Salvation is much, much more
than merely being snatched from hell and admitted to heaven.
Yet that seems to be what the majority of men preach and people
believe today. The greatest despair of the soul
of a redeemed man or woman is not hell, it's sin. The deepest
concern of an enlightened man or woman is not how I can be
saved from hell, is how I can be saved from sin. That's the redeemed of the Lord's
most anxious thought when shown the grace and the mercy of God
in Christ. Not that I'm going to be delivered
from hell, but how am I going to be delivered from sin? You
see, friends, it's sin that makes a hell. For there'd be no hell
if a person had no evil or no sin. And just the same, there
would be no heaven without perfect righteousness and holiness that
makes a sinner fit to dwell with God Almighty. The issue is not
heaven or hell. God shows you your concern for
sin. and then shows you how to have
that sin removed and to obtain the perfect righteousness that
He requires. Salvation only comes one way.
One way. This is not a hard thing to understand. That way is by God's grace and
grace will always be the emphasis and the theme of the message
that we hold dear. A child of God is not interested
in hearing about what he has to do to be saved, but what God
has done for him that causes him to be saved. Sinners are saved by grace through
faith, and that's not of themselves. It's not of ourselves. Isn't
that what the Apostle Paul said? It's not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God, not by works, lest any man should boast. And people can put their faith
in just about anything, but only one faith, one God, one Savior,
one Gospel, one Spirit, one salvation. This is a book of one. What magnificent
simplicity and singularity in the Gospel. How merciful is our
God to take such a wondrous and marvelous and unattainable thing
as salvation and put it into a brief, short, and to the point
conclusion. Only one way to be saved. I am
The Way, The Truth, The Life, and no man cometh to the Father
but by Me." Is that a difficult thing to understand? Are there
words there mentioned that you don't understand? Of course not. It's so simple that a person
cannot claim that he doesn't understand it. He can only admit
this, that he don't believe it. That's what it comes down to.
Now, I know that God has to reveal the truth to you. But this is
not a hard message to understand. But it's impossible to believe
unless God intervenes. We say that often. And it's the
truth. It's not the truth because we
say it. It's the truth because God says it. Saving faith must
have the Lord Jesus Christ as its object. And saving faith,
I'll say this again, is not believing some doctrines about the Son
of God. That's not it. Salvation is knowing the Lord
Jesus Christ of the doctrines. Twenty-five years ago, when I
first heard the message of what we call sovereign grace, and
we say this often too, there's no grace but sovereign grace.
That's the only kind of grace there is. But we use that term
sovereign grace to distinguish what we believe to be grace from
what others claim to be grace. What others call grace is not
grace at all. So we add that sovereign in front
of it, which means it's totally at the discretion of God Himself. He'll have mercy on whom He'll
have mercy. He'll have compassion on whom
He'll have compassion. Whom will He harden? That's what
the Word of God says. Men have fallen in love with
the doctrines of election and predestination. And men love
to hear about the preservation and perseverance of the believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ. But where is the love for the
Savior? Where's the love for Christ?
Where's the preaching of Him? That's our message. You won't
be saved by knowing some things about Him. You'll be saved by
knowing Him personally. The popular message among folks
today, among the masses, is a message which proclaims a cooperation
between God and man. Let me tell you something. The
Gospel is the operation, not cooperation, by God on the sinner. And against popular and carnal
understanding, God has never been co-anything. Never been
co-anything. My dad used to have a bumper
sticker on the back of his truck that said, God is my co-pilot. That's a blasphemy. God has never
been and never will be co-anything. He don't cooperate with man.
