Acts 16:29-31

Acts 16:29

Note:

I. What a "manifold wisdom" is the wisdom of God! how infinitely various are His ways in the work of the conversion of souls and the bringing of sinners to Himself! One is never more struck with this than in comparing the two records of conversion which this chapter contains and which befel in the same city the conversion of Lydia and the conversion of the Philippian jailer. The first, what a quiet work! the evening dews do not light more gently, more imperceptibly on the earth than did the doctrine of the Lord light and distil upon her heart. He that hath the key of David with a touch of the key caused the chambers of her heart to fly open, so that she attended unto the things spoken of Paul, and almost without an effort, for so it would appear, was born into the kingdom of God. Contrast this with the mighty though brief birth-pang with which the jailer was born into the same kingdom, the earthquake of fear which shook his soul, the agony of terror out of which he cried, "What must I do to be saved?"

II. And what is the lesson which we may draw from this comparison and contrast? It is this. Let none of us make rules for conversion, either in our own case or in that of others; how it should come about, and what exactly are the successive stages of the process through which one who is brought to God must pass; so that if any has not passed exactly through these we will not believe that the work has been wrought in him at all. No man is in this matter in all things a pattern to others. God is greater than our rules; He refuses to be shut in by them. There is a boundless, inexhaustible originality in His methods of dealing with souls. All which concerns thee and this does concern thee more than everything besides is this, namely, that the thing itself shall have been done, and that thou shalt have indeed asked the great question, "What must I do to be saved?" and that thou shalt have received into thine heart of hearts the all-including, answer, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," and shalt have so received it, that out of this there shall be now unfolding itself in thee a life of conformity to the will of God, thou walking in all those good works which He had prepared for thee to walk in.

R. C. Trench, Sermons in Ireland,p. 142.

References: Acts 16 Preacher's30. Monthly,vol. iii., p. 306; T. Arnold, Sermons,vol. i., p. 1.Acts 16:30; Acts 16:31. J. Burton, Christian Life and Truth,p. 146; J. Natt, Posthumous Sermons,p. 152; Preacher's Monthly,vol. vii., p. 55.Acts 16:31. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. vi., No. 293; Christian World Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 127; vol. viii., p. 147; H. Robjohns, Ibid.,vol. xvi., p. 280; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. ii., p. 233; E. Cooper, Practical Sermons,vol. ii., p. 47. Acts 16:32. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xvii., No. 1019.