Acts chapter 4 and verse 12,
we'll see this and then we'll go back over the history of where
this came from in just a moment. The apostle said, neither is
there salvation in any other. For there is none other name under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved." The title of the message is, The
Authority of Our Gospel. The Authority of Our Gospel. Now, if you go back to chapter
3, you'll see where this begins. It says that Peter and John went
up to the temple together at the hour of prayer, being the
ninth hour, and a certain lame man from his mother's womb was
carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which
is called Beautiful, and asked alms of them that entered into
the temple. Now, on this occasion, the apostles
of the Lord Jesus Christ entered the temple at the appointed time
of prayer. If you'll notice in Scripture,
I didn't write this in my notes, but I have thought of it. The
appointed time. If you'll notice that these times
of the worship, the times of the worship were set. They were
set and in order. God does all things in order. And they came at the appointed
time. And you'll remember Last week,
when we had looked at John's Gospel and how that the Lord
went to His apostles, the apostles followed Him. And they asked
Him, where do you dwell? And He said, come and see. And
it was about the tenth hour. That was the appointed time of
the sacrifice. If you remember when Elijah had
offered the sacrifice against those prophets of Baal, he had
to wait. He waited until the appointed
time of the oblation, the evening sacrifice. This appointed time
is very important. They had an appointed time of
prayer, but more important than this, they had an appointed time
to meet one of God's elect. They came upon this lame man
who was lame from his birth. And we can read in chapter 4
verse 22, this man was 40 plus years old. He was 40 years or
more in this condition that he could not walk. He was lame on
his feet. And he begged for money. He begged
for money and the apostles, He said, silver and gold have we
none, but what we have we give you. And he said, in the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. In the name. This surely is a
picture of God's grace to every elect sinner. Everyone who is
saved by grace, the picture of this man's healing is a picture
of our salvation. We by nature were lame on our
feet. This man was lame on his feet
and he was impoverished. This man had to be carried to
the gate to beg daily for his bread. This man was impoverished. And so were we by nature impoverished,
indebted to the justice of Almighty God. We were so in debt that the burning
of our body, our soul, and our spirit could never satisfy the
justice of God. Hell is eternal because it never
pleases God. It never satisfies for one sin. Not one. This temple, it was open to this
man, but he couldn't go in. He couldn't walk. He couldn't
enter in. And neither could we come to
God. What did we do? We sat at the
gate and begged for the crumbs of sin. We begged for the worldly
possessions. The things of this world. But
none of them could ever give us salvation. Just like that
money that that man received by begging could never heal his
feet. The sin and lust and pleasures
of this world could never satisfy. It could never bring us what
it promised. He could never give us salvation.
And we served at the feet of religion and law, but only found
more guilt there. Do you not suppose that that
man had sat there for forty years? Do you not suppose he was down?
I imagine that he was not a very happy fellow. This man was discouraged. This
man was beyond hope. Forty years! Surely there's no
hope now! And yet, here it is. And just
then came the man of God and brought him the message of the
gospel. Brought him healing. And that's
what happened to us who were begging at the gate of sin. God brought us a preacher. And
as this man was given strength in his feet, even so by the preaching
of the gospel, According to the name, by the name of Jesus Christ,
our souls were risen from the dead. By the preaching of the gospel,
the Spirit of God gave us life to believe, to trust in the only
begotten Son of God. This is a miracle. Faith is not
a decision, it's a miracle. It's something God gives. It's
something God sustains. It's not something we can keep
up or muster up. It's something God gives. It's
a sovereign act of God. And as this man stood up, we
read this, in verse 7, He took him by the right hand and lifted
him up. And immediately his feet and
ankle bones received strength. And he leaping stood up. This man didn't need physical
therapy, did he? This man didn't need remediation.
