Christianity on Christ Terms - Teaching — Paris Reidhead

Welcome to Southern Idaho Bible Conference July 1988 with Reverend Parris Reedhead. For additional copies of this cassette tape, write to Post Office Box 72, Twin Falls, Idaho, 833 -01.

Christianity on Christ's Terms

The Bible Conference on this 27th day of July in 1988, and they left a nice white page in the back of it or in the front of it. And I want you to write down something on that nice white page. In fact, I want you to write down first a little phrase.

The phrase is this, Christianity on Christ's terms. And then be prepared to put down along under that 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. And I'm going to give you four scripture verses and I want you to have these.

Now I'll explain why. There's a saying down south that everybody talking about heaven ain't going there. And there are a lot of people that are very concerned about that. And they are going to come to you and they're going to ask you if you can help them make sure that they'll go to heaven.

Well, you've got to be able to do that and do it quickly and do it effectively. Now I think you'll agree with me that in this day there are a great many voices on radio, on television, on the corners and streets and with churches and steeples, all different kinds of groups.

And they all seem to be convinced that they know the way and route to heaven. But amidst all of these voices saying, lo this way, that way, come here, go there, we need an authority. Someone that knows more about it than anybody else.

Someone that has more wisdom than anyone else. Someone that has unquestioned love. Someone that is able to give directions that are going to be absolutely correct. And the only one that I know of that meets that condition and qualification is our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now he knew more about how to get to heaven than anybody else. That's why he came. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. And he said, in my Father's house are many mansions. Well, who better than he knew how to get to that Father's house?

And so when people come to you and say, I'm not sure I'm a Christian. I'm not sure that I've been saved. I don't know whether or not it's real in my life. You'd better be prepared to help them. Now you don't want to be foolish and pat them on the back and say, well, you're a member of the same church I am.

And everything's all right. Because it just may be that everything isn't all right. And the subject is too important to take a chance on. And therefore you'd better be prepared to help take that person very kindly and very gently by the hand and lead them into the word.

And let the Lord Jesus Christ himself do the speaking. Now you've already written down Christianity on Christ's terms. He sets the terms. These are his terms. And I want you to see number one. Opposite number one, you will write Matthew.

Now the abbreviation, as you know, is MT period, Matthew five, and then a colon. And then verse 20, Matthew five, 20. So what you're going to do, by the way, don't do it on the company's time. Bosses don't like that.

We had a man out in the East that ran a bakery, a fellow that made Thomas English muffins. Maybe you've never heard of them in Idaho, but we had them there. And the family that made that was very, they loved the Lord.

It was the Swanson family. Well, actually it was invented by Mr. Thomas, whose daughter married Bob Swanson. And he's the one that started the bakery and began to put them out commercially. They'd been out just locally before.

And because Bob Swanson was one of the Christian businessmen in New York city and had a great witness, a lot of Christians wanted to work for him. And if they had a lot of trouble, they were running a business.

And so what the people thought was that if they worked for a Christian businessman, it would be all right for him to take an hour or two a day and talk to people about the Lord. But that got to be awful expensive.

And so they had a meeting with the employees and they said, you love the Lord and we love the Lord, but let's understand that you work eight hours a day and then you got 16 hours a day that are yours.

So instead of taking the eight hours, we pay you for you do your witnessing. If somebody says they want to talk to you, you say, well, that's great. Now, after work, we'll go over here to the cafe and get a cup of coffee and I'll sit down and do that on your own time.

Will you? Well, I think that's a good idea, but do it, do it. When somebody shows an interest and they want to talk to you, arrange a time and then instead of trying to preach to them or trying to do much of anything other than just let the Lord Jesus do the do the talking.

You say, well, now look, you've got a question. You're not sure that you're a child of God. You're not sure that you're born again. Now, I want you to just let the best authority on this subject in the world talk to you.

And so you open your Testament and you have it to him and you to him or to her and you say, will you read that for me? Read it out loud. And this is what they'll read. And this is the words of Christ.

For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now they're going to say, well, what's that mean now?

Who are the scribes and who are the Pharisees? And you got to tell them that in the day of our Lord, the religious people were divided into two groups. I hope you'll remember this. The one group were the Sadducees.

