Church of Christ Studies

What Must I Do To Be Saved?

I have for study to-night the most important question that was ever announced to mortal man, subsidiary and secondary to which every other one imaginable must stand.

 

What must I do to be saved?

 

I am, indeed, conscious of the wonderful responsibility that rests upon me just now in the putting of that query and in the effort to answer the same. I know that impressions will be made, and God forbid that I should give an uncertain sound or fail from any consideration whatever to tell just what the Holy Spirit has revealed in answer thereto.

 

I believe that you are interested in a question of this kind. We have learned that if it were possible for us to gain the whole world and lose our own souls, a failure would characterize our passage through life; and I hope, therefore, with that seriousness, that solemnity, and that prayerfulness that should prevail, we may learn the truth and obey it from the heart.

 

Before I go into detail, I suggest to you that there are many things that possibly might enter in some way or other into a discussion of this kind. There are various things in the Bible to which salvation is attributed. Confusion is on every hand because of our failure to appreciate this fact. For instance, no one who understands the Bible would deny that we are saved by love, that we are saved by mercy, that we are saved by God's goodness, by the life, the death, the blood, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 

Now, all of those things enter into salvation. I would make a very fatal mistake in my reasoning if I were to take out any of those items, isolate it from all the others, and claim salvation upon one of those things alone. I think just such a misconception has characterized many an honest, earnest man's endeavor and led him blindly into confusion and at last possibly into disappointment in the presence of God.

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In this physical life we live and have our being and are saved by different elements. I live by breathing; I live by eating; I live by sleeping; I live by drinking and exercise. It would not do for you to take out either one of these and declare that we live by this alone, and yet it does seem like, in the face of all illustrations to the contrary, there is a disposition to reason after this fashion.

 

May I suggest to you, therefore, the question direct: "What must I do to be saved ?" I want to emphasize every word and every syllable and every letter that goes to make up that superior and sublime query: "WHAT must I do?"

 

I think the very first word in it implies that certainly there is something. What is it? But note the next. It is not a question of, "What may I do?" or, "What can I do?" or, "What could I do?" but the strongest word in our language is brought to bear to make the impression—"What MUST I do ?"

 

If God Almighty indorses the declaration that man must do something, I see no way possible that any man can devise whereby he can set aside such a positive and sacred obligation. So it is: "What must I do?"

 

Is there a person in this presence now that thinks or feels like he is an exception to that obligation, that the force of such is not binding upon him? If so, I am persuaded to think he is walking in darkness and delusion hovers about him.

 

But note again. It is not: "What must my grandmother do?" It is not a question of: "What must my father do to be saved?" That never was asked nor never was answered. But this question is individual and personal: "What must I (N. B. Hardeman) do to be saved?" Many people upon the earth are convicted of the truth and see the beauty and simplicity thereof, but refuse to accept it on the ground that: "If I were to do it, that would mean that somebody else had gone to hell." Well, if somebody else has gone to hell, can you help it? If they have not, perchance you can render them a service and benefit.

 

Instead of the query pertaining to party No. 2, or those spoken of, it is in the first person. "Lord, what must I, individually and personally, do to be saved ?" If every other man on earth were to be lost, that doesn't argue that I have to be; on the other hand, if every other man and woman on the earth were to be saved, that doesn't prove that I would be saved. It is not a question of what the church with which I am affiliated believes or does; it is not a question of what kind of a mother I had; it is not a question of how somebody else sought the way of the Lord. It is purely a question of: "What must I do?" I wish I could impart, indeed, the force and seriousness of that to you.

 

In the next place, it is a question of what I must DO. There never was such a question as this asked: "Lord, what must I get in order to be saved?" That is not in the Bible. Nobody ever did that back in Bible times. But it is a question of: "What must I DO?" I want to tell you, the opinion of quite a few to the contrary notwithstanding, that the religion of the Bible is a religion of doing. It is a religion of activity. It is a religion of practice. It is a life of service unto man. You take the "do" out of the Bible and from the obligation resting upon man, and you have robbed that religion that is pure and undefiled of the very foundation upon which God intended it should forever rest.

 

But, further, this is not a question of what I must do to save myself, but "What must I do TO BE saved ?" It is both active and passive. I must do something, and at the same time I must be saved, if ever saved at all. Therefore man's part is, "I must do ;" God's part is "to save" and to extend the favor of mercy and forgiveness. Now, that is the question before us at the present. But various answers are frequently given.

 

If there is a first-class Universalist in our midst, his answer would be: "Pass on through life, pay no attention unto anything of that kind necessarily, and, in the final round-up of the affairs of men, all will be restored to a state of holiness and happiness."

 

If there be a Calvinist present, his answer would be about the same as the Universalist's, except "as to the final number embraced in the ultimate salvation."

