Let's turn back to Colossians
chapter 3. Paul says, let the word of Christ
dwell in you. I love this phrase, the word
of Christ. Aren't you glad there's such
a thing as the word of Christ? His Word, not man's Word. The
Word of Christ. You see, this book is the Word
of Christ. You cannot separate Christ and
His Word. Christ and His doctrine. He's
so intimately connected with His Word that His name is the
Word of God. What a glorious, awesome, awe-inspiring
name of our Savior. When God speaks, this is what
comes out of His mouth. He says, this is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased. And I love the way He said, in
whom. He didn't say with whom. He is
pleased with the Lord Jesus Christ. But that wouldn't really give
me much hope. He says, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well
pleased. If I'm in him, he's well pleased
with me. God, who at sundry times and
in diverse manners has spoken in times past to our fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by His
Son, the Word of Christ. He said, Verily I say unto you,
He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life." He said, the words that I speak to you, their spirit
and their life. He said, if you continue in my
word, then are you my disciples indeed. Heaven and earth shall
pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Thou hast the
words of eternal life and we believe and ensure that thou
art that Christ, the son of the living God. Now, this book and
every doctrine in it is the word of Christ. Do you believe that?
This is the word of Christ to be heard, to be believed, to
be received, to be rejoiced in. The Lord said, all power is given
to me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and teach every
nation, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you. Let this word that I'm speaking
of dwell in your heart richly. Now for the Word of God, for
the Word of Christ to dwell in our heart, it first must enter
our heart. And it must remain in our heart. It won't do me any good for it
to go in one ear and out the other. The writer of the Hebrews
said, therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the
things which we've heard, lest at any time we should let them
slip. The word means literally, leak
out. like a sieve. I want His Word
to remain in my heart. Now, may it dwell in you, Paul
says, richly, living inside of you, being at home in you. Don't you love to think of that?
The Word of Christ actually being home, at home in me. Dwelling in me." Now notice what
he says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Wisdom is the right use of knowledge.
Now would you turn with me for a moment to James chapter 1,
or James chapter 3. I love this verse of scripture
regarding wisdom. I want to have some wisdom, don't you? I want
to have some God-given wisdom, not man's wisdom, but the wisdom
of God. And look what James says in verse
13 of James chapter 1, who is a wise man and endued with knowledge? James chapter 3 verse 13. Who
is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him
show out of a good conversation. his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying
and strife, competition, rivalry in your hearts, glory not, lie
not against the truth. This wisdom descended not from
above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying,
jealousy, and strife is, there's confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that's from above
And this is such a beautiful description of the Lord Jesus
Christ, but it's also a description of the wisdom he gives his people.
The wisdom that's from above is first pure. It's true. It's not mixed with error, not
the wisdom that's from above. It's first pure, then it is peaceable. That word is gentle, forbearing,
humane, not insisting on the letter of the law. That's the
wisdom that's from above. It's first pure, but after that
it's peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, approachable,
compliable, obedient. It's full of mercy and good fruits
without partiality, without showing favoritism to one aspect over
another, and without hypocrisy. It's real. It's not an act. Isn't that a beautiful picture
of our Lord? He is the wisdom that's from above. And this is
the wisdom every believer possesses in him. Don't you want to be
a true wise man? Now, go on back into our text
in Colossians chapter one. Or chapter three, I'm sorry. Let the Word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom. And here's what happens when
the Word of Christ dwells in us richly in all wisdom. There's
some teaching and there's some admonishing going on. Teaching. I need to be taught, don't you?
I need to be taught who the Lord really is. I need to be taught
who God is. I need to be taught who I am.
I need to be taught how God saves sinners. Lord, be my teacher.
Don't lead me to the teaching of myself or some other man.
Be my teacher. Teach me from Your Word. The
word admonish has with it the idea of correction. I need to
be corrected. I always need to be corrected.
Just like that plane on an ark to a place, the wind knocks it
one way, knocks it another. I need to be brought back onto
the ark by the Word of God. I constantly, constantly need
to be corrected. Oh, it's a sad thing when we
don't want to be corrected. I want the Lord to correct me,
don't you? I want to be taught. And I want to be corrected. Now
let's go on reading. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms and hymns. spiritual songs. Now this teaching
and admonishing is done through psalms and hymns and spiritual
psalms. Now first of all, the psalms. We just read Psalm 112, didn't
we? Wasn't that a blessing? to read what is said in Psalm
112? I mean, I love the Psalms because the Psalms express the
thoughts of my heart and my feelings and my desires, whether the ones
that are way up here or the ones that are way down there, better
than I can myself. The Psalms... The closest I ever
come to praying is reading a Psalm. I love the Psalms. David, the
man after God's own heart. And in the Psalms, we find the
heart of Christ. They're all Messianic Psalms.
