Gospel—G.H. Hayhoe
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Returns tonight at Eighty. 16th chapter of Acts.
Beginning at the ninth verse and our vision appeared Paul in the night there stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us.
After you have seen the vision, immediately we endeavor to go into Macedonia, assuringly gathering of the Lord had called us, for it preached the gospel unto them.
Therefore, losing from Troy as we came with a straight course, the sound of Gratiot and the next day to Neapolis.
And for friends to Philippines, the chief city of that part of Macedonia and a colony, and we were in that city abiding certain days.
And on the Sabbath we went over the city by a Riverside where prayer was won't to be made. And we sat down and spake unto the women which we suffered.
And a certain woman named Lydia, the seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, heard us whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of fall.
When she was baptized at her household, she beside us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained us.
And again to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed by the spirit of divination met us, which brought our masters much gain by soothsaying the same foul of Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most High God, that show unto us the way of salvation.
Did she many days but fall be in grief, 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.
One of our masters saw that the hope of their games was gone, they can't call him Silas and drew them into the marketplace under the rulers.
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 moment she rolled up together against them, the magistrates ran off their clothes and commanded to beat them.
When they had laid many stripes upon him, they cast them into prison, charging the door to keep them safely.
Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks.
Anakin Knight, for all his eyes, prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them.
And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened.
Everyone's bands were losing.
The keeper of the prison awakening out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, the door restored and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. The foul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here.
And he called for the light, and sprang in, and came trembling, fell down before Paul. And Silas 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 of Green's 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, he said, leap before them and rejoice.
Believing in God with all his house.
Well, it's a long chapter that we have before us, dear friends, and brings before us the very first time that gospel was preached in Europe. And we see how that God had his eye upon those who are marked out for blessing. He wanted to bless them. And so tells us that Paul had a vision in the night, a man of Macedonia saying, come over into Macedonia and help us.
God revealed it to his servants that he wanted him to go over there.
As you know, and the Lord Jesus was going away, he said to his disciples, go ye and do all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And so you know friends, God has an interest in you here tonight, not only in the people of Philippi long ago, but he has an interest in you too. As I often say, you're not lost in the crowd to him. There may be a number of people here tonight, but he looks upon you sitting in that seat and he knows all about.
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He knows the thoughts that are going through your mind. There's a verse in the Bible that says I know the thoughts that come into your mind. Every one of them just think. He not only knows what we do, not only see the places we go, he actually knows the thoughts that come into our minds. And if there's someone who is coming here tonight and there are very many questions in your mind, there's one who knows all about those questions.
And who has an answer for your soul?
Answer a face an answer a blessing.
So just as the Lord sent Paul and Silas over there to Macedonia, to Philippi in order to bridge the gospel, so he has a desire for your blessing tonight.
You know what we see in this chapter 2, that there are different kinds of people here. We find Lydia. She was evidently a very religious person, a very honest person. I would say she was really a seeker. She did want to know about the true God. She did want to know about the way of salvation. And then we find another person here, this young damsel, and she was actually under the power of Satan and you know a lot of people in this world today.
That are going on under Satan's power. We find in these last days especially that people are turning glorious sort of thing, anything for the miraculous. And so they're satisfied with a display of something miraculous. And I want to tell you, dear friends, that there are two powers that are superior to man, the power of God and the power of Satan. Satan has power to work miracles. And after the Lord has come and taken us on the glory, the Bible tells us that.
There will be wonderful working empiricals by the power of Satan, and I just need you not to be deceived by this kind of thing because.
Can the power of Satan can lead you astray? And Satan certainly wants to lead you down into a lost eternity. But there's one who has greater power. There's one who overcame Satan at the cross. There's one who accomplished a mighty word, a great victory. And just as David went out and slew that giant that no one else and all the armies of Israel could overcome.
Who came out day after day and terrified the people of Israel?
