In the book of Acts, chapter
4, the apostles Peter and John were preaching in the temple.
The Lord had just healed a man who was lame from birth through
Peter and John, and now they had just finished preaching in
the temple to all the people. In chapter 4, verse 2, it says,
One and two, the Sadducees came on them. They were grieved at
what they taught the people. And down in verse 3, it says
they laid hold on them and put them, incarcerated them. And verse 4, though, says, Howbeit
many of them which heard the word believed. And the number
of the men was about 5,000. A great number believed. as at Pentecost. So many folks
believed. Now, some were grieved, though.
Some were grieved at what they heard. But some, by God's grace,
believed. Yes, if you preach God on the
throne, as Peter did in chapter 3 and Acts chapter 2 at Pentecost,
God on the throne, holy, sovereign, and just, you preach man as he
is. That is, helpless in the dust
at God's disposal, not vice versa, but man in God's hands to dispose
of as he pleases, as he will. If you preach Christ as the sovereign
Lord and Savior, giving salvation to whoever he will, some will
grieve, they will gnash their teeth and cry out, unfair, untrue,
and would lay hands on those who preach the truth if it were
lawful. But, thank God, some believe. Some see God as He is, as true
God, clearly revealed in Scripture. Some see themselves as they really
are, helpless, sinful, unable to do anything but sin, unable
to come to God unless God brings them. Some see Christ as their
only hope and trust Him and Him alone. And for these, I say with
the Apostle Paul, we are bound to thank God for you. Bound always
to thank God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
if you do believe, God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit. That is, the setting
apart of the Holy Spirit, distinguishing, discriminating grace of God. and belief of the truth. He gave
you this belief of the truth. Whereunto He called you by our
Gospel, not just any Gospel, but our Gospel, the Gospel, the
Gospel of God, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, these angry churchgoers,
Sadducees, Pharisees and all, they were religionists. They
grabbed hold of Peter and John and put them in jail. Look at
verses 5 and 7 if you're following along. And as it came to pass,
the rulers, elders, and scribes, Annas, the high priest, Caiaphas,
John, Alexander, so many of the kindred of the high priests were
gathered together at Jerusalem. And they set Peter and John in
the middle of them and asked, by what power, by what name have
you done this? Speaking of the miracle, which
was performed and the boldness of their preaching. Where did
you get this power, they said? Who sent you? And Peter spoke
up in verse 8 and 9. Peter filled with the Holy Ghost.
And a man who is truly filled with God's Spirit will speak
of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. He won't speak of himself,
but he'll speak of Christ. He said, You rulers of the people
and elders of Israel, If we this day be examined of the good deed
done to this impotent, powerless man by what means he is 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 you crucified,
whom God raised from the dead, by him doth this man stand here
before you whole. If you are wondering about this
miracle, well, No mere mortal man can do anything. No mere
mortal man can be anything, have anything, or know anything, or
even think anything except it be given him from above. Be it known unto you. If you're
wondering about the salvation of God's people who are impotent,
powerless, and by what means they are made whole, be it known
unto you all. Everyone who hears this this
morning, be it known unto you all that that man did not make
himself whole. No one does by the volition of
their own will or power, but it's by the power, the sovereign
saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let it be known unto
you all. Jesus Christ is Lord over all,
Lord over the living and dead, Lord over heaven and hell, Lord
over angels and devils, Lord over saved and lost. All powers
that be come from and by permission of Jesus Christ the Lord. And back in chapter 3, it says,
you refuse to believe this. He says, you'll be destroyed
from among the people. He said in verse 11, this is
the stone which was set at naught of you builders, you church builders,
church goers. This is that stone, this chief
cornerstone which is set at naught of you. He has become the head
of the corner. Those who try to build their
lives without Jesus Christ will someday come face to face with
Him someday. They will be confronted by Him
and stand before Him, His judgment throne. Those who make a name
for themselves will someday be forced at the name of the Lord
Jesus to bow. Those who try to build a religious
refuge upon anything other than Jesus Christ and Him crucified
their religious playhouse, their religious confession, their religious
works and all will be dashed to pieces. All religions without
Jesus Christ will someday see there is no true religion but
the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ and His salvation. Verse 12 says, neither. Here
it is, the sum and substance of the faith. Neither is there
salvation in any other. For there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." You
see the word salvation? Saved? What is salvation? What does it mean to be saved? Why, what most men, what most
think of salvation is deliverance from being sick or poor, financial
deliverance, delivered from hell to go to heaven. Most believe
this salvation is but a mere cooperative effort between man
and God. Well, the true meaning of salvation
can be deduced or derived from the word saved. In order to be
saved, one must be truly lost, and if you are lost, you can't
save yourself. You can't will yourself saved.
