Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Acts chapter four and verse
12. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved. Acts chapter 4 and verse
12. Salvation. Salvation is a saving from and
a saving to. It's a saving from sin and its
consequences, saving from eternal condemnation, and saving to a
place with Christ on earth, amongst His people, and with Him in our
hearts, and with Him and His people in heaven. There's two
signs. to salvation. And that is reflected
in all of the teaching of the church as well. Our Lord says
you cannot serve God and mammon. So we have two sides there. And
we either are serving one or serving the other. We are either
lost or we are either saved. There's no middle way at all. And we need to be very clear
that salvation is to be only on God's terms and in God's way. Many in this world are ignorant
of the word of God, some of you say they haven't, still do not
use that, do not have regard to God's way. But the only way of salvation
is God's way. We're used to this in many aspects
in our lives. If you are dealing perhaps with
a car or car insurance, the way to be able to be covered by that
insurance if you have a car accident is on the terms of that insurance. No use going to a builder and
saying, what are your terms for your builders? What's that got
to do with a car? So you look at the one who's
going to cover you, the one that is insuring you, and you say,
what are your terms? Well, your car's got to be roadworthy,
it's got to be tacked, and you've got to be healthy, and there'll
be all of these terms. And then there's all of these
clauses as well that It might be fully covered, but in certain
circumstances not. And we're used to that. If we're
doing a building, the building regulations, they dictate what
we should do, how we should act. And the authority that we're
under, the building authority, is their rules that we look at,
not someone else's, it's theirs. And so when we're talking about
our souls, when we're talking about eternity and the things
of God, it's not man's rules, it's not man's ways, it's God's
ways and God's word and his terms that we need to be concerned
over. Well, the apostle here was given
an opening. We read in the beginning of chapter
three, how that when Peter and John went up together to prayer,
then there was this one, a lame man carried in. And through the
Lord Jesus Christ, they were brought to heal him. In verse six, in the name of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him
up, took him by the right hand and lifted him up. Immediately
his feet and ankle bones received strength. Now the Lord had said
that when he was lifted up, that they would do greater deeds than
he did. In his lifetime, he performed
miracles, the blows of fishes, of healing, of raising the dead. But the Lord said that greater
deeds will ye do than this, because I go to my Father. I would like
to draw the parallel with Elijah and Elisha, because Elisha asked
that he might have a double portion of Elijah's spirit. And Elijah
said that he'd asked him a hard thing, but if he saw him when
he was taken out from him, that that would be so. And Elisha
did, he saw Elijah taken up into heaven with a chariot and horses
of fire. And Elisha actually performed
twice as many miracles as what Elisha did, Elisha 8 and Elisha
16. Well, the disciples, when the
Lord led them out as far as to Bethany, he lifted up his hands
and blessed them, while he blessed them, He was separated from them
and ascended up into heaven, and they saw Him. They saw Him. And so suddenly
you see the disciples, they are doing miracles. They are doing these same things.
But they're also preaching. They're preaching what could
not be preached while Christ had not been crucified. now preaching
Jesus and him crucified, and risen again, and ascended up
into heaven. And thousands were brought to
believe, 3,000 at Pentecost, that blessing that never happened
while our Lord was still in the flesh. that blessing that happened
when the Holy Spirit was sent, I will pray the Father and he
will give you another comforter. Tarry in Jerusalem, tarry in
the city, until ye be endued with power from on high. And
so these miracles were given, they were given to bear witness
that the Lord was in heaven, that these were his witnesses
and what they said was true, and to bear witness in the inspired,
infallible word of God that we may rely on these witnesses and
rely on what has been done. Those miracles, they have ceased. God's hands still work miracles,
but they ceased with the apostles. They were for that time, and
they were to bear witness that that which is written is the
truth. And so here the Lord gave Peter
and John, through this miracle, an opening to speak of the Lord
Jesus Christ. In these Gospel days, I always
pray for and look for openings, wherever I go wherever I stay. My prayer is, Lord, give an opening
to be able to speak the Word of God. We need to be salt and light
and expect that the Lord will give openings, and this is a
real example of this. We won't have things like a miracle
that is done, but the Lord can use all sorts of things to give
an opening. When I first came over here,
and some would say I've still got quite a strong Australian
accent after 28 years, but often I was asked, what's that accent?