There was one who was able to overcome him and cut off his head with his own sword. And we tell you tonight about one who is greater than Satan, One who is overcome Satan's power, One who has accomplished a money victory and has returned to share the results of that victory with all those who will receive Christ. Well, the second one we have in our chapter is one who is actually under the power of Satan, and no one could.
Free of the Lord.
And then at the last we find one, but we might say seem totally careless. He just had no interest in these things whatever. He was just fulfilling his job. That was all he was thinking about. But God had his way of speaking to that man too. And perhaps in this room tonight, there may be some who are in these different classes, perhaps if someone can't come in here tonight.
And today I came here because I really would like to have peace with God.
I really would like to know. I'm saying I read my Bible, I go to church, but I still don't know what I'm saying. I don't have peace. Well, do not want you to have that assurance. He wants you to go out of this room rejoicing in the knowledge of salvation. And then I say there may be someone here and you're definitely going on in Satan's service, for he has different ways of bringing people into *******. And it seems to me especially.
People in this generation, as men and women turn away from the Bible, it seems that Satan has more power to lead them through all kinds of ******* into false things, false religions, becoming in of these eastern religions into these lands which are only.
Save his power who is working through all these things to lead men astray. We have all kinds of things, drugs and to break down a Society of neurology. Everywhere we see Satan's power manifested. Or if there's anyone here tonight who has just been in the ******* of Satan who is a slave to some of these sins, there's one that can set you free.
And then it may be either someone who says, well, I just don't care.
Somebody persuaded me to come here, but I'm really not interested. I just came here. Perhaps you're like the boy who came to the gospel meeting because his his parents persuaded him. But he made-up his mind that he wasn't going to hear a word that was said. He plucked his ears with cotton so that he wouldn't hear anything. He didn't care. But God hid his lying, that boy too.
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And he allowed a little fly light at the end of his nose when he went to swamp the fly.
The cotton fell out his ear and he heard the preacher say he love ears to hear. Let him hear. He's not even listen. God has something to say to him and perhaps there's someone like them. Isn't it nice to see all these brought together in this scene? Because you know, we're not all alike, as I say.
But God so loved the world and if.
The world and I know you are. He loves you and He loves you enough and that he showed that love in the gift of his beloved son.
Well, it was this call from.
From this man of Macedonia deployed themselves to come over into Macedonia and help us. And there we see the willingness of these servants. Isn't it lovely to see these two men? And promptly Luke 2 And that tells us that they assuredly gathered that the Lord had sent them. And so, you know, the work of redemption was all complete.
Calvary, I had no part in it. The Lord Jesus did it all. He said it is finished and nothing can be added to it and nothing can be taken from it. There's nothing that I can do that can save your soul, dear friends, but I do have the privilege of announcing the good news.
God has given to us for saying this wonderful privilege. And Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and his salvation to everyone that believeth. And so we find here that Paul has such a love for souls that he was willing to go into this place knowing that it might be easy and it certainly wasn't.
Because there's another verse in the 20th chapter of Acts that tells us a little more of the kind of experiences that Paul had as he went about preaching the gospel. When I came here tonight, I didn't have it as hard as Paul did. But this is what he said in the 20th of Acts. In every city, bonds and afflictions abide. That is, as he went from city to city, he knew just what kind of treatment to expect.
A few more whipped parts on his back.
A few more stone marks, a few more days in prison are all kinds of things that he endured. Why did he give up? All because he had something of the heart of his master. He knew that God loved sinners and he didn't want to give up. The news was too good. In 2nd Corinthians 4, he says, seeing we have this ministry.
As we have received mercy, we faint not, and then again at the end of the chapter.
He says, For which 'cause we faint not though the outward man perished, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. There must have been times when Paul must have felt quite discouraged. But he says, I have such good news to tell, I just can't get the scourge and giving out this news. Doesn't matter what happens to me, the news is so good I can't keep it in.
Another servant of God, Jeremiah, he said he made-up his mind.
