Turn back to Acts chapter 16. What must I do to be saved? Not get saved. He doesn't say,
what must I do to get saved? There's a difference in that
statement. What must I do to be? The state of being. And that's actually stated in
the passive He said, tell me. Tell me something here. I'm at
God's mercy. I'm at God's mercy just as every
one of you this morning, including me. We are at the mercy of God,
aren't we? What must I do to be saved? You
know, before God saves a sinner, He must first Get that center, bring that center
to the point of where that center is lost. You've got to be lost. Most out
there in religion have no clue what lost is. God must get us lost. It takes
the power of God to bring me, you, and anyone whom He saves. It takes the very power of God
to bring us to the point where we
are lost. And we see it. We know it. We
understand it. We understand, I'm in trouble. I'm in deep, deep trouble. Charles Spurgeon said this, and
I'm going to repeat it again. A sinner is a sacred thing, for
the Holy Spirit hath made him so. It takes the Holy Spirit to make
a man confess without excuses, like David did in Psalm 51, guilty. I'm guilty. I make no excuse
for my sins, for what I've done. I make no excuse for it. As long as you're making excuses,
you have never been brought to the place of being lost. None. You've not been brought there. It takes the Lord to do this.
Now, just to give a little background here for some people who have
not been here to the Bible class, we've been going through the
book of Acts. But Paul preached to some women down by the riverside
here at Philippi. Remember, he wanted to go to
Asia. God forbade him to go to Asia
and told him to go to Macedonia. He goes there to the city of
Philippi. It's a military town. There's no synagogue there because
there's not enough Jews there in that town to have a synagogue.
So there's some women down by the riverside that meet. And
so Paul goes down there and he preaches to them. And the Lord
opens this woman's heart named Lydia. He opens her heart. She heard the gospel and God
saved her. And so Paul and Silas, they stay
there a while. And they stay there so they can
preach the gospel to others there. And their preaching, and really
dealing with this demonic woman here that has that spirit of
divination, lands them in prison. It lands them in prison. Now,
on the surface, This looks bad. On the surface, if you don't
understand God's providence, it's confusing. But how wonderful
is the providence of God in the saving of His sheep? God's providence
is always at work in the saving of a sinner. All things work
out together for good to them that love God, who are called
according to His purpose. As bad as this looks on Paul
and Silas, it's actually working for good. Just as everything
in my life, your life, everything, I don't care if it's a headache.
If you're a child of God, it's working for your good. There's
good in it. You say, I'm having a bad day.
Well, you know, I've had bad days, but still a good day. because
my bad days of God. That's for my good. There's a
purpose in it. There's a purpose in it. And there's a purpose
here in this woman and Paul casting the demon out of her and the
magistrates are mad. They're so mad and upset they
put Paul and Silas in prison. And here's another reason why. God's preacher and that sinner
whom God's going to save, their paths have to cross. They have
to cross. There's a preacher. If God's
going to save a sinner, God has a preacher. God has a preacher. And He has a message to preach
at that time to that sinner. And in God's time, There's a
time to be born, a time to die, or there's a time to be born
of God if God's going to save you. You don't just accidentally
hear the gospel. There's not a soul here this
morning by accident. I promise you, there's not a
soul here by accident. There's no accidents with God.
Not at all. And so God's going to cross the
path of this jailer, and Paul, and it's going to be tough on
Paul and Silas, It's going to be a trial of their faith. And
it's actually for me and you to see how they handle this trial.