You come from Australia. Why did you come from Australia?
Well, I was called to the pastorate at St David's Bridge. And sometimes
as soon as you mention religion, people, their shutters go down.
You can see they don't want to hear anything more. Others were
interested, oh, what's that? Immediately you've got an opening,
and you can start to speak to them of the word of God. Why
did you leave a beautiful country like Australia, as many people
view, and to come over here? What must have been that drawn
you? And so that used to be an opening. And the Lord can use many things
like that, especially afflictions, People expect that you might
be bitter or upset about things that happen, but when you're
not, they can't understand. We were with Darrell Playfoot
yesterday, and he reminded me it was 14 years since he sold
his business and I was made redundant. I'd worked for him for five and
a half years. and my position was not needed,
and they amalgamated the two businesses. But I'd been praying
and praying because four days a week work, I couldn't keep
that up in the ministry. I wanted to reduce it, and I
didn't know what to do. I didn't know what was happening
in the business. And then it turned out I was
to be made redundant. So instead of just reducing,
it was completely going. But that, I saw the answer of
the Lord, saw the Lord's hand in it. And you know when the
new boss from London, he took me into his office and to really
apologize, I said, you don't need to apologize, here's an
answer to prayer. He couldn't understand, he said,
it's made you redundant. And I said, yeah, but the Lord
knows. And I said, I've been seeking to know what the Lord's
will was, and this is the answer to it. So I said, don't beat
yourself up on that, don't be upset on that. And he could,
I could speak to him. The Lord's ordering of providence
and answers to prayer, and our trust in him. And they may not
understand, but it is a witness to the Lord's glory. And it just
reminded me of that. yesterday. And so here we have
this opening and it is taken when all of the people start
running and they start coming, it's drawing the people to be
asking these questions and to wonder why is this happening. So then he's able to speak to
them and of the Lord Jesus Christ and to set before them what had
happened at Jerusalem and how Jesus of Nazareth had been crucified
and that it was he that had been prophesied and Moses had spoken
of as one being raised up like unto me. And he also applies
it as well, after he has spoken these truths, repent ye therefore
and be converted that your sins may be blotted out. They were
going against the Lord Jesus Christ, they didn't believe Him,
and now He's saying, turn, repent. Turn the other way, believe in
Him, be sorry for what you've done, and look to Him for salvation. Repentance is a change of mind
in the first place. Yes, it results in the change
of lives, and to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord.
But none of us, our repentance is perfect or right, and it's
daily we are repenting. But if the Lord has given us
a change of mind, so that we now desire what is good, we now
desire to walk in the Lord's ways, and we embrace that which
we before hated and rejected, that is what is absolutely vital,
that right through the Word of God, from the fall, we are all
going the wrong way. And the whole message through
the Word of God is a vital necessity of repentance, a change, a turning
the other way. And without that, we're lost
eternally. And the blessing of the Gospel
is the Lord Jesus Christ is exalted to give repentance and remission
of sins unto Israel. He is the one that bestows it,
and he bestows it through means like this, something that brought
their attention and then opened their ear to what Peter and John
were saying, and then the application of the word. You know, we do
need that application, don't just think. that you come in
and out of the house of God, you just hear the word preached,
and there's no application. There's nothing that touches
you in your life. There's nothing that the word
is saying to you. It just goes over your head,
you just go out, all you've done, a door upon its hinges. But remember,
this is life and death. This is the word that is to be
either received, or it is not received, because we are are
dead, are hard, and we don't hear what is set forth. So not
only did the apostles set forth the Lord, but they also exhorted
them to repentance. And then we have a further opening,
and they were brought before the Sadducees as well. And that
began with them being grieved with what they were doing. The
Lord uses that as well. We might think we'd like people
to always like what we say, get on with what we say and how we
act, but how many times the Lord was given openings by those that
even sought to entrap Him and to tangle Him in His talk, and
with the apostles as well. Those openings, even with Paul
and Silas, cast into prison, and the Lord used that. We need
to really remember that the Lord uses sometimes very strange things
and painful things for His people to walk through, that He might
have the honour and glory and the Word be blessed. And it is
in this part that our text comes where the Apostles clearly set
forth the Lord Jesus Christ that was crucified, was rejected of
the Jews and now is being declared unto them. And the miracle that
was done that they couldn't have denied that. It was there, that
man was walking, and they weren't taking anything to themselves.
