Please turn with me to, in your Bibles, to Acts chapter 16, Acts chapter 16, as we begin reading at verse 11 through verse 18, beginning at verse 11 through verse 18, and it's particularly you verses 16 through 18, a portion of the episode of Paul and Silas with the slave girl who had an evil spirit, a portion of that that I'd like us to consider together with Lord's Day 5. So if you would also turn in the back of the Psalter hymnal to page 12, page 12, Lord's Day 5, the first Lord's Day, on the second section of the Catechism dealing with man's deliverance. And let's first confess together what we believe with regard to these four questions and answers that we find in Lord's Day 5 on page 12. Question 12 asks, According to God's righteous judgment, we deserve punishment both in this world and forever after. How then can we escape this punishment and return to God's favor? God requires that His justice be satisfied. Therefore, the claims of His justice must be paid in full, either by ourselves or by another. Can we pay this debt ourselves? Certainly not. Actually, we increase our guilt every day. Can another creature, any at all, pay this debt for us? No. To begin with, God will not punish another creature for man's guilt. Besides, no mere creature can bear the weight of God's eternal anger against sin and release others from it. What kind of mediator and deliverer should we look for then? He must be truly human and truly righteous, yet more powerful than all creatures. That is, He must also be true God. Let's bow together in prayer. Father, once again we humble ourselves before Your throne of grace, confessing that Your Word, apart from the blessing of Your Spirit, is just a blank page. We thank You for Your Holy Spirit, whom You have given to Your people. to illumine us and bless us and we pray that in this evening hour you would do just that once again that you would open our eyes and hearts that we might see the wonderful truths of your word the wonderful truth of salvation that you have provided that you have secured for your people in christ jesus bless this reading and the preaching of your most holy word Fill our hearts and lives, we pray, with your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Acts chapter 16, beginning at verse 11. From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day on to Neapolis. From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony, and the leading city of that district of Macedonia, and we stayed there several days. On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. If you consider me a believer in the Lord, she said, come and stay at my house, and she persuaded us. Once, when we were going to the place of prayer, We were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, These men are servants of the Most High God who are telling you the way to be saved. She kept this up for many days. Finally, Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the Spirit, In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her. At that moment, the Spirit left her. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, there you stand in a courtroom before a judge. Not as part of the jury, not as a lawyer, but as a defendant. There you stand before that judge. The evidence for your crimes is crystal clear. Your guilt is unmistakable. And it is an open and shut case against you. There are no loopholes or technicalities to get you off. A plea bargain is simply out of the question. There's no hope. What are you going to do? Well, no doubt, I trust that many, if not, maybe none of us here tonight have ever experienced that in this life. And praise God that we haven't. As terrible as that would be. But you see, that, in a sense, describes the situation of each one of us in that heavenly courtroom before God. Boys and girls, that describes your situation. It describes my situation. That is true for each one of us in the court of heaven before God in and of ourselves because of sin. Believe it or not, that's the way it is for each one of us in and of ourselves. Now the catechism, as we know, as we travel on its path of instruction, as we have seen before, it takes the truth of God's Word and it breaks us down in our pride and arrogance. It brings us face to face with the truth of the Supreme, the just penalty for sin. has Lord's Day foreended that the supreme, that just penalty is eternal punishment of body and soul. See, the catechism on that path of instruction, it takes away all of our excuses. We've tried to give many excuses. Well, it must be God's fault. Well, it must be Adam's fault. Well, what about God's love and mercy? Trying to play off His love and mercy over against His justice. We've come up with excuse after excuse after excuse, all so that we wouldn't have to admit the blame ourselves. But the catechism path of instruction strips us of all excuses until finally there's only one thing left. And that is to acknowledge and to see the truth and to confess that truth as question 12 begins with, according to God's righteous judgment, we deserve punishment both in this world and forever after. That's how this section on deliverance begins, with this confession, finally, okay, we deserve it. And you see, beloved, as the Holy Spirit works in the heart of a child of God, having regenerated that one, bringing that one to faith, this confession, you see, is a necessary part of the path of each and every believer. Each and every one of us must come with a broken and shattered heart before God, looking away from ourselves, seeing only dead ends all around us. Only then, when we have hit bottom, only then will one cry out for help and mercy as question 12 continues. How then? We deserve punishment both in this world and forever after. How then can we escape this punishment and return to God's favor? finally we get it. So is there a way out? Is