I'd like for you to turn with
me to Psalm 38 for our scripture reading tonight. Psalm 38. While you do that, Charles Pennington
had back surgery yesterday. He's still in the hospital, of
course, and will be there for another few more days. They found
a lot of spurs, bone spurs, I think calcium deposits that they said
the surgery took longer than normal, but hopefully he's going
to get some relief as a result of that. Wayne and Ann, I guess, are still
sick. Has anybody talked to them in
the last day or so? I talked to them Monday, I guess
it was. I think Wayne has the shingles,
perhaps. He's had that before. It's good
to have Ed and Debra back. Missed you guys. We purchased a church van Today
we pick it up tomorrow, so we'll have Transportation to get over
to Sarasota every Sunday, so We won't have to take a couple
different cars We found a used van at the at
the auction so Hopefully that's gonna work out really well for
us Psalm 38 a psalm of David to
bring to remembrance." Those little titles that you see on
your psalms are actually part of the text. In some places there
might be some extra words added, but this is actually part of
the text. This is a psalm of remembrance. O Lord, rebuke me
not in Thy wrath, neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure. For
thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh.
Because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones
because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone
over my head as a heavy burden. They are too heavy for me. As is always the case, these
Psalms, we can see this being a prayer from the Lord and we
see our own experience in the conviction of our own sin and
the loathing of our own flesh. My wounds stink and are corrupt
because of my foolishness. I am troubled. I am bowed down
greatly. I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with
loathsome disease, and there is no soundness in my flesh.
I am feeble and sore broken. I have roared by reason of disquietness
of my heart. Lord, all my desire is before
Thee, and my groaning is not hid from Thee. My heart panteth,
my strength faileth me. As for the light of mine eyes,
it also is gone from me. My lovers and my friends stand
aloof from my sore, and my kinsmen stand afar off. They also that
seek after my life lay snares for me, and they that seek my
hurt speak mischievous things and imagine deceit all the day
long. But I, as a deaf man, heard not,
and I was as a dumb man that opened not his mouth. I was a
man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs. For in thee, O Lord, do I hope. Thou wilt hear, O Lord my God." owned our sin as his own and
so as the sin bearer he had no defense. This is the description
of how he had no defense to give to God for the sin that he was
carrying. For I said hear me lest otherwise
they should rejoice over me when my foot slippeth they magnify
themselves against me For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow
is continually before me. For I will declare mine iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin. But mine enemies are lively,
and they are strong. And they that hate me wrongfully
are multiplied." Isn't that our experience? We confess our sin
at the same time we're surrounded by Conflicts from without and
fears from within and our own flesh is just never gets any
better and the enemies never go away They also that render evil for
good are my adversaries because I follow the thing that that
is good Forsake me not Oh Lord my God be not far from me Make
haste to help me. Oh Lord my salvation Let's pray
together. Our Heavenly Father, we can't
come into Your presence without acknowledging what we've just
read in Your Word as the condition of our own flesh before Thee. We thank You that we have the
Lord Jesus Christ as our righteous intercessor. We ask, Lord, that you would
send your spirit and his power to reveal Christ to our hearts
and cause us, Lord, to find our hope and our rest in him. We
thank you for the agony that he suffered on Calvary's cross
when he bore our sin and suffered the wrath of your judgment. We
ask now, Lord, that we would be able to rejoice in
knowing that he succeeded in putting our sin away once and
for all. We pray for Charlie and we ask,
Lord, that you would place your hand of healing on him and that
the surgery would be successful and, Lord, that you would give
him relief from his pain. Pray for Wayne and ask Lord that
you would give him full recovery. And we thank you Lord for the
places where your gospel goes out. And we pray for our brethren
in San Jose. We pray for them in Charlotte. We pray for them in Sarasota.
