I would invite you to turn in your copy of God's Word to 2 Chronicles chapter 33. Second Chronicles chapter 33, we'll read the entirety of the chapter. Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to reign. And he reigned 50 and five years in Jerusalem. But he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. Like unto the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out, before the children of Israel. For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Balaam and made groves and worshiped all the hosts of heaven and served them. Also he built altars in the house of the Lord, whereof the Lord had said in Jerusalem, shall my name be forever. And he built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the sun of Hinnom. Also, he observed times and used enchantments and used witchcraft and dealt with a familiar spirit. And with wizards, he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon, his son, in this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever. Neither will I anymore remove the foot of Israel from out of the land which I have appointed for your fathers. so that they will take heed to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses. So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err and to do worse than the heathen whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel. and the Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not hearken. Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns and bound him with fetters and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers and prayed unto him. And he was entreated of him and he heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God. Now after all this, he built a wall without the city of David on the west side of Gihon in the valley even to the entering in at the fish gate and compass about Ophel and raised it up a very great height and put captains of war in all the cities of Judah. And he took away the strange gods and the idol out of the house of the Lord and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem and cast them out of the city. And he repaired the altar of the Lord and sacrificed there on peace offerings and thanks offerings and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. Nevertheless, The people did sacrifice still in the high places, yet unto the Lord they are gone only. Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and his prayer unto God and the words of the seers that spake to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel. His prayer also and how God was entreated of him and all his sin and his trespasses, and the places wherein he built the high places, and set up the groves and graven images, before he was humbled, behold, they are written among the sayings of the seers. So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house, and Amon his son reigned in his stead. And Amon was two and 20 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. But he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, as did Manasseh his father for Amon's sacrifice unto all the carved images which Manasseh his father had made and served them. and humbled not himself before the Lord, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself. But Amon trespassed more and more. And his servants conspired against him and slew him in his own house. But the people of the land slew all them that had conspired against King Amon. And the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead. Creation, obviously, as we're looking through this series on conversion, I thought Manasseh was an apt reading. And there's, I guess, a couple of things I really want to bring to your attention because I think they're quite important for us to understand. If you notice at the very beginning of the chapter, Manasseh is the son of Hezekiah. It speaks here in verse two that he built again the high places which Hezekiah's father had broken down. Does that not give us pause for a moment? Think about how very quickly total and complete apostasy can come upon the church of God. That you can pass literally from one ruler to the next, and the ruler, Hezekiah, that had accomplished such a great reformation, all of that can be undone in a relatively short period of time, when a man at the top Obviously he would have been surrounded probably by wicked advisors, so maybe it's better we even think about when a group of men at the top are unwilling to stand for the truth, and they don't believe these things themselves. Notice how quickly it can come. And notice also too, it's interesting, and you see this throughout the scriptures, right? You see very godly people with apostate children. And I think it's just important for us to remember that we should be praying for our children, And then sometimes, there's no magic formula to ensure that your children are the elect or they will be believers. I just think we need to have it before our eyes that sometimes very godly people have children that are frankly very wicked. King David had it, obviously Hezekiah had it, many others had it. You can think of all the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they all had children that were wicked. But the last thing I want you to notice, and I think this is the saddest thing in this whole chapter. There's wonderful gospel hope here in Manasseh's repentance, and I don't wish to discount that. But I want you to notice how easy it is for the work of the Lord to be lost. among God's people, right? If he would have simply followed through with the ways of Hezekiah, the worship of God would have been maintained in its purity. And yet, the reality is that Christianity, as I heard it once put, I think very aptly, Christianity is not native to the soil of our hearts. And it takes a lot of work to bring forth fruit. And so, Instead of maintaining what Hezekiah had already done, Manasseh probably went, in some ways, with the easier path and began worshiping idols and allowed all manner of wickedness to rise up in Judah. But notice, after he repents, what he's done, he can't totally undo. And that, I think, is a very, very sobering thing. God works in him and brings him into a gracious state, and he repents, and he does a lot. I don't mean to discount, he does a lot to reform the worship of the people of Judah. But we read in verse 17, nevertheless, the people did sacrifice still in the high places, yet unto the Lord their God only. You might say, well, they were sacrificing to the Lord. They were outwardly, but they weren't doing it in the prescribed manner that God had called them to do. And I think this is sort of, for Manasseh, I think this would have been something of a reproach to him, because he had let, if you will, the cat out of the bag. And once the cat is let out of the bag, it's very hard to get back in the bag. And God's people frequently have to live the rest of their lives with the consequences from Manasseh, this would have been a very visible representation of the consequence of his early apostasy from the Lord and leaving