What Must I Do to Be Saved? Acts 16 Explained

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, let's just go right back to where we left off, because, well, like someone just said a moment ago, they thought these were 30-minute programs. Since when did we only do 15? Well, it's because it goes so fast, and it does for me, and I just, I know I'm not going to finish the book of Acts. We'll have to go on into our next taping. It's just not going to happen. So anyway, for those of you in television, again, this is just the informal Bible study, and we just trust that you're taking your Bibles and following the references, and I trust you all understand that by now I don't ever lift a verse out of the text and just comment on one verse. If I can't leave everything together, I'll leave it alone. There are some places where I don't have the answer, and I'm not going to twist it and try to figure out where it's at. I had a letter again the other day, and they asked me why there are so many contradictions. There are none. There are no contradictions. Now there's a change in operation. Naturally what God told Israel under Law is a contradiction of what He tells us under Grace, but it's not a contradiction. It's a change in the program. And the same way with any other contradictions in Scripture, if that's what they want to call it, they are not contradictions, they are just simply a change in operation. Now let's just go quickly into chapter 16, and where we were. They have now been called from Asia to Europe, and here is the proof of this vision that Paul had to not go back to Bithynia, but to go over to Macedonia, which of course like we said in our last program, they immediately did. So now here they are up here at Choaz, and they're going to go right across the Isthmus, and here's Macedonia coming down around here, and they'll stop at Philippi, and then over to Thessalonica, down to Berea, down to Athens, and over to Corinth. Now like we say, that's not a good map, but it's better than nothing. So now they come to verse 12, the continent of Europe in the land that we now call Greece. They went to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony, in other words it was a Roman colony. And we were in that city abiding certain days, and on the Sabbath, now here's another indication where Paul goes back to his Judaistic background. And so on the Sabbath, we went out of the city by a riverside, where prayer was wont to be made, and we sat down and spake unto the women who resorted thither. Now no doubt Philippi did not have a full blown synagogue, but the Roman authorities had probably given them permission to meet out here at a park along the river, and they could have their devotions and so forth. Now evidently there weren't any men, it was just a little group of women, and so Paul and Silas approached them, and a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, now Thyatira was down here in central Galatia again, so she wasn't that far from home, but she was a business lady. She was a seller of garments that had been dyed purple, which of course Thyatira was known for. It was known for its purple dyes. And so she worshipped God. Now you see this so often, people who worshipped God, who were devoted, they were sincere, but what? They were lost. Now Lydia is lost, she's a religious person, she's worshipping God, she's out there to make prayer, but yet she's lost. And so she worshipped God, and Luke gives the account, and so she heard us, whose heart the Lord opened her heart, and she attended to the things which were spoken of Paul. I remember a long time ago, within the last 2-3 months I guess, I made the point that God did not leave the Word in the hands of angels, but in the hands of people. And so He has almost always used one human instrument to lead another human to a knowledge of salvation. That's the way God works. And that's why I want you to learn, get skilled in the Scripture so that when you have an opportunity to share this with someone, you don't have to be a stumble -bum that you can just simply say, well now this is what it says, turn them in, just get a few verses and be able to show someone what the Word really says. That's what we are here for. And so now her heart was opened, and she attended to the things which Paul said, in verse 15. In other words she became a believer when she was baptized. Now of course we're in that transition period, and baptism in these early days of Paul are still part and parcel every time he has a convert. We're going to see it in the next few minutes with the Philippian jailer, but I maintain that as he goes on into his deeper and fuller revelations, then the importance of baptism sort of drops away as well. Now a lot of people won't agree with me, but that's their prerogative. But here he still practices the water baptism the moment she believed. And then she besought them saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained or begged us. Then again we have the opposition of a demonically inspired young girl, and Paul later here in these verses will demand the demon to come out of her. But let's be careful, I've told my classes, and I think I've even mentioned here on the program, this is still back in the book of Acts, and none of Paul's letters have been written yet. Not a one. This is only about in