And he wasn't going to talk anymore with God's message, but he said, thy word was in my heart like a burning. And he said I couldn't be silent. And so your friends, there is such good news to tell. How can we be discouraged in telling it out? How can we stop telling out the best news that was ever told? Every one of us liked to bring good news. He often hear young people run over to some other young person say, you know what?
Good news to tell, but nothing half as good as what we have to announce. The best news I've ever told that it has to do with this world is only for a short time. Life is so short after all. The joy is here only are fleeting and passing. But the news we have to tell has to do with eternity.
It tells us in the Bible, at my right hand, there are prayers forevermore. And then there's not only good news, dear friends, but there are serious warnings.
Sometimes dangers arise and people will stay up all night and oz to the public the dangers, people will risk their lives in order to tell people about danger that's coming. And so if people are so interested in telling good news and if they'll even risk their lives to bring warnings.
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How much more so with this bland, glorious message for all.
There is an awfully solemn morning connected with it too, and that is that you reject God's way of salvation.
To refuse God's pardon.
Is to go to a lost eternity and I just can't tell you how terrible it is.
I lost some thought here, friends, upon the Lord Jesus said on the cross.
It is finished, those glorious words that mean so much to the soul of every believer, because we know that He finished the work of our salvation there at Calvary.
He completely settled it so that not one sin can be charged against for one who has trusted in Christ. But you know, the sound side of it is that if you die without Christ, you will never be able to say those 3 words.
No friends you want God says that those who go into a lost eternity will never never see the end of the judgment of God. Oh how Saul. So those 3 words is finished are tremendously important. If you receive the message of what Christ has done, what a glad and glorious deliverance. But I say if you're rejected in a lost eternity, how will you long?
Hear those words, but they'll never be uttered in that place. There's no ending to the sentence.
As we said in the meeting, this is never ending now. Or how dreadfully some.
Well, let's energize Paul Silas and perhaps salute to go over there and when they came over, it says they were in the city abiding certain days.
This is nice to see that they were waiting for the Lord to give them an opening.
And I think this is very beautiful to see their patients and waiting because, you know, God has the right moment that he wants to speak. And so he just waited for the Lord to give them the opportunity, shall I say, to meet the man who was calling them to come over so that they might bring this good news to him.
Really heard that there was a little prayer meeting going on and somebody went out by this. Riverside wasn't a special building. You know, you don't need a special building to get saved. You don't have to be in somebody'd home or in a special career room or something. You could say this little meeting was just beside a river. Now this is how God works. He can meet a soul anywhere.
People have been saying how different kind of places.
And Lydia was brought to the Lord at the Riverside. Well, as I say, she was evidently a seeking soul, and God had his eye upon her, because he tells us that she was a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira. Perhaps if you had him back and spy a tire up, and you had heard the conversation, he would have heard her telling her friends.
I'm going down to the Philippine to sell some of my.
I hear there's a good market there for purple cloth, and I'm going down there to sell some of the cloth. That was perhaps as far as things went in her mind, but that wasn't the way it was in the mind of God. And you know, sometimes we have plans, but we don't see how that God is working behind the scenes. But she came down to sell her purple cloth of Philippi. She didn't realize that God.
Was behind this and was bringing her there so that she might hear the gospel. And perhaps you've met some friend and you say, oh, just by accident I met him, or just by accident I met her. And I don't know why they asked me to come to a gospel meeting. Well, it wasn't an accident threat. It's no accident when you meet someone who brings the good news to you.
It's God's plan, it's God's way, and everything is planned.
In God's way, it says the preparation of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. And God caused Lydia to come down there just at that time in order to sell her purple cloth. And then he sent a message to his servant to come to Philippi and that he might go over there. There was someone that needed help. You see how God works.
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Yes, it's a grand thing and many of us as we look back in our lives.
We see a lot of things that only look like accidents, only look like something that seemed a little bit unusual, that demands somebody or something happened. But God had his way in it. And God has brought you to the gospel meeting here tonight, and He wants to save you too. He wants you to go to this room rejoicing and acknowledge your salvation. He wants you to go out saying it was the Lord who brought me here and he brought me to himself.
