I may have commented upon these verses before when I felt the Lord this week draw me back to them. Words that certainly summarize the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A remarkable event. But we'll read the words of verse 30 through to verse 32. and brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. Amen. With God's word before us, may we bow in a word of prayer, just to ask the Lord's help tonight upon the preaching of His word. Our Father in Heaven, we come to Thee this evening and we pray that help might be given to preach Christ in all His glory. We thank Thee that in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Father, that in Him He is full of grace and of truth. We pray that tonight, as He is set forth, that the grace that is in Him and the truth that flows from Him might make its way to the hearts of men. O God, Thou art gracious. Let us know the weaknesses of this preacher. Let us know the stammerings of his voice. But, Lord, far above the preacher's voice, we pray that a factual call of the Holy Spirit might reach into the souls of men, a voice that no man can mistake, a voice that no man can reject. We pray this for Thy sake and for Thy glory. Amen and Amen. So Acts 16 is where we're at this evening, and if you look with me in verse number 1, you find that it is a most busy chapter for the Apostle Paul. He is being guided by the Holy Spirit to preach through various cities and different regions, called by the Spirit to preach from one country to another. He came, we're told, to Derbe, to Lystra, Then we move down to verse 2, then to Iconium, then to verse 6, Phrygia, Galatia, and the whole region, we're told, right through to Macedonia, Bithynia, in verses 7 and 9, until he arrives here in the place called Antiophilipi, in verse number 12. There are other places that Paul preached in in between, but we won't look at them tonight. But needless to say, in verse 12 we discover that though Paul's itinerary was so intense, the Lord guides this man and his companion Silas to the city of Philippi. It's a very interesting occasion. In verse 14, look there with me. We discover this woman Lydia. She was a seller of purple in the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God. And yet we're told here that this woman was dealt with through the preaching of Paul. And as a result, she was converted. Let's move down to verse 19. We see here a young woman who was employed by certain men to go forth. In verse 16 we're told that she possessed a spirit of divination, which means that she had, or supposedly had, the gift to tell the future. She was possessed by a devil. And she had the spirit that really was only used to gain money for her masters. That's what we're told in verse 16. But with this young woman, she flees after Paul and Silas. In verse 17, we're told that she began crying after them, calling them the servants of the Most High God, which show unto men, or us, the way of salvation. Very interesting, this young woman. though she was a young girl, completely overtaken by a demonic spirit, that yet she could discern within herself that the message preached by Paul was a message that brought salvation to the hearts of men and women. Wherever Paul went, he preached this message. It never changed. So obviously, she had been following them for quite some time. And Paul, he turns to this young woman Look at verse 18 and 19. Paul simply turns. He's fed up with this young girl. It's not that he has anything against her personally. We're told here that Paul being grieved in his heart, he sees this young woman and really it is grieving with a compassion. He is great compassion on this young woman. His heart goes out to her, and He grieves over her, and He turns and says to the Spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ, come out of her. And we're told immediately, the very same hour, that the spirit of divination that had been only used for the gaining of money was removed from her. But her masters, in verse 19, they saw that their way of making money And it was gone. Their livelihood was now destroyed. The credit crunch had now hit them. And you can find there in verse 19, the Holy Spirit says very plainly that the hope of their gains was gone. There was no return, you see, for this young woman. And that's a wonderful gospel truth. That whenever God, through His ministers, deals with the heart of a young woman, or an older woman, or a young man, or an older man, that when God brings a soul out of darkness into light, there's never any chance, and that's a bad word I know, but there's never any hope, or as we would say chance, probability of that person returning to what they were saved from. Now it's true that believers when saved can, they can backslide, They can fall back into sin. But the scriptures is very plain here, that these men saw that there was no return for this young girl. The hope of their gains was gone. So they, instead of taking it out on the young woman, they draw Paul and Silas. And the actual thought here is that they grab them by the scruff of the neck, the collars of their coats, and they drag them before the magistrate. and saying unto the rulers in the marketplace that these men have nothing but trouble to bring to us. They've brought nothing but problems. We've lost our income. We've lost our livelihood. These men do exceedingly trouble our city. That's the words of verse 20. Now, you might say, there's Paul and Silas' ministry. And most surely it has now come to an end in the city of Philippi. But you know, God always has a purpose, even in the adverse persecutions of his people. As you look at