternal life? And he was a good man. Insofar
as outward behavior is concerned, insofar as his actions were concerned,
no neighbor, no friend, no relative could look at him and point his
finger and say, I find fault with you here. He was a morally
upright man. But moral uprightness will land
you in hell. You must have the righteousness
of Christ. We must have it. We have self-righteousness
bred into us and then we have it instructed to us from mother
and daddy and from school teachers and from the pulpit. We teach
our children. Now, Johnny, you be a good boy
because bad boys go to hell. Good boys go to hell too. Don't
tell a lie. All liars will be friars. All
folks who tell the truth will be friars too, unless they have
truth in their hearts. Do you see what I'm saying? Outward
righteousness is of no good. Outward righteousness has no
value before God. Outward morality will not amount
to one thing but a smoldering heap of rubbish in the day of
judgment. That rich young ruler went away sorrowful, and he perished
in his sins. And the disciples said, well,
if this fellow's not saved, who on earth can be? Our Lord said
it's easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. I'll put
it another way. I don't believe I'm stretching
the text at all. It's easier for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle Now you can interpret that any way you want to. He
said the eye of a needle. Try to fit a camel through one.
It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than
for a man who is rich in his own righteousness to enter into
the kingdom of God. Can't be done. You've got to
lose your righteousness or you'll never have righteousness. Man's heart by nature is evil
and so is yours and mine. God will never approve of, and
God will never accept our works, not in any degree. We must be
justified by the grace of God, washed in the blood of Christ,
and robed in His righteousness, or we can never, ever hope for
mercy. Turn over to Romans, the third
chapter. Romans, the third chapter. The apostle Paul throughout these
first three chapters of Romans has been showing us plainly and
clearly the corruption of the race, the guilt and the depravity
of the race, the Jews as well as the Gentiles. And he comes
down to the end of his argument and he says in verse 9, What
then? Are we the Jews better than they?
No, in no wise. For we have before proved, both
Jews and Gentiles, that is, both the self-righteous Jews and the
pagan Gentiles, that they are all understand, as it is written,
there is none righteous, not even your little boy, not even
my little girl. There is none righteous, not
even you, not even me, not one. There is none that understand
it. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the
way. They are all together become unprofitable. There is none that
does a cotton picking good thing. Not one. Not one. I was talking to a relative a
year or so ago. A mutual relative is a dear,
dear person. She's conscientious about people's
needs and feelings. She wouldn't hurt anybody for
anything on this earth. She works hard at trying to cook
for folks when they're sick and provide things for folks and
run them here and there. And she works all the time at
such things. And that's fine. That's fine.
I'm not suggesting don't do that. Do more of it, by all means.
But there's not a good thing in it. He was shocked to hear
me say that. What do you mean not a good thing?
I mean there's nothing in it good. The whole of it is done
with corruption. You know it and I do. You know
it and I do. Tell me. Anybody here. Anybody here. I'll put my neck
on the line. I'll withdraw my words if anybody
here will stand up and admit this. Is there anybody here will
stand up and profess before God and me and you've ever done one
thing. One thing with no thought of self. One thing with no thought
of anybody seeing it or approving of it. Ever done one thing either
in prayer or even in worship or even in your good deeds toward
me? And have you ever done one thing that wasn't mixed with
so much sin it made you repulsive to look at it with honesty? Then
not anybody good. Nobody. For our hearts are evil. We're proud and selfish and ambitious. We wouldn't do anything if we
didn't think we was getting something out of it. That's the way we
are by nature. Our hearts are evil. We must
be justified by the grace of God, robed in Christ's righteousness,
washed in his blood, or we'll forever perish. I want to tell
you this, and I suspect probably some sitting in this room, I
don't know. You've never come to this place, but my friend,
you're going to have to take your place before God almighty. as a guilty, helpless, justly
condemned sinner, or you'll never have mercy. Do you hear me? Men and women, I know we all
profess faith in Christ. I know we've all been around
for a while. But I'm telling you, nobody will
ever be saved until they take their place with the harlot,
the drunkard, the whoremonger, the thief, and the murderer down
in the dust before God as a guilty sinner. When we confess our sins,
He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. Isaiah was a
good man, but he said, when I saw the Lord, I lifted up and I heard the angels
cry, holy, holy, holy. And when I heard the Lord speak,
I said, woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean
lips. And I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips. I'm corrupt and everybody around
me is corrupt. Nobody can help. And when he
saw himself undone, God took an altar from off the ark. And
from off the altar, he took a coal and he sent an angel and he purged
that man's lips. And when you see yourself undone,
utterly, completely corrupt and undone being, God will send the
angel of mercy and he'll touch your heart and give you life,
but not until then. Secondly, I want us to look at
this jailor's conversion. What changed this man? What caused
this proud, moralistic, self-righteous Roman soldier to fall on his
face before Paul and Silas and ask them, sirs, what must I do
to be saved? What caused him, with trembling
voice, to seek life and salvation? I suppose I've read at least
a hundred tracts, commentaries, and sermons on this passage of
Scripture. And I've heard men account for
the jailer's conversion in a lot of ways. Some folks say, well,
he heard Paul and Silas pray and sing praises to God at midnight,
and you hear it, and it makes for kind of flowery preaching,
but it ain't so. It's just not so. The prisoners
heard Paul and Silas singing and praying to God, but this
jailer didn't. He was not down in the cell.
