Chapter 16, I'd like to read one verse. We're going to, in a few moments, read more of a context and I'll give you an outline as to what we will talk about this morning. But in Acts chapter 16, this is the account of Paul and Silas. We'll look at the context of what got them into prison here. But in Acts chapter 16, notice verse 25. And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them. If I were to ask you if you could give me some praises that describe grace, You might say sovereign grace, amazing grace, grace abounding to the chief of sinners, free grace. And I think our verse adds another description and it would suggest midnight grace, grace at midnight. Midnight in our passage is a very literal midnight in that darkened inner prison. But I'm taking this morning also the symbolic midnight, the midnight of our trials, the midnight of those deep valleys of our afflictions of trials and suffering, those midnights when there seems to be closed door after closed door, hopelessness, situations that involve pain or loss to ourselves. Certainly for Paul and Silas, we'll see in a minute. Paul and Silas, unbelievably to them, they've been made a public spectacle in verse 19, In verse 20, they were brought before the magistrates to give an account for what they were doing. False accusations were laid to their charge. They were convicted, if in fact they were convicted, of violating the laws and the customs of the people there. And of course, the great contention was that there would be monetary loss, financial loss of one particular individual, we'll look at the damsel who served him in a minute. They're beaten with many stripes. They're cast into prison, into the inner prison and into the stocks of that prison. Everything is crashing down upon them. They seem to be in the will of God. In fact, they were, we'll see that. It's midnight in a prison. And yet at midnight, Paul and Silas pray and saying praises unto God. So this morning, I'd like to look at this. We'll look at three things. First of all, we'll look at the context that will lay a foundation for the second and third point. Secondly, we're going to look at a fivefold answer to an obvious question. And then thirdly, we're going to look at by way of application, a gospel principle that we might miss if we just read through this historical account and then go on to the next passage. There's something happening beneath the surface that Paul and Silas are living out that we need to be reminded of. So first of all this morning, let's look at the context. The context is Here at the beginning of chapter 16, the gospel now is going into Europe. Paul, along with Luke sometimes, along with John Mark sometimes, along with Silas sometimes, on his missionary journeys, Paul is taking the gospel into Europe. You recall that great commission where the gospel was to go into Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. In the first couple of chapters of this chapter, Paul and Silas desired to go into both Bithynia and Asia to preach the gospel. but it says the Holy Spirit prohibited them. And that's really an interesting thought. You would think that they would have an open door to go anywhere to preach the gospel. They wanted to go into Bithynia, Holy Spirit said no. They wanted to go into Asia, the Holy Spirit said no. They're finally brought to the seaport city of Troas, And they received this vision at night, verse nine. The vision appeared to Paul in the night. And there stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying, come over into Macedonia and help us. The wording here is very, very earnest, a strong desire for aid and for help. come over into Macedonia, the Macedonian call, come over here and help us. And so then in verse 10, after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. We don't know a lot about the vision, We don't know a lot about how maybe Paul and not Silas got it, but this was a turning point for the outreach of the gospel and a turning point in Paul's ministry. And so let's pick up the reading at verse 13 in Acts 16, now that they've received the Macedonian call. Actually, let's begin reading in verse 11. They've received the Macedonian call. Therefore, verse 11, loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Sambrafta and next day to Neopolis and from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia and a colony. And we were there in that city abiding certain days. And on the Sabbath, we went out of the city by a riverside where a prayer was wont to be made. And we sat down and we spake unto the woman which resorted there. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worship God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she might attend unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized in her household, she besought us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained us. It came to pass as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with the spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. The same followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, these men are the servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation. And this she did many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the Spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out that same hour. And when her masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and drew them into the marketplace to the rulers and brought them down to the magistrates saying, these men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe being Romans. the multitude rose up together against them and the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded to beat them when they had laid many stripes upon them they cast them into the prison charging the jailer to keep them safely who having received such a charge thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks. And then of course, verse 25, and at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, the prisoners hearing them. This damsel of her masters, They made a great gain with her soothsaying, with