What Does It Mean To Believe?

I made a covenant twenty-six years ago that every Sunday night I would preach the Gospel of the grace of God for the sake of those who might want to know the way of Life. We live in a city of three million. What a place to witness for Jesus Christ! What a sad thing to go out of the presence of this need and stand in His presence without having tried to bring someone to a knowledge of the truth!

I want to read you a few verses of Scripture from the sixteenth chapter of the Acts: “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 every one’s bands 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: for we are all here. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house” (Acts 16:25–34).

A Story Well Known

I think probably this Scripture is one of the best known of any portion in all of the New Testament. Nearly everyone could tell you what Paul said to the jailer when he asked, “What must I do to be saved?” Nearly everyone who lives in a land where the Bible is know would say, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” And yet, I am sure that a very small fraction of those who profess to believe their Bibles have comprehended the real meaning of these words. I have asked God to help me to be very plain, very direct, and scriptural in talking to you on this matter that some who may be deceived (and I am convinced that there are a great many in our churches depending on other things than the finished work of Jesus for their salvation) may find the way to God. So will you pray that He will bless this message to someone?

You know it has been frequently said that a man’s salvation depends upon his acceptance of certain dogma. I am very sure that the apostle Paul did not make the jailer’s salvation depend on the acceptance of certain dogma, and I do not know anyone else who understand his Bible who would make salvation depend on the acceptance of any such thing. The fact of the matter is that your salvation and mine depends on our relation to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is not dogma that saved; it is Jesus.

What Jesus Says About Salvation

I want to quote four or five passages of Scripture. These words all fell from the lips of Jesus Himself.

Mark 16:16: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” After Jesus had risen from the dead, He sent His disciples forth to bear the glad tidings to the uttermost parts of the world. They were to preach the Gospel. And then he added the significant words which I have just read.

Then another passage is in John 5:24: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”

In John 3:18 we read, “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Let me quote that verse again, for that is a very solemn word: “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Not because he drinks whiskey, not because he is a thief or a murderer, but because he believed not on the name of the Son of God. Do not misunderstand me, friends. I would not have you think that drunkards, as such, are saved persons, but what I want you to see is that every man and every woman, whether or not they are drunkards or thieves or liars, if they believe not on the only begotten Son of God are condemned already.

Then in the thirty-sixth verse of that same chapter: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

Two Important Questions

When we face the fact that Jesus Christ Himself said all those words, surely it behooves you and me to ask ourselves one or two very serious questions. One would be this: Why should my salvation and your salvation—such a tremendous issue as eternal life or eternal death—depend upon my believing on, or not believing in one Jesus who lived nearly two thousand years ago? That is a reasonable question for every man to ask, I should think, in the face of these statements. Think of it! Eternal life; eternal death is the issue. Why should that depend upon my believing, simply believing? Or shall I put it another way: Why should a matter so important depend upon anything so exceedingly small as believing on one who lived here two thousand years ago?

Then the other question: If eternal life depends on my believing in Jesus Christ, what does it mean to believe on Him? To believe, in the Bible sense, unto salvation? What was there in the faith of the jailer that made Paul so sure of his salvation; that he baptized him that very hour?

More Than History

It surely involves more than believing on the historical Jesus—one who lived here two thousand years ago in the same way that you might believe that there was a man named Napoleon in France, or Caesar or Shakespeare. Nearly everybody believes in Jesus in that way. There are hardly any persons who have ever heard anything about Him but what would say, “Yes, I believe Jesus lived on Earth.”

It involves more than believing He was a good man, a great teacher. In that third chapter of John where Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Ye must be born again,” that ruler—that rabbi that came to Him by night—was prepared to say, “We knowthat Thou art a teacher come from God for no man can do the miracles Thou doest except God be with him.” You see, he believed Jesus was a good man, a great teacher, and he believed His miracles were real. And yet it was to that very man that Jesus said, “Ye must be born again or you cannot see the kingdom of heaven.”

Believing unto salvation involves more than believing in a historical Jesus, a good man, and a great teacher.

