You would turn with me to Acts
chapter four. I want to actually read verses
12, or 10 through 12. Be it known unto you all and
to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead,
even by him does this man stand here before you whole. This is
the stone which was set at Nau 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. I want to look at that name,
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the name we have to be
saved by. This story actually starts in chapter three, and
I want to kind of look at that. Peter's starting this. We're
told in verse one of three that Peter and John went up together
into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. These men went to the gate or
went to the temple to pray. They went together as brethren. It says, 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, to ask alms of them
that entered into the temple. We're told through this story,
this man was about 40 years old. These people knew this man. He'd
been laying there for a long time. Said he was lame from birth. That's the way we are. As sinners,
we're lame. We can't stand on our own. It
takes the grace of God and his mercy to lift us up. And he put
this man here, and he put his apostles here at the same time. And when he saw Peter and John
about to go into the temple, he asked an alms. And Peter fastening
his eyes upon him with John said, look on us. We need to look on the Lord Jesus
Christ. We need to look. We need to look
and listen to the men that stand and declare our Lord Jesus Christ. And as man did, he listened.
He gave heed unto them. He was expecting to receive something.
And did he receive something? Peter said, silver and gold have
I none, but such as I have, I give thee. In the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, rise up and walk. Peter didn't ask him to stand
up. He didn't ask him to do something to be healed. He declared the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the name we've got to
be saved by. That's the only name that will
save a man or a woman. All that the Father has given
him will come to him. That's what we're told. And then it says, and this man,
they helped him up. And immediately his feet and
ankle bones received strength. This is a work that only the
Lord could do. The Lord had saved many, and
he used his apostles in this case, but he did it, it was the
Lord Jesus Christ that did the work. And it was for his honor
and for his glory. And this man, leaping up, stood
and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking,
leaping, and praising God. That is what any man that the
Lord Jesus Christ saves, he will be leaping, he will be walking,
and we're also told he'll be sitting clothed and in his right
mind. And we need that. I needed that.
I still need that. If the Lord doesn't keep us and
he can keep us through that his name, but that's It's nothing
we do nothing we do And these people this gave Peter
and John a chance to preach and declare the gospel These people
were greatly wondering if this man that they had seen lame for
all these years that he was walking now And Peter He declared how this
man was able to walk and what means he was saved. He said,
the God of Abraham and of Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers,
hath glorified his son, Jesus Christ, whom ye delivered up
and denied him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined
to let him go. He didn't pull no punches. These
people They had been religious. They had been there at the temple.
They had been there and said, crucify him. They went along
with their leaders. They decided, thought they decided,
to crucify our Lord. They only did, is what Peter
said in Acts 2. He said he did it to determine
the counsel and will of God. God had predetermined for him
to be sacrificed. Be our substitute and hang on
that cross and shed his blood for the sins of his people." And he told them, he said, you
denied the Holy One and just ones, you desired a murderer
to be granted unto you. They could find no fault with
our Lord Jesus Christ. He was perfect. But they would
have rather had a murderer back released among them than they
had to let the Lord Jesus Christ go. But they only did what God
had determined beforehand be done. And he told them, he said,
and killed the prince of life, whom God hath raised from the
dead. Wherefore, O ye are witnesses. And his name, through faith in
his name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know.
Yea, the faith which is by him, Christ, hath given him The perfect
soundness in the presence of you all. All through that verse,
he does nothing but declare that the Lord Jesus Christ did it
all for that man. And not only from the sounds
of it, not only did he heal his body, but he healed his soul.
That's what we need. We need that spirit to heal our
souls. Save us from our sins. He told
them to repent. That's what our Lord Jesus Christ
came preaching. He came preaching repentance. Repent for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand. That's what we're told. He was
sent here as a preacher. He was that prophet. He was sent
here. And then Peter goes on to tell these people
about that prophet. So that's what Moses spoke of,
a prophet that the Lord your God shall raise up from among
your brethren. That's what all the other prophets
from Samuel on, that's what they declared was the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's all His word, it's all about Him. And our Lord in His mercy
and in His grace, we're told in verse 4 of chapter 4 that how many of them which heard
the word believed in the number of these men was about 5,000.