He was upstairs in his bed, sound asleep. He didn't hear a word
of that. Some say the earthquake and the sudden fear of death
caused this stern soldier to turn to God in trembling. I doubt
it. For one thing, fear never yet
caused a man to turn to God in true repentance. Never did. Makes
them religious for a little while. Folks have a little fear and
they get religion. And some preacher will capitalize
on it. But it never has turned anybody to God. This man was
not a fearful man anyway. He was not apparently too much
afraid of death because he was getting ready to take his own
life. He already had the sword drawn. He was about to commit
suicide. Some say the fear of having to
face Caesar and give an account for the escaped prisoners caused
him to cry out, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? But if you
read the passage carefully, he was already assured by Paul the
prisoners were all saved. And he had already gone in and
seen for himself that the prisoners were safe. So that couldn't have
been the reason. That couldn't have been the cause
of his conversion. How then do we account for this conversion?
How do we account for the change that took place in this jailer?
What caused the marvelous change that took place in his heart?
I'll give you three things. Without question, he had heard
the gospel. Without question. Pastor, I don't
see that in the text. Well, you do if you read it.
and compare scripture with scripture. I know they heard the gospel
because God has ordained that no man can be saved without the
hearing of the word of the gospel. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the word of God. God has ordained that by the
foolishness of preaching, he would save them that believe.
We are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by
the word of God that liveth and abideth forever. Of his own will
begat he us with the word of truth. No doubt this Philippian
jailer had heard the testimony of Epiphanes, this one who was
mentioned here in verse 16. It came to pass as we went to
prayer, a certain damsel possessed with the spirit of divination,
that is Epiphanes. She was one who worshiped the
serpent, the python. She met us, which brought her
masters much gain by soothsaying. The same followed Paul and us,
and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the Most
High God, which show unto us the way of salvation. Now this
woman, she was a witch who was well known in Philippi. And she
had followed Paul and Silas and Timothy and their band as they
went through the streets of Philippi preaching the gospel. She had
followed them day after day through the streets. And everybody she
met, she said, these men are the servants of the Most High
God. They show us the way of salvation. These men are the
servants of the Most High God. They show us the way of salvation.
Now I think that Philippian Jailor must have had a cotton in his
ears not to have heard about it. Something must have been bad wrong if he
didn't hear about this thing that was going on, especially
after Paul had cast the demon out of her and she was no longer
making gain for her masters. This man had heard the gospel
from this woman. Somebody says, but preacher,
this woman was a woman preacher. She was a demon possessed witch.
She was. And I say to that God who can
cause an ass to carry his message to Balaam, can very well cause
a witch to proclaim the truth. It is not the messenger, but
the message that God offers. I wish we could get that in our
hearts and our minds. So many times people say, well,
I don't know about myself because, well, I heard preach. I've seen
preachers, one after the other, fall by the wayside. And somebody's
been converted under the ministry, and they say, well, I suppose
I'm lost too. No, not necessarily. Not necessarily. It's not the messenger, Oscar.
It's the message. It's the message. Paul said,
though even I come and preach any other gospel, you don't believe
that? Let me be damned, the message is true. The message is what
God honors. Knowing what we do of Paul and
Silas, I don't have any question at all that when this jailer
was busy, Fastening the shackles around their arms and the iron
legs around their feet. Paul and Silas were busy too,
telling this jailer about the grace and the glory of their
master. That jailer's locking them away
in prison and Paul is saying now, now let me tell you why
my feet are like this. Let me tell you for whose cause
I'm suffering these things. And so the jailer, I'm certain,
had heard the gospel message. Obviously at the time he heard
the gospel, it had no effect on his heart. Because you see,
his heart had not yet been opened by the grace of God. He had not
yet been awakened. But the word of God shall not
return to him void. That's what he said. So shall
my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall accomplish
that which I please. It shall prosper in the thing
whereunto I have sent it. It shall not return unto me void. You remember the psalm we read?
