THE GREATEST NEED OF MAN

THE GREATEST NEED OF MAN

Acts 16:22-31

 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten.

 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.

 Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose.

 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.

 But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!"

 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.

 He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

 They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved-- you and your household."

*After their miraculous release from the Philippian jail, Paul and Silas tell their repentant jailer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved”(Acts 16:31).

WHY DO NEED TO BE SAVED?

– We need to be saved because we are totally lost in sin.

*The Bible teaches the total depravity of the human race; that is, every aspect of our being has been corrupted by sin

Romans 3:10-12 (KJV) As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

*We need the Good Shepherd to seek out the lost sheep and bring them home, rejoicing.

– We need to be saved because we are in danger of hell. 

Hebrews 9:27 (KJV) And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

*and, if we die without God’s salvation, we will meet the same fate as the rich man who lifted up his eyes “in Hades, being in torment”

*We need a Savior to rescue us from internal death.

– We need to be saved because we are under God’s wrath.

(Ephesians 2:3). We are “by nature deserving of wrath” 

*Without salvation, we stand condemned: 

*according to the scripture:.Whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” 

*We need Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, to propitiate the wrath of God and receive our judgment.

– We need to be saved because we are spiritually dead.

*Before salvation, we are “dead in [our] sins”

*Dead people can do nothing for themselves. 

*We need resurrection.

*We need the life-giving power of Christ, who alone can conquer death.

– We need to be saved because our hearts are hardened by evil. 

Jeremiah 17:9 (KJV) The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

*The unsaved “are darkened in their understanding.

*The unsaved “are separated from the life of God.

*Our foolishness has hardened us from God.

*We need a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit to fix our hearts and align them with God’s will.

*Jesus is knocking in the door of your heart this morning.

– We need to be saved because we are enslaved to sin and Satan.

*In our natural state, we are held in Satan’s snare and bound by his will.

*We need a Redeemer to liberate us.

* In Christ we “have been set free from sin”.Hallelujah

*We need Jesus, the Prince of Peace, to reconcile us to God and bring us into the family of God as adopted sons and daughters.

*When Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born again,” He spoke of necessity.

*Being saved—receiving the new birth—is not just a suggestion..... but It is the deepest need of the human soul: 

*You must be born again.”