May the Lord graciously bless
us this morning as we meditate in his holy word. Let us turn
to the Acts of the Apostles chapter 16 and we'll read verse 30. The Acts of the Apostles chapter
16 and reading verse 30. And brought them out and said,
sirs, what must I do? to be saved. As far as of course the jailer
Philippi who was asking this question, of course it was a
very important question, a question for him, a question for his household,
and in actual fact a question for everybody, because all of
us need to know what it is. to be saved. What must I do to
be saved? We read this account together
in the 16th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles and it's very
instructive really to realize how God graciously directed Paul
and Silas and stopped them going in certain places and directed
them to come over into this place of Macedonia. It wasn't a local
place, it was a long way from where they were, several hundreds
of miles, and yet it was the Lord's purpose to send them all
that way really for at least initially these two situations. Firstly, when they came and they
came on the Lord's day and came and worshipped by the riverside
and the women gathered there because it was a place where
prayer was made. And amongst those women was a
woman called Lydia, and the Lord graciously touched her heart
with a preaching of Paul and caused her to believe in the
great and glorious gospel. And all her household also, they
clearly were instructed And the result was they were baptized. And so we see God graciously
caused Paul and Silas to come all these miles for this particular
reason. And then as we go on, a short
time afterwards, a few days, or at least not too many days
afterwards, they were put in prison. And the result was there
was that great earthquake. this Philippian jailer came and
the result was he asked the question, what must I do to be saved? I think the very wonderful thought
is here. The Lord had ordained that the
Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Apostle Paul should come
to these people and these two families And the Lord had called
the apostle Paul to come into these locations for this divine
purpose. And of course, it wasn't a very
pleasant experience naturally in the second one where he was
in prison. But we should realize, I feel in our own lives today,
that the Lord is the same God and he can cause us to be in
a certain place at a certain time to hear the gospel. And it is under his divine purpose
and decree for these things to come to pass in the life of every
true believer. There is a certain time, a time
when the Holy Spirit will touch their heart and cause them to
consider their ways and cause us to consider our way. And it'll be a wonderful blessing
if this morning you and I can look back in our little lives,
no less important, of course, than Lydia's and the Philippian
jailer, because we all have a never dying soul, just like they did. and they receive the great and
glorious mercy of Almighty God. And therefore what a wonderful
blessing if you and I have or will or do receive the wonderful
mercy of Almighty God. And it is not something which
is irrelevant. It is not something which is
unimportant. It is a very, very important
thing Because without this saving knowledge our souls, our eternal
souls, will be forever lost and we will not be saved and we shall
pass eternity in endless torment in hell itself. It's a really
terrible consideration and yet a very true consideration. And
what a mercy it is if the Holy Spirit brings us to that condition
and that situation and that time when the Lord comes, not to,
as a hymn writer says, not to propose but call by grace. You see, the Lord's work is full
and complete. Man may propose, the Lord does. He calls. And that call is what
we refer to sometimes as an effectual call. That means there is a result. And what a mercy when there is
a good result. because we realize it is the call from heaven, a
call from God himself to our very souls, which causes us,
in the same way that it caused Lydia, in the same way that it
caused this Philippian jailer, to inquire as to the great importance
of being saved. And so we see this question,
what must I do to be saved? Well, I wonder whether in our
lives we've come to that point, whether the gracious God has
come and spoken to us in this way and cause us therefore to
return with that inquiry that real inquiry, that God-given
inquiry, that real concern, what must I do to be saved? It's really a question that all
of us need therefore to ask, and it's a question that we all
need to be able to answer. We don't want to pass it by,
we don't want to think, well, I don't think it's very important.
It's probably the most important question that we can honestly
ask. What a mercy it is, therefore,
if the Lord gives us grace to ask that very question. Now what we know in the cases
of Lydia and in the case of the Philippian jailer, the gospel
was preached to them and the gospel entered into their heart
and the gospel had a good effect upon them and it was therefore
an effectual word in their souls. What a mercy then for us today
if that is so and what is very very clear is that the apostle
and it would seem that Paul and Silas both preached and both
spoke of the great and glorious things of God, because as we
read in the 31st verse, and they said, well, it must have been
Paul and Silas, and they said, and what did they say? 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." What a great
occasion it was. What a blessed occasion it was.
