If you'll turn to Acts chapter 16 beginning in verse 16 you will see our text for this morning. Great story from the book of Acts. If you'll follow along your Bible while I read from mine. Now it happened as we went to prayer that a certain slave girl possessed with the spirit of divination met us. who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us and cried out, saying, These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation. And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the Spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out that very hour But when our masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas, and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. And they brought them to the magistrates and said, These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city, and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe. Then the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundation of the prison was shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's chains were loosed. and the keeper of the prison awakening from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, Do yourself no harm, for we are all here. Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? So they said to him, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household. Would you join me in prayer? Heavenly Father, I thank you for this story of victory, and I pray, Lord, as I share about how we too can have victory in our own lives, I pray that you will enlighten us, that you will give us faith to believe, and an obedient heart to act upon what we hear today. Help me as I preach today, and I ask this in Jesus' name, amen. This is one of my favorite stories in the Bible because it is a story of victory. And a few years after this incident took place, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, Now thanks be unto God who always leads us in triumph in Christ Jesus. Paul wrote that by personal experience. He knew what it was to experience triumph and victory in Jesus Christ. Now how about you this morning? When you look at your own life, do you feel like you're defeated? Or do you know what it is to live victoriously in Jesus Christ? Now I'm not talking about a ball game. I'm not talking about UVA winning or any other team winning. I'm not talking about the Boston Red Sox winning and it looks like they're going to win the World Series. As important as that is to the fans of those teams, I can tell you what is more important is that we experience victory in Jesus Christ because that is eternal. And so this morning, I'm going to share a message about how we can have victory over Satan, how we can have victory over circumstances in our lives, and how we can have victory over the sinners of this world who oppose us. But you know, this victory comes at a cost. If a team is going to be victorious, they have to work hard. They have to practice hard. And even so, there's a cost in victory. And the cost was paid by Jesus Christ when He went to the cross and suffered and died for us on the cross. But also, the cost for us is to learn the principles of victory and to have faith to believe God and to trust God for victory. Now I want to share with you first of all that we can have victory over Satan. Now Satan is a powerful being. But the Bible says, greater is he that's in you than he that is in the world. And the Apostle Paul and Silas experienced victory over Satan in this text of Scripture. Now look at verse 16 and let's set the stage. It says, Paul was waiting, I'm sorry, looking at the wrong chapter, back up a page. Now it happened as we went to prayer that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us who brought her masters much profit by fortune telling. It was a girl who was possessed by a demonic spirit. And so we see, first of all, the slavery of the occult in this girl's life. She was possessed, she was controlled, not only by her masters, but also by this demonic spirit. Now the word translated divination in verse 16 is pouthon in the Greek. Python is a variant of that. You may remember in Greek mythology the story of how Apollo fought the serpent Python and defeated him. And it was defeated where Delphi, this is a region called Delphi, and there was a sacred shrine unto Apollo there in that portion of Greece. They believe that Apollo gave certain individuals the ability to tell the future, to tell what's going to happen. And so the people believed that this slave girl had the voice of Apollo and was able to tell people's fortunes, predict the future, and people would pay big money to come to her and have her tell their fortunes. And so we see Satan having victory in people's lives by convincing them that Apollo was a real god when actually it was just a demon. And it was the voice of a demon. It's amazing that there are people today who are slaves of the occult. There are people today who want to go to the fortune teller and have them tell their fortune and they'll want to do anything without consulting the fortune teller or consulting the astrology charts. There are people who are enslaved to the occult today. People are defeated by Satan when they don't have to be. But I want you to note the subtlety of Satan in verse 17. Notice what she said. This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out saying, These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation. Now when you look at verse 17, you might think, well isn't this great? I mean, here is this slave girl who is actually telling everybody that these are servants of the Most High God. You ought to listen to them because they are going to tell you the way of salvation. But even though we might think, hey, this is great. This is great that a servant of Apollos was actually commending these men to the people. But Paul, according to our Scripture, was annoyed, pained in his spirit that this slave girl was doing this. Now what was the problem in the mind of the apostle Paul? Well, there were two problems. One is what she was saying. Yes, there was truth, but there was also deception in what she was saying. Yes, these were servants of the Most High God, but in the original language it does not say that they are showing us THE way of salvation, but the definite article is missing. A way of salvation, basically, is what she was saying. But Jesus said in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me. Listen, the devil