He saves sinners on purpose with no assistance from anyone. He doesn't cooperate. He operates. And He makes a sinner willing
in the day of His power. He said, a new heart also I will
give you and a new spirit I'll put within you. If He don't,
friends, you're damned and condemned to eternal damnation. We looked
here a week or so ago at the verse in Jeremiah 24-7 which
says, I will give them a heart to know Me. If God don't give
you that new heart, you'll never know Him. You'll never see Him
as He is properly portrayed in the Scriptures. And Jeremiah
went on to say, they're going to know me, and they're going
to know I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I'll
be their God. Salvation requires a heart operation
that can only be successfully performed by the Great Physician. My intention is not to preach
against religion, but friends, you've got to expose some of
these things, because people are believing them and they're
going to hell believing them. Religion today has made live
man sin. They make light of it. We shouldn't
be surprised if the Scriptures say there is a way that seemeth
right unto a man. But unless God sovereignly intervenes
by a miracle of grace, all who follow it will find that the
ends thereof are the ways of death. Proverbs 16, 25. Men have
reduced the gospel as glad tidings from heaven which God-defying
sinners are made at ease with their wickedness. Well, what
do you mean by that? Well, it seems that it's presented,
maybe I should say that it's perverted in a way that gives
pleasure-minded men and women assurance that if they only,
quote, believe, that there's nothing for them to fear in the
near future. Just believe. Just believe. But believing, now listen, I'm
sincere as I can be about this. Believing is much, much more
than just giving some kind of a mental assent to scattered
truths. Men are tossed to and fro by
everyone in a doctrine. You say, the Bible says this.
They go, I believe that. You say, the Bible says this.
I believe that. But then you tell them that God's on the throne
and He does how He pleases, when He pleases, to who He pleases.
And they'll go, oh, I don't believe that. I'm going to tell you,
friends, you better believe on the only remedy for sin, and
that's in a person, Lord Jesus Christ. It's trusting, bowing,
serving, living in obedience to the One who died, paid your
sin debt, and gave you perfect righteousness. Now, that's our
message. That's our message. If you're
looking for more than that, then more than likely, I'm not the
man you ought to listen to. That's the only message I have. And that's the only message a
child of God is interested in hearing. Salvation is believing
in a person. And that's why the Apostle Paul
said without reservation, I know whom. Did he say, I know what
I have believed? No, he said, I know whom I have
believed. And I am persuaded that what? He is able. This is personal. Whom? He. I'm persuaded he's
able. He's able to do what, Paul? Everything. Job said, I know
that God can do everything and that no thought can be withheld
from Him. Believing sinners are persuaded
without, as we say, a shadow of a doubt that their God's in
the heavens, as David said, and He's done whatsoever He's pleased. David, where's your God? My God's
in the heavens. What's he doing? Everything you
please. That's the God of the Bible.
Our God has done, D-O-N-E, according to His will in the army of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth. And none can say to
Him. None. None can say to Him, what
are you doing? Our message is not a message
of do, it's a message of done. Paul was persuaded by knowing
that his God could and would keep that which he had committed
unto Him. And a child of God should have
some assurance when he or she knows who it is that saves and
keeps them. I said should. There's nobody
that doubts more than me. I'm just being honest with you.
And the reason I doubt, though, friends, is not because of my
lack of confidence in Him. It's lack of confidence in me.
And may we continue to look to Him and Him alone. That's where
our salvation lies. We should have assurance. We
who know the supreme character and sovereign power of God should
have no problem in believing that God is able to do what?
Exceedingly and abundantly above all that we could think or ask. Now that's God's Word. Do you
believe that? The problem lies within us. The
problem is our unbelief. And the Gospel command is, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. It doesn't
say that you might be saved. It doesn't say that you could
be saved if you do this or do that. It says that you shall
be saved. When God says shall, that means
shall. When I say shall, that means
maybe. If I'm able. If I can do it. If I can work
it into my schedule. But not with God. So what is
it to have saving faith? That's what I'm interested in.
I'm interested in saving faith. I'm interested in a faith power
that saves. I can tell you most assuredly
that when God reveals the gospel to you, you're going to see something
about how unsparing God is towards sin. What I'm trying to say is
you're not going to take your sin lightly. And it seems like
that's what men do. Just believe and you're saved
now. Don't worry about that. You better
be concerned about your sin. Not hell. If you see that your
sin's paid for, you don't have to worry about hell. When you
see the righteous Judgment of God who's angry with the wicked
every day. You won't make light of your
sin. And the Gospel, dear friends, reveals to regenerate. And that
just simply means made alive. Don't let these words fool you.