We get to see this. 2,000 years later, we get to
see how they handle it. And so what brought all of this
about was this Paul casting this evil spirit out of this woman
and her masters lost their money. And so they caused this uproar. Paul and Silas get cast into
prison. And they're beaten, it says there in verse 23, and when
they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them in prison
after they beat them about half to death. And they charged the
jailer to keep them safely. They charged, you know, don't
you let them escape. That's a charge. And you know
that charge they gave that jailer, that jailer's life depended on
it. It depended on it. Who having received such a charge,
He received such a charge, he thrust them, took them and he
thrust them. He took them where there's gonna
be in prison and he threw them in the prison. He just tossed
them in there. He didn't just open the door
and say, all right, get in. No, he threw them in. Rough. Listen, I picture this man as
just a burly, rough, I mean, he's rough. I mean, if he's gonna
be a jailer in that time, he's not somebody you're gonna mess
with. I mean, he's not somebody you're going to mess with. He's
going to be a rough, he's a crusty old soldier. Been around a while. He thrust him into the inner
prison. There was two prisons. This is the dungeon. This is
the damp dungeon where there's no windows, no light. And whenever
he threw them in there and he walked away with his light, remember
he asked for light to spring in? Because there's no light
in there. They are in complete darkness. Paul and Silas are
cast into complete Darkness. No light whatsoever. And he made
their feet fast in the stocks. Now that's not handcuffs. Don't
think of that as handcuffs. That would be a gentle way of
putting it. You've seen them where they've
got these wooden things that they put their hands through.
It's around their neck and their hands are like this. And it's
around their feet and their feet are spread apart. It's very uncomfortable
and it's made for the very purpose of torture. All right, they're in a miserable
condition. For preaching the gospel, casting out that demon,
they are in a miserable condition. You know, most of us, you know,
when you heard the gospel, you came here and sat down, didn't
you? Air-conditioned building, nice, comfortable seats. I mean,
I did. I was in comfort when I heard
the gospel. But not this situation. Not this
situation. This is a totally different situation. They're thrown into that prison,
in the inner prison. And I want you to notice something.
At midnight, now, they wouldn't know it was midnight. It's completely
dark in there. But this statement is made here
showing, first of all, they're not asleep. They're in a situation
where there's no sleep. They're so uncomfortable. Now,
what would I do if I was laying in that dungeon and I was in
the stocks? We would probably complain, wouldn't
we? We'd say, man, I thought it was
God's will for me to be here. Don't ever take a difficult situation,
and when you think you're doing the Lord's will, you believe
you're doing the Lord's will, and difficulty comes along. Don't
think you made the wrong choice. Because difficulty is going to
come along and try you. It's going to try you, just like
Paul and Silas here. But now at midnight, Paul and
Silas prayed. They prayed to God, and they
sang praises unto God. Someone said, two songbirds in
the night. Doesn't the Scripture say, He gives us songs in the
night? Here are these two men in a miserable situation, preaching
the gospel, going where God said to go, and here they are praying,
and those other prisoners in there, they hear those prayers. They hear this singing. And listen,
their songs had weight to it. Their songs meant something.
Their songs had the gospel in it. Their prayers had the gospel
in it. I had no doubt about that. And
the prisoners heard them. And suddenly, it says, suddenly,
there was an earthquake, a great earthquake. It didn't just happen. God made the earth to quake.
God sent that earthquake. Just like when Jesus Christ was
hanging on the cross, it said, the earthquake. This is God's
earth. It doesn't quake without Him.
It doesn't move without Him. Nothing in this world moves and
exists without Him who gives it its command. And the earthquake,
so that the foundation of the prison were shaken. And one of
the reasons that the earthquake happened, you know why? That
jailer was asleep. You see, listen, this is so beautiful. Paul goes down to the riverside.
There's some women down there meeting. There's a woman named
Lydia. Paul begins to preach and he
says, God opened her heart. But here's an acrusty, hardened
jailer. God sent him an earthquake to
wake him up. God will send whatever he needs to send to wake you
up. If he's going to save you, he's going to wake you up. And so he shakes the foundation
of the earthquake and immediately the doors were opened And everyone's
bands were loosed. Now listen, that earthquake did
not open those doors. That earthquake didn't make those
wooden shackles, I mean those wooden ones, they're not just
like hanging, they're wooden. That earthquake didn't make those
fall off. You know who did that? The Lord
did. The Lord set the captive free.
