What must I do to be saved? That's what I've entitled this
message. What must I do to be saved? You ever ask that question? If
someone asked you this question, how would you answer? What must
I do to be saved? And note the question, not what
must I do to save myself, but what must I do to be saved? Saved is in the passive voice. And you know that you cannot
save yourself This man knew he wasn't saved. He knew he couldn't
save himself. And he asked this most important
question, what must I do to be saved? And Paul gave an answer.
He didn't say, well, salvation by grace, there's nothing you
can do to be saved. He didn't answer that way at all. He gave
a definitive, direct, clear answer, believe. on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved." Now, it's a waste of time to try to
figure out whether or not Christ died for you. It's a waste of
time to figure out whether or not you're one of the elect.
This is God's command to me and you right now. Believe. This is not good advice. This
is not an offer. This is not an invitation, this
is a command to me and to you right now. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Now, in verse 23 of
our text, And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they
cast them into prison. Now, this was after what we considered
last week, verse 16. It came to pass, 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
same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are
the servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way
of salvation. And this did she many days, but
Paul, being grieved, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the
spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come
out of her. And it came out the same hour, now this is a reminder
to us. A false prophet is identified not by what they say, but what
they leave out. And this woman left out the way
of salvation. She said, they show us the way
of salvation, but she herself never said it. Now let's go on
reading. Verse 19, and when her master
saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and
Silas, and drew them into the marketplace under the rulers
and brought them to the magistrate saying, these men being Jews
do exceedingly trouble our city and teach customs which are not
lawful for us to receive, neither to observe being Romans. You
know, they didn't know Paul was a Roman too. We'll see that in
a minute and their significance to that. Paul was a Roman, a
Roman citizen. And the multitude arose up together
against them, and the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded
to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes
upon 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 stocks."
Now, what a horrible condition that must have been. They'd been
beat. bloody, thrown into a very unclean
environment, their feet fast in stalks. And you know, Paul
was getting accustomed to that kind of treatment. He said, bonds
and afflictions await me everywhere I go. He knew wherever he went
to preach the gospel, after he preached, he either was gonna
get a beating or he was gonna be thrown into prison. What a
man this man was by the grace of God. Verse 25, and at midnight, there's
something beautiful about this. And at midnight, Paul and Silas
prayed and sang praises unto God. And the prisoners heard them.
I bet they were wondering, what in the world is going on? Why? But you know somebody that didn't
hear them? The jailer. He wasn't affected by this. Matter
of fact, he was asleep. 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. Now one would assume they would
all escape. I would have tried to escape at that time, wouldn't
you? I mean, here's your opportunity. And the keeper of the prison,
awaking out of his sleep, I think this signifies his death and
sins. He was asleep, he didn't hear
Paul and Silas singing, didn't care about it one way or the
other, he was asleep. But now all of a sudden his foundations
are shaken. And he awakes 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 fled.
Now I've wondered about that in the past. It's not his fault.
I mean, there was an earthquake. There's nothing he could do to
prevent that. And why would he have been held responsible for
those prisoners if there's nothing he could do about it? Well, when
you're convicted of sin by God, the Holy Spirit, your sin is
your fault. This man wasn't saying, I shouldn't
be held responsible for this. I ought to have some kind of
way out of this. No, he knew the place he was
in was all his fault. And he didn't have any sense
of entitlement that thought he was not going to get punished
because of what had taken place. And that's what happens when
God teaches somebody their sin, my sin. is all my fault. I can't blame my mom and dad.
I can't blame Adam. I can't blame my circumstances.
I can't blame my environment. My sin is all my fault. And I
do not have some kind of thinking that, well, somehow I'm going
to get out of it. No, God is just. And my sin is
all my fault. And this man would have killed
himself. He thought, it's over for me.
No sense of thinking, I'm gonna get out of this somehow. He thought,
it's over for me. And he was getting ready to kill
himself with a sword, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
But, verse 28, Paul cried with a loud voice saying, do thyself
no harm. We're all here. You know, any harm done to us
is our fault. Do thyself no harm. We're all
here. Then, verse 29, he called for
a light. He had to have some light as
to how this could be. I mean, this is symbolic. Yes,
he called for a light, but it means he needed light as to how
God could have anything to do with him. He called for a light,
and the scripture says he sprang in. He didn't have to hear an
altar call. He didn't have to be conjoled
and be manipulated to try to get him to make some kind of
response. He sprang in. I mean, he was dead ready for
this. He sprang in. You see, when the
Lord deals with you, you don't need to be manipulated. You don't
need to hear just as I am 47 times. You will spring in. He sprang in trembling. He was
afraid. He sprang in trembling and he
fell down. That's what people do when they
find out who the Lord is, they fall down every single time. That's the posture of worship.
