Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyvert. I'm reading from Acts chapter
16. I would like to read verses 30 and 31. Beginning in verse
29, this is said of the Philippian jailer. Then he called for a
light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before
Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, sirs, what must
I do to be saved? And they said, They gave him
a very clear, definitive, distinct answer. And they said, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. I've entitled this message, What
Must I do to be saved. Now, have you ever asked that
question to yourself or someone else? What must I do to be saved? If someone came to you and said
to you, what must I do to be saved? Would you know how to
answer that question from the scriptures? What must I do to
be saved? And notice he didn't say, what
must I do to save myself? He said, what must I do to be
saved? That's in the passive voice. What must I do to be saved? This
man knew he was not saved and he knew he could not save himself. What must I do to be saved? And then Paul gives this very
distinct answer, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
be saved. Now let's look at the setting
of this man asking this question. Now Paul and Silas had been arrested
for preaching the gospel, for casting a demon out of a woman,
and we read in verse 23, and when they had laid many stripes
upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer,
this is the man who ended up asking that question, to keep
them safely, who having received such a charge, thrust them into
the inner prison and made their feet fast with stalks. This man mistreated, if anything,
Paul and Silas. And here they are in prison with
their feet in stocks. And then we read in verse 25,
and there's something so beautiful about this. And at midnight,
Paul and Silas prayed and sang praise to God. Now, they knew that the situation
they were in was only because God had purposed it. All things
are of God, and we know that all things work together for
good to them that love God and to them who are called according
to His purpose. And they were praising God at
this time. You know, the Lord had them put
into the prison because one of his elect was there, and his
elect is going to hear the gospel. This jailer was an elect sinner,
elected by God, chosen unto salvation, and he must hear the gospel.
So here they are in pain at midnight, praying and singing praises to
God, and the prisoners heard them. but there was someone else
who didn't hear. It was this jailer. We know as
we read on in this passage of scripture that he was fast asleep.
Now we read in 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. He
had been fast asleep. And seeing the prison doors open,
he drew out his sword and would have killed himself. He was getting
ready to commit suicide, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. Now, this Philippian jailer,
while everybody else was listening to Paul and Silas pray and sing
praises unto God, he was fast asleep. He didn't have any interest. He was perfectly satisfied with
things the way they were. Now God sends an earthquake,
and the foundations of the prison were shaken, the doors opened
up. God shook this man's foundation. And when he woke up, he assumed
that all the prisoners would escape. But amazingly, not one
of them did. But when he thought they had
escaped, he was going to kill himself. You see, he was responsible
for these prisoners. And if they escaped, he would
be held responsible. He couldn't say, well, I couldn't
prevent it because the earthquake and the jails were open and they
all escaped. No, he knew he would be held
responsible. Now, what this lets me know is when someone finds
out that they're a sinner. They know that their sin is all
their fault. They don't blame somebody else.
This man could have said, well, I couldn't help it. The foundations
were shaken. No, he knew he was going to be
held responsible and there's nothing that he could do to keep
himself from being judged. That's why he was gonna kill
himself. When God reveals to a sinner who they are, They know
that they are responsible for their sin. They can't blame mom
and dad. They can't blame Adam. They can't blame their circumstances.
They can't blame their environment. My sin is all my fault. And they know they can't escape
the judgment of God that's due their sin. They don't have some
sense of entitlement that makes them think somehow I'm going
to get out of this. Like this man, he was desperate. He knew he was in trouble and
he drew out his sword and he would have killed himself. Verse 28, but Paul cried with
a loud voice saying, do thyself no harm for we are all here. Now, this was mighty good news
to this man, humanly speaking. Not one prisoner had escaped,
and he was thinking, how can this be? So we read in verse
29, then he called for a light, that's symbolic. He had been
asleep, symbolically dead in sins, now he's awakened, God's
shaken his foundation, and he calls for a light. He can't understand
how this has happened. He calls for a light, and the
scripture says he sprang in. He didn't have to hear an altar
call gently being made. He didn't have to be manipulated
psychologically to get him to make some kind of move down to
the front of the church. He sprang in. He sprang in. Oh, he was in dead interest.
He sprang in and came trembling. Oh, the fear of God. And he fell
down. before Paul and Silas. You see,
the Lord had touched this man. And we read in verse 30, and
he brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do? to be saved. Now, that is the most important
thing a man or woman could ever consider. What must I do to be
saved? Now, notice the language. He
didn't say, how can I get saved? You know, I hear people all the
time speaking of salvation, I got saved, or he needs to get saved. The Bible never speaks like that.
If you're saved, you know the Lord saved you. You didn't get
saved. The Lord saved you. This man
knew if he was gonna be saved, the Lord would have to save him.