You can't take one step in the direction of being saved because
you don't know what step to take. Lost means lost. Have you ever
been lost? Oh, all those who have truly
been lost and saved by the Lord Jesus Christ, by His Holy Spirit
coming to where they are and finding them, they know they
were lost. that they didn't take a step
in the Lord's direction. They didn't do something to save
themselves. Someone saved them. The very
definition of salvation is in the word, saved. I have a friend
who lives in Mexico, has been there for 35 years, a missionary
there. He was out hunting, and down
there is very flat land and very like a wilderness in some places
in the Yucatan Peninsula. Well, he got lost. I mean, he
got lost. He could not find his way. He didn't know the east from
the west, north from south. And he became parched and dry,
began to be thirsty, until finally he began to suffer dehydration,
heat stroke, and he fell on the ground. And he would have died. But his friends, those friends
of his, those native men who knew that terrain down there,
they knew he had gone out and approximately where he had gone.
And they came looking for him. And my friend would have died
unless those men had come and found him. They found him lying
on the ground. They saved him. That's what salvation means.
Have you ever been lost? There was an old evangelist years
ago named Ralph Barnard from Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
He came through the South and the Southeast and tore up all
these religious playhouses, so many of them anyway. And what
he used to say, and you listen to what he said, he said, I'm
not trying to get men saved. I'm trying to get them lost,
just as John the Baptist preached repent. Our Lord preached repent. Salvation only comes to those
who are lost. You see, man in the garden, it
all happened, started in the garden. Man who had the life
of God and the acceptance of God, the presence of God, the
mind of God, the thoughts of God, the heart of God, man willfully
then. The only time he had a free will
that could choose between good and evil, what did he choose?
Evil. What happened? He became lost. He lost the life of God, that
is, holiness, wisdom, love, communion with God. He lost the presence
of God. God kicked him out. No way back in unless God decides. He lost the mind of God. He became
as a beast. Well, he tried to cover himself
with a little fig leaf. What an ignorant fool he has
become. Man became dead and trespassed
in sin. Hopeless, helpless, without strength,
without God, without knowledge, without understanding of God.
God looked down from heaven in Psalm 14 and says, see if there
were any that did understand it, any that did seek after God.
He said, there's none. Paul preached that in Romans
3. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. Altogether become unprofitable. But God, in rich in mercy and
love and grace to some, not all, but yea, many, as the stars of
the sky and the sands of the sea, chose a vast number and
set His love upon them in mercy and grace. He didn't have to
choose one, and then sent His Son down here to find them, sent
the Great Shepherd to come find His lost sheep. Our Lord told
it, He said, when he comes and hath found it, every one the
Lord Jesus Christ seeks, He said, I'm come to seek and to save
that which was lost. Every single one He comes to
find, He finds them. And the Scripture says, the Lord
Himself said, He puts them on His shoulders and takes them
all the way back home. He found them. They were lost. He did the saving. His very name
means Savior. That's what the angel cried in
the beginning. Call His name Jesus. Why? Because it means Savior. For
He shall save His people from their sin. Not save them if they'll
let Him. No, He shall save His people. He will do the saving. And He
did it. That's what His name means if
He didn't do the job then he doesn't deserve the name. Hebrews
1 verse 5 says, "...when he had by himself purged our sins, sat
down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." And Peter says,
here in our text, there is not salvation in any other name. Not Buddha, not Confucius, not
Mohammed, not Krishna. There is no other religion. No other religion. Hinduism,
Buddhism, the Muslim religion is false. Only one religion is
true. That is Jesus Christ, the one
Savior, the one Messiah. It is by Him and only through
Him. Christ said, No man comes unto
the Father but by Me. It is only by Him and through
Him that we must be saved. Do you understand that? I hope you do. We can't be saved
by merely being religious or sincere. The Muslims have that
over many so-called Christians, their sincerity. No, we can't
be saved by being moral, by humanitarian works, by self-renunciation,
by ceremony and self-denial, but only by Jesus Christ's blood. as payment for our sins and righteousness
imputed to our account that we might be accepted. Oh, it's all
to the praise of the glory of God's grace. Salvation is by
grace. That means a gift. Not a gift
offered, but a gift bestowed upon a chosen few. And His grace
is effectual. It is effectual. Yes, He is the
One. the only Savior, there is salvation
in no other, none other name under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved. May he reveal himself to you
is my prayer. Amen.