WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?
D. Robertson
The gospel is like no other word that is spoken in the world because it comes from God. It brings us into the presence of divine speaking, and the fact that God is speaking is a very solemn thing. Hebrews 12: 25, speaking about persons who disregarded the speaking of Moses, a man, and of the punishment meted out to them, says, “See that ye refuse not him that speaks. For if those did not escape who had refused him who uttered the oracles on earth, much more we who turn away from him who does so from heaven”. That is what the gospel is; it is speaking from heaven. There is nothing more important than to hear and to answer the speaking from heaven. I would just like to say that as you are under the sound of the gospel tonight you have to do with God. You cannot escape having to do with God. If you refuse to have to do with God it will be to your eternal loss. There will be many who find themselves in the lake of fire eternally, the punishment of those who refuse the speaking of Him who speaks from heaven.
It will be a terrible thing for persons who find themselves there, who have refused the speaking from God, who have refused to have to do with God in a time of grace. I would appeal specially to the young people here that they might have to do with God. It is not a hard thing. It is a delightful and happy thing in the day of grace to have to do with God. But it will be a terrible thing to have to do with God if you refuse the Lord Jesus and refuse divine speaking. It says, “What shall be the end of those who obey not the glad tidings of God?”, 1 Peter 4: 17.
Have you ever stopped and thought a little and perhaps wondered whether God is saying that to you? Just stop and think about it. God would be very homely, friendly, and affectionate in the way He would speak to us. He might be saying, if you stopped and thought, ‘What is going to be your end if you continue to refuse to answer to the voice of Him who speaks from heaven?’. You remember a man called Pilate before whom the Lord Jesus was brought to be judged. In the middle of the judgment his wife came to him because God had spoken to her.
She had a message for him from God. This was the message—“Have thou nothing to do with that righteous man”, Matthew 27: 19. The whole mob was branding Him as unrighteous, yet God in His grace secured testimony in the heart of this woman that He was a righteous man.
I have no doubt in my mind that Pilate will be present at the great white throne. He tried to wash his hands of the whole thing, as if he were innocent, but he was just as guilty as the rest.
I believe God will say in infinite fairness to Pilate, ‘Do you remember the word that I sent through your wife to you? Why did you not accept it?’. That will be the position of everyone who refuses Him who speaks from heaven. Is that going to be your position? There is no need for anyone in this room ever to be before the great white throne. You can come before the throne of God now and find, not judgment, but grace—you can find a Saviour.
Here in Acts 16 is a man who is brought before the throne of grace. His reaction is a right—
reaction. He is not seeking to escape the voice from heaven. Oh it was a voice from heaven, through Paul, from the innermost prison cells; more than that, it reached into the innermost parts of this hard jailor’s heart. There is nothing like the mercy of God to break down your heart. God can get in where man could never get in. You may have hidden from Him for years, but there comes the time when, in His grace, God reaches into your heart. He names you. ‘I want you’. He says; ‘It is time you listened to Me and gave Me your heart, gave Me your ear. I want to speak to you about your eternal blessing. I want to tell you I have a Saviour for you who can save you for time and for eternity’. Praise be to His glorious name!
Does everyone here know that Saviour? If you do not, thank God the door is wide open for you tonight. Go in, and God would speak from heaven in love to your soul. He spoke in love to this man’s soul, a man who had been marked not by love but by hatred. He had beaten the servants of God and fastened them securely in the inner prison. Ah! that does not deter God from seeking this man’s blessing. What a God He is! undeterred by refusal, rejection, and man’s attitude towards Him, his callousness and even hatred. God still seeks man’s blessing.
Oh what a God, what a Saviour God, we announce! Friend, are you going to listen to God tonight? Let God’s word, let God Himself, arrest you. In God’s grace let the light shine into your soul. What will the light do? At first divine light does not make you happy. It awakens you to the fact that you have a need and that you are a sinner. Divine light exposes you at first and you say, ‘Yes, I am a sinner, and more than that, a sinner in the sight of God’. That is the point
this man came to. “What must I do that I may be saved?”. Oh friend, come to it tonight,
‘What must I do?’. It is not a question of your father or mother; their faith is of no avail to you. You must believe and be convicted for yourself.
