All right, let's go back to Acts
16. This chapter of Acts. In the beginning of it, Paul
meets a young man named Timothy. And Paul took Timothy along with
him as they traveled around preaching. And they came into a city of
Macedonia called Philippi. And they went down to the river
and Paul preached and a woman named Lydia heard the truth and
God saved her. And she was very instrumental
in the beginning of the church at Philippi. She begged Paul
and Timothy to stay there at her house and continue preaching
to the people there in that city. And that's all right here in
chapter 16. So that's what they did. And as they would go to the services,
they would leave her house, and it says they would go where prayer
was wont to be made. They'd go to their services.
There was a woman who was possessed with a devil. And she was a poem
reader, a soothsayer, a fortune teller. And she would follow
them every time they went to services saying, look at verse
17. These men are the servants of
the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation.
She would just holler in it, following them to services every time they went. And Paul
got so sick and tired of it. Just sick and tired of it. So
in verse 18, Paul being grieved, he 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
the spirit came out. So she couldn't read poems anymore.
She couldn't soothe say anymore. She couldn't fortune tell anymore. And when the men who handled
her business, the guys who were kind of controlling her, making
a cut off of everything she did, when they found out that Paul
had cast this devil out, they realized they couldn't make any
money off her anymore. They got mad and they caught
Paul and another man named Silas. And they brought them before
the magistrates. and said, these men are Jews and they're troubling our city.
They're teaching Jewish customs and that's against the law. We're
Romans. All right, now look at verse
22. It says, and the multitude rose up together against them.
That's Paul and Silas. And the magistrates rent off
their clothes and commanded to beat them. And when they had
laid many stripes on 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 and made their feet fast in the
stocks. They were persecuted. They were
severely beaten. They were whipped across the
back. And then they were locked up in prison just for preaching
the gospel. That's it. Well, at midnight. Paul and Silas
started singing. In the prison. And they started praying, praying and singing praises unto
God. And all the prisoners in the
prison were just sitting there listening to these men. You guys are in prison. Why are
they so happy? And all of a sudden, God sent
an earthquake. And the foundations of that prison
started moving. Everything started moving. And
the doors fell off the hinges and the chain pins just rattled
right out of the walls. And the keeper of the prison
woke up. He was asleep. It was midnight.
He woke up and he knew that he'd lost all those prisoners that
he was in charge of. So he drew out his sword to kill
himself. And look at verse 28. But Paul
cried with a loud voice saying, Do thyself no harm. We're all
here. None of us walked out. Then the jailer called for a
light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before
Paul and Silas and brought them out. And then that jailer asked those
two men a question. And it's the most important question
in the world. There's no more important question
than this. It's the question every sinner
must ask. Look at verse 30. He said, sirs,
what must I do to be saved? Now I'm not going to read verse
31 to you. I want you to read it quietly to yourself. Go ahead
and read verse 31. All right now, if the answer
is believe. Then we're saved by works. You know that? I just read verse
31 too. If the answer is believe, then
we're saved by works. Think about that. Turn over with me to Ephesians
chapter 2. Ephesians 2, look at verse 8. It says four by faith. Are you saved through grace? Is that what it says? Don't say that. It says four by grace. Are you saved by grace? Are you saved through faith? But it's by grace that we're
saved. Do you know what the faith is?
Hold your place right here in Ephesians 2 and go to Hebrews
11. Verse 1 says, Now faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It's the evidence. Ephesians
2.8 tells us the means and the evidence of the means. Alright,
now go back over to Ephesians chapter 2. Verse 8 says, For by grace are
you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God. Faith is a gift, right? It's a present. The ability to believe that's
faith. The ability to believe is a gift. If you can believe. Then you have been given the
gift. Does that make sense? If you can believe. You know,
we tell people just believe it, just read it and believe it,
right? I can't. It must be given. If you can believe, then you
have been given the gift and you shall be saved because you
have been saved. Turn with me over to John chapter
six. John chapter 6 verse 47 says, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life. He that believes already has
it. not will have everlasting life,
hath it. He that believes hath everlasting life. He already
has it. Because if he didn't already have it, and the Lord saying, if I didn't
already give him this gift, look at right here in John six, verse
44, it says, no man can come to me. No man can come. No man can believe. No man can, not on his own. It's
all by grace. It's all by grace. Every bit of it. Now turn to
Matthew 19. Matthew 19, look at verse 23. It says, Then said Jesus unto
his disciples, Verily I say unto you. Now this is God talking
and that word verily means I'm telling you the truth of a truth. Verily I say unto you that a
rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again,
I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom
of God. When his disciples heard it,
they were exceedingly amazed saying, who then can be saved? And look at verse 26. But Jesus
beheld them. That means he looked them straight
in the eyes. And said unto them. With men. This is impossible. It's impossible. Who can be saved? With men, it
is impossible. What must I do to be saved? What is the condition I must
meet to be saved? No condition can be met. It must be unconditional. Does that make sense? Because
with men, it's impossible. Period. It's impossible. Now, our Lord said that and he's
not using a figure of speech. With men, no act of the heart,
no act of the mind and no act of the flesh can cause a person
to receive salvation. With men, this is impossible. Verse 26, he went on to say,
but with God, all things are possible. You know what he means
by that? Jonas said, salvation is of the
Lord. of the Lord. Period. Now go back to Acts chapter 16.