Here's the fulfilling of it. It is written, they that sow
in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth
bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing
his sheaves with him. Paul went into the jail weeping
and in pain, sowing his seed, and he came forth from the prison
rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. We preach the word
and we expect things to happen right now. And we get a little
discouraged if they don't. There was an old man who was
in his seventies who was converted at that old age. And when someone asked him how
he learned the gospel, you know what he said? He said, when I
was a young boy, I heard Mr. Whitfield preach a sermon and
I never forgot it. I never forgot it. All of those
years, the seed lay buried in the ground of that man's heart.
But at the time appointed of God, it came forth with life. And that's the way it is with
the word of the gospel. This jailer had heard the word,
but it had no effect upon him until God, by the power of his
spirit, opened his heart. And in the time appointed by
God, the gospel did pierce the jailer's heart, and he was awakened
by the power of God's grace. Now, I don't question at all
the fact that God used all of the circumstances of providence
to prepare this jailer for this event. He used the earthquake
and he used the fear of losing his prisoners. He even used that
jailer's attempted suicide. And I can't help but think he
probably used Paul's tender concern for him. Here's Paul, a prisoner
in the inner prison, and he knows that jailer is out there. And
he said, sir, don't do yourself any harm. We're all right here
safe. God used all of those things. I'm sure of that. He uses everything.
But it was the gospel of God's grace that pierced the man's
heart. That's the only thing that pierces
hearts. When the Holy Spirit awakened
him, he immediately sought the Lord. and the mercy about which
he had heard. Our Lord said, then shall you
find me when you seek for me with all your heart. At first,
this fellow sought the Lord on the grounds of legal works and
he hoped to obtain mercy by his own doing. He said, he said,
sirs, what must I do to be saved? That's the way we almost all
at first came to Christ. Almost all of us with the first
sense of sin, with the first conviction of sin, with the first
awakening of a conscience, we turn to God and hope to straighten
things out ourselves. We hope, well, we'll start going
to church. I'll start reading my Bible. I'll start praying
every day. I'll quit doing this and I'll
quit doing that. I'll do anything I can to be saved and have God's
mercy. But mercy doesn't come that way.
It never has come to anyone that way. This jailer heard the gospel
of God's grace. He heard who Christ is and what
he did. He was awakened by the grace
and power of God and he asked Paul how he could obtain mercy.
And then Paul and Silas instructed this penitent sinner in the way
of salvation and life in Christ. Look at verse 31. They said,
it seems as though Paul and Silas with unison said, Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house.
And then they spake unto him the word of the Lord and to all
that were in his house. He said, Sirs, what must I do? What must I do? And Paul and
Silas responded. Will you let me read between
the lines? Him you sang a couple of weeks ago, Judy. When the
Savior said, "'Tis finished,' everything was fully done. Done
as God Himself would have it, Christ the victory fully won.
Vain and futile the endeavor to improve or add thereto. God's
free grace is thus commended to believe and not to do. All
good doing is completed. Now to His look believe and live. None can purchase His salvation.
Life's a gift that God must give. Grace through righteousness is
reigning, not of works lest man should boast. Man must take the
mercy freely or eternally be lost. The first thing this sinner
and any sinner must learn is that salvation is of the Lord. It's not by what you do. It's of the Lord. It's entirely
of the Lord. In his planning, it's of him.
In its purchase, it's of Him. In its performance, it's of the
Lord. In its preservation, it's of
the Lord. In its perfection and glory, salvation is of the Lord. Paul and Silas told the jailer,
the only way to obtain mercy is this, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. The work of salvation
is fully, completely done. Done. done. There's nothing,
nothing whatsoever for any sinner to do, nothing that God will
accept from any sinner for the accomplishment of salvation,
nothing, nothing. The only thing the sinner must
do is believe. You say, well, that's something.
Well, that's something God gives. That's something God gives. The
only thing the sinner is to do is to trust Christ. Well, that's
something. That's something God gives. By grace are you saved
through faith. And that faith and that grace
and that salvation, it's not of you. It's of God, not of works
lest any man should boast. Faith. Faith. simply trusting Him, clinging
upon Him, receiving Him. That's the way sinners are saved. Tell you this, we have flat got
to give up our guilt. They just got to give it up.