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If there be a moralist present, he, doubtless, would say: "Why, you have to do nothing except treat your fellow man right, to live a good, clean, upright life. This business of bowing in submission to Prince Immanuel is unnecessary. Upon your own good deeds and correct living you shall be saved." But bear it in mind that no man ever was or ever will be saved on account of his goodness. Now, that man, unfortunately, forgets that Jesus says: "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me." That man has forgotten that the Savior said: "Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Therefore, morality, while good as far as it goes, is weighed in the balance and found wanting because it stops short of the duty I owe to the God of my being.

 

"What must I do to be saved?" That question, under the commission of the Lord Jesus Christ, has been asked practically three times in the book of Acts of Apostles. The answers are given thereto; and, strange as it may occur to you upon first announcement, allow me to say that each time it was asked a different answer was given. Does that cause you to be skeptical? Just because the question was asked three times and each time a different answer was given, are you disposed to turn away and say that you have no respect for answers that vary ?

 

Well, let's call attention to that. The first time the question is asked, or at least the first one that I present tonight, is in Acts 16. The query was put by a jailer of the Philippians in the country of Macedonia, into which some gospel preachers had come. That man said to Paul and Silas: "What must I do to be saved ?" The answer was: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt he saved, and thy house." Well, the same thing was asked those at Pentecost (Acts 2), when they said: "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Now, the answer is not like the first one. This time the same Holy Spirit says: "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Now, that is a different answer from the first. The third time, Saul of Tarsus, stricken down on the public highway leading to Damascus, face to face with the Lord, said: "What shall I do, Lord?" The answer was: "Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee." Following out that story, the final response was: "Why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord."

 

Now, that is what the Bible says about it in Acts 16, Acts 2, Acts 9, and Acts 22. Well, let me try to illustrate and show you the beauty and the harmony in each answer thus given. Suppose that down here on Broad Street I walk up to a man who is a stranger, and I say: "Sir, I want to go to Centennial Park. How far is it?" Well, note where we are, just down here at the foot of the avenue, and I say: "How far is it to Centennial Park?" He says: "Three miles, and it is west." Well, all right. I march on down the street; and when I have gone about a mile, I meet another man, and I say: "How far is it to Centennial Park?" His answer is: "Two miles." I begin to get suspicious of you Nashvillians, and I say: "What kind of folks are you? I asked the same question to the second man, and he answered me differently. The other man I asked said it was three miles, and you say it is but two." "Yes, sir." Well, all right. I pass on another mile, and meet a third man, and I ask the same question: "Sir, how far is it to Centennial Park?" He says: "One mile." Then, absolutely disgusted and discouraged, I give up the whole thing and suggest that it is impossible to find out.

 

Now, is that the idea? Why, every one of these men answered exactly right. And if all of them had said it was three miles, just like the first man, two of their answers would have been wrong. What is the common sense in that? Simply this very plain proposition: They answered me according to where I was standing at the time the query was put. When I asked the first man how far it was to Centennial Park, he correctly said, "From where you are it is three miles;" but when I saw man No. 2, he understood, of course, that I did not mean from back yonder, but from here. How far ? His answer was: "Two miles." And when I went further and met still another and put the same thing, that man understood that I wanted to know from here on, so he answered: "One mile."

 

Of course nobody in Nashville, if I were to ask how far it was to Centennial Park, would say three miles, regardless of whether I was at the foot of the avenue down here, or over across the river, or within one hundred yards of it. Why, my friends, right upon the face of it, that does not stand to reason and good judgment.

 

Now, I think if you will apply that same principle to this Bible question, you will be able to appreciate all the things that are said in response thereto.

 

Now, let's study our first man. The Philippian jailer was a heathen in a heathen land, so far as religion was concerned. Paul and his company had but recently gone there in answer to the vision. They had gone out by the riverside and had spoken to the women who resorted thither, but of that the jailer knew nothing. By and by Paul caused a spirit of divination to come out of a maid; and, as a result, her masters took Paul and his companions and beat them, and treated them, as Paul said, "shamefully;" and finally these men of God were delivered unto the jailer, with a charge that he keep them securely. He was not content that they dwell in the main outer prison, but the record says he put them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks. The jailer had never seen men like these in all his life. They were ministers of the gospel of Christ, while he was an unlearned heathen. When the evening shadows had gathered and the midnight hour approached, there was a great earthquake, such that the foundation of the old prison was shaken, the doors were opened, and every man's bands were loosed. Then it was that the jailer became so excited that he drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul, calmly and quietly, allayed the excitement, and said: "Do thyself no harm: for we are all here." The jailer then called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said: "What must I do to be saved ?"

 

What kind of man do you have? A man starting, if you​ please, at the very beginning; a man who had never taken one single step, who had never traveled the road that leads to salvation one single mile; and, therefore, at the time he raised the question, "What must I do to be saved?" Paul answers: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."

 

But, Paul, did you not raise the question yourself as to how can a man believe on him of whom he has not heard? "Yes, sir." And you told this man to believe? "Yes, sir." Well, what can he believe? And, hence, the next part of the story is in direct connection.