He fell down before Paul and Silas and he brought them out
and said, sirs, most important question you and I could ever
consider, sirs, what Must I do to be saved? And that's the only time this
question is asked in the Bible. Like this. What must I do to
be saved? And I hope everybody in this
room is asking that same question. What must I do to be saved? Not what must I do to get saved?
I despise that kind of language. I got saved. I got a cold. I
got a disease. You know, that's the wrong way
to say that. You never hear anything like
that in the Bible. I got saved. What must I do to
be saved? What is necessary for me to do? Me. What is necessary for me
to do? to be saved. Now, I'm awful interested
in the answer to that question, aren't you? What must I do to
be saved? Now, this man knew he was not
saved. This man knew he couldn't save himself. And this man knew
he needed to be saved. What must I do to be saved? Now, the first question that
comes to my mind is, save from what? Safe from what? Well, let me
give you three answers to that. First, safe from God. You see,
this one who you've sinned against is holy. He's all powerful. He's absolutely just. He said,
I'll by no means clear the guilty. Vengeance is mine. I will repay,
saith the Lord. I need to be safe from him. Secondly,
I need to be safe from myself. I think of that passage, I think
it's in Hosea where it's, oh, Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself.
I'm the problem. I'm the problem. I am the problem. I need to be saved from myself. If the Lord doesn't save me from
myself, I will not be saved. I need to be saved from God.
I need to be saved from myself and I need to be saved from my
sins. The fact of the matter is I am
a sinner, present tense. I'm not talking about the way
I used to be. I'm not talking about the way I was before God
saved me. I'm talking about right now. I am a sinner, present tense. And what does that mean? That
means all I do is sin. If I did it, it's sin. It means
I cannot not sin. I can't close my eyes and just
concentrate five seconds of holiness. I cannot not sin. My sin, as
I've already said, is all my fault. And I am unable to look
down my nose at anybody for anything they've done. And the scripture
bears this out. Therefore thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art, the judgest. For you the judge, doest
the same thing. Doest, present tense, right now. Somebody says, no I don't. God
says you do. I think I'm gonna take God's word rather than your
testimony. God says you do. And I have, because of my sin,
I have no claim on God. If he passes me by and lets me
drop to hell, just and holy is his name. I need to be saved. Now the first time this word
is used in the New Testament is one of my favorite verses
of scripture. You're familiar with it, Matthew 121. Thou shalt
call his name, Jesus. Do you know what Jesus means?
Savior. Savior. He's the Savior. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he, Jesus, the Greek translation of the
Hebrew name Joshua, There's none other name given under heaven,
given among men whereby we must be saved. Thou shalt call his
name Jesus, for he shall save. Doesn't say anything about him
offering salvation. If salvation's an offer, that
means my salvation's dependent upon me accepting it or rejecting
it. That's not good news to me at all. I'll mess it up. There's
no good news in that he made salvation available. That doesn't
do me any good either. Thank God He said, He SHALL save His people, not all men without
exception, His people, His elect. He shall save His people from
their sins. That's what I need to be saved
from, my sins. And he shall, this is the promise
of the gospel, he shall, he shall save his people from their sins,
from the penalty of sin, by making it to where I stand before the
law, not guilty, justified. He'll save his people from the
power of their sins. There's a time when I couldn't
believe and couldn't repent, but when God saves me, I can
now. I can now. He shall save his people from
the very presence of their sin. What must I do to be saved? Paul gives a very clear, simple
answer. Believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. He didn't say, well, you need
to do this. You need to stop doing that. Believe. And let me remind you, this is
a command. It's spoken of in the imperative. This is not advice
to you. This is a command, and your right, your personal right
to believe is because He commands you to. Somebody says, what if
I'm not one of the elect? You need to quit thinking that
way. Believe. That's His command to you. Believe. To him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed, and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which
I've committed to him against that day. Believe. Not telling
you to do something. Not telling you to do anything.
Saying believe. Believe. The object of faith. believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. I love his name. He's the Lord. He's the Lord. You know what
that means? That means his will is always
done. Always. He's the Lord of creation. He willed this universe into
existence. He's the Lord of Providence.
That means that everything that happens today, everything that
happens tomorrow, everything that happened yesterday is His
will being done. All of it, all of it. If you
take anything away from that, He's no longer Lord, but He's
Lord. He's Lord of everything and everybody. I love thinking about this. He's
Lord over the thoughts that are going through our hearts and
minds right now. He's Lord, He's in control. He's Lord of salvation. That means if me and you are
saved, it's up to him. It's not up to you. It's up to
him. And I love his name, Jesus, don't
you? I love the way his name sounds.
