Let's turn our Bibles this morning to the book of Acts, chapter 16. Acts, chapter 16. The book of Acts, chapter 16. We'll begin reading there in verse 16. It says, and it came to pass, 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 us and cried, saying, these men are the servants of the Most High God, which 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 Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and drew them into the market place under 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. And the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely, who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake. So at the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bands were loosed. 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 been 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 in 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 straight way. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. Let's pray. Father, we ask you to guide us now as we Look into your word, open our eyes to see the truth, to understand, to be more faithful in serving you. And for those who may be here and are not sure they know Jesus Christ personally as Lord and Savior, may they settle that today. Thank you for your goodness, your blessings, your love, mercy, and kindness. And work on our hearts, we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. We notice in this passage of scripture that the Apostle Paul Silas there they were preaching and this woman who has the evil spirit is taunting them saying there in verse 17 these men are the servants of the most by God which shown to us the way of salvation. Well she's continually crying this out and that's causing a great disturbance for Paul and Silas to be able to preach the gospel. And so they. end up the magistrates when Paul finally just cast this demon out and the magistrates they take the masters take them to the magistrates and say that they're disrupting things and so they take them they put them into prison they beat him first of all with many strikes that had to hurt they had to be hurting and then Paul and Silas were cast notice into the inner prison That's interesting that this jailer, he was told to keep them very securely so he puts them in the inner prison and he puts their feet fast in the stocks. If you study anything about the Roman stocks back in that time, they weren't something to be pleasing. They weren't like an easy chair. They were, it was tough. It would usually put you in a position that was very uncomfortable. and your feet are there in the stalks. And sometimes they actually took, the stalks would hold their hands as well. I don't know if that's, the Bible doesn't say here whether their hands were held, but it does tell us their feet. And if their hands were held, they weren't able to comfort their back. It would have been beaten with many stripes. And even though they would, many times the way they were placed in the stalks, they would have to, to rest, they would have to lay back on their back and their back has been beaten with many stripes. So what you can see is they are not in a very comfortable position. They're going through a very difficult trial here. Not only that, you have in the prisons of Rome that day, you have the terrible stench, you have the filthiness, that was there, and this is not a pleasing thing. Well, we notice something about the Apostle Paul if you turn to Philemon in verse 1, how Paul looked at this. If we were in that situation, I'm sure we would be complaining. We would be saying, why has this happened to me? Why am I going through this? Why has God allowed this in my life? But Paul looked at it differently. Philemon, verse 1, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy, our brother, and to Philemon, our dearly beloved and fellow laborer. Notice what he says, a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Paul realized, if you look in Philippians chapter 1 and verse 12, he wrote this when he was in prison in Rome. He wrote this book of Philippians, and it's a great book to read and study. And in this book of Philippians, he says in chapter 1, verse 12, You see, the whole reason that they're in prison at this time is for the furtherance of the gospel. And the Apostle Paul understood that. The Bible tells us that we know that all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose. So many times when we go through the trials, we're complaining, we're griping, but we've been studying in my Sunday school class in the college age group down there. the book of James, and James tells us that knowing this, that trying of your faith, it worketh patience. And God has a purpose in the trials, and the purpose of the trials is to grow us stronger in our faith. You just can't become stronger in faith if you don't face the trials of life. But if you face the trials of life with the wrong attitude, you don't get the maturing benefit that God intended for the trials to be so we need to have the right attitude like the apostle Paul and Silas here when they came into the prison what was their attitude well the Bible tells us here in verse 25 it says and at midnight Paul and Silas griped and complained and said why why in the world are we in this place no that isn't what it says And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God. And notice, and the prisoners heard them. And that's something that, that's why God had them so severely treated so that this jailer would put them in the