Alright brethren, let's go in
our Bibles to Acts chapter 4. Peter had preached the gospel. The Lord had saved a multitude
on the day of Pentecost. Then he had healed an impotent
man. The Lord had healed an impotent
man Peter. And Peter was preaching to the
Jews, and he said to them, look here
in chapter 3 verse 25, he said, you are the children of the prophets,
and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying
unto Abraham, and in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the
earth be blessed, unto you first, God, having raised up his son
Jesus, sent him to bless you and turning away every one of
you from his iniquities. And this was the reaction. He's
declaring to them salvation. And here's the reaction. And
as they spake unto the people, the priests and the captain of
the temple and the Sadducees came upon them being grieved
that they taught the people. and preached through Jesus the
resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on him, not
just carefully. They roughhoused Peter and the
others. They were furious that they were
preaching the gospel, preaching Christ. And he put them in hold
until the next day, for it was now evening. Albeit many of them
which heard the word believed, and the number of the men was
about 5,000. The Lord saved 5,000 through
this message. So on the morrow, their rulers,
and elders, and scribes, and Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas,
and John, and Alexander, as many as were of the kindred of the
high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. And when they had
sent them in the midst, they asked, by what power or by what
name have you done this? And Peter, filled with the Holy
Ghost, This is by the Spirit of God that he's preaching this
message right here. And he said to them, you rulers
of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of
the good deed done to the impotent man by what means he has made
whole, be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel
that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucify,
whom God raised from the dead, Even by him that this man stand
here before you, ho. This is the stone which was set
at naught of you builders, which has 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. You want to talk about a pointed
message. That was a pointed message. You crucified him. You rejected
him. He said up there earlier, you
killed, you would have the prince of life killed. He was direct,
wasn't he? I wanna focus here on this verse
12. Neither is there salvation in
any other. For there's none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Salvation is
of the Lord. It is entirely of the Lord Jesus. God, he ordained it to be so. We have to be saved. We have
to be saved from our sin beginning to the end. He's the author,
but he doesn't just Started, he's the finisher of faith. He's
the alpha and the omega. Salvation's entirely of the Lord. Neither is there salvation in
any other. That settles it, doesn't it?
There's not salvation in any other. There's none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. He's God's salvation provided
by God Our father, he's God's righteousness provided by God.
He's everything God says about himself is manifest in Christ,
his son. And he is the glory of the father. Neither is there salvation in
any other. No other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. I just wanna look at this
and see what the scripture says about this. There's no savior
but Jesus Christ. There's no savior but the Lord
Jesus Christ. Over in Isaiah 45, 21, it's the
Lord Jesus pre-incarnate declaring who he is. It's him speaking. He's always been the mediator
between God and man. And he said there, He said, who
hath declared this from ancient time? This was set out before
the world was made. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I, the Lord, have
not I, Jehovah, declared this from the beginning? There's no
God else beside me. A just God and a Savior. There's none beside me. No other name. Look unto me,
and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and
there is none else. It pleased the Father to put
all things in the hands of our Lord Jesus, so that Christ has
to reveal to us the Father. He has to reveal the Father.
There's no other way, no other name, no other way the Father's
gonna be revealed to us than by Christ. He was walking along
one day, and he began to pray out loud. And he said, Father,
oh Lord of heaven and earth, I'm thankful because thou hast
hid these things from the wise and prudent. He doesn't reveal
these things to folks who think they are smart and know everything. We've got to be made ignorant.
We've got to be made to see we don't know everything, don't
know anything apart from him. I'm thankful, father, you've
hidden these things from the wise and prudent and has revealed
them unto babes. Even so, father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto
me of my father. That's everything. All things
are delivered to me of my father. And no man knoweth the son but
the father, neither knoweth any man the father save the son,
and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him. His son has
to reveal, he has to reveal himself to us. And then he said this,
come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give
you rest. We have to come to him, there's no other name, there's
no other savior under heaven whereby we must be saved. And
there's no other savior because there's no other substitute.
The Lord Jesus is the substitute who took the place of God's people
to make his people righteous and save us from the curse of
the law. There's no other substitute.
No other substitute. God sent his son to fulfill the
law. He sent his son to honor the
law, to do righteousness that his people couldn't do, and to
put away the sin, the curse that his people were under that we
couldn't put away. That's why he stood there that
day and he said, except your righteousness exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees. You can't enter the kingdom of
heaven. He's not saying, now just try a lot harder and try
to be more righteous than the Pharisees. He's saying, there's
no other name but him to make you righteous. You gotta have
him to make you righteous. He said, thank not that I came
to destroy the law and the prophets. I did not come to destroy, I
came to fulfill. I came to fulfill the law and
the prophets. Can you fulfill the prophets?