this passage with me this evening, you will find that here is Paul who has just seen a young woman delivered from a great evil. And men have opposed him. And of course, that's the onslaught of Satan. He's always there to oppose the work of God. And he wants to bring the ministry of Paul in that city to an end. So he gives him trouble. He brings him before the magistrates and causes him great difficulty. And as a result, Paul and Silas are thrown in prison. Look with me at verse 22. The multitude rose up together against them. The magistrates read off their clothes. and commanded to beat them. And Paul and Silas, they received a merciless beating here at the hands of the magistrates, verse 23, when they had laid many stripes on them. And you notice the pearl there. And when they... It seems to be that one man after another stepped up to have their go at the preacher of the gospel. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they cast them into prison. charging the jailer to keep them safely. That's the end of Paul and Silas, we might say. Their ministry is gone. It's over completely. But God always has a purpose. And when you move in here to verses 24 through to 33, you find it introduces us to this man who we're all familiar with as the Philippian jailer. He is the man who is charged by the magistrates to keep Paul and Silas here firmly in the prison. Keep these troublemakers locked away for as long as it takes, they're here for good. No hope of release, at least for the time being. But you know, men and women, whenever it seems to be the darkest time in the life of the gospel preacher, the gospel minister, and I often am conscious of this myself, there are times preachers get very low. And sometimes whenever Satan is roaring the loudest, it was Spurgeon who said, maybe he's roaring for the last time. And that is true not only for the Gospel preacher, but for the child of God. It may be that some great trouble has reached your home, your life, your employment, and you just can't see how there could be any hope in this. There's no way out of this. But as Spurgeon said, that whenever Satan It seems to be roaring his loudest, about to devour you. He's perhaps roaring for his final time. It's the final assault before God steps in and does something mighty to reverse what has already taken place. And as we see, God does that. It's the conversion of this man, the Philippian jailer. Where we have him here, he's locked Paul and Silas away. He is a man who has been given charge to them. But as Paul and Silas begin to sing and leave the whole prison in song, singing the old Psalms or whatever songs they knew, God sends an earthquake. He shakes the whole prison right to the very foundation. The doors open and he, that is the jailer, Supposing that all the men have seized the opportunity and have fled, he is amazed to find that they are all still there. But before he does that, before he hears the words of Paul, do thyself no harm, for we are all here, he draws his sword and in an instant he would have taken his life but for the intervention of this man, Paul. I want you to look at this with me this evening. And I don't want to be very difficult. I don't want to be very long. When you look here at verses 30, right through to verse 32, you find a man who previously was unprepared to meet God. And yet by the supernatural happening, the earthquake, the remaining of all the prisoners in the prison, that this man now sees his need. And he now goes and he seeks to be prepared to meet his God. In verse number 30, this man is found crying. He's found afraid and trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brings them out into where the light is and where it seems to be safe. And he says, tell me, what must I do to be saved? It's a question we've heard for many years. We've heard it preached on We've heard it proclaimed in open air meetings. We've heard it preached almost in every kind of sermon somewhere. This question, which really is the concern of a troubled soul, what must I do to be saved? You think for a moment about this man's concern. What must I do to be saved? Those are words of a man who was unprepared. a man who was not ready to meet his Creator. And yet now we see him here crying out for an explanation. He wants an answer. Tell me, Paul. Tell me, Silas. What must I do to be ready, to be prepared, to be in a position where I can stand before God and say, God, I am ready to meet Thee? This man is conscious for the first time that he is not ready. And how serious an inquiry this is. We've read there that he drew his sword about to take his life, fearing all the prisoners have escaped, because he knows. And if you study the history of this time, a man such as this was a man of great accountability. He was under the authority of the Roman Sanhedrin, the Jewish Sanhedrin. He was a man under law. He was a man under authority. And he had to give an account to those authorities. And what his report would have been when he announced to the governor that all the prisoners last night have escaped. And remember, this earthquake was not a citywide earthquake. It doesn't mention that. It just simply says that a great earthquake had hit the foundations of the prison. How is he to explain The doors were all open, their prisoners were gone. He's about to take his life because he knows that when he gives in his reports, that his life would be required for those men. He was a man under authority. Yet he cries out here, not because of a fear of that authority, but because of a higher authority that he is now conscious of that he must be accountable to. It is not a fear of