Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Acts, chapter 16. Acts 16. A few months ago, I spoke out of this particular
passage, verse 30 and 31. And the last couple of days, have been looking at it again,
knowing that we will never exhaust the fullness of any Scripture.
And every Scripture that we consider, we see Him, we've seen it right. Acts chapter 16. I'd like to look Starting in verse 25, I'm actually
going to be in 30-31, but 25. 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 Every man'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
for a light, 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 and thy house. If there has ever been a question
worth considering again and again, it's that question that that
Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas. Sirs, what must I
do to be saved? I looked at those words carefully, what is necessary? What demand must I do for me to be delivered from the
penalty of sin? Now, there's an answer to that
question. There is an answer to it. Because
the Spirit of God moved upon Paul and Silas at the same time,
obviously, for they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved and thy house. Not that salvation comes through
blood, but your house. shall be saved by the same grace
that God shows you, if they believe also. There is no doubt that that question
that he asked has a sound of works. You cannot get around the sound
of that question. What must I do to be saved? Had he asked that question with
that question being what must I accomplish? What must I provide
for myself? What can I do to please God?
Paul the Apostle would have never said what he said. There's an
answer to it though. What must I do to be saved? Now we all know here, and whoever
listens to this tape knows if they don't already, they shall.
What we preach and believe here is we believe that salvation
is totally by the grace of God. apart from any works of man's
self-righteousness. Not by works of righteousness
that we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. God Almighty is sovereign in
creation, in providence, and in salvation, and man in his
ability. to reconcile himself back to
God is totally spiritually impotent. He can do nothing to merit his
salvation. God the Father chose a people
in Christ from before the foundation of the world. The Lord Jesus
Christ made flesh, God made flesh, came into this world, lived and
died before God's law, and obeyed God perfectly. and laid down
his life, the holy, harmless Lamb of God, and bore the guilt
in his own body, made sin, the scripture says, and put away
the debt of God's elect. And the Spirit of God effectually
calls out, seals, sanctifies, teaches, guides God's sheep,
all that the Lord Jesus Christ died for. No part of man's self-righteous
works are involved in salvation. None. We know that. We know that. Therefore, we know
that believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is not the reason that
a man is saved. Because if believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ was the reason, was the merit of a man's salvation,
then that man would have been saved by his works. And we know
that's not so. But I'll tell you this, scripture
bears out that if a man does not believe, he will be damned. Believing is set forth as that
which a man does concerning his salvation. What
must I do to be saved? And I know according to scripture,
I know according to the witness of Almighty God, to my heart
that I in myself am totally incapable of performing belief apart from
the grace of God. Why? Because of my fall in Adam. Leave me to myself and I cannot
believe. and belief is required. Does a man have to believe to
be saved? Does a man have to believe to
be saved? Yes. Yes. Yes. Mark 16, 16. He that believeth
and is baptized, not that baptism saves any man, Again, if baptism
is a requirement for salvation, then we're saved by works. But
every man that truly believes confesses the Lord in baptism. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. He that comes to Christ, I wrote
this down in heart, by faith, sees by faith his need
of the Lord Jesus Christ apart from any work on his part to
merit his salvation. He who comes as a hell-deserving
sinner expecting life only from the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Confessing that faith in baptism,
God's going to save him. He shall be saved. And those
who reject him, his gospel, his grace, despise and neglect it,
are going to be damned. Believers know that the faith in Christ, that
faith through which they believe. That's how they believe. God
gives them faith to believe. By faith, we believe. Believers know that that belief
is not the product of their own ability. They know that. But
they must believe. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Listen, that which God demands,
belief, he gives, faith to believe. That which God demands, He supplies
in the objects of His mercy. I must have life. He must give
me life. I must come to Christ. And the
Spirit of God makes me willing in the day of His power. But
I come. I truly come. According to God
Almighty's miracle of His grace to His people, He demands that
His people believe on His Son. And He's going to grant them
the faith to believe. He does not leave them to themselves. Now this belief in the Lord Jesus,
as we've already said, is not something that's left to man's
ability. But this belief was eternally
ordained as the God-appointed means of receiving, understanding,
and enjoying that which Almighty God has been pleased to do, that
is, save His people. This is the way that God has
been pleased to call His people out. He gives them faith to believe
on His Son. This is my beloved Son, in whom
I'm well pleased. You hear Him. You hear Him. Apart
from the grace of God, I would never do that. God has ordained
that His people believe. And again, it is not a work of
righteousness that they have done. You catch that? It is a
work of faith. But where did they get it? Mitch,
the spirit of God has to give it to them. It does not come
from them. Do I have to breathe to live? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. I've got to breathe to live.
