What Does It Mean to Be Saved?

What Does It Mean to Be Saved? — Acts 16:30–31

We’re going to read tonight in Acts chapter 16 and verse number 30. I’m just breaking into a story — I’m not going to tell the whole story tonight; we’ll leave that for another night. I just want to look at the question this man asked.

“And he brought them out and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ And they answered, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.’”

Acts 16:30–31 (KJV)

The question — what must I do to be saved? — it’s a great question. What must I do to be saved? Seven words. Think you could remember seven words? I think so. I’ll make it easy for you — I’m only going to speak on three of them, but I want you to remember them. Here are the three words: to be saved.

Got it? To be saved.

Why the Words “To Be Saved” Matter

Someone has rightly said, “To be saved is the most enviable of all earthly conditions.” I didn’t say that — I’m copying somebody else who said it. To be saved is the most enviable of all earthly conditions. No matter how you use the word saved, it’s a great word.

You’re out in a storm, you’re lost — to be saved is a great word. You’re in the ocean, going down — saved is a great word. You’re in a house and it’s on fire — saved is a great word. No matter how you use it, it’s the most enviable of all earthly conditions. And when it comes to spiritual things, to be saved is the greatest of all blessings you could have. That’s what this Bible is all about. That’s what the gospel meeting is all about.

But interestingly, those three words are only found together twice in our whole Bible. To be saved.

Sometimes when something is very rare, it’s very precious. That’s why diamonds are precious — they’re hard to get. You see all kinds of rocks and pebbles all over the place, but the streets aren’t strewn with diamonds. They have to be mined. Hard to get, hard to find. They’re rare.

Well, only twice in the Bible: to be saved. But if you found that out tonight, that would be the most precious possession you ever had — to be saved.

So why is this so precious? Why is this so great? Why do men spend their lives preaching this message about salvation, to be saved?

The Problem Salvation Solves: Sin

First, I want to look at the problem it solves. Were you listening at the first part of the meeting? We didn’t collude — I didn’t know what he was going to speak on — but he spoke on sin. In fact, the major part of his message was that the wages of sin is death. Now, he did tell us about the gift of God, which is eternal life, but he spent the majority of his message on the wages of sin.

Well, to be saved solves the problem of sin. It is the only answer to sin. It’s the only thing that solves the problem of sin. That’s why we say to be saved is the greatest of all earthly blessings.

Sin is a tremendous problem — you’ve already heard that, and I’m not going to spend a lot of time on it. But the Bible does look at sin in different ways.

Sin as a Disease

The Bible looks at sin as a disease. In fact, there’s a disease in the Bible called leprosy. There’s still leprosy today — not as common in this country as it is in some other countries — but there was a time when leprosy was just as vile as cancer. If you got leprosy, it was over.

God picked up that disease in the Scriptures, and all through the Scriptures leprosy was a picture of sin, because it eats away at us. Leprosy eats away at the body — that’s what it does. It causes numbness at first, and then things start to just fall apart until you die.

Sin is a disease. You’ve got it, and so do I. Try going a day without sinning. Just try — try really hard. Don’t think anything wrong, ever. Don’t say anything wrong. Don’t do anything wrong. Just try. You can’t do it. You know why? Because we’re sinners. We’ve all got that disease, and it pops out when you don’t want it. You’ll say, “I’ll never do that again,” and you do it again. You say, “I’ll never think like that again,” and just thinking that, you think it again. You can’t get away from it.

To be saved solves the problem of sin, because to be saved is to be saved from your sins. It’s to be forgiven of all your sins. So to be saved is the greatest thing.

Are you saved? Do you have God’s salvation? It’s the greatest thing. I’m sorry — sometimes we don’t look too happy when we’re up here preaching, but we are happy. I’m glad I’m saved. It’s the greatest thing in my life. I’m saved, my sins are forgiven, the problem is solved. I’ll never have to die in my sins. I’ll never receive the wages for my sins that you were hearing about, because my sins are forgiven. I’m saved. To be saved is to be forgiven.

Sin as a Debt: Paid in Full

But sometimes in the Bible, sin is looked at as a debt that we owe. It’s an accumulation — you heard that, the wages of it. It just keeps accumulating, and it’s a great debt, a great debt of sin. The longer you live, the more sin you have, and it just keeps piling up and piling up until it’s a monstrous pile of sin, a tremendous load of sin.

