The Discipline Of Disciple-making – When God Saves Us – What Does He Do Inside Us

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Biblical Exercises for Spiritual Health & Fitness in 2014 Series

The Discipline of Disciple-Making:

When God Saves Us: What Does He Do Inside Us?

Acts 16-18

Transcript

Let’s open to chapter 16 of the book of Acts, and what we’re looking at is this: the eternal, infinite, endless God of the universe, the Almighty God who has no beginning, who has no ending, who is not becoming anything; He eternally is. God has repeatedly said that if the ends of the Earth will look unto Him, He will save them. In other words, look unto Me all the ends of the Earth, you shall be saved. And He said, whoever will call on Me shall be saved. God, one of the realities of His nature and person is God, is a Savior. And God is in the business of seeking and saving the lost. That’s why He sent Jesus Christ. That’s why He came looking for Adam and Eve when they fell and hid themselves from Him. God is a Savior. So, there is a truth, a premise, something for you to think about.

What we’re going to look at this morning is this, and that’s the title up here. When God saves us, what does He do inside of us? What happens? We sing about it. What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought since Jesus came into my heart. What is the change? What does God do? How do we know it’s genuine? How do we know it’s real? If God saves someone, can you tell it? Can you define it? Can you describe it? Can it be verified? That’s why we have the Bible.

What we’ve been looking at is the book of Acts. And the book of Acts is kind of an illustrative picture section that describes what’s going on in the epistles because each of the epistles in the New Testament is somehow tied back to the book of Acts; either the time period they’re written, or the Church that is founded that is later written to, or whatever. They’re all coming back to the book of Acts, which is filled with pictures illustrating, 22 times to be exact, what God does inside of us when He saves us.

So, this morning, the first thing this could be is if you’re a soul winner, this is what you look for in people you lead to the Lord. If they genuinely get connected to the Lord, and what we’re going to look at this morning is what happens. If you, this morning, if you and I, are believers, and I believe you’re here because you are, and believe that you are, this is what happened to us.

It reminds me of when Bonnie and I, a few months ago, I don’t remember when it was, but we flew into a place we’ve never flown before, Bristol, Tennessee. And we have this little habit. If you rent one of the smaller cars when you travel somewhere, usually those run out first. Everyone rents them. And so, what happens is if you get there and they’re out of little cars, they have to give you one of the big ones; no one wants to rent because they cost too much. That’s just what they do. And so, we rented a little car and got one of those, and it was such a complicated car that they actually gave us a sheet of all the add-ons that this car had because it was so expensive. It was brand new. I think they were taking the plastic off the seats as we got into it.

But we got into this car and I thought, I don’t need that, I’ve been around cars my whole life, 58 years. I don’t need to read that sheet. And I was pushing buttons, and all of a sudden, my seat started having air blowing out of the seat. It’s an air-conditioned seat, and it had the seat and then the top part of the seat, and there’s this little channel, and it had fans, and it blew air so that your seat was cooled in the summer. I thought that was [amazing], I didn’t want to get out. It was very hot. And so, when we turned in the car, the fellow asked me about the car, and I thought, then I never read that sheet. I wonder what else [probably had a foot warmer or something. Maybe you put your feet in and it massaged them or something. I don’t know.

But what I’m saying is that most of us, if we aren’t careful and read, there are so many features we can miss. Even on things like our phones, we don’t know all the things they do. Let me ask you, do you know everything God does? Have you experienced, do you realize the miracle of salvation? That’s what we’re looking at in the book of Acts, and basically, God, as we open to chapter 16 and we’re going to get to verse 14, salvation is described by God, and this is the 13th. Now, you can track how long it’s been since you were last year. This is the 13th of 22; that’s how far we’ve gotten, Gospel presentation.

Paul presented the Gospel. It’s in chapter 16, verses 14 and 15, and what Paul records is that God, when He saves people, opens their hearts so that they’ll heed and respond to the Word of God. Salvation is predicated on two dimensions. God opens hearts, and the person responds to God. And God opens the hearts, and we respond in faith to God, and both are part of salvation. God presents it not as you’ve heard of monergism and synergism. Monergism is that God is the one who saves, and synergism is that we are a partner with Him. No, the Bible presents monergistic, that God is the one who begins the work of salvation, but we always respond in faith.

So, there is a response, and that response we see here. This woman responds when the Lord opens her heart and she heeds His Word. And look at verse 14. A certain woman named Lydia heard us, and she was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira. She worshiped God. That means she already was interested and wanted to seek after Him and thought that God was great, but she wasn’t saved. By the way, many worshipers of God aren’t saved. A lot of people think a worshiper of God is saved. When you’re saved, you become a worshiper in spirit and truth and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh, Philippians says that. But just because they’re a worshiper of God, just because they go to cathedrals and love everything and sing everything, and even kneel and everything, doesn’t mean they’re saved. She was a worshiper. She was not saved.

But the Lord, look what it says. This is her salvation. The Lord opened her heart to heed the Gospel. What’s the Gospel? The things spoken by Paul. What did Paul speak about? Read the book of Romans. Paul didn’t invent this message. He spoke the message. God taught him when he was in, remember where Paul got all this? He was saved on the way to Damascus. They tried to kill him in Damascus. They let him down out of the city in a basket of Damascus, and he went off for three years into the wilderness, where Jesus Christ caught him up. Jesus spent three years teaching him. How would you like to go to seminary with Jesus as your professor? The service opened with what Phil said, how many of you are tired? You’re going to use that as an excuse to fall asleep? All my students used to be in seminary, and they’d all fall asleep. Can you imagine falling asleep with Jesus as your professor? Paul is just all ears. And Jesus taught him, and that’s the Gospel he taught. Paul said, I didn’t think this up myself. Jesus taught it to me.

