Around verse 20, and read down
through verse 34, Acts chapter 16. In verse 20, you remember the context of this.
The Apostle Paul and Barnabas had come here to Europe by town
in a community, a city, a rather large city by the name of Philippi. This was the first time that
we know of that the gospel was preached in Europe. The Apostle
Paul was at Troas, you'll find this here in this context, and
someone appeared to him in a vision. You'll read this back here in
verse 10, in verse 9 and verse 10. There was a man, we have
no idea who he was. He appeared to Paul while Paul
was praying or asleep or going about his business. He appeared
to Paul in a vision. And what he was saying, we're
told there in verse 9, was, Come over here and help us. Come over
and help us. Now, that's amazing when you
consider all the help that this man should have had to begin
with. He was surrounded by idols. Just to the east of him was Diana,
the great temple of the goddess Diana of the Ephesians. He could have crossed the Asian
Sea there and been over there. If he'd wanted to go to worship,
he needed help. Just south of him, we know what
was just south of Philippi, was Greece and Corinth. That's where the worldly wise
men congregated, those philosophers there up on Mount Mars Hill.
And yet, we see this man in a vision, and he's asking a preacher of
all people to come over and help us. Come over here and help us. And we know the help that he
was wanting, because we are told there in verse 10, ìAnd after
we had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go unto Macedonia,
assuredly given that the Lord had called us for to preach the
gospel unto them.î And my, what a dark place this was. The gospel
was ready to invade Europe, but it was a dark place. The worship
of devils was commonplace, and it was protected, it was promoted. The authorities, the common authorities,
upheld the worship of devils. And we'll see this year in just
a minute that you did not dare cross false religion in Europe
at this time. There was great gain to be made
from the worship of devils. Now let's begin here reading.
That's the context. The Apostle Paul and Silas came here to Europe to
preach the gospel. And let's begin reading here
in verse 20. And he brought them to the magistrates. This is where they are in verse
16 through verse 19. Paul cast this unclean spirit
out of this woman. that followed them around. They
were worshiping the devil. And he cast this unclean spirit
out of this woman, and oh, it made them so mad. They said,
the hope of our gain is gone. This woman brought us in a good
living, and now the hope of our gain is gone. They got so mad
at Paul and Silas, they called them, and here's what happened.
They brought them to the magistrates, the rulers of the city, and they
said, these men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city. and they teach customs which
are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Roman.
And the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates
ran off their clothes, and they 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, he thrushed them into the inner prison, and made
their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight Paul and Silas
prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard
them. And suddenly there was a great
earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And
immediately all the doors were opened, and every man's bonds
were loosed. Keeper of the prison, awakening
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. But Paul cried with a loud voice,
saying, Do yourself no harm, we are all here. 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, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. And your house, if
they believe, they will be saved too. And 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, and washed their stripes,
and was baptized he and all his straightway. And when he had
brought them into the house, He sat meek before them and rejoiced,
believing in God with all his house." What great men of faith
these two men were. They believed with all their
hearts that the Lord had sent them here to preach His gospel.
And yet when they came here, there was no synagogue there.
They spent several days in the city, and finally they came back
out of the city, we are told. They were on a riverbank preaching
to a few ladies that had gathered there to pray. And then they
were beaten. We're told here that many stripes
were laid upon them. And they were thrown into the
back of this dark prison cell. But at midnight they were praying
and singing praises unto the Lord. They may have thought, we're
going to have great success over there. But here they wound up
in prison. But they believed that the Lord
was in control. He was in charge. So what were
they doing? Well, they were praying and singing
at midnight. What a wonderful thing. Brothers
and sisters, I wonder if this is not what you and I should
be doing when we're forbidden to do anything else. And when
we don't have the ability to do anything else, I wonder if
this shouldn't be our practice. When we're shut up in our little
prisms, whatever they may be, I wonder if you and I should
spend more time praying and praising God. And I don't think this was
a phony worship. These men weren't down at your
local grocery store. They weren't at the restaurant.