And yet we should not forget that it was God's ordained way. And as we spoke on Friday, the
words of the Apostle when he said, if we suffer with him,
we should also reign with him. And quite clearly, when the Spirit
of God in that vision came to the Apostle Paul and told him,
come over into Macedonia and help us, you probably imagined
a wonderful time of blessing. Well, it was to begin with, wasn't
it? There he came on the Lord's Day
and went out by the riverside to the place where prayer was
going to be made. And again, it's important to
just realize that, that there it was, as we might refer to
it as the Lord's Day. And what did he do? He didn't
wander around anywhere. He went to a specific place,
a specific place on the Lord's Day where prayer was to be made. It was a normal place. where
the women met on the Lord's Day to pray. And therefore he and
Silas went to that same place. And what a blessing it was then
on that occasion, because we're told a certain woman named Lydia
Sarah Kirkle of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us.
They heard the word of the Lord. And we're then told whose heart
the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken
of Paul. The two things go together. We
say it was the work of the Holy Spirit. Two things. First of
all, whose heart the Lord opened. The Lord opens our heart to receive
the Word of God, to receive the truth of God's Word. We do not
do it by ourselves. In actual fact, our ears, until
that time comes, are deaf ears, and we have no true desire to
hear the Word of God. We're happy to go along, perhaps
to those places and to listen to the Gospel, but there's no
real spiritual concern until the work of the Holy Spirit comes
upon us and produces that concern, that desire. So on this occasion,
this woman, Lydia, heard the words of the apostles and attended
unto the things that were spoken of Paul. There was an outworking
of the Word. The heart was open and the work
was carried on and there was a result. We live in a day when
often these things are not put together. We live in a day when
people often seem ignorant of the pattern which is so clearly
set before us in the Word of God. And we should remember,
the pattern is, for our good, and more importantly, for the
honour and glory of God. So often I'm sure, in the day
and age in which we live, people lose complete sight of the purpose
of our conversion. It's for the honour and glory
of Almighty God. And what a blessing it is when
there is therefore that evidence of his work. And so in the case
here of Lydia, we're told, they worship God, and they heard us,
whose heart the Lord opened, and she attended unto the things
which were spoken of Paul. And therefore, when she was baptized
and her household, They were all converted. They were all
moved by the Holy Spirit of God. What a wonderful occasion it
was. There was a uniting together. There was an outpouring of the
Holy Spirit. And not only was she baptized,
but she set forth a wonderful example because now her house
was open to receive the people of God, and she was baptized
at her household. She assault us, saying, if you
have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house
and abide there. And she constrained us. Well, it was evident that she
wanted to continue to have spiritual conversation, spiritual edification,
with Paul and Silas. It's an evidence you see of the
great and blessed work of God and how wonderful it is today
when the Spirit touches hearts so that hearts are moved, spirits
are moved to declare what God has done. It's not something
we hold in. It's not something we keep back.
something we desire to bring forth in order that our great
and glorious Saviour, who has done so much to redeem our souls,
is honored and glorified. And so that was the result of
the effect of the preaching of the Apostle Paul and Silas and
it was the effect really of the blessed work of the Holy Spirit
to move these people to touch their hearts. So it was a time
of wonderful blessing. Now my friends today the Spirit's
work has not ceased. The Spirit's work continues. May we pray earnestly that it
may be wonderfully evidenced and may the pattern set before
us in this account be truly followed for the honour and glory of God. No doubt the Apostle Paul and
Silas were so encouraged by this, but there was going to be a change
and there was going to be a time now of very severe suffering
for the day of the Saviour. And as we read in this account,
it came to pass as we went to prayer, again it's a wonderful
evidence of the blessed work of the Spirit, the action of
prayer 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 saying followed
Paul, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the Most
High God, which shall unto us the way of salvation. And this
she did many days. all 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 the hope
of their gain was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and drove
them into the marketplace unto the rulers. Well, We live in
a day, don't we, of still, thankfully in our nation, not all nations
by a long way, but our nation, we still have this freedom to
proclaim the glorious truths of God. But of course, we don't
know how much longer this is going to be maintained to us. Paul and Silas were blessed with
these opportunities and they grasped them and the law was
with them and yet the Lord then permitted them to be taken captive
by these masters of this woman who was bringing them so much
financial gain. I'm sure that's the likely outcome
in our nation today. The devil sees that those who
are followers of him and his ways are decreased he'll get
very angry and do all he can to turn people against the church
of God and against those who preach the everlasting gospel
and therefore they were brought to the magistrates and they were
magistrates were told these men don't see any trouble in our
city and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive
at the moment they are lawful for us to receive we don't know
how much longer they will remain lawful for us to receive. We see the storm clouds surely
on the horizon, neither to observe being Romans. The multitude rose