Well, we're not told about all the other people that were there. I don't know whether they paid much attention to what Paul said or not, but often in a big crowd or in a small company, there may be just one person that God had his eye upon.
The Bible says that one soul is worth more than the whole world. What shall it confident man?
If he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul, so one soul is worth more than the whole world.
Well worth his trip for these men to come over to Macedonia just for one soul, because Lydia is going to be in heaven.
She's going to be among the company of the redeemed. And her heart was open. She listened to what was said. She believed, and she acknowledged this in a public way in being baptized. Isn't it beautiful to see how God worked in her heart? As I say, she was seeking and God was also seeking her.
It's a wonderful thing when seeking soul, it's a seeking Savior because the Lord Jesus is the one who is going to seek and to save that which is lost. And he was seeking Lydia and he brought her to himself.
And as soon as she her heart was open that she had received this message, what is so nice to see here is the the fruit of an inner life. She wanted to bear the name of Christ. For that in a simple way is what baptism is. It's just bearing the name of Christ. And so she wanted to bear the name of Christ. For in baptism it says as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ and so.
He wanted to bear that name. And it says she was baptized and her household. And then the next thing that showed the work in her soul was that she said that she wanted these men to come in and stay. I don't know where these men were staying. Perhaps it was hard for them to find the lodging, but now here's a home open to them.
I think this is lovely and old and hard and an old. That's the way God works, you know. When you open your heart to the Lord, then your home becomes different too. It comes a place where you want to give the Lord Jesus his rightful place.
Now, before you're saved, you might possibly let some Christian come in and talk to you for 15 minutes or half an hour. It might be a little bit more, but you might be polite enough to let that pass for half an hour. But I'm quite sure that if you're not safe, you wouldn't like it to have three preachers staying in your house. Know you feel pretty uncomfortable because they just might be talking about the Lord in the morning.
And in the afternoon.
The meal table and if you're not saved, you're just couldn't enjoy that at all. But you see what happened here. Why as soon as she say she wants different companions when you're saved, you do want different companions. You're born into a new family and it isn't just because we're forced to do these things. What I enjoy about reading this chapter is that we don't agree about Paul asking her to be.
We don't read about Paul saying, would you open your home and let us come in? But this was just the voluntary result. In her heart, she had been saved. Now she wanted to bear the name of Christ. She wanted the company of those who love the Savior. What a wonderful thing this is. All friends, I say again, it's a real thing to be saved. It's not joining a church. It's not just a literal question.
Some special words that you repeat and somebody pronounces. You say no friends. It's a work in the heart. It's what God does. I couldn't say. Yeah. One time Dr. Moody was visiting in a place, I was told, and there was a man who had to profess to be saved at his meeting. And as we were walking down the street, this man was walking down the staggering here and there.
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Evidently quite drunk and someone said to Mr. Moody, there's what I'm your convicts.
But it looks like one of my converts, your friend, is when God does the work, it's an abiding work. Anything that we do might be just like that too. But when God works, he gives a new life. The blood comes from sin. And we see this lovely change that took place in the life of Lydia.
Now we come to the next one. Here there was a girl, and she was possessed with an evil spirit. It says here a spirit of divination. Evidently she was forced to tell her margin says a Python. And Python, as we know, are this name, and Satan is called a serpent. So this poor girl, she was under Satan's power.
And just it's surprising for us to see what she did. She started shouting and she started when they were going down to this little prayer meeting, she started showing these men are the servants of the Most High God, which shown to us the way of salvation.
I wonder, well, how could this be? And that she was possessed of an evil spirit and yet she was doing this kind of shouting. Well, you know, when you're reading the Gospels, you find that hello, men and women didn't always know who Jesus was. The devil's always did. They always knew. It says they said to him, We know thee, who thou art, the Holy one of God.
And Satan is not.