Can you and I fulfill the prophets? You say, well, of course we can't.
We can't fulfill the law either. He came to fulfill the law and
the prophets. What he came to do concerning
the prophets is what he came to do concerning the law, to
fulfill everything that's written and make his people righteous. Christ put away the sin of his
people. and made His people righteous.
Now you think about this substitution. Here's the Son of God, here's
the perfect Son of God, the spotless Lamb. He hath made Him sin for
us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. He made His people the righteousness
of God in Him. This is the good news. This is
why there is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved.
Nobody made the sacrifice Christ made. Nobody made that ultimate
substitution in place of his people that Christ made. He redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. The
promise of the Spirit, that promise God made to Abraham, that the
Spirit might be given to you and me who are Gentiles. That's
why the promise is sure, because Christ came and took away the
curse from his people, so that the law now cannot condemn his
people, because it condemned Christ and our place. And he
made us righteous. That's the apostle's message.
This is the message whereby he saved 5,000 that day. There's
no other name. No other name but Christ. There's
salvation in no other but God's Son, the Lord Jesus. When you
hear this message in truth, revealed by Christ, this message
makes you give up any righteousness that you thought you had, any
works in religion or out or whatever that you thought you could trust
in, it makes you give them all up and have one preeminent desire,
and that is to be found in Christ Jesus the Lord. Paul had that
big pedigree, all that pedigree of religion, and it was all vanity,
it was all dead, it was just dead works. And after Christ
revealed himself to Paul, Paul said, I count it all lost. I
count it done for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.
It's no loss at all to me, he said. I want to win Christ. I want to be found in Christ,
not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of the Lord Jesus. I want his righteousness. I want to be found only in him.
And that man that comes there and believes on Christ and trusts
Christ and truly has no other hope but Christ, salvation and
no other but Christ, this man's a blessed man. This is the happy
man. It's the happy man. Even as David
described the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth
righteousness without works, saying, blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Is God not imputing
sin to us just because he's just making out like we don't have
any sin? Brethren, Christ put our sin away. Christ put our
sin away. It's the most blessed thing to
know that before God, we have died in Christ. All his people
died in Christ. There is no sin to impute to
his people. We can't hardly enter into that
because all we see in ourselves is sin. We know what we are in
our flesh. But His word to us is, He would
not say to you, there is now no condemnation, if there was. He fulfilled what He came to
do. We died in Him. And we arose in Him. And that's
a happy man that knows that. Happy man that knows that. Well,
there's no other Savior. There's no other substitute.
And there's no other sacrifice whose blood can cleanse us, to
cleanse us personally from all our sin. None other. No man can
put away his sin. No man can purge his conscience.
No man can cleanse his walk. No man can do this. You can't
pay to have it done. You can't pay money to have it
done. No man can can pronounce you
absolved and cleansed and do any kind of hocus pocus to say
that you're now cleansed. No man can do this. Christ is
the only one. Peter said, you know you're not
redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold. That was
vain tradition. Vain tradition. He got to save
us from our vain tradition. He said, but you were redeemed
with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and
without spot who was verily foreordained before the foundation of the
world but manifests in these last days for you. He's that
fountain our Lord was speaking about all along that would be
open for cleansing. Christ is that fountain. In that
day there should be a fountain open to the house of David and
to the habitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
He's that fountain. There's a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that
flood lose all their guilty stain. He's calling his people through
this gospel to come to the fountain. He's calling us to come to the
fountain for cleansing. And he said this, if we confess
our sins, come to him, confess your sins. Come to the great
high priest and confess our sin. He's faithful. And he's just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And what he's gonna do to make
us confess our sin, he comes to us and he shows us our sins
in light of Christ bearing our sins. You can preach law and
you can preach hell and you can preach Everything you can to try to
terrify sinners, and they might outwardly make a profession But
all of that work They're doing is trying to cleanse their conscience
and purge their conscience, and they can't purge their conscience
There's only one that can purge the conscience and that's the
Spirit of God Applying the blood of Christ to make you see that
your sin was really and truly put away at Calvary and when
he's done it, nobody can bring you back into bondage. When he's
done it and he's cleansed you and you know he's all your hope
and he's all your salvation, he'll save you from vain works.