Acts chapter 16. Verse 30 says. This jailer 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. Now they were not giving him
step one and step two. They were not. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. But they were telling him there
is an evidence. There is an evidence. There is
something that God has said would show the work of salvation in
a person. And what they actually gave him
was step two and then step one. That's what they gave him. Look
at what they did not say. They did not say, change your
way of living and thou shalt be saved. And that's what people
think, isn't it? It really is. They may not admit
it or even know it, but if they really stop and think about it,
that's what people think. Well, they got to change their
way of living or they're not going to be saved. It's not what
it says. Decide to go to church faithfully. You know what? It's a short life. I want to go to heaven. We're
going to be there. That's not what it says. Do the absolute best that you
can. Just do the best that you can.
Now, when God saves a person, there is a change. There really
is. Christ in you is a change. A man that has Christ in him
is a new man. And they do attend the worship
services faithfully. They do. And they want to do
what's right. They do. But those are not necessarily
evidences of salvation. I know a lot of people who live
a lot better life than I do, a lot cleaner life than I do. You know, I'm here as often as
I can be, but they attend their false churches very regularly. I've talked to them. I know that
they have no idea who the true God of the Bible is, but they
live a clean life. They attend faithfully. That's
not necessarily an evidence of salvation. They did not tell those men,
you get all your doctrine right. I've got five points for you.
And if you get all five points in order, thou shalt be saved.
They didn't say that. Here's what they said. Verse
30, the jailer brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do
to be saved? And they said, believe. Believe. That's the evidence. Faith is
the evidence. Believe. Believe what? Abraham believed God and it was
counted unto him for righteousness. What did Abraham believe about
God? That there was a God? No. That text that I quoted goes
on to say he believed that what God had promised God was able
also to perform. That's what he believed. You
know that that's all he believed. What God had promised God was
able to perform. That's it. He believed God would
do what he said he would do. Abraham believed God, he believed
His word. Verse 31, they said, believe
on the Lord, Jesus Christ. Lord is His name of deity. Here is the evidence. Those who
have received true salvation believe that this man Jesus is
God. That's what they believe. He
is God, the highest God. There is none higher than Him. Jesus is His name of humiliation,
His name of humanity. Those who have received true
salvation believe It was God himself who came down here. God
himself. Who came down here and lived
and died as a man for the sin of his people. That's what they
believe. I believe that. I really do. I believe this man, Jesus, is
the man I will see sitting high and lifted up on his throne.
And I believe He left His throne to come down here and live and
die. That's what I believe. Christ
is the union of both. That's what it means. Those who
have received true salvation believe He is 100% man and 100%
God, the Anointed One, the Messiah. Those who have received true
salvation believe that he is their prophet. Every word that comes out of
his mouth is the word of God. That's what they believe. He
is my prophet. I listen to him. Everything that comes out of
his mouth, I can believe it. I can trust it. I can rest on
it because it's the word of God. Those who have received true
salvation believe that he is their priest. He's the only mediator
between God and man, the only person who can do anything for
me. I got one hope and it's Jesus
Christ. Those who have received true
salvation believe that He is their King. I believe He's my
King. That's what I believe. I'm His
subject. I'm His servant. He is my master. He's my ruler. He's my controller. He is my sovereign. I bow to
my King. Verse 31 in Acts chapter 16 says, And they said, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's the evidence. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust in Him. Hope in Him. And they said, and thy house.
You know that doesn't mean every single person in your house is
going to be saved. If the Lord does that, oh, it's great mercy. He came to set a man at variance
with his house, right? But if your house believes this,
then it means salvation has come to your house. It means mercy
has come to your house. It means everything that happens
to a person who believes this in his house will work together
for good. That's what it means. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's wonderful, isn't it? That's wonderful. Unconditional. If I believe,
it ain't me who did it. Salvation's of the Lord. It starts
with Him. It ends with Him. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Here's what I
want to say. Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. Increase
my faith. It was a gift to start with.
Still gotta be a gift. Lord, would you please keep giving
it? Please keep giving it. Help thou my unbelief. All right,
let's stand together.