On that note, let me share two poems with you. I mentioned a while back about this book that Debbie had found by Elizabeth Prentiss, a book of poems that she wrote out of her own experience of suffering and pain and walking with the Lord. One of them is entitled Festal Days. And it says, thou hast thy festal days, my soul, thou hast had one today. How gracious was the master's voice, how sweet it was to pray. In all the world, oh, can there be a greater joy than thine, who has seen Jesus and has felt his love upon thee shine? Yet crave not, ask not that thy life be fashioned of such days. Take what God gives and question not the mystery of His ways. Sit at His table when His voice shall to that table call, yet when He bids not, be content with crumbs that from it fall. O blessed Jesus, Thou art good when I may see Thy face, and just as good when though I cry, Thou will not grant that grace. Giving, I love Thee in Thy gifts. Thy gracious name adore. Withholding, I will love Thee, Lord, and cling to Thee the more. I don't know if you can relate to that or not. We have those festal days, and then we have what we sometimes call those dry days. And yet, those dry days just make us long for the festival days that much more, and sometimes it's just part of God's plan for his own purposes. And then the second one is entitled Speak of Christ. It says, oh, speak to me of Christ. No name falls on my ravished ear with half the music, half the charm that makes its bliss to hear a loving voice pronounce that word as one who holds it dear. Hast thou not in some favored hour beheld him face to face? And canst thou not make known to me its beauty and its grace, and lure me on to seek for him in some familiar place? Hast thou not feasted on his word and found it meet indeed? And canst thou not a fragment spare on which my soul may feed, some promise whispered by his lips to meet my sorest need? Has he not revelations made in sacred hours to thee that thou canst hold his sacred trust and yet confide to me who love, but fain would love him more, have seen yet more, have seen yet more would see? Yes, speak of Christ as one who speaks of his familiar friend, as one who sees him every day, may on his steps attend, as one who oft on reverent bent knee before him loves to bend, on reverent knee before him loves to bend. Speak with a living warmth, a glow that shall my heart aflame. And with thy rich and conscious love, put my poor love to shame until I too have learned to speak that dearest, dearest name. I think about that, I think, I wonder how many people are, would be like she evidently was at some point in her life, at least. Please speak to me about Christ. Give me something as God has spoken to you. Share that with me so that it will bless and feed my soul as well. Do our words, the words of the righteous, the lips of the righteous feed many. Do our words feed others? Do we share with them the blessings, the meat that God has given to us? Do we ever share it with others to try and be an encouragement to their soul? We'll turn to Acts chapter 16 tonight, and we're going to finish up this portion of our study in the life of Paul. Paul's been at Philippi. We've watched him be perplexed and trying to discover God's will, where to go. And he ends up in Macedonia, receives a Macedonian call, goes to Macedonia and ministers in Philippi. Lydia gets saved. He casts a demon out of a young lady who is a fortune teller. And then when her master's hope of gain is gone, they bring Paul and Silas before the magistrates. They stir up a mob. The magistrates beat them and imprisoned them. And now God sends an earthquake, opens the prison doors, the jailer and his family get saved. And verse 35 of Acts 16 says, when it was day, the magistrates sent the sergeants saying, let those men go. The sergeants were the ones that physically beat them. The magistrates were the rulers who instructed the sergeants to beat them. And then there's the keeper of the prison who had gotten saved overnight. The keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, the magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart and go in peace. I'm sure he's assuming that, you know, this is good news. You don't have to stay in jail. you're free to go, and expecting that Paul and Silas would just go on their merry little way. But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly, and condemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison. And now do they thrust us out privily? Nay, verily, but let them come themselves, and fetch us out. And the sergeants told these words unto the magistrates, and they feared when they heard that they were Romans. And they came and besought them and brought them out and desired them to depart out of the city. And they went out of the prison and entered into the house of Lydia. And when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them and departed." When rights are wronged, when your civil rights are abused, violated, What are civil rights? One definition of civil rights is it's a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by government, social organizations, and private individuals. Civil rights ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of society and the state without discrimination or repression. We have these certain rights that are ours. But what do you do when your civil rights are violated? And especially as a Christian. And we've seen this in recent days. I was reminded of the pastor