One of the best-known Christian allegories is Pilgrim’s Progress. Pilgrim is seen throughout the story as a traveller with a load on his back, and the load just keeps getting heavier and heavier until he’s staggering along the road — life’s road — under the weight of this backpack that just keeps getting greater and greater. It’s a picture of sin that just keeps adding up.

But to be saved is to have that debt of sin paid in full. It’s a great thing — paid in full.

Just this spring, I made my last mortgage payment. I felt like shouting, “Hallelujah! Paid! It’s gone, it’s over, it’s done.” The debt is gone — I’m mortgage free. Tremendous feeling. I didn’t know what that would feel like, because it was never paid before. But I can tell you, my wife and I just kind of looked at each other — the last payment, done.

It’s a tremendous thing. How about the debt of your sin? Is it paid? To be saved solves the problem of the debt of sin.

Sin as Defilement: The Need for Cleansing

But sin in the Bible is also looked at as a very dirty thing, a filthy thing. In fact, that’s why the disease of leprosy is picked — because leprosy was a dirty disease. It’s a filthy thing. And the Scripture says you need to be cleansed from your sins, because you’re defiled by sin — you’re made dirty by sin.

How can I illustrate that? That’s what I was thinking one day — how can I make that clear? So preachers do crazy things sometimes, and I did a very crazy thing to illustrate this to you tonight. I was changing the oil on my truck — I drive a diesel truck. If you know anything about diesel oil, it’s brown when you put it in, and fifteen minutes later it’s black. It picks up all the soot from the diesel and turns black as pitch.

I was changing the oil, and I looked at it and said, “Yeah, I’m going to do it.” I took my two hands, went right into the oil, pulled them out just dripping with gooey, black, filthy oil. I walked out from under the truck to the door of the house, opened the door — was a bit difficult because my hand was slimy — and I called out to my wife, “Honey, can you get me the phone?”

She didn’t see me yet, so she went to get the phone, and while she was walking toward me with it, I went like this with my hand. “No, don’t!” she said. “Don’t touch that wall! John, what’s wrong with you?” I said, “Here, give me the phone.” “No,” she said, “you can’t have the phone.” I said, “Why? It’s me, your loving husband — come here.” She said, “Get out! What are you doing?” I said, “Thank you — I wanted an illustration. Look what you did to the door handle.”

Yeah — everything I touched, I defiled. Why? Because I was filthy. Every single thing you do and touch and think and say, you defile it. Why? Because of your sin.

To be saved cleanses you from all sin. To be saved takes away that filth. To be saved is a cleansing thing — the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. To be saved is to be clean from your sin in the sight of God.

What Salvation Means for the Past, Present, and Future

But not only because of the problems it solves — I want to speak to you for a minute about the time periods involved in being saved. Some people think we’re preaching a fire escape from hell. No, no, we’re not, friend.

The Past — Forgiven

To be saved involves the past. You know, on your computer, you have a little “undo” thing under the edit menu, right? You make a mistake, you go up under edit, first one down is undo. You make a typo, you go up, undo — boop — it’s gone. There’s no undo for sin.

You can’t touch yesterday. You can’t undo what you’ve said. You can’t recall the words. You can’t undo the evil, you can’t undo the sin. It’s out there — you did it. It’s on your soul.

To be saved takes care of all the past. Everything that you have done can be forgiven if you are saved. To be saved handles all the past.

I’ve got a friend and his wife who I think must have had a bad past, because just the other day I was visiting them and they were talking about their past, and you know what he brought up? He said to his wife, “That’s the past — move on.” She looked at him: “Don’t even bring it up.”

Made me wonder what happened in the past. You got a past like that? You can try to forget about it — you can just say, “Yeah, move on, don’t bring it up.” But you’ve got to give an account for that. You’re going to stand before the throne of God and receive the wages for the past.

To be saved handles the past. Would you like your past forgiven? It can all be forgiven this very night. To be saved is to be forgiven.

The Present — Saved Now

But to be saved, the time involved is the present — this present time. To be saved is real. Right now, I am saved. I don’t deserve to be saved — I can’t brag about being saved, because I didn’t save myself; somebody else saved me. I thank God he saved me. But I’m glad he saved me because he saved me for right now. It is the best way to live — it is the best thing to have, presently, to live in a lost, ruined world saved by the grace of God.

Presently saved — it is eternal life. Now the Bible speaks of us that are saved — it is the power of God. Are saved — presently saved, in the present.

