The Salvation of the Lord

*Pewds* I'm going to do a lot of people. Good morning. Thank you. Thank you. Greg, is this muted? We'll find out. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. um Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Come, let us sing for the joy of the Lord. Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God.

okay good morning everybody it's good to see everyone that's here we have a bunch of people traveling and all that so but we're glad to have you here with us today watching online and here in the building so as we get started today every Sunday we read Scripture together just to remind us of the goodness of God and how he takes care of us and I think this week especially everything that's been going on around the world I mean it started a few months ago with ukraine and russia and everything and uh and this past week um you know we've experienced a lot of loss um uh children killed and uh people killed just because of their race and it's all a very difficult thing to navigate through and um there's just everything around this world seems very hopeless and so it's such a relief to look to the Word and find hope in the

Lord and be able to pretty much gather around that hope and be encouraged by it and warmed by it and just reminded in the midst of everything that's going on that he is still good and he loves us and he is in control. So we're going to go ahead and stand together, and we're going to be reading out of Psalm 138 today. The verses are going to be on the screen behind me, and if I can get my voice to stop being weird, we will read verses 7 and 8 together. And it says, though I walk in the midst of trouble you preserve my life you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies and your right hand delivers me the Lord will fulfill his purpose for me your steadfast love oh Lord endures forever do not forsake the work of your hands this is the word of the Lord

let's pray God we thank you so much for the opportunity that we have to gather here today to be encouraged by one another to be encouraged by your word we thank you for those that are watching online and we pray that they are encouraged by this time of worship together God we just ask that you be with those that have experienced extreme hurt this week families that are mourning the loss of children people that have experienced abuse in multiple ways from others that they trusted even personal things in our own lives that we've experienced either loss or grief or frustrations or or just division between friends or family many things in this world are broken, Lord, and we just are so thankful for your healing and for your love that is always steadfast. And we just thank you so much for Jesus and

for your grace and mercy. Be with our time together today as we worship and allow it to glorify you. In Jesus' name, amen. As we get started today, we're going to be singing glorious day I was buried my shame who could carry that kind of weight It was my tune, till I met you. I was breathing, but I wasn't alive. All my failures I tried to hide. It was my tune. Till I met you You called my name And I ran out of that grave Out of the darkness Into your glorious day You called my name And I ran out of that grave Out of the darkness Into your glorious day Now your mercy has saved my soul Now your freedom is all That I know The old made new Jesus, when I met you

You called my name And I ran out of that grave Out of the darkness Into your glorious day You called my name And I ran out of that grave Out of the darkness To your glorious day I need a rescue My sin was heavy chains break at the weight of your glory I needed shelter I wasn't know now you call me

And you call my name, I ran out of that grave, out of the darkness, into your glorious day. You call my name, and I ran out of that grave, out of the darkness, into your glory. All right, if you'd like to remain standing, you can, or you can sit if you'd like. We're going to be moving into our prayer and share time. If you're watching online, there will be a slide up with a phone number for you to text. If you have any prayer requests or anything you'd like to share with us, just send that to that number, and we will share that here together. And we're going to be muted here during that time. um, so that we can, uh, have that time of prayer together here, and then we'll be back after we're

finished, so, uh, as we continue, we're going to be singing The Battle Belongs. Boy, I'm not doing well today with the, there we go.

When all I see is the battle, you see my victory. When all I see is the mountain, you see a mountain moved. And as I walk through this shadow, your love surrounds me. There's nothing to fear now For I am safe with you So when I fight I'll fight on my knees With my hands lifted high Oh God, the battle belongs to you And every fear I lay at your feet I'll sing through the night Oh God, the battle belongs to you And if you are for me, who can beat me?

For Jesus, there's nothing impossible for you. When all I see are the ashes, you see the beauty. When all I see is a cross, God, you see the empty tomb.

