You Can Be Saved
Notes
Transcript
Intro; A couple of Sunday’s ago I preached a message on “Judge Not”. I opened that message stating how the first 7 words of Mt. 7 are too often taken out of context; “Judge not that you be not judged”.
Tonight I want us to look at another seven words in our Christian Life Study on Salvation that are the greatest words a preacher, parents or christians could have asked of them; “What must I do to be saved?”
Text; Acts 16:30-31
30 And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Prayer
Let me give you a little background to what is happening with Paul and Silas that leads up to this question.
Paul and Silas had arrived in Philippi a few days earlier and went to the river to pray on the Sabbath. They met some women there praying and Paul began to share Jesus with them. Lydia was converted and asked them to come home with her so she could attend to their needs. On the way Paul healed a demon possessed girl who was being used by her masters as a fortune teller to sell idols. This didn’t sit well with the merchants so they dragged Paul and Silas before the magistrates. They were beaten with rods and thrown in prison [stocks] until they would be sentenced.
Now before we get to the question the jailer asked of Paul and Silas, I want us to see what brought him to the point of asking it!
1. Praying and Singing; 25
1. Praying and Singing; 25
Paul and Silas were two of the most unusual prisoners this jailer ever had. While most were complaining and groaning, feeling sorry for themselves about their situation, Paul and Silas were praying and singing!
Here they are placed in stocks in a dark dungeon, not for murder or stealing or protesting and burning someone’s camel, but for healing a demon possessed slave girl and sharing Jesus.
They were hurting, but they weren’t helpless!
They were abused, but they weren’t abandoned!
They were sentenced, but they weren’t silenced!
They were persecuted, but they didn’t pout about it!
16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Their circumstances didn’t control them they controlled their circumstances by casting their cares upon the Lord! And the other prisoners took notice!
2. Jailhouse Rock; 26-28
2. Jailhouse Rock; 26-28
Before Elvis ever released his song “Jailhouse Rock” in 1957, God made it a number one hit with all who were in that Philippian jail during Paul and Silas incarceration.
The earthquake that God brought was very unusual. Earthquakes usually do major structural damage to buildings. But only the foundation of the prison was shook and there was no damage to the walls or prisoners, only the doors opened and shackles loosed!
A jail in itself is not a bad thing. It holds criminals who have broken the law. Only those who are jailed need to be set free and the power of God can set one free from anything;
Addiction to pornography
Lust and covetousness, lying and stealing
Addiction to alcohol, tobacco and drugs
Ungodliness and worldliness
People need the power of God to set them free from the prisons and chains they are in. Jesus came to set the captives free.
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Has the Lord shaken your jail, opened your prison’s doors, and loosed your chains?
Do we live like we been set free or are we still sitting in the open prison?
[v.27] After awaking from sleep, the jailers worst nightmare had come true, at least he thought.
A roman jailer was charged with the security of his jail. According to the Code of Justinian (9, 4.4) a jailer that allowed prisoners to escape would suffer the same fate that was awaiting the prisoners. With the prison doors open, he supposed the prisoners were gone and it would be easier to take his life than to suffer a grueling death that would be imposed upon him for letting the prisoners go.
Satan loves to destroy peoples lives. He had possessed the slave girl—he had enraged the her masters, he had inspired the attack on Paul and Silas. Now he was about to encourage this man to kill himself.
10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
[v.28] Paul called out for the jailer not to harm himself, for everyone was still in their cells, even though they were no longer bound!
I know why Paul and Silas didn’t leave, because they were never bound by the prison, they were their by divine appointment and they knew that.
But the question we have to ask ourselves is why didn’t the other prisoners leave? They didn’t know Paul or Silas and for sure they didn’t know God! Let me give you a few thoughts on this;
Maybe they realized that this earthquake was a supernatural event created by the God that Paul and Silas had been praying to and singing about.
It might be that God kept them there so they could learn more about Him.
I believe both of these are part of the reason they stayed. But I also believe that they were now held captive by something stronger and greater than their chains and cell doors, the power of God! They wanted to know more about the God that could shake the world and give one peace from their burdens!
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
3. What must I do to be saved?; 29-31
3. What must I do to be saved?; 29-31
[v. 29] When you are in darkness you need a light so you can see. The jailer was not only in physical darkness in the depth of the dungeon, but he was in the spiritual darkness of sin!
Because the other prisoners didn’t leave, and knowing what Paul and Silas had been put in prison for, the jailer knew that there was something special about these two men. They had something he wanted and needed. Salvation!
[v.30] “What must I do to be saved?”
Saved- deliverance from trouble and out of difficulty.
Adrian Rogers makes a observation about this that demands our attention; What kind of trouble was he in? When he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” He wasn’t talking about being saved from the earthquake that was already over. He wasn’t talking about being saved from the government that was going to punish him for letting the prisoners go because none of the prisoners had fled. What was he talking about? A angel answered this question.
21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
He wanted to be saved from the darkness of his SIN, and only God can make us see the light!
Sin- rebellion against God, being polluted and contaminated, unclean; the best we have to offer God in ourselves is filthy rags of contamination.
6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;
Sin is breaking the law of God
4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
Sin is failing to do right when you know to
17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Even human goodness without God is SIN!
10 As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one;
11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.
[v.31] Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved;
Believe- to trust, commit yourself to something/someone
Herschel Ford wrote, “There is a difference between believing something about Jesus and believing on Him. We can believe that He is the Virgin-born Son of God, that He lived a sinless life, that He died on the cross, that He rose from the grave, that He is coming again—we can believe all these things and still go to hell. We must put our belief into action—we must trust Him as a sick man trusts the doctor, as a drowning man trusts the lifeguard. We must trust Him with our soul and our future as a man trusts the bank with his money.” You must commit yourself/life to Him.
Andrews, J. (2017). Understanding Acts (Vol. 4, p. 418). Wordsearch.
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
Saved- deliverance from trouble and out of difficulty, from SIN!
Before salvation Sin was our master [controlled us], Satan was our father [guided us], and hell was our sentence [eternal torment] for serving him.
1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
But when a person gets saved the Lord becomes our master, Jesus is our mediator and Christ is our Savior.
12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;
11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ that saves a sinner!
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
We’re not saved by the plan of salvation. We’re saved by the man of salvation! And His name is Jesus!
Close;
When we recognize Jesus as Lord and trust in him with our entire lives, salvation is assured. There is nothing we can do to make it happen. We must simply accept what Jesus has done. In doing so “You Can Be Saved!”
And when we live like we are saved, it becomes the power of the gospel that invites others to see the peace that we have and ask the question, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
