I have a one-word title for my
message, and it is simply, Jesus. Jesus. And I wonder how many
times, and in how many places this very day, that word, that
name will be spoken. If you would turn first of all,
to the book of Acts, we find that in that first apostolic
preaching, there was sounded forth the name Jesus. Acts chapter 4. Looking down in verse 10, the
apostle said, being filled with the Spirit of God, be it known
unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised
up from the dead, Even by Him doth this man stand here before
you whole. This is the stone which was set
at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in
any other, For there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved." There is no other name
given under heaven whereby we must be saved. There is only one true, one real
Jesus. By just what Peter said in those
few words, we know that the Spirit of God ascribes salvation only
to Him. It is only in Him. He alone is
God manifest in the flesh. He alone is life eternal. He alone is the Redeemer, the
one who alone saves us from our sin. And I know this, I know
that those who truly believe in Him, they will be saved. Turn over to Romans chapter 10. Romans 10, and listen to the
Apostle Paul here in Romans 10, beginning in verse 9. He says,
this is the word of faith, this is the gospel that we preach,
that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and
shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed." That means they will
never be disappointed. They will never be found to have
believed in one who cannot and did not save, for there is no
difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord
over all is rich unto all that call upon Him." For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord, they shall be saved." But
if you notice, Paul does not simply stop with that. He goes
on to say something else. He says in verse 14, how then, Shall they call on Him in whom
they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they have not heard?" In other words, there is this
necessity of hearing about Him. So the question has to arise,
have we ever really heard about Him, and have we truly believed
in Him, this Jesus? He says, "...and how shall they
hear without a preacher, and how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things." In other words, he says one cannot
believe on him of whom they have not heard, and they cannot hear
except God send one preaching unto them this Jesus." Now, it
naturally has to follow, if we have any common sense at all,
it has to arise this question, how do we know? How can it be
known if one in the midst of all of these who will use this
name this very day again and again and again, how can we know
if they are preaching this Jesus? And as I said, there is only
one true Jesus, but there are, according to this book, according
to the warnings that we get in this book, many false Christs
who are not really Christ's at all. Unless we wonder as to whether
or not this business of salvation, this business of believing on
Christ, is a matter wherein if we just get something somewhere
close and that will be good enough, turn over to Matthew chapter
24 and look down, if you would, at this warning of Christ in
verse 24. Matthew 24 and verse 24. He says, "...for there shall
arise false Christs and false prophets, that is, not only will
some come, and present themselves to people in this world saying
that they are the Christ, as many surely have and will as
long as time stands. But even more so, there will
be many false prophets who will preach a Christ or a Jesus who
is simply a counterfeit. And I want you to notice this
in particular. How good a counterfeit will they
preach? How close will they come talking
about Jesus without the Jesus they're talking about really
being the true Jesus? Well, listen to what he says,
"...for there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and
shall show great signs and wonders." That is, they'll be joined together
with great outward results and great followings, and even what
appears to the natural eye as great demonstrations of power
and works of God. He says, "...in so much that
if it were possible And I love that that is stated, if it were
possible, saying that it is not. But the counterfeit is such that
if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect of God. That's how good a counterfeit. That's how close they are. And Paul warned those to whom
he preached and all of us who would read this epistle to the
Corinthians in 2 Corinthians, something that we have great
need of being advised of. 2 Corinthians and the 11th chapter,
where he says in the third verse, I believe it is, he said writing
to these Corinthians who professed believing on Christ, he said,
I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy. He says, because of
this, He says, but I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent
beguiled Eve, that is, deceived and tricked Eve. He said, through
his subtlety or cunningness, so your minds should be corrupted
from the simplicity, or as it actually is, the singleness or
singularity that is in Christ. There is not more than one Christ. There is not many Christ's, and
there is only one Jesus. He says, for if he that comes
preaches another Jesus, that's the one I'm so fearful of, another
Jesus. He says, whom we have not preached,
or if ye receive another spirit which ye have not received, or
another gospel which ye have not accepted, this is what he
says, I fear, that ye might well bear with one who preaches such."