In verse 12 in chapter three, why do you look earnestly on
us as though by our own power or holiness we made this man
to walk? The apostles were very clear,
this is not in us, this is through the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's
not in any minister to command a blessing, but it is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so these things bring up
to the text that we have, and that I want to, in the Lord's
help, speak to you on this very clear message. Neither is there
salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven
given among men. whereby we must be saved. I want you to look at three points. And firstly, salvation in any
other. In other words, cutting off the
hope of being saved in any other way. And then secondly, none
other name. Salvation through Jesus, God's
way. And then lastly, whereby we must
be saved. And just several thoughts on
that, must be saved. But firstly, salvation in any
other. This is one thing that the world
does not like at all. Our king, he likes to be a champion
of faiths. The idea of one faith, he can't
see that. Many times, there's one time
I had an opportunity when I first started with a firm over in Australia,
and I was invited back to the manager's home for a meal. I
would rather have stayed in my motel, but he invited me back,
and we spent the whole evening. He questioned me on my faith.
And one of the things he said, but isn't that a bit arrogant
to think that The way that you're pointing
out is the only way. And I said, no, there is only
one way of salvation. It is only in the Lord Jesus
Christ. If I believe that as being true,
how can I believe that some other way is true? It's just completely
contradictory. And he could see it. He could
see and realize. When I got back to the motel
room, And the words of the hymn dropped in, O, the happiness
arising in the life of God within, and the soul is realizing conquest
over hell and sin. And I felt it a good thing, an
opening to be able to speak. I often thought about it in the
last, I think within the last two years, that manager has passed
away, died of cancer. And I often thought about that
time. Did the Lord use it? Did he call to remembrance those
years and years after, 30 years after that I spoke to him and
that it was years before he died? We don't know. We've got to leave
that with the Lord. But those times that when he'd
been able to speak, but this was the point there, the idea
that there is one way and it's not another. We read in Jeremiah,
that the gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, let
them perish from under the heavens and the earth. When the apostle
later on in Acts 17, he comes to Mars Hill and he sees all
of these altars to all of these gods, and then one to the unknown
God, and he says, he whom ye do ignorantly worship, I declare
unto you. And where does he begin? He begins
with the creation. Now it's no wonder that Satan
and the world attack creation, because that in the Bible is
where always the Lord's servants start, the God that made the
heavens and the earth. And that in Romans is why men
shall be without excuse at the judgment day, even if they haven't
read the Bible, they still have a witness in themselves and in
creation that there is a God. We are fearfully and wonderfully
made and we as As humans, we are put on the top of the whole
creation. Under God, we govern it, able
to build things, make things, and our intellect and reasoning
and being able to do things so much more above any beast, any
animal at all. And there is only one God. He is the one that put the sun,
the moon, and the stars in the heavens. King Solomon, he said,
will God indeed dwell upon the earth? The heaven of heavens
cannot contain me, how much less this house that I have built.
And it is vital for us to be sure of this, that there is none
other God but one. There's one true and living God,
and every other are false gods. wrong gods, they are not gods
at all, and we need to be very sure of this, that salvation,
deliverance, we have death all around us, we have evidences
of that around our chapels, we've got the graveyards, we're not
to forget that we're each heading towards the grave, and after
death the judgement. Going back to Acts 17, we have
the Assurance that God has given
unto all men in that he raised him from the dead, the assurance
is that there shall be a day of judgment. And we'll perhaps
look at that a bit later. But it must be, and it is set
forth in the Word of God doctrinally, that there is only one God, one
Father, one Son, one Holy Ghost, three distinct persons, in one
Godhead, all in equal power and eternity, and in all their knowledge
and ability. And when we read of the Lord
rising from the dead, in separate times in the Word of God, we
have the Father raiseth the dead, we have the Lord Jesus says,
I have power to lay it down, power to take it again, and the
Holy Spirit is said to see that quickeneth the dead. And so it
is a triune. action of Christ rising from
the dead, and in salvation as well. The Father chose the people,
He gave them to His Son, His Son redeemed them, and the Holy
Spirit quickens them. It is a work of God, this one
true and living God. But not only is this to be a
doctrine in the Word of God, but it's also to be experienced
in the hearts and lives of the people of God, that there is
not only one God, but only one way of salvation, none other
way of salvation. Paul, when he desires in Romans
10 the salvation of his own countrymen, he saw that they had a zeal for
God, but not according to knowledge. We must never be deceived in
thinking, well that person's a religious person, they must
be alright, they'll be saved. No. Some of the greatest errors
and those that are more confirmed as lost are those that have a
name of religion. Man is a religious creature.