her divination, masters not caring for her, not caring for the gospel, caring simply about their financial gain, orchestrated for this uprising against Paul and Silas, bringing them before the magistrates, getting them thrown into the prison, the inner prison. And today, as terrible as prisons are, there is food there, and there is some heating and cooling, and there is a bed there, and those jail cells have floors, and there's electricity. But here in old, these New Testament times, you could imagine the jails were a terrible place, awful stench, mixed in with the general population of criminals. Here in this prison, we have these two very notable criminals, Paul and Silas, who were guilty of the crime of being a missionary for the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a night of suffering after the couple of conversions that they were instrumental in, And they know not what will be on the morrow. Paul, of course, as you know, spoke often of suffering for the gospel sake. Here is Paul in the midst of this prison. And Paul in Corinthians talks about many of the things that he suffered for the gospel sake. He was beaten many times. He was in peril of his own countrymen, in peril of the heathen. in perils of the city and the wilderness, perils of the sea. He was in prison frequent, he said. He was in labors. He was in worry. He was in cold and nakedness and hunger, thirsting. Paul, almost we could say is at home in prison because he is accustomed to suffering for the gospel's sake. And this was, as you know, when Paul was converted in Acts chapter nine, this was the commission that Paul received. He would be a chosen vessel, Jesus said, to bear by name before the Gentiles and before kings and before the children of Israel and I will show him how many great things he will suffer for my name's sake. I know not if Paul drew back, we have to assume Paul could not imagine all of the sufferings and afflictions and circumstances he would be in simply because he would be a missionary. But here, of course, In the context, Paul, in the midst of this prison, is, we could almost say, right at home, doing the work of the ministry. Peter, at a later time, said, when we suffer these afflictions and these trials for the gospel's sake, it says, don't be ashamed, but glorify God on his behalf. So here's briefly just the context of our passage. Paul and Silas, they've received the Macedonian call. They answer the call. They believe, as Paul said, we are assuredly in the will of God to go preach the gospel there. And they wind up in prison. And yet at midnight, they're not having a pity party. They're not doubting the providence of God. They're not complaining. They're not withdrawing into a little self-consuming shell. They're worshiping God. That's the context. Secondly, I'd like to think through with you a five-fold answer to an obvious question. To me, there's an obvious question when we read verse 25. If you knew nothing about the Bible, and you read verse one through verse 24, and everything that unfolds and what happens to them, I would have to think that you would not be able to guess what verse 25 is gonna say about them. For you, for the believer, it's not out of place. But most who would read this would think it was. What is the question? I think the question in my mind at least is, in light of being so wrongly mistreated, in light of everything seeming to go against them as they are in the midst of the revealed will of God, in the midst of their pain, remember they were beaten. And I don't know that it was limited to 39 stripes because they were in Rome and they might have thought, well, they're not in the Jewish scheme of things here. not Rome, they were in Philippi. The question in my mind is, how could Paul and Silas sing and worship God in the midst of that dungeon? What motivated them so that they could, as the original says, pray with singing? They were doing both. If we could pick apart this scene and look at their lives and what was the foundation and what was going on, not just with the naked eye, but what was really happening. I think we could understand at least five, there's probably more, but five reasons, five things that move them to worship God in the midst of this situation. And of course, by way of extension, I want us to think about ourselves when we go through those midnights of suffering, doubt, spiritual discontentedness, uncertainty, those types of things. First of all, I think first of all, they were able to do so because God's grace is sufficient. It was the sufficiency of God's grace You recall, I'm sure, Paul in Corinthians, when he is having this thorn in the flesh, and it's really a bother to him, and he beseeches, he wasn't just praying, he was beseeching God, God, take this away. And God said, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect, in weakness. And he goes on to say, note, most gladly therefore will I glory in my affirmaties. Why Paul? So that the power of Christ may rest upon me. When you look through this word grace, as it's used in the New Testament, it's used in a variety of ways, abstractly, concretely, It's used in a literal way, it's used in a figurative way. It's used in a variety of circumstances. But it's speaking about the divine influence upon the heart of God's people. It's talking about that grace which is so reflective in the life of his believers. In other words, grace is not hidden all the time. My grace, God says, is sufficient. God's grace is divine. The grace of Christ comes as part and parcel of his mediatorial office. When we think of Christ as a mediator, we normally think of a very truncated, a very narrow niche where Christ mediates for us. And it's either prayer or our sins. Christ certainly is our mediator relative to those two. But God's grace, Christ's grace comes to you by virtue of the fact that he mediates for you in every aspect of your life. Christ, believe it or not, is keenly aware of your spiritual welfare. Your spiritual welfare that encompasses the whole man. And Paul, like Abraham, like others, believed that what