up in Canada, and he's not alone in being imprisoned over objections to some of the mandates of the government. In October of last year, Pastor Artur Palowski was sentenced to 18 months probation for holding church services in violation of a court order related to a failure to enforce masking requirements, attendance limits, and social distancing rules. Now, up to that point, we could argue, was he right or wrong? And there's arguments on both sides. We are obligated on one hand to submit ourselves to every ordinance of man. Did the government go too far when they required churches to at one point shut down or to limit attendance or to require masking and social distancing? And we could debate that. We made a choice here at Faith Baptist Church to submit out of love, not out of fear or It was out of love. We made a choice, number one, not to create an issue for our government and not to create an issue for our church. So we abided by the requirements that were made, and others didn't. And again, we could debate that, but that's not really relevant to what we're saying tonight. But here's what is. His travel was restricted. And he was ordered to read a script echoing government health officials whenever he spoke publicly about COVID-19 and vaccines, even from a pulpit. At that point, we can't argue was it right or wrong. At that point, they've gone beyond. what could be considered reasonable under the circumstances to violating his right as a Christian to hold and as a pastor to declare his views about the mandates and restrictions. There was, he did appeal it and the court issued a stay against those conditions and I know he's been arrested two or three times and charged with various things. But I mean, the point that I'm making even by sharing that is that it's, we haven't seen it to that extent in America, but it's not unreasonable to think that there might come a time and it might be sooner than we would wish that our civil rights might be violated as believers. And that's really the focus tonight is as a Christian, what do we do? What do I do as a Christian when my civil rights are violated? Do I sue? Do I protest? Do I get a group together and go out and picket and protest and block streets and buildings and do that? Do I rebel? I mean, that's what I want to do, right? I mean, that's my natural response. Well, Paul and Silas had their civil rights violated at Philippi. They're Roman citizens, Paul says, they have beaten us openly, uncondemned, being Romans and have cast us into prison. That Roman citizenship entitled them to certain civil rights. They had the right to trial. They weren't tried, they were just beaten and put in prison. They had the right to appeal a verdict in a trial. Had they been tried and convicted, they had a right to appeal to Caesar and have that conviction overturned or at least to bring it before Caesar and let him make a decision. They had the right to be free from torture, from whipping, and the Roman had a right to be free from crucifixion, cruel and unusual punishment. What was done to the beating that they endured, the caning that Paul and Silas experienced was illegal for a Roman citizen. It broke They broke the law. The magistrates and the sergeants broke the law. Even the jailer broke the law in the way that they treated Paul and Silas. They violated their rights as Roman citizens. And by the way, this is not the first time that has happened to Paul. Paul said that three times he was beaten with rods, which would have been a violation of his civil rights as a Roman citizen. So how do you respond to that? What do you do when something like that occurs? Well, I want to remind us tonight, first of all, that the Bible is to be our guide for everything we do in life. And when I answer the question, how do I respond when my civil rights are violated? I can't just even look at it from the basis of legalities, from the law. I have to look at it from the perspective of the word of God. I have to look at it from an eternal perspective. I have to look at it from God's perspective. The Bible is to be my guide, even in how I respond to mistreatment or injustice. So I want to think about Paul's response here and just kind of draw a principle from it that will help us if we face this situation and how we should respond to mistreatment or injustice, and particularly if it comes at the hands of authorities. So one of the things that you see in this account is that Paul was not afraid. He was not cowed by the authorities. He was not afraid of the magistrates or the sergeants that had mistreated him. And we learned from that, we're not to be afraid of the authorities. Let's back up and remind ourselves, and what I'm going to say here is nothing new, but let's just remind ourselves, we need to respect the authorities that God has placed over us. 1 Peter 2.17 says, honor the king. And by the way, when Peter wrote that, the king was Nero. And yet Peter would write, honor the king. In Romans 13.7, again Paul writes, And he writes, at a time when Nero was the emperor, render therefore to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. At one time, Paul was on trial before the Sanhedrin, and he made a statement. He said, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. And when he made that statement, the high priest commanded those that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. And Paul said to the high priest, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall, for