Every one of them, the first application is Christ Himself
speaking. What comes to my mind right off
the bat is Psalm 40 when I say that, where David says, My sins
are gone over my head as a heavy burden. They're too heavy for
me. Be pleased to deliver me, O Lord. Well, that's David's
Cry? I understand that, don't you?
Haven't you ever prayed that prayer? My sins are gone over my head
as a heavy burden. They're too heavy for me. Be pleased to deliver
me. But those are also the words
of Christ from the cross when the sins of God's elect became
His. And He became guilty of them. And we see the very heart
of Christ. We see everything He said from
the cross in Psalm 22. We love the Psalms. And we love
these hymns we sing. Hymns are an important part of
public worship. and important. We're singing
hymns of praise to the Lord. This isn't something to, well,
this is not as important as the preaching or the reading the
word. We'll get up and leave. No, these are hymns of praise
to the Lord God. They're very, very important. They're part of worship. And
what a blessing to go through the day singing hymns to God.
Ephesians 5.19 says, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts
to the Lord. spiritual songs as opposed to
other songs. Now, this is what will be if
the word of Christ dwells in us richly. I think it's interesting. There's a lot of debate about
what type of music should be in a worship service. I mean,
you'll go in some places and they'll like to use rock and
roll music and so on. And that speaks to the kids,
they say, and has a greater appeal. And some places they don't want
to use anything like that. Now, with regard to music, I
listen to all kinds of music. I like rock and roll music. I
really do. I like jazz. I like classical. I like country. Don't like rap. Don't like that. Don't understand
it. But I mean, I like all kinds of music. I'm thankful for music. But you know what? I don't think
a hymn ought to be sung to rock and roll. It's just not appropriate.
Can you imagine an Isaac Watts hymn sung to a Rolling Stones
tune? Why, that would be offensive,
wouldn't it? May the Lord give us this reverence
regarding these psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with
grace in your heart to the Lord. And there's such blessedness
in singing to the Lord when you're all alone and the only one who
sees you is Him. And you're enabled by the grace
of God to sing in your heart to the Lord. Now, here's what
I wanted to dwell on. Singing with grace in your hearts
to the Lord. Now, the only way we can sing
unto the Lord like that is if we have grace in the heart. What does that mean? Do I have
grace in my heart? Grace. Other than the name of
the Lord himself, grace is our favorite word, isn't it? Don't
you love the way it sounds? I love the way it rolls off my
tongue. I love the name of our church, the Todd's Road Grace
Church. What distinguishes us from others
in what we believe? in this church is what we believe
concerning the grace of God. Now, I want you to listen to
me real, real carefully. Just about every religious institution
in Lexington believes the grace of God is an offer. God loves
you. Christ died for you. He paid
for your sins. He wants to save you, and he
offers you his grace. Grace is presented as an offer. He offers you His grace. It's
up to you to accept it or reject it. If you accept it, you'll
be saved. If you reject it, you'll go to
hell. Grace is presented as an offer. That, my dear friends, is not
grace. That is not the grace of God. That is works. That is salvation
dependent upon your acceptance, upon something you do. And nobody
has ever been saved believing that foolishness. Let's call
it what it is. It's evil. It's not of God. It's not the gospel. Grace is
not an offer. The grace of God saves. Grace doesn't offer salvation
to me. The grace of God saves me. We believe saving grace. Aren't you thankful for saving
grace? Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2. Now, in this passage of scripture,
I'm getting ready to read. We're presented as dead in trespasses
and sins. Verse 1, And you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now what good would an
offer of life do to a dead man? I'll offer you life if you accept
it, if you receive it. Now if you receive it, you'll
be saved. What good would that do a dead
man? It would do him absolutely no good at all. Let's go on reading. wherein in times past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and the mind. And we were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. But you accepted Jesus Christ
as your personal Savior and accepted his offer of grace. Doesn't say that at all, does
it? But God, don't you know that's the only
way you were saved? Don't you know that? You know that's the
only way you were saved. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace,
you are saved. and He's raised us up together,
and He's made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches
of His grace and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
For by grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves,
that faith, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man
should boast. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them." Now, understand this about the
grace of God. It's saving. Now, what that means, first of
all, is if God saves you, He chose you to salvation before
time began in electing grace. He selected you to be saved. If God saves you, He sent His
Son to pay for your sins. redeeming grace and he paid for
him. He didn't just make it possible,
he paid for him. If God saves you by his grace,
he justified you by his grace and he gave you a perfect standing
before himself. You're without guilt before God.