The jailer undoubtedly believed that Jesus had lived and died. Such a tremendous event as the crucifixion of Christ, just two or three years before, would still have been fresh in his mind. He would have heard about Paul and Silas being arrested and thrown into prison for casting out the devil from a maiden in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He would have known how the Romans had put Christ to death, instigated by the Jews. He probably believed, too, that Jesus was a good man, and yet he was not saved. The cry of his heart was, “What must I do to be saved?” And personally, I cannot feel that if a man has much a sincere desire to know Jesus Christ that that man will ever be lost.

The Only Sure Foundation

The only way to answer the jailer’s question is to answer it scripturally. My opinion is not worth one whit more than the other fellow’s. We cannot depend upon philosophy. We cannot depend upon science. We cannot depend upon human opinion. We must have a better foundation for our faith than these. I want to tell you that there is only one place where we can rest our faith and feel perfectly secure and safe concerning salvation, and that is upon the foundation of God’s holy Word. Jesus said, “Search the scriptures for these are they that testify of me” (see John 5:39). The Scriptures alone can answer our question.

You remember when Nicodemus was told that he must be born again, he asked the question practically that I have been asking for you and for myself tonight. When Jesus said, “Ye must be born again,” he replied, “How can it be?” I am glad that he did not say, “I do not believe that I must be born again.” I think every honest man that knows anything about his own heart and mind, when he is faced with the proposition “Ye must be born again,” will say, “Yes, there must be that kind of a change if I am ever going to enter into that place of rest, but the question is, ‘How can it be?’”

Christ Clears The Mystery

That question was answered by the Lord Himself, and His Word is the last court of appeal. I don’t care where the “wise man” graduated; I don’t care from whence he comes; I will take Jesus Christ as my authority. For me the word of Jesus Christ is final, and although I may not understand it, I believe it and in believing the Word of the Lord Jesus there is perfect rest of spirit.

“Now,” said Nicodemus, “how can these things be?” “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the Son of man be lifted up.” And these words are added: “shall not perish but have everlasting life.” Three times in this chapter Jesus Christ speaks of our perishing. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Humanity Is Doomed

There is one thing that stands out in the conversation of Jesus with Nicodemus and that is that by nature humanity is in such a condition it is going to perish unless there is divine intervention; unless God does something. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” in order to save the world from perishing.

He sent His Son to the cross “the Son of man must be lifted up” in order to save humanity from perishing. That is the answer to the question. Do you see it, friends? Divine intervention led to His crucifixion and the result of that crucifixion is: “Whosoever believeth on him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”

There are one or two things I want you to notice. Believing in Jesus’ deity, His holy character, or even in His teaching will not save a soul. His deity, His holy character, His teaching, His miracles would have availed nothing had He not died. That is the truth He Himself emphasizes. “I must be lifted up....You must be saved....You must be born again....I must be lifted up.” And so you see, beloved friends, it is faith in Jesus Christ as your Substitute, faith in Jesus Christ as your sin-bearer, that brings salvation.

Over in the twelfth chapter of John he used the same expression when the Greeks came to Him. You remember He talked about the grain of wheat falling into the ground and bringing forth its fruit, and then He said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me.” “This,” says John, “he spake signifying what death he should die.”

What Is The Meaning?

That is the Bible interpretation of the “lifting up.” The death of Christ was substitutionary, we sometimes say vicarious. If I understand the teaching of the Bible, the incarnation was necessary. No man was able to redeem us and so a body was given to Christ that He might die and by His death, destroy him that hath the power of death, that is the devil, and make atonement for our sins. God could not die. But a human body was given to Christ that he might die and by His death destroy him that hath the power of death, that is the devil, and make atonement for our sins. The greatest sentence in all literature is made up of four little words and maybe only eight of nine letters in all: “He bare my sins.” And if He bare my sins, beloved friends, then I do not have to bear them. He was my substitute. He died in my room and in my stead.

In ridicule, one cried out, “He saved others; himself He cannot save.” Yet he proclaimed a great and glorious truth. “The Son of man is not come to be ministered unto but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many.” He said, too, “No man taketh my life from me; I lay it down of myself.” He offered it without spot to God through the Eternal Spirit, a willing sacrifice, a deliberate offering, the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God.

Do You Grasp The Truth

Oh my! Some of you read those old passages of Scripture and they are meaningless to you. “He that knew no sin was made sin for me that I might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Is that not substitution? Is that not God taking my place?