So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees With my hands lifted high Oh God, the battle belongs to you And every fear I lay at your feet I'll sing through the night Oh God, the battle belongs to you Almighty fortress, you go before us Nothing can stand against the power of our God You shine in the shadow, you win every battle Nothing can stand against the power of our God Almighty fortress, you go before us Nothing can stand against the power of our God You shine in the shadow, you win every battle Nothing can stand against the power of our God So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees With my hands lifted high Oh God, the battle belongs to you In every field I lay at your feet I'll sing through the night Oh God, the battle belongs to you All right, you may be seated. We'll be right back. Thank you. you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

all right as we move into our time of communion we're going to be singing how deep the father's How deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure, that He should give His only son to make a wretch his treasure how great the pain of searing loss the father turns his face away as wounds which Mother Chosen One Bring many sons to glory Behold the man upon a cross My sin upon his shoulders I say hear my mocking voice Call out among the scoffers It was my sin that held Him there Until it was accomplished His dying breath has brought me life I know that it is finished I will not boast in anything No gifts, no power, no wisdom But I will boast in Jesus Christ His death and resurrection What should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer, but this I know with all my heart. His wounds have paid my ransom.

We live in an area of the country where we have all kinds of memorials. You can drive an hour and a half east, and you can visit the Lincoln Memorial. You can visit the George Washington Memorial. You can visit all of these Washington Monument. You can visit all of these memorials. You can stand in front of the Vietnam Wall that lists those who lost their lives in service. And we celebrate this week, or remember, Memorial Day, The day set aside to remember and be thankful for those who have given their life in service of their country. And memorials are important because if we don't have a sort of continual reminder, we tend to very easily forget things. God knows this, and so throughout Scripture you see Him erecting memorials to help His people remember those things that are important.

And one that comes to mind in the Old Testament is as the Israelites are coming out of the wilderness, getting ready to enter the promised land before God parts the Jordan River, they pick up 12 stones, and as he parts the river, they set up 12 stones to remember their passing into the promised land. And God will say, this is a reminder, a memorial for you and your children, and your children's children that you'll pass by. And they'll say, what are these weird rocks next to the river? And you'll say, that's when God split apart the waters and welcomed us into the promised land. Because what happens is if there's not a visual reminder in front of us, we so often forget. For us, being reminded of the gospel is, I think, one of the most important things that can happen.

In fact, Paul will say, as he talks in 1 Corinthians 15 about reminding us of the gospel, he'll say, the first important, out of all the things I know, the most important thing is that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again on the third day. And he says to the Christians in the verses right before that that this is something we remember, we cling to, and hold on. So I just want to remind you of the truth that this bread and this cup represent this morning. I'm going to read from Romans, the fifth chapter, and then we'll pray and partake together. For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.

But God shows his love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we now have been justified by his blood, how much more will we be saved by him from the wrath? For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, how much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we now have received reconciliation. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the sacrifice of your Son that has freed us from sin, has freed us from fear, has freed us from shame. We thank you for your love that you have poured out upon us. Help us not to take that for granted, to make it small,

or to forget the good that you have done for us. As we break this bread, as we drink this cup this morning, may you help us to see the cost of our forgiveness. May you help us to see the greatness of your love and the wonder of your grace. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Paul will say this as he recounts the Lord's Supper, That Jesus, when he had given thanks, he took the bread and he broke it. And he said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Will you partake together? In the same way also, he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. We're going to be picking up in Acts, the 23rd chapter this morning. One of the things that we like to do is we like to go through books of the Bible. One of the good reasons for this is that it may be deal with things that we might tend to skip over, maybe because we don't think that they're very important, or maybe because we just simply don't want to deal with those things. And so by sort of picking a book of the Bible and just spending our time in it, it holds us accountable to see all that God has for us. And so for a while now, we've been going through the book of Acts.