He deceives people by he's not deceived himself. He knows how to deceive them. He's had almost 6000 years of experience with human nature. He knows this pretty well and the kind of people that we are. And so he just knows how to receive. And sometimes he deceives people in one way, some in another. And this poor girl, perhaps she was deceived religiously, perhaps because she could shout this out.
I sounded very, very nice and.
No, it's a sad thing to think that Satan sometimes tries to mix with even the work of God. You've got to beware. Some people think that as long as you have a Bible under your arm, everything must be all right. But I want to tell you there's a lot of false prophets in the Bible under their arms. There's a lot of people that tell the Bible and they don't believe that Jesus is God. They deny the blood. They don't believe in the finished word, all the.
Things that I could say, and yet they carry the Bible. You know, Satan knows how to mix himself up with a little God. And our decision will be your friends to be careful. When Paul came to Berea, the people searched out to see if what he said was so. It didn't say, well, he's a preacher, we ought to know what he's talking about. No, they got their Bibles and they searched it up. And nothing would make me happier than to think.
That someone said, I want you to show it to me from God's word. It would make us very happy if you asked that we would remain behind the story from God's word because your friends is only by resting upon this precious word that you can really know that you're saying Jesus said heaven and earth shall pass away.
But my word shall not pass away.
Table by the name of the Lord Jesus and cast out this evil spirit. But it's made quite a stir as we see how the people in that city didn't like it that this girl was delivered from Satan's power. And you know, the world is going on its way and it doesn't like any disturbance.
And you know that pretty well.
If they were going on their own way and not the place to work just this past weekend and they didn't like me get here, they didn't like you to tell them that you belong to Christ and the two ones that would begin the new year by acknowledging Jesus as your Lord, that you wanted to get a permit instead of us gathering for revelry. They didn't like that. That upset them and the people here got upset.
When this girl got delivered from Satan's power. And so, dear friends, the world is going on its own way. My Bible says this will arise in the arms of the wicked lion. There's one who's stronger, one who's come in, one who can deliver from Satan's power. Well, he stood up the whole city, and it can't fall in Silas.
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Drew them to the marketplace under the rulers and the and they said these men being Jewish.
Do exceedingly trouble our city and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive neither to observe being Romans.
And the world is just the same today.
As I was saying, they don't like to be disturbed.
And they don't like your way away. If you're living like a Christian, they're very likely to say that the customs of your life are so contrary that you're stood on this 5th, that you're just different. Well, we are different. We're a peculiar people. We're in the family of God. And the Bible says the world more of us not because it knew him. Not So here were Paul and Silas.
And if I might say it, they hadn't met the man yet. They.
Today here have I done some blessings. They see this girl and they can't have the evil spirit of perhaps we have a business. We came over here, we remained around for today. We haven't met the man yet. They knew there's been some blessing, but here it tells us that now they're cast into prison.
Well, God still had his way. He had a man there in that prison.
And as I'm there that this jail keeper is probably a very hardened, indifferent kind of a man from a day after they had laid all these stripes on the back of Paul and Silas, they told the jail keeper to keep them safely. And it says when he received this charge, he thrust them. No subtle expression, he thrust them.
Get it in a prison. It seems to me indicate that.
He just was a very hard hearted person because there wasn't any particular need for him to thrust them into the inner prison. I'm quite sure that they weren't offering resistance to him The whole way they were acting and the way they sang in the prison shows that they weren't the kind of prisoners that had to be treated roughly. But here was his jail keeper. But we don't find.
The wrong silence showing any of these weapons at all. Isn't it lovely to see?
Spirit of Christ manifested and let me say, you've got many Christians in this room. Sometimes we all get a very fair deal and the world is pretty rough with us. Maybe the boss of work isn't very nice because we're Christians. I know a brother who worked in a place and there were several Christians working there and the particular man was over. The section said we could do without all these Christians we don't want.
