Funston, Bryan: Conviction Is Not Conversion Acts 18 ~ Langley

Put again, please, in the book of the Acts, this time chapter eighteen. The eighteenth chapter of the book of Acts. Now, someone has suggested that the book of the Acts is the only unfinished book of the Bible. In other words, the book of the Acts is the book that goes on and on and on. And in essence, we are still living in the days of the work of the gospel. That's what we're looking at even as we're here tonight. What we're doing here tonight is what was done in apostolic times. Men preached the gospel, preached about Christ, and the end result of that kind of preaching was that people were saved. And that essentially is the purpose or the point behind gospel preaching. I know sometimes it's people right between the eyes, and sometimes there's things that they never heard said before, uh, in public to them regarding hell and heaven and sin and redemption and forgiveness and the blood and Christ. But you see, a person has to be fairly, uh, informed in order to make then in turn a decision as to where they're going to be forever. And that's why gospel meetings are really, in a sense, information type meetings, because we're dispensing a lot of information regarding the doctrines of the gospel. Now, Acts is the bridge between the gospels, the go- the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, in which Christ is presented as living, doing his miracles and his mighty works, and ultimately concluding, every gospel writer concludes with the death of Christ, the physical account of the, of Christ's death by crucifixion. The physical accounts of the, of Christ's death by crucifixion. And then the, the epistles that we work like Romans right through, in turn is the, is the outcome of the, of that death, and that's what Acts is all about, is how men that saw Christ post-resurrection were never again the same. Never again the same. Men who were timid and forsook the Lord in the hour of his greatest need, were eventually described as men that turned the world upside down. They were, they were fearless. They faced death and never flinched. And so you see, the Acts is an ongoing book that describes what Christ intended to be done in the world following his death, burial, and resurrection. Christ said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That's what the Lord said. After his appearance, after having been seen, he commissioned his, his followers, and he's never unsaid it. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned, and that's the words of Christ in red in your Bible, if indeed the words of the Lord are in red. In other words, the person who believes, that's God words, and then follows the belief by believer's baptism. We are saved from hell by faith in Christ, but those that are saved are expected to identify in the waters of baptism with the Lord Jesus Christ, symbolic of, in turn, his burial and resurrection, and the public display of the inward work in the heart. Oftentimes it's used by God to indeed show to others that a person is the Lord's and has an impact upon others who want to know if the person is genuine or not. But listen, it merely states, he or she that believes not shall be damned. And friend, that is why in the confines of this room tonight, our purpose is to interest people in the all important issue of the gospel, of peace with God, of salvation of one's precious soul. And if you want a little bit of advice, I'm not getting up, I'm not a grandfather, don't get me wrong, I'm not going to be going around like an old man, but I'm just going to say that when it comes to the counsel of people who are saved, I want to assure you this and suggest it strongly to you. There's too much at stake when it comes to the truths of the gospel to let matters stand as they are. And so it could be that in the, in the one hour of, of, uh, of a gospel meeting, a person who's, who is thoughtful and, uh, has done some thinking can realize there is something in my life that I need. So I want to read tonight in this, what we might term the unfinished book of the Bible, about three individuals in the times of the, of the gospel activity that are here right now. Hasn't changed. Just look at this in chapter eighteen and verse number twelve. It says, when Galley was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews in insurrection was won a court against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat, saying, this fellow persuaded men to worship God contrary to the law. And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, if it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, o ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you. But if it be a question of words and names and of your law, look ye to it, for I'll be no judge of such matters. And he drave them from the judgment seat. Then all the Greeks took Socrates, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. And Gallio cared for none of those things. Now, chapter twenty four. And, uh, we have here the account of Paul's conversion as he gives it, and so on in this chapter here. Let's notice it, it comes to an end in verse twenty one. Let's read together from verse number twenty two. Acts twenty four twenty two. When Felix heard these things, that's Paul's message and so on, having more perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred them. And said, when Lysias, the chief captain, shall come down, I will know the uttermost of your matter. And he commanded a centurion to keep Paul and to let him have liberty, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him. And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Priscilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled and answered, go thy way, for this time, when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul that he might loose him. Wherefore he sent for him the oftener and communed with him. Now, the first reading in Acts eighteen was really in connection with a man called Gallio. And