there a way of escape? Is there a way? Is there any hope at all? And you see, the catechism, this beautiful summary of the Word of God does not leave us standing face to face with complete hopelessness because the Bible, the Word of God, does not leave us there. Again, this second section begins, this section on our deliverance begins with us at the bottom. We're following a path here. That's what the Catechism does. We know that. It starts with us at the bottom crying out for mercy with the only place to look being up. And then it beautifully lifts us up with the truth that God provides the only way out. You see, that's what the Bible teaches. That God provides the only way out and that way is the way of the Gospel. That way is the way of good news. Acts, we know in many ways, is the book of the way. Many wanted to know about the way. That way being that Christian way, the way of salvation. And although the slave girl, although most likely she didn't understand what she was saying because it was an evil spirit speaking through her, yet she declares this very truth when she says, these men are servants of the Most High God who are telling you the way to be saved. She was saying this very truth that there is a way out from the Most High God. And these men are here to tell you about it. Now as far as this episode of Scripture goes, this episode is about the spread of the Gospel. It's about the threat to the Gospel message. It's about the persecution of those who would minister the gospel and those who would believe it. But it is also, if we would continue reading this story, it is also about the supremacy of the gospel. The gospel is supreme over all. It cannot, it will not be conquered. But yet for our purposes tonight, I want us to consider her words, what she was saying when she said, these men are telling you the way to be saved. I want us to consider that as Lord's Day 5 describes it in this introduction on this whole section of deliverance. So we're going to look a little closer at the Word of God as it is summarized in the Catechism tonight. Now, Dr. Dennis Johnson in his book, The Message of Acts, says, whereas the girl's owners promoted inside information that was worth paying for, her liberators, Paul and Silas, divulge a secret far beyond human purchasing power pointing out a road to salvation for which admission and tolls had been paid by another. God provides the only way out. That way of salvation, beloved. And we want to consider, first of all, the accomplishment of salvation. Now, generally speaking, when we think of a way, a path, a road, we know that a way, a path has a certain destination. It has a certain goal or purpose. It's meant to get somewhere. I'm always intrigued when I consider, for example, the freeway system in Los Angeles. If you look at a map, it really is quite intriguing. Every freeway is meant to get somewhere specific. And here, too, when we talk about the accomplishment of salvation, that's what we're talking about. What is accomplished in this salvation? What is it all about? What makes up salvation? What does it consist of? And in order to understand the accomplishment of salvation, what it's all about, we must first understand a confessed need. You see, implied in the slave girl statement is that salvation is needed. These men are servants of the Most High God and they are telling you the way to be saved. You don't need to be told the way to be saved if you don't need saving, right? Implied is that salvation is needed. And to understand what is accomplished in this salvation, we need to understand this need. This need which is rejected and ignored by so many today simply because they don't understand the truth of sin. They don't understand the deadly and dangerous nature of sin. Well, we think we do because by the grace of God we have been born again. We have been brought to see our sin and misery. To understand our offense against God. But the truth is, beloved, we will never truly have to understand the dangerous and deadly nature of sin because we have been delivered from its curse, from its power. We will never have to experience its punishment. But so many simply do not understand the truth, the deadly, dangerous nature of sin because it is not preached and taught in many evangelical churches today. In fact, there are ministers out there who boast about the fact that they don't mention sin from the pulpit. it's negative it's going to hurt people's feelings and we all know that you can catch more flies with honey than you can with just water and we want to bring them in we want to get their attention so we're not going to tell them how bad they are we're going to stroke their attention stroke their ego a little bit and therefore what is preached instead is a temporary hope for this life I'm preaching hope they say God wants you to prosper God wants you to succeed you see beloved there is much talk about loving God and having a relationship with Him but without acknowledging the truth of sin and then overlooking the truth that because of sin the only possible relationship that one can have with God is not a good one it's a terrible one it's the one we described in the beginning as if in a court of law you're dead to right, guilty and because the truth of sin, beloved is not preached and taught that results in a cheap salvation whatever that salvation might be whatever one might think they need however they understand it it's a cheap salvation and it's easy to come by that's what's falsely believed by so many but you see, true salvation the Bible teaches is not cheap it's not easy because of sin because of sin the deadliness and the dangerousness of sin that sin discussed in the first section of the catechism which is an offense against a perfect and holy and just God and that sin beloved resulted in two things a loss of God's favor when Adam and Eve