inner prison. And in the inner prison, when they would pray and sing praises and speak there, the whole prison would hear. God has purpose in all the things that come about in our life. The Apostle Paul knew what James had said there. If you look just back quickly to the book of James, chapter 1, he says in verse 2, my brethren, count it all joy. when you fall into divers temptation that's where the old English word means different kinds of temptations and the word temptations is trials it has the meaning of try it's the same word that's translated try in first Peter 412 and so he's talking about the trials that come into our lives knowing this that the trying of your fate work at patience but let patience have her perfect or her maturing work that you may be matured and tired behold wanting nothing. Now it's not the wanting nothing here is not saying that we'll get to the place where I could say well I want a big mansion home and therefore I am I am doing what I should do for the Lord he's obligated to know The wanting nothing here is talking about in the context of this thing of being mature when I face trials come to the place that I I'm wanting nothing when I face the trials of life I do it the way God said I'm like the apostle Paul I trust God in the midst of the trial or the storm I'm wanting nothing I'm I'm doing what God said to do to trust Him, knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience, and that's what it's talking about here. In the context, it's easy to complain, it's easy to develop a wrong attitude when trials come, but God has a purpose in the trials, and it's to grow us in our faith and to make us stronger. You know, if we could see as God sees, We could see if, as God sees and how he looks at things, we would bring the same trials into our lives. If we could see as God sees, we would bring the same trials into our life because we would see how they are going to benefit us and grow us stronger in the Lord. So here they are, facing all of this difficulty. It's terrible, it's filthy, it stinks, Their feet are fast in the stalks. They have been severely beaten. They're thrown into the inner prison. But they are praising God and praying. And the prisoners hear them. And suddenly, there's a great earthquake. God can use the earthquake to produce results. Another trial. I'm sure it's not fun to go through an earthquake. We don't seem to have them around here in our area. We could at some time or another, but we're not kind of an earthquake prone area. But people who have faced earthquakes have been pretty severe and serious. But God uses these trials for our benefit. We need to learn that. And the Bible tells us that everyone's bands were loosed. Well, if you, I know if you went down here to the prisons or the Malta County Jail and all the doors flew open and everybody's bands were loosed. A lot of them would head out. This is my chance to get away. But none of them did here. There's one of two things. Either they heard Paul and Silas preaching the gospel and they were so moved by it that they wanted to stay there with them. Or secondly, God prevented them from leaving. He kept all of the prisoners from leaving. Ultimately, it was God who kept them there. They were moved by God to stay. Verse 28, Paul cried with a loud voice saying, do thyself no harm for we are all here. Back in those days, if the jailkeeper lost any one of the prisoners, it cost him his life. And so you can see why they were so very strict back then, because if you lost a prisoner, you die. So he thought the prisoners were all gone when this earthquake happened. It didn't matter to the magistrates, to the leaders. It didn't matter to them, to the Romans, that an earthquake caused this to happen and the prisoners got away. It still didn't matter. You lose your life. You should have been on watching. got around there when the earthquake happened and made sure they all stayed there. But he was sleeping and so when he awoke, he supposed they'd all fled. So he's going to kill himself. He doesn't want to die the Roman way. They were pretty severe in the way they killed people. And so he took his sword and Paul stopped him and said, do thyself no harm. We are all here. So he called for a light dark in there from the earthquake and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas in verse 30 and brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? You know that tells us something that Paul and Silas, when they were taken by this jailer and they were put into that inner prison, they took that time to share the gospel with that jailer. Why else would he ask, sirs, what must I do to be saved? They had explained to him and talked to him on the way in, apparently. And they said, here was the answer, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. The structure there in the Greek is that your house will be saved if they believe also. It's not teaching household salvation here that if the father gets saved then the whole house is saved. That's not what it's teaching at all and that goes against other scripture. But the Bible tells us that the answer was believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And then notice something here. It says in verse 32, and they spake unto him the word of the Lord and to all that were in his house. And so the answer was to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but then verse 32 tells us that they explain how to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. They explain that. We