You know what Scripture says? He setteth the captive free. He's the only one who can shake,
who can loose us from the bands of death, the power of Satan,
the power of that old nature we're born with that controls
us. He's the only one who can break that and set us free. He's the only one who can make
that become impotent. And the keeper of the prison,
the keeper of the prison, he awakened out of his sleep. God
woke him up. God woke him up. And seeing the prison doors open,
he drew out his sword. He was going to kill himself
because he knew the death that he would die. Because if any
prisoner was lost, he had to die for that prisoner. And when
he put Paul and Silas in the inward prison, that's for the
ones who were going to die. That was for the ones who were
going to be executed. That's why they were put in the inner
prison. They were going to kill them. And so he knew the death he would
die would be a far more miserable death than him just taking a
sword and stabbing himself. And so he sees those prison doors
open, and what all had happened there, he was going to kill himself,
but Paul cried out. You see, he supposed the prisoners
had been fled. It says in verse 28, but Paul
cried with a loud voice. Paul shouted like with a loud
voice. Do thyself no harm. I mean, the
man had the sword getting ready to just plunge it through him.
He was going to do it. For we are all here. All those
prisoners that were in there, and you know, some of them were
in there for some pretty bad crimes. That's the power of the
gospel. That's the power of God to save.
All those doors were open. It's not like they made an exit
for the door. Those prisoners were so overcome
by what they heard Paul and Silas doing and what they had heard
from them, they listened for more. They didn't leave. And
God didn't let them leave because if one had left, that man was
going to have to die. God controls all things. Our
God controls all things. All are in his hands. Jesus Christ
is not in your hands. We are in his hands. That's the
difference between false religion and the truth. The Armenians
put Christ in your hands. What are you going to do with
him? That's not the question. What's he going to do with me?
What's he gonna do with me? I tell you, that's the first
thing that struck me when I heard the gospel, is the sovereignty
of God. What's he gonna do with me? He
can do with me as he will, but I do know this, he delights to
show mercy. Isn't that good? He delights
to show mercy. Paul cried with a loud voice,
do thyself no harm. And then this question. He called
for light and sprang in and came trembling and falling down before
Paul Silas. These are the ones he thrust
in there. He threw them in there, grabbed them by the back of the
neck and threw them in there. And now look who's bowed down. Don't ever think, God couldn't
save, boy, if God saved that one, He can save anybody. No,
if God can save me, He can save anybody. God can save you. He can save anybody. Ain't nobody
too hard for God. He'll crack you like a nut if
he's so purposed to. He fell down. He fell. God broke
him. God took this hardened... You
know how many men this man probably killed over the years? I mean,
he was hardened. He was a hardened battle soldier. But God broke him. God broke
him. You see, his fear, this is interesting,
his fear went from the Roman government torturing him to his
fear now of God. Of God. Different fear. Different fear. The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's a different fear. And so he asked this question
after falling down at their feet in verse 30. He brought them
out and said, Sirs, like I said, now it's respect, isn't it? Now it's respect. Before, there
wasn't no respect. Now at Sir's, he's at their feet,
as he's saying, he's at their feet, he's bent down on his knees.
What must I do to be saved? You know he heard them. He's
sitting right outside of their cell there because he's charged
with keeping them. He heard them pray, he heard
them singing, he heard... He knew about them in town. They
were not a secret in town, everybody knew about them. What must I
do? What must I do to be saved? Well, the Lord brought
him down. The Lord brought him down. What's
necessary? When he says here, what must, what's necessary?
What's necessary for me to be saved? That's what he wanted
to know. You know, that rich young ruler
said, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Well, if he had
any education at all, he'd know that inheritance, you don't have
to do anything for it. Just by nature, inheritance is yours,
it's given to you. You don't do anything for an
inheritance, but he here is talking about to be saved. To be saved. To be saved. What
must I do to be saved from my sins? What must I do to be saved
before God? For the first time, this Roman
guard knew, now listen, he knew he was lost. He was lost. Ever been there?