I've heard it said both two different
ways, that this could have been a total of 8,000, he'd saved
3,000, and now there's another 5,000, or it could just be a
total of 5,000. But it just went from 120, just
a very short time before, up in a room, to thousands. He said on the cross, forgive
them for they know not what they do. And our Lord did. And he
started his church with people. And he chose them. He gave them
the belief to believe in him. He did it all for them. And then we look at that. It tells us in verse 1 of chapter
4, it says, 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
Jesus the resurrection from the dead. These religious men were
grieved. And isn't that the way it is
this day and time? The religious people out here,
if we tell them who the true God is, who the true Savior,
Lord Jesus Christ is, they're grieved. They don't like that. But who makes us to differ? But
God. If He hadn't have saved us, He
could have left us right there in all that too, which some of
us came from. He could have left us to ourselves.
What mercy and what grace He has on His people. And then it
says in verse three, and they laid hands on them and put them
in hold until the next day. They arrested these two men for
declaring the Lord Jesus Christ, that he was all in all. They
put him in prison. Can you imagine the religious
leaders in our county coming in here and taking our pastor
out while he's preaching? I mean, it would be the same
thing. It's still hard to imagine, but they would do it if they
could get away with it. I know they would. If you hear
them talk, you know that they can't stand anybody actually
preaching the truth. They get along with everybody
else, but they can't get along with anybody that's telling the
truth. But they put them in prison. And this was a trial for Peter
and John. At this time, they would just
have to suffer for a little bit, overnight. Later, they would
suffer to the death. The Lord would take Peter and
others. He sends lesser trials to prepare
us for the greater ones. That's the miraculous work of
our Lord, that He, through Christ, gives us the faith to endure. If it's not in Christ and of
Christ, we have no hope. But Christ is our hope and he
is that name whereby we must be saved. It says that it came to pass
on the morrow that their rulers and elders and scribes and Annas
the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and many
as were of the kindred of the high priest were gathered together
at Jerusalem. These high priests, they had
made a mockery of what God had taught. Caiaphas was also a high
priest. There is but one high priest.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the only high priest, but he only
sat in ordinance for there to be one high priest, which was
a representation and a picture of Christ as the one high priest. But these men asked, By what
power or by what name have you done this? At this point, the Sanhedrin
did not care for what they were preaching. They didn't care that
this man had had a good deed done towards him and been healed
miraculously. They didn't care about any of
that. They got on their high horse and asked, by what name?
Peter here and John could have declared Jehovah, the Holy God,
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and everything would have
been fine. They would have been, all right,
y'all can have at it. But that would have been a denial
of Christ. Peter had denied Christ once. And whenever that caught
through the third time, he wept bitterly. That's what we're told. He had wept barely. He didn't
deny the Lord again. He stood and proclaimed. And
he did it through the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost then Peter filled
with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, you rulers of the people
and the elders of Israel. You know, after this, I'm sure
Peter remembered what Christ had said. He said, they will
take you to the synagogues. They'll take you before the rulers.
Take no thought for what you'll speak. The Holy Spirit will teach
you the same hour what you shall say." This is what the Holy Spirit
had him say to these men. This was not held back. This wasn't declared anything
to them. They had a zeal for God, but it wasn't according
to knowledge. That's what Paul told us. He
was a Pharisee. He knew his brethren, and he
prayed for them to be saved. But he said they had a zeal.
They were religious, but they didn't know God. And if you don't
know God, there's no hope. You're just going through the
motions. We need God. We need the Lord Jesus Christ
to save us. He said, if we this day be examined
of the good deed done to the impotent man by what means he
is made whole, Be it known unto you all, I love that, be it known
unto you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised
from the dead. These men, they knew exactly
what who he was talking about. They thought they put that, they
thought they put the Lord Jesus Christ to death. They thought,
well, that'll stop all of this. That was just part of God's plans. He had to die to save his people. He had to be buried and resurrected. That was all for his people. He did that out of the mercy
and goodness to save his people from their sins. This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came to save
sinners. That is why he would choose me, I have
no idea. But I thank my Lord every day
that he decided to choose, that he was the one in charge, that
he's the one that did it all, that it's his righteousness that
I will be presented to God before. And he said, this man stands
here before you whole. And he stands here because the
Lord Jesus Christ, his name was invoked. His name, by his name,
that's how this man was saved. That's how he was made whole.
