Me again to Acts chapter 4, Acts
chapter 4. My text will be found in verse
12. It says, 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
Power of Christ's Name. The Power of Christ's Name. Now, the Pharisees, after the
apostles had healed this impotent man in chapter 3, the scribes
and elders being jealous of them, desiring to have power, arrested
the apostles and brought them before this council, a council
of religious men, a council of those men who even crucified
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want us to see here the
boldness of Peter, being filled with the Holy Spirit. Peter was
the first to deny the Lord. Now, everybody else just ran
off because they were scared. But Peter, he said, oh, I'll
stay with you until I die. And he was confronted with his
own sinfulness and lack of faith. And he denied the Lord Jesus
three times, but here he is, several, just a few days after
that, a few months after that, here he is, he's standing before
the same people who crucified the Lord, and he stands with
boldness. He stands with boldness. And they ask him this question,
him and John, they ask him this question, he said, by what power
or By what name have you done this? Now, the this, by what power
they had done this, he's talking about the healing of the impotent
man, the man that could not walk. This man had laid at that gate
daily. Someone had brought him there
for 40 years. He was above 40 years old. when he was healed. This man
had been sitting at that gate begging for years. I did talk to a man this morning,
or last night, who was claiming to be destitute of any food. Well, I said, we've got food
here. I don't see it. I'll tell you what, we don't
really know what need is in this nation. This man sat for 40 years
begging daily for his bread. Couldn't go down to the corner
store and buy a loaf of bread. Matter of fact, if you had a
loaf of bread and you gave it to him, you'd think nothing of
it. To him, it would be as a million dollars. It would have been expensive.
It would have been just great for him to receive bread for
the day. This man had done it for 40 years.
Imagine his low estate. I'll tell you what, when I get
cooped up in the house one day, and don't go outside, I feel
horrible. I can't imagine the lowest state of this man, not
being able to get up himself, not being able to dress himself,
not being able to take care of himself, having to sit in the
shambles of his dragon clothes, begging for bread, begging for
money to buy bread. Unable to walk. Despised. How do I know he was despised?
I'll tell you what, when I pass by people in our city, I know
I feel that way at times. I despise them. And I know that
there are some who have need, but we look at men like this
and we say, well, you know, they don't work, they don't eat. And
of a truth, if they're able to work, they should work. They
shouldn't be begging if they're able to work. But this man had
nothing. He was destitute. He had nothing. He was uneducated and in the
eyes of all men, worthless. As a matter of fact, he was a
burden to men. But this day when the apostles came by and he sat
at the gate, he looked on them expecting to receive money of
them. Their eyes fixed on him and he
saw them and he was glad. He was expecting money from these
men. Oh, but he received something
far greater than money. He received grace of God. He received grace of God. This
is always how God gives grace. He gives it by surprise. He gives
it by surprise. Nobody is looking for grace.
This man was not looking for healing. He was not looking for
anything as spiritual. He was looking for money. But
what did he find? He found grace. He found grace. There is none that seek after
God, and there is none that would understand. There is none righteous,
no, not one, but God. But God. I love those two words. Because without those words,
there would be no salvation at all but God, who is rich in mercy. But God had chosen a people and
has redeemed them by the blood of Christ, and He will, by grace,
save them. This man, though he were there
for forty years unsaved, this man was lost, this man was darkened,
this man was dead in trespasses and sin, yet God had purposed
Him to be the cripple. God purposed Him to be begging
at that gate. For as long as He begged, He
was purposed to be there. And on the day that the apostles
passed by, He was there. Because God had purposed to save
this man at this time. Like this man, I thought differently about grace
before grace happened. Before God gave me grace, I thought
differently. I expected some kind of experience. I don't know about you, but when
I was younger and lost, I expected that if God were to save me,
it's got to be some lightning bolt that strikes down from heaven,
or one night I'll just wake up in cold sweats, afraid and fearful,
running to the nearest preacher I could find. I figured that
that would be the case. But I'll tell you, I know some
men have experienced great experiences of grace. The Apostle Paul was
one of them. But my experience was not the same
as yours. I imagine mine seemed to just
creep up on me. And one day it was there. One
day it was there. God had grace on me. It was no
great experience. One day God gave me faith and
I believed. I wasn't expecting it and I wasn't expecting it
that way, but that's the way God gave it. See, I can't tell you a time
and a place that the Lord caused me to believe, but that really
doesn't matter, does it? It doesn't matter when you were
called or how you were called. This man would not care. I know
this man received a great experience on the day he was quickened,
but we don't trust in our experiences. The most important thing is,
do you believe now? Because what good is your faith
yesterday? Your faith yesterday don't count for nothing. If you
don't believe now, you've never believed before. You must believe
now. And this is the result of grace,
is the quickening power of the Holy Spirit through the preaching
of the gospel. This man desired money. He got
strength for his legs. He got strength. believed and
worshipped God. And the people were amazed at
this, and they looked upon the apostles as though they had done
something. The apostles said, why are you looking at me? Didn't I tell you in the name
of the Lord Jesus? Didn't I tell you that it was by the power
of Christ? Why would you look on us as though we've done something?