Do I have to drink water to live? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. Do I have
to eat to live? Yes, I do. But I can tell you this, my breathing
and my eating and my drinking water was not the source of my
life. God gave me life. And that which
God demanded for me, He gives. He gives me oxygen. He gives
me food. He gives me water. That which God demands, He provides. It is required that God's people
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. and the Father, the Son, and
the Spirit of God, the Lord God of heaven. And that eternal covenant
of grace has given God's people that which is required, faith
to believe. And that faith, as I said, look
at Acts 13. Just turn back a few pages. Acts 13, verses 46 to
48. It's not something that just came up. This is not an afterthought
with God. This believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ, this is eternal. This is an eternal purpose revealed
in time. Acts 13, 46, 48. Then Paul in Barnabas waxed bold
and said, it was necessary that the word of God should first
have been spoken to you, but seeing ye put it from you, and
judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn
to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded
us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles. that
thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And
when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified
the word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained to eternal
life, believed." Belief is the evidence
of salvation, not the source of it. God Almighty has to give
a man life first, then that man believes. Almighty God must reveal
himself in power, then a man believes. He gives him faith
to believe. Does a man have to believe to
be saved? Yes. And that belief was a product
of God's mercy. God Almighty gave him faith to
believe. So let me ask this question.
What does it mean to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? What
does that mean? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, recently we've considered this. I know that it does not
mean merely in His existence, though we do believe in the existence
of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Spirit. We know that God
is. We know that He is. By faith,
we know that. But what does it mean to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ? What does it mean to believe?
What does it mean for you to believe me? What does that mean? If I tell you something, what
does it mean for you to believe me? Well, number one, you trust
what I said. You trust me. If Marvin said,
I'll just plan to be there unless I'm providentially hindered,
and if I am, I'll call you. I won't leave you hanging. I'll
call you. If I tell you that, and you trust
what I said, you believe me. You don't doubt it. You don't
think I'm lying to you. You believe me. What is it to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Here it is. It's to take God
at His Word and to entrust myself to the keeping of His Son and
having no confidence whatsoever in my flesh. Believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ takes me and my ability out of the equation. Now, I'm not out of the equation
as being the object of His mercy, but I'm out of the equation as
far as adding anything to my salvation. To believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ is to look to Him alone for salvation. Salvation is of the Lord, that's
what Jonah said. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ,
what does that mean? It means, secondly, to believe
God's report of His Son. Isaiah 53.1, Who hath believed
our report, our doctrine, our hearing? And to whom is the arm
of the Lord revealed? That is to say, who has believed
the doctrine of Christ, God's Messiah? Who's believed the gospel
of God's grace? Is it necessary to hear the gospel? Absolutely. It's the power of
God unto salvation. It pleased God through the foolishness
of preaching, what men call foolishness. I've said before, not foolish
preaching, but what the world calls foolishness. But what the
world calls foolishness is wisdom, the wisdom of God. Is it necessary
to say, well, I just think that God could save... God could do
anything He wants to do. And God has said that through
the foolishness of preaching, He saves those that believe.
So believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is to believe God's report
of Him. We believe what God has to say
concerning His Son. We believe that the Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world, saved sinners out of every nation
and kindred and tribe and tongue. We do not believe that He came
and laid down His life for everybody. We don't believe that. Why? Because
God's report of the Son states otherwise. He was not a failure. You try to make the Lord Jesus
Christ lay down his life for everybody, and I'm telling you,
that won't fly. It won't hold water. Number one,
as I said just a moment ago, it makes Christ to be a failure. That means that he laid down
his life and shed his precious blood, and some of that blood
was shed in vain. You said, well, yeah, but I know,
but so you don't understand. Man's got to accept it in order
to make it effectual. Then you're saying salvation's
by works, by man's works. It won't fly. It won't fly. The
only report that gives the Lord Jesus Christ all honor, all glory,
all praise is God's report of his son. He gave him a people. He came into this world and lived
for and died for His people. That's what He said. I lay down
my life for the sheep. Oh, the sheep I have. They're
not of this fold of the Jews. Them I must bring. They shall
hear. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. He will not, He shall not fail. That's God's report. To believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ is to believe God's report. concerning
his son. And who's going to believe that?