God had promised, he was able to perform, even in the midst of a trial, to give grace and to give more grace. grace sufficient for the day. And you may not be Paul, and you may not be Silas, and you may not be Luke, who is also in the mix here, but God's grace is always God's grace. And he dispenses that. He gives that to his own. God's grace was sufficient in the midst of this trial. Often we don't evaluate the grace of God where it should be because we evaluate it based upon our experiences, our meager experience, which is unable to validate or credential the sufficiency of it. Shame on us. the word of God says his grace is sufficient to the highest level that we need. And we shouldn't judge it or evaluate it or credential it based on our experience with its insufficiency because we're living a meager Christian life. Remember that lad in John chapter six, he had five loaves and two fishes. And the disciples said using the same word, This food is not sufficient. It's not sufficient to feed all of these people. Is God's grace sufficient for me in my hour of need when, as it were, a multitude has to be fed? They told the master, they told Christ, it's not sufficient, five loaves and two fishes. And as long as the lad held those, as long as those fishes and loaves were the lads, they weren't sufficient. But as soon as they were given to Christ and Christ blessed them, they became sufficient. So it is with our trials and our afflictions and our circumstances and our needs, daily needing to give them over to the Lord. That account, of course, in the feeding of the multitude, there were how many baskets left over? There was 12, right? And I, in my imagination, imagined each of the 12 apostles carrying this big basket of loaves and fishes, the leftovers, toiling under a basket, realizing it's sufficient with the master, it's sufficient. And so this really traces itself back to the God of glory who will get glory for himself in the midst of our trials and afflictions and circumstances. His grace was sufficient even at midnight. Secondly, why were they able to sing and worship and approach God in adoration and praise I think secondly, because as Paul said, and here I'm gonna just focus on Paul, Paul said, I do always exercise myself to have a conscience that is void of offense between God and men. And there's a reason why Paul focuses on this, and there's a reason why this principle is in the Bible, and it's not an end in and of itself. I have a conscience void of offense between God and man. So what? I can go on happy-go-lucky now? Not a care in the world? I have a conscience that is free and clear so that I can approach God without the enemy throwing darts at me. without some bad history rebinding itself to me. Even in the midnight of afflictions, when Paul and Silas had a conscience that was free and clear, liberty in Christ. I think even if they stopped and determined, you know what? We're outside of the will of God. We shouldn't have gone to Macedonia. He was so free in Christ, he could still approach Christ and worship him. God, I'm a knucklehead. I got out of your will, but I'm free in Christ. I could still worship and praise you. That's how free his conscience was. This conscience enabled them to approach Christ and to sing and to worship boldly, without accusations, without doubts, without shadows in their mind. And again, I have friends in Christian circles that kind of think that having this conscience is an end in and of itself. And there are benefits obviously to having this conscience that's free, both with men and with God. A free conscience, a clear conscience helps us to overcome temptation. One of the great charges that is repeated to the Levitical priest is, Priests, you have to teach the people the difference between the holy and the profane, the holy and the profane. And the idea was once there was this distinction, this black and white distinction between the holy and the profane, God's people would eschew the profane. They could recognize the profane and they would be separated from it. and focused on the holy. So it is with a clear conscience. If you had a clear conscience and for a moment you had that liberty in Christ and you were free and clear, what power does temptation have over you then? You would have to agree it still has a whole lot less power than when you're chained in the mire of temptation and sin and a lukewarmness and all of those things. A conscience void of offense between God and man is able to make wise decisions because spiritual wisdom seems to be able to take deeper root, become more apparent what God would have us to do. A conscience void of offense between God and man enables us to witness with boldness. That verse in Peter, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer for the reason of hope that is in you with meekness and fear." And then it goes on to say, having a good conscience whereby they are, they that speak evil of you as evildoers, they might be ashamed, not you, they might be ashamed that falsely accuse you. Paul and Silas, Though they were falsely accused, they were not ashamed. They knew they were in the will of God. They knew they had offended no men. They had just come to preach the gospel in Philippi, answering the Macedonian call. They had just been to a prayer meeting and they had to find out where that prayer meeting was. They were just used as the human vessels or the human instruments to birth Lydia and that servant girl into the gospel kingdom. They were zealous to proclaim the gospel. They were faithful under patient and patient under trials. They were showing forth a good Christian dignity and testimony in front of the world. They were blameless in that sense. And with that conscience that is free and clear between God and man, they're able to not just sit there in that condition, but approach God. Worship God, that's liberty. Someone said those who do not exercise themselves in this way, they both give offense and they find offense. They give offense, And they find offense, they're pointing out other people's faults all the