Let us turn again to God's Word
in that chapter that we read, Acts chapter 16. I'll read again,
verse 29, following concerning the jailer. We read, Then he called for a
light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before
Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must
I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And
they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that
were in his house. I want us to consider more particularly
these words in verses 31 and 32 where we have a summary of
the apostolic gospel. the Apostolic Gospel. They said, Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And
they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that
were in his house. His Apostolic Gospel surely is
summed up in that expression where it says, they spake unto
him the words of the Lord. They spake unto him the words
of the Lord. But before we come to that, first
of all, I want to say something with regards to the words of
the jailer, to set, as it were, what is being said in these two
verses in their context. to consider then his words, the
question that he comes with. What was the cause of that question
that he puts to Paul and Silas when he says, Sirs, what must
I do to be saved? Well, we see how previously there
had been this tremendous earthquake and it was this that really lay
behind the events that followed. Verse 26, Suddenly there was
a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were
shaken, and immediately the doors were opened, and everyone's bands
were loose. Now this was not a natural earthquake,
we might say. This was really something quite
extraordinary. And it is evident that this occurred
as a direct answer to prayers as we see there at verse 25. Here Paul and Silas having been
thrust into the inner prison with their feet fast in the stocks
at midnight. Paul and Silas prayed and sang
praises unto God and the prisoners heard them and suddenly There
was a great earthquake. Isn't this earthquake evidently
an answer to their prayers? Before they call, says God, I
will answer. Whilst they are yet speaking,
I will hear. And though God does on occasions
answer his people in a very immediate and a very direct manner, it
might not often be our experience. Sometimes we have to wait on
the Lord. We have to patiently wait. In waiting, we have to
wait on the Lord. But God is able to answer His
people with some immediacy. And what dreadful answers God
sometimes gives us. The Psalmist says back in Psalm
65, My terrible things in righteousness will thou answer us who are the
God of our salvation. And so we read of this remarkable
earthquake He comes and yet the building of the prison is not
destroyed but the doors are thrown open and all the prisoners in
the prison are released of their chains and this obviously has
an effect upon the jailer, the man who is responsible for the
keeping of the prison as we see at verse 27 waking out of his
sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword
and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners
had fled. What is in the mind of this man
at this time? It's suicide. He is responsible,
he's accountable, and sooner than suffer at the hands of the
authorities, he will take his own life. He will commit that
sin, self-murder. Or this is what he is contemplating,
as we see there in verse 27, God says quite clearly in the
sixth commandment, they shall not kill, more literally, they
shall do no murder. And here is a man and initially
he is in great darkness, enveloped in all the darkness of his sin,
in the very grip under the influence of Satan himself, contemplating
that he will take his own life and commit self-murder, supposing
that all the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud
voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here. Then he called for a light and
sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and
Silas. All these surely are the men
who can help him. Initially he's under darkness,
as I said, under the influence of Satan. He would destroy himself. He has no concern then for light.
But then you see when Paul speaks to him in verse 28, do thyself
no harm, he calls for a light and springs in and comes trembling
before these gracious men. Oh, these are the men surely
who can be of some real help to him. Think of the events that
are recorded previously. now that after the conversion
and the baptizing of Lydia and now she constrains these men
Paul and Silas to go into her house and to be with her and
then verse 16 it came to pass as we went to prayer A certain
damsel possessed with the spirit of divination met us, which brought
her masters much gain by soothsaying. The same followed Paul and us,
and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the Most
High God, which do show unto us the way of salvation." All
the devils believe. The devils tremble. Here we see
that the devil, this woman, is possessed. She has a spirit of
divination. But she recognizes who these
men are, they are servants of God. And they are setting forth
the word of salvation. Isn't that really a similar expression
to what we have here in verse 32? They speak unto him the word
of the Lord. The word of the Lord is that
word of salvation. It's remarkable, is it not, how
the devils do believe and the devils tremble when we think
of the beginning of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. As
we have it recorded there in the opening chapter of Mark's
Gospel, where we see Christ in the synagogue at Capernaum. And what do we read? Verse 23, there was in their
synagogue a man with an unclean Spirit, and he cried out, saying,
Let us alone! What have we to do with thee,
thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us?