That's what he said in Hebrews 10. If any of those sacrifices
of old had cleansed them, they'd have ceased from those works,
if they'd have purged their conscience. But when he comes and he makes
you to see your sin on Christ and see him bearing it, This
is why we preach this gospel. The world, carnal men, they'll
hear it a little while, but then they're tired of hearing it.
You gotta put bit and bridle in their mouth and coerce them
with do's and don'ts. It's this, I just read something
by William Gatsby. It was talking about this is
the gospel by which God uses it just like he did when he saved
those 5,000 right here. He uses this, and when you see
your sin on Christ, and you see what a good, benevolent, loving
Redeemer we have, who gave himself and laid down himself for us
on the cross, this is what he uses to break your heart. This
is what he uses to humble you. This is what he uses to make
you mourn over what you are, and what you thought, and what
you did, and everything about yourself. And he purges your
conscience to know. And he speaks peace to you to
know. I'm faithful and just to forgive you. And I've cleansed
you. And he doesn't stop cleansing.
Oh, I know it was done at Calvary. And he completely, thoroughly
saved his people from our sins at Calvary. But he keeps this
cleansing work going the whole, because our feet get dirty, our
hands get dirty, we get dirty. And he keeps cleansing you. If
he didn't keep our conscience purged, we'd fall away. Come
now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins
be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be
red like crimson, they shall be as wool. When he brings us
to him, we find there's no other surety. There's no other savior,
there's no other substitute, there's no other sacrifice, there's
no other surety to make us know all the promises of God are established,
they're yes and amen, accomplished by Him. Nobody else can make
you know this but Him. The old covenant was a covenant
of works, and Christ is the surety of a better testament with better
promises. Look over at Hebrews chapter
seven. Hebrews 7 and verse 22. By so
much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. You know,
when we think of surety, we think of in case somebody signs for
you and in case you can't make the payment, they'll make up
the difference. That's not the kind of surety he is. He's the
surety that did it all. So that everything's yes and
amen, everything's established. By so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament, and they truly were many priests, because
they were not suffered to continue by reason of death. But this
man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he's able also to save
them to the uttermost that come to God by him, seeing he ever
liveth to make intercession for them. Look at Hebrews eight and
look at verse six. Now hath he obtained a more excellent
ministry, than any of the old covenant ministers, by how much
also he's the mediator of a better covenant, which was established
on better promises. Look at verse nine. It's not
according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in
the day when I took them by the hands to lead them out of the
land of Egypt, because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded
them not, saith the Lord. This is the covenant I'll make
with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I'll
put my laws in their mind, I'll write them in their hearts. I'll
be to them a God and they shall be to me a people. And they shall
not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying,
know the Lord. For all shall know me from the least to the
greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. Aren't
you thankful for that? I'll be merciful to their unrighteousness. Their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. and that he says a new covenant,
he's made the first old, now that which decayeth waxeth old
and is ready to vanish away. Look at Hebrews 9 verse 15. For
this cause, he's the mediator of this new testament. That by
means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were
under that first testament, we broke in at him, he redeemed
us from that. They which are called receive
the promise of an eternal inheritance. That's why it's better. You see
how much better this is? It's all fulfilled by Christ.
God says I'll be merciful to their unrighteousness, their
sins and iniquities, I'll remember no more. I'm gonna teach them
this gospel in their heart. I'm gonna write this covenant
in their heart by my spirit. And the promise I'm giving them,
it's all ordered and assured by Christ and it's a promise
of an eternal inheritance. Assure inheritance by Christ.
Oh, it's better. He'd been assured from the foundation
of the world. God never looked to his people
to do this. He looked to Christ. Look back
at Luke 1. I'll show you why this is so
good. And this is what he promised right here. He's talking about
John the Baptist, but he talks about the promise here that God
made in Christ. And look at this, Luke 1, 68,
Zacharias, filled with the Spirit, and he's
declaring this, and he says, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he hath visited and redeemed his people. He hath raised up
a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been
since the world began, that we should be saved, watch this,
from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us, to
perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember
His holy covenant, the oath which he swore to our father Abraham,
that he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the
hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, in holiness
and righteousness before him all the days of our life. You
know how the devil and natural religion operates? Fear. Fear. Threats. Punishments, fear of
death, fear of hell, keep sinners in bondage. That's all it is. That's what a lot of y'all came
out of. God doesn't do that. You didn't receive the spirit
of adoption again to fear. You received the spirit of adoption
to be able to call out to your Heavenly Father. This is his
promise, this is his covenant promise. I'm gonna save you from
that bondage. He said, I came to destroy the
devil and to deliver them who through fear of death were all
their lifetime subject to bondage. And he saves us out of that.
