The Simplicity of Salvation

Known for his unique ability to simplify profound truth so that it can be applied to everyday life, Adrian Rogers was one of the most effective preachers, respected Bible teachers, and Christian leaders of our time. Thanks for joining us for this message.

Here's Adrian Rogers. Turn to Acts chapter 16, and in just a moment we're going to be in reading in verse 23 of Acts chapter 16. Now I remind you, dear friend, that the old-time religion is also the new-time religion. Because, dear friend, it's for every age. And not only is it the old-time and the new-time, it's the any-time religion.

Folks, it'll work for all people. And therefore it ought to be the all-time religion. And we're talking today about the simplicity of salvation, how to be saved and to know that you're saved. And it's really not all that difficult to understand. I want to ask you a question. If you had a boy or a girl, a little child, and that child were lost, and you had an opportunity to send that child a letter and to tell the child how to get home, wouldn't you make it as simple as you could?

Wouldn't you make it plain? Now sometimes you hear preachers supposedly preach the gospel and you don't understand what they're saying. Folks, there's something wrong. The Bible says of the gospel, in Isaiah chapter 35 and verse 8, talking about the king's highway, it says, And a wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein. Do you know what that means in plain English? A stranger without good sense can find his way on the gospel road. It's very plain. Oh, it's wonderful. It's simply glorious, but it's gloriously simple. And sometimes the intellectual giants will stumble over it when the little children will find it. For the Bible says, God hath hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, and hath revealed them unto babes. Now I'm not putting a premium on ignorance or a penalty on intellectualism when I tell you, dear friend, that the gospel is simple. God wants it to be simple because God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And I believe that sometimes so many of the books on theology are written from one theologian to another theologian, and down here beneath are the people. And it's just all going over their head.

It's like they're trying to play keep away with big double-jointed obtuse words. And God just kind of spells it out plain because He wants people to be saved. He wants people to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. So today I want to give you a story in the Bible that makes it so plain and so clear how a person can know beyond the shadow of any doubt that he or she has been saved. Now let's begin to read this story, and it talks about Paul and Silas who have been put into prison for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And right away we're going to break in in the middle of the story because it's a long chapter, but what they had done is this, that they had delivered a demon-possessed girl who was a fortune teller, and there were some people who were prostituting this girl's ability to tell fortunes were using her to make money.

When Paul and Silas saved her, she got out of the fortune telling business, and because of that they trumped up false charges against Paul and Silas, and Paul and Silas are thrown into prison. By the way, did you think if you served God you wouldn't have any trouble anymore? Jesus didn't come to get us out of trouble. He came to get into trouble with us, amen? And so here they are, they're in trouble because they're in the will of God. Now notice verse 23, And when they had delayed many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. That is, they commanded him, don't you let these guys get away. Who, that is the jailer, having received such a charge, thrust them in the inner prison, not on the outside, he puts them down in the deepest part of the dungeon, and then as a double security he made their feet fast in the stocks.

That is, he locks them right in the stocks, their feet are fast in the stocks. And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were loosed.

And the keeper of the prison, awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, we're all here. And he called for a light and sprang in and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out and said, and old friend listen to what he said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? The seven greatest words any preacher can hear anybody say or ask. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house.

Now I want us to talk about that. Here are Paul and Silas in prison. Now notice they've been beaten. Their backs are lacerated. They have raw and bloody wounds on their backs. They have been stuffed into a dungeon.

Now if you think that jails are bad in this day, in that day, folks, they were intolerable. No running water. No such thing as a toilet. Excrement on the floor. Rats, lice, vermin. The stench is unbearable.

No outside light. They're surrounded by the groans of the dying, the moans of the living, cursing and swearing. These men, weak, having been beaten, with their legs cramped, sitting in one position not able to move, their backs bleeding, their wounds unwashed at midnight, they're in the prison. Now what would the ordinary Christian be doing? God, can't you take care of your servants any better than this? I wonder if there is a God.

If there is a God, why are we here in prison? Paul and Silas perhaps arguing with one another. Silas saying, Paul, whose idea was this? Paul saying, would you shut up? I've got enough trouble. Well, Paul, I think you're a failure.