God's people away. So all of that being said, let me just remind you how precious the things of God are amongst his people, how easily they can be lost, and how frankly very, very difficult it is to recover them fully once they go. The good news out of this passage, though, is it highlights God's graciousness. where you have, and by the way, young people, maybe you don't realize it, but in verse six, he says, he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of Himnon, and it speaks about him using enchantments, enchantments of witchcraft. He was practicing child sacrifice. They were participating in that. He was a familiar spirit. He was trying to summon basically demons. He was an exceedingly wicked man. And this should give us pause to remember that God can take the wickedness of sinners and bring them about to new life in Christ. That being said, it's time for us to pray, so we'll stand. O gracious and most high God, O Lord, we come before the throne of grace on this Sabbath morning. As we have read from the Old Testament and a few remarks have been made, I think it's appropriate that we begin praying, O God, for thy kingdom in the world. O Lord, as we look upon the visible church, we think of what we heard last night from Nehemiah. about how Nehemiah was praying for the church of God. He was praying for God's people. And so, Lord, we extend that prayer forth. And thinking from Nehemiah 1 to Nehemiah 2. In Nehemiah 1, he's praying. In Nehemiah 2, he closes out by surveying the walls of Jerusalem. And he sees how desolate it is. And so, oh Lord, the church, your church, your work, your kingdom in the Western world, in the nation of Australia is particularly a desolate place. Oh God, we come and we have no misapprehensions. And oh Lord, the walls of Zion, the walls that separate us from the world are run down and they have been successfully, oh God, torn down by the enemies of your people. And so Lord, we come into your presence this morning asking that you would build the walls of Zion. that, O Lord, you would separate your church from the world and you would separate your church from the world unto holiness. And I'll begin praying for that in the Launceston EPC and in the EPC Presbytery in general. O Lord, I cry out to you that this congregation, this denomination, O God, that they would love not the world, but rather, O Lord, that they would set their mind on heavenly things where their Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is seated at your right hand. That, oh God, they would be a more heavenly-minded group of people, that they would look to their secret sins, and they would strive to, by your grace, have them mortified, and they would be looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray, Lord, that this denomination, which has such a testimony, would continue to go forward under, Lord, you as their banner. knowing that you are the strength of your people in the day of battle. And Lord, I plead that the EPC would do battle against the world, the flesh and the devil. And I pray that as well for my own denomination and my own congregation. Oh Lord, we are very weak and feeble. And I plead that for the Presbyterian Synod of Eastern Australia that you would build the walls of Zion. that you would set us apart from the world, and that we would live, oh God, to your glory. I pray that, oh Lord, as well, for the Southern Presbyterian Church and the Free Reform Church and the Christian Reform Church, and Lord, I plead for every church in this nation of Australia this morning that is gathering together, and though, oh Lord, we do not celebrate it, we do not mark it as a day, it is the so-called Easter Sunday, and many people I don't know if it will be many more, we're increasingly in a secular nation, but there will be some that perhaps will show up to various churches, and oh God, it is my earnest pleading that the gospel of Jesus Christ would be preached to them, that they would realize that Christ was raised from the dead, oh God. Christ was raised from the dead for the justification of sinners, for the salvation of sinners. And Lord, I'll even go a step further, and I do plead, oh Lord, that even the marking of this day of Easter, which we do not celebrate, I pray that would be removed from the Australian church, and rather, oh Lord, we would see the Lord's day every Sabbath day as a day of resurrection. But I do pray, Lord, I pray that in every pulpit in our nation, in every pulpit in the state of Tasmania, that the word would be preached, and Lord, I pray that sinners would be brought into the kingdom of God. And Lord, I further pray for the rulers of our state and our nation. And oh God, I pray for Mr. Albanese, our Prime Minister, Mr. Rockliffe, our Premier, that they, oh Lord, would have much wisdom and that we would be able to live quiet and peaceable lives. But oh Lord, if I may say it with reverence to you, In reading your providence, I'm afraid that the days of our quiet and peaceable lives may be numbered, apart from your divine innovation. So I plead, O God, that you would convert Mr. Albanese and Mr. Rockliffe. I plead, O Lord, that you would convert every member of the state parliament of Tasmania, and that, Lord, you would convert every member of federal parliament. And I pray that they would not only have worldly wisdom to rule us well, but they would know, O Lord, as we read in Proverbs, of the wisdom of God that is the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that they would receive that wisdom. And further, O Lord, I plead I plead against the many ungodly agendas that are arising in our own day. And Lord, I cry out. As I've already prayed and I've said the church is worldly and the walls are torn down, oh God, it appears to me as if our enemies could come in and overtake us at any time. And so Lord, I plead that you would arise and that you would confound them because we are like a city besieged and in the Western world there seems to really be a lack of hope. So Lord, arise, come. confound our enemies, save the most wicked of the wicked. Lord, stop the advancement of their ungodly agendas. And Lord, I do particularly pray against legislation that is being proposed both in this state as well as federally that would that would threaten the church's ability to proclaim the gospel, that, O Lord, makes conversion to be a byword, a bad thing. And yet here we are, O Lord, studying the wonderful work that you perform in conversion. I pray, O God, that if we have laws that are against conversion, I plead that you would be converting many sinners, that you would convert notorious sinners. I plead, O Lord, that there would be so many conversions in the land of Tasmania, that God, we would become, as it were, a new Bible belt. And you, O Lord, have the strength to do it. And I pray, O God, as well, that you would come to your church and you would give us zeal to witness, that you would give us zeal for your things, O God, because frankly, as long as we are lethargic and lackluster and lazy and we live lives of