That is, there is no doubt. than any other Jesus, than the
one that the apostle Paul and others who were truly sin of
God, If anyone preaches any other Jesus rather than this Jesus,
they are simply that. They are another Jesus, which
Paul says is not really another one at all. I fear, he says,
lest somebody comes along and beguiles you or tricks you through
their cunningness, whether it be fond, fair words, or acts,
or deeds, or persuasive art, no matter what it is, other than
the gospel, which is taken in the hands of the Spirit of God
to show thee Christ, he said, I fear. that somebody comes along
and you're deceived in believing on another Jesus. Now going back to this name Jesus,
the name Jesus is virtually the same as the Old Testament words
Joshua and Hosea. And that name means simply something
like Savior, or Deliverer, or as it is, Jehoshua, or Jehovah
the Savior. The only true Jesus that there
is, is none other than Jehovah Jesus, or the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself. But do you realize that all through
the Old Testament, though He is pictured time and time and
time again, And in all of those pictures, some various characteristic
of His person and work is demonstrated and illustrated. And although
He is spoken of as the Messiah and by other such names again
and again in the Old Testament, there came a time There came
a moment in time when that name was first spoken, the name Jesus. Turn over to the Gospel of Matthew,
Matthew chapter 1, And here in the New Testament,
we have the first writing or mention of that name, although
it was not the first time that it was spoken. How does Matthew
begin his gospel? The book of the generation of
Jesus Christ. When you go over to the Revelation,
the Scripture says in that book that that book, as well as every
other, is the revelation of Jesus Christ. But look down farther
in verse 16. And Jacob begot Joseph, the husband
of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ." There
it is again. Joseph was that one who took
Mary to be his wife. But before they had any union
in the flesh, she was found to be pregnant with this One whose
name is Jesus." Alright? Look down in verse 18. It says,
"...now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when, as his
mother Mary was his spouse to Joseph, before they came together,
she was found with child of the Holy Ghost." Without any human
father. without any natural assistance
from man in any way, she was found to have in her womb a baby
by the Spirit of God." Well, Joseph, as it says here, being
a just man or an honorable man, when he found that out, He, being
an honorable man, rather than just publicly embarrassing her,
which would have been a real tradition among the Jews, rather
than doing so, he was just going to not marry her and put her
away quietly. Except something happened. And
what happened was this. The angel of the Lord came to
this man, and told him not to do it. And when he told him not
to do it, he gave to him the reason why that that which was
conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and then he gives this
instruction in Matthew 1, verse 21, "...and she shall bring forth
a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus." In other words,
the angel of the Lord came to this earth, sent of God, and
being sent of God, spoke to this man Joseph this very name that
was to be the name of that child born of Mary." All right? It went on in verse 25, it says,
"...and he knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn
son, and he called his name Jesus." Called his name Jesus. And you know, it doesn't matter
how many of the people before that hour or after that hour,
and many have been named that very literal name a number of
times since then, there has only been and only is one Jesus. So how do we know Him? There
are a lot of people who seem quite satisfied even with the
warnings that we have in Scripture. They seem quite satisfied as
long as somebody speaks the name of Jesus or says they believe
in somebody called Jesus. They seem quite willing to accept
that and count it to be the same as what the Apostle is talking
about. But why would he warn us? Why
would there be danger in just believing what I would say in
some mystical or historic or whatever term you want to use,
person named Jesus? What's necessary to distinguish
Him? Well, He is distinguished not
only throughout all of Scripture, but what we have when the angel
gave this name. He not only gave this name, but
He also gave the distinguishing characteristic and the distinguishing
work which sets Him apart from every other. Paul, and every
other New Testament writer, makes this statement in one way or
another. We preach Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. And the reason they say that
is because this person, this individual person that is the
Savior, that is the whole of salvation, this person is known
for who he is and is distinguished by a particular work. Now, if you don't believe this
sets him apart, You better just open your ears and your eyes
and even begin to ask some people. So what does he say? Well, look
back in verse 21, "...and she shall bring forth a son, and
thou shalt call his name Jesus." You notice the punctuation that
follows that. It's a colon. And that means
in our language, that means in English, it did in 1611, it did
in earlier times of that, it means that some description or
definition is about to follow to describe what was just named. He says, "...thou shalt call
his name Jesus for..." What does that mean? Because. In other words, in the old traditions,
in the East especially, there were some real reasons for names. You have a name like Barnabas,
which literally meant son of consolation, or other names that
had real meaning about them, but not so much so in our day. It's more of a trendy thing.