We ask Lord that, that you would be pleased to bless your gospel
to the hearts of your children. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. I pray that as we look at the
conversion of the Philippian jailer in Acts chapter 16 tonight,
that that prayer we just prayed will be answered. That we'll
see ourselves in this dear brother and be drawn nearer to Christ. That's why the Lord's given us
these conversion stories so that we can identify with them. If
we've not yet come to know the Lord, that we'll see ourselves
in this man for the first time. And if we've walked with the
Lord for many, many years, we'll still see ourselves in this man's
experience. I've titled this message, Every
Convert's Story. Every Convert's Story. And just
as Paul said that his conversion was a pattern for all those that
should follow, so all of these are. We're brought in the same
way, to the same Christ, and our experiences are all very,
very similar in regard to their to maybe not to the details of
our lives but to what the Lord is doing in saving sinners and
bringing them to himself. We'll begin reading in verse
25 of Acts chapter 16. 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 and everyone's bands were
loosed. And the keeper of the prison
awakened 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
for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down
before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Serves, what
must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thine 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 that night,
and washed their stripes, and was baptized, he and all his,
straightway. And when he had brought them
into his house, he sat meet before them, and rejoiced, believing
in God with all his house. And when it was day, the magistrates
sent the sergeant, saying, Let those men go. And the keeper
of the prison told this saying to Paul, and the magistrates
have sent to let you go, now therefore depart and go in peace.
But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly, uncondemned,
being Romans, and have cast us into prison. And now do they
thrust us out privately? Nay, verily, but let them come
themselves and fetch us out." Now Paul, this wasn't a matter
of pride on Paul's part. He's not saying, you know, I'm
they're going to have to pay for what they've done. No, they
made a public shame of him in Philippi and he wanted everybody
in that town to know that he was innocent, lest the gospel
would be damaged. And so 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." Every convert's story, right here, in the life
of this jailer. We see how it is that God knows
where His lost sheep are. He knows how to get the gospel
to them. And He will succeed in making
sure that they hear the gospel, whatever it takes. Here we have
the Apostle Paul arrested and put into prison. They didn't
know what the Lord was doing, but the Lord knew what He was
doing. I must needs go through Samaria. Why? Because I have
lost sheep there and I intend to bring them to myself and the
Lord knew that this jailer was one that God had chosen in the
covenant of grace and he's going to be sure to get a gospel preacher
to him. And so, as unusual as these circumstances
might seem, it is our Lord's way of making sure that all of
His sheep are found. He said, I'll lead the ninety-nine
and I'll go after the one. The Lord went through Jericho
because He knew Zacchaeus would be there in that tree. And, you
know, he just goes out of his way, doesn't he? David went a
long way out of the way to fetch Mephibosheth and bring him back.
And God knows where his children are. He knows where sheep are.
You know, people, when they first hear about God's election, they
think, You know, what if there's somebody, you know, in the far
reaches of the world that aren't anywhere around the gospel? Lord
knows where they are. He knows where they are. And
He'll get them to the gospel, or He will get the gospel to
them. Each of us have a different story
in how that worked out in our lives. But the Lord's not going
to lose one of His sheep, and I find great comfort in that.
I find great comfort as a believer in knowing that I can't be lost.