could just say, well, if you want to be saved, you want to go to heaven, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I believe, so therefore I'm saved. No, you have to follow God's plan of salvation. You have to follow the Word of God. The Bible very clearly tells us in Romans chapter 3 and verse 23, it says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Verse 10 says, there is none righteous, no not one. And the Bible tells us that when Adam sinned in the garden, And partook of that forbidden fruit, Romans 5, 12, wherefore as by one man sin entered in the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all are sinners. So the Bible tells us that when Adam sinned, we all had We all become sinners and we are conceived as the Bible says in iniquity. We are born into sin. I told some of the young people at the fair that that just like you were born a white person or a black person because I sometimes I had blacks and whites together. I said that's what you are and you can't change it. You were born that way. It's your nature. And I said you can't take a dog was one of them come up there with a dog and I said you can't take this dog and make it into a cat I said you could paint it up some like a cat you could maybe cut its legs shorter so it's Shorter down and you could try everything you wanted to do to make this dog a cat, but it won't work because I The dog is a dog and that's the thing with us. We are all sinners and there's nothing we can do to change that. That's in ourselves. That's our nature. It is our nature, just like we're a white or black person or whatever color we might be. That's our nature. We have a sin nature that was passed to us from Adam. The whole human race is plunged into sin, and we can't be good enough. We can say, well, I'll just be as good a person as I can be. I will just go to church. I'll be good to my fellow man. That's not going to change your nature. You are still a sinner by nature. And we all sin. I've often said this, that I didn't have to teach my four children to do wrong. Wrong came naturally. I had a big job trying to teach them to do right. And my parents had a job teaching me to do right. Same way, we all, if we're honest, we have to admit that we are sinners. And we have this sin nature. And the Bible teaches us in Romans 6, 23, that the wages of sin is death. The Bible tells us that because of Adam's sin and because of our own sin, we all die. God told Adam, in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Well, he didn't die physically that day when he ate of it, but he died spiritually. physical death is also a result of that. That's why we die physically, but the Bible is talking about spiritual death, and it's explained in Revelation chapter 20, verses 11 through 15, that the second death, first death is we die physically, but the second death is the spiritual death, and we die eternally in a lake of fire hell. It wasn't prepared for us, it was prepared for the devil and his angels. But because God is just, when man sinned, he must sin men there as well. And so we have an eternity in a lake of fire. The Bible doesn't teach hell as a place of annihilation. The Bible teaches hell as a place, the lake of fire, as a place of eternal suffering. If we had more time, we could go into the verses and show that hell is an eternal place. And so we are in a position of not having a way of escape in our own good deeds. The Bible says in Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And that's what Romans 6, 23 says. It says the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. I have a whole sheet. I don't have time to go through those verses today of verses that teach that salvation is a gift. It's not something we earn. It's not something that we do the good deeds. We can't do enough good deeds. We can't change our nature. The only thing that can change our nature is the gift of God. which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And if you look in John chapter 4 and verse 10, the book of John chapter 4, verse 10, Jesus was speaking to the woman at the well here. And he answered and said unto her, he had asked her to give him a drink from the well. Jesus answered and said to her, if thou knewest the gift of God, well, we know what the gift of God is. The Bible says it's eternal life. And who it is that sayeth to thee? Well, we know who was talking to him. It was Jesus, who is the giver of life. In fact, when you study the Bible, the spokesperson, there's God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. These three are one. Three persons, one God. And it was Jesus who was the spokesperson of creation. Colossians chapter 1, verses 16 and 17. John chapter 1, verses 1 through 3. Jesus was the spokesperson of creation. The person that said, let there be light was Jesus Christ. God the son. All things were made by him, the Bible says. And without him was not anything made that was made. And Jesus is the God, the creator. And so we know who it is that's talking to her. He said, if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, look what he said to her. Thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. Now living water down in verse 14, Jesus said, but whosoever drinketh the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life." That's the gift of God is eternal life and we can have it if we will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Titus 3, 5 through 7 tells us, if not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. We