We are into Acts chapter 23. We've seen the church begin in Jerusalem. We've seen the explosion of Christianity there in Judea. As Jesus said, you'll be my witnesses in Judea, Samaria, ultimately to the ends of the earth. And we've sort of seen that play out in the book of Acts. The apostle Paul, once an enemy of Christ, has now become a passionate preacher and church planter. He has come to Jerusalem, and as we've seen in the last several weeks, he has caused several riots. He's been arrested, he's been put in front of sort of the Jewish Sanhedrin, their highest court in the land, started another riot, and has remained in chains. And so we're going to sort of pick it up from there in just a minute, but let's pray. Father in heaven, we look at a world that seems so dark and so broken and so hopeless

I ask this morning that in this account of your salvation of Paul that you would help us to stand firm and see the salvation that you have for us. Help us to be moved into the light of your hope the light of your peace the light of your salvation and may we be lights into a world that so desperately needs it. Thank you for Jesus. We thank you for grace. We thank you for the gift of your spirit. be with us this morning in Jesus name we pray amen so I am not somebody who is built to drive all night long I know that I have a lot of friends and people I know and they want to get somewhere they really want to get somewhere and they say we're just going to drive till we get there doesn't

matter if it's two hours or 24 hours now I've tried to do this on several occasions and it's been a terrible experience every time. But I noticed, and the last time that I really did that, I was coming back from college, coming back to Vermont after graduating from college, and I was driving back, and I left. I thought I left pretty early. I was like, oh yeah, we're going to get there. It's going to be great. It was about 1,200 miles, and you do pretty well during the daytime, or at least I do, and then it gets dark, and then it gets a little late, and by then you can get all the interesting conspiracy stuff on the radio, so it keeps you awake, and then all of a sudden you get to that period, probably

about 3 a.m., and you can only have so much coffee and so many gas station snacks, and it was so dark, and there was nothing, and it just felt hopeless. It's like, I'm never going to get there. and you start watching your odometer in the miles, it's like you're not making any progress, you're making any progress. And then I got really tired, and what happens for me when I tend to get tired, I don't drive faster, I drive slower, and so we go from like 75 miles an hour to 55 miles anyway. It just felt like I was in that darkness forever. In Exodus, the 14th chapter, we find that same picture for God's people. God's people have left the land of Egypt. God has powerfully revealed His greatness. They have been slaves, they have been freed,

and they leave taking all the treasures of Egypt, and they're going into the wilderness to this promised land, and life seems like it's good. And then the darkness of the reality of the world in which we live in sort of comes crashing down on them. And they look behind them, and here comes Pharaoh's army, and they look in front of them, and they see the Red Sea. And the book of Exodus tells us the area in which they were camped, and people have kind of tried to figure out where this is, but the word sort of has a picture in Hebrew of being sort of in between canyons. And so the picture of where God's people are is that there's a sea in front of them, they're in a canyon with steep hills on both sides of them,

and behind them is the Egyptian army coming to either kill them or put them back into slavery. And life has gone from freedom and joy over being released into the darkness of struggle and hurt in this world, right? And they look and say, did you bring us out here to die? Because the only thing they can see is that there is no way out. And the reality is, for us, sometimes life feels that way. Life gets dark. We have those moments where it's day and it's exciting and things are good. And then there's moments where we see the brokenness so clearly. Maybe it's our brokenness. As we confront our sins and our hurts and our struggles and our fears and the hurts that are occurring to us. Or maybe it's outside of us. As we look at this broken world and we can see it and we can feel it

and we're impacted by it and it just seems like everything is dark. So into this darkness for the Israelites, Moses says this remarkable thing. In Exodus 14, verse 13, he will say this, Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent. Now, the first part of that, it sounds really, really good, right? Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord. And it sounds like those are very inspiring words, but the reality is that for us, this is difficult. Because think about what happens when we feel like we are trapped. There's obstacles in front of us, there's danger behind us,

and it seems like we're hemmed in on every side by the mountains of the problems that we have surrounded ourselves with. And to say, sort of, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, It sounds good, but for us, our struggle is to immediately do something else, right? So maybe we want to run, or maybe we just sort of want to hide. We sort of sit down and say, I just can't do it. I'm just going to hide from my problems, and hopefully they go away. Or maybe we come up with a plan and say, well, if I go here and if I do this, I can try to fix this problem. Our instinct is to do anything but stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord. And so into this we have this very difficult thing that God calls his people to do.