spiritual haze, you're not likely to work. Judgment must begin in the house of God. So Lord, I plead that you would stir us up individually to repent of our own sins, that, oh Lord, as respective denominations from once we come, that we would be looking in our own church courts, oh Lord, to sort of make the ship run a little straighter, to run a tight ship, a tight ship all to your glory, and that, oh God, we would be crying out daily for you to come by your spirit and revive your church and our nation and our land. And oh God, this morning we will take up what it is to believe in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And oh God, as we've prayed for revival in the church and without the church, I think we have to bring it home here and now, and I plead, oh God, that as we consider what it is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, I plead that your spirit would be working in our midst, oh Lord, to draw sinners to yourself, that would be working in the lives of our covenant children, that would be working in the lives of our young people. I pray that those who know the Lord Jesus Christ, by the working of your spirit, applying this word to their hearts, would be edified and grow in grace and knowledge of what Christ has done. Oh God, we are nothing without you. So we plead, oh God, that you would come. and you would fill us up. But Lord, you would rend the heavens and come down. Without you, there is no hope. And we pray all of this in the name of Jesus Christ, our advocate at your right hand, asking the forgiveness of our sins. Amen. The creation Again, I believe I've gotten this out of order, so do forgive me. We'll now sing our second psalm, which will be from Psalm 80. Psalm 80, and we'll be singing verses 14 to 19. Verses 14 to 19. And there, we read, O God of hosts, we leave a seat. Return now unto thine. Look down from heaven in love behold, and visit this thy vine. That should be our prayer. The psalmist there is crying out, but the Lord would come, and he would visit his people. They're destitute, and friends were destitute, and we need the Lord to come, and we need the Lord to work. Let's stand and we'll sing Psalm 80, verses 14 to the end of the psalm. We might sit. I'm really poor at this. I do forgive. And he wrote it out on the list for me. It says congregation standing under Psalm 2, the second Psalm, so we'll be standing for this. Our God, our full spirit be, return thou not to thine ♪ O come, O come, Emmanuel ♪ ♪ And visit this, my mind ♪ ♪ This, my heart, with thine own right hand. ♪ ♪ And her love so mild ♪ ♪ Ever safe ranch, wait for thy spell ♪ ♪ Thou hast made truly strong ♪ ♪ Fertile it is with pain in heart ♪ ♪ It also is calm down ♪ ♪ They ask of me a permission ♪ ♪ When has my faith come round again ♪ Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave and we upon thy name will go. Turn us again, Lord God of hosts, and love on us, how sweet to make thy countenance ♪ And so we shall be saved ♪ You can be seated and turn in your copy of God's word now to Acts chapter 16, Acts chapter 16. I just wanna say as you're flipping there, I'm very sorry about the confusion of getting the service out of order. And I know it's funny, but just hear me out for a moment here, right? We're dealing with something deadly serious. I know it's easy to smile, and I'm the one messing up, so I want to apologize to you all, because we should be serious in God's worship, and we really ought to be very sober, because we're coming into the holy of holies, the presence of the living and true God, and outside of Christ, God is a consuming fire, and so I'm very conscious, I do not mean for myself to make light of worship, so I do beg your pardon for getting the worship service mixed up. And we'll read the entirety again, of Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16. Then came he to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed, but his father was a Greek, which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. Him would Paul have to go forth with him and took and circumcised him because of the Jews, which were in those quarters, for they knew all that his father was a Greek. And as they went through the cities, they delivered them decrees for to keep, or were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem. And so were the churches established in the faith and increased in number daily. Now when they had gone throughout Phygira and the region of Galatia and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, After they were come to Mysia, they assayed not to go into Bathynia, but the spirit suffered them not. And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed, saying, come over into Macedonia and help us. And after he had seen the vision immediately, we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. Therefore, loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Sommothracia, and the next day to Neapolis. And from this to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony in which we were in that city abiding certain days. And on the Sabbath, we went out of the city by a riverside where prayer was wrought to be made. And we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted thither. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized in her household, she besought us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained us. And it came to pass that as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with the spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. The same followed Paul and cried, Paul and us and cried, saying, these men are the servants of the Most High God, which should show unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days, but Paul being grieved, turned and said to the Spirit, I command thee in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to come out of her. and he came out the same hour. And when our masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, and brought them to the magistrates, 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. after 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, changing the jailer to keep, or charging the jailer, forgive me, charging the jailer to keep them safely. Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stonks. 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 the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bands were loose. and the keeper of the prison, awaking 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 fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, do thyself no harm, for 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 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. 