Regenerate means made alive. And you can only be made alive
by the grace and mercy of God in Christ. But a made alive sinner
sees that the sword of God's divine justice is upon him. But by grace, through saving
faith, we see His justice smoked and killed His own beloved Son
in the room instead of sinners. Christ came into the world to
save sinners. He's seeking and saving that which is lost. God
spared not His own Son, but what? Delivered Him up. for His elect
that the sinner might be spared. God didn't spare His Son so that
He could spare you. That's substitution. That's the
Gospel. And there are men that can proclaim
it much more eloquently and better than I can, but they don't have
any better message than that. That is the message. God did
for you what you couldn't do for yourself and God did for
you everything that God himself required. Friends, when God's
justice was not spared, it was put on and it was put out. Did you hear what I said? It
was put on and it was put out on His blessed Son. God Himself
died in my place. And we're not just merely exempt
from the punishment due to sin. I want you to see that now. Let
me say that again. We're not merely exempt from
the punishment that's due to sin. We're saved from sin. There's a difference. Because
the punishment was put on our substitute. God didn't just turn
His head and say, OK, because I love my son, I'm going to let
it slide. That's not what He did. His judgment
and justice fell on His Son in my place. That's a big difference. That's a big difference. And
if our view of grace only leaves us feeling okay with our sin,
then we've yet to understand the grace of God in Christ. God
hasn't relaxed His justice. That's the way men portray it.
They're like, well, God just lowered His holiness so that
sinners can sneak around God's justice somehow. That's a lie
from the pits of hell. God poured out His justice and
holy wrath against sin that you and I deserve, and He put it
on His Son. Now, does His Son mean anything
to you? That's the question. What do you think of His Son?
Grace is not an exemption from holiness. God's seal requires
complete, total, and perfect holiness. Grace is the cause
of holiness. You see what I'm saying? Saving
faith in Christ is what makes me holy. It ain't again that God said,
okay, I know he's not perfect, but because I love my son so
much, I'm going to let him slide a little bit. No. I'm still required
to be perfectly holy and righteous. God didn't relax His judgment,
His justice, His wrath. He's fulfilled in His Son. Oh, can you see it? Can you see
it? The only way a sinner can be
saved is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you still
have your place in Acts 16, I'll go through this quite quickly. As we saw beginning in verse
25, We know that Paul and Silas had
been thrown in prison. And let me tell you, it wasn't
because they were out stealing hubcaps off cars. They were thrown
in prison for preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ. We don't know
much about persecution today. Not like these men did. These
men were thrown in prison and beaten and stoned and killed. Paul and Silas Stone in jail.
And here they are in prison. And we pick up the story in verse
25. And in midnight, Paul and Silas
prayed. What do believing sinners do
in times of trials and tribulation? They pray. And they sing praises. That's exactly what they did
here in verse 25. And sang praises unto God. And
the prisoners heard them. Oh my, I'm going to tell you
something. You don't have to go around telling everybody you're
a believer, that you're a Christian. It'll get out on you. People
listen and watch. Don't think they don't. And verse
26, 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, awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison
doors open, he drew out his sword, and he would have killed himself,
supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul, he cried
with a loud voice, saying, Don't hurt yourself, do thyself no
harm, for we're all here. And then this Philippian jailer
called for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell
down before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said,
Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And there are the words. There's
the command in verse 31. They said, Believe on thee, Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Now I want to just
show you eight brief things concerning the saving faith given to this
particular man. First, notice that the man to
whom these words were spoken had just witnessed the miracle
working power of God. Verse 26, suddenly there was
an earthquake. Just out of the blue there come
an earthquake. God sent an earthquake. It was
a great earthquake so that the foundation of the prison was
shaken. And it shook that prison so hard,
friends, that all the prison doors opened up and the chains
fell off every man. Oh, that sounds like a God sent
earthquake to me. takes the miracle working power
of God to loose the bands and the chains of sin that hold the
guilty and imprisoned sinner. That's my first point. As the
thunder shakes the ground from heaven, God's voice thunders
and says, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye? You better hear Him. You better listen. You better
listen to what He says. And God's miracle of grace causes
the sinner's ears to hear and believe, and the chains that
bound Him fall to the ground. Oh, can you see that here in
verse 26? The second thing, we see a man deeply disturbed by
what's going on around him. He was driven to self-despair. It says in verse 27 that he drew
his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners
had fled. Now, what does that mean? Well,
you think about this. This man was in charge of these
prisoners. And all of a sudden, the doors
are opened and their chains have fallen off. And what would most
prisoners do? Boom, boy, I'm out of here. I'm
gone. When a child of God has been
made to see his guilty state and condition of sin before God,
he'll be driven to despair. I can assure you of that. And
this jailer, thinking that the prisoners had fled, knew that
he'd be found guilty of negligence by those that had power over
him. Sinners, by God's grace, also
see that they've been negligent. They've been negligent of everything
that they shouldn't have been negligent of. We've been negligent of love.