There's something about that name, Jesus, Savior. For God sent not his son into
the world to condemn the world, but the world through him might
be saved. That's his purpose. He came to
save. That's why he came. He didn't
come to condemn you. He didn't come to send you to hell. He
didn't come to say, I see what you've been doing. He came to
save. The Lord, I love his name is
Lord. Every knee is going to bow and
every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father, the Lord Jesus, Savior Christ. That's his offices as Savior. He's the Lord Christ. He's Jesus
Christ. He's The Lord Jesus prophet,
the Lord Jesus priest, the Lord Jesus king. Now that's his offices
as a savior. And this is exactly what you
and I need. Now remember, we're to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the word of God. He is the prophet. He's that
prophet like unto Moses. He's the prophet who never one
time said, thus sayeth the Lord. He said, I say to you, the word
of God. He's a priest, not like those
old Testament priests who'd offer up BLOOD OF ANIMALS THAT COULD
NEVER SAVE ANYBODY. HE OFFERED HIS OWN BLOOD TO THE
FATHER. HE ENTERED ONCE INTO THE HOLY PLACE WITH HIS OWN BLOOD,
HAVING OBTAINED ETERNAL REDEMPTION FOR US. HE'S THE LORD JESUS CHRIST,
THE KING. HE TRULY IS THE KING AND THAT'S,
YOU KNOW, YOU NEED HIM AS KING. You need Him to cause you to
do His will. That's what you need. You need for Him to make
you do His will. You won't do it if He doesn't
cause you to. You need Him as Lord, Jesus,
Christ, Prophet, Priest, and King. Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved. Anything else? No. No. Anything added to that answer
is a wrong answer. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Saved from God, saved from yourself,
saved from your sin. Now, if all Paul said was believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, Would he
have heard the gospel? If that's all he said. Now we're
not given the whole content of what else he said, but he said
something else. I have no doubt he told who the Lord Jesus Christ
is. I have no doubt that he expounded
on his offices as prophet, priest, and king, but look at the brief
way the scriptures described what he said to this man after
he asked this question. And they spake unto him the word
of the Lord. Now, that's the same word that
was spoken by Paul to Timothy, preach the word, preach the word. That is the same thing Peter
spoke of when he said, being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth FOREVER. NOW THE WORD. HE PREACHED THE
WORD. YOU KNOW, THIS IS A BIG BOOK. AND IT ALWAYS, I'VE KNOWN
PEOPLE THAT ARE LOOKING FOR LITTLE CATCH PHRASES THAT NEED TO HEAR
TO SEE IS THE GOSPEL PREACHED UNLESS THIS IS SAID OR IF THAT'S
SAID. IT'S A BIG BOOK. IT'S A BIG BOOK. THE WORD OF
THE LORD IS GENESIS 1-1 THROUGH REVELATION 22. THAT IS THE WORD
OF THE LORD. NOW THAT BIG BOOK ONLY HAS ONE
MESSAGE. And how does John end up the Bible? He says, anybody
that adds to this or takes away from it, the plagues of this
book are going to be brought upon him. Now, the word of the
Lord is the Bible. But if you purposely leave something
out because you're afraid of offending somebody, or if you
add something to it, it's no longer the word of God. The Word
of the Lord. They preached to him the Word
of the Lord. I don't know what all they said. I don't know how
long this message lasted. It might have lasted hours. You
know, I was reading in Acts, I think it was chapter 19, where
he was much long in preaching after midnight, and somebody
fell asleep and died, fallen out of the loft. I thought, I'd
like to try preaching out long, have people fall asleep. I mean,
everybody run me out, you know, but he might've been very long
in this message. I don't know. He might've been
very brief, but he preached the word of the Lord. You know that.
He preached the gospel. He didn't add anything to the
gospel. He didn't leave out anything. He preached the word of the Lord. That's the word that's quick
and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword. This is
the seed sown. by the sower in the parable of
the sower, the word of God. Timothy, preach the word. Whatever God's word declares,
preach it. Now this man heard the gospel. He heard the word of the Lord. Verse 33. Verse 32, they spake unto him
the word of the Lord and to all that were in his house. And he
took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes,
and was baptized, he and all his, immediately. I think it is amazing that this
verse is used to teach infant baptism. That's amazing, isn't
it? I like what one fellow said.
He said, well, the youngest child the Philippian jailer had was
19 years old, so he couldn't have baptized the infants, And
he said, where'd you get that? Same place you got infant baptism.