up together against them. Well, the multitudes are rising
up against the true truth of Almighty God. And the magistrates
rent their clothes and commanded to beat them for preaching the
gospel. That was their sin. And when
they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison,
charging the jailer to keep them safely. And having received such
a charge, thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet
fast in the stocks. Well, they must have wondered,
well, is this the purpose of God? God's called us to come
into Macedonia. We've obeyed the word of God
and here we are now with all these lashes on our back and
our feet in the stocks and in this prison house. Oh what's
going to happen now? You might think they would have
caused to be very rebellious against God but what we're told
and it's a a wonderful scene and a wonderful evidence of the
grace of God. And with that, still today, the
grace of God does shine forth in the lives of those who have
suffered and are suffering in a similar way. And we don't know
whether it will come to us in our lifetime, but if it does,
we have here a wonderful example. And at midnight, Paul and Silas
prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard
them. They weren't ashamed of the gospel,
weren't they? They didn't keep it in their
being. No, they sang praises, and they
must have sung them loudly, so loudly that the prisoners heard
them. And of course, the Lord heard them, and the Lord knew
what he was to do and therefore had only been in this prison
for this short time and the Lord was to bring about a deliverance
in a way that they could not have foreseen and they could
not have produced but it was a way that God graciously and
gloriously and sovereignly brought about. Let us remember our God
today is exactly the same as he was on this day, on this occasion. And his arm is not shortened,
but it cannot say. Now he is still gracious and
merciful and compassionate. And so what did the Lord do? And suddenly there was a great
earthquake. So the foundations of the prison
were shaken and immediately all the doors were opened and every
man's bands were loosed. deliverance and the keeper of
the prison. But 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 been fed. And Paul cried with a loud voice,
saying, Do thyself no harm. And it is of interest that a
number of occasions in the Word of God, people spoke with a loud
voice. People cried with a loud voice.
It wasn't something which was done in secret. And so we hear,
on this occasion, Paul cried indeed with a loud voice, do
thyself no harm. We're all here. So the jailer
came and he called for a light and he sprang in and came trembling. fell down before Paul and Silas.
What do we see? The work of God. From probably
a very aggressive jailer to a man now trembling under the work
of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit today causes
us to tremble. What a good thing in our lives
if that has occurred. when before God, before Almighty
God, we trembled, trembled to realize there is a God, a God
who is working, a God who is doing marvelous things. And so
here we have this situation, that he came trembling and he
fell down before Paul and Silas. brought them out out of the prison
and he said sirs what must I do to be saved. We conclude shortly from that
that he had not been ignorant of what the charges were against
Paul and Silas and probably he'd also heard their singing at night
and it was probably the Psalms that they sung and the great
truths that they contain. And therefore, there may have
been a seed sown in his heart at that time, but now there's
been this wonderful expression of God's power so that the prisoners
have been freed and they're brought out. And this great question
is asked, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Well, may we all
have asked that question to Almighty God. And every one of us this
morning knows in our spiritual life whether that has been a
concern as to whether our souls are saved. You may say, well,
what did it mean? It means quite simply this, saved
from eternal wrath, the wrath of God, saved from eternal separation
from God, saved from that terrible eternity in hell. That's what
the church of God, the living church of God, are concerned
to be saved from, from that eternal situation. Let us not think these
are just pigments of our imagination and it's not just think well
they've been spoken for many years but of course the world
goes on and uh i know sanso was a good person who died and uh
well didn't really testify in this way what does the word of
god tell us that's the great truth don't worry about other
people's views and other people's lives Because it's how you and
I stand before God and we have the testimony in the Word of
God of God's people. And that's who you and I want
to be seen to be like. Not following those in the world
who carry on in their worldly life and content with the things
of time. Here were two examples, Gloria's
example, Lydia and this Jada, who were moved by the Spirit
of God. And so in answer to this great
question, what must I do to be saved? Yes, what must I do? It was personal, and so it will
be in your life and my life before God. A personal request to Almighty
God, What must I do? Well, have you asked that question? I don't know. No one else knows. Only you know. God knows whether
it emanated from your heart or whether it's just a mere vain
expression. If you thought you ought to say
the vast difference between the religion of a soul and a religion
just in the head, in the mind. Well may it truly be from our
soul. Well the apostles they answered
in a very beautiful way. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved and thy house because it applied to all
the house who had the gospel preached to them The apostle
clearly preached to them the gospel, and he clearly preached
to them the whole gospel, and he clearly preached to them about
being baptized. It wasn't something that he kept
back. It was the case of those who
were true believers and true followers. They were baptized. They didn't hold back. Therefore,