Are you saved? That’s the question you need to know. Are you right now? Not, is your past forgiven — if you are saved now, your past is forgiven. And you have power right now, in this life, as you’re living. The people of God, the people that are saved, are the happiest people in the world.

I don’t have all the answers. I don’t know what’s going to happen. But I do know this: I’m saved. I’m saved. I make a joke out of it, because I take a handful of pills every night, and I say I take these pills to keep me out of heaven. They’re supposed to be keeping me alive because I’ve had a couple of heart attacks — so all those pills are for my heart and all that. So I take all these pills and I think, what’s the worst that could happen? I should stop taking these — I’m saved, I’ll be in heaven.

But I’m glad I’m saved, and I take those pills because I want to keep living this saved life here and now.

To be saved takes care of the past. It’s wonderful in the present. But what about the future?

The Future — Secure

Where will you be fifty years from tonight? Some of you might still be around. Where will you be a hundred years from tonight? Because you won’t be here.

To be saved gives you a place in heaven. God says so — “That where I am, there ye may be also,” Jesus said. “I go” — where was he going? To heaven, to prepare a place for you. Is it for you? To be saved is to have the future secure.

So the time periods involved: to be saved — it takes care of the past, it’s wonderful in the present, and “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared” in the future for them that love him. Mind you, he’s given us a hint by his Spirit — he’s revealed a little bit of it to us.

We’ve got a wonderful future if you’re saved here tonight — you’ve got a great future, a tremendous future. If you’re not saved, what’s your future? The wages of sin is death.

How Salvation Resolves Our Offenses Before God

But not only the time periods involved — I want to think of the offense that it resolves. You and I have offended God. I hope I’m not speaking to anybody here tonight who has cursed at God — that’s a deep offense. “God will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.” That’s a deep offense.

On the way to supper tonight, I turned on the news in my truck, and I heard the preliminary hearing for Tyler, who just killed Charlie Kirk — the preliminary trial. And I listened as the judge read out his offenses, and then I got the shock of my life. He said, “You are facing the death penalty for your offense.” And I think Tyler got the shock of his life too.

The trial date isn’t even set yet, and yet the judge told him what he was up against. He said, “In the state of Utah, you are facing the death penalty for your offense.”

Do you know what you’re facing for your offenses? We have offended God — the God who made us, the God who loves us, the God who sent his Son for us. And yet you hear his Son’s name dragged through the dirt, his honour brought down in curse words every single day. We have offended the Almighty. We have offended God.

To be saved resolves every offense. Because the Scripture says he took the ordinances of the offenses that were against us and nailed them to his cross, putting them out of the way.

There were people who walked by the cross of Christ and mocked him. To be saved handles that offense. There are people today who have rejected Christ as Saviour — that’s an offense. Ever been rejected? I know a girl who was rejected — she was rejected by her own family. She had a real hard time with that. Rejection is hard to bear. We have rejected God’s Son — that’s an offense against God.

To be saved resolves every offense against God.

What God Has Done So We Can Be Saved

In order that you could be saved, and I could be saved, God went to great lengths. He gave the very best that he had — he emptied heaven of its best. He gave his own Son. God sent his own Son to be our Saviour, to bear our offenses, to take our sin upon himself. That’s almost a concept too hard to understand — that the Lord laid on Christ our offenses, the iniquity of us all, the guilt, the sin, all that was ours, all that we mocked God with, God put on his own Son and punished him for us.

“The chastisement of our peace was on him, and with his stripes we are healed.” To be saved is to be cleared of all offenses.

Tyler’s trial is set to begin — I think he said the 29th of September. Can you imagine, in that courtroom — can you even imagine — if someone came in and said to the judge, “Your honour, I want to take Tyler’s place. Every offense that he has committed, I want you to charge me for, and I’ll take his place”? I don’t know what the court would do. But I know what the court of heaven has done: God was so satisfied with the payment that Christ made that God raised his Son from the dead and said this — “whosoever believes on the Son, I’ll give everlasting life.” Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever has the Son is saved.

Do you see what the second verse up there is? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ

What must I do to be saved? To be saved is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. To be saved is to have Christ as Saviour and your sins forgiven. It is the most wonderful thing in the world to be saved.

So let me ask you tonight, as I close: are you saved? Would you like to be saved? You’re in the right place. Trust Christ to be saved.