What do you mean a failure? I could have been president of the Jerusalem Tin and Owing Company. None of that. They are praising God. They're singing, praising God. I don't know everything that happened before this jailer said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? But I want to mention three things that happened. One was proclamation, one was prayer and one was praise. Now the proclamation you don't really see there.

You kind of have to read between the lines a little bit to see that. But when this man came in and said to them, sirs, what must I do to be saved? That means he had been preconditioned to be saved. That means he knew there was something called salvation. And he knew that these men knew how to be saved. So that tells me already they had witness to him. They had proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ to him.

I just believe it was something like this. When they were beating Paul and Silas, Paul and Silas said, you see these wounds? That reminds us of Jesus. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.

You see these stripes? With his stripes, we're healed. When they shoved Paul and Silas into that dungeon, they may have said to the jailer, look, you're putting us into a dungeon, but we'll only be here a little while. There's another place called Hell. It's prepared for the devil and his angels. And those who don't know our Lord will suffer for eternity in a place called Hell. When they put those bonds on Paul and Silas and put them in the stocks, they said, ah, we'll only be here for a while, but I want to tell you the devil incarcerates men and chains them in the chains of sin and only Jesus can set people free. When he put them in there and turned the key, they may have said to him, sir, we want you to know that you're locking us in, but you can't lock Jesus out.

He's going to be in here with us. And, sir, we want to tell you something else. We know you probably are obeying orders. We know that you don't understand what you're doing. But we want you to know, sir, two things.

God loves you and we love you too. We want you to know something else, that all night long we're going to be praying for you, mister, that you'll come to know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. These were the kind of men who shared with this man.

I know they shared with him because he finally came in and said, all right, tell me about it. What must I do to be saved? But not only was it proclamation, there was also prayer because the Bible says at midnight they prayed. And what were they praying? If I know anything about Paul and Silas, they weren't praying, Lord, get us out of jail. They were saying, Lord, get the jailer out of jail. He's in a worse fix than we are.

He needs you. He needs to be saved. They weren't saying, Lord, get these bonds off of us. They were saying, Lord, get those shackles of sin off of him. And then they were praying and they were interceding for him and these others.

And not only were they proclaiming the gospel and praying, but also, dear friend, they were praising. The Bible says at midnight they sang songs at midnight. You know, only Jesus can give you that kind of a song. The devil can give you songs when everything is going just fine. But I want to tell you, Jesus can give you songs in the darkest night.

Jesus gives joy that the world can't give and the world can't take away, and so they're just praising the Lord. And the Bible says, and the prisoners heard them. Now, the Greek word for heard is a special word.

At least it is a word that indicates they were listening with attention, that they were giving their attention to this because, you see, it was a very strange situation. I mean, in prison you might hear men curse but not pray. You might hear men whimper and complain and groan but not praise. These men were different. The prisoners were saying, what is this? They're hearing this, this praise, and God heard it too. And when God heard them pray, God said, amen, with an earthquake, and it shook the prison.

It was a special earthquake. The walls didn't fall, just the doors opened. And the chains and the stocks fell off their arms and their feet, and they're free. At this moment, when the jailer realized what has happened, he takes out his sword, he's about to fall on it and commit suicide.

Why? Because in that day when a jailer is given a charge to keep a prisoner and he was given a double charge, a special charge, don't you let these two fellows out. If a prisoner escaped, they took the jailer's life. What would they do if more than a prisoner escaped? They tortured him and then took his life. So he said, I better do it myself.

He drew out his sword and would have killed himself because he just supposed they'd all been gone. At that moment, Paul cries out and says, hey, don't do that. We're all here. Don't hurt yourself. We are all here.

Now get that. Not just Paul and Silas, but they're all here. Why didn't the other prisoners leave? I believe that God had touched their hearts. They knew that something supernatural was happening in that prison and they wanted to stay to see what it was.

That's an interesting thing to me. Because, dear friend, when they put Paul and Silas in that prison, they put them in prison for preaching the gospel and they said, we don't want any more of this. We don't like this revival. We're going to stop it. Folks, they didn't stop it because I believe the jailer got saved.

I know he did. And the jailer's family got saved. The Bible tells us they did as we're going to see in a moment. And it could be these prisoners got saved also. At least I know we got their attention. You see, they didn't stop the revival.