Now the Sadducees would be like the liberals or the modernists today. They didn't believe in the inspiration of the Torah. That's the old book, Testament books. They did not believe in the existence of angels.

They did not believe in life after death. They did not believe in the necessity for blood sacrifice. Religion to them was social, economic, and political. Now these were the Sadducees. But there was another group called the Pharisees.

Now the Pharisees were just the opposite of the Sadducees. The Pharisees believed in the inspiration of the Bible, the Old Testament. The Pharisees believed in the existence of angels. They believed in life after death.

They believed in the necessity of blood sacrifice. Well we could say several things about them. Let's look at it. Now what Christ said was this, except your righteousness shall exceed, go beyond the righteousness of the scribes and of the Pharisees, you shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven.

Well we'd better find out in what the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees did consist. Now the first thing you learn about the scribes and Pharisees, I've already told you, and that is they were orthodox in their theology, as in contrast to the Sadducees.

They believed in all of these things. Now is there anything wrong with being orthodox in theology? No. It's good. Only problem is it's not enough. Though they believed in the plan of salvation, they believed the only people that were ever going to go to heaven were the people that had come through Phariseeism, through Judaism.

The second thing about the Pharisees is this, they were devout in their practice. The Pharisees fasted two days every week, from sunup till sundown. They didn't drink any water, they didn't eat any food, and they didn't even swallow their own spittle, their own saliva.

They fasted two days a week, and they prayed three times a day. The shortest of their prayers, if they hurried, was about 12 minutes, and they prayed whenever the prayer time came. They prayed, they prayed on the street corner or wherever they stopped and prayed, and then we find something else.

They gave to the Lord, they tithed everything they got, even down to the ridiculous. If somebody would come up and pluck some mint, you know what that is, a little herb that grows in the garden and used to flavor tea, or if you're from the South, mint juleps or something of that sort, it was a mint.

And take it off the wall and come up and say, here Mr. Pharisee, here's some mint from my garden. And the Pharisee would take one sprig here, put it down, another here, another here, count out ten. He'd have all that mint divided in ten piles, and one pile went to the Lord.

If somebody brought him anise, now anise was a little seed used to flavor a cookie, and you have it in your kitchens. And somebody, here Mr. Pharisee, here's some anise seed I got from my garden. He'd count out one seed, two seeds, three seeds, four seeds, five seeds, even down to the separate seeds.

And cumin, well that's also a spice that's used. And he'd count out each little piece. He got to the ridiculous, tithed everything, mint and anise and cumin, right down to the absurd. But he tithed everything he had.

Well, what did I say? They were devout in their practice. What'd they do? They fasted. Anything wrong with that? And they prayed. Would you say there's anything wrong with that? And they tithed. Was there anything wrong with that?

So now we've got the Pharisees. They're orthodox in their theology, and they're devout in their practice. Now something else about the Pharisees. They were evangelistic in their zeal. They were convinced that no one would go to heaven unless he was of Judah.

And so they went out to the Gentiles and they made converts from the Gentiles. So that when Herod rebuilt the temple, he had to put in a greatly enlarged court of the proselytes, they were called, to take care of the converts of the Pharisees to Judaism.

In fact, it was said that the Pharisees would encircle the globe to make, I didn't even know they knew then it was a globe or not, but encircle the world to make one proselyte. So we have got three things now.

The Pharisees were orthodox in their theology and they were devout in their practice and they were evangelistic in their zeal. Have you found anything yet you object to? I haven't. And then there was one other thing about the Pharisees.

They were premillennial in their hope. They were looking for the personal bodily coming of Messiah to set up the throne of David and to give back to Israel the glory that she'd had under David. Now that doesn't sound terribly bad, does it?

Fundamental in theology, devout in practice, evangelistic in zeal, premillennial in their hope. And yet Christ said of them, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, they shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

A lot of the people you talk to are going to have been catechized as you young people, or they're going to have been baptized, or they're going to have been made church members. They're going to have had something else.

They may be even fundamental in their theology or devout in their practice. But what did Christ say? There's nothing wrong with these things. It's just that they're not enough. Not enough. Anyone with common sense, good sense, and a strong will can do all of those things the Pharisees did, even if there wasn't a God.