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 his house, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. And when it was day, the magistrates sent the sergeant, saying, let those men go. And the keeper of the prison told the saint, Paul, the magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore, depart and go in peace. But Paul said unto them, they have beaten us openly, uncondemned, being Romans. and have cast us into prison, and now they do thrust us up. Now do they thrust us up cruelly? Nay, verily, but let them come themselves and fetch us out. And the sergeants told these words unto the magistrates, and they feared when they heard that they were Romans. And they came and besought them, and brought them out, and desired them to depart out of the city. So they went out of the prison and entered into the house of Lydia. And when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them and departed. The congregation, our text for this morning is Acts 16, verse 31, and particularly the words, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that really is our theme this morning, is what it means to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, yesterday, if you recall, we were looking at effectual calling. And at the very introduction of that sermon, I said we could almost see God's work in conversion, if you will, from two angles. And I qualified that, and I said it doesn't mean that man cooperates with God, or that man in any way saves himself, but we can see it in two angles. One, the angle of effectual calling where the Spirit of God comes and works in the heart of the sinner to draw them to the Lord Jesus Christ. There's also the angle, I guess we could say, of human experience. You see, in your own conversion, you are exercising faith. You are actually believing on something, right? Now, faith is a gift of God. Belief comes by the work of the Holy Spirit. Many people, I think, struggle to understand some of these abstract ideas. And I've seen it, particularly with covenant children and young people. They come and they ask this question, do I really believe? What does belief look like? I've known this my whole life, or how do I know that I actually know this? There's all of these questions that can arise. So what I hope this morning to do is, as the Lord would enable me, quite simply to explain what it is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we speak about the Lord Jesus Christ here, when Paul and Silas say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they're telling him to put his faith in an object, right? And that object of his faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he wants to understand clearly what that idea means. And you might think, well, that's, On the one hand, you might think you're making a mountain out of a molehill. You're making something that's simple, very abstract. Or you might think you're making something very abstract. You're trying to drill it down and make it simple. And I would say this to you. What we hope to do is we hope to clearly see this. And I think when we get to the end of our exposition of these words, I think you'll have a pretty clear idea in your own mind, at least it's my hope, of what it means to believe on the Lord. So we're gonna do this in two points. Our first point is, what is believing? And the second point, in whom are we to believe? So what is believing and in whom are we to believe? But let me first say by way of introduction that the Philippian jailer is most certainly converted. So I want you to understand this, that this is what we're seeing here when Paul and Silas say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, is we're not merely seeing, as it were, this gospel command, this offer for him to come to salvation. That's true. We are seeing that. He's asking the question, and he's being told the answer. But when he's told the answer, it's made plain in the rest of the passage that this was made, this answer, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, was made effectual to him, that the Holy Spirit used this to draw him to the Lord Jesus Christ. So what is it actually to believe, beginning with our first point? And, I think it sort of seems simple at first, but again, really, belief is an abstract concept. So first understand this, the Greek word that is used in our text congregation, you could really translate this almost, exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The word here for believe and faith are the same word, right? So Paul and Silas are directing this Philippian jailer to put his faith, in the Lord Jesus. So they're saying you must put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But what is actually saving faith? I mean, have you ever thought about it? You might have faith in someone, right? So you have somebody that you need to do you a favor, and somebody will ask you, are they able to accomplish this? And you'll say, well, I have faith that they're able to do this. Is that the same type of faith that we have in the Lord Jesus? How do we understand faith? So, I think the best way to understand faith, if I was gonna define it, would be this. Faith is a looking outside of oneself, to an object, and that object is the Lord Jesus Christ, on the basis of a divine testimony, on the basis of a divine testimony. And so you see something of this, for example, in Hebrews chapter 11, verse one. So there we see now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So, Faith is something we're hoping for. There's a hopeful expectation. No, it's stronger than a hope. It's not a mere hope as we might say, I hope it rains today or I hope it doesn't rain today. It's built upon something. Hope in God's promises is built on a sure foundation. So let's begin to unpack that foundation, right? The definition I gave you at the beginning, I said it's looking outside of yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ on the basis of a divine testimony. I'm gonna give you three categories, and these three categories came up in question and answer time yesterday, if you recall. So the three categories are knowledge, assent, and faith. Knowledge, assent, and faith. So, if we're looking at the Philippian jailer, just for example, because it is our text, the Philippian jailer had to come to some knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when I'm saying he had to come to some knowledge, we're not told how much he had. I think many commentators would assume that he heard Paul and Silas praying and singing, that he perhaps would have known something of the reason why they were there. But in order to have faith, you have to have some notion in your mind of who you are going to have to have faith in and what you need to be saved from. You can't really have this Jesus that saves you from nothing, because you don't know you're a sinner, and you can't have faith in a savior that you frankly don't know. I hope you get what I'm saying. You have to put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus has to actually be saving you from something. Now, the question arises perhaps in your mind, How much knowledge is necessary to be saved? I'll give you the same answer I gave you yesterday. The only amount of knowledge you need to be saved is the knowledge to know that you're a sinner and you need a savior. You need enough knowledge to get you to the