the early 50's, and I think Paul's earliest letter, which was probably the Thessalonian letters or maybe Corinthians, and they weren't written until about 58, Romans won't be written until 60, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians won't be written until 64, and then the Timothys and Titus won't be written until about 66. So see all these things are still taking place before he writes his epistles. Now keep that in mind. But as he has the revelation now, and is inspired to write his epistles which become the Word of God, then you no longer see so much of this as you do here in his early ministry. Just check it out. So now they're in Philippi, and after they'd cast the demon out of this young lady, in Paul's epistles he never gives us one ounce of instruction for exorcism. Remember that? Never once do I find Paul teaching you and I how to cast out demons. He's silent. And so aside from leading someone to salvation, I personally think we're to leave it alone. I've seen two or three people that got too involved with demonism, and it just totally destroyed their ministry. Took them out of the ministry, because they got so involved with exorcism and what have you. So take that for what it's worth. I don't set that in concrete, but I can find nothing in Paul's letters that give me instructions on taking someone and casting demons out, except to lead them into the plan of salvation. But anyway, Paul casts this demon out, and of course in verse 19 then, when her master saw that the hope of their gain was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace to the rulers. Now remember this is a Gentile city under Roman authority. Verse 20. "...and they brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. And so the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore off their clothes, and commanded to beat them, that is Paul and Silas. And when they had laid many stripes upon them," this is just one of the several that Paul suffered throughout his ministry, now remember when they laid stripes upon them, how many was that? Thirty-nine. Thirty-nine, and of course each one probably had as many as eight or nine leather thongs and with bits of metal on the ends. So when they got through with these people, they were like hamburger. Verse 23. "...they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely." Now the jailer being what he is, if he's going to keep them safely, he doesn't leave them up on ground floor, where does he put them? Down in the dungeon. And so, "...who having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison," that is the dungeon, down below ground level, "...and made their feet fast in the stocks." Not a very pretty place to be, is it? I imagine the rats were running everywhere, it was wet and dank and cold, their backs like hamburger, no antibiotics, no soothing salve, and yet now as you come into the next verse, Paul and Silas, in spite of their circumstances, are able to what? Sing! Sing! Now that's hard to comprehend, but you know that's the grace of God evidently. I remember years ago I asked a pastor, I said, what if real persecution should come? Can I take it? And he said, don't worry about it. He says, today you can't. But he says, when the time comes, the grace of God will be sufficient. And I've never forgotten that. That must be the case, because how else did millions of Christians suffer the rack burning at the stake? And they didn't scream and carry on. Many of those men as the fire was lifting up around them, what would they do? They would pray, and you remember one of them, I've used it on the program before, God opened the eyes of the King of England. Other one, oh if only every plow boy in England could have a copy of the Word. So it has to be the grace of God that just overwhelmed them. Now the same way here, I think God's grace so flooded these two men, that they didn't feel their wounds, they didn't feel their pain, and they were able to sing praises to God. Now, no wonder those prisoners not only heard them, but they were impressed by it. I'm sure they were. The Scripture says they heard them, but they had to have been impressed. How can these men under those circumstances sing? But they did. Verse 26, I think God heard it too. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened. Now you see God can even control the force of an earthquake, to do nothing more than open the doors of a prison. Now that's the God that we serve, and He hasn't changed. Now He isn't doing this kind of miraculous power today, I'll grant you, but He could if He wanted to. And so this earthquake opens the prison doors, and yet it leaves everything so intact, that the prisoners didn't lose their life, they could have fled, but they didn't. Amazing isn't it? They all stayed right there in prison with the doors open. Verse 27, "...the keeper of the prison, awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, drew out his sword, and would have killed himself." Because under Roman law, if you lose a prisoner, then what? You're a dead duck anyway, so you might as well hasten the operation. But Paul and Silas say, Hey don't do that, don't kill yourself, we're all here, nobody has escaped. Verse 29, "...so the jailer called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas." Now reflect a moment. This jailer was a citizen