Let us turn in our Bibles this
evening to Acts chapter 16. I want to remind all of us of our
Bible conference this coming weekend. Remember, Friday evening,
7.30, Saturday morning at 10, a regular time, on Sunday morning,
and there will be no service this Wednesday night. So we're
moving the Wednesday night service to Friday night. Hope that each
and every one of you will be back with us on Friday evening.
Acts chapter 16 and beginning in verse 16. And it came to pass as we went
to prayer, that is Paul and Silas, a certain damsel possessed with
a 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 show unto us the way of salvation. And this did she
many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned
and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ
to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. And when her master saw that
the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and
drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers and brought them
to the magistrate saying, these men being Jews do exceedingly
trouble our city. teach customs which are not lawful
for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. And the
multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates ran
off their clothes and commanded to beat them. When they had laid
many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging
the jailer to keep them safely. who having received such a charge,
thrust them into the inner prison, made their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight, Paul and Silas
prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard
them. And suddenly there was a great
earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and
immediately all the doors were opened, everyone's bands were
loosed. And the keeper of the prison,
awaking 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 been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice
saying, do thyself no harm, for we are all here. Then he called,
that is a jailer, he called for a light and sprang in and came
trembling, 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 in thy house. And they spake unto him the word
of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took
them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and
was baptized he and all his straightway. That's as far as we'll read this
evening. I think, I suppose, that we are all familiar enough
with this passage that my comments upon it are going to be very
brief, and I want to focus our attention on one verse in particular. But let's notice first of all
the jailer's question in verse 30. What must I do to be saved? What kind of a salvation, or
what kind of salvation, I should say, was he asking about? What
must I do to be saved? I've read that these jailers,
once a prisoner was turned over to them, they were responsible
for that prisoner. And the reason this man we see
was at the very point of committing suicide, he assumed that the
prisoners had escaped and that he was responsible for those
prisoners and the Roman authorities would come after him. Is that
the salvation that he was asking about? Salvation from those rulers? No, not hardly. Because as we
see, Paul told him, we're all here. All the prisoners are here. No one's escaped. You don't need
to worry about being held responsible for the prisoners that were in
your charge, that they've escaped somehow. No, no. We're all here. It wasn't any kind of a physical
salvation. A man falls over a cliff and
he cries out, save me. Or a man is in the water drowning
and he says, save me. We realize the kind of salvation
they're interested in. It's physical salvation. But
that's not the question here. That's not what was in this man's
mind. What must I do to be saved? The salvation he was concerned
about was salvation from his guilt. He was guilty, like you
and like me and like all men as we come into this world. The
scripture is very clear, for we have all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Guilty, guilty as charged. What must I do to be saved from
this guilt, the guilt of my sin? What must I do to be saved from
the punishment for my sin? Which we know the scripture says
that God outside of Christ is a consuming fire, a consuming
fire. What must I do to be saved? I'm guilty. I'm charged with
my sin. I must stand before God Almighty
and answer for myself. What must I do to be saved? That is, of course, the most
important question any person can ever ask. Have you ever asked
that question? Have you ever thought about that
question? Or do you put it out of your mind? Most people do. I've been, and I were talking
just a little while ago before the service, and he was telling
me one of his coworkers, She said, I don't like to think about
those things. I don't like to think about those
things. Those things trouble me. I'm just going to push them
out of my mind. I'm going to entertain myself
with the things of this world the best I can so I never think
on these matters, these important matters. Then second, if you notice in
verse 31, the apostles, that is Paul and Silas, they had an
answer. They didn't say, well, we've
got to go to the dictionary, or we've got to go to the creeds,
or we've got to go to certain councils, and we've got to ask
certain authorities that are above us in this matter, no.
They had an answer, and it is the only answer, the correct
answer, the right answer. The only answer, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house. Now he could not believe for
his children. That's not what Paul and Silas
were saying. We know that. But those in your
house, if they believe, they too shall be saved. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Salvation is in a person. That's
the first thing we should take away from this. Salvation is
not in a church. It's not in a decision. It's
not in a creed. It's not in a religion. Everyone
has a religion. But salvation is not in a religion. If it were, then the whole world
would be saved because man by nature is religious. Salvation is in a person. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. It is because of who he is. Who
is this one? The Lord Jesus. Who is he? Well,
people say, well, he was a good teacher. He was, but he was more
than that. He was a kind and compassionate
person. He was, but who is he? Who is he? Why should we believe
on him? Because of who he is. He is the
one mediator between God and you, between God and me. If I'm going to come unto God,
if I'm going to approach unto God and be accepted, it must
be through Him. I must come through Him. He's the only God-man. He's fully God and He's fully
man. He's the sinless, holy, harmless
Son of God, separate from sinners. He's the one man. who's walked
on the face of God's earth who never, ever sinned. Never, ever sinned. Holy, absolutely. Obedient in every way. What does
the law say? Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind,
thy being, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. He did. He did. And He did that for His people.