Around here, well, that's the way the world often feels toward those who love the Lord Jesus. And so here for Small and Silas now they're thrust into the inner prison, their backs bleeding, their feet made fast in the stocks. Oh, it didn't seem like they had accomplished what they would like to accomplish. But isn't it good to see that they were happy in their souls, they were enjoying.
The Lord, and as another one has said in our testimony to the world, is our joy in the Lord.
I'm sure as the prisoners heard the singing that night, they thought, why, whatever has happened in the prison of Philippi, they didn't have comfortable prisons like they do today, where often there are many, many things that are quite pleasant for prisoners. Oh no, these were miserable places to be and here were fallen Silas, not growling that they didn't get justice.
Not totally the truth, but they didn't seem to have accomplished their desire.
No, instead of this, they pray and they sang praises to God. Oh, a triumph of faith. It's lovely to see, uh, God working here in the hearts of his servants. And I just want to say that sometimes in our lives as Christians, when you try to do things to serve the Lord, there are a lot of reverses.
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There are a lot of disappointments. Maybe remember Apollo 5 this year. They prayed and they sang praises to God. They accepted their life as from him. Later on, when Paul was in prison at Rome, he called himself the prisoner of Jesus Christ. Those beloved attitude. No wonder there was a testimony.
There, in that person, no wonder the jail the prisoner didn't fled.
Finally, doors were all open.
Well, it says here in the 26 birds and suddenly there was a great earthquake.
Now we know that this was a little earthquake. The ground actually shipped, the prison doors flew open, the stocks became loose on their feet, and they were actually kind of released by this little earthquake, but do not like to apply it in a spiritual way. But very often, dear friends, God stands an earthquake into a person's life in order that he might be saved.
I don't know if you mean that you're the earth I'm actually shaped.
But there's some illness thing to match. You know, you can have such a thing as your whole home getting it out. You can have such a thing as losing a job and having a whole lot of financial obligations over your head. And it just seems like an earthquake. Everything seems to go to pieces. And you can go to the doctor and he can give you some bad news.
That really very much like, I think it's worse than an earthquake. It just really shakes you up, really, don't you? Don't, you know?
Dog has his hand with all kinds of things. He has to use things like this very often to bring people to himself.
I mentioned this perhaps before, but there was a dear brother. I call him a brother because he died in the Lord.
He was throwing a tree down in Kentucky and there was a tree. This tree fell down in the back and broke back.
Wasn't too long after his back was broken that I am accurately just going and visiting him while he sat in a wheelchair. He remained in that wheelchair for about 20 years but it was just shortly after when I visited them and I still remember our space brightened up and he said this. The water had to break my back to save my soul.
Dear friends, going to do this sometime and if there's someone here has gone.
Taken out of your life, he's shaken up your health and perhaps you feel just like this man did. What did he do? Just what a lot of people are doing today. It's a lot of it's not worth working. I have to put a man to do it all. And just exactly the thought that came into the mind, he said life's not worth living. I know that tomorrow morning the woman's prisoners have escaped. My life's going to go over there and I'll be a dead man.
And I really kill myself that have I had been decoupled yet by his powers, the authorities. And so he drew sword, and he thought he was going to put an end to it all. But I want to warn you, dear friends, that death is not the end. Death is not the end. If you die without Christ, it is appointed unto man who wants to die.
But after this.
The judgment.
Perhaps when that rich man died in the 16th chapter of Luke, if you had died in a Funeral Home, the people would have been saying, well, all these troubles are over now. You don't have to worry about bridges anymore, doesn't have to worry about things anymore. It wasn't so.
It wasn't so it was a good thought after he had died and while he was living here in this world, even he did have some problems because the scripture says in hell. He lifted up his eyes being in front.
And I want to warn you, dear friends, that the idea that people have that death is the end of all in the greatest illusion of Satan. I say to you again, Satan is not deceived, but he deceives men. The Bible tells us in the book of James, thou believers, if there is one God, thou of Jewish, well, the devils also believe and sinister and verbal. And when the Lord Jesus was here, they knew.