They weren't at some sporting event. I think this was honest
worship. You know, if you're laying in
the back of a cell jail and your back is filled with stripes and
blood is still run from it, I think that would have a tendency to
sober you up. I think if you were worshiping
in a condition like that, it would have a tendency to show
that you're serious about your worship. It was said here that
the prisoners heard them, but I don't think they were singing
to the prisoners. And I don't think they were praying
just so the prisoners could hear them. I think their worship was
true worship. I think they were really worshiping
God in spirit and in truth. I don't see anything wrong with
public worship. I don't see anything wrong with
praying in public, even out in public, or singing while we're
in public. But I think we need to examine
our motives for doing so. And if our motives are the motives
of these two men of faith, then it's well if we're doing it to
God. If our worship isn't to God and
we're not doing it to be heard of man. And we're told here in
verse 25, they prayed and sang praises unto God. The prisoners heard them. Yes,
they heard them. But they weren't praying to the
prisoners, and they weren't worshipping or singing to the prisoners.
And here in verse 26, while they were doing this, while they were
worshipping God, a miraculous thing took place. Suddenly there
was a shaking, the building began to shake. We're told that the
foundations of the prison began to shake. Now this was not an
incident. It surely wasn't an accident.
Somebody may say, well, it's just incidental that this happened
at this particular time. Well, if it had just been an
earthquake, we might have said, okay, okay, you've got no argument. These things happen at some peculiar
times. But you know something, brothers
and sisters, ain't it peculiar that an earthquake opened all
the doors to the sales? And isn't something now to earthquake,
loose the bands on their wrists and the bands on their ankles,
and set these men free, everlast one of them? No, this was a miracle. This is something that can't
be explained in the natural realm. God had did something miraculous. I told somebody the other night,
and I thought this was funny, and when I think about it, I
still chuckle to this day. A man told the story about being
on a tour bus there in Egypt. And they were going across the
shallow part of the Red Sea. And the guide was saying, this
is where the children of Israel cross the Red Sea. And he said,
most of the time, it's just ankle deep when the tide is out. And some fellow in the back,
he said he was just shouting the praise of God. And they said,
what's the matter with you? He said, the Lord drowned in
Pharaoh's army. in ankle-deep water. So what's
the greatest miracle? Opening up the depths of the
Red Sea and letting the children of Israel go through the depths?
Or drowning Pharaoh and his army in ankle-deep water? It's both
a miracle. But a miracle is something you
can't explain. It's something that God does.
He crosses nature. And one of the most comforting
things that you and I can believe is that nature is subject to
nature's God. Nature is subject to nature's
God. Nature is all around us, but
nature is ruled. And here's the wonderful thing.
It's not only ruled for God's glory, it's ruled for the good
of His elect. I don't go out in electrical
storms and rainstorms to tempt God. But I tell you sometimes,
I love to just go out and stand in the wide open, when the lightning's
flashing and the thunder's rolling and the rain's blowing, and just
watch it and look at it. And knowing that's our God controlling
that. He controls it all. I don't complain
about snow and rain and the cold and the heat as much as I used
to. When it's raining and I've got something to do, I often
think of that scripture. He saith to the small rain, Be
thou on the earth. And there it is. There it is. Nature is subject to nature's
God. There was an earthquake, but
what a miracle it was. In verse 27, we're told here,
and the scriptures sometimes should amaze us, the information
that it gives us on why people do certain things that they do. Did you ever wonder why people
commit suicide? Why someone would take their
own life? It's somewhat common in the Asian
countries, but we hear a lot of it here, don't we? People
taking their life. Well, this verse tells us, for
the most part, why a person would kill themselves. Look at it again. And the keeper of the prison,
awakening out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open,
he drew out his sword and would have killed himself. And here
is the reason. Supposing that the prisoners
had fled, here is the primary cause of a man or a woman or
a young person committing suicide. Supposing, supposing. That word means imagining as
true what has not been proven. He had imagined that all the
prisoners had fled. Supposing that to be true, but
was it? But because of this supposition,
he said, I'm going to kill myself, and would have killed himself
because he supposed something that was not proven. Some poor
souls killed themselves under the supposition that I cannot
live life any longer. Life is too hard That's what
they imagine in their minds. I can't live another day. But is that true? That's a supposition. He's not
proved that. There have been people who were
right on the verge of killing themselves, and they changed
their mind. At first they supposed they could
not live. Life is too hard. But they changed
their mind and they lived a long, productive life. If a man supposes that life is
too hard, sure life is too hard. But you've not proved it's too
hard that you can't live it. But some people take their lives
because of a supposition. Some people have made an awful
mistake. They've done something that's
terrible. They've committed a wicked crime, fallen into some awful
sin, and they suppose that they can't face the consequences of
that sin. The man that I go visit in the
prison killed his wife. And he said the first thing he
thought of doing, I cannot live with the consequences, I'll kill
myself. I'll kill myself. He supposed
he could not live with the consequences. But he's supposed wrong. He is
living with a consequence. It's been several years now,
and he's still living with a consequence. And the consequences were terrible.