He obeyed God. Believe on Him and be saved because
of His righteousness becomes your righteousness when you trust
in Him. Not only believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
but now He's the one that enables God, think about this, how can
God, absolutely holy, absolutely righteous, how can he forgive
someone like you and me? How can he do that and be just? Only through his son, Jesus Christ. That's the only way. That's the
only way. Believe, he is the only way.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Now
the verse I really wanted to get to is verse 32. And they
spake unto him, see that's not all they said. That's where they
began with this jailer. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and They spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that
were in his house, that is, all who were old enough to pay attention,
to listen. Have you ever tried to preach
a message in the nursery? Six month old, one year old,
two year old, have you ever tried to preach a message to them?
No. As the scripture here says, they
spake unto him the word of the Lord unto all that were in his
house, those who were old enough to hear and to understand and
to follow the message. They spoke unto the jailer in
his house the word of the Lord. We're going to briefly, and I
say briefly, we're going to briefly consider what is included here
in the Word of the Lord under these three headings. First of
all, the Gospel of Salvation. If you notice, Paul and Silas
had been directed to this city. It was Philippi. It was the city
of Philippi in Macedonia where they had come and they had been
directed to this city by vision. By vision. No doubt, they sought
the Lord's will and prayed as to where God would have them
to go to preach the gospel. And in a vision, if you look
back here in chapter 16 to verses 9 and 10, we read, and a vision
appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia
and prayed him saying, come over into Macedonia and help us. And after he had seen the vision,
that is Paul, after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored
to go into Macedonia, and notice this, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for
to preach the gospel unto them. They didn't go there to set up
an orphanage, nothing wrong with that. They didn't go there to
build a hospital. Nothing wrong with that. No,
these were apostles of the Lord, and they knew they were called
to this place to do one thing, and that was to preach the gospel. To preach the gospel. Charles Spurgeon was a very popular
preacher. Most of you are familiar with
him. Preached in England and London, last part of the 1800s,
and I've read a number of his messages and I've seen him complain
more than once in a message. He said, people are saying, believe,
believe. Preachers are crying, believe,
believe. But he said, they're not telling
people what to believe or who to believe, who to believe. Yes, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved. spoke unto him, and Silas spoke
unto this man in his house the word of the Lord." That is the
gospel, the gospel of salvation. To the church at Corinth, to
the believers in the church at Corinth, he wrote these words,
I declare unto you the gospel. I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you, which also you received, and wherein
you stand, now listen, by which you are saved. Paul's writing
back to this church where he had preached in Corinth, and
he says, I declare unto you the gospel, because false teachers
had come among them, and they were muddying up the water. The gospel is very clear. They
were bringing in false teaching. Paul said, I declare unto you
the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you received
and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved. The gospel
that Paul preached at Corinth is the same gospel he preached
to this man at Philippi. There's only one gospel. There's
only one gospel. The word gospel means good news.
And the gospel of Jesus Christ is good news. It's good news
to sinners. It's good news to those that
know their need. It's good news. Great news. It's good news. The gospel that Paul preached
to the Corinthians was the same gospel that he preached to this
man and to his house. And Paul continues there, for
I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received,
now listen, first of all, how that Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures. The words first of all, they
don't just mark the order, but they mark the importance, first
of all, of first importance, Paul preached the gospel to them
of first importance how that Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures. He didn't die as an example. There's a lot of so-called theories
about the death of Christ, his crucifixion. But the truth from
the Word of God is very clear and very plain. He was crucified
for our sins. For your sins, if you trust in
Him. He was crucified to be the propitiation
for our sins. We read in Romans 3 in verse
25. What does that word propitiation mean? It means that through His
death, He made peace with God. For those of us who had sinned,
we were guilty of sin against God. He reconciles us unto God
by His death. He died as a substitute. You know all that when we read
here, Paul preached unto him the word of God. Now think, this
was early on in the in New Testament days, he didn't have any part
of this part of our Bible, did he? Matthew through Revelation,
he didn't have any of that. All he had, and he had a lot,
he had plenty, but he had the Old Testament. That was all of
the written word of God at that time. You say, well, how did he preach
the gospel from the Old Testament? As I've already said, there's
only one gospel. It was first preached by God
himself in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve had disobeyed
God and they tried to hide from God. They tried to make themselves
coverings with fig leaves, their own works to appease God. They wouldn't work. And so God
comes. And what does God do? He clothes
them with skins of animals. And in that we see the gospel. We see an animal that was innocent. Animal didn't disobey God. It
was Adam. He's the one who disobeyed. He's
the one who sinned. But the animal had to die, shed
its blood, that Adam might be clothed. Christ had to die that
we might be clothed with his righteousness. Go all through the Old Testament.
You see type after type. What about Noah? Everyone's heard
about Noah and the flood. God told Noah to build an ark.
And he was obedient, and the day came when God told Noah,
enter into the ark, you and your three sons and your wives, and
God shut the door. God closed the door. And it began
to rain. Never had rain before. Began
to rain. And it rained, and it rained,
and it rained, and all of those people who had heard Noah preached
because he was a preacher of righteousness. No doubt some
of them were knocking on the side of that ark. Let us in. Let us in. Open the door. Noah couldn't open that door.