Love for God and one another. We've been negligent of praise
and worshiping our Creator. God shows us that we've been
negligent of righteousness, negligent of repentance. We've been negligent
of the well-being of ourselves and others. Negligent! We, by
grace, see something of ourselves and if not for the grace of God
in our despair, we'd be ready to take our own lives. knowing
that outside of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we're without
hope and without God in this world. Do you remember, those
of you that know and love and trust Christ, do you remember
that day when God showed you your sin? by a powerful, miracle-working
earthquake that shook your foundation. And you fell in great despair
because God revealed to you who and what you were. Sin. Sin. Sin is not what I do. Sin is
what I am. And God will send a man into
despair. Third thing I want you to notice
in verse 27, that this man was an awakened man. And the keeper
of the prison, I mean, awaking out of his sleep and seeing the
prison doors open. Saved men and women are awakened
men and women. We've been awakened out of our
sleep, have we not? And after we were awakened, we
by grace see that the prison doors are now open. Do you see
that? Fourth, this man felt the need
of illumination. It says in verse 29 that he called
for a light. When God gives grace to the dead
sinner, he'll no longer love darkness rather than light. No
siree. That's been our problem all along.
But this is the condemnation. This is what condemns a man,
dear friends, according to John 3.19, that light is coming to
the world and men love darkness rather than light because their
deeds were evil. A child of grace feels their
need of illumination. They say, give me a light, O
God. Show me a light. They cry unto
God for that light that only God can give. John the Beloved
said in his epistle in 1 John 1.5, then this is the message
which we've heard of him. and declaring to you that God
is light and in Him is no darkness at all. When God shows you your
sin and you come in utter despair because of your sin, I'm going
to tell you something, you're going to cry for God because
He's your illumination. He's your light. But if we walk
in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one
with another and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses
us from all sin. Fifth thing, notice this man's
pride and confidence in his own achievements were utterly shattered. Again in verse 29, it tells us
that he came trembling. Trembling. Friends, when God
shows you by miraculous working of His powerful grace, and you
see your desperate condition of sin before Him, I'm going
to tell you, you're going to come trembling. You're not going
to come with your shoulders kicked back and your head up high. You're
going to come like that publican stood in the temple with his
head down, beating on his chest, saying, God, be merciful to me,
a sinner. That's the way sinners come to
God. That's exactly how they come. At His feet. At His feet. His pride and confidence was
shattered. All of us by nature before grace came to us, we were
proud, smug, conceited, confident. Confident and complacent in ourselves. We were self-made men and women. Oh, I've heard that so many times.
I'm a self-made man. Don't need anything from anybody.
But I tell you, in the day of grace, we were made to tremble
in our utter helplessness. You tell me it's not so, those
of you that know me. We're made to see that unless
God intervenes, we would perish forever in our sin. And by God's
grace, we were afraid and we trembled. Sixth thing, he took
his proper place before God. in the dust. That's the proper
place for every redeemed sinner. It says in verse 29 that he fell
on his face, fell down before Paul and Silas. God kills before
He makes alive. God brings down before He lifts
up. God puts you in the dunghill
before He lifts you and sets you among princes. We're going
to take our proper place at the feet of Christ, for that's where
redemption is found. Job said, I've heard of thee
by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherever I was, I abhor myself. I hate myself. I'm disgusted
with myself. And I repent in dust and ashes. You burn something and it burns.
Where does it burn to? It burns to the ground. The ashes
are laying on the ground. Isaiah said, In the year King
Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
up, and His train, His glory filled the temple. And the first
words that come out of his mouth are, woe is me. I'm in trouble. When I see myself next to a God
of holiness, perfect holiness, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean
lips. Everybody around me has got unclean
lips. We're all in the same boat. I
dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes
have seen the King the Lord of Hosts. Seventh thing, this jailer
showed respect and consideration for God's servants. First of
all, it says in verse 30, he brought them out. And studying
that, that basically means that he brought them out from the
inner part of the prison into a place more open and free. And he now treats them with great
reverence. And he addresses them under a
title and character of honor and respect. He says, sir, just
a few hours before, can you imagine the names that come? Disgusting
criminals. I'm so sick. Can you imagine
working there? You see every type of person
there was. These worthless, no good criminals. They ain't good for nothing.