When I preach the gospel and you believe, don't look on me.
As though I've done something great? I don't do anything great. It is the power of the gospel. The power is in the name of Jesus
Christ. It's not by me. Although it must
come by me. It must come by a man preaching
the gospel. Yet there's no power in the man.
There's no power in our name. People were amazed that this
man, that the apostles made this man to walk. The salvation of
sinners always comes by preaching of the gospel. We know that it
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching. You children, I
know that this is foolishness to you because it was foolishness
to me. But I'll tell you this, when
the power of God comes, it won't be foolishness. That may come
over you in an instant and it may come over you slowly. I don't know. However, God wants
that experience, that's fine. But when it comes, you'll know
it comes. You'll know it's here. Why? Because you believe now.
You trust now. And that's the power of God.
Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. We know that God
has elected a people and chosen them and redeemed them. But we
also know in the same chapter, he said, in whom? In Christ.
You trusted after that you heard the word of truth. You can't
trust In a Christ you've never heard. I'll tell you, Jesus name is
being tossed around. So flippantly. You believe in Jesus? Oh, yeah,
I believe in Jesus. Who is he? Well, some guy died 2000 years
ago. Well, that faith will get you
nothing but hell. I mean, if you just know the facts of the
case, that doesn't matter. You must know the man. You must
know Christ. I know whom I have believed. Do you know whom you believe?
Is whom you believe able to save you? Or do you have to help him? Because if you have to help him,
you don't have any assurance. You don't have any hope because
your Christ is not the Christ of Scripture. My Christ is able
to save me to the uttermost. Scripture says that God has given
us who believe the earnest a down payment of our inheritance, which
is the Holy Spirit. Have you received the Holy Spirit?
Has God given you the Holy Spirit? Because I'll tell you, if you
have not the Spirit of God, you are none of His, the Scripture
tells us. Have you the Spirit of God dwelling in you? Have
you the power of God to the resurrection of the soul? If you do, you'll
be like this man, leaping and praising God for the strength,
the strength of the soul to live, to believe. You see, I believe
because he's given me life. You see, my faith didn't give
me life. His life gave me faith. And I
believe now. I trust Him. And friend, just
as God chose us, purchased us, and redeemed us, He will send
His men to call us. And when He comes in the power
of the Spirit, friends, we are sealed. This is uncommon to us. I mean,
we seal envelopes every day. But I'll tell you this, this
is the seal of a king. When the king would send a letter,
he would put wax on the letter, and he would have a ring that
had an insignia. And he would seal that with his
ring. And if anyone opened that but
the man that it was meant for, would be certain death. This
was the signet of the king. And it was not to be opened,
but to whom it was sent. And friends, we are sealed. And I'll tell you, none could
open us. None could take this away from
us. We are sealed by the power of God to everlasting life. Isn't that something that this
is one thing nobody can take from you? They take everything
else. God can allow them to take our
homes, our families, our lives, but this is one thing that Satan
cannot take from me and men cannot take from me. It's life. Salvation. Righteousness. Because that was
obtained by someone higher than them. Someone higher than myself. This power of faith comes by
Jesus Christ. And it comes by the gospel that
is preached into you. And we know that we have eternal
life if we believe on this name alone. Have we been given strength
to believe and rest on the merits of Christ's blood? Have you been made to repent
from your sins, to turn from your own thoughts of God, To
believe what God says about Him and about His Son? Have you believed
on the person of Jesus Christ? Because that's the only hope
for you. The only hope for me is the person
of Christ. And if so be that there is faith,
then let us walk by faith. This man stood with the apostles.