God closed the door. And no one outside of that ark
was saved. All perished. But Noah and his
family, the waters came down, but it didn't touch them. The
waters beat upon everything else, destroyed everything else, but
not Noah and his family. Why? Because they were in the
ark. It's a picture of Christ. Paul
said, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. in Christ Jesus, trusting in
him, believing in him. So Paul preached unto this man
the word of the Lord, he preached the gospel. And he continued
there in that text in 1 Corinthians, and he was buried. How that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures. And there's much
that could be said, but for time's sake, I'm not going to go there.
But then it says, and he was buried. Now, what was important
about his burial? He was buried. They took his
body down from the cross, his limp body, wrapped it in linen,
perfumed, and laid it in a tomb where no man had ever been buried
before. And then they rolled a stone,
on the entrance to that cave, that sepulchre, and then in the
providence of God, Pilate even had it sealed. It was sealed. And he put soldiers out there
to guard it. He was buried. There cannot be
any question at all, Christ died. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. That's what's important about
the fact that he was buried. No one can doubt. There have
been cases, documented cases of people being crucified on
a cross for days and taken down from the cross and living. No,
the punishment, the sentence was death. He died. He died. And he was buried. But oh, on that third day, on
that third day, as Paul said, that he rose again the third
day according to the scriptures. Just like he said he would. Destroy
this body, this temple. That's what he said. Destroy
this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again. By his resurrection, We read he was raised again for
our justification. The sins of his people were laid
upon him. That's what Isaiah 53 tells us. I said he died as a substitute.
The sins of all of his chosen people, all of those who trust
in him and believe in him, our sins were taken and made to meet
upon him. But when he came out of that
grave, our sins were left. They didn't come out with him.
His resurrection shows that the debt's paid. God's satisfied. Justice can demand no more. They preached unto him the word
of the Lord, the gospel. The second thing, the gospel
ordinances. And I wanted to bring this out
tonight because we have one who's going to be baptized in water,
the Lord willing, in just a few minutes. And also we are going
to observe the Lord's supper, those of us who know him as our
savior. These two ordinance, no doubt,
the apostles preached to this man. And I say that because he
was baptized. He was baptized. That's what
the scripture here says in the next verse. It says, and he took
them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and
was baptized. He and all his straightway. From what I've read, a jailer
was a rough guy. He wasn't some pansy. He was
a soldier, most likely, who had grown old, a Roman soldier. And
this was kind of a lucrative retirement for him, a jailer. But notice how he's changed.
When he delivered these two men, he put them in the innermost
part of the prison. That's where all the slop All
the refuse in the prison fell down to where these men were. But now, what a change, right? What a change. Notice what it
says. He took them the same hour of
the night and washed their stripes. You see, when a person truly
believes, He is born of the Spirit of God. He is saved. She is saved. And we are made new creatures
in Christ Jesus. Somehow, by the power of the
Holy Spirit, a miracle of grace, we began to love things that
we didn't care for. Began to go places we would have
never gone to before. Worship the Lord and gather with
God's people and sing and study the Word of God. It's a new creation. And that shows it's the work
of God. Paul said, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature. Only God can create. Man can
make some things with materials that God has created, but only
God can create. And the new birth. It's the work
of God. A new heart is given, and you
see that in this man. He took them the same hour of
the night, and you know, man, it hurts to get whipped, doesn't
it? You ever been whipped? I have. My dad, he used a belt to straighten
us out. Ever been whipped? You get in
the water, boy, it burns, doesn't it? It burns. Oh, I can just
see this man. Hard, hard man, but now he's
gentle, washing the stripes of these two men who had brought
him the gospel. What a change. What a blessing,
right? What a blessing to be saved. to have a new life, have your
sins forgiven, and start on your way to heaven. What a blessing. But he taught, Paul taught them
the word of the Lord. I believe he taught them about
baptism because he was certainly baptized here. He probably said,
sir, the Lord taught us that when a person believes, he's
to confess his faith in water baptism, acknowledging God. And that salvation is of the
Lord, because that's what's pictured in baptism. And no doubt this
man like that Ethiopian, what doth hinder me? What doth hinder
me? You say, you said, Paul, you
said, he said, the Lord said, we're to be baptized. Let's get
with it. Let's get with it. And he was
baptized. And the last thing, no doubt
when they taught him the word of the Lord, I mean, there's
so much here, but the gospel hope, the blessed hope that we
have, the blessed hope. Our Lord is going to come again.
We don't know the hour, we don't know the day, and men are fools
who try to predict it. But he's coming again. He's coming
again. What a hope we have. That in
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, how
fast is that? Nano fast. That's how fast it
is. In the twinkling of an eye, the
Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice
of the archangel. And the dead in Christ shall
rise first. That is the saints who've gone
on, their bodies buried in the ground. Yes, but they shall rise
first and there will be a reunion, soul and body. And we, the believers
who are alive at that time, and we shall be changed in a moment
in the twinkling of an eye and caught up to be with the Lord,
caught up to be with Him forever and ever. I trust the Lord will bless these
words to all of us here tonight.