doctor because you know you're sick and you need to know that that doctor can cure you and give you the remedy. That's first, knowledge. Now when we speak about knowledge, we're not quite at the point of going to the doctor. You just need to have the bare bones knowledge. So you have to have heard of something of the gospel. So let's move on to the next thing, which is assent. Which is assent. Now in assent, it means what we know, the notions that we have, We find them to be true and factual. We find them to be true and factual. So let me give you an example where we might not find that to be the case. Somebody might come to you and say, you know, there's been a murder and I know who did it. And you might say, well, I don't agree with who they think did it. You've heard that somebody has done something wrong. You've heard the notion as it were, but you haven't assented for this to be true. Another good example, probably a better example, would be evolution, right? So I'm sure you all have an idea about what evolution is. You understand the arguments for evolution, you understand some of these things, but I hope you don't assent in your mind to thinking that evolution is true and factual and historically accurate. Do you see what I'm saying? So you can know something about it, but it doesn't mean you necessarily believe it to be true or accurate. Now if you want to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to know something about the Lord Jesus Christ, know something about your sins, know something about the gospel, but you also have to believe that to be true and accurate. To put it this way, you have to believe that the Lord Jesus was a real historical person. You have to believe the Lord Jesus really died upon the cross and really was raised again from the dead. You have to believe also that the Lord Jesus Christ is the savior of sinners. You don't, listen to me very carefully here, this is important. You might know Christ as the savior of sinners, but he might not be your savior. You can think of James, right, where we read about how the devils, the demons, they know of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they fear and tremble, but they do not have faith in him. So we have to make a clear distinction When we're speaking about what it means to have faith, faith, and that's our third step, let's jump back to our second really quick, faith is not mere assent. Faith is not merely having knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. So if we have our first two steps of knowledge and assent, you have what the old writers would call a historical faith. and that is that you have some idea about the truths of God's word, and you ascent to the truths of God's word, being real and factual and historically accurate, and so on and so forth, but you might not have actual faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You might say, okay, well, tell me, what is faith? It's quite mysterious, but looking at those two steps, those steps are the testimony I was talking about, right? So you believe that testimony and the Spirit of God working in your heart regenerates you and enables you, faith is a gift of God, right? But enables you to look outside of yourself and believe that testimony to be true. And that testimony that Christ Jesus is the Savior of sinners is applied to yourself by what we may call the empty hand of faith. And I think it's important to look at our larger catechism here, and question and answer 72, what is justifying faith? Justifying faith is a saving grace wrought in the heart of a sinner by the spirit and word of God, whereby he, being convinced of his sin and misery and of the disability in himself and all other creatures to recover him out of his lost condition, not only assenteth to the truth of the promise of the gospel, but receiveth and resteth upon Christ and his righteousness. for pardon to sin and for the accepting and accounting of his person righteous in the sight of God. So notice how we have those three steps in that answer to the catechism question. There's a knowledge of God's way of salvation. There's an assenting, I mean, he literally uses the word assenteth, the verb assenteth. There's an assenting to this being the truth. And then lastly, there's this looking outside of yourself with what we call the empty hand of faith So what Paul and Silas are telling the Philippian jailer is they're saying, believe this testimony and then look outside of yourself. Going back to John 3, which we looked at a couple of days ago, I don't think we dealt with this, but look outside of yourself to the one who's been raised up like the brazen serpent in the wilderness for the salvation of sinners. They're saying, look to him, the Lamb of God, and put your trust in his work. Put your trust in his work, and also, and this is very important, When we speak about salvation, we must emphasize the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You need to trust, fundamentally it's important, if you really believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you trust that Jesus died and was raised again for you. Right, understand that, for you. But, but, you also, for lack of a better way of saying it, have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and what I mean by that is we do not speak of the Lord Jesus Christ merely in the sense of speaking of his work, but we speak of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I think I have an apt analogy that will hopefully explain what I mean all the better. Imagine for a moment if standing before me below the pulpit were a bride and a groom. And I want you to think that the groom is a very, very wealthy man. And this groom has spared no expense in buying an absolutely beautiful wedding band for his wife. And as they are doing the thing that every couple I think does where they're putting the bands on each other's fingers, Normally, I'm sure you've seen a few weddings, right? They put the bands on each other's fingers, but they're drawn up immediately from the wedding bands to each other's faces, right? They're looking at each other. There's love, there's sort of expectation of a life together in the air, except in our example, once the band is on this woman's finger, she sort of takes a step back and just glares at the beautiful wedding band like that. She just ogles at it, right? For all of its beauty and for all of the wealth that it has. and she never draws her eyes up again to look at her grain. That is what it looks like to look only at the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and not to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're a Christian, you're not in it nearly as it were for the benefits. If I may put it, and forgive me, I say it reverently, but Jesus is not your life insurance policy out of hell. Jesus, rather, is the one who you love, he is your beloved, and you seek to have communion with him daily. So when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're not merely trusting in him for your