All they did was just change the location. Amen? You can't stop God. You can't stop what God is doing if we obey God. And this was all a part of God's plan to get the gospel to this Philippian jailer. And he was saved there that night because he asked this great, great question. Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

Now I want us to think about that. And first of all, I want us to think about the meaning of salvation. The meaning of salvation. What did he mean when he said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? That word saved is the Greek word sozo. And it means deliverance. Deliverance from trouble. To be saved means to be delivered from trouble. To be saved out of difficulty. Well, what kind of trouble was he in? When he said, sirs, what must I do to be saved, he wasn't talking about being saved from the earthquake. That was already over. He wasn't talking about being saved from the government that was going to punish him for letting the prisoners go because none of the prisoners had fled.

What was he talking about? What does it mean to be saved according to Bible terminology? Well, let an angel answer this. An angel said of the Lord Jesus, Thou shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. To be saved means to be saved from sin.

That's what it means. When you're saved, you're saved from sin. Now, sin is a word we don't use much anymore in modern terminology. People don't believe that the problem is sin, therefore they don't see the need to be saved from sin. They want to be saved from their difficulties. They want to be saved from their problems. But the Bible doesn't say you're saved from your difficulties and your problems. You are saved from sin.

The word sin is out of date. We'll call it psychological maladjustment. We'll call it a mistake. We'll call it a misjudgment. We'll call it a glandular malfunction. We'll call it an economic accident.

We will call it a stumble. But we don't like the word sin. Can you imagine going up to the U.N. and saying, Gentlemen, the problem in the world is sin? Can you imagine going to one of the great universities and saying the problem in the world is sin? They'd laugh at you. They don't like the idea of sin.

Because today we have become a generation of secularists and humanists. And you know what they believe? That the problem with man is this, that man is the sum total of his environment and his bodily chemistry. That's all. Just the situation he lives in and just the chemistry of his mind. And so he is to be pitied, but not to be blamed. He may be ill, but he's not evil. He may be weak, but he's not wicked.

He's like a computer that's just been programmed wrong. But the Bible says that the problem is sin. Is sin. Now what is sin? Let me tell you what sin is. The first definition of sin I think most of us will agree with. The Apostle John tells us that sin is the transgression of the law. Sin is the transgression of the law. God has given His ten commandments. And when we break those commandments, we sin.

Well, I think all of us can understand that. We just break God's commandments. And most people will say, yes, I agree, that's sin. I mean, if you're a Christian person or Judeo-Christian background, you say, yes, that is sin.

But most of us don't think we are such bad sinners there. But the Bible goes on to say, Whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point the same as guilty of all. You say, well, I don't think I've broken many of the commandments. If you've broken any of them, in God's sight you've broken all of them.

You say, I don't understand that. Well, let me ask you a question. If you were dangling over a fire suspended by a chain of ten links, how many links in that chain would have to break before you fall in the fire? Ten? Just one. How many of God's holy commandments do you have to break in order to become a sinner in the sight of a righteous and a holy God?

Just one. And so sin is the transgression of the law. But now let me move to a little more difficult definition of sin. Sin is not only what we do that is wrong, but sin is what we fail to do that is right. The Bible says in the book of James, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Sin is not only doing the things that you ought not to do, it's not doing the things that you ought to do.

But now wait a minute, I want to narrow the focus a little closer. Not only is sin transgression of the law, not only is sin the failure to do what we ought to do, but the Bible also teaches that human goodness without God is sin. Now that's the one most people are going to stumble over. In the book of Proverbs chapter 21 and verse 4, the Bible says a high look, a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked is sin. A high look, some folks, you know, they strut sitting down. A high look.

And a proud heart. Well we say I can understand that. But now notice the next thing, and the plowing of the wicked is sin. You say I don't think I understand that, the plowing of the wicked is sin.

Here's a farmer in the Delta, over here in Arkansas, somewhere here in Tennessee, and he's out there on his tractor plowing. God says that is sin if he doesn't know me. You say there's nothing wrong with plowing, that's right. Nothing wrong with growing produce, soy or corn or cotton, you're right. And yet God calls it sin.