And when he preached that Gospel, look what it says in verse 14. The Lord opened her heart to what he spoke, to the Gospel, to the message of salvation. Verse 15, and when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, if you’ve judged me to be faithful to the Lord. She said, you baptized me because you thought I was faithful to the Lord. You baptized me because you knew that I believed what you had taught. If you really think that you ought to stay at my house too and keep teaching me. But the essence of salvation is that the Lord opens hearts to heed the Word.

But pause for a minute with me and think about something. We know what Paul taught her about salvation because that’s in the book of Romans, which is also sprinkled throughout all of his epistles. We’ve also heard in the earlier presentations that he actually preaches. But why did she want to get baptized? See, that’s something that we need to pause on. That’s one of the elements of studying the Bible. What did Paul teach her about baptism? What did baptism mean to Paul? Why did he administer it? Why was it that this woman, who had just come to faith in Christ, knew that there was something she was supposed to do as a declaration about salvation? What is all that? What did Paul tell them had happened to them when they got saved? What did Paul say baptism was for? See, those are the kind of questions that are lingering in the backdrop for us to ponder as we study the Bible.

The answer to those questions may become one of the more powerfully impacting truths of the book of Acts because remember, there are nine different baptism accounts in the book of Acts, and every single one of them has the same biblical portrayal of salvation. And so, if we look at what baptism is and isn’t, we’ll understand. So, that’s what we should do.

Baptism. What baptism isn’t. That’s really important. That will help us because if we actually look at the private lesson Paul taught to those who came to Christ, it’s written down. It’s in the Bible. In fact, you can start turning there. It’s in Colossians chapter 2. So, go to the right, you’re in Acts and then Acts, Romans, 1 Ephesians, Philippians. There it is, Colossians. Okay, go to the right through the long 27 chapters. No 30 chapters of 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, chapter 2. We’ve already seen that every baptism event recorded in the book of Acts was preceded by belief in the Gospel. We did that two weeks ago and labored through each one of those. Every one of them, first they hear the Gospel, then they respond in faith in the work of Christ, then they’re baptized. It’s the same in every one of them.

So, what is baptism? We saw baptism is what follows salvation. So, what we can say is this, and I just wrote them down for you. Baptism is not salvation. You say, why do you even say that? Because in history it’s been presented that way. If you’re a stamp collector, you know that in 19, whatever year it was, there was a special commemorative stamp on the thousand-year history of Poland. In 19 something. Poland? What did they date a thousand years back in their history to? It’s when the nation, the modern geographic entity of Poland, became a Christian nation from paganism when the Pope sent missionaries up there and they baptized all the people of Poland.

You say, they what? They brought holy water from Rome, consecrated water. They brought these big brushes, like paint brushes, or basters that you baste the turkey with, one of those kinds. You’d put it in the holy water, and then they would go to groups of hundreds of people, and they’d go [poof] and hold that brush, and a vapor of water would go out. And as it settled on those people, they said, your sins are washed away. Your Christians. Poof. Your sins are washed away. You’re a Christian. They did that geographically in 9 something A.D., and the entire nation of Poland became Christian. That’s not true. That happened, but it’s not true from the Bible. That’s an experience people had, but it wasn’t biblical because salvation is not baptism. You don’t get saved by baptism. In fact, baptism doesn’t do anything. Nothing other than getting you wet. Did you know that? Nothing. Nothing. It portrays immense things. It’s an act of obedience. It does nothing.

In fact, when I stand up there, you guys are singing along and praying and everything. I’m up there in the water, and I’m looking at that water, and I think this is just Kalamazoo, chlorinated tap water. Nothing magical in it. There’s nothing holy until the saints start walking down the stairs and getting in the water. Then the water has holy people in it, but the water doesn’t do anything. Baptism doesn’t save. Baptism is not part of salvation. Baptism is not necessary for salvation. See, that’s the truth of the Bible that’s gotten all obscured by tradition and by all kinds of doctrines built on nothing.

Kind of like, did you see the house in Texas that washed out, and it’s on this cliff, and it’s hanging out. A massive house. They burned it over the weekend because it had nothing underneath it. It was falling down the cliff. That’s what a lot of teaching about baptism is like, that house, and it needs to be burnt like that house was, because it has nothing underneath it. There’s no truth under all these teachings about baptism.

Here’s more. Baptism is only an act of obedience. That’s what it is. It portrays the wonders of what Christ did for us in salvation. It’s a choice to follow and obey what the Lord asked us to do and what He taught us in the commission to teach for Him. It’s an outward confession of what Christ has done inside of me. So don’t ever think that no matter where you take a baby to, no matter what kind of gown you put it in, no matter what the priest, or rector, or whatever they are, put their hand into, whether it’s in some sacred object or not. And no matter what they put on that baby, nothing happens to the baby because baptism doesn’t do anything.

And see, that is confusing because there are a lot of people who have their baptism certificate on the wall. I know. I’ve been a pastor for 35 years. You go to visit someone, they’re all nervous, and they want to show you something. They go, there’s my baptism certificate right there on the wall. I go, oh, great. But where are your sins? Are they on Christ or still on you? That’s the real question. The baptism certificate does nothing. Baptism is an amazing reminder of how supernaturally God works inside of all who are born again.