salvation. You're not really trusting in his work, but you're entering into a relationship with him where there is communion involved. There's communion, there's union between Christ and the sinner. And because there's union between Christ and the sinner, there is communion between the two of them. And you cannot have salvation apart from the person of the Lord. Jesus, so may I ask you something now? And I want you to be honest with yourself. Do you look to the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, as your beloved? Is he one that through the God-appointed means of reading the scriptures and prayer and public worship that you cultivate, you strive to cultivate a relationship with? Or rather, are you like that bride? and you're merely glancing down and you're thinking, oh, the wonderful benefits of being married to a wealthy man, and you'll never look your husband in the eye. How is it with you? Be honest. Because if you're saved, if you've truly believed on the Lord Jesus, you've trusted not only in his work, but you have a relationship with his person. Now, This leads me into my second point in whom we are to believe. I've told you a little bit, I think about his person and about his work, but when Paul and Silas tell the Philippians to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they're saying something very profound. And I've already told you about how in faith we look outside of ourselves to the object of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. In every word they use there, Lord, Jesus, and Christ, they're telling the Philippian jailer something about the Savior that they want him to put his trust in. You might think, wow, that's three words. Three simple words. Are they really saying that much to him? It's actually interesting. As I was looking at this passage, I was actually sort of, I guess, confronted by that reality. It seems so very simple, right? Lord Jesus Christ. When you think about it, if you're a Christian, you think about the whole course of your Christian life, you learn so much more about the Lord. You learn so much more about what it means that Christ is the anointed one, the Christ, prophet, priest, and king. And so, what they're telling to the Philippian jailer might seem simple enough, but through the daily exercise of his faith and his continual walking with the Lord Jesus Christ, these three simple words will dominate his life, and he will have, if we may say it this way, massive amounts of knowledge about what it means for Jesus. to be the Lord, to be the Christ, and to be Jesus, right? When we're telling someone to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, yes, I suppose we could say those words have very basic definitions. But oh, you learn so much more about the Lord Jesus as you walk with him, do you not? You learn so much more about his lordship, his authority. You learn so much more about his salvation from sin as daily you walk with him. So I want you to understand that the Philippian jailer, I'm gonna expound to you theologically what these terms mean. When I was in a flipping jail, he wouldn't have grasped it all. And I'm sure when you first believed, you didn't grasp it all either. But the Lord enlarges our knowledge, right? But this is the invitation, this is the thing he's being told he must do. And he's to look at this man, the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's begin first with what it means that Jesus Christ is the Lord. And I would submit to you that more than likely, knowing the cultural context of the Philippian jailer, that this would have been the thing that probably would have been most shocking to him. I don't want to conjecture too much. It's not in the text. But understand this, that Philippi is a Roman colony. And Philippi was thought of basically as a mini Rome. And Philippi was known for having a very high, I guess, loyalty, religious worship to Caesar. In the Roman Empire, they practiced worship to Caesar, but in Philippi, the, I guess, cult of Caesar dominated. And one of the things that was central to this worship of Caesar was the idea is that Caesar is Lord. Now we hear Lord Jesus Christ, and we might think, well, obviously it's to donate his sovereignty that he's the king of kings. But for this Philippian jailer, it would have been something so profound. It would have been really almost right at the outset, a test of his loyalty because when Paul and Silas are saying, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they're calling the Philippian jailer to look to an authority that is not Caesar, that's claiming to have the same, more, I would say more authority than Caesar, but at least he would have understood it, having the same authority as Caesar. So he's basically saying, they're saying to him, look to someone else who is Lord, not Caesar. The Philippian jailer is a Roman authority. And he probably would have been a soldier that's posted there, and now his job is to keep the jail. And for him, for his career, and for advancement in his career, it's very significant that he would maintain Caesar worship and would be loyal to Caesar. And now, all of a sudden, the call of the gospel has come to him and said, you have a lord. And you might think, well, for me, I understand that Jesus Christ is the head of the church, that Jesus Christ has all the power and authority over the nations, and I recognize him as Lord, but I suppose it's very abstract and theological. May I ask you this? Do you live your life like Jesus Christ is Lord? And when I say that, who is the final authority in how you live your life? the sovereign before which you bow. It might be yourself, it might be some idol, it might be anything. But if it's not the Lord Jesus Christ, then my friend, you haven't truly believed on him. You haven't truly put your trust in him because I want you to understand this, that man by nature wants to be autonomous, that he will worship anything and submit to anything before he will the Lord God Jehovah, but Jesus Christ as Lord demands that you bow to him and you reverence him and you worship him and when push comes to shove, the Lord Jesus has the final authority in your life. Who has? that authority in your life. And it's very easy, I think, to live life in this world as one, it's easy, let me say it this way, it's easy to conform outwardly, but in reality, you maintain, in your own heart, in your own mind, in your own dealings, that you are your own Lord. And so the Philippian jailer was called To set aside his own lordship, he was called to set aside Caesar's lordship. And he was called to bow before the king of kings. Secondly, they refer to Jesus, I say Jesus, They refer to Christ as Jesus, and that's his name, right? And if you think about it, names in the Bible signify something. They signify something very important, and the name Jesus signifies something. Read in Matthew chapter one, verse 21, that Jesus shall be called Jesus, his name shall be Jesus, for he shall save his people from death. their sins. Jesus's name literally means