I find great comfort as a preacher in knowing that if we're faithful
in heralding the truth of the gospel, God will use it to the
salvation of His sheep. And we don't have to try to manipulate
people or coerce people or trick people. We just tell folks the
truth. They'll believe it. The next thing we see in this
story, that's every believer's story, every convert's story,
is the conviction of sin and the way that the Lord illustrates
that in this man's life. The needle of sin always pierces
the heart. before the scarlet thread of
salvation can mend it. And conviction of sin always
has to come first. And that's where the Lord found
you, and that's where He found me, and that's where He found
this man. He convicts them of their need
to be saved. and um... the the story is such
a glorious illustration of the spiritual truth of that uh... in that the lord used an earthquake
god sent an earthquake to shake the foundations of this prison
and more importantly the foundations of of this man's life uh... if if if we're going to be convicted
of sin god's gotta convict us this is not just a matter of
uh... uh... feeling bad because our conscience
is convicting us. This is a matter of the Spirit
of God showing to us our lost condition. And when He does,
He shakes the foundation of everything. Everything. The Lord had to open Lydia's
heart for her to believe. And Paul said, when it pleased
God who separated me from my mother's womb to reveal Christ
in me. He said, what was his experience
in Christ being revealed to him? He said, when the law came, I
died. Sin revived and I died. God had
to make him to be a sinner. And in doing so, he shakes the
foundation of everything that we once thought was sure. This particular brother was prepared
to fall on his sword. Now I can't think of a more horrible
way to die. But that's what he did. He took
his Roman sword and put the handle into the ground and stuck the
point somewhere in the middle of his chest and was about to
fall on his sword. And Paul had to cry out to stop
him in that. As horrible as a death like that
would be, there are folks falling on their sword right now committing
spiritual suicide the sword is the tongue and the Lord said
in Matthew chapter 12 he said by your words you will be justified
and by your words you will be condemned and People are falling
on their own sword in committing spiritual suicide. Turn with
me to Psalm 37. We looked at this verse Sunday. Psalm 37 verse 14, the wicked
have drawn out their own sword, and have bent their bow to cast
down the poor and the needy, and to slay such as be of upright
conversation. Their sword shall enter their
own heart, and their bows shall be broken. That's what the Lord
said. He's going to use their own words
against them. Men will and are falling on their
own sword. Not to the destruction of their
flesh, but worse to the destruction of their souls. And they're doing
it for the same reason that this Philippian jailer was going to
do it. What was the reason that he was going to do it? A false
supposition. A false supposition. He thought
that the prisoners had all escaped. And he just assumed that that
was the case and was going to commit suicide lest he be tortured
for having allowed his prisoners and be shamed publicly for having
allowed his prisoners to escape. But the supposition that he held
to was not true. It was not true. You know, it's
the same exact reason why people are falling on their swords today.
They suppose things that aren't true. They suppose, like this
man supposed, that the prisoners were free. And men today suppose
that people have a free will. I mean, that's the most universally
believed lie in the world. That men can choose for themselves
when they'll be saved. and that the power of their will
is able to change the destiny of their soul. That's a false
supposition. But the fact that people believe
that, and they think they can go and come as they please, they're
free to believe and free to choose when they want, and they'll tell
you that. You listen to them talk. And
every time they speak that way, they're falling on their own
sword based on a false supposition. They suppose that God loves everybody. You listen to people talk, it's
a universally believed lie that God loves everybody. They'll
tell you that God loves everybody and that Christ died for everybody. That he made an offer of salvation
on Calvary's cross in order that you could be saved if you'll
make the right decision. These are the suppositions that
are false. And just as this jailer was ready
to fall on his sword and commit physical suicide, so people do
the same thing today, don't they, in a much worse way. In a much
worse way. The false supposition that God
wants everybody to be saved. He's doing everything he can.
I had somebody ask me this past week about that passage over
there in Peter. You know, doesn't the scripture
say that he's not willing that any should perish, but that all
should come to the knowledge of the truth? And I had to show
them. Don't leave out that word, us-ward.
Us-ward. the Lord speaking to his church
but you know that they'll just pick and choose verses and they'll
use those verses to the destruction of their own soul because they
have a false supposition they believe something's true when
it's not and they're committing spiritual suicide because of
that people believe I had somebody else tell me this week that You
know, that they thought the Bible, they never knew that the Bible
was nothing but a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
that was the whole intent of God's Word. They thought, you
know, it was a book of moral teaching and a rule book for
Christian living. And we just needed to learn how
to put into practice the principles of Scripture in order to be successful
and victorious in our Christian life. And that's just a supposition
that people have. and they're falling on their
own sword committing spiritual suicide because like the Pharisees
they don't know that these are they which testify of me. They believe that the gospel
is an offer of salvation to all men. They believe that. I remember having arguments in
religion about, well, if election's true, then what do you do with
the free offer of salvation? Well, salvation's not an offer.