the little, uh, part of that account that I want to emphasize is just this expression. It says, and Gallio cared for none of those things. I mean, I could use some fairly, uh, current terminology to, uh, to, you know, kind of express what Galil was saying here. He's saying, boy, look, fly a kite. Anybody here like that tonight? Now, the second, uh, reading tonight in twenty four is a different set of circumstances. It's a husband and wife. Now, I said to a young man the other night here, I said, now listen, come back. I just said, I said, you know, the family that prays together stays together. We appreciate whenever husbands and wives come together to hear the gospel, hear the Bible, saved or otherwise. I think it's a good thing for families, for parents to bring their children under the influence of the gospel. The meetings aren't all that late, and it's a good thing, but it's still on the children. That your mother and father really believe the gospel is very, very, very important. You see, you don't know what you're communicating. Your values are being established in the kids' minds in lots of ways, not always what you say, what you do, where you go. And so here's a couple. The wife is more intelligent about religious matters than is her husband. The first man, Gallio Caras, the second couple here, and especially the husband, as he heard a preaching by the man in chains, it says he trembled. Here's a man convicted as he hears the gospel. I want to read just one other reading, that's over in chapter sixteen. And verse number twenty five, Acts sixteen and verse number twenty five, it says, at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praise 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 bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awakening out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, suppose that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, sing to thyself no harm, for we are all here. Then he called for a light and sprang in and came trembling. Now here's a man, a near suicide, a man not far from death as he put that sword perhaps to his chest. And in his darkness he calls for a light, and in his urgency he springs in, and in his awareness he trembles, and in his humility he falls down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, Sirs, what must we do to be saved? And they said, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house. And they speak unto him the word of the Lord unto all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized in all his straight way. When he brought them into his house, he said, meet before them and rejoice, believing in God with all his house. All were old enough to believe, and so they responded in faith and were baptized as believers old enough to understand. Now listen, the meeting's divided here, whether I know anybody here or not, by these individuals we looked at here in the book of the Acts. Because your people here that couldn't care less, hoping this thing will soon be over. But I want to say, friend, that your indifference, your casual approach to eternal issues is the way to hell, right? There's not one thing a person has to do to be lost. Well, I know there's the people here that they don't like that. Well, that makes them easy. The matter of sin is in the nature. We're born that way. Now, I don't care whatever color, class, culture, or creed. Mankind by nature is on the broad road going down to destruction. I was on it. And what we're saying in the gospel is that being saved is not just a religious cliche or something that's peculiar to this gathering here. Being saved is being saved off the wrong road, the broad path. Saved off the course that you are traveling by nature and by practice. To, in turn, be on the right road, the bro- the narrow road that leads to heaven. And it's by his mercy he saved us. So you see, it isn't too wise to be indifferent to the most critical issue you'll ever face in all of your life. I don't care where you go. The issue of your eternal whereabouts, friend, is the most important matter you'll ever confront. I sat today at lunch with two young men. They were at a convention, I was only there getting a free lunch. One man is a big shot at the Tulat Hospital, and my friend that paid for the lunch was a big shot at Burnaby Hospital. The man that paid for my lunch was a Christian. The other man stepped down or stepped into our little thing there and sat in, and we, you know, I was there from twelve thirty to about four. I was like gonna charge a rent for this seat for sitting in. But he said, you know, I, I understand what you fellas are getting at here. You're talking about something that isn't just a matter of, uh, a way of life now, but something that is going to affect me forever. I said, sir, you have got the picture right on. Well, he said, I started to think about food for thought. I said, well, you know, we're not simply interested in giving people food for thought. I said, sir, you could go outside this flashy hotel today and never reach your car. I could, I could be gone before you. So you see, friend, it's a matter that we present the gospel, we talk about the issues of your soul, we, we try to make people aware of the fact that there's a problem between them and God, and you can do all this. And be history tomorrow. So it isn't wise on your part just to be sort of, uh, informed and, uh, you know, exposed to, uh, Christian theology. Galio was telos. My friend, to be telos means to be doomed. Unless you make, unless you make one mighty effort to escape the wrath of an offended God and the just punishment that sin demands, you will be lost. You will indeed, unless you are born again. And whatever you're doing, that is a barrier to God's salvation is wrong. Right? There's thousands tonight. They ain't got room for business and room for pleasure, no room for God. Now some are out of it. Some are so s- uh, overcome with their habits. They don't know what time of the day it is. I had