He has a spirit and he He goes to spiritual things. He goes
to religious things. That's why there's all the cults,
all religions, all the gods in the world, because man is a spiritual
being, even though he has fallen, even though he is a dying creature,
it is still very evident. He looks for a greater power
than himself, a God. but they like to have a God that
they can dictate to. You know, if you have an idol,
you've made that, and you can make it say what you like, think
what you like, you make the rules for it, and you're in control
of that idol. Not the other way around, but
the idea that there is a God that we are subject to his laws,
The children of Israel, when they came out from Egypt, they
had to learn this. If you are to have this God for
your God, you are to obey Him. You are to come under His laws,
under His rule. And this one way of salvation
from this one God is to be learned by experience. And Paul said
of those that they were, had a zeal for God, not according
to knowledge, They were going about to establish their own
righteousness. They were making as if they could
save themselves, as if by their good works and their good deeds
that they should attain salvation. And that is the natural thing,
because we are born under the covenant of works. Adam, our
first parent, he broke that covenant. He's already broken. We're already
under the sentence of it. There's no repairing of it. There's
no remedy of it. There's no salvation in trying
to continue it now. It's done. The children of Israel,
when they wouldn't go into the land of Canaan for the first
time, when they heard the sentence that they should go into the
wilderness 40 years, they said, oh, we'll go up, we'll go up.
And they tried to undo. They tried to, now they would
obey. And the Lord said, no, you won't
prosper, I won't be with you, it's too late, you're already
under sentence, you're already under that condemnation, and
that is what we are. So there's no salvation under
works. By the deeds of the law, no man
shall be justified. By the law is the knowledge of
sin that all the world might be brought in guilty before God. And Paul says the law is that there is not salvation in
that way. By the deeds of the Lord no man
shall be justified. And that must be cut off first. Do you remember the account of
Ruth? When Ruth presented her petition
to Boaz as a near kinsman that he would spread his skirt upon
her and that he marry her, that he would perform the part of
a near kinsman, raise up seed, and also buy the land that she
had that was her husband's, so remain in that tribe. And he
said, there is a nearer kinsman. I must speak to him first. I
must rule him out first. And when he is ruled out, then
I will do the part. If he cannot do it, I'm not doing
it. And so when he went to that near kinsman, if it was just
a matter of land, he would do it. But when he realized he had
to marry Ruth, then he said, I can't. That would mar my own
inheritance. And so that way we shut up, he
said, you redeem it. In one sense, that near kinsman
is us. And God uses this, as He were
with His people, you try and redeem yourself, you try and
save your own soul. But what does the law require?
Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. But if
I shed my blood, then I'm dying, I'm lost. I can't, on those terms,
I can't redeem myself. So the nearest kinsmen, ourselves,
must be then cut off. But then we have the message
from our bowers, the Lord Jesus Christ, made flesh, dwelt among
us, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, made like unto his
brethren, sin accepted. He says, I will perform the part. I will suffer. I will bleed.
I will die. I will stand in a bridge. It's
first, and very often, not so often spoken of today, that there
is a law work in a sinner's heart. When one is first awakened to
their danger, their need of salvation, they try and reform their own
lives. They try and make their lives
better, and to do what is right, and the idea is that they might
obtain salvation that way. And instead, they get worse and
worse and worse. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. Paul said, as a Pharisee, I was alive without the law once,
then the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And that was necessary, because
as a Pharisee, he thought that he was acceptable to God, he
could save himself. He needed to be brought that
there was only one name one way of salvation, and we need that. We need to be convinced of that.