We want to call our children whatever the going name is. But
it says, thou shalt call his name Jesus for or because there's
a reason he's called such. But what does it say in the following?
It says, "...thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins." Every word in that statement
which is a statement of distinction and description, is essentially
important and is to be found everywhere in the New Testament,
everywhere in the whole Bible. Why call His name Jesus? For
He. In other words, this is His name
because of something He will do. It doesn't ever, as anything
in the gospel, anything in salvation, it doesn't ever begin with you
or me or any other person. It always begins with He. He, singular. And I might add,
He alone. He as in one. There is one Mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. That's what not
only made the Jews mad when Peter preached it, makes men and women
mad in our day when they are shut up to the fact that salvation
is in one alone, that there are not many ways, or many faiths,
or many doors, or any such thing as that. There is none other
name given among men none other name under heaven whereby we
must be saved but this one." Not Buddha, not Mohammed, not
any other name, not any other mistaken identity of this name. He and He alone. There is, as
Paul says in Ephesians 4, there is just one Lord and one faith. And that's Jesus. Turn over to
Isaiah 63. Isaiah 63. And it doesn't say
the name of Jesus in the Old Testament. But as I said, He is pictured,
He is typified, He is foretold of, prophesied, and He is most
definitely described. But look here in Isaiah, in chapter
63, as He's described. He's not only described in a
person, but He's described also in a more descriptive way as
the Savior. The prophet says, "...who is
this that cometh from Edom with dyed garments from Basra," that
is, red, blood-appearing garments, "...this is that glorious in
his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength, I
that speak in righteousness, mighty, to say, this is the Savior. All right, look on. "...Wherefore
art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that
treadeth in the wine-fab?" You know, they would go and mash
the grapes, the wine fat as it was called, in the vats in the
making of the wine. And he appears as one who's been
doing that, and all the juice is spattered up on his garments.
This is Christ and Him crucified. This is the one who shed His
blood. He says, I have trodden the wine
press alone. What's that? It's the winepress
of God's wrath. It's that winepress of God's
wrath. He said, "...and of the people
there was none with me, for I will tread them in mine anger, and
trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled
upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment, for the
day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed And
I looked, and there was none to help, and I wondered that
there was none to uphold. Therefore my own arm brought
salvation unto me, and my fury it upheld me." Whose arm brought
salvation? Christ's. So He begins in distinguishing
and pointing out and defining the true Jesus, and He begins
with that one word, He. He alone, He singularly, He not
as a part of a team, but just He. The Apostle says in Hebrews
1, when he had by himself urged our sins, he sat down on the
right hand of the Majesty on high. This is not a cooperative
effort. And man is so prone in our self-righteousness
to try to have some part, our will, or our work, or some little
part wherein we can get a little glory. But it's just he. He. All right? The next word
says this, for he shall. Now, you can have all the maybe-so's
and the might-so's and the possibilities and all such things if you want
to, but give me God's shalls every time. When you go back
and look at the language of the covenant, which we find time
and time again in such books as the one we just read from
in Isaiah, when you hear the Christ speaking, it is always,
I shall, He shall. In other words, when Jesus came
into this world, when He was born of Mary, God manifests in
the flesh. It was not on some fool's error. It was not to live in this world
and have men to do things that then altered and changed the
purpose and will of God so that He had to turn then and do something
else. It wasn't that He came into this
world not knowing what was going to happen to Him. He came to
do something that He intended to do for all eternity. He shall. That means without
possibility of failure. He not only did it alone, but
He did it in His coming without any possibility of failure, so
that men can say, what if this, and what if that, and what if
the other, and all this other stuff, and it will never amount
to anything. There was never any possibility
of His failure. Some seem to find a lot of problem
with saying that God could bless, or God could do anything, or
God could make us anything, before Christ actually came into this
world and did something. But the truth is, within the
Godhead, everything is accepted as done altogether at once, because
there's no possibility of failure. God never looked down and said,
well, what if this one that Christ dies for doesn't believe? He
never looked down and wondered whether or not his purpose would
come to pass or not. He never looked at Christ and
said, well, I wonder if he'll actually accomplish redemption
or not. There was never any possibility of failure. shall absolutely,