Flat give it up. So long as you cling to anything
you do, you're not trusting Him. That can't be any clearer, can
it? Men want to cling to baptism, or they want to cling to their
repentance, or they want to cling to their faithfulness, or they
want to cling to their feelings, or they want to cling to their
church faithfulness, or their church giving, or their church
service. They've got to cling to something. Well, I know that
I'm a Christian because I trust Christ and this. The end is too
much. It's too much. Well, what about
that? It's too much. You can lean the
whole weight of your soul on Christ, but for just a little
bit that you hang on to of your own doing and you'll perish for
you're not trusting Christ. You're not trusting Christ. After Paul and Silas told the
jailer to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, They explained
to him what it is to believe. They took him aside in his house
and they expounded to him the word of the Lord. They said,
now, Mr. Jaylor, this is what it is to
believe. It is to trust Christ, to trust
His blood and trust His righteousness. It is to trust Christ for everything
from God. To believe is to receive. We receive God's grace in two
ways. This cup received some water
just a little while ago. Shall we put it in there? Received
some water. It didn't do a thing. Not one
thing that cup do, but it received the water. Now watch this. I'm
about to receive some water too. I did something. I took it. I took it. First of all, God
sends down His Spirit into our hearts and causes us to receive
grace. And then He causes us to receive
grace. Do you see what I'm talking about?
You must trust Christ. You must receive Christ. You
must reach out and touch the Lord as He passes by. You must
do it. Now, it's God that enables you,
but you've got to do it. You've got to do it for yourself.
to believe is to surrender to Christ. Well, where do you see
that in the text? Well, the text says here that
he was baptized, he and all his, straightway. Paul said something
to him about obeying Christ. Having heard the gospel of the
grace of God, this jailer, his wife, his children, and his servants
all believed Christ. Now then, the tendency that we
have is to take the jailer as an isolated case and say, okay,
now this is what everybody must experience in order to be saved
because this is what the jailer experienced. Well, yes and no. We must experience the same grace
and we must believe the same Lord and surrender to the same
Christ. Yes, but we don't all do it the
same way. Sometimes God in bringing men
to Christ brings them through this experience and that experience
and another experience, and another experience, and he may be a long
time doing so, but he brings the jailer to the son. He does
it. Then sometimes he sends a preacher
to a woman whose heart the Lord opens, and by a still small voice,
without any rumble, without any stirring, that woman comes to
the Savior. Now it doesn't matter how you
come, it only matters that you come to Christ. It doesn't matter
what brings you, it only matters that you're brought to Christ.
We must not look for everybody to have the same kind of experiences
with different people. Now thirdly, I want you to notice
very quickly the jailer's confession. I know that this man was a truly
saved man, converted to Christ. because he made a good confession
of faith in Christ. In verse 33, he took them the
same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized,
he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them
into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced, believing
in God with all his house. Here are five aspects of his
confession. Five aspects. As he was an example to men in
his moral integrity before he was converted, he is an example
to you and I in his confession after he's converted. First,
there was immediate obedience. Immediate obedience. Paul said,
now, Mr. Jaylor, Christ is Lord. Do you believe? Yes, sir, I believe. This is what he says for you
to do. Get in the water. Jailer says, where's the pool?
It's that simple. But I said, well, I believe but. I believe but this. Now, preacher,
I understand that but. This jailer didn't have one but
to put into it. Not one. Where's the pool? He
immediately was baptized. That's the way believers are,
Merle. They obey Christ implicitly. They obey Christ. There was also
practical humility. I hear people all the time, they
say, well, I sure wish I had something to do for the Lord.
No, you don't. There's plenty to do. This jailer
found something to do. He didn't wait on Paul and Silas
to tell him what he ought to do. He found something to do.
First thing he did, he noticed on the back of Paul and Silas
were some stripes. Now I'm not talking about stripes
where they had run into the wall or slept wrong that night. I'm
talking about stripes that had been put upon them by the lashing
of a whip. That jailer may have been the
one who did the whipping. He may have been. Whatever the
case, he took some ointment and bathed their backs. He bathed
their backs. He had his wife to prepare a
meal for them in the middle of the night. How'd you like getting that next
shift at midnight? I was going to have to fix a meal for the preacher.
He's coming down to visit a while. Give me a day anyway. He said,
he said, listen, something's happened to me and God sent some
messengers to tell me the way of life. We're going to feed
them. And at midnight, he prepared a table for them. He counted
it an honor to wash the saints feet, to serve them in any way
he could. He didn't wait for something
grand to do. He didn't wait for somebody to
tell him something that everybody could see for him to do. He saw
that there was something he could do, and he did it without delay. He considered the most menial
service for Christ a privilege of highest honor. Can you picture
a soldier, an old veteran soldier, A soldier who has now reached
the age where he's close to retirement and he has a fixed position as
a jailer. He has men working under him.