He didn't need to work out his muscles to get him up. No. By
the authority of Jesus Christ, I say unto you, get up. And this
man not only got up, he leaped up. And that's exactly what happened
to our souls. Our souls were dead in sin, and
by the authority of the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ
said unto you, Live! And you lived! There was nothing
that was building up to this. You lived. You lived, and you
believed. And this man, who sat at the
gate, now entered into the temple. And he entered with them into
the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. And even so
it is with us who believe. We, who were lame on the outside
of the place of worship, now stand on the inside of the place
of worship. Where do we worship? We worship
in the Holy of Holies. We worship in the very presence
of God. Tonight, when you worship, you
worship God in the presence of God. How can you be so bold? How can you enter into such a
place as the holy place of God? How is that? By the authority,
by the name of Jesus Christ. I enter in and I worship God. I leap and I praise within my
heart and worship Him. I worship Him. This man was not
healed and went back begging, did he? This man didn't stand
up and say, well, gee, thanks. I think I'm going to sit back
down here and beg some more. No! Uh-uh! That's not what happened
to us. That's not what happened to him.
This man worshipped God. This man didn't go back to where
he was before. Oh, how many I've seen to come
up to Christ and seem to have joy in their heart for the gospel
and then go away. I've seen it. They went back
to the life. They returned. A dog returns
to his vomit. Not a true believer. Not a true
believer. Oh, believers desire not to go
back to their life of sin. No, we desire to rejoice in the
gospel that made us whole. I rejoice in this gospel that
made me whole. Believers center their lives
around this gospel. They don't center this gospel
around their lives. This gospel is their life. This
gospel is my life. It's all my life. It's not just
part of it. Those who worship God, worship
Him, with all their self. We praise God for His mercy that
was given to us by the name of Jesus Christ. Now, Peter and
John used this. They see this as an opportunity
to preach the gospel. Now, they didn't bring this man
in here and flaunt him around for everybody to see. You know, that's what's happening.
People will say they healed somebody and the first thing they want
to do is get a television camera and make sure everybody knows
they did it. That's not from God. That's not from God at all. Even if they're healed, I'll
tell you what, that is from Satan himself. It's not of God's work.
It's not of God's ministers. These apostles were still, they
wanted to go pray. They didn't have any intention
of doing anything about this man. They healed him and went
on about their business. Didn't beat their chest or anything.
But yet the Lord opened the opportunity here. The Lord did it. This man,
they saw, the people saw him, said, hey, that's the guy that
was at the gate. And then they began to look on Peter and John. They began to look on these apostles
and say, hey, look at them. They did something special. And
Peter said, don't look at me as though we did. Don't look
at us. We didn't do anything. We didn't
do anything. They used this as an opportunity.
Look at verse 12. And when Peter saw it, he answered
unto the people, You men of Israel, why marvel you at this? Or why
look you so earnestly on us, as though by our own power of
holiness we made this man to walk? The God of Abraham and
of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified
His Son Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied Him in the presence
of Pilate, when He was determined to let Him go. But you denied
the Holy One, and just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto
you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from
the dead, whereof we are witnesses." They use this as an opportunity
to preach the gospel. They say, it's not our power
that did this, it's the power of God. I'll tell you this, the only
means that God uses to save sinners is the preaching of the gospel. People get a sentimental view
of this and think that if they just walk into a beautiful garden
that somehow the Spirit of God will be there and they can just,
you know, believe on their own or they can just, you know, they
don't need a preacher. God says you do. God says you
do. I don't say you do. God says
you do. Go over to Romans 10. See it. Romans chapter 10 says verse 13, Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall
they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall
they believe on Him in whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher? Well, there's a lot of preachers,
aren't there? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? Oh, there's a big rub, isn't
it? Who's sent? Who's sent? The one who preaches
in the name or by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without
thus saith the Lord, we don't need to say anything. The Lord Jesus Christ. We preach
the gospel of Jesus Christ Because we preach in the name. And you
must have a preacher. And he must be sent of God. What does that mean, in the name?