without any doubt, and to my mind, that's the one thing that
seems to really characterize the true Jesus, and that is that
He is absolutely and eternally a success. This amazes me, because
it seems like that in our day, if it's one thing this society
really loves, it's a winner. It doesn't matter how he did
it. In business, if he's a winner, if he's a success, it doesn't
matter if he stole from everybody and stepped on every little person,
all the way to his seeming success, it's alright, he's a success. Or somehow in politics, or in
the movie world, whatever it is, here are all these base people,
that are looked upon, and drooled over, and magnified, and your
money taken and spent toward them, when in truth, they're
absolute failures. But not this one. He's a success. As a matter of fact, his success
is my salvation. His successfulness is my only
hope. If you turn back to Isaiah, in
Isaiah chapter 42, listen to what it says by God Himself concerning
His servant. That's the Lord Jesus. Isaiah
42, He says, "...Behold My servant, whom I uphold, Mine elect." The
old hymn writer had this hymn, and then it was a verse that
said, Christ be my first elect, God said, then chose us in our
federal head. Behold my servant, look at him,
whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delights, I'll put
my spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Judgment? That's exactly what's
happening. On that cross, on the behalf
of every Gentile sinner, Christ dies, for God is judging their
sin in Christ. He shall not cry, nor lift up,
nor cause His voice to be heard in the street, A bruised reed
shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. He
shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail." Let
me tell you this, if it was the intention and purpose of the
Lord Jesus Christ, or the purpose of God, the Godhead as a whole,
to save every person in this world, then He did fail. If it was the purpose and will
of Christ to redeem all, and to save all, and to make sure
all go to heaven, then He did fail. But what does this say? "...he shall not fail, nor be
discouraged till he hath set judgment in the earth, and the
isle shall wait for his law." That means simply that he accomplished
salvation and the people will be found waiting that he died
for, they're waiting to hear his gospel, his good news. He shall, absolutely without
any possibility of failure. And then what's that next word?
Save. For he shall save. Now think
about this. Most of what is preached and
called the gospel of salvation is simply an offer of salvation,
or a possibility of salvation, or that Christ did something
that in some way will make us savable. or that He did in some
work, something that would make us able to save ourselves, or
make it possible, if you just ask somebody, did Christ save
anybody on that cross? Well, yes, He did. I mean, He
saved some people. But at some point it will be,
if. if they believe, if they choose Him, if they make their
decision, if they decide to follow Him, if they live for Him, not
this Jesus, for He shall pay. That word means deliver, make
safe. It actually means heal, preserve. Did here, didn't He? You see,
the truth is, the person and work of Jesus Christ, in Himself
and by Himself, He is, in all that He does in His life and
death, saving His people. This is an everlasting salvation. You know, there's one thing I'm
sure, and that is, you and I cannot save ourselves. Another thing
I'm sure of is that if he is called the Savior by God, if
he's called the Savior of the world, that doesn't mean he's
going to save everybody in the world. That means he's the only
Savior there is, whether you're Jew or Gentile. But then it says
this, you'll call his name Jesus, for he that glorious One whose
God in flesh shall, without any possibility of failure, save
to the uttermost His people, His people. Who is He going to
save? I would to God every Every one
of us, not only here today, but every person in this world could
be shut up to honestly answer from this book and even from
this verse, who is it that this Jesus will save? His people. And somebody always says, but
John 3.16 says, What does John 3.16 say? And what does it mean
most every time in the New Testament where you find that word, world,
being used? You find it being used to speak
to a world of people, especially to those Israelites who all their
days thought that they were the world. No. Whether a person is
Jew or Gentile, male or female, North Carolina or darkest Africa,
those who look to this Jesus, they'll be saved. They'll have
everlasting life. He shall save his people. Not those people of such as the
Pharisees were, of whom he said, you are of your father, the devil. Not those he said, you believe
not, because you're not of my sheep. He said, my sheep hear
my voice, and I give my life for the sheep. I lay down my
life for the sheep, not the goats. Do you think for one minute that
God who says first of all that He's a just God and a Savior,
do you think for one minute that divine justice would allow even
one for whom Christ died, even one that He shed His blood for
and paid the debt of their sin, that He would allow even one
of them to perish and go to hell? You see, there's not a greater
mockery in making of the death of Jesus Christ a total miscarriage,
there's not a greater way of doing that than saying that Christ
died for everybody, and yet, as Scripture says, most of them