fell into sin in an instant they lost God's favor and that favor of God was replaced by His righteous anger and mankind became enemies of God boys and girls were not by nature on God's side we're opposite of Him we're opposed to Him we are His enemies sin makes us hate Him and want nothing to do with Him And the second thing that is the result of sin is that it earned us the eternal punishment of body and soul. We are so finite, we cannot even fathom that, can we? Think about that. Eternal. The eternal punishment of body and soul. Everlasting misery like nothing this world and this life has ever seen. Whatever misery you may have had to endure or may still be called upon to endure in this life, no matter how terrible it might be, cannot begin to compare. You and I cannot begin to comprehend the everlasting misery, the eternal punishment of body and soul in hell. And again, these two things are true for each and every one of us because of our sin in and of ourselves. a loss of God's favor replaced with His righteous anger and earning the eternal punishment of body and soul. But that way out, that accomplishment of salvation then, what does it consist of? It undoes what our sin has caused. And that's because its accomplishment is that it is a complete salvation. It consists of the two things that we desperately need. First of all, escaping this punishment. That is, escaping the wrath, the eternal wrath of God that will be experienced in hell. See, hell is a real place. Again, there are so many in the world that reject, that deny the existence of hell. But you see, beloved, it doesn't matter if you deny it. It doesn't matter if you reject it. You can deny it and reject it all you want, but it doesn't make it less real and less true. The Bible clearly teaches the eternal destruction of the sinner lies in hell. The accomplishment of salvation includes, first of all, escaping this punishment. But that's only half of the equation. That's only half of the accomplishment. But sadly, many are satisfied with just that. Many are satisfied if they are simply able to escape the punishment. Many criminals in this life really do not care if they are reconciled with those that they wronged or hurt. They're really not truly sorry for whatever it is they may have done. And maybe you and I can identify with that whether we are adults and think back to our childhood or boys and girls or young people now. I have to confess that there were times when I did something wrong and I got caught. I was guilty. The evidence was crystal clear. And I really didn't care about that. All I cared about was, can I get out of the punishment? Can I escape this spanking that I know my dad is going to give me when he gets home? Can I get rid of this grounding? You see, beloved, so many just want to get out of the punishment. But the way out for sinners is not just having the curse and punishment of sin removed. It includes then being returned to God's favor, return to peace with God as Paul says we are through Jesus Christ in Romans 5. That's justification, isn't it? That's what this is. That our sins are forgiven and therefore the curse, the punishment is removed and we are freely given Christ's righteousness and therefore return to God's favor, peace with Him. You see, beloved, the accomplishment of this salvation, when we talk about salvation, The accomplishment of this salvation is not just closing off the road to hell, as wonderful as that may seem. That's not enough. But it's also opening up the way to heaven. It's not complete without that. You see, beloved, we are still hopeless, and we are still in a desperately hopeless situation. If God says, well, I won't punish you in hell, but I don't ever want to see you again. If He says, well, I'll drop the penalty. But you're not my children. How devastating! How devastating! In essence, that's still hell. Hell is indeed a real place, but we know that it's hell because it's a place without the grace and the love of God. But the accomplishment of salvation is that it is a complete salvation. It is true and full deliverance. It is a complete healing of our relationship with God. It is full restoration, as someone has said, being brought out of the depths of hell into the glory of heaven. Out of a world of darkness into the kingdom of light. Out of miserable desolation into joyous communion with God. Beloved, this salvation is so great that I can say that my entire life is redeemed, restored, renewed, and reunited with God my Creator. And you see, that's the salvation that Paul and Silas, these servants of the Most High God, were telling about. A real salvation. A true salvation. Not a halfway salvation. That's the accomplishment of salvation. And that's what question 12 then asks. Is it possible? Is that kind of salvation possible? And notice then, the answer that is given is not simply a yes or a no, but the answer lays before us in this pathway of instruction. It lays before us in the second place the accomplishing of salvation. What it takes. How it's possible. God requires, answer 12, says that His justice be satisfied. Therefore, the claims of His justice must be paid in full either by ourselves or by another. Ah, there's a glimmer of hope because it didn't just say no, did it? It didn't just say no, it's not possible. A glimmer of hope. All there is to it is that His justice has to be satisfied. That's it. Notice in this accomplishing of salvation that God's standard is maintained. That the way of escape does not go around the requirements of God. He does not forget about His just demands, but the way of escape goes straight to His justice. You see, the accomplishing of salvation is on God's terms. We don't set the terms as many would have us believe today. It's only on God's terms. And there is only one way. And that's what the servant girl says or the evil spirit in