sittest thou to judge me after the law and commandest me to be smitten, conjurated the law. And those that stood by said to Paul, revilest thou God's high priest? And Paul said, I didn't know that he was the high priest, for it is written, thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people. And he was quoting Exodus 22, 28. Paul understood, you know what, I overstepped a boundary. I didn't give honor where it was due, simply because he was the high priest. He was in a position of authority that God had given him, even though he wasn't a godly man, but he had a position of authority, and Paul was wrong to speak against him the way that he did, and Paul acknowledged that. We are to honor, to respect authorities and submit to them. 1 Peter 2, beginning verse 13 again, Peter writing at a time when the Roman government was in control, Nero's the emperor, but he said, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king and supreme or under governors as under them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well for so is the will of God that with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Paul would write in Romans 13, 1 and 2, let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God, and the powers that be are ordained of God, who serve, therefore resisted the power, resisted the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. So we submit to them because God has placed them in their position of authority, and by submitting to them, we are submitting to God. We ought to fear them. Paul goes on to write in Romans 13 that rulers are not a terror to good works. Now, don't lose me here, because I said we're not to fear them, and now I'm saying we're to fear them. All right, well, I'm gonna deal with that in just a moment. But we ought to fear them. Let me just go ahead and put the caveat in. When we do wrong. Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. for he is the minister of God to thee for good. By the way, when have you ever been praised by the authorities for doing good? And I would suggest to you this, let's use this illustration and we'll come back to it in a moment, but if you're driving down the road and you're doing the speed limit and you pass a state patrol or a police officer and he doesn't come after you, turn the lights on and come after you, he is in a sense praising you for doing right, for doing good. Okay? But if you do that which is evil, be afraid. For he beareth not the sword in vain, for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon them that do it evil. So when you're driving down the road and you see that state patrolman or that policeman, what is the tendency? We tend to slow down. It's amazing to me, you know, on the road. Always when we see a policeman, we always look, right? You always look at your speedometer. But it's amazing that people who are doing the speed limit will still slow down. Why? I don't know, I guess it's just our fear. But if you're driving down the road and you're speeding and you see that policeman, you fear and you ought to fear. And if you see the blue lights in the mirror, you get this sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, I've been caught, and that's all right, because that's one of the reasons they're there. to seek to maintain law and order. And if we break the law, then it ought to create some tension in us when we get caught for that. That's the way it's supposed to be. But when we do good, and we are apprehended, that's when we're not to fear the authorities. Paul wrote to the Philippian church in his letter to them sometime later, he said this in Philippians 1.28, and in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that of God. He said, don't be terrified by your adversaries. Very often the adversaries were the government authorities in those cities and towns and even within the empire itself. The adversary was the authorities and yet Paul would write, don't be terrified by them. And the fact that you're not terrified of them when you're doing that which is right is a testimony to the reality of the gospel that you preach and proclaim. And I would suggest to you that we tend to make gods out of men and make God like a man. Let me say that again. We tend to make gods out of men and make God like a man. I don't know what's going to be the outcome of this war between Russia and Ukraine, but the natural assumption is Russia is the greater power, therefore they are going to win the war. and we make gods out of the Russian army, they may win the war. But you know what? God is the one who's gonna decide that, not the Russians. And if God decides that the Ukrainians are gonna defeat the Russian army, even though they're outmanned and outgunned, if God decides the Ukrainians are gonna win, they'll win. Because the Russians are not God. But so we tend to, what I'm saying is when we face these kinds of situations, like Paul's facing a hostile government and he's not afraid. I mean, his response in the text that we read indicates that he is not afraid of them. He has done no wrong. He has no reason to be afraid of them. But the tendency would be to say, they've said, hey, you can go. and thrust them out privily and they would say, you know what, they're the authorities, we better go do what they said. And to cower before them because we make gods out of men and act as if God is incapable. In Isaiah 51, 7 and 8 it says, hearken unto me ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be