are going to go to hell. Well, He's already done all He
can. But He couldn't save me then. Couldn't save me. It says
He'll save His people. How are they His people? Well,
the Scripture says that they were given to Him by the Father
in that covenant of grace before the world ever was. They were
not just chosen in him. It was not just determined by
God that they would have an opportunity to be saved or even hear the
gospel. They were literally, in that
covenant, given to Christ as his bride, as his people. They are called by him, the children
that thou hast given me. He prays for them. He says in
John 17, He says, I pray not for the world, but I pray for
these that you've given Me out of the world. Turn over to John
17. John 17, look at verse 1, first
of all. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come, glorify
thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee." In other words,
this has something of glorifying the Godhead. "...as thou hast
given Him power over all flesh." He has authority and dominion
over all flesh. that he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him." They're given to him as
his bride. And that's why Paul says in Ephesians
5 that husbands are to love their wives even as Christ loved the
church and gave himself for it. Paul gathered up those Ephesian
elders, they're in the book of Acts, and he said, you go back
and you preach and you be faithful to these who make up this church
that Christ purchased with His own blood. His elect, His sheep,
His friends, that I lay down my life for my friends. But let
me bring this to a close. He says also, "...for he shall
save his people from their sins." How does he save his people from
their sins? Well, first of all, by what the
Bible calls imputation. Which means, as it says in Isaiah
53, that the Lord laid their sins, or imputed their sin, or
charged their sins to Christ the Savior. The surety, as He's
called, had assumed all the responsibility of their sins. It's as if God,
and the word is reckoned or account, it's as if God took the ledger
card which had Christ's name and our name on it, and He moved
the dead side or the liability of our sin over to Him, and His
righteousness imputed to us. He shall save His people from
their sins. Remember this. All their sins. Somebody's always worrying about,
what about if I do this or that? You probably will. What about
if I sin in the future? There's no what about if. You
will sin if you live. But they were all future when
Christ died. There are no big sins or little
sins. Sin is awful in the sight of
God, and it surely is awful in the sight of His people, but
their comfort and their joy and their peace lies in this, that
He came and He saved us from all our sins." And then somebody
always says, well, that is all except for unbelief. We have
no unbelief of sin? The root sin, you might say?
You see, there are some people who, in a very subtle way, hate
the grace of God in such a way that they, through subtlety,
they want to keep people all their days in bondage and under
law, without any peace, without any comfort. And I'm telling
you, Christ did not come and die for His people that that
be the case. And I just said in that little
hymn I wrote that we sang this morning, shouldn't we believe
God? All these fear mongers and works
preachers and law mongers, it says that He saves His people
from all their sins. All. Past, present, future, what
we call little and great, It's all offensive to a holy God.
He saves us from all our sins. You know, there are things that
you do in your life, and they haunt you every day of your life
till you're gone. I think they will. You did them,
you said them, you wish you could go back and undo them, and even
forgiven, you still know how awful they were. But do we believe
God? that the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth us from all our sins. He saves us from the penalty
of them, from the condemnation of them. He even delivers us
from the power and dominion of them. and has promised that one
day he's even going to deliver us from the presence of hell.
You see, that's one of the glories of heaven. Next to the presence
of God himself is the glory of the absence of all sin. Jesus. And any other is another
Jesus. And all that we find, not only
in the Gospels, but in all the epistles, all we find is the
amplification and the greater manifestation in detail and description
of just those very few words. Christ crucified. is simply that
this Jesus has saved His people from all their sins. And He's my hope. He's my hope. And everyone that believes on
Him, they'll never be disappointed. They'll never be found to be
short. God is not a fickle being like we are. Christ is the same
yesterday and today and forever. Those who believe on this Jesus,
they have been, they are being, and they shall be saved. Father, this day we give you
thanks and praise and glory through our great Savior, our great Mediator
and High Priest, our one Redeemer, Reconciler, who as a man, who
as God manifest in flesh, put away our sins by the sacrifice
of Himself. Help us to cast away all hope
in anyone or anything else and trust in Him. And Lord calls
us in knowing Him to be such, in rejoicing in Him having done
all things in our salvation, who with hearts full of gratitude
and thanksgiving seek to live and serve and honor Him, all
our days in this world. We thank you in Christ. We pray
in His name. Amen.