That there's only one name and one hope for our salvation, and
it's not by deeds of righteousness that we have done. And I hope
it is, that there are those of us here that know what that is,
where the law has been the schoolmaster, and it has been to cut off every
other way every other way but the Lord Jesus Christ. So I want
to look then secondly at none other name, salvation through
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord said, if you believe
not that I am He, you shall perish in your sins. There's only one
name given among men, none other name under heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved. In the Word of God is God's plan
of salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ is spoken
of as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It was
Him that was prophesied in the prophecies in the Garden of Eden,
the seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent's head. It
is with Him that was in the church in the wilderness. They drank
of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Right the way through the Word
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ is the one that we expect to
see and that it sets him forth again and again. And those are
precious times when we see him. Those times you may be just reading
through, perhaps the Old Testament, and the Lord will shine on a
verse or two and we said, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. That
is him in a pre-incarnation appearance. As he appeared to Jacob, there
wrestled a man with him to the breaking of the day. Thou wrestled
with God and with man, and hast prevailed. His name shall be
Israel." That man was the Lord Jesus Christ before he came to
this earth. And the same with Gideon, appeared
to Gideon and to Manoah and his wife. They were very clear, we have
seen God, we shall die. But no, they didn't die. It was the Son of God and those
pre-incarnation appearances. To make it be very clear that
salvation, the only way of salvation, is that set forth in the Word
of God as viewed as a whole. That beautiful sermon, we're
not recorded, we're not told what the Lord said. on that way
to Emmaus, but it was this, in all the Scriptures, the things
concerning himself. We see the Apostle Paul, I determined
to know nothing among men, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. All the time it is Jesus only. And that is to be impressed upon
us, and it is through the word of God. But it's also impressed
by grace as well. Salvation is by the free unmerited
favour of God, the grace of God. We're told in Paul's writings
to the Corinthians that in the wisdom of God, that God had decreed
that through wisdom man should not find out God. The wisdom
that God has given to man to go to the moon, to do wonderful
inventions, all of these things, it is staggering. But when it
comes to spiritual things, when it comes to seeing God, when
it comes to understanding the word of God, there's a marked
difference. A man cannot see it. I've sat
in doctor's rooms where they've been fused about the scans that
they've seen of the heart, my wife's heart, or my brain, as
to the reason why we specialize in these things, because the
brain is so wonderful, it can do this and this and this, and
you say, God created, God made it, that's why it is like that.
Shutter comes down, you know, let's go on to the next thing.
I refuse to see it, cannot see it. I think this man is so skilled
and so good in his field, but when it comes to the realm of
godly things, he cannot And so the actual believing, God has
said, this I've reserved to my domain alone. I will make a believer. I will use my word. I'll use
the preaching. I will open their eyes. I will
do it by grace. They won't earn it, but I will
do it for free, a merited favor. I will take away their hard heart
or give them a soft heart. I'll give them eternal life,
and they shall never perish. I'll open their understandings,
that they might understand the Scriptures. I will do these things
for them. And this is the Lord Jesus Christ,
that is the author of salvation. He has purchased it, and it is
in intercession in heaven. Father, I will that they who
thou hast given me be with me where I am." And all that's necessary
for that, their calling, the new birth, everything is all
of Him. You think of when our Lord is
teaching the new birth, Nicodemus all the time thinks natural,
how can a man go into his mother's womb and be born again? The idea
of a spiritual birth he cannot grasp. John 6, labour not for
the meat that perisheth, but that which endureth to eternal
life." They followed him for loaves and fishes. But when he's
teaching about, except you eat the flesh and drink the blood
of the Son of Man, all the time interpreting naturally, how can
this man do this? How can he give us this? Then
the Lord says clearly, the words that I speak unto you, thy spirit
and thy life. Jeremiah says, thy words were
found and I did eat them. They were the joy and rejoicing
of my soul, and those two in the way to obey as their heart
burned within them while the Lord was speaking to them. It