Then he told him, he said, this is the stone which was set at
naught of you builders, which has become the head of the corner. These men had tried to build
their religion without Christ, which reminded me of the story
of building on the rock and building on the sand. These men had built
on the sand. Without Christ, there is no hope. There is no rock. But our God, he chose to make
God the son the head of the corner. He exalted him highly, he put
him there, and he made him the rock. That's
our foundation, is the rock. Christ is that rock that we needed,
that our faith is built on, and it's only by his faith that we
have faith. We're told our faith is not of
ourselves, And then we get to our text,
and we'll dwell here a little while. Neither is there salvation
in any other. To be saved means you need to
be saved from something. Our God is holy. Our God cannot
look upon sin. He has to punish sin. He will
punish sin. He had to punish the Lord Jesus
Christ because he took our sin. If you're without Christ and
you want to stand before God on your own merits, he said, no matter what you've
done that you think is good, there's none good. Our best,
our righteousness is nothing but filthy rags. We need a Savior
that can save us, and there's no salvation without the Lord
Jesus Christ. He has to be the one doing the
saving. He's done it all. He planned
it, he purposed it, and he did it. He said it was finished before
he even got to the cross in his prayer. He's finished it all. It was finished before the foundation
of the world. He purposed it. God can't back
down. If you look back through all of the promises that God
made, the covenants that he made with Abraham, David, any of the
others, it was always God making the covenant. And these men were
okay. The Lord did it all. He made
the covenant. He kept the covenant. The men
couldn't keep the covenant. I mean, we're still sinners,
and we'll be until the day we die. But at that point, our Lord,
if we're in Christ, we'll be made perfect. We'll be seen in
Christ, and we'll praise His name forevermore. It says, this is how that salvation,
there is no other. That is the only way we can be
saved. It says, for there is none other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. This name is above
all. This name is to be honored above
all else. It will be. Our God said that. Peter and John rightfully declared
this name and the greatness of it as do the scriptures. Turn
with me to Isaiah chapter 9. Isaiah 9, verse 6, we're told,
for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the
government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall
be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. All these names are Christ, our
Lord Jesus Christ. All these names. He's Wonderful.
He's a Counselor. He's the mighty God. He's the
everlasting father and he's the prince of peace. Only through
him can a sinner attain peace. It's through the Lord Jesus Christ
and his word and his blood. We're told in Matthew that his
name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people. Not
try, not might, he shall save his people. What our God has
purposed to do cannot be undone. No man can stay his hand. He does as he will. He does as
he pleases with whom he pleases. We're told he will have mercy
upon whom he will have mercy. And he'll have compassion on
whom he'll have compassion. So it's not of him that willeth
or runneth, but of God that does the choosing. And I wanted to look at some
of the things we've seen, some names there, some other names
that he goes by and that he is, that means his name. One, God
has highly exalted his name. We see that in Philippians chapter
two. We'll read verses 6 through 11.
Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ said, Who, being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made
himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of man. What grace and mercy
for our Lord to leave the heaven that he was in. come down here
as a man like us, live amongst sinners for his people. He did it for his people. And
being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He said,
no man taketh my life, I lay it down. And he did. And we're
told, wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a
name which is above every name. That's the name that we have
to be saved by. And that at the name of Jesus,
every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth,
and things under the earth. And that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father. Our Lord Jesus Christ did everything
for the glory and the honor of his father, and his father did
everything for the honor and glory of his son. These two were
one. And the Holy Spirit filled Peter. He didn't tell
about himself. He told about the Lord Jesus
Christ. which is what it all revolves around, is the Son,
God the Son. And every knee should bow. The Lord will have us bow in
this lifetime to Him, or He'll have us bow in the next. Woe to them that He has bowed
in the next. They will bow. But they'll have
to pay for their sins. And by his mercy and his grace,
he chose some. We should all be there doing
that. But he chose some not to endure that, some for the glory
and the honor of his son to be saved, saved from their
sins. His name is precious. I was reading 1 Peter, and it
was amazing how many times he said, precious, regarding Christ's
name. In 1 Peter chapter 2, in verse 4 he says, To whom coming
as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of
God and precious. And then he went down into verse
six and he said, wherefore also it is contained in the scripture,
behold, I lay in Zion, a chief cornerstone, elect and precious. And he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded. Unto you, therefore, which believe
he is precious. That name that we have to be
saved by, must be saved by, is precious. That name is the power of God.
He said as much in his prayer in John 17, in verse 2, he said, and thou hast
given him power over all flesh, That he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him The lord has showed us these
things and they are clear The lord has given him power
over all flesh And as many as thou hast given
him they will be saved In romans 1 16 He says, for I am, the Apostle
Paul says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Our Lord sent the ordinances,
the covenants, to his people, Israel, through Abraham. He passed those along. They put
him on the cross. They did what God determined,
but they put him on the cross. They rejected that stone. God
made him the head corner, set his name above all other names,
and then our God put, our God set him above every name,
and then he sent it out to the rest of the world. The ones the
Jews didn't believe could have anything to do with their God.
He sent that message out and saved other than Jews. Thank the Lord he did, or it
might not have reached us, but the Lord came for us too. He
had his people out of every nation, kindred, and tribe. He is the believer's pardon.
By Him, we're pardoned from our sin. In 1 John 2, verse 12 he says, I write unto you, little children,
because your sins are forgiven you for His namesake. His name, that we must be saved
by this name, was done for His namesake. He saved His people for His namesake. He chose to save a people. He
did that. He saved his people. Not all
have been called yet. When the last one's called, that's
going to be the end of this earth. He's coming then. He's coming
back once he calls his last one. And he does it in his own time.
That man that was 40 years old laying there, he was 40 years
old before the Lord saved him. I know that. I know that feeling.
That's where the Lord left me. I was pretty close to that. Left
me lame for that long. And we're also told, for Christ's
sake, in Ephesians 4, verse 32. I'm trying to memorize these,
but my mind's not as... sharp as it used to be. And said, and be ye kind one
to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for
Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Because of the work that the
Lord did, our Lord Jesus Christ did, God has forgiven us. for Christ's sake. Oh, what mercy
and what grace he has given us. His name is faith. He is that
faith. We're told that faith is, that
the faith we have is not of ourselves. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
faithful one. In Hebrews 11, all those times it says, by faith,
Noah, by faith, Abel, by faith, by faith, Abraham, that's all. By Christ, those men did what
they did. Christ died for them, paid their
sin debt, and then had Noah build an ark. Had Abraham see a promised
son. That was the Lord Jesus Christ.
Had him take his soul son up for a sacrifice to show him that
there was another, there was a substitute, that he wouldn't
die. His son wouldn't have to die.
That substitute did have to die. He died for us. If we're saved, it will be by
that name. That name alone. We need to call
to that name. We need to be like the public.
We need to call on that name. Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. That's what we need. We need
to have, we need to call on that name. We need to beg and plead
our Lord to save us. And that name being above all,
I know I read the whole thing of chapter five revelations before,
but I want to look back at verses 12 through 14 in closing. And if we're the Lord's, if he's
chosen to save us from our sins, keeps us till the end. And he's
the faithful one that can do that. We will be like all of these
others that were there, the thousands of thousands, the 10,000 times
10,000. We'll be saying, verse 12, saying
with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive
power and riches and wisdom and strength. and honor and glory
and blessing. And every creature which is in
heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in
the sea and all that are in them, heard I say, blessing and honor
and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne
and unto the Lamb forever and ever. What a glorious time that will
be when we can truly without sin, praise and honor our God
and his son that he sent to be our substitute. By that name,
we must be saved. Y'all stand with me.