Well, as I've said, it means the authority. In the name. It means the authority of. The truth and power of our Word
comes from the Son of God. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, The Apostle says in verse 1,
And I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power. When a man preaches the gospel
of Jesus Christ, it is demonstrated by the power of the Spirit of
God toward his people. It's demonstrated. One thing my pastor had taught
me, he said, if a man's called to preach, God does not, He does
not have to make room for himself. He doesn't have to open up the
door for himself. God opens the door and God gives
him a people that listens. God's going to give him a people
that will hear. And friends, truly, I speak by
the authority of God. I speak with the authority of
God. Now, I come to you with much trembling, in weakness, My speech is contemptible, but
I know this, I speak with the authority of God. I am His messenger. Not only His messenger, but His
ambassador. An ambassador is a person that
speaks for a king. Speaks in the stead of a king. And I dare not put my own twist
to it. I dare not say anything my King
has not told me to say. I dare not say it without, thus
saith the Lord. We are ambassadors, Paul said,
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. Be ye reconciled
to God. Be ye reconciled to God. God
had declared His Word to us. He's declared His Word to the
world. He's declared the unrefutable
evidence by signs and wonders and miracles that Jesus is the
Son of God. He's declared this. If you go over to Acts chapter
2, Peter tells them this. He says this in verse 22. He
said, You men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth,
the man approved of God among you. How? By miracles and wonders and signs
which God did by Him in the midst of you. This is irrefutable evidence
that Jesus is the Son of God. And God has given a great host
of witnesses to confirm that He is the Christ of God. That
God manifests in the flesh. John says that in the beginning
was the Word. And the Word was with God and
the Word was God. And the Word was manifest in
the flesh. And John says in his epistle,
he says, not only did I witness the Word of God, I handled Him. I touched Him. I'm His witness. I saw Him. These apostles were witnesses
of Jesus' righteousness, weren't they? They lived three years
with Him. Now you can live three minutes
with me and know I'm a sinner. But they lived three years with
this man, Jesus Christ, and He did only righteousness. Only righteousness. They were
witnesses of this. They were witnesses of how men
treated Him, how they spoke evil of Him. They were witnesses of
how they crucified Him. They were witnesses of His death.
And not only were the apostles witnesses, but the people at
the foot of the cross. Think of the Roman soldier that
was at the foot of the cross that said, Surely this is the
Son of God. Witness. Mary and his mother
and the other women that were at the foot of the cross. And
there was a thief that was next to him who witnessed that he
was deity. He was God manifest in the flesh. And they testified also that
He was not only crucified, but that He was raised from the dead.
Think of their witness. Think of what they're testifying
of here. This man Jesus, who is the Son of God, was crucified,
This righteous man was crucified and on the third day he rose
from the dead. That God raised this man from
the dead. And this is the message we preach.
This is the message we preach. We preach the gospel from a risen
Christ. A risen Christ. Not a dead Christ. Arisen Christ God raised Jesus
from the dead Because death could not hold him Death could not
hold him Jesus was on the cross and given
over to the hands of sinful men and they did what they pleased
Which was to kill him What do you suppose men today
would do with the Son of God if they could get their hands
on Him? The same thing they did 2,000 years ago, they would kill
Him. Man by nature, that's all man
desires to do. Man says in his own heart, we
will not have this man to rule over us. Man says in his heart, let us
break his bands asunder. and cast His cords from us. Yet what was unknown to them,
all the while they were doing what they wanted to, they were
doing the will of God. They were doing the will of God.