Have you really ever been lost? Most haven't. Most people make a profession.
Most people, you know, we are religious by nature. You can
go anywhere and find religion. We're religious by nature. Very
few have ever been lost. Lost. That's why you don't believe.
If there's any reason you don't believe, you're lost. And the
worst way to be is lost and don't know it. What is it to be lost? Turn over
to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2. In verse 11, Ephesians 2 verse
11, Wherefore remember that ye, being in time past Gentiles in
the flesh, who are called uncircumcised by that which is called the circumcision
in the flesh made by hands, you're called uncircumcised by the Jews,
that's what it's saying, that at that time you were without
Christ. This is what it is to be lost. You are without Christ. It doesn't say you're without
religion. You're without Christ. Most everybody believes there
is a God. You know the scripture says the
devil believes in God and trembles? He's not saved. He's not saved. Believing there is a God will
not save you. Believing God will, but believing
there is one, won't. that at that time you were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers
from the covenants of promise." Now listen, having no hope and
without God in the world. That's what it is to be lost.
Without hope and without God in this world. You're lost. The jailer knew that he was...
I'll tell you something else about being lost and what he
found out. In a very quick, short order. He found out he's guilty. See, he guarded the guilty. He
guarded the guilty. Of course, Paul and Silas were
not guilty, but he guarded them. Now he's guilty. But he's not
guilty before the Roman government, he's guilty before God. Now this
is when salvation happens, when you're guilty before God. The
soul that sinneth shall surely die. I have sinned. I know. I have sinned. That's why I got
to die. I don't have to die because I
got cancer, I got heart disease. That's not why. Those are second
causes. I die because of sin. I die because of sin in what
I am. I am sin. I'm not just doing
some things that are wrong. I am sin. That's my nature. And
he learned what it was to be guilty. And he knew this, he
knew this, he knew he was at the sovereign mercy of God. Paul Silas did not say to him,
Jesus Christ has done all he can do now, all you got to do
is accept him. Repeat this prayer after me. You can repeat a prayer till
you pass out. It's not going to save you. He knew he was at the sovereign
mercy of God. God does not owe me salvation. He doesn't owe it to me. That's why it's called a gift.
It's the gift of God. It's the gift of God. The dire
God delights to show mercy. Now give careful attention here
to Paul's answer. Paul gives him a very short,
a very short brief answer, a very uncomplicated answer. In verse
31, believe, that word just means this, trust, completely trust. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And listen, it's in that way,
the Lord, Everybody wants a Savior, but they don't want a Lord. I
want to be my own Lord. I'll take a Savior to keep me
out of hell, but I'll be my own Lord. No, He's going to be Lord
first, or you're not going to be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. Don't you like to shout these
in the shalls of God? There's no question here. You
might be saved if you know it. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
Believe, trust Him, and He'll save you. That's a promise. That's a promise to whosoever
will, whoever looks to Him, whoever calls on Him. He said, thou shalt
be saved. I can say that to anyone who
walks in this room. God will save you. He said, you
trust Him. But it will take God It'll take
God to enable you to trust Him. The truth, listen. You know what? Here's the truth. That jailer
said, what must I do to be saved? Here's the truth. You can't do
anything to cause that. You can't. Can a dead man walk? You take the first step and God
will do the rest. If I can take the first, I don't need Him for
the rest. I need Him for the first step
and the last step. I need Him to save me now, tomorrow, and
the next day, until I finally die, and He takes me into glory.
I need the Lord to save me day by day by day. I do. But here's the question, listen,
here's the question. It is not what must I do to be
saved, it is what must Jesus Christ do for me to be saved. What must that man Jesus Christ
do in order for me to be saved and stand before God? What must
He do? Well, first of all, he must fulfill
the scriptures that are written of him. He said he must do that. He must. It's an absolute must.