did not mind the people believing in Apollos and Jesus as long as Jesus is just another God that they believe in. But the Bible teaches it's Jesus and no other God. It's God. He and Him alone is to be worshipped. Jesus is not a way of salvation. He is the way of salvation. And in our pluralistic society that wants to say that all religions are basically going to lead you to heaven, that's a lie from the pits of hell. that Jesus is the way of salvation and we must embrace Jesus and Him alone. And furthermore, what grieved Paul was that he did not want to have any association with Satan or his demons. He did not want their endorsement and nor should we. You know, when it comes to Satan and the occult and ungodliness. The Bible says we are to have no fellowship with the works of darkness. And so, Paul could not allow her to continue doing this. And don't allow Satan to deceive you. You know, in 1 John chapter 4 and verses 5 and 6, it says, They, the false prophets, are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. And he who is not of God does not hear us. Listen, the world gladly hears false prophets. And the worldly crowd will say all kinds of nice things about false preachers and false prophets and false religion. In fact, again, Jesus said there in Luke chapter 6 and verse 26, Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets. And so, Paul, had to deal with this woman. And so we see furthermore the supremacy of God in this situation. In verse 18, It says this, And this she did for many days, but Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the Spirit, I command you, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her. And he came out that very hour. Notice the power of Jesus Christ. When He said, in the name of Jesus, come out, the Spirit had to obey, because Jesus was more powerful. Again, the Bible says, greater is He that's in you than he that's in the world. And we see that God had the victory over the demonic spirit on this particular occasion. You know, the Bible, rather there's a chorus And I remember singing some years ago, it says, in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, we have the victory. In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, Satan will have to flee. And that is what happened on this particular occasion. And so don't let Satan defeat you with temptation. You know the Bible says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. You will need to believe it and act upon it when he tries to tempt you. I saw a video yesterday. Cheryl showed it. My cousin posted it. Ring doorbell, you heard a ring doorbell? Well these guys came to the door posed as utility workers and they would try to get someone to open the door to them claiming that the utility company had sent them to replace the old style bulbs with new style bulbs and when they get into the house they rob people at gunpoint. Or if they don't find anyone at home, they break in and steal what they want. And so, no one was home and they started prying the door open to get into the door. And then there was that voice over that ring doorbell. Get away from that door. And it just shows them running as fast as they could away from that home and from that door. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Don't let him defeat you with temptation. Don't let him defeat you with deception. John says in 1 John 4 verse 1, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. And I can tell you, the closer we get to the last days, the more false prophets will be at work, and the more people are going to be deceived. and will ultimately be deceived the whole world by the Antichrist and his false prophet. And so don't let the devil get victory over you. You be victorious over the devil. But secondly, we can have victory over circumstances. in our lives, and we see this illustrated in this text of Scripture. You know, if the devil can't defeat you with temptation, if he can't defeat you with deception, then another way he will attack you is with adverse circumstances. He may hurt you financially. He may bring sickness into your life. And what is He trying to do? He's trying to do to you what He tried to do to Job. To try to get him to turn from God and deny God. And listen, don't let the devil have victory over you when adverse circumstances come into your life. Listen, adverse circumstances should not cause you to run from God, but should cause you to run to God. And we see this illustrated here. Now what were the difficult circumstances that Paul and Silas experienced in this text of Scripture? Well, look at verse 19. But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. The marketplace was also the place where the leadership met. And it says, "...they brought them to the magistrates and said, These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city, and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe. Then the multitude rose up together against them." Boy, the mob got in on it and began to attack them. "...And the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods." Now folks, we probably have never witnessed something like this except if you saw The Passion of the Christ, something like that. But to be beaten with rods was extremely painful. Again, no clothing, just bare skin being beaten over and over again with that flexible rod. And you can imagine how bloody they became, how bruised they became, how much pain they endured on that particular occasion. And then they handed them the magistrates over to the prison guard, and He put them into prison and also put their feet into stocks. Imagine being in prison and your feet bound by stocks hour after hour after hour. All you can do is just stay pretty much in that same position that whole time. Now listen, if this had happened to you, If this had happened to me, how would we react? I think a lot of us would be very upset, a lot of us would be angry, perhaps even with God. A lot of us would be depressed, all of us would be sad perhaps. But that's not how Paul responded to the circumstances he was facing. He had victory. And notice how he had victory and how we can have victory. First of all, through prayer. It says in verse 25 that they prayed unto God. It says there in verse 25. At midnight, Paul and Silas were praying. Well, they were still awake at midnight because it was so uncomfortable, probably. And because they wanted to pray unto the Lord. And so, when