some young man the other day, he lay in a drunken stupor, he asked what time it was. He didn't know what time it was, and it was middle of the night or middle of the morning. That's one kind of student soul, hooked on habits. Other men don't get home till eight o'clock every night. They're so deluded by their work. But both will be lost, friend. My point tonight is this, unless you make one mighty effort, friend, you're gonna be lost, and gonna be lost for a long, long. Eternity is what's at stake. So we're not just playing religion here. I wouldn't come down here just to hear myself talk. I can yell at my kids to hear myself talk. See the point? We're not down here just going through the motions. This man comes from his home every night. I am here, and we're engaged in gospel effort, and I'm, I'm appalled at the indifference of people. So our friend in Acts twenty four got a little bit further, because whatever Paul was preaching about righteousness, the fact that a man is not right with God of his own efforts. And he preached against a lack of self-control. Let it all hang out. If it feels good, do it. And Paul preached against that, against that. And then he spoke of judgment had come. He wasn't afraid to bring to people's attention that as sure as there's heaven, there's hell. If there's up, there's down, there's left, there's right. There's right, there's wrong. There's heaven, there must be hell. But the point is this, that as Philip sat there with his wife, here is an intelligent man with his wife, and that's a good place where to be beside her husband. What's the result of solid, basic preaching from God to a man's conscience? It says he trembles. I wish people in our meetings would tremble. Not because of the style of preaching or the force of the preaching, but because of the content. But I want to say this quite simply. If anybody hears as it has got stirred in their spirit over these last nights of preaching, conviction is not conversion. That's my little point out of Acts twenty fourth sir. Being convicted in whatever form, whether it's mad, you know, or just plain old sad, mere conviction or mere remorse without turning does not save. You got that? You can hear it, it can strike you, you can feel that boy, those guys ram it right down your throat. Well, we are pretty blunt. I'm perhaps more blunt than my brother. I'm younger, more vitality, I guess. I don't know. But the point is this. Here we are, looking in the faces of people we may never meet again, this side of eternity. They may never arrange a series of meetings again. I don't know. We're in the very shadows of the coming of Christ. The day of God's grace, friend, is soon going to be gone. So the assembly here says, well, let's, let's, let's have some meetings. Let's talk about our, to our neighbors and our family and friends. Somebody asked me to come to a meeting. I mean, that's sometimes a bit of a hard thing. They talk to a person at work or at school or in their neighborhood. Most folk don't like talking to other folk about this, their soul or about God. They don't mind talking about Bay Day, you know, or, or holidays or Maui or something, but it's hard sometimes about a friend about salvation, but they do because they love you. And so people hear the gospel, sometimes there's those that say what that, what they are saying is right. My life is out of control, and my life is not right, I know that. But you see, friend, a person might feel bad, they might say, well, it's not, I'm not, I'm not right with God, I shouldn't save, but this man's an example that just being convicted or being stirred, trembling, he's talking about a man trembling here. But he made two unique and fundamental blunders. He said, go thy way. For nothing can be in the season I will call for thee. He procrastinated. That's a great tool of the devil tonight. Well, maybe if I go on after this or maybe another time, I'll get thinking about it. Procrastination is the, is the trick of the enemy. So you might not get down to basics, down to brass tacks, and get saved. And you might never be as stirred as you are tonight, in a week's time. You weren't this way maybe two weeks ago. And you might never be in this stage of thought in another two weeks, but tonight you're here, and you're, you're exposed to the gospel. And so we have other things here. We, nobody could get a bribe and so on, on it goes. There's sometimes there's other things involved, but the point is this, that unless you are one hundred percent honest with God and realize that it's my soul and my well-being forever, you'll never get saved. And it doesn't matter what your husband or wife thinks. That is not important. It is an issue that comes between husbands and wives. Uh, we're not breaking up marriages. We're talking, friend, about your accountability to God. You and your God. And the issue isn't in families. It isn't in churches. You don't get saved in, in droves. You were born alone, and you will die alone. And being saved is a lonely business. It's you and God. Now, I want to close with Acts sixteen because that was really what I was going to speak on tonight. Our brother referred to my text already. He's forever taking my messages and stuff. I don't mind that one bit. But I was thinking all day about the great, I'm thinking about some questions these days. I was thinking of this question that the jailer asked. And the jailer's great question in Acts 16 and 30 and thirty is the fundamental truth as to how a seeking sinner, from whatever kind of background can be saved. What preceded the great question of the jailer? The question of the ages. I'll give you a couple of things to think about. You know what, what, you know what impressed the jailer? The contact with Christians. Friends. He said of Paul and Silas, moaning and complaining about the burden that they have to bear and being in prison, they should be out on the street preaching. Instead of these born-again men upset, they are praying and singing at midnight. A