 

After having given that command about believing, the Bible says: "They spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house." Why that? In order that the man might have something to believe. They preached unto him God's word; and in telling the word of the Lord to that man, Paul felt absolutely certain that it would lead him into further obedience As a result of having preached unto him the word of the Lord, the Bible says that the jailer took these prisoners that very night, the same hour, "and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway." After the baptizing, "when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house."

 

Now, as a matter of fact, what did that man do in response to the question: "What must I do to be saved?" First, he heard the gospel proclaimed by the peerless apostle unto the Gentile world; second, he believed the gospel. Did he repent? The Bible does not mention that, and yet by necessary inference all of us must grant he did, for Paul would never have baptized a man who had not repented of his sins. In addition to having heard and having believed and repented, the Bible says that he was baptized "the same hour of the night."

 

I said to this audience the other evening, as you will remember, that under the reign of Christ there is not a case on record of where any man ever rejoiced on account of his sins being forgiven until after that man was baptized. Well. I want to make vou another statement. In the Bible.  mark you, wherever a man heard the gospel and believed it and obeyed it or had the disposition, you cannot find a single case where any one ever stopped to eat, drink, or sleep until he was baptized; and yet the world says it counts but little. Are such doings merely incidental and accidental, or were they not given to emphasize the importance of rendering obedience straightway to the word of God? Is the jailer's conversion in harmony with the commission, which said: "Go, . . . teach all nations?" The commission declared that the gospel was to be preached, and that is what Paul spoke unto him. The Bible, in the commission, declared: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." Mr. Jailer, what about you? "I heard and I believed; 1 was baptized." Then what ? "I rejoiced." How came you to rejoice? "Because I was then standing upon the promise of God Almighty."

 

Now, I call your attention to the Pentecostians, who, unlike the jailer at the time the question was asked, had already heard the gospel and had believed it, as is evidenced by the fact that they were pierced in their hearts, convicted of sin, and anxious to be rid of the consequences thereof. Hence, they said: "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Peter did not reply by saying, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," for this they had already done; but like the man standing at the two-mile post, he told them the way from there on in these words: "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." They that received his word were baptized, and the same day were added unto the church.

 

Did the conversion of these and the conditions obeyed differ from those of the jailer? By comparison we find the following: All heard the gospel; all believed the gospel; all repented of their sins; and the Bible says specifically that all were baptized. Therefore, according to the language of Christ in the commission, all were saved and had right and reason to rejoice because of the forgiveness of sins, the reception of the Holy Spirit, and the hope of everlasting blessedness.

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I next call your attention to Saul of Tarsus, a record of whose conversion is found in Acts 9, 22, and 26. What are the facts in reference to him? He had secured letters from the chief priests permitting him to go to Damascus to bring back men and women who called on the name of the Lord. As he drew near to the city, a light shone round about him above the brightness of the noonday sun, and a voice was heard, saying: "Saul, Saul, why persecutes" thou me ?" To which Saul replied, saying: "Who art thou, Lord ?" The answer was: "I am Jesus whom thou persecutes"." Then Saul, trembling and astonished, said: "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"

 

My friends, if there ever was a time on earth when Jesus Christ should give direct answer, this seems to be the occasion; but be it remembered that the gospel, God's power to save, had already been delivered unto earthen vessels, and hence the Savior's failure to respond direct. He only said this: "Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do." Saul was led on by the hand of his companions, and abode in the city of Damascus, where for three days and three nights he neither did eat nor drink, but was in a patient, prayerful mood.

 

Now note: The Lord had appeared to Ananias, an earthen vessel, and had directed him to the very spot in which Paul was. When convinced of his duty, Ananias went and found the man in whose conversion heaven was interested, and who had been directed thither with the assurance that he would be told what he must do. Ananias did not tell him, as Paul told the jailer, to believe on the Lord; for this he had already done. Neither did he tell him, as did Peter the Pentecostians, to repent. Why not? Because of the fact that already Saul had heard the story of the cross. Ananias saw that he was a penitent believer, and, like the man at the one-mile post, he simply told him the rest of the way in these words "Saul, seeing you are penitent and a believer, and since I have been ordered to direct you, let me ask that you 'arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.' " This is what the Lord said must be done, for it is the only thing demanded of Saul at this time by Ananias.

 

Therefore the important question, "What must I do to be saved?" was answered on three different occasions with a view to the condition of the characters at the time it was put. When analyzed and understood, the answers thereto are absolutely one and the same.

 

As a final summary, it is simply this: Hear the gospel of the Son of God, believe the gospel with all your heart, honestly and truly repent of all your sins, and walk down into the water, as did Philip and the treasurer, and there, upon a public confession of your faith in the crucified One, be buried for the remission of sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; arise therefrom to walk in newness of life, and then walk in it the remnant of your days. If this you will do and live faithful to that pledge and to that obligation assumed, by and by, when life's fitful dreams shall have passed and all things timely shall have faded away, God will send his angels to bear you up as on eagles' wings into his eternal paradise.

 

We sing the song again to-night; and if there are any here impressed by the story and have it in your hearts to obey the Lord, the opportunity is extended, and may God help you to come while you can.