Stand firm, right? Don't run away. Don't try to hide. Don't try to come up with a plan. And here's what God does after Moses says stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord. God does two things. First of all, he's been guiding the Israelites by a cloud and a pillar of fire. he immediately stands between them and the danger. The pillar of fire and the cloud, they go in between the army that's oncoming and the people of Israel. God places himself between the danger and his people. And the second thing that God does through his power is Moses stretches out his rod and the insurmountable obstacle that is in front of his people splits in half and they walk across on dry land. God saves his people. And so he calls them and he says, stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord.

And it's not just something that's good to hear, but that God actually does it. He saves his people in the midst of the darkness of their fear and their doubt and their worry. God saves them. What's interesting is that in Scripture, this is not the only time God's people are told this. One of my favorite prayers is in 2 Chronicles chapter 20, where King Jehoshaphat is facing this insurmountable army. And I've shared this prayer with you before where he goes before God and he says, our enemy is coming before us. We don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you. And there's times where we feel like this, right? I don't know what I can do. I can't go forward. I can't go backwards. I'm surrounded on every side. What can I do?

And one of the people surrounding Jehoshaphat, the Holy Spirit, sends him this revelation and he prophesies. Hear these words. He says, Jehoshaphat, you will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf. Do you hear what he says? He says, stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord. O Judah and Jerusalem, do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow you go out against them, and the Lord will be with them. And so the next day, they go out to battle, but they don't put their soldiers in the front line. They put their worship team, right? Their praise band goes out in front of them, which if you're going into battle, does not seem like a great tactical position to send your singers and your instrument players out in front of them.

But you know why they did that? Because they said, God's going to fight for us. We're just going to stand and we're going to praise. And guess what? They get to the battle and God's already taken care of them. So God works, you see, throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament to save his people. And sometimes He works through His powerful hand of miracle where the sea splits open, where the army is already defeated, but then there's other times where God saves His people through the invisible hand of providence. And what I mean by that and what providence means is how God takes sort of ordinary, everyday, unsurprising circumstances and turns them into salvation and deliverance for His people. He takes something that seems normal and everyday and ends up being a surprising result.

Two of the great examples in Scripture are the book of Esther and the book of Ruth, both a powerful demonstration of God's providence and the book of Esther even more so because it doesn't even mention God. They don't pray to God, but you see God's hand woven in every page as God saves his people. And so as we come to the 23rd chapter of Acts, I want us to see how God brings salvation to Paul through his invisible hand of providence. How God providentially prepares, he plans, he purposes, he provides for Paul in a remarkable way. So if you remember, Paul is in Roman custody. It has not gone well for him in any of the times he's tried to speak to the crowd. and so this is the next day after the riot among the Jewish high court.

So the very next day, here's what happens. I'm going to pick it up in verse 12, and we'll kind of walk through this text together. When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. There were more than 40 who made this conspiracy, and they went to the chief priests and elders and said, we have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food until we have killed Paul. Now, therefore, along with the council, give notice to the tribune to bring him down to you as though you were going to determine his case more exactly, and we are ready to kill him when he comes near. So you've got these plotting plotters who come up with this plot to try to kill Paul.