Christian's life, and when it's go- the going gets tough, and how they handle their griefs and their sadness and the burdens of life oftentimes impress others that watch them. You see, uh, we got a new expression, the good steam is known in bad weather. You see, here's these men, and they shone for Christ in the darkness of the jailhouse. They rejoiced, and they sang, and they prayed. That no doubt had an impression upon this hard cells jailer. And so God speaks through the life of born-again Christians, and if God speak to you through somebody, you listen. That isn't all. Because you might be exposed to real Christianity in shoe leather that is consistent and has an impact, but never mistake God's voice. And here's our friend this night, you've seen Christian men at midnight, instead of cursing and swearing, they're singing. And then God shakes the foundations. You have the foundation of your life shaken to the point that they despair. I, I hope nobody here has to go through an awful tragedy. Wouldn't li- wouldn't listen in the day, wouldn't listen when God was trying to speak to them in gentle terms, to a loving friend or some family member, or maybe men you never, never met before, but you heard preached. You wouldn't listen to them. So God comes in, and sometimes he needs to shake the foundation of that person's life to make them realize this is real. The doctor said, well, like he said, a friend of mine, yeah, you might as well go to California, sure, wherever you want to go. But the man's wife, yeah, you might as well go and enjoy it. Nine months he was there. I said to my wife, I said, boy, look, I said, we're going to try and, and do the odd thing now and then. I don't want somebody telling me one of these days, well, you must know you and your wife should enjoy a little holiday and all that. But then listen, sometimes God has to take the foundation of a person's life to make them realize that all is matter- all that really matters is now we've had the voice of a Christian, the voice of God, here's the voice of the sinner. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Now, I don't know what it's going to take to get you to come to that very point to ask that question. I don't know that. You may be laying on your back in a hospital bed. Sometimes the only moment a person ever looked up to God is flat on their back on a hospital ward. But here's a man brought to the very point. Now he says, sir, what must I do to be saved? He believed they were saved. He was convinced they had the right thing. He heard God speaking in circumstances as that jailhouse shook that night. Ever been in an earthquake? I was in a fifteen second tremor. I wouldn't want to be in a minute. I've lost my mind in fifteen seconds. I wouldn't want to be any longer than that. It's awful. And the prison doors open. That's how violent was that earthquake. I wouldn't know when the record scale of it was, but it was probably enough to give that man an awful sense of his frailty before the power of God. Now he cries, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Is that your question tonight? Well, I'd like to answer it. I'd love to answer it for your eternal well-being. They said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house. Father, you lead the way, and your family will follow. Here's a rough, ungodly jailer. The preachers likely knew that that father got saved that night in that jailhouse. He would affect his wife. She would see reality in shoe leather, and the boys, maybe they're all teenagers, and the girls, they would see dad not come home drunk anymore, saved and happy. They said to that man that night, you put your faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. They just didn't say believe and be saved. Don't ever think it's a matter, oh, I just believe that. It's not the belief, it's the object of faith. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. So what is being saved? Being saved is the result of trusting Christ. If you get to Christ, young friend this night, older friend, if you get to the Lord Jesus Christ, and with all your unbelief and your skepticism and your questions and your doubts, and you say, well, Lord, I don't know how it's going to work, but I'm prepared to trust you as my personal savior from hell and from sin. Those that believe, not intellectually comprehend, but from the heart man believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ, then God's word says, thou shalt be saved. How do we know he was saved? There are evidences in people's lives if they're really saved. This ungodly man washed the stripes, the backs of those men that he had beaten, and then he manifested new life by his act of believers baptism. It goes together, not in order to be saved. He was saved that very moment that he put his faith in Christ. If you're saved tonight, let's see some reality. You ever done an act of kindness? I was going to read about Lydia tonight. Lydia manifested her faith in Christ by her baptism and her hospitality. And so it's not a matter of saying, oh, I'm safe. Listen, if you were charged in a court of law for being a Christian, is there enough evidence to convict you? You think about it. Is there enough credibility in your life to convict you on the charge of being a born again? Listen, if you're not saved tonight, friend, then why not? Why not right now, when the teacher said in? Simply say, Lord, I accept the verdict. I'm a sinner. I realize that my sins are that bad, I, I, hell will be my portion of my village. But I'm prepared from my heart to put my faith and trust alone in the Lord Jesus Christ. And God's word says, those that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved, saved to live for Christ and someday to be with him. But it matters that you have a moment in your experience when you put your full confidence alone on him, and thou shalt be saved. Do it. Let us pray. Our Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we thank thee for the opportunity to share.