In Colossians 2, what we have is Paul teaching what baptism declares. The reason we have it in Colossians 2 is that Paul never went there. Everywhere else he went, we don’t find this content we’re going to look at this morning, not in any other epistle. Why? Because Paul taught that orally everywhere else. He never got to go to Colossi, so what he’s doing is he’s giving them these huge blocks of doctrine that he never got to come and present in person by the hour. They used to have services; remember, Paul went after sundown until midnight. They had these long services where he taught. He never got to do that in Colossi.

So, in your Bibles, Colossians 2. Paul is writing to the church of Colossi, what he wanted them to know about our sufficiency in Christ. Everything starts with salvation. Salvation is based on Christ’s work, and Paul taught these truths everywhere he went; and now he writes them to this church. In this letter, which he taught everywhere else, he says, baptism portrays the wonder of what Christ has already done. So, are you there? Verses 6 through 15. Let’s all stand together, and you look down at your Bible, and I’m going to read it. What we’re going to look at, I’ll emphasize it with my voice. Look at how prominently Christ figures into everything. See, salvation is not what I do. Salvation is not what someone does to me. Salvation is what Christ alone supernaturally miraculously does inside of me. And if He does it, then what we’re reading about here happens. See, you understand. The reality of salvation is not based on me. It’s based on the One who does it, God. It’s Christ in me that I receive, that changes my life completely.

Verse 6, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you’ve been taught, according to or abounding in it with thanksgiving. Verse 8, beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. Verse 9, for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Verse 10, and you are complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power. In Him, verse 11, you are also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Verse 12, buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God who raised Him from the dead. Verse 13, and you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him. Having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us and contrary to us, and He has taken it out of the way. Having nailed it to the cross, having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them in it. Wow. Paul teaches what baptism declares. That’s salvation.

Let’s bow together. Thank You, oh Lord, for Your Word. And I pray You would open our hearts and our minds to Your Word. I pray that we would be in wonder today of the miraculous work You do that You began, that You continue, that You perfect at the day of Christ, when we become like You, because we finally see You as You are. And that You sustain every moment of our lives, and that You empower by Your Spirit and seal within us so that we are eternally kept by the power of God through faith onto that ultimate future aspect of salvation when we are forever glorified in Your presence. Thank You. I pray that You would stir our hearts to the wonder of the miracle of salvation today. In Jesus’ name, Amen. You may be seated.

As you’re seated, there is what we just read, and I’ll underline now, salvation is when you receive Christ Jesus. So, that means if you don’t believe in Christ and you don’t know who Jesus is, you’re not saved. And there are a lot of people who don’t want to offend people. So, I told you before, when I was pastoring in Rhode Island, I got the letter from the Rhode Island Council of Churches, and they said, because you’re pastoring a historic 160-year-old church that’s quite well known and large, you’re going to be called upon to speak at commencements and graduations and public functions. We want you to know that it’s not good to offend people, so don’t use Lord Jesus or Christ because those three things offend people. If you don’t use those, neither is there salvation in the other, for there’s no other name under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved. That’s the name of Jesus Christ the Lord. So, that’s how we’re saved.

So, salvation is when we begin to walk in Him. How did Jesus describe salvation? Follow Me. What were early believers called? Followers of Christ. What did they do? They followed The Way. Who was The Way? It was Jesus Christ. How do you know you’re saved? You’re in Him and following Him. See, salvation is not a past tense. There’s a past event. We were saved onto a living, alive hope and relationship with Him. It’s very troubling when people, whenever you ask about their salvation, go back 40 years. I say, wait a minute. Is Christ not alive today in your life? They’re not aware of today. See, we have to think about salvation as a past event that has continued, and it has a present reality. The three dimensions of salvation are that I was born a lost sinner. I heard the Gospel, responded, but Christ is in me and I’m following Him today. And if not, there’s something wrong with me. I’m sick. I need emergency care.

Look at this constant emphasis: for in Him, verse 11, in Him. Here we’re complete in Him. He is the one who circumcised us, but it’s a circumcision. It’s not like the Jewish eighth day when vitamin K is ready and coagulation is good, and they do this surgery. No, no, no. This is surgery without hands. See, that’s why salvation is divine and only God can do it. Only God can reach in and take my heart that is cold, dead, hard, and blind, and atrophied, stony as Ezekiel 36:26-27 describes our hearts. And He circumcises us. He puts off the body of the sins that we are no longer dominated by sin controlling us. Our flesh is not in control. It’s still present. We’re not eradicated, but it’s still present. Because of the circumcision of Christ, we have a new operating system, and we’re buried. Our past is buried with Him, and baptism portrays that. Baptism doesn’t do it. Baptism doesn’t do anything but portray that we have been buried with Christ.

And when we’re raised with Him, baptism again is a picture. Baptism isn’t when I get raised with Christ. It’s faith in the working of God. I was raised, theologically, I was known in Christ before the foundational world, but we don’t operate on that. We operate in time and space. I’m not in eternity yet. So, in eternity, I was saved the instant I called on the name of the Lord. There are some people who are too theological. They’re not of earthly good. They mix everybody up. I heard someone say, I don’t need to be saved. I’ve always been saved. I was chosen before the foundation of the world. I say, Paul didn’t talk about that. Paul said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you’ll be saved. Do you think he told the Philippian jailer, oh, you’ve already been saved from eternity past? The Philippian pagan jailer would’ve said, huh? Paul said, you, right now, put your faith in Christ alone. And that instant when you do, your whole past is buried. You’re raised through faith in the newness of life. You are alive together with Christ.