That's what grace does. Makes me without guilt before
God. If God has given you grace, He's regenerated you by His grace. He's given you a new nature.
That's why you believe. That's why you love the Gospel.
That's why you love the Lord Jesus Christ, because God's done
something for you. If you persevere, there's only
one reason you persevere, and you know that. It's because He
keeps you, and He preserves you, and you'd fall away right now
if He didn't preserve you by His grace. You really believe
that. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is my grace. Now, if any of that is left out
that I just mentioned. You can call it grace if you
want to, but it's not grace. It's not the grace of God. How much chance is there. Of a homosexual relationship
producing life. None. at all. Now, when I'm speaking,
this is not like I want to this is not being homophobic. If sex
outside of the covenant of marriage is just as bad as homosexuality,
I'm not trying to make some kind of point about that. But the
point I want to make is that a homosexual relationship cannot
produce life. And any message other than salvation
by grace, that message I just spoke of cannot produce life,
no life at all. God's grace is saving grace. It's the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Grace is who God is. The Lord,
the Lord God, merciful and gracious. Abundant and long-suffering. Abundant in goodness and truth.
We love the grace of God because we love the God of all grace. Now, grace in the heart. I've talked about what grace
is. Grace is God saving grace. It's not him offering anything.
It's him actually saving. By grace are you saved. You know
that, don't you? By grace are you saved. Now,
what's he speaking of when he speaks of grace in the heart?
It's the heart. The heart, when the Bible speaks
of the heart, speaks a lot about the heart, doesn't it? And when
the Bible is referring to the heart, it's not talking about
that muscle that pumps blood. The heart represents the whole
man. The heart represents the understanding,
the mind. The heart represents the affections,
what we love, what we hate. The heart represents the will.
Those three things are involved in the heart. Now when God puts
His grace in the heart, first thing He has to do is give a
new heart to receive it. Do you remember that parable
of our Lord when He said, new wine is not put into old bottles?
Remember they were wine skins and they were cracked and dried
if they were old. When the wine went through the
process of fermentation, it would end up bursting the cracked old
bottles and all the wine would be spilled out. New wine is put
into new wine skins. And God puts His grace in a new
heart. You see, the heart we have by
nature won't receive His grace. It'll all spill out. We've got
evil hearts. We've got wicked hearts of unbelief.
The Scripture says the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful
above all things. Who can know it? And God saw
the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now that kind of heart will not
hold grace. God said, A new heart will I
give you. Don't you understand why David
said, create in me a clean heart, oh God? Mine's no good. Mine's filthy. I need a new heart. A heart that will receive His
grace. Grace in the heart. Now, the scripture says so much about
believing with the heart. With the heart, man believeth
unto righteousness. If thou shalt believe in thine
heart, that God raised him from the dead. When the Philippian,
or when the Ethiopian eunuch said, here's water, what hinders
me from being baptized? He said, if you believe with
all your heart, you may. You see, The gospel message is directed
to the heart. If I believe with my heart unto
righteousness, first of all, I understand, I've said this
many times, let me say it again. I understand, I comprehend that
the righteousness of Jesus Christ is the only righteousness I have. I understand that. I understand
I couldn't dare come into God's presence in my own righteousness
because I don't have any. I understand that I have no righteousness
and the only righteousness there is, is the righteousness and
the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. And not only do I understand
that, I love it. I love being saved by His righteousness. Oh, the Lord is my witness. I
love being saved by His righteousness. I love having only His righteousness
as my righteousness before God so that when God sees me, He
sees His Son. He sees the very righteousness
of His Son. And I love that. Not only do I love it, if given
a choice, Would you rather be saved by Christ's righteousness
or your own righteousness? Which way would you choose? That's
a no-brainer, isn't it? It's a no-brainer. We want to
be with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. I love that
scripture with If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised
him from the dead. Well, I understand God did raise him from the dead.
That's my salvation. I'm relying on that. Not only
do I understand it, I love it. I love Christ being raised from
the dead and delivered for our offenses, raised again for our
justification. It's with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. And that heart is the new heart
that God gives you. Your old heart can't come up
with faith. The only reason you have faith is because God gave
you a heart to believe in it. You know that. With the heart,
man believeth unto righteousness. Now, grace in the heart. For grace to be in the heart,
God first, by his grace, gives the heart for the grace to dwell
in. And grace that's in the heart is something that's on the inside
that can be seen on the outside. And it's very important. It's
grace that's in the heart. It's grace that's something on
the inside that can be seen on the outside. I mean two things
by that. First, have you ever noticed
how when people give thanks for food before a meal, it's called,
let's say grace. Let's say grace. Well, do you
know the Bible translates this word, grace, as thank. Somebody that has grace in their
heart is thankful to God that salvation is by grace. Is that in your heart? Are you
truly thankful to God? That everything that He requires
of you, He gives you by His free and sovereign grace. And salvation
has absolutely nothing to do with anything you do. It has
wholly to do with what the Lord has done. And you're thankful.