Well, I'll tell you what the scripture says. To all that the
arm of the Lord, the power, power of the Lord reveals it. Who's
going to believe it? To all that God grants faith
to believe. It's given unto you, not only
to believe on his name, but to suffer for his sake. Belief is the result of faith. By faith we believe. Must we
believe? Yes. Why? Because God Almighty
demands it. It honors His Son. It honors
His Son. What must I do? You must believe. And that belief was a result
of God's mercy and grace to you. And you can lay no claim to it
as being the source of it, but I'll tell you this, it's yours.
It's yours. It's yours. When that Syro-Phoenician
woman, well the Syro-Phoenician woman,
yeah, the one that said even the dogs eat the crumbs, yes,
her too, but the one I was thinking of in my mind was the one with
the issue of blood. Spent all of her money. It was
none the better. And she saw the Lord Jesus Christ
said, if I can touch but the hem of his garment, I'll be made
whole. And she touched the hem of his garment and he stopped.
He said, who touched me? Remember the disciples said,
well, Lord, everybody's touching you. He said, yeah, but somebody
has touched me because virtue has gone out from me. Virtue
has gone out. Somebody touched me by faith. By faith. How do I know that? Because he looked at her, and
there she was trembling, and he said, daughter, be of good
cheer. Thy faith hath made thee whole. The object of her faith made
her whole. Must we believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ to be saved? Yes. Yes. I must believe on Him. And to believe on Him, I must
hear God's report concerning Him. I know this. I cannot regenerate
myself. I know that. The Lord Jesus Christ
told Nicodemus, accept a man, be born again. That is from above. He cannot see the kingdom of
God. I cannot regenerate myself, but
by the grace of God, by faith given from above, in regeneration,
I can believe. And thank God that I can believe.
Lord, you've given me faith to believe. Lord, I lay no claim
to what you say is mine, but Lord, I know that by your grace
I believe. Man must be born again. Therefore,
the Spirit of God must give a new heart. I'll tell you something
else I can't do. I can't keep myself from falling.
I cannot keep myself from falling. I cannot. The Lord alone is able
to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before
the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. But by the grace
of God, I can believe Him. I can believe Him who can keep
me from falling. I can trust Him who can hold
me with the right hand of His power. I can trust Him whose
everlasting arms uphold me and will not leave me, will not let
me go. I'm impotent. to save myself. But there's something
that I must do to be saved. I must believe. And thanks be
unto God. He is the one that gave me the
heart to believe. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
has to do with my calling out for mercy. It's tied in with
that. What must I do to be saved? Believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to this. Romans 10.13
says, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord. Oh, blind Barnabas on the side
of the road. Blind. Blind man. Blind man.
Blind Barnabas. And he heard that Jesus of Nazareth
was passing by. And what did that blind man do?
I'll tell you what he did. His mouth spoke what his heart
felt. I need him. And he cried out,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And they tried to
quiet him, and he cried the louder, Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. Let me ask you this, do you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ? Then call. If you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, God's already given you life. And you know what you will
do? You will call. Why? Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Why? Because
they believe on the name of the Lord Jesus. Believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ has something to do with a spiritual look. The Lord said, I'm going to give
you eyes to see, ears to hear, the hearing ear and the seeing
eye. The Lord hath made both of them. I know this. I've heard people
say, I've had people actually tell me, I'm sure some of you
have too, They said they saw the Lord.
Had somebody tell me one time, he was in my bedroom. He was
in, not mine, but theirs. And he said, I saw him. He was standing. I saw him. Well,
I can tell you this. I've never seen him. I've never
seen him. But I can tell you this. By faith,
I do. I hear these words. and my hearing
ear and my seeing eye, I see him that this earthly eye cannot
perceive. I know Job said, these eyes,
in this body, I'm going to see him. But right now, my eyes are
holding, I can't see him. But I can see him by faith. But Isaiah says, listen to this,
Isaiah 45.22, look unto me. and be you saved all the ends
of the earth for I'm God and there's none else. Look unto
me." How does a man look? By faith. By faith. He believes. An unbeliever, you'll
never convince, I told you this Sunday, you'll never convince
an unbeliever of this. But a believer, he knows it.