I know thee, who thou art, the Holy One of God. All that spirit
of divination in that woman here in Acts 16, she knew that this
man Paul and his associates Silas A. also were the the servants
of the Holy One. They were the servants of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And these, as I say, are the
men who can be of some real help to this jailer now, who in the
very grip of Satan is about to take his own life. But now Paul
cries with a loud voice, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here
this is something then of the of the context and we see what
leads the man to address Paul and Silas as he does with that
question what must I do to be saved and they speak to him these
words of the gospel and we're told then there's such a change
in the man He took them the same hour of
the night, and washed their stripes, and was baptized. He and all
his straight were. And when he had brought them
into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing
in God, it says, with all his house." Oh, what a change has
now come over this man, simply as a result of the words that
Paul has spoken to him. the cause of his question, are
all these events that are recorded before us in some detail. But let us, having said something
with regards to what lies behind the question, consider the question
itself, the content of the words that we have him speaking here
in verse 30. Verse 30 says, what must I do
to be saved? Now there was a real spiritual
awakening in his soul. He is enquiring of that way of
salvation. Maybe he had heard something
of that demon possessed damsel, spoken of previously, who said
that these are servants of the High God which show unto us the
way of salvation. Something has taken place in
the soul of this man that he should put such a question to
Paul but he is somewhat confused thinking of this I thought of
that man that we read of in the gospel that man who was blind
and the Lord performs a miracle and restores sight to him but
remember how initially he says that what he is seeing is men
as trees walking He sees men as trees walking. He doesn't
see perfectly initially. The Lord does complete the miracle
and he sees clearly. Well in a sense I think here
this man might be said to be one who spiritually is seeing
men as trees walking. He's somewhat confused. What
is he doing? He's looking to the covenant
of works. What does he say to these men. What must I do? He is wedded
to the idea of doing. He is wedded to the covenant
of works. He is evidently the son of Adam. And it's not the only occasion.
This is often the case, is it not, when people are awakened?
Previously in Acts chapter 2 we have the record of the Day of
Pentecost and the 3000 who were converted on that occasion but
what did they say initially? They asked Peter what they must
do. We can go back into the Gospels and think of the ministry of
the Lord Jesus there in Mark chapter 10 where we read of the
rich young ruler who comes to the Lord Jesus and what does
the rich young ruler say? What? shall I do to be saved? And how the Lord deals with him.
The Lord evidently deals with that man in terms of the law
because he's looking to the law. You can read it there in Mark
chapter 10 how the Lord directs him to the law and he vainly
says concerning the commandments all these have I kept from my
youth. He was wedded to the idea of
works. And men are wedded to that idea.
We see it there, really, in the Garden of Eden where God puts
Adam and Eve under trial. Remember the commandment that
God had given to Adam concerning the tree in the midst of the
garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Of every tree
thou mayest freely eat, says God, but of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Now there we have the covenant
of works put in negative terms. If you disobey, if you disobey
the law, the commandment, there will be death. It's also expressed
in positive terms in Leviticus 18.5. God says, through Moses to the children
of Israel ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments
which, if a man do, he shall live in them. This is the language
of the law. The language of the law is men
have something to do and if they do they shall live, if they disobey
and they do not, there is death. And James says, if a man should
keep the whole of the law of God and yet offend in one point,
he is guilty of all. The law of God is so demanding
of men. And of course that law of God
is expressed most fully in what we know as the Ten Commandments. And all men are under that law.