You say why? Well let me give you another verse of scripture here in Isaiah chapter 64 and verse 6, but we are all as an unclean thing and our righteousness is as filthy rags in his sight. Now notice he didn't say our sin is as filthy rags in his sight. Our righteousness is as filthy rags in his sight. Now if this is confusing to you, just stay with me for a little while because this is what most folks need to learn in order that they might come to Jesus and be saved.

You're not going to hell just for the bad things you do, you're going to hell for the good things you do without God. The plowing of the wicked is sin. Our righteousness is as filthy rags. And do you know what that word filthy rags literally means? It describes the bandage that wrapped the oozing, running, putrefying sores of the leper, that loathsome thing that you would burn. God says in my sight, that's not what I think about your so-called badness, that's what I think about your so-called goodness. We say I don't understand that. How could it be a sin for a man to plow a field?

Because an unsaved man is in himself wicked and therefore everything he touches he contaminates. Do you like a fruit salad? Fresh fruit, oranges, bananas, grapes, apples? Who of us doesn't like a fruit salad? I want you to imagine a beautiful fruit salad with me today. But I want you to imagine the person who's mixing that salad for your dinner with vile running open sores on his hands, mixing you a salad.

Do you want it? You lost your appetite? Nothing wrong with the grapes? Nothing wrong with the bananas? Nothing wrong with the apples?

There's something wrong with the cook? Nothing wrong with plowing, but the man who plows contaminates everything he touches. His righteousness is as filthy rags. I've said it before, I'll say it again, the worst form of badness is human goodness when that human goodness becomes a substitute for the new birth. What is sin? Sin is the transgression of the law. What is sin? Sin is failure to do good. What is sin? Sin is human goodness that keeps us from God's righteousness.

Even our righteousness is as filthy rags in His sight. Now, what does it mean to be saved? It means to be saved from sin, from the penalty of sin. You see the Bible says the wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth it shall surely die.

God has laid down His law and law without penalty is only advice and God is not giving advice. The soul that sinneth it shall surely die. But when you're saved, thank God, the penalty of sin is gone and no longer do we die and go to hell. We are saved from the penalty of sin. But more than that, we're saved from the pollution of sin. Remember again we said that a person who is unsaved pollutes what he does because he himself is polluted? But when you're saved, not only does God say I'll no longer send you to hell, God actually takes that sin out and He puts His righteousness in. We are made the righteousness of God in Christ.

He gives us a new nature and that pollution of sin is gone. I heard of a man one time who was pardoned by the Queen of England from prison. A friend had the privilege of delivering the pardon.

He went into this man who had languished in the jail cell for so long and said, Listen, I've got wonderful news. The Queen has pardoned you. You're a free man. The prisoner showed no emotion.

He showed no elation. He said, Don't you understand? You're a free man. The Queen has set you free. At that moment, the prisoner unbuttoned his shirt and drew it back and said, Look at that. And in his bosom, in his chest, was a cancerous growth that was eating away his life and would soon cause his death.

He said, Ask the Queen what she can do about this. Folks, it's not enough that you be kept out of hell. You need to be saved not only from the penalty of sin but from the pollution of sin. I want to tell you that's what Augustus Toplady meant in that song Rock of Ages when he said, Be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure. Amen.

Make me pure. You see, we're saved from the penalty of sin. We're saved from the pollution of sin. And we're saved from the power of sin. Sin shall no longer have dominion over you. That's what the Apostle Paul says. And the devil has no authority.

The world has no allurement. Sin has no attraction that the child of God cannot now overcome through Jesus Christ who gives us the victory day by day. And we don't have to obey the demands of sin anymore because now the Savior lives within us. That's what it means to be saved.

And friend, one of these days we're going to be saved from the very presence of sin. We're going to be taken out of this world in a place called heaven. And I believe in heaven. Some people believe that heaven is just some mottling form of sentimentality. But Jesus said, In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I'd go and prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also.

And where is he? In a place called heaven. And the Bible says, There shall in no wise enter into it, into heaven, anything that worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they that are written in the Lamb's book of life. And we're going to be saved from the very presence of sin to a place called heaven. And I don't mind telling you I'm glad I'm saved. I'm glad I'm saved. Now listen, what does it mean to be saved? It means to be saved from sin, from sin. Second, not only the meaning of salvation, but I want you to think about the man of salvation.