But what's the alternative? What's the alternative of not
living with a consequence? There are people who get hurt.
There are people who get betrayed. And they suppose they can't live
with it, so what do they do? They kill themselves. That's
what this jailer was going to do. He had got himself in trouble,
he thought. Here are these prisoners, I should
have been awake, I should have been watching over them. Now
they've all escaped, I cannot face the consequences of what
I've done. So what did he do? Supposing
they've escaped, I'll kill myself. You know what the devil's in
on this. The devil's in on everyone that commits suicide. The devil
is behind it. Remember Judas? When he hanged
himself, the devil was behind that. Remember the little kid
that his dad brought to the Lord Jesus and said he has these evil
spirits in him? And often they throw him into
the fire and into the water trying to destroy him. If you can help
us, help us. The devil is behind this. I think
all of us probably know somebody or even have loved ones in our
family or relative that have committed suicide. And most every
instant you will trace to this, it's a supposition. They suppose
him. I cannot live. Life's too hard.
Sickness is too bad. The consequences of what I've
done is too great. Look in verse 28. Look in verse
28. This is amazing. And Paul cried
with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm. You know something? This preacher saved this man's
life. He was ready to kill himself. He had already drawn the sword
and had it at his throat or had it at his heart, but he's ready
to kill himself. And this preacher cried to him,
Do thyself no harm. Oh, may God make us lifesavers
to our poor fellow man. I wonder if there's someone here
today that's ready to do yourself some harm. You may be as close
to standing on the brink of eternity as this poor man here was. Listen, do yourself no harm. Don't do yourself any harm. There's
hope. There is hope. And not only was
there hope for this man, the hope was nearby. It was nearby. That's what we should be telling
people. Don't do yourself any harm. Don't do your body any
harm. And don't do your soul any harm.
There's hope. There is hope. Here was a man
that was ready to perish. Was he not? And yet, just two
or three verses later, here is a man that is rejoicing in God. Do yourself no harm. There's
hope. There is a passage of scripture
in Isaiah 27, verse 13. Let me read it to you. It goes
so well with this passage here. And it shall come to pass in
that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall
come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the
outcast in the land of Egypt, and they shall worship the Lord
their God. There's hope. Don't contemplate
on doing yourself any harm. There's hope. There's hope. And
Paul gets to the hope pretty quickly, doesn't he? Here in
verse 29 and verse 30, this man comes running in. He calls for
a light. He falls down here on his face
before the Apostle and before Silas. And he asks this question. What must I do? to be saved. You know no lost person knows
what to do to be saved. There's not one single lost person
knows what to do to be saved. He knows right from wrong in
most cases, morally speaking, but he doesn't know what to do
to be saved. And it's only when that we realize
we're lost that we realize we don't know how to be saved. Most
people that you talk to would tell you they know how to be
saved until they realize they're lost. This man found himself
to come to understand two mysterious things. that he never understood
before in all his life. The first one was that he was
lost. What a mystery. He didn't know that before. He
could throw God's preachers in the back cell and lay down and
go to sleep. He cared nothing about them and
nothing about himself. Why? He didn't even know he was
lost. What a mystery that is. But here
he is, he said, I'm lost. Who told you you were lost? Oh,
that's something. That's a work of the Holy Spirit
to do that. And I'll tell you something else
is a mystery that has to be revealed. How can I be saved? How can I
be saved? Oh, what two great mysteries.
I'm lost and the way of salvation. And what did Paul tell him? Well,
first of all, let's consider some things that Paul didn't
tell him. Consider this. Paul didn't say
there's nothing you can do. That would have been true, wouldn't
it? The doing is done. Jesus Christ has finished the
work of redemption. That would have been true, but
he didn't tell him that. Why didn't he tell him that?
He didn't tell him this. You need to pray. You need to
call on the name of the Lord. That would have been true, wouldn't
it? All who shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. I wonder why he didn't tell him
that. He didn't tell him this, you need to read your Bible.
Wow, that would have been true. Everybody needs to read their
Bible. Of his own will begot he us with the word of truth. That would have been true. He
didn't tell him, you need to find you a place of worship.