afraid of their revilings, for the moth shall eat them up like a garment and the worm shall eat them like wool. Don't be afraid of those who oppose you. If you are one of my own and you're seeking to live righteously, don't fear the men that would reproach you. Don't be afraid of their revilings. They're just men. and the moth will eat them up, the worm will eat them up, but my righteousness shall be forever, my salvation from generation to generation. They are not going to last, but the truth that you have believed and proclaimed will. I was reminded of that story in 2 Chronicles 14, when Asa was king of Judah and he had an army of 580,000 men and Zerah, the Ethiopian, attacked him. Zerah had an army of a million men and 300 chariots besides. But Asa cried out to God, saying, Lord, it's nothing with thee to help, whether with many or with them that have no power. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God. Let not man prevail against thee. And the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah. The Ethiopians fled, and Asa and the people that were with him pursued them, and the Ethiopians were overthrown, and they couldn't recover themselves, for they were destroyed before the Lord and before his host. And Judah carried away very much spoil. The authorities are not God. When they are acting rightly on behalf of God, we always respect them regardless. We fear them if we violate a righteous law. But if in obedience to God, we violate their laws or we bring their wrath upon us, we are not to fear them. Continue to respect them, don't treat them with disrespect, but don't fear them. When Jesus was sending out the 12 in Matthew chapter 10, he said to them, beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils and they will scourge you in their synagogues and you'll be brought before governors and kings for my sake for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. Fear them not therefore. For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid that shall not be known. What I tell you in the darkness speak in the light. What you hear in the ear preach upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. And he went on to tell them, are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not. Therefore, you are more valuable than many sparrows. God cared about Paul and Silas. He allowed them to be beaten. He allowed them to be put in stocks and placed in the inner prison. God allowed all that to happen to them. But God loved them and cared for them. They were more valuable to Him than many sparrows. And they were to trust Him and not be afraid of the authorities that had wrongly beaten and imprisoned them. And so when the authorities tried to secretly run Paul and Silas out of town, Paul was not afraid to stand up against them. So we're not to be afraid of them when we are doing right and they oppose us or persecute us or imprison us. But at the same time, We do need to be considerate of them because Paul's actions indicate that though he wasn't afraid of them, he did consider them in what he did. What do you mean by that? Well, we need to consider how our actions affect the message of the gospel. And I mentioned that verse in Philippians 1, 28, and nothing terrified by your adversaries. But let me give you the context. In beginning of verse 27, Paul says, let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that which adorns the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel and in nothing terrified by your adversaries. But it's in the context of living in such a way that it becometh the gospel of Christ, that it promotes, that it commends the gospel of Christ. And he said, don't be afraid of them because that doesn't commend the gospel of Christ. But the point is that Paul is saying, you know, the response, your response to them needs to be a response that considers the impact your actions have on the gospel. Paul did everything with an eye to its impact on the message of the gospel. He wrote to the Corinthian church in 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 3, giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed. Paul said, I don't want to give offense. I don't want the ministry to be blamed. I want to be careful about what I do so that I don't put a stumbling block in anybody's way that they're not able to rightly blame my ministry, the ministry of the word of God, the ministry of the gospel. He wrote to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 10, verses 32 and 33, give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God. Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many that they may be saved. Paul said, everything I do, I do not for myself, but for the sake of those that need the gospel. And so, like the apostle Paul, we need to be willing to relinquish our rights for the sake of the gospel. In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul stated some of his rights as an apostle. These were not civil rights. These were his rights before God. He said, I have a right to eat and drink whatever I want. I have a right to have a wife travel with me, like Peter and the other apostles do. Paul was not married. He chose not to be married because He wanted to be free to conduct his ministry without concern about trying to take care of a wife. He had the right to be supported by the churches, which he points out in that passage is clearly stated in the Bible in many different ways. But he said, I have used none of