And I know this. You believe. on Christ, you stand
with those who believe on Christ. You stand with His church. You
identify with His church. And we can walk and leap and
praise God for the power of His grace only by the name or the
power of Jesus Christ. This salvation that I'm talking
about is a miracle and it must come by the power of Jesus Christ
crucified. Crucified. Be it known unto you,
the apostles said, by the name or by the power of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, this man standeth before you whole. This man who
had despised and rejected The same man who they called the
Nazarene. The same man that was crucified
by these people that God raised from the dead by this crucified
man. This person stands whole. This
person, right here, preaching to you, stands whole before you
today by the power of the name of Jesus Christ. This is the name of power. Paul
said, I determined not to know anything among you. Now, friends,
he wasn't talking about personal things, we love each other and
we do desire to know each other personally and we love each other.
But I'll tell you what, I desire nothing greater than to know
Jesus Christ and him crucified in you. And I desire nothing
but to see Christ in you. I desire nothing but you to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, as I've believed. But we must believe on Jesus
Christ, whom was crucified. I wrote this in the bulletin, in the back there, about this
small village. This small village had inscribed
the words, We preach Christ crucified. And all who entered the chapel
and stood outside might understand the purpose of the meeting room,
why the meeting room had been built. And for years, faithful
men had preached the gospel for generations there. But as those generations passed,
there arose a generation that considered the cross and its
message, the gospel of Shambles, and began to preach salvation
by Christ's example. without the necessity of the
blood of the cross. And so, over time, a little vine
creeped up and covered the last part of that saying, and it said,
instead of, we preach Christ crucified, it said, we preach
Christ, but not Christ crucified. And later on, after that time,
some time passed. Some asked why the sermon should
be contained to Christ. Why can't you just teach good
things out of the Scriptures? Why do you have to preach Christ?
Why can't you preach a social gospel or politics or moral commandments? Why can't you do that? And so
they did. And then the vine creeped a little
further and covered the words Christ. And so now the sign says
we preach. We preach. But friends, what
good is a gospel without Christ and what good is a Christ without
him crucified? Because there is no remission
of sins without the shedding of blood. And there is no gospel
without blood. There is no gospel without blood.
The blood of Christ. We can see this today, that this
has happened to the church, our so-called church. We see that
they don't preach Christ. They may preach His example.
They may preach good things. But I'll tell you this, they
don't preach Christ and Him crucified. And if they don't preach Christ
and Him crucified, there is none saved under that gospel. None
saved. It is only by the power of the
crucified Christ And by his blood that he accomplished redemption. For all the father gave him and
all false gospels and false Christ have no power. You read Jeremiah,
chapter 23, and you'll see this, that he says, all who rob me
of my word, they steal from my word. And that's what they're
doing. False prophets steal from this word. But God says, I will not bless
them. I will not profit them at all. At all. Because they don't preach Christ
and him crucified, the apostles preach Christ and him crucified. He said, Be it known unto you
and all the people of Israel that by the name, by the power
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucify. This power of salvation comes
not only from the crucifixion of Christ, but from the resurrection
of Christ. What good is a crucified Christ
without the resurrection of Christ? Paul said, if he be not raised
from the dead, then you are yet in your sins. And all this is
vain. All this is empty if Christ is
still dead. I remember reading a Fox book
of martyrs. This was it jumped out. It's not a funny book, but
it's It's just amazing the faith that these men were given at
the time of their death. They would come up and they would
try to get these men to recant the gospel of Christ and Him
crucified Christ and Him risen from the dead. And they put that
stick, that cross with the image on it of that weak, effeminate
man. They put it on there and they
held it up to this one who was about to be burned. He said,
get that stick out of my face. Why? Because that's not His Christ.