And then look at all these havings, He’s having. That means He’s already forgiven us. He’s already wiped out the handwriting of requirements. He’s already nailed it to the cross. He’s already disarmed the hosts of darkness arrayed against us.

By the way, tonight’s going to be an interesting night. I hope there’s nothing of eternal importance on television or out on the lake or anything because tonight we’re looking at Satan’s four spiritual flaws in the Garden of Eden. Someone asked a question a couple of weeks ago about the occult and occultic practices and whether astrology, Reiki, yoga, and everything else. I was thinking there are endless, there are 4,000 yoga positions, and so there might be a new one every week, so you don’t attack the latest manifestation. You go back to the core. And in the Garden of Eden, Satan declared his four principles.

Have you ever heard of the four spiritual laws? Campus Crusades Tract? Satan has four spiritual flaws. They’re always present in every religion, in everything he does, and they’re present in yoga, in astrology, in horoscopes, in Reiki, anything else that’s coming along the pike. And the more we understand, instead of just the latest manifestation of Satan, you step back and you look at what he’s already declared and what he believes and what his operating system is. And you can see it, but it’s already been disarmed. But as Al Moler, president of Southern Seminary, the largest seminary in the world these days, you know what he said? He said the West is being repaganized. The Catholics went through and baptized all the pagans in Poland a thousand years ago, and now churches across the country are paganizing them by bringing in occult practices and transcendental meditation, and everything else that’s going on. Christian yoga, it’d be like saying Christian witchcraft. Christian paganism. What is that? It’s an oxymoron, but that’s tonight. I don’t want to get worked up on that right now. I don’t want to get worked up. I’m very calm.

Baptism is when I declare what Christ did. So, it means he’s already done it. It means I’ve already experienced it. I’m just telling what happened. It’s kind of like coming back from the trip. When I tell you about the trip in Bristol, Tennessee, I’ve already been there. I’m not there right now. I’m telling you about what already happened. Baptism is when I look back and I declare what Christ did. So, you’re in Colossians 2 with me. Let’s just go through these real quick.

Number one, and there are five. Baptism is my declaration. Christ gave me a new heart. Okay, look at verses 6 through 11. We already read them. I receive Christ, verse 9, I’m in Him. Verse 10, I’m complete in Him. Verse 11, He’s circumcised my heart. That’s what I declare. When I get baptized, I’m saying I have a new heart. I remember when Dr. Christian Bernard from South Africa, the great cardiac surgeon, did the first heart transplant. Now, the poor guy didn’t last very long because they were learning as they went along, but he did it. It was the advent of modern, everything we’re doing. This open-heart stuff we do all the time, and heart transplants. But God’s been doing heart transplants from the beginning. You can’t be saved without getting a new heart. Grace shows up in the book of Genesis. God has always graciously given us a new heart so that we can believe and trust and follow Him. And baptism is when I declare He’s done it.

That’s why we’re careful when we have baptism classes. People have a three-part testimony. Part one, I was born lost, headed for Hell. Everybody starts there. If they can’t start there, we won’t baptize them because they don’t understand salvation. If you’re not lost when you come into this world and hopelessly entangled in sin, you can’t be saved because Christ only died while we were still sinners, Romans 5:8 says. But then I heard the Gospel and responded, that’s salvation. Salvation is not a group event.

In fact, yesterday I was teaching a membership class, and I said, you know what? We’re evangelicals. Do you know what evangelicals teach? What the Bible says, there is a point of salvation. That’s what the Bible says. Paul didn’t say what decade were you saved in? He says, when did you call on the name of the Lord? Salvation is a point. Now, sometimes some people are hurdling, Hell bound, and all of a sudden it starts changing, and they don’t even realize what changed them, and they don’t realize that God has begun a good work in them. And then they look back and they go, oh yeah, I remember. I heard that and I prayed that, didn’t think anything of it, and man, my life changed. See, we help them, see what the Lord did. But everybody is born lost; they respond to the Gospel, and then Christ is being formed in them. That’s the three phases of everyone’s salvation.

Secondly, baptism, not only do I say I have a new heart, but it’s my declaration that Christ buried my past. It’s forever gone. I was training; one of my children wants to understand evangelism. And they said, I just came across a Roman Catholic and they said something I didn’t understand. And I said they do not understand this: that when Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins, they are forever gone. It isn’t like I have to live here in fear and trepidation, and burn some candles, and do all of my sacraments, and then I get to this murky dark place called purgatory. It’s like an extra hot steam room, only instead of steam, they have fire, and it’s burning off my residual sins. No. Either Jesus died once and for all on the cross, and when I receive Him, my past is forever gone in the sea of God’s forgetfulness, my sins and iniquities He remembers no more, or it didn’t happen. There’s no burn off of what Christ couldn’t cover.