man. It is not a fear of the Romans or the Jews. It is a fear of meeting God. Tell me, what must I do to be saved? Now, if I could just step aside for a moment. And I did this last Sunday evening. I want you to see the relevance of the Gospel to the law of God again. We read here that this man was terrified. He came in before Paul trembling in absolute despair, in absolute terror. And we have to ask ourselves, surely, well, what was it in justice terror? You don't go out, man or woman, to make yourself afraid. It is something that makes you afraid. And that's the foolishness of the gospel of easy believism. Men will say, I'm going to get saved whenever I want. And yet when you come to God's Word, you find that before there is conversion, there is conviction of sin. And conviction of sin only comes whenever there is a fear and a terror of meeting God in an unholy state. There has to be an unholy condition and a fear of meeting God in an unholy condition. You can't say to yourself, well, I'm going to be saved and there's no evidence of fear of sin bringing you into a state of damnation. That is not a fear tactic. That is the operation of the law and the gospel. It is the purpose of the law of God to reveal to men and women the holiness of God. Where do you see the holiness of God? You see it at Sinai. You see it there when the mount burned with fire and Israel may approach the mount, but as they do so, they are told that they move back, for they were terrified. They were afraid. That could only happen when there was a presence of the holiness of God. And I tell you tonight, when you read here this man coming and trembling, it was not a fear that he himself had induced. It was a fear that God, or can I say a confrontation with God, had brought to him. You need a confrontation with God, dear man or woman. I could preach here for week after week on the love of God. And I love to preach the love of God. But that will never convince you of your sin. It will never bring you to Christ. I can preach in hell. And I can show you from Luke 16 the terrors of hell. The terrors of these things. And that will never convince you. It will frighten you. It will scare you. It will have you think. But it will never bring you to the point where you will say, well, I want to flee from that place. That kind of preaching is of no use. But what is of use to the sinner is whenever men are brought to see the terrors, as old Bonner said, Horatius Bonner, the terrors of law and of God. The terrors of law and of God. When this earthquake hit the prison, it was not the earthquake and like I know, I was speaking to a dear friend of mine recently, He moved to San Francisco. And being a man from Northern Ireland, you don't get the weather, you don't get the phenomena that they do out there. He's just married a few weeks. He married a young girl from California. And a young man who loves the Lord with all his heart. A lovely couple. They only arrived in California a few weeks. And you may have heard about that great earthquake that hit just about a month, two months back and shook the whole city. San Francisco, as you know, is right on the fault line and it's the most volatile place on earth to live. Yet, sad to say, it's one of the most wicked places in the face of God's earth. And yet he emailed me one day to say, Paul, you know, I was never as terrified in my whole life. when this earthquake struck the place where they were living. Now, his wife was so used to it, she more or less, I think, laughed at him and said, well, you know, it happens all the time here. And they call them, I think, the checkers. It's only a checker, but the ground moves. But for him, it was a great thing. But whenever the big one hit, it really did shake them up. But when you look at this here, the tear here is not to do with the earthquake or being caught up in some earthly phenomenon. But it is a fear that is induced by God in the earthquake. It is God who is in the earthquake. God is in these things. He used it to bring about a confrontation with Himself and this man. And when this man saw God in the earthquake, he realised that here am I in all my sin, and I have just been confronted with my sin, my state, before the eyes of a holy God. And you know something? There's no better man whom this man could have went to. Because the Apostle Paul had experienced something similar on the Damascus roads. We're not told there was an earthquake. But we're told as a man, unconscious, unprepared to meet God, made his way down the Damascus roads, suddenly from heaven there shone a light round about him, and the voice boomed out, as did it Sinai, from the very mouth that held commandments, Why persecutest thou me? And Saul realises whose the voice is, is the voice of Christ the Lawgiver. And it brings him to his knees, full of terror. Paul is confronted with his sin on Damascus road. And he cries out similar to this man, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? It's a very similar language. This man cries out, what must I do to be saved? Saul cried out, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? If you look at those words in Acts chapter 9, they actually read this way. That Lord, what wilt thou have me to do that I might make satisfaction for my sins? And I can tell you tonight, on the authority of God's Word, that whenever a man is confronted by God, whenever a man receives a confrontation of the holiness of God, the first thing that man will want to do is to find a way how he can make satisfaction for his sin. That man will want to find a way be on terms of reconciliation with God. For he knows that he is no