What did they say? Listen, they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. When they said Lord, they meant he's master. When they said Jesus, they meant he's mediator. When they said Christ, they meant he's Messiah.

That's who he is. Master, mediator, Messiah. Lord Jesus Christ. Lord means boss. You cannot be saved unless you're willing to make him Lord of your life, unless you're willing to step off the throne and enthrone the Lord Jesus Christ. He becomes your master, your boss. You must confess Christ as Lord.

That doesn't mean that you have the strength. It means that he has the strength, but you must be willing to say Jesus, you're Lord. I crown you Lord of all.

Lord, he's master. Jesus, he is mediator. The name Jesus is his earthly name. It means Jehovah saves. It speaks of one who died on the cross with his blood. You see, God can't just overlook your sin.

In order for God to part in your sin, that sin must be paid for. There was a man named Jesus. God became flesh.

He took upon him flesh. In his flesh he died on the cross for our sins. They told this jailer no doubt about it that Christ paid the sin debt, and therefore he is Jesus, the mediator. There's one God and one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. Not only is he master, not only is he mediator, but he is Messiah.

The word Christ is the Greek word for the Hebrew Messiah, which means God's anointed one, God's chosen one, God sent one. There's no other way to be saved. God only has one Messiah.

He only has one Christ. Oh, listen friend, neither is there salvation in any other. For there's none of their name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved. The Baptist church can't save you, and the Methodist church can't save you, and the Catholic church can't save you, and the Presbyterian church can't save you, but Jesus can save you. Jesus can save you. Or you say, well, I believe in the plan of salvation. I'm saved.

No, you're not. You're not saved by the plan of salvation. You're saved by the man of salvation.

His name is Jesus. You say, well, I've got a proper creed. Our creed can't save you. Christ will save you. Dear friend, salvation is not a creed, not a code, not a cause, not a church, but Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

I'm telling you, dear friend, He is the universal Savior. And when this poor pagan said, what must I do to be saved? They didn't hold up good deeds.

They didn't hold up good works. They held up Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, Master, Mediator, Messiah. Believe on Him. Now let's go to the last thing. I've talked about the meaning of salvation. I've talked about the man of salvation. Now let me talk to you very plainly and very simply about the method of salvation. How do you get saved? Again, it is so plain, it is so simple. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

Can you make it plainer than that? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Now what does it mean to believe? Not mere intellectual belief. The devils believe and tremble. They're certainly not saved. The Bible word believe means commit yourself. Not believe about Jesus, believe on the Lord Jesus.

You say, what's the difference? Well, down in Florida, where I used to pastor, I had a deacon friend who was a very wealthy man, but he wouldn't fly on an airplane. I mean, he knew airplanes could fly because he's got eyes. He can see them fly, but he never would get on one. Now this man had enough money he could buy a ticket anywhere in the world and go and never miss the money.

And he loved to travel, but everywhere he went he drove his automobile. I said to him, Brother Doyle, you ought to fly. He said, not me.

I said, well, why not? He said, I've just got a problem. He said, you see that thing, talking about those airplanes? He said, now look. He says, intellectually, I know it can fly, but emotionally, I just can't get on.

I just can't do it. And he would drive everywhere he went. But finally, one day, he said, I'm a grown man. Everybody else is flying. Statistically, it's probably safer to fly than to drive. He said, I am going to fly. And he bought a ticket, and he got on that airplane and buckled himself in. Now, I'm sure it was white knuckles all the way, but he made it, and now he flies everywhere.

Now, what was the difference? Before, he believed about an airplane. When he got on, he believed on the airplane, okay?

That's it. What does the word believe on the Lord Jesus Christ mean? It means commit yourself to Jesus Christ. Just commit yourself to Him by faith, like a person gets on an airplane, and you'll be saved, and He'll do the saving. You supply the sinner. He supplies the Savior. And God, my friend, will save you, I promise you, on the authority of the Word of God.

What did they tell this man when he asked this question? Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Hallelujah for that Gospel. That's a wonderful Gospel. I'm telling you today, with all of the unction, function, and emotion of my soul, if you will trust, if you will commit yourself to this Jesus today, He will save you from your sin. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with Him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org, or call 1-800-274-5683. Thank you.