her. Who knows what kind of lies the spirit may have told the paying customers about the future because we know that Satan and evil spirits are not omniscient. They don't know the future. This evil spirit did not know that it would be cast out of this slave girl by Paul. But through this slave girl, this evil spirit did tell the truth of the way to be saved. The NIV is correct when it says the way. Not a way, but we are to understand the one and only way to be saved. That's what they tell you about, this evil spirit said. And that way, beloved, is the way of satisfaction. That's all there is to it. But of course, that begs the question then, well, how is God's justice satisfied? Well, simple. Pay what you owe. Pay what you owe. The banker is happy if you pay what you owe. No more, no less. Give to God exactly what He requires. No more, no less. Well, that then begs another question, doesn't it? Well, what is owed? This is what is owed. To positively fulfill His law. To keep His commands perfectly. And because of the sin that we've already committed, to bear the penalty for that sin, to suffer the wrath of God against that sin which has so sorely offended Him. That's it, though. That's the way of salvation. Or satisfaction. Full payment for sin. The Catechism says, by ourselves or by another. Isn't that great? It's right there. That's how you and I escape this punishment and return to God's favor. Isn't that wonderful? Well, you see, what we thought was good news because the catechism didn't simply say, no, there is no possibility, is changing, isn't it? As we follow the path of instruction in the catechism, that glimmer of hope seems to be snuffed out as the catechism considers, in the third place, the accomplisher of salvation. it says either by ourselves or by another but you see beloved because of the path that we have already been led on that offers little hope especially when we consider that first part by ourselves because very clearly right from the beginning we see that the accomplisher of salvation is not ourselves oh we sheepishly ask can we pay this debt ourselves certainly not Actually, we increase our guilt every day. The possibility of we ourselves accomplishing this is ruled out immediately because of that which caused this mess, that which caused our need in the first place, our sin against God. The Bible clearly says, the soul that sins, it shall die. Our debt is already unpayable. And we daily increase our debt. Oh, how we know that full well. And as Isaiah says, even our best works are like filthy rags. But then what about the second part of that, by another? Well, when we think about another creature, that doesn't offer us much hope either because the accomplisher is not just another creature. Can another creature, any at all, pay this debt for us? No. To begin with, God will not punish another creature for man's guilt. What a beautiful statement of the fact that God is fair. You see, so many in our life want to accuse God of being unfair. You know, we teach predestination. We teach election and reprobation. Our 11th grade catechism class dealt with that this morning. There are people who say, well, it's unfair. If that's true and God doesn't save everybody, well, God must be an unfair God. No, He's not. He is perfectly and completely just and fair. And as answer 16 of Lord's Day 6 says, man sinned, therefore man must pay. But what about the blood of animals in the Old Testament sacrifices? Well, that blood, beloved, God accepted it, we might say, provisionally. That blood did not pay for the sins of God's people. But as the writer of Hebrews clearly says, that blood was a symbol of it, pointed directly to the necessary payment, to the atonement that needed to be made. As the writer of Hebrews said, the blood of bulls and goats and sheep and doves and all those animals was not sufficient. Those sacrifices had to continually be made over and over again because it wasn't sufficient. But that blood pointed to the true blood that was needed. But there's another reason that God will not punish another creature, as the Catechism says, because no creature, man or otherwise, can bear the weight of God's eternal anger against sin and release others from it. You see, boys and girls, even if we could be and were perfectly obedient from this moment all the way for the rest of our lives and offer to God that perfect obedience to His commands, there is no way that we would be able to endure God's punishment for the sin that has already been committed. We would be totally and completely crushed. Sometimes we can hardly stand under the anger of our parents when they're mad at us. We can't hardly stand that. There's no way that we can even begin to endure the anger of God against our sin. See, beloved, do you see the danger of not understanding the severity of sin and instead thinking that we are able to do something to satisfy God's anger against our sin? See, this is the biggest deception out there. This is the lie of every false religion and how dangerous and deadly it is. The Bible says there's a way out. Satisfy God's justice. But as those who've been brought to see the greatness of our sin and misery, because we've been given new hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit, as we look down that way, we cannot help but to see a canyon so deep or a mountain so tall that it is simply impossible for us to get to the other side. And we cannot help but to cry out with Paul in Romans 7, Who will rescue me from this body of death? And there is only one possible. Number 15, what kind of mediator and deliverer should we look for then? He must be truly human and truly righteous, yet more powerful than all creatures. That is, he must also be true God. He must be truly human, a real living person with flesh and blood. Man sinned, therefore man must pay. He must be truly righteous with