these things, neither have I written these things that it should be done unto me. I'm not writing these, I'm not telling you about these rights so that you will begin to do them. No, I'm free from all men, but I have made myself a servant unto all that I might gain the more. Paul said, I have these rights, but I'm yielding these rights so that I can gain more people for Christ. So Paul is not afraid of these magistrates, these sergeants. They have beaten us openly on condemning Romans who cast us into prison and now they want to thrust us out privately. Now let them come themselves and fetch us out. We're not going to give in to this. But Paul's reason for saying that is not personal. They offended us. They violated our civil rights and they must pay. No. Paul refused to quietly leave town for the sake of the gospel. Paul has come into Philippi. They've never heard the name of Jesus. They don't know anything about him. There's even so few Jews and not even 10 Jewish men in the city. just a handful of women who are worshiping God under the Old Testament system by the riverside. So Bible Christianity or even Bible truth is minimal in Philippi till Paul comes preaching the gospel. And he cast the demon out of the maiden who was telling fortunes because she was proclaiming truth, but the fact that she was proclaiming it being possessed of a demon was confusing, it was in the minds of people would have associated the gospel with the demon. And Paul was not going to allow that. But Paul is also not going to allow the people of Philippi to think that he is a criminal and that the gospel is somehow wrong against the law. So they're going to come and they're going to publicly apologize And the city is going to see that these guys acknowledge that we're not criminals, that we haven't done wrong, so that the church can have some standing in Philippi, or at least there not be that offense of the gospel to the people of Philippi. But Paul went further, they came, verse 39, and besought them and brought them out and desired them to depart out of the city. They cannot legally demand that Paul and Silas leave. That's another right that they had as Romans, they couldn't be ordered out of the city. So these magistrates don't tell them you have to leave, they ask them to leave. By the way, because they had violated Paul and Silas' civil rights, Paul could have reported them to a higher authority, they could have lost their jobs or even lost their life. And Paul didn't do that. Because it's not about getting revenge and it's not about demanding his rights, it's about the gospel. And so Paul and Silas went out of the prison, they go to the house of Lydia where the church would meet, The church gathers together, they comfort the church, and then they voluntarily leave. They voluntarily do what the magistrates had asked them to do, rather than stay. Because if they stayed, number one, they're a thorn in the flesh, in the side of these magistrates. And their presence there would be an irritation that might even prevent the magistrates from being open to the gospel. So the fact that Paul willingly did what they asked him to do is just another commendation of the gospel, even to the magistrates. So we don't know whether any of them ever got saved or not, but Paul is leaving no offense. So he is acting on his rights at this point, but not for his personal gain, but for the sake of the gospel. So let me just wrap it up tonight by saying this. When we're faced with a violation of our rights, our civil rights, our religious rights, we have to consider how our response will impact the message of the gospel. And even be willing to suffer an injustice if it's necessary, rather than hinder the progress of the gospel. Again, it's not a matter of the legalities of it or even my personal desire to be vindicated. As a Christian, the question always has to be, how do my actions impact the glory of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ? And that needs to govern my response when I am mistreated, when I am done wrong. I have to think about that because it does impact. the message of the gospel, whether I like it or not. And if I respond wrongly, it may actually turn some people away from Christ that need him. And so as Paul leaves Philippi and moves on, as we'll move on with him to Thessalonica, we just need to be reminded that it's always about the gospel, and that everything Paul did there in the conclusion of his ministry at Philippi was intended to bring no offense to the gospel, but to commend the gospel to those who still needed to be saved. Well, let's stand for prayer. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for its instruction and relevance even to the times in which we live. Father, help us to yield all of our rights to you, to deny ourselves and to be willing to take up our cross and to follow you in wherever that would lead us and whatever it would cost us, knowing that this life is temporary, that the souls of men is what's most important, that we would live for eternity and for the souls of men who will also spend eternity either in heaven or in hell. And Father, our flesh, wants revenge, our flesh wants vindication. Father, it's not about our flesh and what our flesh wants, it's about the Spirit and what the Spirit wants to help us, Lord, to understand the weakness of our flesh and the sinfulness of our flesh, and to seek to respond in the power and the working of the Holy Spirit. And we ask in Jesus' name, amen.