time. They could sing, they could praise because they knew what liberty in Christ was. Their conscience was clear. They hadn't fallen into some temptation or sin of which the enemy was using as a dart against them. What if they were legalists in prison? If they were legalists, they wouldn't be praising God. The law would be condemning them and they would be using the law to condemn themselves probably. If they were ceremonialists or ritualists, they probably couldn't worship and praise God because they weren't in church and it wasn't the Sabbath day. If they were Pharisees, They probably would have spent their time trying to trap each other in some fine point of the law and won upmanship. If they were fundamentalists, they couldn't sing and praise. There's no piano or organ there. If they were at a mega church, a big box church, they were probably trying to think of some plan or method to do God's work for him. They were just simple, down and dirty, boots on the ground Christians that could pray in prison and worship God despite the circumstances. How do you have a conscience void of offense between God and man? I'm surprised how many Christians don't understand what are the main principles of this. When I ask someone, how do you have a conscience Void of offense, normally, and this is a true answer, people will say things like, I have to pray, I have to do my devotions, I have to make sure that I'm in the will of God, I have to do what's right. And this work is 24-7 and I have to stay on top of it. And it is relegated to the area of works and my conduct. And all of those things are true. Paul did say, I exercise myself. I'm exercising, but there's another way, a better way, to have a conscience void of offense between God and men. Your mind should associate some biblical principle or something in the gospel or something in the Bible when you hear this phrase between God and between men. Where else in the Bible is there a distinction where these two are put together, but something towards God and something towards men? It's the Ten Commandments. Follow me for just a minute. The Ten Commandments. Remember that first table of the law is our duty towards God. The second table of the duty. Is our duty toward towards man. Right. How could I have a conscience void of offense relative to the first table of the law and relative to the second table of the law? It's having a fresh appreciation and apprehension of who you are in Christ. Christ kept the law. Christ kept the law towards the Father, towards God perfectly, gloriously. And he kept the second table of the law perfectly, completely towards men. Who are you in Christ? If the Son of Man shall make you free, You're freed indeed, or as the Bible says, freed into freedom. That's how to have a conscience void of offense. Christ saved me, Christ paid, Christ prayed, completed every law, paid my penalty, I'm free in Christ. It's not a licentiousness, it's not without the exercising, but the reality is, if the Son of Man shall make you free, you are, Free indeed. Paul in this prison, he probably thought, you know what? I really, I belong here because I'm a sinner, right? I belong in prison, but in another sense, I don't because I'm free in Christ. I'm gonna praise, I'm gonna worship, I'm gonna pray to God in the midst of this prison at midnight. Again, We're supposed to, having a conscience void of offense is not simply an in and of itself. Paul said, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Why, how? Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water because we're saved. Thirdly, how is it that they could sing praises to the Lord from this dungeon? Thirdly, because God gives songs in the night. This is what it says in the book of Job. In other words, God who sees us go through these trials and these afflictions and these valleys and the darkness and the stocks, God is not unmoved. God knows, I believe God draws close. He wants to draw close and to be there. in those midnights of anguish and loneliness and bitterness and apprehension and uncertainty and all of those things that come into every one of our lives. Again, in the original, they were praying with singing. They could not pray without singing and they could not sing without praying. It's a compound word that is showing they're doing both. They're like bursting forth. One quote, I don't know who said it, I think it was one of the Puritans, but he said, what seems to be the gate of death and of hell can be converted by prayer and song into the gate of heaven and the avenue to paradise. Why? Because it's not the place that sanctifies the spirit, but the spirit that sanctifies the place. Great is the triumph of the Holy Spirit within you to sing, not within the safe walls of the church, but behind the barred doors of the dungeon. Sweet are the songs in the night. It is suffering which rings the very soul of music from the believer's heart. He gives songs in the night. An interesting Bible study would be look at other places where God gives songs in the night. When Israel was freed from Egypt and they passed through the Red Sea at night, and there's a whole lot of uncertainty there. Everything was done in haste. There were issues there. but they started to sing that song of Moses and of the Lamb, that great song of deliverance when they got to the other shore right before the morning dawn breaks. He gave his people a song in the night. Hezekiah, when Hezekiah believed he was gonna die on that couch and he's weeping and he's beseeching God and he's praying, God raises him up and puts a song in his heart. David, How many midnights did David have? Saul trying to kill him, Absalom trying to kill him, facing the Philistine, Goliath, being a shepherd, having to fight a lion and a bear. And David, the sweet psalmist of David was given songs in the night. And you too, my friend, we can take this to the Lord and ask him to give us a song. in the night, a praise and a worship spirit when we're going through those trials. When you die and you actually pass into heaven, he will put a song in your life