It's not an offer. It's a command. And there's a
huge difference between the two. So, you know, if the supposition's
not right, then the result's not going to be right. And people
are making these confessions of things that they believe,
and like this Philippian jailer, they've got the butt of the sword
stuck in the ground and the point in their chest, and they're about
to fall on it. And every time you hear them
speak, you can see that sword wielding. And we need to say
to them, don't harm thyself. Don't harm thyself. Don't talk
like that. Don't say that. Your sword is going to come back
against you. By your words you'll be condemned. Or by your words
you'll be justified. That's what Paul said. Do thyself no harm. Do thyself no harm. He heard, look at verse 28, But Paul cried with
a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here. You know, the problem with sin
is not a problem in the world. you know it uh... i mean i it
just amazes me how well i get thoughts of myself if i could
just live in the desert i could you know i could i could be insulated
or from all these problems you know in all this and no you wouldn't
you take it with you take it with you sin is a problem of
the heart and you're not going to you're not going to avoid
sin just because you've moved to one place or another or you
you create some kind of a of a uh... you know, an enclave
of saints, you know, and build a wall around yourself. People
do it all the time. If I can just isolate myself
and insulate myself from the world, then maybe I'll make a
commune, you know. The problem is in our own heart. Sin is a heart problem. Turn
with me to Psalm 51. Here's what we need to say to
people. Do thyself no harm. The problem with sin is not the
circumstances of your life and it's not the world in which we
live. The problem with sin is the problem that we have in our
own heart. The human heart is wicked and deceitful. No man
can know it. And David understood that when
he said in Psalm 51, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to
Thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of Thy tender
mercy. Blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin. I acknowledge my transgression.
My sin is ever before me. He couldn't get away from it.
Why? Because he couldn't get away from himself. There's our
experience, isn't it? And so when the Lord brings conviction
of sin, He shakes the foundation of our false suppositions and
He causes us to realize that our problem is ourselves. Do
thyself no harm. Create in me, David said, a clean
heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. I'm the problem. I'm my worst enemy. That's what
Paul was saying to this Philippian jailer. Do thyself no harm. You're only hurting yourself
by speaking that way. You're only hurting yourself
by falling on your own sword. Tell them, the Lord told Isaiah,
tell them they're grass. Tell them they're the problem. It's Joel Osteen, I think, out
in Texas. I heard an interview of him a
year or so ago. And Larry King, of all people,
was asking Joel Osteen, well, why don't you talk about sin? And Joel Osteen said, oh no,
we have a positive message. We don't go there. We have a
positive message. There's nothing positive about
a message that is devoid of telling folks that they're sinners. The
only hope of salvation is to realize that the harm that we
bring is something we're doing to ourselves. It's our own problem. It's leprosy in the flesh. It's an inherited nature that we got from our father.
It's in the blood. We are our own worst enemy. And
when Paul said to this jailer, do thyself no harm, we hear the Lord convicting us
that way, don't we? Oh Lord, the problems that I
have I bring on myself. I bring them on myself. I can't
point my finger at anybody else. I'm the problem. We found the
enemy and it is us. Notice that in the conviction
of sin that the Philippian jailer acknowledged his need for a light. Look at Look at verse 29. Then he, the jailer, called for
a light. Oh, it was so dark he couldn't
see. And I don't know what effect
the earthquake had on the lights that they had in there. I guess
all the oil lamps broke or fell over or something, but it was
dark. He needed a light to be able
to get in there and see what was going on. and I'm reminded
of, you know, the Nicodemus coming to the Lord by night and saying
to Him, we know that thou had been sent of God for no man can
do the things that thou doest except God be with him. And what
did the Lord say? Nicodemus, you can't see the kingdom of
God. You cannot see it. Why? Because you don't have your
light. You don't have your light. You've got to be born from above.