Sirs, what must I do to be saved? I'm not saved. Have you ever
been not saved? Somebody says, well, I feel like
I've always been saved. That's way too long. Have you
ever seen the fact that you're not saved, estranged from God,
an enemy of God, with no way of your own to make reconciliation? This man knew he was not saved. He knew there was nothing he
could do to save himself. And his question is, sirs, what
must I do to be saved? Now, let's talk just for a moment
about this thing of being saved. What must I do to be saved? The first question that comes
to my mind is, save from what? Well, the first thing that I
need to be saved from is I need to be saved from God. You see, God is holy. God is
absolutely just. God is all-powerful. God is omniscient. God is omnipresent. He's everywhere
at once. My sin is against Him. David
said, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil
in thy sight. You see, my problem is the God
of glory. I've sinned against him. I need
to be safe from God. Secondly, I need to be safe from
myself. I am my own greatest enemy. I am the problem. You're not
the problem. So-and-so's not the problem.
God's not the problem in the sense that it's, It's not him
that caused me to be this way. I am the problem. I need to be saved from my sins. You see, I'm a sinner. And notice
that language. I want you to listen to me real
carefully. I'm not saying I used to be a sinner before God saved
me. I'm saying right now, present tense, I am a sinner. And you are too, whether you
know it or not whether you'll admit it or not. You are a sinner. I am, present tense, today, right
now, while I'm speaking to you. I am a sinner. Now what does
that mean? Well, I was born into this world
with an evil nature. That explains why I am the way
I am. I was born dead in trespasses
and sins. I was born sinful. The wicked
are restrained from the womb. They go about as soon as they
be born, the scripture says, speaking lies. David said, I
was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.
I was born bad. All men were born bad, but I'm
just talking about myself right now. I was born bad. Therefore,
All I do is sin because I did it. Somebody says, what about
you preaching this message? Listen, anything that has any
connection with me is sin because of my sinful nature. All I do is sin and I cannot
not sin. I can't close my eyes and concentrate
and say, I'm gonna be holy for 10 seconds. I cannot. not sin. Because of the sinfulness
of my condition, I can't sit in judgment on anybody about
anything. I'm talking about me right now.
Romans 2.1 says, Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever
thou art the judgest, for you the judgest doest. Present tense, active voice. You the judges do us the same
things. Whatever you're judging somebody
for, you're guilty of the very thing you're judging them for.
Now, I don't have any claims on God because of my own sinfulness.
My sinfulness is my fault. Yes, I was born that way. Yes,
all I do is sin. Yes, I cannot not sin. Yes, it's
all my fault. Yes, I can't judge anybody for
anything. And because of that, I have no
claims on God. I cannot save myself. do something
to where he owes me salvation. If he let me go to hell, just
and holy is his name, I need to be saved from my sin. Now listen to this verse of scripture.
Matthew chapter one, verse 21 says, thou shalt call his name
Jesus, for he shall Not he will if, he shall save. Not make savable, not make salvation
a possibility, not make salvation an offer. He shall save his people
from their sins. Now this thing of being saved,
if you wanna understand about being saved, listen. You need
saved from God, you need saved from yourself, you need saved
from your sins. And here we have where the Lord
Jesus Christ shall save his people from their sins. Now, what's
that mean? I mean, first of all, I'm saved
from the penalty of my sin. You see, Christ bore those sins. He suffered the penalty of those
sins. And God's not gonna punish for
the same sins twice. If Christ bore the punishment
of that sin, I'm not going to have to bear the punishment of
that sin. I'm saved from the penalty of sin. I've been saved
from the power of sin. You know what that means? There
was a time when I could not believe. There was a time when I could
not repent. There was a time when I was unable
to love God because I was dead in sins. God gave me life. He gave me spiritual life. That's
what the new birth is. And now I can do what I formerly
could not do. I can believe the gospel. I'm
in a state of repentance. I love God now. I didn't used
to. I've been saved from the power of sin. And one of these
days, praise his holy name, I shall be saved from the presence of
sin. I'm not gonna be a sinner anymore
in my experience. I'm gonna stand before God without
any experience of even the remembrance of sin. I'm gonna be perfectly
conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Now that's salvation.
salvation from sin, from the penalty, the power and the presence
of sin. Now, what must I do to be saved? Now we see what being saved is,
it's being saved from sin. It's what the Lord Jesus accomplished
for his people. But this man asked this question,
what must I do to be saved? Now, Paul didn't answer him saying,
well, there's nothing you can do. Salvation is by grace. That's
not the way he answered him. He gave him a very clear, definite,
distinct answer. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. He didn't say, well, get your
life straightened out. He didn't say, well, you need
to stop committing these certain sins and start doing these certain
good things. He didn't even say, ask for forgiveness. He gave a command. This is a
command to me, this is a command to you. I love the way that this
comes in the form of an imperative, a command. You're not called
upon to See if Christ died for you. You're not called upon to
figure out whether or not you're one of the elect. You're not
called upon to figure out whether or not you've been born again.