And what they do is, first of all, they make a decision that is not very wise by saying, we're not going to eat or drink until we have ended his life. right? And the problem with these kind of vows is the only person they really hurt is yourself, right? So like when you're a little kid, they say, well, I'm not going to eat dinner if you don't make this. Well, great. There's only one person you're hurting by this kind of vow, and it's you. And in fact, this kind of vow in the Old Testament has a pretty interesting history. If you remember Saul and Jonathan, they were getting ready to go up against God's enemies, and Jonathan has one part of the army, Saul has another part, and Saul rashly makes this vow. Nobody eats

until we beat the enemy, which seems like a poor idea to go into battle when you're starving, right? Jonathan doesn't hear this, he eats, he defeats the enemy, and there's all kinds of consequences. And so here they make that same mistake rashly. We're not going to eat or drink until we kill Paul. But in doing this, what they're doing is they're sort of demonstrating two things, right? We're determined, right? His death is more important to us than food. But they're also demonstrating they have a very deep certainty that they're going to be able to carry this out, right? They're pretty sure because if they say, I'm not going to eat or drink, right? You can go for a long time without food, but you can't go that long without water. And they say they have a high degree of certainty that their plan is going to succeed.

And there's not a few people doing this, right? You've got 40 wannabe assassins who are seeking to attack Paul, but additionally they've brought in the chief priests and elders as part of this plot, right? So this is not just an isolated incident. It's not just a small group of people with bad intentions, right? This is a large group that is seeking to attack Paul. And so here's their plan. Let the Tribune know that we want another meeting with Paul, and we'll kill him as we get close. So this plan has a pretty high probability of working, right? The Tribune doesn't really know what to do with Paul. When he first arrests him in the temple, he wants some answers. He says, well, just beat the answers out of him. Paul says, are you allowed to do that to a Roman citizen?

He says, no, no, we're not. Are you a Roman citizen? And, in fact, listen to this in 22, 29, and 30. So those who are about to examine him withdrew from him immediately, and the Tribune also was afraid, for he realized Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him. And on the next day, desiring to know the real reason why he was accused by the Jews, he unbound him and commanded the chief priest and all the council to meet and brought Paul down and set him before him. So this guy's been trying to find answers any way he knows how. It didn't work to try to use his normal interrogation method, so he sets up a meeting with the Jewish leadership and says, you guys question him, that turns into a riot.

And so this thing with the Jewish leadership coming and saying, we want to ask him some more questions, This has a high probability of working. Because this guy wants some answers. He wants to know what's going on. And so Paul, if you want to hear his situation, he's in Roman custody. There's 40 assassins coming from him. The religious leaders are accomplices, and their pretext to get Paul to where they want him to go is very likely to work. And when we look at this situation, and if we were in Paul's shoes, this would feel pretty insurmountable. one person against a large group. Their plan likely works. I don't have any way to defend myself. But what we see and what is so remarkable about this is the plans of man have nothing when it comes to the plans of God.

So we're going to pick it up here in verse 16. Now the son of Paul's sister, that's Paul's nephew, heard of their ambush. So he went and entered the barracks and told Paul and Paul called for one of the centurions and said take this young man to the tribune for he has something to tell him so he took him brought him to the tribune and said Paul the prisoner called me and asked me to bring you this young man he has something to say to you and the tribune took him by the hand and going aside and asked him privately what is it that you have to tell me and he said the Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow as though they were going to inquire somewhat more closely about him,

but do not be persuaded by them, for more than 40 of their men are lying in ambush for him, who have bound themselves by an oath to neither eat nor drink till they have killed him, and now they are ready, waiting for your consent. So the tribune dismissed the young man, charging him, tell no one that you have informed me of these things. Then he called two of his centurions and said, Get ready, 200 soldiers. With 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night. And also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix the governor. So when we face circumstances where it seems like we are overwhelmed and we can't see hope, we can't see the light of day beginning to break, our first reaction is often discouragement.