You need to find you a place where God's children gather and
gather with Him. For Satan hath the assembling
of yourself together. That would have been true. But
He didn't tell him that. He didn't even tell him this.
You must repent. Except you repent, you shall
perish. Brothers and sisters, all of
these things would have been true. But the Apostle Paul never
said any of these things to this man. And this shows us that to
win souls, we must be wise. We can tell people certain truths
that they don't need to hear at that particular time. God
give us wisdom to be winners of souls, to be fishers of men. When we go fishing, we don't
use the same bait. Use different bait on different
days for different kinds of fish in different weather. And it's
the same way when we fish for men. God make us wise in dealing
with souls. Why did the Apostle say, Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved? Let me give
you three reasons why I think that he would say this. First
of all is this. He took the whole emphasis off
this man. And that's just what this man
needed. He took the whole emphasis off
this man. This man was in trouble, and
he knew that he was in trouble. He was in trouble with the local
authorities, and he was in trouble with God. He was so fearful He
was so confused, he came down here trembling and fell on his
knees. He did not need to hear anything
else about himself. He sure didn't need to be told
that he needed to get his act together. You need to straighten
up your life. You need to get things together,
bud. That's what you need to do. We want to offer you this
five-step program. He took the emphasis away from
him. Look what a mess this man had
got himself into. Look what a mess you've got yourself
into. Look what a mess I've got myself
into. We're a mess. We've made a mess
of our lives. And if we had it all to do over,
I'm certain of this, we'd mess it all up again. Here's our problem. Is it not? Is this not our problem? We have
made a mess of our lives. So the emphasis must be taken
away from us. We must not have the emphasis
focused on us any longer. It's not about us. Quit talking
about us. Quit having men's eyes to turn
within themselves. There's nothing there. That's
our whole problem. It's us. It's us. Religion turns
us to self. You, you, you. And you're the
first thing the apostle does. He looks at this poor, trembling
man who has made a mess of his life and ready to kill himself,
and the first thing he does is take the emphasis away from him
altogether. Quit thinking about you. Quit
thinking about your trouble. Quit thinking about anything
you need to do. It's not about you. It's not about you. Oh,
that's wonderful if we can get a man to quit thinking about
himself. When anybody used to talk to
me about the Lord or I used to think about the Lord, I thought
of a thousand things that I should do and I needed to do, not knowing
that I'd just make a mess of everything. But I could not turn
my eyes from myself. So Paul begins with this man
turning himself away from himself. And secondly, not only did he
take the emphasis off of this miserable man, but he placed
the emphasis where it should be. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. There is where the emphasis should
be. Away from me and my misery. Away from me and my utter failure,
my loss, my poverty. and putting on this glorious
person the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a worldwide debate going
on in our day, and it's about the person of Jesus Christ. And it's a good debate. And I
hope the church presses this debate harder and harder. And don't shy away from it. And
the debate is this. Is Jesus Christ who and what
he claimed to be? What a good debate that is. Did
he do what the scriptures says he did? If so, then he is indeed
the eternal Son of God. And in his humanity, he has taken
our sins away by the sacrifice of himself. And he lives at the
right hand of his Father, and eternal salvation is in him. He is the door. He is the way. He is the access back to the
Father which is in heaven. That is the debate in our day,
and God helps us to not shy away from it. I often read our newspaper on
Saturday because in it, it has the religious page. And so often
you'll see someone write an article that they say the God of Islam
and the God of the Jews and the Christian God are one and the
same. Let's not shy away from that
debate. Let's take it up and reason it
out, and let's ask some questions. Let's ask this. Is the Jews God,
the Lord and God of Thomas? Thomas looked upon Jesus of Nazareth
and he said, My Lord and my God. Let us ask every Jew, is Jesus
your Lord and your God? And ask every Muslim, is Jesus the
only God-man? We need to take up that debate.
The emphasis needs to be placed upon this man, Jesus Christ. I was listening, watching the
other night to the God delusion debate. Richard Dawkins, he's
one of the prominent atheists in the world in our day. And
John Lennox, he's a professed Christian that teaches mathematics
there at Harvard University in England. I was watching this
debate the other night, and they were debating evolution as opposed
to creation, or creation as opposed to evolution. And John Lennox came to Christ
in his resurrection, and he was talking about that,
that Jesus had rose from the dead, and that proved who he
was. and what he had accomplished
by doing that. And the atheist spoke up and
he says, basically, this is ridiculous. He said, why can't we have a
conversation about creationism as opposed to evolutionism without
bringing in this whole ridiculous concept of some man raising from
the dead? He said, it's utterly ridiculous.