You've got to be born again. The light of the Gospels got
to shed in your heart in order to reveal to you the truth. We're
just blind by nature. Pharisees didn't believe that.
But the Lord told them, if you were blind, then you could see. But the fact that you think you
can see, your sins remain. So Lord, in the conviction of
my sin, the foundation of all my suppositions has been shaken.
I realize that I'm the problem and I need light. I need light. I need for you to shed the light
of the gospel and reveal to me the truth of who Christ is. I need to be taught of God. Don't
you love the story of the Ethiopian eunuch there in Acts chapter
8 when Philip asked him, Understandest thou what thou readest? What
did the eunuch say? How can I accept a man should
lead me? I don't have any light. I need
you to get up here and tell me what this means. And Philip got
on the chariot and began right there in Isaiah 53 and preached
Jesus unto him. So we just have to have light,
don't we? There's no natural light. There's
no light in our intellect. There's no light in our understanding.
If the Lord doesn't turn the light on, we will remain blind. We are citizens of the kingdom
of darkness by nature, and we've got to have a light. Fifthly,
I want you to see in this Ethiopian eunuch's conviction of sin, that
he was afraid. He was afraid. Now, from what
I understand, the men, and I've worked in jails a little bit,
even now, here in our culture. and uh... jailers are hard hardened
people that have to be i mean i i just don't know you can't
work in that environment without just becoming uh... you know you just don't believe
anything or anybody and uh... and that was especially true
with the romans and so uh... here's a man that uh... was notoriously
without he would have he would have been a man without mercy
There wouldn't have been any consideration that he would have
made for any of the prisoners. And what do we see him doing?
Trembling and falling down. The scripture says, there is
no fear of God before their eyes. I'll tell you a good verse, an
easy verse to remember. Psalm 711. Psalm 711. God is angry with the wicked
every day. Psalm 711. Don't believe the
sign on the billboard that says God's not angry. He's angry with
the wicked every day. You know, one of the things you
don't hear in our culture that you used to hear years ago, somebody
would be referred to as a God-fearing person. You don't hear that anymore,
do you? People don't talk like that. Why? Because there is no
fear of God in our culture. There's no fear of God. People
just think that, you know, they've imagined a God that is not to
be feared. A God that's just waiting for
you to let Him have His way. Why would you be afraid of a
God like that? But this man was afraid. When the foundations
of his suppositions were shaken. When he had the light of the
truth shined in his heart. When he realized that the problem
he had was his own problem. He was doing himself harm. He
came and fell down at the feet of Paul and Silas. was trembling. Saul of Tarsus did that, didn't
he? The Lord knocked him off his high horse, put his face
in the dirt. The Lord spoke to him from heaven
and Saul said, Who art thou, Lord? Lord. What would you have
me to do? When God convicts His children
of sin, He causes them to realize that sin is their fault. And that all of their suppositions
were false. And the light of the gospel causes
them to realize that God has the sovereign right. He has the
sovereign right. to make of the same lump of clay
some vessels of honor and some of dishonor. They realize that
they genuinely believe themselves to be hell-deserving sinners
and they become mercy-beggars. They come trembling at the Lord's
feet. Sixthly, notice in verse 29 He called for a light and sprang
in. He sprang in. Don't you love
that? He had an urgency about him,
didn't he? You ever had a fire in your house?
You know, maybe a little stove fire or something. Or something
catches on fire. Boy, there's an urgency. I mean,
everything stops when there's a fire in the house. You've got
to get that thing out. There's an urgency about it. If the Lord
ever puts us under conviction of sin and shows us our need
for Christ, there will be an urgency about it. We'll be like
blind Bartimaeus who knew that there'd probably never be another
chance for the Lord to come by his way and he cried all the
louder when they tried to shut him up. Son of David, have mercy
upon me. Like that woman with an issue
of blood who crawled her way through the crowd that she might
touch the hem of the Lord's garment. There's an urgency about it.