You're thankful. And it's seen. It's seen. Somebody that's not thankful
doesn't know anything about the grace of God. You can't have grace in your
heart and not be thankful. But turn with me to Luke chapter
6. Luke chapter 6. The Lord says in verse 27 of
Luke chapter 6. But I say unto you which here Not everybody hears. Only those
who have been given hearing ears. But I say unto you which hear,
love your enemies. Do good to them which hate you. Bless them that curse you. And pray for them which despitefully
use you. And unto him that smiteth thee
on the one cheek, offer also the other. And him that taketh
away thy cloak, forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every
man that asks of thee, and of him that taketh away thy goods,
ask them not again, as you would that men should do to you. Do
ye also to them likewise. Now there's our rule of conduct.
How do you want to be treated? That's how you're to treat everybody
else. Now let's go on reading. Verse
32. For if you love them which love
you, what thank have ye? And that is the same word translated
grace. What grace have you? If you just
love people who love you, where's the grace in that? For sinners
also love those that love them. You know, it's easy to love somebody
that loves you. It's easy. Somebody that does
you right, treats you good, boy, it's easy to love them. Sinners
do that. Where's the grace there? Verse
33. And if you do good to them, which
do good to you, what grace have you? Where's the grace there? For sinners also do even the
same. And if you lend to them of whom
you hope to receive, what grace have you? You see, grace in the
heart is going to come out in grace in the actions. And grace in the heart is seen
in how I treat you. Grace in your heart is seen in
how you treat me. For sinners also lend to sinners
and receive as much again. But love ye your enemies. Now there's grace. And do good
and lend, hoping for nothing again. There's grace. And your
reward shall be great, and you shall be the children of the
highest. For he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful. as your Father also is merciful."
Now there's grace that can be seen. That's grace in the heart
coming out in the actions. Now it's only with grace in the
heart that we can sing unto the Lord. And when I was thinking
of this thing of singing to the Lord, my mind was brought to
Acts chapter 16. We have a beautiful example in
the Scriptures of grace in the heart singing. Turn to Acts chapter
16. Now, Paul the Apostle and Silas
are two men that had grace in the heart. Verse 16. And it came to pass, as we went
to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met
us, which brought her master's 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. Now, can anybody tell me anything
wrong with what she said? That's a good statement, isn't
it? Was it true? Absolutely was true. These men
were servants of the Most High God, and they were proclaiming
the way of salvation. Verse 18, And this did she many
days. She kept repeating this. While
what she said was true, could anybody be saved hearing that
message? No. She didn't preach the gospel.
What she said was true, but she didn't preach the truth. And
notice, but Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit,
I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.
And he came out the same hour. Now, when grace is in your heart,
you will be grieved when the gospel is not preached. Even
if what is said is true, you'll be grieved and you'll do something
about it. 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." Now,
these fellows saw that their gain was gone, and that's when
they got upset, when their gain was gone. If their gain hadn't
been gone, if this didn't cost them something, they would have
gone on, there wouldn't have been any problem. You know when
people, if I preach the gospel, and I declare the gospel, and
what you believe is different, and I say, well, I'm okay and
you're okay, we're all going to the same place, we're saving
the same God, nothing costs there, is there? There's nothing to
lose, everything's fine, I'm okay, you're okay. But when you
see what you lose, That's when the rubber hits the road. And
look what happened when they saw their gains were gone. Verse
22. And the multitude rose 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. Now these men were bleeding from
the cat of nine tails across their back, who having received
such a charge, he thrust them into the inner prison, dark and
dirty and filthy, and made their feet fast in the stalks. And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang
praises unto God. Isn't that beautiful? In pain, their circumstances
couldn't have been worse. Midnight, maybe they felt like
they were in darkness, but they prayed and they sang praises
to the Lord. The grace in their hearts was
coming out in song. Don't you love to think about
this? Paul and Silas, their feet in stalks in that filthy prison
among all those prisoners. And what were they doing? They
were singing praises to God. Praise to God from whom all blessings
flow. Even while they were with their
feet fast in the stalks, they were praising God. And the prisoners heard then. And suddenly there was a great
earthquake so that the foundations of the prisons were shaken and
immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bands were
loosed. Now one would assume that everybody
would escape. I would have, I mean, I would
have, man, here's my chance, I'm out the door. Somehow these prisoners were
taken with the fact. Paul and Barnabas sang praises
at this time. They heard them. They heard them. And even with the prison doors
open, there they sat. They didn't leave. Now, the jailer didn't hear them. He woke up, and he thought everybody
was gone. And the keeper of the prison,
awaking out of his sleep, verse 27, and seeing the prison doors
open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing
that the prisoners had been fled. This will be a better death for
me to kill myself than what's going to happen to me once they see
everybody's escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying,
Do thyself no harm, for we're all here. You see, The grace of God in
the heart makes you love men. And it makes you concerned for
their salvation. Don't do yourself any harm. We're
all here. We haven't left. Verse 29, then that jailer called
for a light. I need some light as to how all
this took place. I can't understand it. Why didn't
they leave? He called for a light. And he 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? Now let me tell
you two things about this fellow. Number one, he knew that he was
not saved. Number two, he wanted to be saved. He knew he wasn't. And he wanted to be. Sirs, this
is a good question. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? I've heard people say, well,
that was not a good question. There's nothing you can do to be saved.