He was embarrassed that he could not have a conversation and a
debate without John Lynch bringing in the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But brothers and sisters, in
any religious debate, in any scientific debate, in the debate
of revolution as it opposes creationism, Jesus Christ must be brought
in. How can you eliminate Him from
the equation? When you're talking about creation,
He is the Creator, and without Him was not anything made that
was made. If you're talking about the universe
holding its course, and everything being held up, and the providence
of God in this world, how can you talk about these things without
turning it to Him who upholds all things? by the Word of His
power, who possesses all power and authority in heaven and in
earth. And when you're talking about
fellowship with God, when you're talking about salvation, when
you're talking about approaching unto God to worship Oh, how can
we talk of that without talking about Him who says, I am the
way, the truth, and the life? No man comes unto the Father
except by me. The emphasis must be placed upon
Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior. He must be taken from us, and
it must be brought back to Him. Nobody else can do poor sinners
any eternal good. That's why Paul said, take your
eyes away from yourself. There is no help there within
yourself. Jesus Christ is salvation. Jesus Christ is life and hope. But thirdly, he said, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Why did
he tell this man this? Not only to take the emphasis
off the man and to put the emphasis upon the Lord Jesus Christ as
it belonged, but he tells him here to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ because it's in this very point that
God is glorified. We cannot glorify God. We cannot honor God until we
are brought to this point with all our hearts. We rely upon,
we depend upon another to save us, namely His Son. There is where God is glorified.
When we come to Him and say, O God in heaven, I cannot save
myself. I've made a mess of everything. I come trusting the marriage
of your Son. I come trusting the marriage
and the work and the grace and the love of your blessed Son. And when a man brings his heart
here and he believes on the Lord Jesus Christ with all his heart
for the first time in his life, He honors God. He glorifies God. He pleases God. In Romans 4, we are told this
about Abraham. Abraham was not weak in faith.
He considered not his own body, now dead. He staggered not at
the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith. giving glory to God. It's only
when we embrace the Son of God with all our hearts and rest
upon Him for our all in all before the Father that we please God,
that we glorify Him. Jesus Christ came into this world,
brothers and sisters, to give Himself a great name. That's why He calls Himself a
Physician. And he's getting himself a great
name. And the great name that he's getting is where men and
women are coming to this point where this man found himself. What must I do to be saved? And
then he casts himself upon Jesus Christ to be saved by Him. Oh, then he's got himself a great
name. I used to have a doctor just
north of Muncie. He's a good doctor, sit and talk
to him. And I liked him and I was willing to keep going to him
until I got sick. My wife said, you need a good
doctor. You don't need somebody to sit
and talk to and be friends with. You need a good doctor. So I
changed doctors. I changed doctors. I tell you,
you can trust any old doctor as long as you're healthy. I
tell you, you can trust any old Savior until you get lost. Any old religion will do you.
Just pray a little sinner's prayer. Go to church on occasion. Carry
your Bible around so people can see you until you get lost. Until you can't save yourself
from the awful condition you're in. Then you realize, oh, if
I'm ever saved. There has to be a mighty Savior
somewhere. And then Jesus of Nazareth will
appear, mighty to say. And then you'll say, Oh Lord
Jesus, how great you are. I didn't know this before. I
had all these positions, all these positions, giving me a
false hope, but oh Lord Jesus, what a great Savior you are.
What a great Savior. That's why he told this man,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Took the emphasis off of himself.
Put the emphasis where he belonged. And brought him to rest his soul
upon another to be saved. And when this is done, and when
a man is brought to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and his
heart is brought to embrace this eternal salvation that's in him,
then the heart and the mind is put in the right frame which
God meant it to be in, in the very beginning. And what frame
is that? You remember the little Keech's
Catechism? He asked the question, what's
the chief end of man? What's the chief end of a man? And I could ask that to everybody
in here this morning. Why are you in this world? Why
are you even here? What's the end of it all for
you being here? And he answers that question
with this, to glorify God and enjoy Him
forever. Isn't that where this man was
brought to? Look at it again. Look at it
again in verse 34. And when he had brought them
out into his house, he set meat before them, rejoicing. He rejoiced. He was rejoicing. Believing in God with all his
house. Believing in God, he glorified
God. How do we glorify God? How did
Abraham glorify God? He believed God. What is the
chief end of man? To believe God. To believe what
He says. To believe His Son. To believe
His Gospel. To believe His Word. That's the
way we glorify God. You'll never give God any greater
glory than just believing what He said. And look at this. He rejoiced. He rejoiced. to glorify God and
enjoy Him forever. He rejoiced. That's the frame
of mind we're brought to when the Lord saves us. We glorify
God and we enjoy Him. Do you enjoy God? Does your soul
enjoy Him? Listen to these passages of Scripture.