So, if you think about Elijah, the prophet of God who felt so alone as he stood for God, he defeats the prophets of Baal, and instead of revival breaking out and the nation of Israel returning to the one true God, the Queen Jezebel seeks to kill him. And the next scene that you find Elijah is laying in the desert under a tree, just saying, God, I failed, I can't do it, just stop it all right now. And so many times when we look at the troubles and the difficulties and the bigness, that is in front of us, and we look at ourselves, and we say, I can't do it. And here's the reality. You can't. I can't. We can't. But God can. And the problem in so many of these situations is that we are depending upon our own wisdom,

our own courage, and our own strength, rather than in a heavenly Father who loves us, and who provides for us, and who cares for us, and who gives us the strength to face these things, who gives us the comfort to face these things, who walks through these things with us because he loves us. And let me show you how God walks through this with the Apostle Paul. Sometimes when things look dark, it's a good exercise for us to sort of sit and count how God is at work. And so here's how you see God at work in this section of Scripture. First of all, Paul has family in Jerusalem. Something we didn't know. We know Paul obviously has family. He's born. He's lived in Tarsus. But he has a sister and a nephew in Jerusalem.

Secondly, this nephew at least is in a position to be able to hear of this plan to attack. So whether that's Paul's family is part of this sort of religious elite in Jerusalem, or maybe as somehow young kids do, they end up just everywhere they want to go, and he overhears for whatever reason, somehow this young man hears of the plan. Third, this young man's allowed to walk into the barracks where Paul is being held with no problems, walk up to the apostle Paul and talk to him, right? Maybe he goes in, he goes, I'm his nephew. Maybe it's because he's a kid. He's allowed to just kind of go where he wants, but for whatever reason, he's allowed to go up and talk to the apostle Paul. And then, right, when Paul calls the centurion over,

he gets to warn the right people, right? The centurion takes him to the tribune and the tribune listens. At any point, this warning could have failed, right? Maybe this kid isn't allowed access to the barracks where Paul is. Maybe he's not believed, right? He's very, very young. And the way we see that is in verse 19, where the centurion takes him to the tribune, right? And so maybe we picture Paul's nephew as kind of a young man who's got his ear to the political ground and has heard things. That's not the case. Because when the centurion takes him to the tribune, it says this, the tribune takes him by the hand, right? What kind of young person do you take? by a hand, right? Take a little guy by the hand, right? So, like here, you know, grab

Luke's hand when you want to take him somewhere, or Ezra, right? This guy is very young, but he's also believed, right? Any place, this whole thing could have fallen apart, right? The tribune believes him, right? Little kid shows up with a crazy story, how easy would it be to dismiss it? Oh, he just heard something from somewhere. He might have heard him say they wanted to kill him, that doesn't mean they're going to, right? It would be easy to make excuses for non-action in this scenario. The sixth thing you see is that the tribune swings into action. Right? And here's what is remarkable to me. He could have solved all of his problems by just letting Paul get killed. Right? He doesn't know what's going on. This guy is starting riots. His job is to

keep the peace in Jerusalem. He wanted to solve all his problems of peace in Jerusalem, of dealing with this Paul guy who's been a thorn in his side for the past several days, stirring up civil unrest. Just let him get killed. Right? All your problems are over. But the Tribune doesn't do that. 470 soldiers. 200 soldiers, 200 spearmen, 70 soldiers, mounts for Paul. This guy pulls out all the stops to keep Paul safe. What I want you to see is in the midst of this, God is in control, directing circumstances, putting people in the right place at the right time. And what's interesting about this is he's not mentioned in this text, but his hand is clearly at work and the events that takes place. So they come with this letter, and here's how they deliver Paul.

He wrote a letter to this effect. Claudius Lysias, to His Excellency the Governor Felix, greetings. This man was seized by the Jews and about to be killed on them when I came upon him with soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman citizen. So you get a glimpse of this guy's character. That's not exactly what happened. He came and rescued him, was about to drag him into the barracks and beat him half to death, right? He didn't just come and rescue a hurting Roman citizen, but that's how he's going to portray himself. And desiring to know the charge for which they accused him, I brought him to their council, and I found he was being accused about questions of law, but charged with nothing, deserving death and imprisonment. And when it was disclosed to me