The Lord's not promised us tomorrow. He's told us today is the day
of salvation. If the Holy Spirit ever convicts
us, we never say to people, you need to think about this. You
need to go home and consider it. Sleep on it. The Scripture
doesn't talk like that. What does God say? The Spirit
and the Bride say, and this is right at the end of the book
of Revelation, Come! You thirsty? Come! You willing? Come! Right now! Today's the
day of salvation. We're never encouraged to put
this off. And when the Spirit of God does
for us what He did for this Philippian jailer, we'll spring in. Well,
we'll just run headlong to Christ. We won't be like the philosophers
on Mars Hill, who in their own foolish pride said to the Apostle
Paul, this babbler, we'll have him come back another time and
we'll listen to him. We won't be like Agrippa, who
later said to the Apostle Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to
be a Christian. Almost. You go away, I'll think
about it. Never came, never had another
chance, did he? When the Spirit of God does for us what he did
for this Philippian jailer, we will spring in immediately. The Lord would have mercy upon
us. If he ever gives us a concern for our soul, and he ever weights
us down with the truth of our sin will not waste any time and
no obstacle will be in the way to keep us from running to Christ. Seventh, he was humbled. He fell down. at the apostles
faith there was a there was a humility in this proud prison keeper this
man who would have been a merciless man a man that was been arrogant
a heart that man a man who was used to dealing with criminals
on a daily basis and now god has broken and he's falling head
on down on to the at the feet of these apostles his prisoners
And rather than eat, I mean this is the same guy, what's he gonna
do? He washes their wounds, didn't he? Where'd they get those wounds?
He gave them to them. He had just beat them that night. He's the one that put the wounds
on them. And now, what's he doing? He's falling at their feet. And
what does he say? He asks the right question. That's the problem. Folks today
aren't asking the right question. If the Lord ever puts us through
what he put the Philippian jailer through, if this conviction of
sin becomes a pattern for our experience, then we will say
what He said. What must I do to be saved? I need to be saved. That's my
number one need. I need to be delivered. I need
to be saved from the wrath that is to come. I need to be saved
from my sin. I need to be saved from the darkness
of my unbelief. Lord, save me. People aren't
asking that today. They're not asking, what must
I do to be saved? No, instead they're asking questions
like, what work must we do to work the works of God? You know,
what law can we perform in order to earn favor with God? Or as
the irreligious are voicing the opinion of Pilate when they say,
truth? Oh, come on. You don't really
believe all that stuff, do you? Don't you know everything's relative?
Truth? Is that what this is all about?
There's no such thing as truth. They're asking all the wrong
questions. No one has ever said, like this jailer, what must I
do to be saved? in brokenness and humility like
this man who's had all of his foundations and all of his suppositions
shaken. No one's ever done that and been
left without an answer. Now they want to debate doctrine. I have people call me all the
time and somebody I think is coming in a week or so and they
want to debate doctrine. I know that's
what, you know, they just... They're like the Pharisees with
the blind man in the temple, wanting to know. Now, tell us
again, how did He give you your sight? Who was He? What did He
say? Oh, men justifying themselves.
Nobody... They're asking all the wrong
questions. Nobody is saying, what must I do to be saved? How can I be saved? How can I
be right with God? Now, don't make something out
of this that's not here. He's not asking, what work must
I work in order to earn favor with God. Paul and Silas didn't say to
him, you know, there's not a thing in the world you can do to be
saved. You just go home and, you know, and maybe the Lord
will save you, maybe He won't. You know, you got a 50-50 chance.