Romans 5, being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have access by faith
unto this grace, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."
And listen to this, Romans 5. Being justified, Romans 5a, we
joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received
the atonement. We joy in God. He's our joy. Listen to Isaiah
61. I will give them beauty for their
ashes. Isn't that what happened to this
man? All that he had, all he hoped in is just burned to ashes
very late at his feet. And the Lord gave him beauty.
And what's more beautiful than Jesus Christ Himself? I will
give them beauty for their ashes. I will give them beauty. I will
give you the oil of joy for your mourning. And I will give you
the garments of praise for your spirit of heaviness. I tell you,
that's some pretty good trading on our part, ain't it? Everything
that afflicts us Everything that's a burden to us, everything that's
unprofitable, everything that's dragging us down, that's all
burnt to ashes. And he replaces it with himself
and with joy. And then he goes on in that very
same chapter, just a few verses later, and he tells us what the
poor believing sinner says about this trade. And he says this,
Oh, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. and my soul shall be
joyful in my God. For he hath clothed me with a
garment of salvation, he hath covered me with a robe of righteousness."
Joy, joy in the Lord. What will eternity be but one
endless, uninterrupted, jubilant, relentless, whole-hearted leaping
and skipping and shouting and singing, filled with overwhelming
enjoyment of the triune God. Here were these two men with
stripes on their back, and what were they doing? Enjoying God. Here was this poor man who was
just ready to kill himself. But now what's he doing? Enjoying
God. And if that can be accomplished
in this life, what will heaven be? Come and enter the joy of the
Lord. That's where salvation brings
us back to. Satan will tell us everything.
He often tells young people this. Christianity will make your life
miserable. If you go to Jesus Christ, He'll
put on you burdens that is grievous to be born. You'll be the most
miserable young person you ever know of. That's not so. That's not so. You'll experience
joy and peace and rest in your soul that you could have never
imagined when you began to truly enjoy God. Well, here's my conclusion. Some
people will say, Bruce, you folks have a lot to talk about. You
sure talk a lot, but there's little action. I've seen little action. That's
what some people complain about. And I'm sorry if there's somebody
here this morning, and that's your experience. I'm sorry if
some Christian has mistreated you. or hurt you, or was a bad
light before you. Sometimes even good Christians
are not good representatives of our Lord and Savior, and for
that I am sorry. But if you want to know and you
want to see truly how salvation affects a person, then go here
to this text and you can find it out. It will take a person who was
in despair and ready to take their own life and murder their
souls and body at one time. Somebody who looked at the very
day ahead of them and thought, I can't live another day. And
it will take that person and fill them with new life and joy
and rejoicing. And I'll tell you what else it
will do. He'll take a sorry man like this jailer who threw these
preachers back in the back cell while their blood was running
on their backs, and went off and went to sleep. He was so
indifferent about it. He'll take a man like that, and
I tell you, he'll fill his heart with love for God's people. That same man, the same hour
of the night. was so full of love for these
two preachers that he took them out of that prison and he washed
their stripes. And I'm sure tears were running
down his cheeks while he apologized. And they cooked these preachers
good meals and set them up at the table and told them how much
they appreciated them and how much they loved them. That's
what salvation will do for a person. That's what it will do. And dear soul, listen, if you're
here this morning and all you do is have other
people to serve you, you do for me, you do for me,
you do for me, and all you are is a burden and a hurt to those
who love you, And you don't serve anybody but
yourself, your sinful self. And it's all about you. I'll
tell you what you need. You need the same thing that
this jailer needed. You need to be brought to the
place where somebody would tell you, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and you shall be saved. Because it's obvious you're not.
If you have no love in your heart for God's people, if you can
do them wrong and lie to them and burden them and treat them
mean when they love you more than anybody else, I tell you
what you need is what this man needed. He needed a new heart
and a new spirit. May God bless His Word. Let's
pray.