All men are under that law, although it was given to the children
of Israel there at Mount Sinai. Remember the language of Paul
in Romans, Romans 3.19, we know that whatsoever things the law
saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth
may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God. Oh, there is the ministry of
the law. It silences me. They cannot do
what the law requires. There's no salvation in the Lord
of God, and yet this man comes initially, you see, and his question
is, what must I do? Oh, surely there's something
I can do in order that I might know the salvation of God. But the Lord is not the ministry
of salvation, the Lord is that ministry of condemnation, that
ministry of death, therefore by the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge
of sin." Oh, it's that ministration of condemnation. It speaks death. The law was given by Moses but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Isn't that comfort? Wherefore then serveth the law,
asks the apostle. What is the point of it? What's
the purpose of it? Wherefore then serveth the law?
It was added because of transgression. That is the ministry of the law.
You know the language of Paul in Galatians, he says there,
the Lord was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. He speaks
about the Lord is 430 years after the promise, the promise that
God had given to Abraham, who is the father of all them that
believe. or them that believe to the justifying
of their souls, or them who see that their salvation comes only
by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There in Galatians 3 and verse
17, Paul makes it quite plain that the gospel must have the
primacy. It is before the law, and the
law comes 430 years after that promise that God had given to
Abraham. Or the Jews look so foolishly
to the law for salvation. Doesn't Paul make that plain
in writing there in Romans chapter 10? They being ignorant of God's
righteousness, he says, and going about to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted unto the righteousness of God. That's the Jews. And likewise
this jailer. he's not a Jew he would have
been a gentile and yet he also is looking to the law what must
I what must I do to be saved these are the words that this
man comes to Paul and Silas with this is the question that he
is asking of them but let us turn in the second place to the
response that we have on the part of Paul and Silas, the preaching
of the Apostles. And we have it here in verses
31 and 32, They said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spoke unto him
the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. Two things I want us to consider
with regards to what is being said by these men here. First
of all, to begin with an explanation, which is what we really have
in verse 32. And then secondly, to consider
that word of exhortation that they give in verse 31. believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all though, what I call the explanation,
in verse 32, they spake unto him the word of the Lord and
to all that were in his house. Now, the man was aware of the
charge that had been laid against these two men in verse 20 they brought them
to the magistrate saying these men being Jews do exceedingly
trouble our city and teach customs which are not lawful for us to
receive neither to observe being Romans and he received this this charge
to take them and to keep them safely and so it was that he
thrust them into the inner prison and put their feet in the stocks
they have no liberty at all but having heard the charge laid
against them Maybe also he heard their singing. What men these were? Midnights.
And here they are, suffering in the cause of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And what did they do? They prayed
to God and they sang praises unto God. And it says the prisoners
heard them. And as I said, maybe also the
The keeper of the prison also heard them. But now, now, what
does he hear? He hears at their mouth something
far better. He hears the gospel, because
they spake unto him the words of the Lord. It's an interesting
expression. as a description of the gospel,
the word of the Lord. It is that word of which God
himself is the author. In that sense we can understand
it in terms of the scriptures. It is the word of God. Remember
the message of the prophets in the Old Testament. They were
not speaking their own words. They would come and say, Thus
saith the Lord. It is God's book. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God. Literally all Scripture is God
breathed. All Scripture is the breathings
of God. We read in Peter how those prophets,
those holy men in the Old Testament, spake as they were moved. by the Spirit of God, how they
were born along, carried along by the Spirit of God, not speaking
their own words, but speaking the very words of God. But isn't
the Gospel the words of God? God himself is the author of
the Scriptures. God himself is the author of
the Gospel. And what we have, of course,
in Holy Scripture is that revelation of the New Covenant of Christ,
God's eternal purpose of salvation, that counsel between the persons
in the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God enters into
counsel with Himself when He comes to the creation of man.