is through the word, as the Lord said to the rich man that had
died in the parable of Lazarus, and the rich man, and Moses,
and their prophets, that I hear not them, neither will they believe,
even if one did rise from the dead. And the Lord did rise from
the dead, and they still didn't believe. Because it is the sovereign
work of God and work of the Spirit to show that way of salvation. And it is to be done by experience,
to realize, to say to the hymn writer, why me? Why was I made
to hear thy voice? Enter while this room. It's the
sovereign work of God. And it is a work that is a righteous
work. It is not unholy, it's not unjust. Christ has suffered, Christ has
died, and therefore He can bestow eternal life. He must bestow
eternal life on His people. The Lord Jesus Christ, when He
died, again and again it was written that the Scriptures were
fulfilled. And it is vital that the only
way of salvation does fulfill the Scriptures. that it does
fit, as John and Peter were able to say here. It fits with the
apostle, with the Old Testament, with the prophecies. This is
not new. This is God's way. And that's
what we should pray. Lord, show me now thy way. Reveal to me the God of the Bible
and the way of salvation that thou hast chosen and that we
be very careful that what we rest upon is God's own word,
not man's word, but God's own word. Thou saidst to the Lord,
to the testimony, if it speaks not according to these things,
it is because there is no life in them, no truth in them. The Lord Jesus Christ said to
those that believed on him, and it's recorded in John 8, Verse
31, if ye continue in my word, then ye shall be my disciples
indeed. A real follower of the Lord Jesus
Christ is one that is being brought to believe through the word of
God and continues in that word. And the Lord said, you shall
know the truth and the truth shall make you free. So much in Christendom. and probably
amongst our churches as well, there's a great ignorance of
the Word of God. Many families don't even hold
family worship. Many will not read through the
whole Bible. They might just pick it up and
read a verse here, a verse there, a chapter here, a chapter there,
or maybe read Mr. Philpott's portions and whatever
the text is over, that's the portion they'll read. But you
don't read a normal book like that. The TVS, for good reason,
has the reading scheme in the back of the Bibles, and it's
a really good practice to read through it like that, or read
through whole books at a time, consecutively, so you're getting
the whole story, account, in the order that God has put it
in the Word of God, and you start to see that order, what God has
done. Very few really know the Word
of God. The late Dr. Alan Kearns was
asked once, how would you recommend studying the Word of God? He
said, you might think that this is a strange answer. He said,
read it. He said, most people just want
a quick answer. What does that mean? Explain
that. He said, read the Bible. And
my dear one and I, what we try and do in our private reading
is the TBS readings, it goes over two years. One year we do
in the private, morning reading, evening, and the other we do
together. And if we miss a day, well we
don't worry, we just go on to the next day and just leave that.
But by that way, every year, we read right through the Bible
once, the Gospels twice, and the Psalms twice, every single
year. And it's vital that you get to
drink in the Word of God. And you see it, this is God's
way of salvation. This is Jesus in all the scriptures. This is what he has said. what
is used to save the people of God. Faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. If you value your soul, read
the Bible consecutively, read it regularly, pray over it, ask
the Lord to bless it to you. I want to look then lastly at
whereby we must be saved. I want to look at this a couple
of ways. Firstly, our need of saving. Have you ever considered
what it should be if we are not saved? After we die there is a judgement and if none has put away our
sins We shall have to give an account and bear the wrath of
God ourselves. It's a fearful thing to stand
alone before God. I had an illustration years ago
when I was probably about 16 or 17. I'd just started my apprenticeship
as an engineer and was under a chief engineer in the hospital
And I was appointed to be a representative on the safety committee. And
none of the other chaps wanted to do it, so I said, you do it.
So I went to this committee, and on this committee was all
of the heads of all the departments of the hospital, including my
engineer. In the workshop, we wanted a
first aid cabinet in our workshop. They said, no, you've got A&E
up the road, you go there. First aid is first aid, not A&E,
that's second aid. And we wanted safety shoes and
other things. So the engineer didn't want it.
He didn't want us to have it. So I went to this committee and
I argued for it and I got it. I felt really smug. I'd got my
one over my engineer. I'd beat him. I'd got what we
wanted from the workshop. But then I'd forgotten one thing.