Here's the command, and your right to do so comes from this
command. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Romans 4, 5 says to him that
worketh not, but believeth. On him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. Now one thing you can't do at
the same time is work and believe. You're either working or you're
believing, but you're not doing them both. And he calls upon
us to believe, to trust, to rely upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's the object of that
faith. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Now, there's only one Lord. He is the Lord. Now, what that means is, He's
the one whose will is done. He's the Lord of creation. You
know, the Lord Jesus Christ is the one that created the universe,
demonstrating His Lordship. He's the Lord of Providence.
That means that He's in control of everything. Everything. There's
nothing that happens without Him. He said, not a bird falleth
to the ground without your Heavenly Father. He's in absolute control
of everything and everybody. He's everybody's Lord. So He's
not my Lord. Yeah, He is. Scripture says He's
Lord of the dead and the living. He's your Lord, whether you know
it or not, and you are completely in his hands. He's the Lord of
Providence. He's controlling, he's running
the show, and he's the Lord of salvation. That means your salvation
is in his hand. It's up to him as to whether
or not me and you will be saved. It's not up to you. Somebody
says, well, don't I have a free will? I can decide to be saved.
No, you don't. You're dead in trespasses and sins. And God
doesn't owe you salvation. It's up to him as to whether
or not you will be saved. Now, the only safe thing to do,
Lord, save me. That's what the leper did. He
said, Lord, if you will, you can save me. He's the Lord. But not only is he the Lord,
He's Jesus, and that's his name as Savior. Now, understand this. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
come into this world to condemn me and you. We were already condemned. He came to save. Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief, not to condemn. Then they already were condemned.
He came to save. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. Jesus, oh, what
a name. This is the name at which every
knee is going to bow, and every tongue is gonna confess that
Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He's Jesus, Savior. He delights in saving sinners.
He delights in mercy. That's who He is. He's the Savior.
Thank God He's the Savior. And He is the Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Christ is His offices in
salvation. Now in the Old Testament, There
were three offices, Christ being the anointed. It's the Hebrew
Messiah, the anointed. There were three different offices.
The office of a prophet, the office of a priest, and the office
of a king. and they were all anointed as
such, and no mere man ever held all three of those offices. There's
only one who holds all three of these offices, and that is
the Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's God's prophet. Now, every
other prophet said, thus saith the Lord. He never said that.
He said, I say unto you. He is the Word of God, and the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. He is the Word of God. He is
the priest, but he's not like these Old Testament priests we
read of who brought the blood of a slain animal that could
never put away sin. He brings his own blood. He who
lives brings his own blood. This is glorious. He himself
is the priest. He himself is the sacrifice.
And he himself is the altar upon which the sacrifice was presented.
And if he represents you as your priest, you must be saved. And he is the king. He's God's
King. God said, yet have I set my King
upon my holy hill of Zion. He is God's King and you need
him as a King. The King is the one whose will
is done. You need him to will your salvation or you won't be
saved. You need him to will you to believe, to be born from above.
To repent, you need him in that capacity. We need him as God's
prophet to bring God's word to us, as God's priest to represent
us, as God's king to cause us to do his will. Believe, rely
upon the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. So we read in verse 32, and they spake unto him the word
of the Lord. Now, what that means is at that
time they preached the gospel to him. Preach the word. Now, the word of the Lord is
Genesis 1.1 to Revelation 22.1. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. Very big book. written by 35
different men at least over a period of 1,300 years. My Bible has
1,550 some written pages. God uses the whole Bible to be
called the Word, the Word of God. The Word of God is preached
when, as John warned, don't take anything from it, don't subtract
from it, don't add to it. If I preach a message where I've
subtracted from the Word and I've not said what God said willfully
to keep from offending somebody, or if I've added human works
or added anything human to it, I haven't preached the Word.
This man heard the Word of God preached. He heard the Gospel
preached. The same Word, the sower went
forth to sow the Word. being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but by incorruptible by the word of God that liveth and
abideth forever. He heard a gospel message. Verse 33, and he took them the
same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized. He in all his straight way. He
heard the word, he received it, and his whole house was saved
through hearing that message. Now, I think it's interesting,
this verse is used to teach infant baptism. Show me where it says
anything about infants being baptized here. It doesn't. And look what it says in verse
34, but all of his house was saved. The Lord saved them all
and we all pray for that for our house. Verse 34, and when
he brought them into his house, he said, meet before them and
rejoice, believing in God with all his heart. When he was called
upon to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, He believed in God with
all his heart. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
is God. If he's not, he couldn't do anything
for me. He couldn't do anything for you, but he is God. That's why he is able to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God by him because he is
God. When the Lord told that gathering
demonic and Luke chapter eight to go home and tell him, tell
his friends and family, the great things God had done for him.
He went home and told them the great things Jesus had done. Did he make a mistake? Absolutely
not. When he told them the great things
Jesus had done, he was telling them the great things God has
done. You see, God was manifest in
the flesh. And the reason a man can be saved in believing on
the Lord Jesus Christ is because of who he is. He is God manifest
in the flesh, incapable of failure. What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. and thou shalt be saved. To receive a copy of the sermon
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