This Word has to be fulfilled. God gave it. It's God's Word.
God's good for His Word. He must become incarnate. The
Son of God must become incarnate. He must become bone of my bone
and flesh of my flesh. In order for him to be a proper
substitute, in order for him to actually substitute in my
place, he's got to become like me. He's actually got to take
me into himself. He must bring in an everlasting
righteousness. The Lord said, Except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you'll
in no way enter the kingdom of heaven. There's got to be a righteousness
above what any of us can produce. And He did that. From the time
He was born, He obeyed His parents perfectly, He obeyed God perfectly,
He kept the law perfectly, and then He died the death the law
demanded of Me. And that's my righteousness before
God. My righteousness before God is not my doing and not what
I do and what I don't do. It's the doing and dying of that
man, Jesus Christ. He must suffer, He must die.
Listen, He must rise again and intercede for me. It's not what
must I do, what must He do? Now what is it to be saved? What
is it to be lost? What is it to be saved? We'll
turn back over to Ephesians chapter 2. I should have told you to
hold that. In Ephesians chapter 2, you remember
what I just read to you, what it is to be lost without hope
and without God in this world. Now listen, starting in verse
13. But now in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far off
are made nigh by the blood of Christ, by the blood of atonement,
which is His blood. For He is our peace. I didn't
make peace with God. Did you? You didn't make peace
with God. Jesus Christ made peace with
God on my behalf. He's my peace with God. For he
is our peace, who hath made both one, he made both Jew and Gentile,
whom he saves, he made them one, and he hath broken down that
middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh
the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for
to make in himself of two one new man, so make him peace. and that he might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby,
and came and preached peace to you, which were far off from
them that were nigh. For through him we both have
access by one Spirit unto the Father." What is it to be saved? It is to have Christ. It is for Christ to reconcile
me. It is to have His blood as my
atonement. It is His righteousness as my
righteousness. Now listen, our Lord said this
in John 3, it is to be born from above. It is to be born again.
It is to be born of God. To be reconciled is to believe
and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and nothing else ever. It's not
to trust Him now and then what I do perfects it or matures it. No. It's Christ and Christ only
and Christ always. And here's the effects of this
salvation. When God saves a sinner, that
sinner comes to Christ. That sinner believes on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ is that sinner's life. But grace... The grace of God that comes to
us in salvation makes a real difference in us. This old soldier who thrust them
into the prison, he takes them to his home. He went from hate to love. That's the only way you ever
cure any kind of difference between nationalities, is for God to
kill that hate and spread abroad in our hearts His love. That's
the only way it happened. Because there's no one that hated
the Jews more than that Roman soldier. No one. And now look at him. He's going
to take them to his house. You know how dangerous that was
for him? You know how dangerous it was for him to take the prisoner
out of there and take him to his house? He threw him in a
dungeon. He threw him in a dungeon with
the backs bleeding and lacerated from the beating that they took.
He throws him in there and now he takes him to his house. And
you know what Paul did when he went to the house? It says in
verse 32, and they spake unto him the word of the Lord. He
preached the gospel to him. You see, he didn't have any understanding
at first, but he knew this, that what Paul was saying, Paul and
Silas, what they had, he didn't have. And he knew that what they
were saying was true, even though he didn't know much about it.
And then Paul goes home with him and he sits down and Paul
preaches the gospel to him. You know, he went to Isaiah 53. You know, he went to the Passover
lamb. You know, he went to the tabernacle.
He went to the priesthood. He went to everything that Christ
is to us. And he preached to him and God saved him and his
house. And his house. They spake unto
him the word of the Lord and all that were in his house. And
he took them," look in verse 33, he took them the same hour
of the night and washed their stripes. I bet you he washed
them and wept as he did it. I bet he did. I bet he wept as
he washed their stripes. And then after he did that, this
Roman soldier was baptized. He said, I want to be identified.