Nothing in there that required grace or love or power, just discipline. That's all. And what the Lord Jesus was saying is this, that which prepares you for heaven is more than you can do by yourself. It's a miracle.

It's supernatural. What the Pharisees had was all right, but it wasn't enough. They had everything but life. You see, salvation is not a scheme. Salvation is not a system of theology. Salvation is not a decision.

Salvation is not a list of scripture verses. Salvation is not signing a card or saying a prayer. Salvation is a person. That's what we have in Psalm 27. Jehovah is my light and my salvation. He is my salvation.

And that's why Paul, writing to the church at Corinth in his second letter, chapter 13 in verse five, said, examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith, prove your own selves, know you not your own selves, how that Christ dwells in you, except you be reprobate.

Salvation is a person. It's Christ. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath the Son, because life is in the Son. We lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee some years ago, and we had a church in our area.

In fact, at one time we were members of that church. In fact, I don't even know, but they still may have our name somewhere on the roll. They said they never took names off. They just put them on. And if that's the case, then I suppose they're still there.

I don't know about that. But this particular church had a practice. Now, I'm sure you don't do that out here in Idaho, but in the East, we do. They did. Some do. I don't, but some do. And this church did.

The pastor would give an invitation, and people would come to the front, and somebody would meet them with a clipboard and get their name and address and telephone number. And why did you come? Rededicate my life was one of the common ones, or sometimes to be saved.

Well, there was one man that was always doing personal work in every service. A friend of mine was on the radio, and he was teaching the word much the same way as I would had I been on the radio. And he was telling people that salvation is a person and that the only way anyone ever is going to be prepared for heaven is for Christ to come into their hearts.

And the only way you'll know it is because he tells you when he comes by the Holy Spirit. Well, this man who was doing the personal work listened to the broadcast of my friend, and he called him. He said, I heard you on the radio the other afternoon.

And I want to talk to you. Yes, last Sunday, after the service, the pastor gave the invitation, and a very fine appearing businessman came down. And I took his name and his address, and I said, what did you come for?

He said, to be saved. So I opened my Bible to that verse that says, he that hath the Son hath life. And I asked him, read it. And I said, now do you believe that? And he said, yes, I believe that. So I wrote down saved.

Then I asked him if he wanted to be baptized, because in that church, as soon as they said yes, they were baptized. And he said, well, before I answer that, I got to ask you a question. You asked me if I believe that he that hath the Son hath life.

And I said, yes. And you said that I'm saved. But I just got one question to ask you. Sure, I believe that verse that he that hath the Son hath life. But my question is this, how do you get the Son? You know what I told him, said the man on the phone?

Well, I told him that it was just enough to believe that he could be baptized. And the pastor would explain it in the class later on. And the voice on the telephone said, do you think I did right? And my pastor friend said, do you think you did right?

And he said, no, I deceived that man. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ never wanted to deceive anything about anybody, about anything, and especially about the most important subject in all the world. And so he said, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven, because he knew that salvation is a person himself.

Now, that's the first thing. And as I say, when you're over that cafe, over that cup of coffee, by this time, you probably got the attention of the person you're talking to. And you didn't say it, you know, the Lord Jesus said it wasn't something you're not making any trouble.

You're just having him read what Christ said. Well, now you got, you can't stop there. So you got a number two. And in number two, you write down Luke chapter 13 verses three and five, Luke chapter 13 verses three and five.

And what do you read there? You turn, you hand your Bible or New Testament to the one sitting across the table from you. And how will you read this? And this is what he'll read. I tell you nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.

And then verse five, the second time I tell you nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Well, now that gets to be pretty much of a problem, doesn't it? Here, Christ has said twice in three verses that except people repent, they're going to perish.

Well, this fellow sitting next to you across from you in the cafe over that cup of coffee is going to be looking at you right about then. And he's going to say, well, that's all right. But tell me, what does it mean to repent?

If I got to do that or perish, I better know what it is. Now, what would you tell him if he asked you that right now? What would you tell him? What does the word repent mean to you? Well, I don't want to have a quiz on that.