Those of you that see, see. You see. Numbers 21. I was reading this this afternoon. It was such a blessing to me.
Numbers 21, verses 4 to 9. They journeyed from Mount Hor
by the way of the Red Sea to accomplish the land of Edom.
and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the
way. And I'm telling you, we're all
so prone to be discouraged. You know, out there in the desert,
and the people spake against God, against Moses, wherefore
have you brought us? up out of Egypt to die in the
wilderness, for there is no bread, neither is there any water. Our
soul loatheth this light bread." People start to complain. The
first one they complain against is God. That's what the scripture says.
The people speak against God. And then I'll tell you how they
start manifesting that they're speaking against God. And it's
against God's man. God's preacher, Moses. And then the next thing they're
going to start complaining against God's provision and providence.
No water out here, our soul loathes this light bread, loatheth this
light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people, and they bit the people. And much people of
Israel died, therefore the people came to Moses and said, we've
sinned. But we've spoken against the Lord and against thee. pray
unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses
prayed for the people, and the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee
a fiery serpent, set it upon a pole, and it shall come to
pass that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall
live. Moses made a serpent of brass,
and put it upon a pole. It came to pass, if a serpent
had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. He lived by looking at that brazen
serpent, a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who was made sin. That's what that brazen serpent
was a picture. The snakes was what was biting
him. Snakes is a picture of sin. That's
what was biting them. You make a brazen serpent. Make
a brazen serpent. As Moses lifted up the serpent
at the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
That brazen serpent was a picture of Christ. And that look was
a look setting forth the spiritual look of faith unto Him who was
made sin for us. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
is set forth in Scripture as being a look. We look to Him. We call upon Him. We believe
on Him. We believe God's report concerning
Him. Believing the Lord Jesus Christ. This is so sweet. Believing on the Lord Jesus is the heart that desires to
be restored daily from the wanderings of this old heart to the things
of this world. I need to be restored daily. Listen to this, Psalm 80, verse
3. Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine, and
we shall be saved. Lord, turn us. Restore us. Remember when the Lord washed
the disciples' feet? Peter said, you'll never wash
my feet. The Lord said, if I don't wash
your feet, you have no part in me. Peter said, I wash my head,
my hands, everything. He says, no. He said, your feet. God's people need to have their
conversation, their walk restored daily. Don't we? Don't we? Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
is desiring from Him to restore me daily. Turn us again, O God. In conclusion, those who believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ know what they are in themselves.
Those that believe on the Lord What do they believe? They believe
Him and this is what they know about themselves. Oh, wretched
man that I am. We believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and we say as the publican, as he smote upon his breast,
God be merciful to me, a sinner. Those that believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ continually seek the Lord. And he liked the woman there
in Song of Solomon. Got out of her bed and sought
Him, the one that her soul desired. Have you seen Him? That's what
God's people do. Those that believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, they seek the Lord. They seek the Lord in the Scriptures.
They seek the Lord in prayer. They seek the Lord in the hearing
of the Gospel. They seek the Lord. They seek
Him. He said, Jeremiah 29.13, you
shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me with
all your heart. You know, people say, well I
thought you said that no man seeks after God. It's not that they're forbidden
to seek, they just won't do it by nature. But if God Almighty
gives a man a heart of faith, I tell you the first thing he's
going to do, he's going to seek God. and he's going to seek God,
and he's going to come and come and come. He that cometh to me,
that's believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. And those who believe
are taught afresh every day. First John, last verse right
here. First John chapter 5 verse 13. 1 John, I'd never seen this before
till I was going over this message again. Never saw this. This is
so sweet. This is the first time I'd ever
seen this. 1 John 5.13, these things have I written unto you
that believe on the name of the Son of God. Now, I know this.
I know who he's writing to. He's writing to believers. These
things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the
Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, that
you may know it, that you might be assured of it. And listen
to this, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.
What he said at the end was what he said at the beginning. These
things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the
Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and
that you may believe on the name of the Son of God." I need to
be told again. Tell me one more time. I knew
the truth of that, but I'd never seen it in that Scripture. These
things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the
Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and
that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. Believing
on Him, is it necessary? Absolutely. Am I the source of
it? No. Must I do it? Yes. Believe on the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. As I
said before, life is not in blood, Life is in Christ. If they believe,
the Lord will save them too. May the Lord bless these words
to our hearts.