In chapter 2 and verse 22, Verse 23 says, "...he being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have
taken him by wicked hands, crucified and slain." God had already determined
this. And yet these men thought they
were doing exactly what they were... They thought they were
really shoving God off the cliff here. They thought they were
killing God. No. They were doing exactly what
God determined for them to do. Jesus was purposed. to be the
only acceptable sacrifice for sins. He was purposed. This was
on purpose. And when Jesus hung on that cross,
God must have imputed all the sins of His elect unto Him. If you or I were to hang on a
cross, do you suppose God would have to impute any sin to us? We're already sinners. He had to impute them to Christ
because Christ was righteous. He was holy. He was the spotless
Lamb of God. He was the only acceptable sacrifice
for sins. And He bore our sins in His own
body on the tree, suffered as the just for the unjust that
He might bring us to God. And so successful was His one
offering. that the Scripture says, He hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. Them that are sanctified. Them that are set apart by the
eternal counsel of God. Those who are set apart by the
Holy Spirit in time to believe and trust in Jesus Christ. We
have already been perfected. Perfected by His one offering. One offering for sin. He was
successful. And God raised Him from the dead,
not as some would think resurrection is. You know, most people think
of resurrection as some kind of lifeless body roaming the
earth or something like that. That's not what the Lord Jesus
Christ was raised to. No, He was raised to glory, to
heaven itself, to sit on the throne of God. The Lord Jesus
Christ was raised and received up into heaven. The Apostle said
that he must be received into heaven because the grave could
not hold him. And therefore, we are sent by
his name to declare this message. We are sent by his name, by his
authority, to declare this message. Sinners, repent. and believe the gospel. Repent and be converted that
your sins may be blotted out. So when He comes again, we may
be found righteous. Righteous. When He comes to take
us home, when He comes to take this life, when He comes and
He takes our spirits from this body, we will be transported
who believe on Christ, who have repented from their sins, turning
to Christ by faith. We shall be transported into
the very presence of God, righteous and holy. sins forgiven, pardoned, received,
forever perfected by His one offering and righteousness. What a gracious message this
is for sinners. If you're a sinner in need of
mercy, that is a message for you from God Himself. I am sent to declare this message
continually. Repent and believe the gospel.
Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn from yourself,
your religion and works trying to please God and believe on
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on His authority. Believe
on His righteousness. Believe on His blood. Believe
on His resurrection. Believe on His deity and His
humanity. Trust Him. Rest on Him completely. And your sins will be blotted
out forever. We don't do much blotting, I
guess. We delete. We have computers and delete
things. But this blotting is wonderful.
When you had a ledger and you kept the ledger, they didn't
have erasers. You owed something, you owed it. And the only way for it to be
erased was to blot it out with a big blot of ink. put ink all
over it, and nobody could ever see it again. What do you owe? Well, this thing's blotted out. I guess I owe nothing. That's
exactly right. It's been blotted, but not with
ink, with blood. Blood. If you go back to chapter 4 in
Acts, If this is such a great message,
if this is such a good gospel, if this is such a merciful gospel,
why do we have this written? And as they spake unto the people,
the priest and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees
came upon them, being grieved that they taught the people and
preached through through Jesus, the resurrection from the dead. Why is it that men are grieved
by this message? They had a man standing in front
of them that was just healed walking and leaping and praising
God in the temple, these men were teaching the truth concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ by the authority of a risen Christ,
and yet these men were grieved. Why is that? Why would they be
so grieved? Men hate the gospel. If men are so confident that
the gospel is false, if they're so sure of their academic achievements
as to deny the very existence of God, then why do they hate
us so much? Why do they hate this message?
Do you actually hate the message of the tooth fairy? Have you
really been angry about that? That tooth fairy business? No! Why would you be? That's just
nonsense! It's not real. It's a myth. Nobody cares about that. If they
think this is such a myth, why are they so angry at it? Why
are they so hostile? A man was lame for 40 years.
He walks. Jesus raised the dead. He healed
the sick. Wouldn't that be a good thing?
Do you suppose that that would be something that people would
want? Yet men killed him and killed
his witnesses. In Acts chapter 4, they hated
the message so much they arrested the apostles and put them on
trial. Can we not see this in our day?