As we see there at the beginning of Scripture, God said Let us
make man in our image after our likeness. And as God as a consultation
concerning man's first creation. So with regards to that new creation,
the great work of salvation, there is a covenant of peace
between them both, between the Father and the Son. but not only
Father and Son but also Holy Spirit as the Father is the one
who makes choice of the people from all eternity and He commits
that people into the hands of His Son who willingly becomes
the servant of God that He might accomplish all that is necessary
for the salvation of His people and now in the fullness of the
time God therefore sends His Son to accomplish that great
work and then the Lord Jesus Christ having been obedient unto
death even that death of the cross rising again from the dead
ascending on high he sheds abroad the Holy Ghost on the day of
Pentecost as we read here in Acts chapter 2 and the Spirit
comes as the Spirit of Christ to reveal the things of Christ
all this gospel it's God who is the author of it Father, Son
and Holy Spirit and this is the message that Paul and Silas preached
to the jailer. They didn't just say to him,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy
house. No, they spake unto him the word of the Lord. They made
known the gospel to him. That gospel of which God himself
is the author. But also, of course, it is that
gospel of which the Lord Jesus Christ is really the whole subject
matter. The Lord Jesus is the subject
matter of all the Word of God from Genesis through to Revelation. Or did He not say to the Jews,
Search the Scriptures, in them ye think that ye have eternal
life, and these are they that testify of me? Is He not that
One who is the Word incarnate? Oh, He is the Word of God. And
what do they speak unto the jailer? They speak unto him the Word.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him.
Without Him was not anything made, but was made. And the Word
John says the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld
his glory the glory is of the only begotten of the Father full
of grace and truth believe on the Lord Jesus Christ gives the
exhortation but here is the explanation they spake unto him the word
of the Lord they preached Christ and they preached Christ crucified. Oh, Christ is that one who lies
at the very heart of the Gospel. It's interesting, is it not,
when we read those opening words in the shortest of all the Gospels,
in Mark chapter 1 and verse 1, it says, the beginning of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. What a statement is that, the
beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then we think of
the words of Paul, as he defines the gospel there in the opening
words of the epistle to the Romans. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which
he had promised afore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures,
concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord." And see how verse
2 is a parenthesis. Really what he is saying in verse
1 is continued in verse 3. He is separated unto the gospel
of God concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made
of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to
be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness
by the resurrection from the dead." Or the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the man Christ Jesus made of the seed of David
according to the flesh. But He is God, declared to be
the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by
the resurrection from the dead. He is the God-Man. This is the
one who lies, I say, at the very heart of the Gospel. Again, don't
we have a definition of the Gospel in the language that the Apostle
uses also at the beginning of 1 Corinthians 15, where he says,
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel. which I
preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein
ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what
I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I
delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received,
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according
to the Scriptures." Here is the Gospel. that the Apostle preached. And he concerns the Lord Jesus
Christ and all that happens to Christ in accordance with the
Scriptures, that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures, that Christ was buried and rose again the third day
according to the Scriptures. This is the message then that
is clearly being preached here. Now, this man, in his question,
is still looking to himself. He says to Paul and Silas, what
must I do? What must I do to be saved? He's looking to something of
self and something to be done by self. And what is he to do? He must look away from self. He must look to the Lord Jesus. Hebrews 12, 2, looking unto Jesus. Remember, again, the force of
the verb to look there, literally it means to look away unto Jesus,
to take your eye off every other object, to look away and to look
only unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He says,
look unto me and be ye saved. all the ends of the earth, for
I am God, and there is none else." Well, this is what he's being
preaching. Now, preaching Christ, Paul says
to the Corinthians, we preach Christ and Him crucified. I determine to know nothing amongst
you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is the apostolic
gospel. They spake unto him the word
of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And see what
was told subsequently. Verse 34, When he had brought
them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing
in God with all his house. Now, I know those who advocate
infant sprinkling, pedo-baptism, they speak of household baptisms.