No more of this running and running and running and never being able
to rest. Always being fearful that you
hadn't quite done enough. Always checking your fig leaves
to make sure everything's got everything covered just right.
And as soon as God speaks, you take off to the trees. No more. Why? He's a perfect righteousness. He's worked out. It's not a religion
of fear. It's not a religion of bondage.
It's not a religion of putting your finger on you to try to
make you do this or that. You see men do this, and the
children don't. The children obey, but they're not obeying.
It's just outward. When that thumb gets off, they're
gone. This is a work in the heart of
love and grace and mercy that makes His people willing to follow
Him. It makes you mourn your sin when
you've sinned against Him. It keeps you. It keeps you. And this is his promise. He said,
I'm going to deliver them from their enemies. I'm going to deliver
them from that fear. I'm not going to let them be
brought back into that bondage. That's his promise. That's his promise. He spoiled
principalities and powers and made a show of them openly triumphing
over them in it. He's not going to let that happen
to his children again. cost him his blood, cost him
his life to guarantee, to blot out the handwriting of ordinances
against us, and this gospel is the rule by which he's gonna
keep his people following him. Brother Don used to say this
book's written so it'll trip up men who are looking for a
work of their own hand. That's exactly right. Christ
is a, what? A stumbling stone to some. They
trip over him and they snare Why? Get tired of the light bread.
Get tired of the bread from heaven. Well, here's the good news for
you, believer. There's no other substitute,
no other savior, no other substitute, no other sacrifice, no other
surety, and here's how you can guarantee God's child's gonna
be saved beginning to end. There's no other shepherd, no
other shepherd. Christ declared he's the good
shepherd of his sheep. He said in John 10, 11, I am
the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. We used to go, when I was younger,
we'd go to this little town. It's about halfway between where
we lived and where the church building is down in Arkansas.
And there was a sale barn there. You'd go over there, you know,
and buy livestock, sell livestock. Fellas get into it, you know.
Boy, they get to bidding on things, bidding on cattle, and sometimes
they'd have sheep in there. People get to bidding on those
sheep, you know. They get to trying to outbid
one another. Think about this. The way that
Christ bought His sheep, He gave His life for His sheep. He laid down his life for his
sheep to purchase his sheep. He's not gonna lose one. He's
not gonna lose one. If he loved his sheep enough
to lay down his life for his sheep, this God-man mediator
risen to the right hand of the Father with all power in heaven
and earth, he's not gonna lose one of his sheep. That's what
he said. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them and they follow me And I give unto them eternal
life. And they shall never perish.
Is that because of us? Not because of the sheep, is
it? Sheep stray. Sheep are just dumb animals. Why will the sheep not perish?
Your sheep don't really have any defenses. Sheep can't protect
themselves. Why are the sheep not going to
perish? Why are you not going to perish? No man shall pluck them out of
my hand. No man shall pluck them out of
my hand. David said, the Lord is my shepherd. Capital L, capital
O, capital R, capital D. Jehovah Jesus is my shepherd.
made everything, controls everything, rules everything. That's my shepherd. I shall not want. I shall not
want anything. That's my shepherd. Surely, goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will
dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Peter said, Neither is there salvation in
any other. Christ said, look to me. Nowhere
else, look to me. Peter said, neither is there
salvation in any other. For there's none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we ought to be saved, whereby
we might be saved, whereby we must be saved. If God's gonna
get all the glory, and He is, this is the one who must do all
the saving beginning to end. That's who He is. That's who
He is. Father, we thank you for this
word. Help us to look to Christ. Help us to remember there's no
other Savior. Make our hearts content. Make
us see what a perfect righteousness we have in Him. Make us plunge
into this fountain for cleansing. Keep us coming to him, keep us
looking to him, keep us ever flock together under the watchful
protection, the omnipotent hand of our shepherd. Lord, thank
you that you provided full, complete salvation in your son. Help us
today to worship him. Help us to honor you by honoring
your son. And Lord, how we do thank you. How we do thank you. Forgive
us, Lord, our sins. Our sins are many. Our sins are
ever before us. Cleanse us, Lord. Keep us purged
and keep our minds set on Christ. We thank you in Christ's name.
Amen. many sons to glory. Behold the man upon