Really, can you not see it? Are you missing it? The riots that are going on in
the streets of our cities are promoted as civil rights. You
believe that? They want that rather than this. They want that. And it's a crime
for a person who preaches the gospel to stand outside and preach
the gospel unless you have your permit. I promise you, you'll
get arrested if you don't have a permit. Unless you are registered, You
can get in a lot of trouble for preaching the gospel. Now, you
can go and burn down a liquor store, I guess, and get away
with it and call it civil rights. But truly, it's a crime to preach.
I'll give you an illustration of this. Greg Elmquist, a pastor
that's in Florida, registered to be a non-profit, and they
were to ask, what is your confession of faith? And he wrote simply
the inspired holy scriptures. the inspired Holy Scripture,
the inspired Word of God, and a SWAT team came. Now, there was nothing that happened.
I mean, they came and saw that he was, you know, a legitimate
church. But friends, it's not far-fetched
to see that our laws truly protect us now, but they'll be changed
soon. They'll be changed soon. They've
been changed in history. And people scoff at that, but
that's just so. That just happened in history
over and over again. But the truth of the gospel still
stands whether they change their laws or not. This does not change the truth.
The fact that the apostles were arrested and put on trial did
not change the truth. And it did not change their gospel.
It did not change their message. Not one bit. This same Jesus,
whom you crucified, whom you hated, God raised from
the dead. Same message. Wasn't that the
same message when they healed the man? It was the same message
He taught the people? And when they got arrested, it's still
the same message. And this is the reason for their
hatred. Look at chapter 4 and verse 11. This is the stone which was set
at nought 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. This
is the hatred. This is the reason for the hatred.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the only name by which men
are saved. It is only by the authority of
Jesus Christ that anyone is saved at all. There is no other authority. No other authority. There's only
one. There is no other Jesus Christ.
There's only one. Jesus of Nazareth who is crucified
is the only atonement for sin. Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the
only righteousness of God for sinners. And it is only by His
name we preach unto you. And I give you by the authority
of Scripture this. Here's your assurance, here's
your hope, that everyone who believes on Him must be saved. Must. You believer must be saved. Remember, this is God's honor
that's at stake here. God has promised to save His
people from their sins. Justice demands the salvation
of God's people. Justice demands it. The law demands
our salvation. because we have been made the
righteousness of God in Him. And now, by His power, we have
been given life and righteousness, and we've been made a new creature
in Christ Jesus. We have His blood shed for our
sins, and the power of the Holy Spirit, by His power, He cleanses
us from dead works. Does your conscience weigh you?
Does your conscience get filthy in this world? The blood of Christ
purges us, cleanses us from all sin. God must save us. He must save everyone for whom
Christ died. All that the Father giveth Me
shall come to Me, and Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise
cast out. This is the will of the Father
which has sent Me, that of all He hath given Me I should lose
nothing, but raise it up again at the last day." Do you believe on His name? then let us by grace continue
to believe on His name. Let us by grace continue to preach
His name with boldness. Not the apostles preached with
boldness. How could they preach with such
boldness in face of such adversity? Because they were preaching by
the authority of God. If you realize that your witness
is the authority of God, who will stand against you? Who can stand against the authority
of God? Nobody. Not one. The gospel that is preached is
always victorious. It's always victorious. Tonight
is victorious. Because I preach by His authority,
not by my own. Jesus Christ, crucified, is risen
from the dead and saves sinners. And those He saves, He must save. I like that. When He said, I
must, needs go through Samaria. You mean the Lord God must need?
Yes, because He determined to go through Samaria. And wherever
He found you, He determined to find you and save you. How? By His gospel. Praise God for His gospel. I'm
thankful for the authority of His gospel. I like that. What can man do unto me? What can you do? Can't do anything to this truth.
It still stands just as firm as it stood in the days of the
apostles. It hadn't moved, has it? I'll stand in it. I'll stand
in him. I'm thankful for his mercy. Let's
stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.