I referred some months ago to a monument that stands in a neighboring city. It was erected to the memory of a news boy, a poor little fellow with a crippled limb. He went around with one crutch. One day in his city the papers gave an account of a young woman by the name of Miss Ethel Smith who was terribly burned by the exploding of a motor cycle. One doctor had said that it they could get enough human skin to graft on, they might save Miss Smith’s life. That night the news boy said, “I don’t know this young lady, doctor, but I read where you stated that if you could get enough human skin to graft on her burned body you might save her life. Is that true?”

And the doctor said, “Yes, that is true.”

“Do you think there is enough skin on this leg of mine to save her life?”

“Yes,” said the doctor thoughtfully, “I think there is.”

“All right,” he said, “you may have it to save her life.”

They placed him on the table and took off the skin and placed it on that poor burned body and Ethel Smith got better and Billie Rough died.

When the doctor said, “Billie, do you know you are going to die?” he said, “Well, doctor, I am not sorry. I thought maybe I would die when I offered you my leg. I was always under a handicap and when I saw a chance of saving a life, I thought here’s your chance, Billie, to do something worthwhile. So I will die happy if she lives.”

And there in Gary, they believe so much in vicarious suffering that they have put up a monument to his memory. I can imagine that the girl might come with an armful of flowers now and again. I see her lay them down there and I say, “Why do you do that?”

And she says, “Don’t you know? Billie Rough died for me. My name is Ethel Smith. I am the girl who was saved through is sacrifice.” And her eyes are filled with tears and when I hear the story mine fill, too. I am made that way.

I believe in vicarious suffering, and when I think of One who died for me, of One who took my place,

“Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood.”

I love Him.

You see what I mean. If the death of Jesus Christ is anything it is substitutionary.

“Upon a life I did not live,
Upon a death I did not die,
Another’s life, another’s death.
I rest my whole eternity.”

You may call me a fool. You may criticize me all you like, but I will rest my hope still on the life and death and resurrection of the Lord. We sang a moment ago that old hymn, “Jesus Paid It All.” I was thinking of that this afternoon while going over this little outline.

“Jesus Paid It All”

Two years ago, I was in Canada spending the summer. One day going up the road, I picked up a man in my car and we rode along together. He said to me, “You are the pastor of The Moody Church in Chicago?”

“I said, “Yes, I have that honor, and it is a great honor.”

He said, “I love The Moody Church. I love everything that has Moody’s name on it.”

I said, “Why?”

“About fifty years ago (he was an old man) when I was only a boy over in England, just about fourteen years of age, I walked ten miles to hear the great Moody and Sankey. The whole country was being moved by Moody’s preaching and Sankey’s singing. When I got to the building, the crowd was so great that I could not get in. But I just kept twisting around through the crowd until I got up as close as I could. Presently, the door was opened about six or eight inches and I could see the platform. Then Sankey got up to sing a solo and while Sankey sang, I got a soul vision of Jesus Christ.”

Oh, that tonight God would give somebody a soul vision of Jesus! It is the soul vision that saves you. And do you know that Mr. Sankey sang the same hymn that we just sung:

“Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe,
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.”

Now listen friends, I have been with a great many as they passed over the river and I have never known a dying man or woman trusting in Jesus Christ that did not die well.

The Danger

There are just one or two other things that I was going to say. Paul, in his preaching, emphasizes the fact that I have tried to emphasize again and again. Indeed, Paul felt that the word I am sounding tonight was essential to the preaching of the true Gospel. On one occasion you find him coming to the city of Corinth and you remember what he said there, “I have been sent to preach the Gospel, but not with words of man’s wisdom lest I make the Gospel of Christ of none effect.”

Brethren, I would not say a word for the life of me derogatory to education, but I am afraid that a great many of our young men in the ministry are educated so highly that they are making the cross of Christ of no effect with their philosophy and eloquence. Indeed, I tremble lest I do that very thing. If a man can preach philosophy, if a man can exhibit his mental fire works, there is a temptation to do it. There is something in human nature that likes to hear folks say, “He is clever.” You never get saved beyond that.

I can imagine Paul, with all his ability and all his education and learning, might have been tempted to give them an intellectual entertainment. But he says, “I come not with the excellency of speech declaring unto you the testimony of God. I am determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

He preached the simple Gospel—the full Gospel—the Gospel which is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. And we say with Paul tonight, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”