Have you ever thought of what that theology is saying? That you go do a mass for your uncle that needs 500 more years down there because Jesus didn’t quite pay enough, and you’ve got to pay some. That’s Catholicism. It doesn’t matter how much the Pope smiles. Now, I’m not talking about Catholicism this morning, but do you know the first two people that the current Pope prayed to when he was seated, when he became the new Pope recently? Did anybody read the transcript? He prayed to Mary, to Joseph, to Jesus, in that order. Mary? Could she even hear him? She’s not omnipresent. Only God is. To Joseph? Is he omnipresent, too? To Jesus. He is omnipresent, but he struck out on the first two. Usually, what comes out of us first is what’s inside. No matter what Louis Palau says, this current pope prays to Mary and to Joseph. And the Bible says there is one mediator between God and man. It’s Jesus Christ. It’s not Joseph, it’s not Mary. So, as a spiritual leader, I’m suspicious, completely, of anybody praying to Joseph and Mary. But we’re not on Catholicism. We’re on the Gospel, and our sins are forever gone.

Thirdly, baptism is my declaration that Christ gives me a fresh, new beginning. This is why you can go to the jails; you can go to the rescue missions. I started out at the Lansing City Rescue Mission when I was 13 years old. They would call our house and say the preacher didn’t show up and send down John. I’d go with my little Bible and give my one-minute sermon. Don’t you wish you knew me back then? They were only a minute long. And what I told them is that if you come to Christ, you have a fresh, new beginning. He won’t give you a new liver. He won’t give you a new stomach. You’ll still have cirrhosis, but you will have eternal life and all sins forever gone.

It’s also an end to my guilt because all my sins are on Him. He’s wiped out the handwriting of ordinances that were against me.

And it promises me that I have nothing left to fear. When we’re saved, we don’t have a spirit of fear. We’re not afraid of death, and that’s why the writer of Hebrew says He delivers those who, through fear of death for all their lifetime, are subject to bondage. That’s Hebrews 2:14-18. Christ promises me I have nothing left to fear. That’s how early believers understood salvation.

See, I think that we’re doing a disservice when we just say, oh, just pray this prayer. Raise your hand. Come on up here. Good. They don’t understand. That’s why this woman said, I beg you, stay in my house. That’s where we start. Remember, Lydia, stay here. I can’t believe this. You’re telling me that Christ gave me a heart that’s new. I want to know all about that. He buried my past, all of it. I can’t believe it. I just, wow. To whom much is forgiven, the same loves much. You understand that the Gospel was not perfunctory; it was central. And when they embraced Christ and they experienced them, it reminds me of a friend of mine who’s an electrician. He said he was rewiring something in Russia once, and he hit a 220v, and it just knocked him across the room. Did you know that’s salvation? When you connect with Christ, you [poof], it’s transformational.

Now, I connected with Christ when I was six years old. All I knew was that I was a hopeless sinner, and I couldn’t get over the fact that He knew everything bad I had done that I had hidden from my parents. They were older, and they missed a lot. They’d be up talking to the cashier, and I’d be putting stuff in my pockets. If my parents were too poor to buy the candy, I would help myself. There’s nothing wrong. If you’re not caught, it’s not wrong, right? That’s what a lost person believes. But then the Gospel penetrates.

We have to continue. Look at the next, salvation, if you get to Acts 16, look at the end. Go from Colossians to Acts 16, and we’re going to end here before long. Chapter 16, verse 25. Salvation is believing and confessing God’s work, and this is one of the simple Gospel presentations Paul made to the Philippian jailer. Verse 25, at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. I skipped over the part of their arrest, roughing them up, beating them intensely until the white sheathing of the coating of their bones showed. They were beaten horribly. They should have gone to the ICU after that, but instead they put them in stocks. I missed all that. But when they got to jail, what were they doing? Were they doing an online blog to get their local senator to petition Rome? To get this magistrate to let them out? No. I’m so glad they didn’t have smartphones.

What were they doing? They were praying, verse 25, and singing hymns, and look what it says. Singing hymns to God, the prisoners were listening to them. It could be that the only reason they got caught in the Philippian forum and roughed up and beaten, and incarcerated was that God wanted the jailer, his family, and the other prisoners. Isn’t that interesting? See, we look at it like, I don’t want it, I don’t want to get caught. I don’t want anything bad happening to me. God says I have somebody in that hospital that needs to hear, and they would hear it best from you with a tube in your mouth, and up your nose, and you radiate hope. They’ve looked at people die their whole life, and they’ve never seen hope. I want you there, or I want you in jail, or I want you in that extreme situation. I want you to be like Paul, sing in your prison, and people listen.

The earthquake came, verse 27. The keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep, sees the prison doors open. Do you understand? This was his house. In fact, if you ever go to Philippi, you can go to this prison. It’s right off the forum. I’m not sure if it’s the real one, but it’s very much in the right place in Cavalla or whatever the name of the city is today in Greece. And you can see the proximity to where the judge sat, and here’s this prison. And most likely, back then, that was their business. It was in their house. They had built a dungeon, a lower dungeon in their house. And the servants and the master and the jailer lived upstairs, and the prisoners were all down, and the wife probably cooked, or the slaves did and fed them. All of a sudden, he gets knocked out of bed, and he looks down, and he sees the prison doors open, verse 27. He thought the prisoners had fled. He drew his sword and was about to kill himself. Verse 28, Paul cried with a loud voice.