that basically God's salvation carries that idea with it, that Jesus Christ is this savior of sinners. You might not really think of the Lord Jesus as a savior, but he The Lord Jesus is a savior, but you have to think of him as a savior that's coming to seek and save that which is lost. The Lord Jesus Christ doesn't come to us, he's not coming to the Philippian jailer as some abstract idea, but he's rather coming to him as someone that he must personally trust as the savior from his sins. But in this way, we read in Luke 19, verse 10, that Jesus came to seek and save that which is lost. And the Philippian jailer was one of Christ's lost sheep in a different fold, and here we have the Lord Jesus calling him to himself. Jesus's name means salvation from sin. The Song of Solomon, chapter one, We read there that the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, she says that the Lord Jesus' name is like an ointment poured forth. And I think that when you see Jesus as the savior of your own sins, and you call out upon His name as your savior, as the Lord's salvation, as the Lord's appointed means to deliver you from your sins, does His name not take hold? in a sense, the way of an ointment? Is it not something that's healing? Is it not something that's life-giving? Do you not see his name as an ointment, or a fork, that heals the wounds of your sin? In a name. A name always, in the Bible, points to something that is signified, right? So a name has significance. And you can almost think about it, Simeon, in the temple, in Luke chapter two, verses 28 to 30, right? What do we see there? Simeon takes up the baby Jesus in his arms, and he says that he's beheld the Lord's salvation, the long-promised Messiah has come. And when you put your trust in the Lord Jesus, that's what you do. Again, when I was saying beginning, person and work of the Lord Jesus, Simeon had it so clearly. He was beholding the person of the Lord Jesus in his arms and he saw the appointed work that Christ had come to do. And so when you call out upon the name Jesus, you must see him as the savior of sinners. You must put your trust in his work and you also must know his but thirdly they call him the Christ. Paul and Silas speak of him as the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Christ signifies his anointing And I trust you're aware that the Lord Jesus is anointed to a threefold office, right? And he's not literally anointed with oil, but it comes from the idea of the Old Testament that prophets, priests, and kings were all anointed. For example, we think of prophets, we see Elijah anointing Elisha. We see when we think of kings, of course, Samuel coming to the house of Jesse and ultimately anointing David to be king over Israel. And we see throughout the book of Exodus different anointings and washings that the priest had to go through to be set aside to their office. So we're seeing the king of the Lord Jesus Christ as a prophet, priest, and king. Christ signifies that anointing, that he has been set apart to do work into these three offices. So first, understand what it is that Christ is a prophet. Christ is the one that enlightens his people to salvation. And so in a sense, for the Philippian jailer, Christ is already doing, he's already performing his prophetic ministry for him, right as these words were being uttered. Christ is coming to him and enlightening him to how he must Be saved. But you know, it goes further than that. Yes, the Lord Jesus enlightens his people at the beginning, as it were, when he calls them to himself, drawing them with bands of love. But it carries on throughout this life. Lord Jesus comes to his people in the preaching of the word. Lord Jesus comes when they read their Bible and they comprehend God's will for them more fully. They understand more of what Christ has done. So understand that when the Lord Jesus was speaking as a prophet, There is an enlightening to salvation at the beginning. That enlightening goes all the way. The Lord is continually standing before his people, enlightening them to the way they should go until they reach glory. Secondly, the Lord Jesus Christ is a priest. He is a priest. Now, He's anointed, he's the lamb of God. He's anointed to bear the sins of others. And I want you to think about this. We see him as the lamb. Yes, he is the lamb, but he's a high priest offering. himself up. Hugh Martin in his book on the atonement, I don't know if you've read it, if you haven't, I highly recommend it. Hugh Martin points this out very well. He says that we see Jesus as the Lamb of God taking to himself the sins of his people, and it's true, but he says there's another, if you will, angle that we have to see the Lord Jesus from, and that angle we have to see Christ from is as the high priest willingly offering up a sacrifice, and that sacrifice is himself. And he did that for the Philippian jailer. He was the holy, spotless, blameless lamb of God who offered himself up for sinners. And now the Philippian jailer is being invited, he's being told to believe on that Christ who came and took away sin. But that priestly office, that priestly ministry of the Lord Jesus, you know, it carries on, right? Because now, He's made the offering, and now he's ascended into the holy of holies. He's ascended into the high places, and now he's making intercession. We read it in Hebrews 7, 25, that he's continually making intercession on behalf of his people. So his high priestly work, though the sacrifice has been made, though the sin, sin has been taken away, his high priestly work continues on behalf of his people, making intercession for them, praying for his church, And he's thought about that. Maybe you've walked with the Lord for many years, but do you think much about how the Lord Jesus Christ, right now, in heaven, in a very mysterious and holy way that we cannot fully grasp about, he is at God's right hand, pleading for his church, even pleading for us here in this place, that gospel titans would come forth to us and do us good. Robert Murray McShane said something to the effect, speaking of the Lord Jesus' intercessory ministry, someone said, you know, does it bother you that Jesus Christ is not here amongst his people? And McShane said, it wouldn't matter if Jesus was in the room next to me praying, or if he's seated, he's speaking, I guess, sort of hypothetically, but if he's seated 10 million miles away in heaven praying, God's right hand, God hears the prayers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and Christ intercedes for his people. And thirdly, the Lord Jesus Christ is, of course, a king. And I suppose you could say, doesn't that come under Jesus as Lord? Well, in a sense, yes, but I think for the Philippian jailer, in his context, Lord would have had this idea of sovereignty and authority and who is worshiped. And when we think of Christ as king, yes, that's part of it. Particularly, Christ is a king over his people. and he's going to become the Philippian jailer's king by a very kingly act, and that is the