I'm going to tell you what it means to me. And I believe I'm right. In fact, I'm quite sure I'm right. And I've been doing it a long time. And if I wasn't, I know there are a lot of folks that would like to come around and set me straight.

And if you're one of them, well, I welcome it. But I'm going to tell you what I believe and what the scripture teaches are repentance. The word is a word that means to change one's mind. Now, you've heard people say, oh, repent means to be sorry, sorry enough to quit.

Where'd you get that? Oh, I know where you got it. In Corinthians, it says, godly sorrow worketh repentance not to be repented of. Let me illustrate it. Here I got a board, it's the desk here. And in this hand, I got a spike.

And in this hand, I got a hammer. Now watch what I'm going to do. I'm going to put the spike on the board, and then I'm going to take the hammer and I'm going to work the spike into the board. Godly sorrow worketh repentance.

Sorrow is the hammer. Repentance is the spike. And the board is the heart. Godly sorrow worketh repentance, not to be repented of. All right, that's where we get the idea of sorrow. Sure, godly sorrow works repentance, but that's not the only thing that works repentance.

That's just one thing that does. Repentance is not sorrow. Repentance is something in and of itself. What is it? It's a change of mind from what it is shouldn't be to what it ought to be. Now, what's the mindset or the mind direction or the mind aim of the sinner, the person without Christ?

What is repentance? I'll tell you what it is. The sinner's mind is this, I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm going to rule my life, choose how to be happy, do what I please. And I'm not going to let my parents or the school or the police or the government tell me what to do.

I'm going to do what I want to do. That's the essence of sin. I'm going to rule my life. Nobody's going to tell me what to do. That's the very essence of this thing the Bible calls sin. You see, nobody is wise enough or big enough or good enough to run his own life.

We were made to be directed and guided and led by God. And sin is revolt against the rule of God. When we take things in our own hands. That's what the serpent said to Mother Eve, you shall be as God.

You decide how to be happy. You'll rule your life. I suppose in every human heart, there's a throne so big that it only fits God. Let me give you a picture. Here's a little child that goes into his daddy's office.

He's only about two and a half. And so the little child shinnies up the leg and pulls himself up on the arm and gradually gets himself over and sits there in his daddy's office chair and sits down, has to hold on to the arm to keep from falling off out and says, I'm the boss.

I'm going to run this company. You'd say for a child, two and a half to run a company is stupid. Doesn't have the brains, the experience, the wisdom, the knowledge, you know, for a person to climb up into the throne of his life that was made for Jesus Christ and cling to the arm and defy God and shake his fist in the face of God and say, I'm going to rule.

You better turn the company over to a two and a half year old and to do that, because that's really playing with fire. And that's what sinners do when they say, I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm going to rule my life.

I'm going to decide how to be happy. Now that's the essence of sin. I'll do what I want to do. And Christ said, except you repent, except you repent, you'll perish. Now what's repentance mean? Well, the mindset has been, I'm going to do what I want to do.

And repentance is 180 degree turn. Now from today on, I'm going to do what you want me to do. You're the boss. You're the king. You're the ruler. You're going to direct and control, and I'm going to obey.

That's what repentance means. A change of boss, a change of control, a change of, and listen, don't you understand that? Don't you? How in the world can a fellow that has picked up a gun and shot somebody goes into the presence of the gun, the judge with a smoking gun and got a long list of people he's going to shoot and say, judge, I want you to forgive me.

I just killed a man. What's that in your hand? Well, it's, I've got a gun. I'm going out and get some more, but I want you to forgive me. Any judge that did that ought to be put in prison and hung himself.

He's just more guilty than the person who pulled the trigger. Do you think that God can remain God and forgive people whose will is set to do evil? People have to repent. They have to throw down their guns and throw down their swords and throw down their weapons and cease their crimes and then come over and say, I deserve your wrath.

I deserve everything you can do to me, but from today on, I'm no bargains. I'm going to do what you want me to do because you deserve to be obeyed. That's repentance. It's a no negotiating deal from today on.

I'm going to obey you. It's a change of mind. It's a change of intention. It's a change of purpose from what it was to what it ought to be. And there is no saving virtue in it at all. It's not a work.