See, Paul’s in his house. And it wasn’t just the prisoners, I think, that were listening to Paul. This jailer was amazed. This guy didn’t spit and curse at him while he got the beating. And the jailer, I’m sure, is the one who oversaw Paul getting put in the stocks, where they distend your body and your feet. Roman stocks had this abdominal thing that kept you from, it made your feet extended and your arms extended. It’s being in an unnatural, horseshoe-shaped position. Which was as your body began to heal or coagulate and scabs were formed, then when you stood up, it just broke open all the beating again. It was like a little additional suffering. And the jailer had watched all this, and he had heard, but he didn’t know what to do. So, Paul cried with a loud voice and said, don’t do yourself harm. We’re here. Then he, the jailer, called for a light, verse 29, ran in, fell down trembling before Paul and Silas, and brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

That’s one of the most beautiful salvation accounts in the Bible. And what did Paul say? Believe, verse 31. So, they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household. And look at verse 34, it says, and he rejoiced, the end of verse 34. Having believed in God with all his household. What did they believe? They declared at their baptism, Paul baptized them, that they believed that Christ gave them a heart that’s new. That jailer said Christ gave me a new heart.

Can you imagine the testimony service at the Philippi church? They say, anybody have a testimony? And this big Roman, sword-toting magistrate gets up, this jailer. He says, I was lying in bed. I had these crazies in my basement, they were singing, and I had beaten them within a thread of life. And an earthquake came, and I ran. I was going to commit suicide. And I ran in and saw them, and I slid at their feet, and I said how could I be saved? And they explained the One who died to give me a new heart, who buried all of my past, and my paganism and sin and whatever, and gave me a fresh, new beginning. And He ended all my guilt because my sins are on Him, and I have nothing left to fear. Can you imagine the jolt that went through that congregation ss they saw the miracle of salvation, a pagan who came to Christ? That’s what’s going on in the Early Church.

Salvation, now this is the best one. We’re going to end with this one, okay? It’s time. Look at chapter 17 because of salvation, and this is where we’re going to end, and we’ll pick up here next time, but let me read it to you at least. Okay? And we’ll get a running start. Salvation is getting to know a new king of your life. Now, in the backdrop, seven times in the book of Acts, it says that all the time the Gospel is going out, people are being told about the kingdom of God. That’s seven times in the book of Acts. It’s described. When they got saved, they entered the kingdom of God. Paul says, I went on and taught them more about the kingdom of God, and after you got saved, I explained the kingdom of God. Most people think, the kingdom of God? What is that? What does that have to do with anything? Just get saved. Salvation is presented in the Bible as when we get a new king of our lives. That’s how they presented the Gospel.

Remember, I said a couple of weeks ago that there’s this furor in Christendom, and they call it the lordship and the anti-lordship. I don’t understand why there’s an issue. The Bible says if you get saved, you enter the kingdom of God. The way you enter the kingdom of God is you getting a new king in your life. That’s what salvation is. Now, let’s read it so you can see it. Look at chapter 17. I’ll just read the first seven verses, and we’re going to go. Paul, after being beaten within an inch of his life in Philippi and put in those stocks, and then he got out and led the jail to the Lord and everything else, you’ve read it all. They started walking. By the way, they walked 93 miles because the walk from Philippi to Amphipolis is 30 miles. Keep reading, to Apollonia is 30 more miles, and to Thessalonica, 37 miles. It was actually 97 miles they walked.

So, they get there and they go to the synagogue of the Jews. In verse 2, Paul, as was his custom, went into them for three Sabbaths, and he reasoned from the Scripture. So, he starts preaching. Teaching the Gospel. Verse 3, explaining and demonstrating Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and said this: Jesus, who I am preaching to you, is the Christ. Verse 4. And some of them were persuaded. In other words, they responded to the Gospel. And a great multitude of the devout Greeks. And not a few of the leading women joined Paul and Silas. Verse 5, but the Jews were not persuaded. That means they weren’t saved. That means they were pagans, they were lost. They were Jewish, but they were still unbelievers in the truth of the Gospel. And they became envious. And they took some evil men from the marketplace, and they gathered a mob, and they set the whole city in uproar, and they attacked the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people. But when they didn’t find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brethren to the rulers of the city.

So, this is a mob of Gospel rejectors, and they’re coming before the political leaders, the magistrates, the civil authorities, and these unsaved people are going to charge the Christians with what they’re doing as wrong. So, this is lost people, pagans, and these hardhearted Jews describing salvation. Okay. You see the frame. Now, watch what they say. They took them to the rulers of the city, verse 6, crying out, those who have turned the world upside down have come here too.

Number one, salvation is like hitting that 220v live wire and getting thrown across the room. It’s that your whole world gets turned upside down. Actually, God writes it, but when we stand upright, we see everybody else’s on their head, and we go around. If you were standing upright and everybody else is standing on their head and blood is rushing and they’re having trouble breathing and everything else, wouldn’t you say, hey, you need to flip over. You’re facing the wrong way. You see everything wrong. Come on, turn over. And they go, no, no, no, everybody is on their head. See, you, Paul, and your group are turning the world.

But it doesn’t end there. It gets better. Verse 7, Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar. They say there is another king. Salvation is getting a new king of your life. Salvation is a miracle. We’re dead, we’re paralyzed. We don’t know, see, or want God. He shines. As Wesley said, thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke the dungeon flame to light. My chains fell off. My heart is free. I rose, went forth, and followed thee. That’s the Armenian view of salvation by Wesley, and it’s very accurate. That’s what salvation is, and that’s what the miracle of salvation is.