I had somebody tell me that this week. You know, they thought,
you know, that's what they were hearing. No! No! Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Believing is not a choice and
it's not an invitation. It's a command. And the evidence that we're chosen is
that we believe. That's it. Faith is the evidence
of our salvation. Our warrant for coming is the
command that God gives us to believe. And we're to say to
people, believe. Trust in. Rely upon. the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there's
a very popular subject in religion that men like to talk about. It's called Lordship Salvation. Lordship Salvation. And it's
all for the sake of, you know, is Jesus really your Lord? Is
He really your Lord? And all they do is try to get
you to look deeper and deeper into your own commitment to figure
out whether or not, well, am I really sold out to Christ? Is He really my Lord? And it
just becomes a vicious cycle into self-examination and works. That's all it is. That's all
it is. When we say that Jesus Christ
is our Lord, what we're saying is that He's all our strength.
He's all our strength. I have no strength. I have no
ability. I've committed everything to
Him. I've just committed everything
to Him. and and i and i believe that
he's lord i believe he's lord if you're asking me does that
do i always live as if he's lord it up i can't go there but i
believe with all my heart that jesus christ is lord he's lord
i've i'm trusting him forever i have no strength well when
we were yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. And so, when we acknowledge the
Lord Jesus Christ as Lord, we're not trying to figure out how
committed we are or look to our life to see how much we're living up to that commitment,
but we're saying, Christ is my Lord. in that he is my strength
and he's my master, he's my savior. He's all my salvation. You shall
call his name Jesus for he shall save his people. I believe that
he did everything necessary to recommend me to God. I believe
that he bore in his body all my sins and satisfied the demands
of God's justice once and for all, putting them away. He's
all my righteousness. He's my Christ. He's my sanctification
before God. He's all my holiness. He's my
Savior, my Messiah. He's everything. I've got no
place else to go. We can do that. Here's what the
Lord where else we gonna go. Thou alone has the words of eternal
life. We know and are sure that thou
art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. We just, we don't
know much but we know that. We know that. We know that you're
God. What did the Philippians, the
Ethiopian eunuch, when Philip said, if thou believest with
all thine heart thou mayest. When he asked him, what does
Henry be baptized? What did the eunuch say? I believe that Jesus
Christ is God. I believe that. He's the fullness
of the Godhead bodily and I am complete in Him. That's what Paul and Silas told
the Philippian jailer. Believe, rely upon, rest in,
trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and you shall be saved. And thine household. Now notice,
look what happens in verse 32. and they spake unto him the word
of the Lord and to all that were in his house so his household
wasn't just saved by proxy through his conversion you know there's
people who believe that all the babies in his house were converted
because you know they became members of the church and the
family of God they all got baptized because they know he brought
Paul out Paul went to his house which would have been right there
at the jail The jailer would have lived right on the same
premises with the jail. And he preached the gospel in
its entirety. In its entirety. This is the word of God. He preached
the word of God to him which by the gospel is preached unto
you. So Paul went and preached the gospel to his whole household
and that same hour of night he washed his stripes, the same
wounds that that jailer had caused, now he's healing them. Now he's
putting salve on them and bandaging them and saying to these men,
I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. And he was baptized. that night. He didn't have to
go through a new members class. He didn't go through some sort
of baptism. I'm amazed how many people, you know, they say they
believe the gospel. They've never asked to be baptized. That's not scriptural. Everybody
that ever believed the gospel in the scripture, the Ethiopian
eunuch, the Philippian jailer, the 3,000 on the day of Pentecost,
everybody that confessed Jesus Christ as Lord, delighted in
confessing that publicly in baptism. And so his confession was that
he was baptized, he witnessed to his family, he had compassion
towards the believers. And this is every believer's
story. This is every believer's story.
The Lord knows where his children are. He convicts them of their
sin. He shakes the foundation of their
suppositions and keeps them from committing spiritual suicide
by falling on their own sword. He puts the right question in
their heart. What must I do to be saved? He gives them faith to believe
and they rejoice in confessing Him in baptism and in witnessing
to their families and in ministering compassionately to
the other believers. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, we're thankful that you've given to us once again, in your
word, a clear example of each of our lives and each of our
stories as you've brought us out Lord, we pray that you would
cause us now to meditate on these things and to rejoice and to
believe. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 71 in the Sopactimno,
let's stand.