It's just a change of attitude. Now, Charles Spurgeon, one of the great preachers of England had this to say about repentance. He said, if a sinner has a thousand sins and he repents of 999 of them, it doesn't count for anything because all he's trying to do is make a deal with God.

In other words, repentance to be real has to be entire and not partial. He said, if a person repents of sin for 90 days and then goes back to it, it doesn't count for anything because repentance to be real has to be permanent and not temporary.

He said, if somebody feels they've got a sword in their back and knife in their back driving them on and they say, I repent, I repent and it is enforced and not freely given, reluctantly given, it doesn't amount to anything for repentance to be real has to be hearty and not reluctant, has to be entire and not partial, permanent and not temporary, hearty and not reluctant.

And Christ said, except you repent, you'll perish. The only kind of people that are going to go to heaven are the kind of people that have repented. Well, you'd say, well, you're getting pretty, you're getting touchy, aren't you?

No, I'm not getting touchy at all. I'm just telling you what Jesus said. He's the one that sets the terms. I didn't set them. Hey, don't blame me. I'm a devout coward. I'm like a rabbit on the opening day of hunting season.

I just look around for a stump to hide behind because I found rabbits have found out if they can get a thick enough stump, they aren't going to get shot if they're on the right side of the stump at the right time.

And I hide behind a stump. You know, the stump I hide behind, it's this book and you can shoot at me all you want. As long as I'm hiding behind the book, you're not going to hurt me. And I didn't write this.

It was my words. It's his. He's the one that said, except you repent and you'll perish. I didn't say it. You read it. I didn't read it. You read it. He said it. Well, now I'm not finished yet because I got to take you on over to Matthew chapter 18 and verse three.

Conversion and Becoming Like Little Children

There's more to this than you realize. He had something else to say. Matthew 18 and verse three, the Lord Jesus. Oh, he's got an interesting time here. The disciples came to Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

Oh, brother, you, those guys didn't understand what they were about, did they? I mean, who's the greatest in the case? Well, they had a lot to learn and they were learning it. That's what disciples mean.

Students. They're learning. You're learning. I'm learning. None of us are there yet. We're all still in school. Well, why do they come up and say, well, who's going to be the greatest? You remember when the mother of James and John came to the Lord and said, Lord, when thou comest into thy kingdom, let James sit on thy right hand and John on my left.

Sure. She was ambitious for her sons, but she missed the whole point. Didn't she? That wasn't what this was all about. And so what did the Lord Jesus do? He called a little child, just a two or three year old.

And he said the little child on his knees and the people, the disciples were around him. And Jesus said, verily, I say unto you, except you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Whoa. Well, little children aren't paragons of virtue, are they? They got problems. If you don't think so, talk to us about it. We have six. They're not little anymore, but our memories are long. Even if theirs aren't, they thought they were paragons of wonderful behavior.

Hear them talk. Well, we weren't so hot, but they were wonderful. That wasn't the way I heard it. That wasn't the way we went through it, but that's all right. I'm not going to fuss with him about it.

But a little child, three years old, sitting on, well, what does a little three year old have? Well, isn't it funny? Mother, father can hardly wait for the little fella to start to talk. He said his first word.

Mommy or daddy or something that sounded a lot like it, or could be freely interpreted as mommy or daddy, depending on whether it was heard by mommy or daddy. But they started to talk. Oh, how thrilling.

They started to talk. He's talking. Isn't that great? Well, first word, six months later, they wonder why they were so eager for him to start to talk. Mommy, what's this? Mommy, why? Why? What? Why? What characterizes little children?

They want to learn. They're willing to be taught and they're eager to be informed. And so what's the Lord talking about when he says you'll be converted and become his little children? You know what? So far, and I'm not finished yet by a long shot, I trust by the grace of God, but so far in my life, everybody I've ever met has his own plan of salvation.

I never met anybody in this country or in Africa anywhere who didn't have a plan of salvation that he was following. One, I've met a lot of guys at the university who said there isn't any God. That was their plan of salvation.

No God, so they didn't have to worry. And then there were others said, yeah, there's a God, but there's no hell. Well, that was their plan of salvation. I've often wondered why the denominations that are so sure there's no hell, go around the neighborhood, hanging information on your door to prove to you there's no hell.