I was under him. He was my engineer. And suddenly,
I was away from all of those heads of the department. I was
in my workshop, and I was standing next to the fitters, and the
engineer came in so angry. And instinctively, I tried to
shelter behind my fitters, those older. I didn't know it was you,
you were wanted. And I just had to give an account
straight to him. And I've never forgotten that
feeling. But what must it be? To stand
before God, you can't stand behind a parent, behind a church, behind
anything else, and oh, it's just you and Almighty God, in all
His wrath, in all His anger, just anger against your sin.
How can you stand in that way? It's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. Sometimes we might say,
well, hell is where God is not. But in one sense, that is not
true. Because hell is where God's wrath
is, forever and forever. You know, since I've been saved,
I've been amazed how much of my sins of youth and sins of
former years, even after I've been saved, comes to mind. and
things I thought were completely forgotten and buried, things
will come up and I fear them, I humble them. If I've not got
their blood to plead, if I've not got a refuge, those things
when I committed them, they seemed nothing. But now, now I see what
they really are. And if we have not got Christ's
blood to plead and his mercy to plead, We've got nothing,
what hope have we? Maybe really think on this. What it is to have a lost soul,
to not be saved, to perish eternally. So that is the first thought.
Our need of saving is not something we can go through this world
as indifferent. It's not something that we can
say, well, if I'm elect, I'm saved, if I'm not, I'm not. If
you and I realize what it is to be lost, if there is only
this slenderest hope that we be saying, we'll hold on to that,
we'll hang on to that. I want to think of the next one.
Because Jesus died, we must. I said about the judgment day,
And in one sense, the judgment for God's people is today, it
is in this Gospel day. God judged when our Lord Jesus
Christ came to this world, that those for whom he died, those
that were given to him of his father, He judged that their
sins would be put on the Lord Jesus Christ and He would suffer
for their sins instead of them. And the Lord Jesus did suffer
and bleed and die. So that part of God's judgment
has been carried out. Joined to that judgment is that
those for whom Christ died then must be acquitted. They must
be called, they must be brought to know what the Lord Jesus has
done, believe in Him, trust in Him, and be brought to heaven.
One side of the contract, as it were, is
already done. Christ has already borne that
punishment. God is a just and holy God. Therefore the people for whom
he stood must be saved. So when you have in your text,
whereby we must be saved, God's people for whom he died must
be saved. This is the perseverance of the
saints. This is the assurance and comfort
of God's people. If the Lord has called you by
grace and opened your eyes and brought you to see and believe
in him, you must be saved. You already are saved and given
eternal life to believe, and you must get to heaven. You must
endure unto the end, because Christ has already died. He's
already settled the debt. In Proverbs, we have a just weight,
a just balance. Would you think it fair if you
paid for something from a shop, but then didn't go and get what
you paid for? Of course you wouldn't. The Lord
Jesus has purchased His people. Paul says here, bought with a
price. Glorified God in your body and in your spirit which
are His. This is why there must be a judgment as well. We mentioned
before about Acts 17. God hath given assurance unto
all men and that He raised Him from the dead. He raised Him
from the dead. Now what have we got here? We've
got on one hand the Lord Jesus dying for the sins of His people. On the other hand you have those
who are not His people and all of their sins but they haven't
been punished yet. They haven't been dealt with
yet. So they're not going to be dealt with? Of course they
are. So that's when the judgement
and those that have been despised on earth, the followers of the
Lord, the Lord shall say, these are My people. I have died for
them. I have put away their sins. And the others will say, yes,
but they've done this and this and this. And the Lord says,
yes, I know they've done all of these things, but I've blotted
out their sins. And I've given them my righteousness,
and they shall be with me. And you that despised them and
hated them and ridiculed their religion and didn't want anything
to do with it, you shall bear my wrath for eternity. And that
is justice. Man gets what he wants, as it
were. They serve in this life. Depart from us, we desire not
the knowledge of thy ways. In their judgment, depart from
me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil
and his angels. May the Lord make us to be willing
in the day of his power, and be really comforted to know when
the Lord has quickened us. This is not something just of
a moment. This is eternal choice. This
is what Christ has sealed at Calvary and what shall ensure
His people brought safely to heaven. And in every ordinance
of the Lord's Supper this is reinforced. Christ has died. The church is never to forget
it. The blood is shed. Their salvation is sure. They
must be saved. Neither is there salvation in
any other for there is none other name under heaven given among
men. thereby we must be saved. Amen.