God in His grace would work with you and look into your heart, that you might be brought to the point, the simple, blessed point that this man was brought to, so that you say, ‘What must I do to be saved?’. Does anyone know the answer? Certainly we know; we who are believers know the answer, and we would surround you and make it easy for you. We would tell you,
“Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved”. O, friend, it is a joyous thing to tell you, because it is the way we have all come. Thank God we can covet to walk in the light! Do not miss the opportunity! You may never have another one. Pilate never had another. It is as sure as I am here tonight that Pilate is in a lost eternity and that he will appear before God in that final day at the great white throne. There will not be a word he can say. Every mouth will be stopped (see Romans 3: 19).
We appeal to you to let the Lord Jesus into your heart. We can speak, and our speaking may be feeble at the best, but what we are relying on is that God will act in your soul tonight and bring you to this point. He would tell you that not only do you have a need, but that there is only one Person who can meet your need. He has been to the cross. He has taken on the question of sin and sins, and as far as God is concerned He has discharged the whole thing before God. He suffered to that end. No one suffered like Jesus. Those nails would not have held Jesus on the cross if He had not wanted to stay there. What held Him there? It was His love, first of all for God, so that the
name of God might be glorified in relation to every challenge of evil, and then for the sinner, that he might know salvation. How we love to sing of ‘Salvation’s sweet story’. I feel my heart is singing because it is in there, for “of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”, Matthew 12: 34.
I tell you in simplicity, the way is wide open for you. Acts 14: 27 speaks of God having
“opened a door of faith to the nations”. That is the way we have been blessed. God has done it. Thanks be to our Saviour God! Whoever has been blessed, it is God who has done it. Do not miss the present opportunity. You need a Saviour, and thank God there is a divinely provided Saviour. We would say in all affection—we would join with God in appealing to you—“Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved”.
It may be you are saved and have already the light in your soul that you owe your eternal salvation to Jesus. Now how are you living? In Exodus 2 we read of persons who were in a similar position to many believers today. Jesus has met them and He helped them when they were in a helpless position and could not help themselves. That is the experience of those who could not help themselves but have had their sins forgiven through the name of Jesus and who thus know the blessedness of salvation. The question is, ‘Where is He?’. He was here with a few of us this morning. What did we do? Did we leave Him out of our reckoning?
Were we doing something independently of Jesus? He said, “This do in remembrance of me”, 1 Corinthians 11: 24. Where is He in relation to you, young friend? You owe your eternal salvation to Him. He is the One who has died to secure salvation for you and has brought the knowledge of forgiveness to your soul. You owe everything to Him. Where is He? “Why then have ye
left the man behind?”. That is the question. Why did you not take up your blessing? Well, there is some barrier. Ah, cast the barrier down! The Spirit of God is on your side tonight.
The mighty power of the grace of God is all in your favour that you might not leave Christ behind. Give Him the place He deserves, and do it tonight crown Him Lord of all. I want to leave this question with you, ‘Where is the Man?’. Did you remember Him? Are you reckoning with Him? Is He in every department of your life? If not, why not? Remember, you owe your eternal salvation to Him.
These are simple, real, blessed questions that God would put to you, not to put you in a tight corner, or to embarrass you; but that you may answer to the blessed Son of His love. May you do so! Do not leave the Man behind any longer. You have left Him behind long enough; answer to His call. There are certain desires of His that He wants you to fill out. He wants you to be a testimony in the short while left to us. I think that these questions are addressed to us all. Where is He? This Man who helped you, saved you, and to whom you owe the forgiveness of your sins; this Man who has made eternity secure for you, where is He? “Why then have ye left the man behind?”. May the divine appeal of love find an answer in your heart!
The Lord Jesus has a very special love for you and He expects you to answer to it. It is a blessed thing to have part with saints, those who have been blessed through the redeeming blood of Christ, and who are moved in their affections so that they seek for the rest of their time to be faithful to His love. That is just the setting in which this man raised the question,
“Why then have ye left the man behind?”. Do not leave Him behind any longer. He makes His appeal in His own gracious
way, and we would appeal to you not to ignore it but to answer to it, for His name’s sake!
Preaching at Bo’ness, Grangemouth
19 September 1976