are sinners condemned. Judgment has already been pronounced. We're all headed for a lake of fire. But God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Well, then there's a question that arises in Matthew chapter 7. There's a question that arises here. Jesus said, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord. Remember the thing that was said there to the jailer, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Jesus said here, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. What is the will of the Father in heaven? Well, Jesus explained it in John chapter six, verses 28 and 29. They came unto him and they said, what must we do to work the works of God? Boy, they asked him straight out, what do we have to work? What is it? Verse 29, Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent. So the Bible is very clear that the believing as we have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ all made it very clear in 1st Corinthians 15 that the gospel is the death the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ He said in Romans chapter 10 verses 9 and 10 that if thou shalt believe in thine heart the Lord Jesus Shalt believe in thine heart the Lord Jesus. Let's go back and and I'll get it so I don't misquote it in Romans chapter 10, verses 9 and 10. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Notice to believe in thine heart. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth Confession is made under salvation. So you're talking about a heart belief here to believe in the heart that Jesus Died was buried and rose again to realize that I'm a sinner that I have no way of saving myself That going to church isn't going to get me to heaven living a good life is not going to get me to heaven it's going to be personal faith in Jesus Christ and But Jesus says here, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. He says in verse 22, many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? In thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Notice, I never knew you. So what is the answer to that? Well, in Luke chapter 13 and verse 3, Jesus said, except you repent, ye shall all likewise perish. And the apostle Paul made it very clear in Acts chapter 20 and verse, Acts chapter 20 and verse 21. He said, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. So what is repentance? Repentance is when I come to the change of mind that I am a sinner, that I have offended a holy and just God. And that I am concerned about it. I'm sorry about it. I'm deeply moved that I have offended my God. And I stand unrighteous before Him in my sin. And I'm willing to trust Christ as my Savior. And when I do, the Bible teaches in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things become new. And that's what James said in James chapter 2 in verse 20. He said, faith without works is dead. When we come to Jesus Christ with a true heart of repentance, it changes our life. People say, well, yes, I believe, I believe. The Bible says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. I believe, but they never have a desire to go to church and never read the Bible and never pray. They never do the things that a believer ought to do. What's the problem? Repentance. To really repent and to be sorry that I am a sinner and I've offended God. And I see that I stand hopeless. I stand without any hope of ever escaping a devil's hell. I'm justly punished to be in hell forever. But God loved me so much that he gave his son. And I'm willing to put my faith and my trust in him and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And then it changes my life. There is a change, just like James said. The Bible is very clear that works do not save us, but if we are saved, the works are going to follow. It's a natural thing that will follow a believer. Let's look at it in Acts chapter 16. What happened here? When this jailer believed on Christ, they spake unto him the word of God there in verse 32, the word of the Lord to all that were in the house. They explained the gospel thoroughly to them. It says he took, and he, the jailer, took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. Now you study history, you're not going to find very much anywhere of a Roman jailer, the guards in a Roman jail, to wash a prisoner's stripes. You could be in serious trouble for doing that. But he washed their stripes. And notice, he was baptized. He followed in believers' baptism. He was willing to follow the Lord, to be baptized, to picture the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul made it clear that baptism, and the scriptures are very clear, if we had the time to go and look at them, that baptism does not save, but baptism is a testimony. a testimony that we do believe in Jesus Christ and that we have trusted him as our Lord and Savior. We recognize that he died, was buried, and rose again to pay the price for our sin, and we've been washed clean from our sin in his blood, and we have a new life in Christ, and now we're going to live for him. That's just kind of a testimony of what baptism testifies. And this man, he's willing to baptize, and all his house gets baptized. You can see repentance here. You can see that this man really came to see his sin and to realize what Christ had done for him, and now he's willing to follow Christ. And then notice verse 34, and when he had brought them into his house. You don't hear of that. You don't hear of a Roman jailer bringing the prisoners into his own house. But