we have the word spoken here. And they spoke unto them word
of the Lord, and to all them in the house. And they took them
the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was
baptized he and all his house straightway." A wonderful testimony,
wasn't it? A wonderful example. A wonderful
testimony, example for us today, to the whole Church of God. It was a very simple position,
a very simple case. What it meant was they were convicted
of their need of a saviour because they asked the question, what
must I do to be saved? And they were told, believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, but also they'd obviously been told a
lot more than that. because why should I then be
baptized? It was quite clear that from
that position that they had the gospel preached to them. But
it was in no doubt a very few concise words. And they weren't
able to come and say, well, of course, I've got this wonderful
testimony over all these many years of what this has occurred
and that's occurred and this not at all. It was a very simple
testimony of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ as their saviour. My friends today, that is the
great need of everyone, every true believer, to be able to
come and say, I believe. Just like that Philippian eunuch,
if you read of in an earlier chapter when Philip came and
asked him the question, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? And he asked who he was. When
it was explained to him, he said, I believe. What a blessing then
for us today. What a blessing for each one
of us. If we can say, I know that we may be able to say, and
if we can't say, may we earnestly pray that we may say very soon. And not expect and not ask. for wonderful revelations and
wonderful blessings. See, I think sometimes people
have been hindered in their taking up their cross and following
the Lord, expecting some wonderful movement of the Holy Spirit,
some wonderful revelation. We're not promised that. We are
promised a movement of the Holy Spirit in our souls, which has
caused us to cry unto him which has caused us to believe. That is the work of the Holy
Spirit. Don't underestimate it. And it's a blessed evidence of
the wonderful work of God toward us. Now you see, the thing is,
there was a glorious outcome. And it's good just to follow
through. Sometimes we only read part of
an account. We don't follow it through. to
what the result was. We're told that he and all his
house were baptized straightway, and when he had brought them
into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced, believing
in God with all his house. It was a time of rejoicing. And if the Lord has graciously
touched our hearts, and caused us to cry unto Him, caused us
to seek unto Him. The Lord has given us faith to
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour. It is indeed
a time to rejoice. It is indeed a time to praise
God. It is a time to come and bow
before Him as the great and blessed Redeemer. What a mercy, you know,
it is if these things are so. The Son of God came for this
divine reason. We read of in the 18th chapter
of Matthew, verse 11, for the Son of Man is come to save that
which was lost. That was in relation to that
account when the Lord went after that lost sheep. Perhaps you
and I have felt like the lost sheep We may seem to be a long
way away. Far off, the Lord went after
the lost sheep. He found him, found her. He didn't say, well, get up and
come this way. He picked up the sheep, put the sheep on his shoulders,
carried them back to the flock. What a wonderful example of the
love of the Saviour. Perhaps we felt to have wandered away. The Lord
knows where you are. You can't go out of the sight
of God. You may think we have, no. God
still looks upon us. God's eye is still upon us. It
wasn't that case. He went and he found that lost
sheep. Son of man has come to save that
which was lost. You may feel perhaps there's
no hope. There is hope. There is hope. The Lord says, seek and you shall
find. There is hope. Don't give up hope. The Lord
is merciful. The Lord is compassionate. The
Lord is gracious. The Lord is merciful. The Lord
is loving. The Lord gives that grace and
glorious gift of repentance to come and acknowledge our sins
and to turn to the Saviour, turn to Him. Look unto me, says the
Lord in Isaiah 45, 22, look unto me and be saved. For I am God. There's none else. Don't look
anywhere else. Look to the Saviour. You know, the Apostle Paul, when
he wrote to the church at Rome, wrote some beautiful words, powerful
words, necessary words. The 10th chapter of the Romans
and the 9th and 10th verses, he tells us, But if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth, Lydia confessed, The jailer confessed. God's people confess. Why? For his honour and glory. But
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the law of Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved. What a wonderful truth that is. But with a heart, Man believeth
under righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. What does that do? What does
that confession do? It brings honour and glory to
almighty God. So how thankful we should be
this morning that we have such glorious statements of two people,
very different, very different. One woman, one man, two families,
blessed indeed by the work of the Holy Spirit, moved by the
Holy Spirit, under the preaching of the gospel, to come seeking
for that great and glorious work of salvation in their souls. and the outworking of it, to
be baptized and to rejoice in what the Lord has done. Well,
may you and I today truly rejoice in God's work toward us, that
sovereign work, to be able to rejoice in the sovereign grace
of God, to be able to rejoice in the amazing love of God, to
be able to rejoice in the wonderful mercy of God. They're all joined
together. And may we therefore go on our
rejoicing, we're able to trace out the blessed work of God,
the blessed calling of God, the blessed favor of God toward us. So that we therefore have the
evidence that we are amongst those who one day will be found
in glory around the throne of God, praising him throughout
eternity. Amen.