of Philippi. Where do you suppose he was that afternoon before he came on duty as the jailer? I think he witnessed the scourging of Paul and Silas. I think he heard them preach up there in the street. And so it wasn't totally new to the jailer when Paul and Silas approach him with what's going on. So Paul and Silas brought them out and said, "...sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Some of you haven't been with us, and a lot of our television people haven't been, so come back with me to Acts chapter 2, verse 38. This is what I call comparing Scripture with Scripture. Now I know a lot of the theologians like to take the Greek and twist it all out of shape to make it mean what they want it to mean. Well they can do it, but I'm not going to. I'm just going to stay by what the translators back here did, because I feel that the King James translators were about 200 and some years closer to the Greek than our scholars today are. Granted they didn't have computers, but nevertheless I still trust the old King James translators, and I'm going to stay with it. And here in Acts 2, verse 37, when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and they said to Peter and to the rest, and I remember these are Jews asking the question. Peter has been addressing Jews throughout the whole chapter, and they said, "...men and brethren, what shall we do?" That's the nation of Israel on trial, and so the nation is asking, what must we do? Now over here in chapter 16, it's Gentile ground, and we're dealing with an individual, and he says, "...what must I do?" See the difference? All the difference in the world. Now we're dealing with individual Gentiles. God does not save people in lumps. He saves us one at a time, individually, and that's why we stress the personal aspect of salvation. I made a statement the other night that I think some people had a hard time swallowing. When we get into eternity, we believers, I think we're going to have our personal times with the Lord. I don't know how, but I think every believer is going to be an individual in God's sight when we get out into eternity, and we're going to have that opportunity to be with Him personally. I'm sure of it, because you see, eternity is a set of circumstances beyond our comprehension. We're victims of time, but you see, eternity, there is no such thing as time. There's no five minutes from now, and there's no five minutes back. Everything is the eternal now. So things are possible in eternity that we can't even begin to comprehend. So I honestly think that just as sure as we were saved individually and personally, we're going to be able to converse with Him personally and individually. So he says, what must I do to be saved? Now in verse 31, Paul says, "...believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Now I said it in the last program, what was at the heart of Paul's message? The Gospel. Christ died for your sins, and he rose from the dead. So when Paul now merely says, "...believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," what's he really implying? That He died for you, and rose again. That's his message. Now you come back to Acts chapter 2 and another comparison. The question is different. The question is, what must we do? The answer is, repent and be baptized, every one of you. See that? But Paul doesn't say a word about repentance and baptism. He says, believe. Now that's not a contradiction, it's a change of program. Now we're on Gentile ground. We're under grace. Back here we're on the Kingdom program, still under the Law. Nobody has said a word about stopping temple worship. Nobody has said a word that you're no longer under the Law. But now, this is all Paul knows, you're not under the Law, you're under grace. And so to the Philippian jailer, who is a Gentile, Paul can say, "...believe." See that? "...believe that everything has been accomplished that you need to be done." And so, same way here, verse 33, "...he took them the same hour of the night, washed their stripes, and was baptized, he and all his," that is his household, "...straightway. And when they had brought them into his house, he set food before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house." Now here's where we have to be careful. He wasn't just believing that God existed. He was now believing everything that Paul had put forward concerning God dealing with mankind, and that was that, yes, the Eternal Creator God, we have to believe that He is, we have to believe He's the One that we have to deal with. But there's only one way of approach, and that's through the work of the cross. And so this Philippian jailer had a full comprehension of that, because that's why I'm convinced that he must have heard Paul and Silas the afternoon before they were thrown into prison. Well now they want to get rid of Paul and send him out of town, and what does he say? No way. No, no. You can't do that. If you beat me and openly a Roman, then you've got to deal with me as a Roman. And that shook him up. They didn't know that he was a Roman citizen. And verse 38, they told the magistrates that he was a Roman citizen, and they feared because they had gone contrary to Roman law. They had punished these men without due process. And you see that was anathema to the Romans just as much as we think it is to us. And so