I mean, it's evident Paul spoke to him at baptism. Like he did
Lydia. And there's others, the eunuch.
Philip did the eunuch. This is how you identify with
Christ. You don't identify with Christ by coming to some altar
up in front of the building. You identify with him by being
baptized. Those who will not identify with
him being baptized do not believe him. They're rebels. Just rebels, that's all. It's
rebels. And this, I mean, you have to
understand and put your mind in understanding where this is
happening at and this man, what's going on and what it is for him
to identify with the Jew. He's saying, this Jew that was
crucified by the Roman government is my Lord, my Savior, and I'm
going to follow Him, I'm identified with Him. God saved that. He saves Lydia, He opens her
heart, He sends an earthquake and saves this old hardened jailer.
My, the power and mercy of God. He was baptized, He and all His,
all His, all His, straightway. God saved that house. And when
He had brought them into His house, He sent meat before He
fed them. God opened His heart. Isn't that what Lydia did? Lydia
did the same thing. She begged him, you come stay
with me. And she fed him and took care of him. And he'd, this
man does the same. Do you know how dangerous that
is? And it was not dangerous for
Lydia to do this. It was for him. He's putting
his life on the line. And he sent me before, and rejoiced. Man, you know, he probably wanted
to hang on to their coat and just don't leave, don't leave.
I got to go back there to the jail. He's got to now, and listen,
he's got to now live among those hardened soldiers where everything
goes. And now he's a believer. God
made him a light. He said, you're the light of
the world. Why do I have to work where I work? Man, those people
are so ungodly. That's why God put you there. You're the light
of the world. You're the salt of the earth.
You're the preservative of this earth. And when it was daytime, listen,
daytime has come up, it's daytime. Now, he's got to deal with this. You know, it's on his mind, he's
got to deal with this. He's got Paul and Silas at his house.
He's fed them, he's cleaned them up. And I want you to notice
the providence and the power of God working. on all ends. Okay? God's always working. My Father worketh hitherto and
I work. That's what He said. The Lord said. And when it was
day, the magistrate sent to the sergeant saying, let those men
go. Let those men go. He's like,
And the keeper of the prison, I'm sure he was tickled, because
there ain't no trouble coming to this now, because God overruled
it all. And the keeper of the prison
told this saying to Paul, the magistrates have sent to let
you go. But Paul said to them, they have beaten us openly uncondemned,
being Romans, and they've cast us into prison, and now they
thrust us out privately? Nah. He said, you tell them to
come and fetch us and cast us out. Now the shoe's on the other
foot. Now they're the ones in trouble
for beating a Roman. Paul was born in Rome, in the
city of Tarsus. So he did have Roman citizenship.
Even though he's a Jew, he had Roman citizenship. Well, if they
hadn't let their madness overrule their common sense, they'd have
found out who they were. But they were so mad, they beat
them and threw them into prison. And it's like, oh, we just beat
Romans who have Roman citizenship. And the sergeants told these
words to the magistrates and they feared when they heard that
they were Romans and they came and they besought them, they
begged them. Now who's begging? They begged
them and brought them out and desired them to depart out of
the city. Please leave. Please leave. We won't say no
more about this. But all this is getting this
soldier, this Roman soldier whom God's getting him off the hook
with the magistrates. And I tell you, it's amazing
when you read the word of God, and seeing God move and operate
for his sheep. And they went out of the prison,
and where'd they go? They went back to Lydia's house.
And when they had seen the brethren, and they comforted them, here's
two men just about beat to death, and they give comfort to the
brethren, and they depart. And Lord willing, next Sunday,
we'll pick up chapter 17. What must I do to be saved? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved because He
did it all. All to Him I owe. What's that song? He did it all. All to Him I owe. Just trust Him. Trust Him for
time and eternity. Paul said, I'm persuaded that
he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. Paul, what have you committed unto him? Absolutely
everything. Everything. All right.