He's been in the military a long time and like a tender nurse,
he takes some ointment and a cloth and some water and he washes
those men, washes their backs. Something changed. Something
changed. There was also an attitude of
grateful joy. We're told here that he rejoiced,
believing God with all his heart. Faith in God always brings joy. As there is an increase of faith,
there is an increase of joy. As we believe God, we rejoice
before him, Hubert. We walk before him with joy,
with satisfaction, with delight. What joy there was around that
table at midnight in the jailer's house. I suppose as he talked to Paul
and Silas and passed the bread and the wine and the meat, he
would just pause every now and then and his heart was filled
with wonder. at what God had done for him
by his goodness. Imagine this. Imagine this. God Almighty, so lovely that
He determined to have me. And He gave His Son to redeem
me. And though I would not seek Him, He would seek me until I
found Him. And so He sent two of His thankful
servants down here, had them beaten and locked up in prison.
And He sent an earthquake. He didn't know the hymns because
they hadn't been written yet, but I can hear him sing. If he
had known them, he would have been saying, Amazing grace, how
sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but
now am found, was blind, but now I see. I am so glad that
Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves
me, even me. And there was also an influential
witness. The jailer didn't know much. He was not a learned theologian. And he hadn't been through one
of those classes, you know, on how to win souls. But he knew
enough. He knew enough to wake everybody
in his household up. Paul and Silas, the servants
of the Most High God, are going to tell us the way of life. Come
servants, come one, let's hear what they've got to say. And
his whole house was converted. His whole, everybody believed.
Everybody believed. His children, his sons, his daughters,
his wife, his servants, everybody in his house believed because
he brought them to hear two men who told him the way of life. And there was also a sensible
submission to God's providence. The jailer, after he was converted,
did not jump up, go see the magistrate and give him the keys to the
jail and say, now listen, God saved me, I'm going to go serve
the Lord. He got up the next morning, took the keys to the
jail, locked everything up just like he always had, and he remained
a jailer. because that's where he was when
God called him, that's what he was doing when God called him,
and God had told him to leave. He stayed right where he was
and served God. There was nothing immoral, there
is nothing ungodly about being a jailer. I happen to have a
very good friend who's a jailer, and he's not a jailer in one
of these jails, one of these palaces that we call jails, he's
a jailer. and one of those jails that are
jails that nobody wants to visit down in Jamaica. He's a godly
man, good man, loves Christ, serves Christ, but he's a jailer,
just like this Philippian jailer. He was in the place where God
had providentially put him, doing what God had providentially given
him to do. Here was a place where he could
hear the gospel. Here was a place where he could
worship God. Here was a place where he could be in fellowship
with God's children. And all the while, he could be serving
God in that environment to which he was most accustomed. And my
friends, it may be, it may be that some of you right here tonight
are like this jailer. And for the first time, God's
taught you your sin. Well, if you would be saved,
you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe Him. Believe Him. That's all. Just
believe Him. Look to Christ. Trust Christ. Lean on Christ. He's everything. Salvation is not inside us. Father, salvation is outside
us. It's outside us. We look in here, it's not here.
It's there. It's there. You remember the
days of the flood? Noah was in the ark and he was
saved. But salvation wasn't in him.
It was outside of him. It was in the ark. It was in
the ark. Didn't matter how much Noah may
tremble. Didn't matter how much Noah may fear. He was in the
ark! And in the ark he was saved. When Israel was about to be delivered
from Egyptian bondage, God told the children of Israel, he said,
now, I'm going to send my angel through the land, and if you've
got one son in your house, he's going to be killed. If you've
got two sons, the oldest one's going to be killed. But take
the blood of the land, put it on the lintel in the two doorposts. And when I see the blood, I pass
over you. And here's this man inside his
house. He's got one son, one baby boy. One child, the darling
of his father, and he hears the screeches and the cries and the
torment of the Egyptians as God passed through the streets, killing
the firstborn of every house one by one. And that man couldn't
see the blood for the life of him. He couldn't see it for the
life of him. He was inside the house. The
door was shut and the blood was on the outside, but God saw it.
What I'm saying is this. It's not in you. It's not in
you. Not your experience, not your
feeling, not your doing. It's in the doing and the dying
of the Lamb of God. He's our Savior. Trust Him. Trust
Him. Look unto me, he said, and be
you saved. All ye ends of the earth, for
I'm God, and beside me there is none else.