they desired them to depart out of the city, and they went out of the prison and entered into the house of Lydia, and when they had seen the brethren they comforted them and then departed. Now in chapter 17, he goes on down the coastline of what is present day Greece, and they go through Thessalonica, and from Thessalonica they go down to Berea. Now I mentioned this a couple of programs ago, so I'll have to show it to you. After being driven out of Thessalonica by the Jews who wouldn't permit them to preach in the synagogue or anywhere else, they come down to Berea, just a few miles down the coast, verse 10. And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night to Berea, who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews, as they always did in these early days. These, that is in Berea, were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, and here's the best part, and this is why I tell people today the same thing. Don't just swallow what I'm teaching. You go home and you search the Scriptures, and check me out. I beg it. I don't want someone to say, well that's what Les said. I want them to search the Scriptures, because that's what they did here. They went home and they searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things that Paul and Silas were teaching, whether they were true. And they only had the Old Testament, now these were Jews remember, and so they went home and they checked the Old Testament account to see if these things were so, and then verse 12. many of them believed. Why? They searched the Scriptures. That's always the secret, to search the Scriptures. And then honorable women who were Greeks, see, Gentiles as well as Jews, men not a few. Then verse 13. But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the Word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people, and then immediately the brethren sent Paul away, as it were, to the sea, and so on and so forth. Well, I'm not going to finish that, so I'm not going to try. Now I've got to stop at Athens. I just don't dare skip over Paul at Athens. And so now that begins at verse 15. So after he left Berea, he comes on down the coast all the way now to southern Greece. He comes down to Athens, and of course that was the very seat of culture in those days. The Parthenon stood up there on the Acropolis, and half way up the Acropolis is Mars Hill. I know Iris and I were there one evening, and I could just see the little old apostle Paul as he stood there, and looked out over that pagan city. But on that path up to the Acropolis were all of these idols of all their various gods and goddesses. And I can just about imagine that Paul's heart just sank, that the whole city was steeped in idolatry, even though he'd seen it every place he'd been. But to have this seat of learning, of intellectual people following such false religion, I think many of us have to wonder the same thing a lot of times. How can people who are intelligent, who can read, how can they follow some of this stuff that they follow? How can they believe such drivel? But they were doing it here as well. And so now read on. He comes down, and oh let's just drop down to verse 17. "...and therefore he disputed in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout, and in the market daily with them that met with him. And then certain of the philosophers encountered him, and said, What will this babbler say? Still others said, He seems to be a setter forth of strange gods." No, Paul never set forth gods, he set forth the One God. See the difference? Because he preaches unto them Jesus and the what? See? That was part and parcel of his message. He never separated it. Verse 19, "...they took him, and they brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is? For thou bringest strange things to our ears. We would know therefore what these things mean." And now look at verse 21, "...for all the Athenians, the citizens of Athens, and strangers who were there, spent their time in nothing else but either to tell, or to hear some new thing." They were gullible. And you know the world's back at that place again tonight. Oh the world is so gullible. As I said a couple programs back, they're ready for anything that tickles their ears, anything that sounds good, they tie into it, but this is the same way here. They had philosophy, they had intellectualism, but they were pagan. Then Paul stood in the middle of Mars Hill and said, "...you men of Athens, I perceive in all things you are too superstitious, you are too tied up in your religion. For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, or your system of worship, I found an altar with his inscription, To the Unknown God." So they had an inkling that there was somebody out there that they didn't know about, and so they left a blank space for that Unknown God. And so Paul says, "...he's the one that I'm bringing you to, he's the one that I'm revealing." And so he preached his Gospel and told them, like in verse 24, that he is the Lord of heaven and earth. He is the one who has created everything. Then verse 27, here we have to stop, "...that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, because he's not far from every one of us." Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time, for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.