If there isn't any, why should they worry about it? But no, they got to convince everybody else there isn't. I never figured that out. I just can't see how that makes sense. But I've also met, oh, you've met the guy, haven't you?

Well, I believe that God has a big scales in the sky and he's putting my bad deeds on the left hand and my good deeds on the right hand. And if my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds, I'll make it. That's his plan of salvation.

But what our Lord Jesus said was, if you're ever going to make it into the kingdom of heaven, you're going to have to become as a little child and look up into his face and say, how Lord, how you got to be changed for all I got the answers.

I know how to do this. The Lord, how that's, what's going to happen. Oh, I got a good illustration of this. You remember that Philippian jailer that had Paul beaten? Now he was in Philippi and Philippi was a Roman city in Greece.

The Philippian Jailer and the Question of Salvation

It was an extraterritorial possession of Rome. It wasn't a Grecian city. It was a Roman city. And it was their name for the father of Alexander Philip, but it was a Roman city and it was run under Roman law.

And Paul was a Roman citizen and Roman citizens could never be scourged. And the jailer scourged Paul. And after he'd finished scourging, Paul said, you know, I'm a, I'm a Roman. Ooh, that wasn't so good.

Cause that was against the law for him to scourge a Roman. Well, at any rate, he'd gone this far. He put Paul and Silas down in the dungeon, put the shackles around her arms and they're there chained to the wall.

They can't sit down. They can't lay down and they can hang, but they'd hang from their wrists and their ankles or got shackles around them. And they're there in the dungeon. Well, what's Paul going to do when he's there?

And then Silas is next to him. The guys in the other cells are going to say, what in the world do you fellas do to get that dungeon? Well, not very many get that. Well, we got it. Well, why? Well, because we were preaching about Jesus.

Well, who's Jesus? He's God who became flesh and dwelt among us. He would loved us and gave himself for you and for me died and God raised. Oh, you mean that fellow that pilot killed? Yeah, that's the one that's Jesus.

He's alive. Yeah, he's alive. And after a while, Paul gets tired of talking and he, he says, Silas heist the tune. And I can hear Silas as he says, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the strength of my life. Whom shall I be afraid? Well, no angel wants to interrupt a good praise service. So long about midnight, Silas gets horse and he stops and the angel of the Lord just there.

No, he's seen by Paul and Silas, but not by the jailer or anybody else. And all the angel does is point. And when he points the tumblers in the lag began and then when it's open, doors begin to screech and the shackles, if they're shackled fall off and one door after another.

Funny thing though, all the doors are open. All the shackles are off, but nobody leaves their cells. That's strange. You'd think those guys would break out. Wouldn't you? But God wasn't trying to put a lot of criminals back in Philippi.

He was trying to get one that was a worse prisoner than any of the others released. That was the Roman jailer. Well, here's the Roman jailer. First he scourged Paul and he never should have done that.

That was illegal. And if Paul wants to report him, he's going to be broken. He's going to, he'll probably go to jail. And secondly, he's put Paul in the dungeon, hasn't given him any meal, any food. And now Paul's God, whom he said was dead and now alive, has sent an angel to open the prison and all the prisoners are going to escape.

Well, he's had it. So he's up there in the little balcony overlooking this thing. He wasn't down on the floor, but he was up in the separate door and he's out there and he knows what he has to do. So he just pulls his little short sword out and he's got breastplate on leaves of breastplate of metal and he fits the sword and he gets ready to fall down on the desk and plunge the sword through his heart.

Saves the government a lot of expense. And just about the time he falls, Paul says, do thyself no harm. We are all here. No one has fled. No one's going. Now I want you to see here was that haughty, arrogant, proud, authoritarian Roman jailer knows all about all the gods because the Pantheon in Rome has all the gods of the Roman empire, expert on gods.

He never saw anything like this. And boy, his helmet is off. Plume is broken. And he, what's happened to him? He's become as a little child, a little child. And you know what he says, man and brethren, what must I do to be saved?

What must I do to be saved? He's become as a little child. Now that's the time. I don't know what Paul said in those previous hours he'd been in that prison, but I know what he didn't say. He didn't tell a Roman jailer how to be saved.