His Christ is not on the cross. His Christ is resurrected from
the dead and sitting on the throne of God. That's where my Christ
is. My Christ is crucified. Yes,
crucified for me. Bears the marks still. But yet,
He is risen from the dead. God raised Him from the dead
and justified Him. And you know what? When God raised
Him from the dead, He raised me from the dead. I was with
Him when He was crucified and I was with Him when He was raised
from the dead. God raised from the dead. Why
do men stay dead? Believers, if you're a believer
in Christ, why is it that your body stays dead? In my flesh,
well, it's no good thing. It deserves to die. That's just
it. It deserves to die. When Christ
died, He died for our sins and bore the guilt of our sins. But when he died, his death was
powerful. It actually accomplished something. My death will accomplish nothing. His death actually took away
my sin. And when he went to the grave,
He was judged of God and found innocent. Why? Because all the
sins were gone. They're nowhere to be found.
Do you know that God can't find my sins? That's an amazing feat. I find them quite often. I find
them in this message. I find them in my heart. I find
them in my mind. I find them in my hands. I find
them in my son, my daughter. I find them in my wife. I find
them in you. God can't find them. It's amazing. Jeremiah chapter 50 and verse
20 tells us that God in searching can't find my sins. And God's not willing to even
look for them. He said, I will remember their iniquities and
their sins no more. Why? Because they're not there.
They're just not there. They're already paid for. Judgment
has passed. And Jesus Christ, being the incorruptible,
undefiled, holy and harmless Son of God, He was risen from
the dead, and now this gospel of salvation is of an ascended
Christ. Not only of a crucified Christ,
died for my sins, a risen Christ who rose from the dead, but also
an ascended Christ. In verse 11 it said, this is
the stone which is said of naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. My Christ is risen from the dead
and sits on the throne of God ever living to make intercession
for us who believe. Now, that's power. You see, I
have no influence with God. Personally, me, myself, I have
no influence with God. If I come to God by my name,
God, I've been good this week, so you've got to do something
for me. No, He don't got to do anything for you. The only thing
He's got to do is give you hail. So if you want that, you can
have it. You want to demand hail of God, you can demand it, because
that's what He's going to give you. What you deserve. Christ being risen from the dead,
He sits on the throne of God and He intercedes for me. In
other words, when God hears me, it's not because of me. It's
because of Him. When I pray, He says, Father,
look at my hands, see my side. Accept His prayer because of
me. Accept your worship. This morning you're worshiping.
If you worship in God, in spirit and in truth, do you know your
worship is accepted? You see why it's faith? Because
I don't see it. And you don't see it. But we
accept it by faith. We receive that our worship is
meaningful to God. That He accepts it because of
the risen Christ. Say, Father, accept them because
of Me. We preach. The Lord Jesus Christ. The Scripture asks the question,
when John saw this in heaven, he said, who is worthy to open
the book and loose the seals thereof? Remember, you're sealed. The names of God were sealed. The names of His elect were sealed. The providence of God was sealed. And the only one that could open
it was the risen Christ. Behold, the Lion of the tribe
of Judah hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seals
thereof. He was the Lion of the tribe
of Judah, mighty, but how does he appear unto his people? As
a lamb slain. Is that how Christ appears to
you? Gentle, meek, lowly in heart, And yet,
Lord of all. I've not yet seen a king like
that. I've not yet seen a man whose absolute power give absolute
love. I only see it in this king. In
this one who's ascended. He is the mighty conqueror of
my soul. He is the Lord. He is worthy. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
to receive, what's the first thing? Power. Power to do what? He said, Father, glorify, glorify
thy son as I've glorified thee, that I may give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given me. You see, he has power to
give life. You need life? Go to the one
that's got power. Go to the one that's got the
power to give you life. And I know this, everyone that's
come to God by him has it. Isn't that something? Well, I
don't believe that. Sorry. You need power. If you don't have the power to
believe, why don't you go to the one who has power to give
you faith to believe? Tell you what, if God comes in
power, you'll see that Jesus Christ
is the only one who's got power to give you anything. except you abide in Me, you can
do nothing." You know, I wish I believed that as much as I
want to. I wish I'd fall out on Him. Just
rest in Him like I want to. I can't do nothing without You. Truly, friends, I don't want
to do anything without Him. Jesus is the only name whereby
men are saved. The name of Jesus is not some
incantation. I know this, when children pray,
they rush through a prayer and it's all about them. Let me have a good day tomorrow. Let me, let me, let me, give
me, give me, give me, in Jesus' name, Amen. as though that seals
it. It's okay now. They're just like
the Catholics. They throw water on something
and they say it's holy. No. It's not an incantation. All who have been made whole
understand that Jesus is all in all. That He's everything. I tell you, that Jesus Christ
is not a part of my life. He is my life. He's not some incantation. He's
not some doctrine that I believe. He's my Beloved. He is my Savior. And that's not natural. That's
supernatural. That's power. All that we are given is because
of Christ. You have forgiveness of sins.