trials and difficulties come your way, that's what you and I ought to do. We ought to turn to God. And we ought to pray. Paul wrote to the Philippians sometime later, in Philippians 4, 6, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God that passes understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And so when trials come your way, when difficulties come your way, don't turn from God, but turn to God in prayer. But secondly, you also need to praise God in those situations. Now how many of us feel like praising God? How many of us feel like singing when trials and troubles come our way? But that's exactly what Paul and Silas did. They were singing hymns to God in this situation. Singing hymns to God. You know, a lot of those psalms were songs of suffering. and how the psalmists would cry out unto God. And I can imagine they were singing some of those psalms on this particular occasion. Singing praises unto the Lord. You know, anyone can sing when everything's going well. Anyone can sing when the prison doors have opened and they're free. But only a Christian can sing when And praise the Lord when they're going through difficult situations. There's an older chorus that says, it's amazing what praising can do. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! It's amazing what praising can do. And you know, if you'll just respond to the difficulties of life by praising the Lord in the midst of your circumstances, He will turn sadness into joy. Now how in the world can you praise God and praise Him with singing when things are going so difficult. I'll tell you why, because Romans 8.28 says, but God works all things together for good to those that know God, to those that love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. You can praise God because you can have confidence that God is going to work some good through this difficulty in my life. James says that God builds character as you go through difficulties in your life. And I'll tell you something else, God can open opportunities for you to be witnesses for Him in the difficulties of life. We see this right here. Paul and Silas were put in prison, and the prisoners heard them, and the jailer was saved, and probably some of the prisoners were saved because they went through this difficult circumstance in their life. And so, Paul shows us how we can have victory over Satan, how we can have victory over circumstances, and finally, we can have victory over sinners who oppose us in the Gospel. You know, 1 John chapter 5 and verse 5 says, Who is he that overcomes the world? He that believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And I want you to see how Paul experienced victory over the sinners who were opposing him and who were in contact with him. First of all, he had victory over their accusers. Their accusers. I want you to contrast the joy and rejoicing of Paul and Silas with the unhappiness and sadness of their accusers. Now when the demon was cast out, the Bible says their hope of profit was gone. They realized, oh no, we've just lost a bunch of money. I tell you what, if you want to make people unhappy, just take their money away from them, and they'll be unhappy in a quick moment. And you know, the people of this world and the sinners of this world, their happiness is tied up in their circumstances, in their prosperity, in their pleasures. But as soon as you take those away, they're unhappy. But Paul had victory in showing that he could be happy no matter what. He could have joy no matter what. And that's the victory that he had over his accusers. He also had victory over the prisoners. In verses 26 to 28, we read that when they started praying, When they started singing those praises to God, then the Bible says the prisoners heard them. They were listening in on their song. And what's interesting is that that word translated listening is only found here. It's a rare word and it means to listen with delight. To listen with delight. Last night, My little two-year-old granddaughter has learned to call me something. And she calls me Gakka just like her sister did. And then I was upstairs and I could hear her from downstairs. Gakka! Gakka! I listened with delight, I can tell you, to her sweet voice calling out to me. And they were listening with delight, listening with delight to Paul and Silas singing these hymns unto God. And guess what else happened? There was an earthquake. The doors opened. Miraculously, the chains fell off the wrists, not only of Paul and Silas, but the wrists of the prisoners. And instead of escaping, Paul said in verse 28, we're all here. And it can be interpreted that they left their cells and entered into the cells of Paul and Silas, and when he said we're all here, they were literally all together. Now why would they do that? Why didn't they escape? Because they knew there was something special about these men. There was something special about the God that they believed in. And they wanted to know more. They wanted to know more. And so he had victory over those prisoners. And I'm sure some of them were saved. But he also had victory over the jailer. Now when the jailer was commanded to put these men securely into prison, The Bible says that He put them into the inner cell. But actually, the Greek word is that He cast them into the inner cell. I can just imagine as an old retired Roman soldier, that He just threw those men into the cell. And then proceeded to put those stops on their feet, causing additional pain. At that point, he could be viewed as an enemy, as an adversary. He could care less about the suffering of those men. He went off to wherever he went, went to sleep. He was awakened by an earthquake. And God began to work in his heart. Notice first of all, not only his cruelty, but also his conviction of sin. Have you experienced an earthquake? I mean, a major earthquake? I mean, it's scary. I mean, it will strike fear into your heart. And so, he woke up, no doubt, with a fear in his heart, and then he thought about something else when he noticed the prison doors were opened. That struck more fear into his heart, because if a Roman jailer allowed prisoners to escape, he would be executed. And knowing this, he drew his sword. And rather than facing dishonor, he decided he was going to just kill himself right then and there. And Paul cried out to him, Do yourself no harm! We're all here. He was about to kill himself. He was