Philippian jailer is his enemy, right? Everyone is an enemy of God. By nature, our minds are enmity with God. We are conceived in iniquity and sin, and what does the Lord Jesus do by way of the gospel? He comes to his enemies, and he conquers them in love, and he makes them his friends. He subdues to himself a people. I mean, that's quite a king, if you think about it. You think about the mightiest of earthly kings. You think about Alexander the Great, all the violence they had to bring about, all the battles they had to fight, and the Lord Jesus Christ comes by his spirit, and he draws with cords of love, and he makes his enemies become his friends, and they embrace him in love in the gospel. King unlike any other king. And what else does the Lord Jesus do as king? Well, he rules over his people, right? He's given them a law. I think it's important, we'll get this more tomorrow morning as we look at the marks of grace, but it's very true that the Lord Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. God's people should be known as those that love his law, and because they love his law, they strive to keep his law. Because he's given it to them. He's inclined them by way of the gospel to love that law too. So he rules over them by way of his law. He also rules over his church The last thing I'll say is he defends his people from their enemies. And I think that sometimes the church forgets that it is the Lord Jesus Christ that does protect and defend his church. We read in Ephesians chapter one, that the Lord Jesus Christ, verse 22, and he hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church. You could really think of that as for the sake of the church, that Jesus Christ, by way of his governing of providence, works out all things for the good of his people. And even when his church and his people are afflicted, Theodore Bezos, of course, the successor of Calvin in Geneva. And Theodore Bezos, I think most people don't realize this, he was very involved in the struggle of the juveniles in France. And at one point he was writing to a French prince. And he was basically exhorting this French prince and he was saying that you should not persecute the church of God. And what he said was very interesting. He said the church of God is not a sword that it should deliver blows. But he said the church of God is like an anvil that's broken every hammer that is ever struck against it. And that's how the Lord Jesus Christ works. For the good of his people, he allows them to be persecuted. For the good of the individual Christian, he allows them to be afflicted. But it's all working for their good and for his purposes, and it all will be used for his perfect judging of the world and of the nations. The Philippian jailer was called to put his trust in this king, to bow before him, to submit to him, to be ruled by his law, but also to trust that everything that would happen in Providence was ultimately for his good. So, as I draw this to a conclusion, when we think, dear congregation, about what it means to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I want us to formulate it like this. We understand that there is a divine testimony given in the word of God, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the savior of sinners, and that we are to receive that testimony as true, and then on the basis of that testimony, it's very interesting, by the way, Upon receiving that testimony is really true. The Christian is drawn outside of themselves to put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian knows that he needs an alien righteousness, that he needs an external righteousness, that there's no good in him. but on the basis of what is revealed in the word of God. We think about believing, we receive that as true, and then we look outside of ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ as our redeemer. And we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, both in his person, if you will, as well as looking and putting our trust in his work as the atoning for our sins. And when we think about the Lord Jesus Christ, we think about him as a savior of sinners. We think about him as Christ, the anointed one, the prophet, priest, and king. And that I think really is what it means, as best I can say it in one sermon, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. So let me just make one quick application here. And that is simply to tell you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and to call you to him. And to ask you, have you truly, and young people, Have you truly put your trust in Christ? Have you not only received the testimony of the scriptures that you've been brought up with as true, do you not only receive it as fact, but has that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, driven you to look outside of yourself to the Lamb of God, the salvation of sinners? And that you've looked to Him for your own salvation. Do you realize that you cannot be your own sovereign, that the Lord Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ, when he comes to you, he demands that he be your Lord. And my dear friends, it doesn't matter if you're young or old, the Lord Jesus comes to us all and he says that he must rule over us, that he must be our king, that he must be our Lord, and he will have no peace with the lust of our flesh. serving idols, he demands of his people absolute loyalty. Now maybe, maybe you're hearing this and you're thinking it's bad, it's mean. You're thinking, oh, I don't know if I've believed, I don't know that I've bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. Can I direct you to him as a priest for a moment? As the one, that gave himself for sinners and calls sinners to himself and says, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. Can I draw you to look to him as, as I said a while ago, as the brazen serpent raised up in the wilderness. My friend, if you're apart from Christ, going back to that example in Numbers, you've got the venom running through your veins. You don't have long Jesus Christ can save you, will you look to Him and be saved? And lastly, I do hope that you use this to understand better your own walk with the Lord. what it believes, it'll be an encouragement in witnessing, it'll be an encouragement in you raising your children, but I hope that you've kind of been given a picture. When we go to somebody and we're witnessing to them, and we say, you know, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, if they look at us and say, what is it to believe, and who is this Lord Jesus Christ, that you can actually give something of an answer. Oh Lord, we do pray, most high, that you would apply your word to our hearts that we would look to the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved and that we would believe on him in his person, in his work of the Lord. And also, God, I ask that we, Lord, would repent of our spiritual sluggardliness and that we would look to him afresh and desire to follow after him. I pray this all in Christ's name, amen.