That’s what we’re studying, and it’s time to go. Your parking meters have run out, so let’s all stand, and as you stand, the Gospel is that God opens our hearts to heed His Word. When we believe and confess His truth, He transforms us. When we get to know Him, He’s the king of our life, and we begin responding to Him because He gave us a new heart and he ended our guilt and gave us a fresh, new beginning. The question is, has that happened to you, or were you just baptized? Is that what happened to you, or did you just pray a prayer? We respond to God opening our hearts, but if God opens our hearts, we get a new king and we get a new operating system. We’re never the same.

Let’s bow together. Father in Heaven, I pray that we will examine ourselves, as 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, whether or not we’re in the faith. For how do we know, except Christ dwells in us. That is the only hope of salvation, that we have received You. And when You move in, we’re new creations. The old is passing away and the new is new every day, fresh, and You’re beginning a work. You’ll never, never let go of us. And You’ll perfect the day we see You face to face. Thank You for our great salvation. Bless us as we’re called to protect this temple and not allow evil and false things to neutralize Your power. And even as we study those tonight, I pray that we would be on guard against anything that would neutralize our great salvation. In the name of Jesus, we pray. And all of God’s people said, Amen. God bless you as you go.

Notes

The Eternal, Infinite God of the Universe is a Savior, and offers to anyone who will call upon His Name some amazing, supernatural transformations within. That is what the Gospel has been doing from the start: changing humans from the inside out. That is what Paul watched happen across the pagan world of the Roman province of Asia.

As we open to Acts 16:14, we see again how:

 

Salvation Is: God Opening Hearts To Heed His Word

 

Message Thirteen (Paul): The next Gospel Presentation is in Acts 16:14-15 where salvation is described as the Lord opening a person’s heart to heed His Word.

 

Acts 16:14-15 (NKJV) Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. 15 And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” So she persuaded us.

 

We need to pause for a moment and see what Paul taught about this event that just took place in their lives. When Lydia believed, and others of her family also believed, the Scriptures say that they were baptized.

 

Have you ever wondered what Paul told them about baptism?

What did baptism mean to Paul as he administered it?

What did Paul tell them had happened to them when they got saved; and what did Paul say that baptism was for?

 

The answers to those questions may become some of the most powerful and impactful truths of the Book of Acts. If we can just allow God to fill in the pieces of what is going on here, we can see why the Gospel had such an impact upon every place it came.

 

What Baptism: Is & Isn’t

 

To help with that, we actually have the private lessons that Paul taught to those who came to Christ, they are recorded for us in the Book of Colossians.

So as we have already seen, in every baptism event recorded in the Book of Acts we can see it was preceded by belief in the Gospel, followed by the outward sign of that belief in believer’s baptism. So, baptism is an outward declaration that salvation has already taken place.

 

Baptism is not salvation.

Baptism is not part of salvation.

Baptism is not necessary for salvation.

Baptism only portrays the wonders of what Christ did for us in salvation.

Baptism is only an act of obedience, a choice to follow and obey what the Lord asked us to do and teach in our commission from Him; as in an outward confession of what Christ has done inwardly.

 

But, baptism is an amazing reminder of how supernaturally God works inside of all who are born-again. Please turn over to Colossians 2, as we see exactly what God’s Word says as:

 

Paul Teaches What Baptism Declares in Colossians

 

In Colossians 2:11-15, Paul wrote to the church at Colossi what he wanted them to know about our sufficiency in Christ. Everything starts with salvation, and salvation is all based on our trust in Christ’s work. Paul taught these truths everywhere he went, and now as he writes to this church he had never visited, he add in this letter what he had also taught in other places where he had visited. Baptism portrays the wonders of what Christ did for us in salvation.

Here is what He said in Colossians 2:6-15. Please stand with me and listen to God speaking through Paul about what God does when He saves us.

 

Colossians 2:6-15 (NKJV) As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. 8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the un-circumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

Pray

 

 

Baptism is When I Declare What Christ Did

 

Here is what made those early believers so powerful: they knew the miracle of salvation. They experienced it, and were taught about it, and understood what God wanted to do and did to them.

 

Truth # 1: Baptism Is My Declaration That Christ Gave Me A Heart That Is New

 

Colossians 2:6-11 (NKJV) As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. 8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,

 

Their new heart spoke of spiritual heart circumcision (Ezekiel 36:26-27), which was the work of salvation as Christ is putting off our old person. Do you know the personal reality of having a miraculous new heart, implanted within by God?

That is what these early believers were told; and they believed God. That is the miracle of salvation: Christ gave me a heart that is new.

 

Truth # 2: Baptism Is My Declaration That Christ Buried My Past & Its Forever Gone

 

Colossians 2:12 (NKJV) buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

 

Do you know the personal reality of having the miraculous work by God of burying your entire past in the sea of His forgetfulness? Do you know the relief that He will remember your sins no more?

That is what these early believers were told; and they believed God. That is the miracle of salvation: Christ buried my past & it is forever gone.

 

Truth # 3: Baptism Is My Declaration That Christ Gave Me A Fresh, New Beginning

 

Colossians 2:13 (NKJV) And you, being dead in your trespasses and the un-circumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,

 

Do you know the personal reality of having a fresh new beginning in life? Born again believers have only a future, their past is gone. We live a life of new beginnings in Christ alone.

That is what these early believers were told; and they believed God. That is the miracle of salvation: Christ gave me a fresh new beginning.