about to go off into eternity and face God. And he knew he wasn't ready. And the conviction of his sin came over him. He had a conscience. He knew the kind of life he had been living. He knew he wasn't ready to meet God. And so he called for a light. And he went into the prison. And he says, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? What must I do to be saved? He came under conviction of sin at that particular moment in his life. May God help anyone here today who doesn't yet know Christ as Savior to be convicted about the fact that you have sinned and the wages of sin is death and you could die tomorrow. And if you die without Christ, you're not ready to meet God. But that can change today. that can change today. Oh yes, he became convicted over his sin. And by the way, Paul said to him, do yourself no harm. Oh, I may be speaking, not someone perhaps in this building, but speaking through the television or speaking through the internet to someone who's thinking about committing suicide. And I know it feels like it's all darkness, it's all gloom, there's no hope. The jailer was shown there is a way out. And His name is Jesus. Do yourself no harm. Do yourself no harm. Give God more time to work in your life. But we also see His conversion. In verse 31 they said, well believe, He said, what must I do to be saved? Now He had just been saved from death, so He wasn't talking about that. What kind of salvation was he talking about? Well, I think he would have known what these prisoners were there for. He would have known about what that slave girl was saying. That these men are servants of the Most High God and they will show you a way of salvation. And so, knowing that, he said, what must I do to be saved? Tell me this way of salvation. Tell me this way out of my sin. Help me to be ready to meet God. Help me to be ready to die. And so they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Isn't that marvelous how simple the gospel is? I mean, he was already convicted, he was already repentant, I believe, and all he needed to be told now was, trust Jesus as your Savior. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, and we'll tell your household, and they'll be saved. Would you believe? I'm speaking to some, perhaps, who think that the way of salvation is through religious rituals. The way of salvation is through good works. Quit trying to work your salvation. It's not what you have done, but what Christ has done on the cross. And may God give you the faith simply to trust Jesus. And the Bible says you'll be saved. And there are all kinds of people right here in this room that can say, yeah, that's right, Pastor. I trusted Jesus, and I was saved, and my life was changed. And that leads to the last point about his victory over this jailer, and that is his conversion, and the change in his life. The Bible says, if anyone's in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. You know how I know if someone is really saved? And that is that there's a change in their life, and it lasts. It lasts. And notice the change in this man's life. He went from being a hardened sinner to a baptized believer in Jesus Christ. The last of verse 33 says immediately he and all of his family were baptized. They said, believe on the Lord Jesus. Now that Jesus was his Lord, now that Jesus commands us to be baptized, then immediately they obeyed Jesus. He was obedient. He was baptized. He became a servant. He took Paul and Silas home and began to nurse and bandage and clean their wounds. And he and Mrs. Jaylor got the meal together and sat it before them. You know, Psalm 23 verse 5 says, Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. And that literally happened. on this occasion. They fed these gospel preachers. And by the way, you can feed this gospel preacher anytime you want to. But what a good word. He's a servant now. He's a servant. He's washing their wounds. He's feeding them. He's doing what he can for them. And when you're saved, Jesus is our example. He was the great servant and we will become servants. But He also became joyful. Verse 34 says that He rejoiced. Man, I'm saved, my sins are forgiven, I have eternal life, my life is changing, my family is saved with me. Oh, he was just rejoicing and they had, you thought they were rejoicing at midnight? Boy, they're really rejoicing now that God has saved yet another soul. The Bible says there's rejoicing in heaven when one sinner repents. And there ought to be a joy in the house. Listen, we need to pray for our revival. And we need to pray that souls will be saved and that God will bring joy to this place when we see souls come to Christ. Rejoicing is what He did. Jesus said in John 15 11, These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. You know what the sinners of this world are doing? They are in hot pursuit of worldly pleasures and entertainment, trying to get that little bit of happiness. But you know what happens? As soon as the entertainment is over, as soon as that sinful pleasure is over, then the happiness is gone, and sometimes they're feeling even worse. But Jesus says, these things I've spoken to you that my joy may remain and that your joy may be full. I hope you know what it is to have the joy of the Lord on a consistent basis. Even when times are difficult, you have the joy of the Lord and you're rejoicing in the Lord. I tell you what, that's a whole lot better than what this world has to offer. What a change in His life. And I ask you this morning, do you have victory in Jesus Christ. Do you have victory over Satan? Do you have victory over circumstances? Do you have victory over sinners who oppose you because you are a Christian? Listen, Jesus Christ is the one who overcame the world and we can share in His victory. And the first step is to know Jesus as your Savior, to believe in Jesus. And as we sing a song of invitation this morning, if you have not yet trusted Jesus as your Savior, then hear the Gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved and your household. We invite you to come and I'll pray with you and talk to you if you need Jesus as your Savior or to recommit your life to the Lord or unite with this church family or even come to the prayer altar and pray for our upcoming revival that God will work victoriously. This invitation is for you. Let's stand together as we sing our hymn of invitation, hymn number 413. Turn your eyes upon Jesus.