How do you suppose you have that? By Jesus Christ. And Him crucified. You justified before God. How
do you suppose you have that? By the resurrection of Christ.
You still have faith today. How do you suppose you have that?
Because of the arisen and ascended Christ. Who sits on the throne
of God. Waiting. Expecting. Till His enemies be made His
footstool. Till all His chosen come in. And so believer, if
you are a believer in Christ, you may come boldly now. How
do you suppose you can come boldly? Because our Savior has already
entered in. The veil is rent. It's been opened. The way has
been made clear. You may go to God at any time.
You may go to God for anything. Limitless! Will you weary God
with your prayers? What a fool says God's too busy.
He doesn't know anything about God, does he? His God may be
too busy. My God's never too busy. You
know, He hears me as though I'm the only one that ever spoke. Like I'm the only one that ever
spoke to Him. That's how He hears me. attention but to one person at
a time. Friends, God gives his saints
attention as though they were the only one asking personal, intimate attention. And so then we ask of him and
we receive all things by the name and by the power of Jesus
Christ, pardon, acceptance, salvation, justification, faith, redemption,
joy, peace, meekness, temperance, all of these things are by the
power of Christ. Which one of you have kept yourself
in the faith? None of us. Christ keeps us. Sinners, listen. If you've lied, you better listen. If you've fought evil, you better
listen. Because I'm telling you there's
only one Savior. That's pretty narrow, isn't it?
Narrow is the way that leadeth unto life. Pretty narrow. Singular. There's one person. If you don't
know Him, you don't have life. There is salvation. Neither is there salvation in
any other. For there is none other name
under heaven given among men. Friends, I've given you the name.
Have I not pointed you to Christ? Have I not compelled you to believe
right now? Did I not say it? Have you not
heard it? He is able to save. And he's the only one. And lastly,
we see this, that we must be saved by this
name. We must be saved. All that God purposed to save
will be saved, there's no doubt about that. I love that, don't
you? If God didn't purpose it, then
I can have some doubts. But God Himself purposed it,
will He not do it? Is He like us that He would let
us down or that He would We change His Word. We change our Word
all the time. He doesn't do that. And yet,
I doubt Him. How arrogant am I to doubt the
only One who hasn't lied? I've lied and I would doubt Him?
No. I must be saved. Because God purposed it. Christ
accomplished it. Finished it. He's risen. And He's coming back for me. And I will ever be in His presence,
praising His name by His power. I'll give praise unto the glory
of His grace. That's why God called me in the
first place. For the praise of the glory of His grace. Wherein
He has made us accepted in the name of the Beloved in Christ. Have you believed? I do. Therefore, I know. Because that's
not natural. I know that I have salvation
by the power of God. Just like that man knows he could
walk, I know this. I know whom I believed. And he's
able to save me to the uttermost. I pray that God bless you. Let's
stand and be dismissed in prayer.