that there would be a plot against the man, I sent him to you at once, ordering his accusers also to state before you what they have against him. Notice how this Roman official sort of puts himself, I rescued him, I took the wise course, I protected him, I brought him to you, very much the center of this. And it's remarkable that God uses this man to save his wife and default to Paul. So the soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris. And the next day, when they had returned to the barracks, letting the horsemen go on with him, when they had come to Caesarea, they delivered the letter to the governor and they presented Paul also before him on reading the letter. He asked what province he was from

and when he learned that he was from Sicilia, he said, I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive and commanded him to be guarded in Herod's praetorium or Herod's palace. The things that looked hopeless just a short time ago in opposition of enemies seeking to kill Paul has been turned into something very different, right? Paul has been safely transported, right? They bring the whole company of Roman guards. They get him out of the city to safety. The rest of the guards go back. The 70 horsemen and Paul make a ride for the next point of safety. And you see that God has brought Paul through this darkness and has brought him to a place where we'll see in the coming weeks he can share the Gospel. The thing about the darkness is as eventually the dawn comes.

And I remember that part of New York as I was going home to Vermont and I was so tired and it was so dark. And then the sky starts to get a little brighter and a little brighter and a little brighter. Now I was still so tired, but you know what? It changed my whole attitude on the day because the sun was coming up, right? The night did not last forever. What you find is that God brings us through trials. He may not always take us away from them. He may not always take us out of them, but He will bring us through. I always think of that very familiar psalm where it talks about how the Lord is our shepherd. He says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil

because thou art with me. It's not that God says, here comes the valley of the shadow of death. Let's take you around. But He walks with us through those broken moments of life. Those times when we're hurting, those times when we're suffering, those times when we're struggling. God is at work in those dark moments of our life. And even when we are hurting, He is with us. Remember when Paul is in jail in the verse that precedes our text, God comes to him in Paul's discouragement and encourages him and says, you've done well here. And I will be with you as we go to Rome. And what we see is that even in the darkness of Paul's jail cell, God is with him. and in the darkness and the hurts and the brokenness of our life,

that God is with us, comforting us, helping us, and His providential hand is leading us to where He would have us to go. Let's pray. Father, I thank You for grace. I thank You that You are with us. I ask for comfort and peace for those areas of our life that are our struggles. Help us to be reminded that we are not alone, that you are with us, that you help us and strengthen us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So we're going to stand, and we're going to sing Never Once.

Standing on this mountaintop Looking just how far we've come Knowing that for every step You were with us Kneeling on this battleground Seeing just how much you've done Knowing every victory is your power in us Scars and struggles on the way But with joy our hearts can't save Yes, our hearts can't save Never once did we ever walk alone Never once did you lead us on our own You are faithful, God, you are faithful Kneeling on this battleground Seeing just how much you've done Knowing every victory It's your power in us Scars and struggles on the way But with joy our hearts can save Yes, our hearts can save Never once did we ever walk alone Never once did you leave us on our own You are faithful, God, you are faithful You are faithful, God, you are faithful

Skies and struggles on the way But with joy our hearts can say Never once did we ever walk alone Carried by your constant race Held within your perfect peace Never once, knowing never walk alone Never once, did we ever walk alone Never once did You leave us on our own You are faithful, God, You are faithful Every step we are breathing in Your grace Never more we'll be breathing in Your praise You are faithful, God, you are faithful. We are thankful that you are with us this morning. We'll be back Wednesday night at 7 p.m., spending some time studying the Word of God together. Thursday is our ladies' class Thursday at 1 p.m., and that's here upstairs at the church. So I'm going to go ahead and have a word of prayer, and then we'll read a verse of Scripture from 2 Thessalonians,

and then sing the doxology. Father in heaven, thank you for your grace. Thank you for the peace that you bring us. Thank you that we do never walk alone. Just be with us and encourage us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Paul ends his letter to the second letter to the Thessalonians like this. Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times, in every way. The Lord be with you all. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him, above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.