God, but they knew he was the best and they said to him on one ourselves come together to the tormentors before the time they knew the judgment was coming. They knew he was the judge, even though blind man is called and they recognized him an old friend that the 1:00. But when another day will have to be the judge wants to be the state.
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He wants to be the savior tonight. You're one of the Savior.
Suddenly earthquake to make him put an end to his life. He didn't send the earthquake to make him.
It wasn't worth living. I'm glad I was born because I have a glorious future ahead of me. If you die in your sins, the Lord Jesus said it was better for you. That's.
Far, far better. But all that you're saying, it's well worth it all friends, to have the joy of celebration in this life and eternity with Christ. At the end of the journey I say it's 1000 times worthwhile, even if life is difficult.
Well, Paul saw it was going to happen and he prevented this suicide. Yes, he he saw probably up to the shadow of the door. He looked where the door was flung open and there was the jail keeper in the door at the balls, as Paul would tell. He saw it was going to happen, cried, shouted and said do thyself no harm for all dear, no one's bled. You don't need to do this.
Well, this jail keeper must have been.
Greatly surprised because ordinarily such an occasion would give them an opportunity to all run for their lives.
But God kept them from doing this, and especially Paul. He didn't want to run away. I suppose he was well acquainted with Roman law and he knew what would happen to that jail keeper. So he stayed right there. Perhaps this was the man in Macedonia that needed help. I think he was, yes, at last, Paul admitted now. And he called. And this man, Jo Kiefer, calls for life, and he comes in trembling.
And astonished, he falls down.
From Paul and Silas says, Sirs, what must I do? Say the most important question of your whole existence. You say, where am I going to find a job? What do I do when I go to school? And all these kind of questions may rise up in your mind. Did you ever ask that question, What must I do to be saved? That's far, far more important.
I know the teachers at school.
Will be perhaps help you in the guidance class to get you into some work that you can earn a living. But I want to say, dear young people, your children, the most important question is what must I do to say are the same? What does it mean to be safe?
Boy came to our Sunday school some years ago. He had been to a number of other Sunday schools and then he came to the little Sunday school that we have and he said, I've done to quite a few Sundays clothes. I never heard about these say if this is the only place to talk about being saved. What do you mean? Well, your friends, the Bible uses that word a great deal. People don't like it because.
They don't like to acknowledge that they're lost.
Y'all, everybody knows what it is that he saved from a burning building. Everybody knows what it is to be saved from drowning, but people don't know what it is to be saved from hell. But I thank God that I've been saved from hell and I've been saved for heaven. Yes friends, it's a real thing that he's saying, and this man wanted to know how.
And I think it's nice the way Paul and Silas must have both spoken together because it says and they said that's the way Christians are. They just can't get the answer quickly enough. And usually when you get talking and someone's interested, you find sometimes have a couple of Christians can't help but speak at once. It's so wonderful to see somebody that wants to be saved in full set together.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and.
Thou shalt be saved. They lie to that man to be saved.
Well, they could have said, oh, that guy that treated us that way last night. Oh, no, he had a precious soul. They wanted him to be saved and.
So in this block, dear friends, I want to try to make this very simple for your soul to. And he didn't tell them to wash their backs. He didn't say that they had to, that he had to make right some of the wrong things that he had done. No, they just chorused this lovely answer they leave on the Lord Jesus Christ. And thou shalt be saved. I ask you, what do you believe in one writer?
00:45:22
Why is a man an infidel?
Said because he believes in himself.
And he said, why is a man a Christian? And his answer was because he believes in Christ and not in himself. And firm don't want to tell you that's why I'm a Christian, because I don't believe in myself. I don't believe in my filthy rags. They're not good enough for God. I don't believe in my feelings because I find that they change from day-to-day. And even Christians, when they trust their feelings, they get full of deaths.
No one will believe in my feelings.
I don't believe in my words. I don't believe in a church for salvation. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I rest everything on a person.