match, that he in all his sense, a proud, boastful, physically strong, mature man, no fear of anything. Yet here he is brought to his knees, not by Paul, not by Silas, but by a confrontation of the holiness of God. As I apply that to you tonight, there you are in your sin and you're unconcerned to meet God. And the reason why you're unconcerned is because you as yet have never had a confrontation with God. If you did have, and I pray that you will have, that is what it will take to move you out of your comfortableness and your happiness to be here in a Gospel meeting under the sound of God's Word and just go from this house as you do week after week, unconcerned and yet unprepared, because God has not confronted you with your sin. That is why I am bringing you this way tonight. I am bringing you to see the holiness of God. Because only God can awaken you of your need. And I only pray that sinners would see that. That sinners, you are so proud, you think that I will get right with God when I so desire. Salvation is not in your hand. It's not in my hand. Salvation belongeth, Jonah says, unto the Lord. It's only with the mercy of God that He deals with any one of us. According to the words of Moses and Apollos, when he said in Romans 8 and 9, I will have mercy upon whom I am pleased to have mercy. If God is not pleased to have mercy, you are for hell. That's the gospel. But there is mercy. There is grace. And it must please God to give that mercy. But that is not to have you run from God. That is to have you stirred up tonight to think, well, here I am. I can't have salvation when I want or when I please. I must seek it. I must flee to this God of whom you speak, preacher. I must go to this God whose prerogative it is to give grace and mercy and salvation. I love that hymn of old Samuel Davies where he speaks there about pardon from an offended God, pardon for sins of deepest die. And he goes on there in that poetic verse to say about it is thy divine prerogative, thy divine prerogative to give grace and salvation. McShane had the same view. When free grace awoke me, when by light from on high, when the legal fears of the law awoke me, I trembled to die. No refuge, no safety in myself could I see. But in Christ Jehovah's again you, my Saviour you must be. That's the gospel. God enlightening the mind of the sinner, trembling and fearing and fleeing to Christ. No refuge could this man find within himself. He may have been, as we will see now, Paul in his response says to this man, sirs, Paul says to his question, what must I do to be saved? Paul said, responding, you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. This man may have had his faith. I'm sure he did have. Being a Philippi, being a Jew, wherever he was, he most likely had his faith. But it was not a faith that led him to God or Christ. It was not a faith that led him to the Gospel of Paul. I remember meeting a young man years ago when I was a student. I was driving through a shore to preach there that evening. And it was pouring down rain one evening in Cullybacke and I remember going over the bridge and I stopped to give this young man a lift. And as we talked in the car, he lived just outside a place called Tamlet. I don't know if you've ever heard of that. But anyway, it doesn't matter. That's where he was going and I dropped him off. I was going early for the meeting and I drove to Tamlet and then back to Recharcom with this young man. Because we started talking and he said, well, where are you going? I said, I'm going to preach at a meeting tonight. And we talked about things and he says, my mum goes to church. And you know, I have my faith too, he says. I have my faith. And yet the sad thing was, the smell of alcohol, that young man would almost have knocked you out. And here he was, proudly proclaiming to me, Paul, I have my faith. And I remember saying to that young man, I can't remember his name, but I said to him, you know, well, tell me, where does your faith lead you to? For my faith leads me always to Christ. Where does your faith lead you to? And he couldn't answer it. I explained it to him. What did I mean? I said, well, faith always has a resting place. Faith must have an object. You have to have faith in something. But what is it? And he stumbled and couldn't give the answer. And then he says, well, I see where you're coming from. Maybe it's my church I'm trusting in or my family, my mother who attends church. The young man had his faith, but it was not a faith that led him to Christ. But now that Paul's response in verse number 31, you are to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ if thou art to be saved. And this promise is the same for you, your children, and your house. It's a covenant promise. It's a promise that extends to his whole family. But notice there the object of faith. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul did not mince his words. He didn't go down and say, well, you know, you've really got to join the church first and then... approve of your membership, well then we'll talk about these things and get it right then." He simply went right to the juggler and said, you need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You need to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Wherever your faith was before this, I don't care. And I say that to you tonight. Is it in the church? Maybe it's in your daughter or your father, your mum, your son. And you know they're saved tonight. You know they're for heaven. And they pray for you. And you're going to be saying to yourself, well, you know what, that's enough for me. God always hears the prayers of a mother. God always hears the prayers of my sister, my brother. And all I have to do is have faith that that will cover me. You might sometimes use that as an illustration. And I think that people think that never happens. There are people today and that's the way they think. That's the way they live. That's how they understand faith. So what is faith? What does Paul mean? It's a very important question. It's a very serious inquiry. What must I do? Well, here's what you do. You believe, you go to, you throw yourself on Christ. Faith is a casting of the anchor of the soul on Christ. On Christ the solid rock I stand. I have no other hope. I have no other plea. It is on Christ alone. What is faith? Can I answer that question for you? Faith is the wholehearted acceptance of all that the Scriptures reveal. concerning Christ and concerning your state. That means for you to be saved, you need to believe what I'm saying. You need to believe that what I've said of you is that you are depraved, you are a sinner, you are condemned before God. You need to believe that in order to be saved. But you won't be saved unless you believe that. You certainly have to believe in that, that Christ is a Savior, from those sins, from all sin. You've got to see yourself as a sinner and that has the effect of repentance. You will repent when you see you are a sinner. But faith is the resting on Christ. It is the throwing yourself on Christ. Christ died for the ungodly. Paul tells us, do you believe that? No, you don't. At least, not as yet. Christ died for the ungodly is a truth that you need to understand. For without that, you will never encounter saving faith. I don't care what you might say. Where does your faith lead you to? It needs to lead to Christ. If it leads somewhere else, if it leads to this church, is leading you away from Christ. It is faith alone. It is a wholehearted acceptance. And you will only accept that whenever you see your need or have that need revealed to you. See, when a man exercises faith, there is a turning away. There is an embracing of Christ. There is a holding on to Christ. And that is what Paul is bringing to this man. Look again at verse 31 with me. It's a two-fold affirmation. Again, the plural pronoun. They said. It's almost as if in desperation, this man cries out to Paul in silence. And both men simultaneously, they both cry out, Believe, man! On the Lord Jesus Christ! Flee to Christ! And thou shalt be saved. It is not a jump in the dark. It's not a casting yourself on the unknown, as we often say, or that we hear being proclaimed as faith. You go to some of these men, and I don't particularly have any in mind, but we all know you've just got to believe. You know, you grow tired of hearing You meet them all the time. Christians are passed off for just believing. Oh, I'm a Christian. What do you believe? Oh, I just believe. And they'll say, well, where do you belong to? I belong to Mount Marian Free Church. Oh, I belong to such and such a place. Oh, well, sure, it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you believe something. But it does matter what you believe. And it does matter if you are believing just something. You've got to get away from the something and get to Christ. It matters a whole lot, my friend, tonight what you believe and where you believe. What is the promise of faith as I close tonight? The promise of faith is contained in these words, thou shalt be saved. It was a wonderful promise. But it is only attached to faith in Christ. It's not attached to anything else. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. That teaches us this evening, and to show you on Save Tonight, that faith is exclusive. That is saving faith. Faith that saves. Faith that's going to do you any good eternally is a faith. as exclusively in Christ, or exclusive to Christ. Turn back to Acts 4, verse 12, as we close this evening. Acts 4, verse 12. What does it say? Words you've learned as a child. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. It's really saying there's no other name worth preaching, or that can be preached, that can bring you salvation. There's none other name, under heaven, given among men, whereby you must be saved. The end of saving faith is that you will be saved from the wrath to come. Preserved from the wrath to come. Turn to Mark 16. For let me read these words to you. Mark 16 and verse 16. He that believeth not shall be damned. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that exercises saving faith, who throws himself on Christ wholeheartedly shall be saved. But he that simply does not believe. As Pastor Murray said on Friday night, all you've got to do is do nothing. You don't have to do anything. All you've got to do is sit and do nothing. Believe not. But the result is, in either Christ's words, thou shalt be damned. Thou shalt perish. I pray tonight that God will show you It is only God can, as I have been leaving before you, that only He can reveal to your heart what true saving faith is. I pray that He will bring to your soul tonight the terrors of law and of God. The believer tonight can say, those terrors with me can have nothing to do, for my Saviour's obedience and blood hide them all from view. But that is not true of you. May there be a concern worked by the Holy Spirit. May there be that inquiry. Tell me. Just tell me simply as you can what must I do that I might know satisfaction with my sins before God, that I might be saved. Let us pray. Let us bow in the presence of the Lord. We thank you for your attention tonight. And we pray that God will use His Word, as only He can, to bring