no sin or death of his own. Able to perfectly fulfill God's law, only one like that might be able to pay for the sin of another. But again, even just a human being isn't enough. He must be true God. He must be divine. In order to bear and endure God's punishment against sin, only God Himself can bear the wrath of God. And this one, beloved, is only provided by God. He Himself must open the way. He Himself must travel that way for us. And the amazing truth is that He was not in any way obligated to do that. He didn't have to do that for us. But He did. He did. Paul says in Romans 8, verse 3, for what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And the writer of Hebrews says of the Lord Jesus Christ in chapter 2, since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death that is the devil and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. In John chapter 15, the disciples in essence say, Show us the way. And Jesus says, I am the way. I am the way of salvation. I am the truth. I am the life. I am the only one who can provide the accomplishment of salvation. I am the accomplisher. The only one who is able to accomplish. And in Hebrews chapter 12, we are told of the way that he traveled for us. And we read that Jesus Christ endured the cross, scorning its shame, sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, Jesus Christ, and He alone is the only way out. He provided that way at a terrible cost, but with such magnificent results. You see, beloved, this is good news. There is no other news that compares to this. It is the greatest. This is the salvation that was spoken of by the slave girl. Now, I think it's a bit ironic. It seems like this glorious truth that was spoken by her would be in the apostles' favor. It would help to get the attention of the crowds. These men, they're servants of the Most High God, and they are telling you the way to be saved. Come and hear them. It seems that would be in the apostles' favor. Yet notice, Paul does not acknowledge this testimony. And instead, he finally casts out the evil spirit. Why? Because this was not the voice of the young lady. It was not the voice of faith. It was the voice of the evil spirit. You remember that Jesus Christ, as He walked this earth, He Himself refused the testimony about Himself when it came from evil spirits. He shut them up. He cast them out. And though it was true, it was not from a heart of faith. Instead, it was with a motive of destruction. It was from the father of lies. that Satan, this evil spirit, did not want people to truly be saved. And this motive of destruction is seen, I believe, in the very fact that right after this, Paul and Silas are thrown into prison. Satan tries to stop the message of the Gospel from going out. But again, we know that the Gospel is supreme. That he could not stop the Word of God from going forth. But the sad truth is, beloved, Satan will use the truth to try to get his feet into the door. To work destruction. With Paul's response, notice that again, though it was true, Paul does not acknowledge. He does not accept Satan's testimony. Like Jesus, Paul does not give Satan credit, which would only give approval to his motives. Instead, he demonstrates powerfully the way of salvation. He demonstrates the power of it when He casts the evil spirit out in the name of Jesus Christ. When He did that, what a powerful demonstration for those who may have seen of the only way out of sin and misery. Notice the evil spirit identifies Paul and Silas and the others as servants of the Most High God. Now that designation, Most High God, is pointing to the fact that God is the Creator and the possessor of the universe. And in Isaiah 14, verse 14, Isaiah says, in essence, he brings us back to when Satan himself fell and what was in Satan's mind as if Satan said, I will make myself, Isaiah says, like the Most High. Satan wanted God's place. Satan wanted God's power. He wanted it here as well, but instead, he is overpowered. He is conquered by the Most High God. Beloved, we trust, we assume, the slave girl was not only delivered from the power of the evil spirit, but that she herself enjoyed the only way out, the only way of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. No longer was she a slave for profit, but she was freed with a free gift earned by Jesus Christ. How glorious. Again, that's truly good news for you and me. that the Most High God whom we offended and from whom we deserve no mercy, He Himself provided the only way out. We may have never experienced that earthly courtroom scene that we described, but indeed, this was our situation in that heavenly courtroom, but that courtroom, because of the work of our Lord and Savior, has been turned from sorrow and despair to joy and eternal hope. And it is for all those, only those, Yet all those who turn to Jesus Christ in faith. In Him we have escaped this eternal punishment. In Him we have been returned to the everlasting favor of God. He is our only Redeemer. The world tries to water down and eliminate the truth of the gospel. The world tries to cause us to look to and find our comfort in ourselves, but that will only lead to despair. That will only lead to greater hopelessness. But our unfailing hope, beloved, is in Jesus Christ alone. You see, Lord's Day 5, this beautiful summary of the teaching of the truth of the Word of God affects us all, each and every one of us, boys and girls, young people, you too. And we are all to be interested in this truth because it is a matter of eternal life or eternal death. Either you are still in your sin and facing that eternal punishment or by the grace of God through Jesus Christ, you have this full and complete salvation. You see, if we know nothing else, may we know these two truths. That I'm a great sinner. We are great sinners. But that Jesus Christ is a great Savior. Amen.