They say, look what it says, this man believes, or is exhorted
to believe, and it says there in verse 31, "...believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house." And he, therefore, can baptize
all who are in his house, his little children, his babes. And
that's what they say, you see, that baptism isn't just for believers,
it's for the children of believers also. But that is not what we
are told here. Those who were baptized, it says
in verse 34, believed. He rejoiced believing in God
with all his house. It was those who believed in
his household who together with himself were baptized. But the importance of this what
I call this explanation, as they open up the words of God, as
they preach the gospel unto this jailer. They spoke unto him the
word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And then
turning now to the exhortation in verse 31. This is what they
exhort him to do. They said, Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." Now,
it is evident that this man had been awakened in his soul. Who does the Lord Jesus Christ
come to call? Not the righteous, but sinners. This man has some understanding,
some sense of his sins. And I would say this, that the
explanation that we find in verse 32, these gospel words, help
us to understand the significance of the exhortation. The believing
that is spoken of in verse 31 is not a thing that a man can
do of himself. It's not, you know, as the Arminian
puts it, God has done his part, now you have to do your part.
And what is your part? You have to believe. The Lord
Jesus Christ has done it all. All salvation is in the Lord
Jesus Christ, but you have to believe. That's your part. But then if salvation comes on
the account of a man performing his duty, doesn't that mean that
salvation, in some sense, is of works? And yet what does it say? If
by grace it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace.
If it be of works, it is no more of grace, otherwise work is no
more work. Grace and works are mutually
exclusive one of the other. It's either of grace, or it's
of works. Salvation cannot be of grace
and works mixed together, that's a mangling of the gospel. What do they preach? They preach
to this man the word of the Lord. In chapter 5 and verse 20, the
angel giving charge to the apostles who were being persecuted in
that chapter, there in chapter 5 verse 20, the angel refers
to it as the words of this life, the words of this life. Or think
of the Lord Jesus Christ himself,
and what Christ says, it is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh
profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. It's that word that comes
from the Lord Jesus Christ. That powerful word, that quickening
word. Or remember what the Lord Jesus
himself says to the Jews. They say to him, what shall we
do that we might work the works of God? And he says, this is
the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. In other
words, you don't do. You believe. And what is that
believing Why it's resting in Christ, the guilty, weak and
helpless worm, on thy kind arms I fall, be thou my strength and
righteousness, my Jesus and my all. I would just sang those
lovely words of Isaac Watts. And this is what they are exhorting
this man to do. Simply to cast himself upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. Those Jews, you see, that ask
the Lord back in John 6, what shall we do that we might work
the works of God? They're thinking of their own
doing. But Christ speaks to them of saving faith being the work
of God. This is the work of God! This
is the work of God that you believe on Him whom He has sent. It's
faith of the operation of God. or by grace, i.e. say, through
faith and out of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast." What a work it is! It's a mighty
work of God. You all remember the language
of Paul there in Ephesians 1 where he speaks of the exceeding greatness
of his power to us who do believe. Not just his power, not just
the greatness of that power, but the exceeding greatness of
His power to us wards that believe. And as I've said many a time,
it's the same power, he says, that was there in the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus according to the work of His mighty power
which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and
set Him at His own right hands. That's the gospel. It's experiencing
the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus. That must come into
our souls. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. That's where this man was. But
when there's that awakening in his soul, when the Lord begins
to deal with him, oh how the apostles are so careful in the
way in which they address the man. He says, Sirs, what must
I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and they shall be saved, and thy house. Why? We're told there in verse
34, How he rejoiced, believing in God, with all his house. Why? Because they spoke unto
him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. All this believing, you see,
it's a believing upon the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a casting
of our souls upon the Lord Jesus Christ. It's leaning upon Him. It's resting all our hope only
in Him, in His person, and in His work. Oh, the Lord be pleased
then to come and to make this gospel, this apostolic gospel,
is such a blessed reality in all of our souls, that our experience
might be that of this man. He was a great sinner. He was
a hardened sinner. He was a cruel man in so many
ways, a way in which he dealt with Paul and Silas. But now, where sin abounds, we
see the grace of God as that which more abounds. Sirs, he
says, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and they shall be saved in thy house. And they
spake unto him the word of the Lord and to all that were in
his house. Will the Lord be pleased to bless
his word to us? and the tune is Ombudsman 385. With melting hearts and weeping
eyes, my guilty soul for mercy cries, what shall I do, O God,
please, to escape the vengeance due to me? Number 238.