then, will he not? And the book of Revelation says it's going to be that same song of Moses and of the lamb. We need songs in the night. I need songs in the night. God is compassionate. He cares. He cares. And he's a God such that the day and the light are likened to him, right? The day and the night are the same. The valley and the mountain, it's the same to him. He gives songs in the night. And here these two are in the dungeon without a hymnal, without a light, and yet they could sing because they were used to, they knew by memorization or just by virtue of singing these hymns often, they could hymn God, they could pray to God, they could worship Him. They were used to speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and making melody in the heart as unto the Lord. It was a natural reaction. Fourthly, They were able to sing because they trusted in the God of providence and in the providence of God. Remember, they had a clear conscience, so they weren't saying, God is chastising us, we must have done something. You know, Lord, what is it so I can get out of this chastisement? They trusted in the providence of God. What they were going through was for some purpose of God. It was for the glory of God. It was for the benefit of somebody else. It's for their growth in grace and knowledge of Christ. There was multiple purposes, undoubtedly. They knew God had a plan. I may not see it. I may not understand it. I might not even agree with it, but God has a plan. Verse six and seven, the Holy Spirit prohibits them from preaching the gospel over here. and then prohibits them from preaching the gospel over there and specifically directs them through that vision into the area of Macedonia and finally Philippi. And a certain damsel met us. Was that a chance encounter? Or was that something that God orchestrated? And the preaching of the gospel. And then the change, and then the realization that their hope of gain, monetary gain for her masters was lost, and that the gospel was gonna spread throughout the world. The multitude rises up against Paul and Silas, not because of something in them, but because of the gospel. They're put into prison, into the inner prison, into the stocks. This has to be the Lord. It's a bad situation. I don't understand it. I don't like it. But God's doing something. I have to conclude that. And they believed it. And they would trust God, the God of providence and the providence of God. Do we trust in his providence when he leads us into a valley? He designed the valley. There will be pain. We will feel affliction, loss, suffering. That's part of the Christian life. He's still God. He still orders our steps. Everything's ordered and sure with God. Fifthly, and finally under this number two, how is it that they can sing fifthly, I think they realized they were beginning to get on just the sacred ground of understanding the fellowship of Christ's suffering. They had another partner. They had another one, the Lord Jesus Christ, who in a very interesting way, if you go through this account, there are several parallels between what they are going through now and what the Lord Jesus Christ went through. Verse 19, they were drawn into the marketplace to the rulers and they were made a public spectacle. This happened to the Lord Jesus Christ. In Gethsemane, his arrest all the way through his crucifixion, he was humiliated in a public setting and made a spectacle of. Verse 20, they were brought for the magistrates. Jesus Christ was brought before the council and Herod and Pilate. The accusation was they exceedingly trouble our city. That was a false accusation. Christ had false accusations laid to his charge. Verse 21, they're teaching customs which are not lawful for us to receive. This is a straw man that's being set up that could easily be knocked down. Laws, traditions, customs was the point of contention. Really? The multitude, verse 22, rises up against them. The magistrates rent their clothes and commanded that they be beaten. All three of those phrases find a parallel in Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, They had laid on that many stripes. They were cast into prison. Same happened to the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul had this desire, a very spiritual desire. He said that I might know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death. He wanted that spiritual knowledge and experience that when it's mixed together is spiritual life in his. He wanted to know the quickening power of the resurrection. When Paul and Silas, when we meditate upon the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, If we're able to begin to understand it in a spiritual sense, I think we realize we have a more deeper, more awful, that is full of awe, sympathy, and understanding with the suffering Savior. He carried our sorrows. He bore our grief. He took our infirmities and our sins upon Him. And of course, his sufferings were not left there, but they led to that life principle as well. Paul and Silas, Paul would say later, suffering on behalf of Christ was a privilege. It was a stamp of God's satisfaction with him. And all those sufferings that Paul went through seemed to be like an antidote against temptation and sin. Seemed to be like an inoculation from going back to the old way, the old world. He was able to participate in the sufferings of Christ for the glory of Christ. And even in the way that Christ, the scripture says, were perfected in that he suffered, that is made complete. So the disciples had to suffer to triumph. Paul and Silas had a realization to some small degree of what Christ went through for them on their behalf. And so they were able to worship and praise and sing and pray to God. I think those are five of the reasons why they were able to worship and sing from that prison at midnight. I think those five exemplify and they lay a foundation for the believer that we need to revisit. They were able to do so because they knew the sufficiency of God's grace, even in that hour. They had a conscience void of offense between man and