 

Truth # 4: Baptism Is My Declaration That Christ Ended All MY Guilt, Because All My Sins Are On Him

 

Colossians 2:14 (NKJV) having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

 

Do you know the personal reality of having all guilt taken away by Christ? Do you know the assurance that your sins are on Jesus?

That is what these early believers were told; and they believed God. That is the miracle of salvation: Christ ended all my guilt, because my sins are on Him.

 

Truth # 5: Baptism Is My Declaration That Christ Promises Me I Have Nothing Left to Fear

 

Colossians 2:15 (NKJV) Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

 

Do you know the personal reality of nothing left to fear? There is no condemnation, no separation, and nothing left to fear because of Christ’s work in us and for us.

That is what these early believers were told; and they believed God. That is the miracle of salvation: Christ promises me I have nothing left to fear.

 

This is How Early Believers Understood Salvation

 

So as the Gospel was preached, and as these pagans heard, believed and were saved: they were taught to declare what God had done.

Baptism became the public reminder for everyone in the church of the miracle God was doing in their midst, as He saved people.

Today we have the same Gospel, the same miraculous work of Christ. Do you understand how great this salvation really is that God has done in you? Because God saved us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross, each of us His followers can declare:

 

Christ gave me a heart that is new.

Christ buried my past & it is forever gone.

Christ gave me a fresh new beginning.

Christ ended all my guilt, because my sins are on Him.

Christ promises me I have nothing left to fear.

 

When new believers experienced this, and then were taught what had happened to them, then declared those miraculous events by the waters of baptism: they were experiencing the power of the Gospel! Now do you see what a huge statement it was to be baptized? Move on now to the next salvation account, where we see:

 

Salvation Is:  Believing & Confessing God’s Work

 

That is what we see as we move on to the end of chapter 16, and study:

 

Message Fourteen (Paul): The next Gospel Presentation is in Acts 16:25-34 where salvation is described as believing.

 

Acts 16:25-34 (NKJV) But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. 27 And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. 28 But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.” 29 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34 Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.

 

So after the individuals of that family believed (v. 34), they declared through baptism that:

 

Christ gave me a heart that is new.

Christ buried my past & it is forever gone.

Christ gave me a fresh new beginning.

Christ ended all my guilt, because my sins are on Him.

Christ promises me I have nothing left to fear.

 

That is the essence of the Gospel, distilled into bite-sized pieces that those early believers could hold on to and meditate upon as God continued the work of their growth through sanctification.

We now come to the most amazing of the Gospel descriptions because it is the clearest statement of what happens to those who get saved from the perspective of those who do not. Next, as we move into chapter 17 of Acts we see that:

 

Salvation Is: Getting A New King Of Your Life

 

Message Fifteen (Pagan description): The next Gospel Presentation is in Acts 17:1-7, where salvation is described by pagans, who observed the process they saw happening as lost people believed and received Christ, as: getting a new King of your life.

 

Acts 17:1-7 (NKJV) Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas. 5 But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. 7 Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus.”

 

Today, has the miracle of salvation turned your world upside down? Do you have a new King? That is the powerful Gospel.

When we hear it and believe, God becomes our King and everything changes. As the Thessalonians said, our world turns upside down. But that is not all, as we get down to v. 22 we see that:

 

Salvation Is:  Responding To God’s Command To Repent

 

Message Sixteen (Paul): The next Gospel Presentation is in Acts 17:22-34 where salvation is described as God commanding all to repent.

 

Acts 17:22-34 (NKJV) Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24 “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” 32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” 33 So Paul departed from among them. 34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

 

Next, we see in Acts 18 that:

Salvation Is:  Believing & Worshipping God

 

Message Seventeen (Paul): The next Gospel Presentation is in Acts 18:8-13 where salvation is described as believing, and being drawn by God to worship Him.

 

Acts 18:8-13 (NKJV) Then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized. 9 Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; 10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.” 11 And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. 12 When Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat, 13 saying, “This fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.”

 

When God Saves Us: What Does He Do Inside Us?

 

Salvation (13) is: God Opening Hearts To Heed His Word

Salvation (14) is: Believing & confessing god’s work

Salvation (15) is: getting a new King of your life

Salvation (16) is: responding to god’s command to repent

Salvation (17) is:  Believing & Worshipping God

 

Baptism is When I Declare What Christ Did

 

When these early believers were saved, they then agreed to declare through baptism that:

 

Christ gave me a heart that is new.

Christ buried my past & it is forever gone.

Christ gave me a fresh new beginning.

Christ ended all my guilt, because my sins are on Him.

Christ promises me I have nothing left to fear.

 

 

 

ord with all his household. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized. 9 Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; 1

0 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.” 11 And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. 12 When Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat, 13 saying, “This fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.”

WHEN GOD SAVES US: WHAT DOES HE DO INSIDE US?

Salvation (13) is: God Opening Hearts To Heed His Word
Salvation (14) is: Believing & confessing god’s work
Salvation (15) is: getting a new King of your life
Salvation (16) is: responding to god’s command to repent
Salvation (17) is:  Believing & Worshipping God

BAPTISM IS WHEN I DECLARE WHAT CHRIST DID

When these early believers were saved, they then agreed to declare through baptism that:

Christ gave me a heart that is new.
Christ buried my past & it is forever gone.
Christ gave me a fresh new beginning.
Christ ended all my guilt, because my sins are on Him.
Christ promises me I have nothing left to fear.

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