A person who died for me on Calvary, a person who settled a question of my sin. If there's anyone here tonight and you're resting on anything else, I know that you don't have peace with God because there's absolutely nothing in yourself that you can rest on. It's like, as they say, trying to lift yourself by your own shoelaces. You just can't do it. And there's absolutely nothing in yourself. Nothing. Friends, you've got to have a power outside of.
And I to say to you to look away from yourself, look to Jesus tonight, God's beloved son, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Where they say I have believed in him, but I'm still not sure. Makes me think about a lady who came to the gospel meeting.
And she said, well, I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but I couldn't say that I'm saved. And this dear brother was speaking to where he said that. Well, let me read the verse again. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
And he said, you say you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you're not saved, but this verse says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He said, did you make a mistake with God? Make a mistake All she said, I said, I'm saved. Thank God she was saved. And here, Frank, it's that simple.
It's that simple because the Lord Jesus did the whole work on Calvary and for you tonight in the greatest simplicity, just come and believe. Not of yourself, not in your feelings. Your feelings don't mean a thing.
Sometimes there somebody came and questioned whether I owned my house or not.
Thankfully, I do own my house and so if somebody came and questioned that, I certainly wouldn't start talking about my feelings.
If they questioned it, I'd probably say, well, I have the papers and if you wish to check it, you can go down to the registry office and it's all recorded there. I wouldn't even mention my feelings. I wouldn't think of saying that. If I feel pretty good about it, you know, I've been in this house quite a while. I feel quite sure. I feel so good about it. No, I wouldn't talk like that. I rested on something outside of myself. I've got some papers.
Instead of red seal on it too, a red seal tells tell me.
Now that my title at the Glory is By the Precious Blood of Christ, and my name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and yours will be too if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, something happened in that man's heart. Something happened in his home. He too like the like Lydia, he gets baptized and Paul didn't ask him said now you should wash our backs. They're awfully sore on the fruit of grace immediately began to show he was a preacher. He washed their backs.
He sent me before them. He also invited them into his house and his.
Said I want you to tell everybody in my family about this wonderful good news. This is the way God works, my friend. This is the way I wonder.
All and Silas were rejoicing inside the jail. Now there's rejoicing in the House of this jail keeper, and there'll be joy in heaven tonight. If you take Christ as your Savior, there'll be joy in your heart and will be joy in your home too. Oh, may the Lord grant that you will. How many Simplicity? As I say, we find different kinds of people, and I'm glad the Lord saves different kinds of people because we're just not all alike.
00:50:06
We all have different personalities brought up in different homes and in different ways, but the Lord says all kinds, but they're all sinners. They all need a Savior. And if you just are willing to acknowledge tonight that you're one of the sinners that Jesus came to save, while He's willing to save you and Christ has done it all. And so I just can't make it any more simple or anymore blessed than those precious words.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that thou shalt be saved and I just want to have that little expression that's in the verse and the thy house. Now I say that because I've heard people say boy, when you come to the meeting, it seems.
So many families or friends that's God. That's the way God works. He always works in families he'll find back on me. Art was a preparing Noah prepared an art for the saving his house. When God told him to prepare a lamb, he said a lamb for a house. When he saved the jail keeper, he said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house and I met so many Christians and they say perhaps.
But my brother was the first one that got saved.
But God truly works in our family and there's quite a few of them say now, or perhaps they say I was the first one, and now there's quite a few more old friends. God delights to work in this way. And I want to say to those who have families, this is a very wonderful thing. Come upon the Lord, look to him, present Christ to the children and the Lord, He likes to work in this way.
He delights to bless families and the Bible says.
Inhabitant Violet says I pull every family in heaven and earth is made. What a wonderful city here he is. When May God grant that blessing will come to your soul tonight. It may be the beginning, a blessing to others too. Don't put it off though. Tomorrow may be too late. Now is the unaccepted time. Behold, now is the.
May installation.