he does it. because he's been changed, he's been transformed, been washed clean in the blood of Christ and has changed his life. And then he sets meat or he puts food before them. Meat back in those days had the meaning of setting food. He set meat before them, he prepares a meal for them. And then notice it says, and rejoiced, in verse 34, believing in God with all his house. You see, just saying, well, I believe on Jesus Christ doesn't mean you're saved. When you come to the place to see your sin, when you come to the place to see that you have offended Almighty God and that you are justly deserving of a devil's hell and that without Jesus Christ you have no way of escape, there's nothing you can do. to free you from your sin and you come to that place when you see yourself hopelessly lost and you come to Jesus Christ and you ask him to forgive you of your sin and save you. Verse 13 of Romans 10 says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And in John chapter 5 and verse 24, Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." The plan of salvation in the Bible is so clear. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Put your faith and trust in him. So many lack that thing that Jesus said and what the Apostle Paul taught so clearly over here. in Acts chapter 20 when he said, testifying both to the Jews and also the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. We go to God and repent of our sin and acknowledge that we are a sinner and then we ask Christ to forgive us and to save us. We believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that he paid the price. We believe that his blood was shed, as Revelation 1, verse 5 says, to wash us from our sins. We're not saved because of what we do. We're saved because of what Christ did. He paid the price. And so I challenge each and every one of us today to make sure that you have had that time in your life when you have come to the place to see your sin, to see your Savior, and to put your faith and trust in Him. And you know of a time, you can go back to a time in your life, might not be able to remember the exact time, I don't remember the exact day of the year when it was when I got saved, I don't remember the time, I know it was night because I was upstairs and I looked out the window and I said that was, I'd heard the preacher preach and I looked out the window and I said, you know, that's my life, I'm dark, I'm all sin. And I called for my mother and she came upstairs and led me to the Lord. I don't know the day or the time of the night it was, but I remember the place. And I remember what I did. And I remember that I asked Jesus to forgive me and to be my savior. And I acknowledged to God that I was a sinner lost and undone. And I can remember that time. What about you? Can you remember a place, maybe even the time, maybe even the day of the year, some of you might have kept track, that you got saved? Or are you just one to say, oh, I believe. I believe in Jesus. I have so many people tell me that. I believe in Jesus. I have some people, I say, have you ever asked the Lord to save you? Oh, I ask Him all the time. Well, you know, when you ask all the time, you haven't come to repentance. You haven't come to see true salvation. Because the Bible teaches when we get saved, it's a one-time experience. It's a birth. Jesus explained it in John chapter 3 as a new birth. except to be born again. We are born into the family of God. What if you said to me, Pastor, how old are you? And I would say, well, I've been born 26 times. Are you nuts? You only get born once, and you only get saved once. Can you go back to that place? Jesus made it very clear there's going to be a lot of people who say, Lord, Lord, we've done all these things in your name. But he says, depart from me, you that work iniquity, for I never knew you. Never came to that true repentance in that place in time in their life when they personally received Jesus Christ. Check your life and make sure that you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. It's the only way. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. It's the only way to escape the penalty of our sin. Make sure you've had that time, that place in your life when you ask Jesus Christ to forgive you and to save you and you know without a doubt that you were passed from death unto life. Let's pray. Father, thank you for these few moments to think about your word. Paul and Silas here in the prison reacted to adversity in their life. So often when adversity comes to our lives, we complain, we gripe, we moan and groan. Help us to realize that these trials that come, come our way to make us stronger. And maybe there are those here today who have heard this story of Paul and Silas and the scripture and God, you have given us that message today to shake them up and to help them to realize that they need to have true faith in Jesus Christ and to know him as Lord and Savior and that without him there is no way of escape. May you work today with your word to bring the good news of salvation to them, helping to get it settled when this invitation is given. Thank you for your word to guide us, your blessings, your love to us, and most of all, for giving us your son. Thank you, dear Jesus, for giving your life so we could have life. But you didn't stay dead. You're alive and coming again. We thank you for it. We love you and ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand together. We're going to sing an invitation song.