God. They had the realization that God was giving songs in the night. They rested in the sovereignty of God. And they understood that they were able to enter in at least a little bit to the fellowship of his sufferings. But let me close by way of application with just one thought. And that is this overarching gospel principle that Paul and Silas exemplify. a broad truth that cross cuts our spiritual Christian experience. When you minister to somebody, whether you are speaking a word of encouragement or edification or blessing, maybe you're showing hospitality, Maybe you're talking to an unbeliever. Maybe you're sharing the word. When you minister, what are you called to minister? We're not called to entertain, placate, validate others. We're not called to give knowledge per se. I believe the scripture would say, we are called to minister life, spiritual life, of course. We're called to minister life, not death, not condemnation, not knowledge, not ritualism, not patriotism, not man's ways, not sour religion that puts a sour look on our face, not our pet peeves, not our doctrines. We're called to minister life, something that has eternity stamped on it. That's what we want to give people, life, spiritual life, some little element of gospel life and blessedness. and truth. Paul and Silas minister life. Paul tells us how do we minister life? Because that's what we want to do, right? We want to minister life. Paul tells us how, he says this in 2 Corinthians. You know the verse. We have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the excellency of the power would be of God and not of us. He says, we're troubled on every side, but we're not distressed. We're perplexed, but we're not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. And here it is, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake. that the life of Jesus would be manifested in our mortal flesh. He concludes by saying, so then death is working in us, but life in you. The overarching gospel principle that they are exemplifying is that they are ministering life, but in order to do that, they have to die to self. they have to die to self. Bearing about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus, so the life of Jesus could be manifest in you. We which live are always living, always delivered unto death, so that the life of Jesus would be manifested in you. Death is working in us, but life in you. Paul was saying, I'm not the center of the universe. It's not all about me. He said in another place, I endure all things for the elect's sake, so that they also can obtain eternal salvation. He said in another place, if I am afflicted, it's for your consolation and your salvation. This is effectual, the enduring of the same sufferings which we suffer, so it's for your comfort and your consolation and your salvation. He said to the Philippians, if I am offered on the sacrifice of service, it's for your joy and I rejoice with you. For there to be life, if we want to minister life, there has to be death, self-denial, Isn't this what Jesus said? He said, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it biteth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Who did Paul and Silas minister life to? Let me ask a question. I'm not gonna be dogmatic on this, but let me ask you a question. Is there any chance, is there any chance at all that the man who was crying out, come over to Macedonia and help us, was the Philippian jailer, who later would become saved? Him and his household. How can I get gospel witness to a jailer who's in keeping in that inner, I'll put my choice vessels into the inner and then I'll cause an earthquake and the jailer will seek Paul. These guys who were praising God, they're the ones I have to ask, what must I do to be saved? I think there's a good chance that somehow in this vision that God gave to Paul, It was, he took, maybe God was beginning to draw this Philippian jailer. Maybe he was one of God's chosen for the foundation of the world. He certainly was. And God, God formed this vision to get, impress Paul. You have to go there. You know, I have many people alive in the city. You have to minister there. And he takes Paul and Silas to the only place where they had to be so this Philippian jailer and his household could become saved. And again, I believe this reflects upon what Christ did. Christ had to come to this jail, this inner dungeon of an earth to preach the word and to become the sacrifice and to redeem his own. But again, this gospel principle is that no man liveth unto himself, no man dieth unto himself. Whether we live, we live unto the Lord. Whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live, therefore die, we are the Lord's. The Son of Man, he did not come to be ministered unto, but to minister. and to give his life a ransom for many. So the next time you read through Acts chapter 16 and you see Paul and Silas in jail, be reminded that just as we want to minister spiritual life, something with eternity stamped on it, it has to be very often death, self-denial, so that the resurrected life of Christ could be made manifest. What an amazing journey we are all on. And by God's grace, may He give glory in every one of our lives, even when we go through those midnights. When we go through those, may His grace be apparent to us and to others. Let's pray. Father, thank You for Your Word. We do thank You for Your grace. We confess that Just by virtue of who we are, lost and Adam, though saved, we undervalue it. We don't have a correct estimation of that grace. Help us to appreciate it, help us to know it, both by knowledge and by experience. And we do pray, Father, this principle that for there to be life, there has to be death. Father, we want to minister life. And help us to do so, Father, by esteeming others better than ourselves. Father, by this very principle, so that you would get glory in our lives. Help us to be those who are steadfast and unmovable, abounding in your work, according to your grace, that you might get glory. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.