I'll lock them up and throw the key away." Now, all of a sudden,
it's SIRS. SIRS. Before God's grace was
shown, a few hours before, He despised and abhorred them. Now,
He saw Himself lost, saw Himself perishing, and He wanted their
instruction. He wanted their advice. He wanted
their assistance. And it was the same with us,
was it not? How beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.
Eighth and final thing, with a deep concern for his soul,
this man fell at their feet and said, what must I do to be saved? His desire was to be saved. Had
he not seen a powerful, miracle work of God Almighty in the earthquake? Had he not seen all these things
that we've discussed up to now? And he said, what must I do to
be saved? Only one thing you can do, old
Philippian jailer. Just one thing. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. And you shall. You shall be saved. And again, that answer is simple,
but impossible if God doesn't give you the saving faith I'm
talking about. I once heard a story of a mentally
challenged man who was raised in a Christian orphanage. They'd
been teaching him all they could. Poor fellow just didn't pick
up on things very easily. This had become a weary work
for his teacher. It seemed like he had just a
little brain left. And after long teaching, especially
teaching him, trying to teach him the doctrine of faith, one
of the teachers began to question him, trying to get him to understand.
And they said, John, do you have a soul? Trying to make him conscious
of his condition before God. And the poor fellow replied,
no, I don't have a soul. And the teacher was grieved and
discouraged, and he's like, I'll never ever get through all this
labor, all this spending of time just for nothing. And when the
teacher was about to give up, this poor old fellow said, I
had a soul once, but I lost it. And my Lord found it, and so
it's His. And it ain't mine. Truly, the
very essence of faith lies right there, dear friends, in the consciousness
of being lost in ourselves and found in Christ and the trusting
of our soul in His hand and His hand alone. That's saving faith. That's saving faith. And it seems
that believing in Christ has appeared to some people to be
far too simple. And they've said, well, then
why isn't everybody saved if all you have to do is merely
believe? Oh, it's more than just those words, believe. I'll leave
you with this biblical story. You remember the story of Naaman
the leper. Naaman was a great soldier, a
captain in the Syrian army. And God gave him leprosy, an
incurable disease. And anyway, without going into
all the details, he was told to go to Israel's prophet. And
he comes in great pomp and pride, riding on his fancy chariot to
the prophet's door. And the prophet didn't even come
outside to see him. He sent his little servant out
there and he said, you go watch in Jordan seven times. And Naaman
was He was upset. He was mad. You know why? Because
he was an important man. He was somebody. And he thought
to himself, surely the prophet would come out and greet me.
Surely he'd wave his hand and touch me, do some kind of voodoo
and make me well. And to insinuate that I need
to be washed? That I need to go to Jordan and
dim myself seven times? Some kind of ritualistic performance? Does He insinuate that I need
and must have washing? How dare Him? I'm somebody! You see, the command of the prophet
was too self-debasing. And of course, the cure was too
simple. Do you see what I'm getting at, friends? Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. It's too hard for him
because it was so easy. But he turned and he went away
in a rage. And then his servant said, Master,
if the prophet had told you to go do some great thing, wouldn't
you have done? You see, men want to do great
things to be saved. That's what I'm trying to say.
Men want to do great things to be saved. And so it is all over
the world. Men's proud hearts reject the
simple command of believe and live. because they want to do
something great. I suppose to say that if orders
were given today from heaven that told men that they had to
walk around the world until they came to the ocean and then swim
across the ocean and walk across the other continent and come
back around and swim across the ocean and walk back to the place
they were to be saved, that there'd be a bunch of them that'd hit
the road today and take off to do it. But when the message of
mercy consists of only believe and live, God declares that we
only must need trust His Son. Bow to Him. Rest in the atonement
that He's made. We say, no, that's too simple.
Got to be more to it than that. The difficulty lies here. Proud
hearts. Proud. Proud. so lofty, so self-sufficient
that they won't stoop to be saved by another's merits. It's got
to be what I do. And they never will. They never
will unless the Spirit of God brings them down humbly to fill
their need of Christ. And they're willing to bow and
trust Him alone for salvation. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. and thou shalt be saved." That's
God's command. That's God's command.