Oh, that's not what he meant. He knew he wasn't saved. He wanted
to be saved. How can I be saved? What must
I do to be saved? And Paul and Silas gave him an
answer. They didn't say, well, there's nothing you can do to
be saved. Just wait and see what the Lord does for you. No, they
said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. This is what people with grace
in their hearts have to say. Yeah, they sing to the Lord,
but they also preach the gospel. Believe. You know what that word
believe means? It means rely on. Trust. What must I do to be saved? Here
you go, listen carefully. Here's what you must do. Here's
what I must do. Believe. Trust. Rely upon the Lord. Jesus Christ. Now when we speak
of His Lordship, we mean He's the Lord. That means He has absolute
control over all things. He really is the Lord. He's the
sovereign Lord of the universe. He's the dictator. You're in
His hands. I'm in His hands. Do you know
right now you're in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ? And
He can do with you whatever He's pleased to do. If He's pleased,
He can save you. If He passes you by, holy and
just is His name. But your eternal destiny, you
have no control at all. It's all up to Him. He's the Lord. Believe on the
Lord Jesus. Oh, what a precious name. He's
the Savior. That's what Jesus means. Yes,
He's the Lord. But this Lord is also the Savior. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. He's the Lord. He's the Savior. He's the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ is not His last name.
Christ is His offices. He's the Word of God. He's the
prophet. He is the Word of God. If you don't hear from Him, you
won't be saved. He is the Word of God. He is the truth. He is the only one who can bring
me the Word of God. But not only is he God's prophet,
he's God's priest. As God's prophet, he brings the
word of God to men. As God's priest, he brings poor
sinners like me into the very presence of God. That's what
a priest does. A priest brings people into the
presence of God. You know, he brings me into the
presence of God and I'm accepted. I love that scripture where the
Lord said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes
to the father, but by me. Now that means more than me saying
I'm pleading only him, although I am pleading only him. That
means when he comes to the father, I do too, because I'm in him. as my Great High Priest. And He's God's King. He's the Lord of Lords. He's
the King of Kings. And I need His Kingship to rule
and reign in me and cause me. I need to be caused to do His
will. I need to be caused to believe
He is God's King. You rely on on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I believe in him. I believe he's
the Lord. I believe he's Jesus. I believe
he's the Christ. I believe in him. But not only
do I believe in him, I believe on him. That means I'm relying
on Him, not simply believing in His existence. I'm relying
on Him. I am resting all the weight of
my salvation, of my soul, of my acceptance before God on Him. If He doesn't do it all, I won't
be saved. I am relying on Him. on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
thou shalt be saved." Now that's what folks who sing with grace
in their heart to the Lord preach. Verse 32, and they spake unto
him the word of the Lord, the word of Christ. After they said
what they said in verse 31, they went on to say a lot of other
things. I know they talked about baptism because he turned around
and said, can I be baptized? Paul baptized them. But they
spake unto him the word of the Lord unto all that were in his
house. And he took them the same hour of the night, washed their
stripes, and baptized he and all his straightway. And when
he brought them into his house, he said, Meet before them this
jailer, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. Now,
you know, when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you believe
he is nobody less than God Almighty. the creator of the universe,
the one who controls all things. Grace in the heart is preeminently
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, the joy and peace of believing. You know, only the grace of God
in the heart could cause what we read of in verse 25, and at
midnight When it was so dark, in that dark prison, couldn't
see a thing. He was in the inner prison. Their
backs were beaten to a pulp. Their feet were in stalks. Paul
and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God. May that be a description
of me and you. Let's pray.