Same place. It's not there. This is not given
to teach infant baptism. But you know, the Lord did save
everybody in this man's household. What a blessing. And isn't that
something we're all to ask the Lord to do for us? Save everybody
in our household. He did that with Lydia as well.
We're to ask the Lord, oh Lord, do for me what you did for the
Philippian jailer. Don't only save me, save my wife,
save my children, save my friends, save my family, save my mom and
dad. He desired that. But, As soon as he heard the
gospel, I love this, and you look through the book of Acts,
as soon as somebody hears the gospel, you know what they're
gonna do? They're gonna be baptized. You don't have to conjole them, you
don't have to put pressure on them, you don't need to manipulate,
just preach the gospel, and somebody that really hears, you know what
they're gonna wanna do? They're gonna want to be baptized. And
that's what took place at this time. Verse 34. And when he had brought them
into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced." Now, remember when he said, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. What's it say, believed? He believed
in God. BELIEVING ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
AND BELIEVING IN GOD IS THE EXACT SAME THING. NOW, DO YOU REMEMBER
WHEN THE LORD SAID TO THE DEMONIC WHOM HE HAD HEALED, HE SAID,
GO HOME AND TELL THY FAMILY THE GREAT THINGS GOD HATH DONE FOR
THEE. You know what he went out and
said? He went out and told his friends and family the great
things Jesus had done. Was he wrong? No. He knew the same thing the thief
knew. He knew that one nailed to a
cross beside him was God. God manifest in the flesh. And
if you believe he's God, you know why? It's because he revealed
that to you. That's the only reason. It's
not because you figured it out. If you really believe that Jesus
Christ is God Almighty, He's made Himself known to you. That's
what faith is, believing He's God. You believe He's God, you
believe He must be successful. You believe if He dies for you,
you must be saved. You believe He's in control of
everything. He believed in God. He believed that Jesus Christ
was eternal. He never began to be. He believed
He was sovereign. His will is always done. He believed
He was immutable, Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today, and
forever. He believed He was almighty.
Whatever it was He willed, He had the power to make sure it
came to pass. He believed He was omniscient,
all-wise, all-knowing, omnipresent. You can't go anywhere where He's
not. You say, how can that be? I don't know, but it's so. He
is God. All the fullness of the Godhead
dwells in his body. He believed him to be just, absolutely
just, independent, no needs, merciful and gracious. He believed
him to be God. Do you believe that? Jesus Christ
is nobody less. Then God Almighty, the great
mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh. And when
he brought them into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced. He rejoiced, believing in God
with all his heart. You see, if you believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, you're saved. You're saved. What about, forget
anything else. Really, forget anything else.
What about my life? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
everything's gonna be fine. Everything's gonna be fine. You
are saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Now let me close with getting
a little biographical matter with regard to the Apostle
Paul, I like this. Verse 35, and it was day, when
it was day, the magistrates sent the sergeant saying, let those
men go. And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul,
the magistrates are sent to let you go, now therefore depart
and go in peace. But Paul said it to them, he
wanted them to sweat a little bit. He wanted them to sweat
it a little bit. You see, what they did was unjust.
Paul was a Roman citizen. You don't treat Roman citizens
that way. They have to be gone properly before court. You don't
just throw them into prison. They had special privileges,
and that's going to come up again in the book of Acts with the
apostle Paul. He was a Roman citizen. I love
the way he says this, but Paul said to them, they've beaten
us openly, uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into
prison. Now do they thrust us out privily?
Nay, verily, but let them come themselves and fetch us out.
He wanted them to sweat a little bit, didn't he? I mean, you can
kind of see the personality of Paul right here. I like this.
And the sergeants told these words unto the magistrates, and
they feared when they heard they were Romans. We may be in trouble. And they came and besought them.
They begged them and brought them out and desired them to
depart out of the city. And they went out of the prison
and entered into the house of Lydia, where the preaching began. And when they'd seen the brethren,
they comforted them and departed. And thus we have the church at
Philippi." Isn't that a beautiful story, that whole 16th chapter
of the church at Philippi? What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
gospel. Lord, I ask in Christ's name,
that name that's above every name, that name at which every
knee is gonna bow and every tongue is gonna confess that he is Lord
to thy glory. We ask in the name of thy blessed
son, Jesus the Savior, the Christ, the prophet, priest, and king,
thy only begotten and well-beloved son, the God-man, We ask in his
name that you would cause everybody in this room, everybody hearing
this gospel, to believe the gift of your grace. Lord, give us
grace to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Deliver us from
waiting. Deliver us from waiting for something
to happen, some kind of feeling, some kind of change. Lord, cause
us even now to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Bless this message for Christ's
sake, in his name we pray, amen.