Alright, I want to go down through
these verses, deal with them. You know, we had the first miracle
recorded in Acts chapter 3, and we talked about that last week.
About how that impotent man was laying, and Peter said, silver
and gold, I haven't anything. I don't have that. But what I
do have, I'll give you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Rise up and walk. And they were standing there
in the temple, outside on the porch, preaching. And they were
talking to the people and preaching to the people. And as they spake,
it says in verse one, while they were preaching, after Peter got
through saying, you know, that God blessed, and he said, he
would in thy seed, all the kindreds of the earth be blessed, in verse
25 of chapter three. And unto you first God, having
raised up his son, Jesus, and sent him to bless you, and turning
away every one of you from your iniquities. And as they spake,
that's what they're talking about, the priest and the captain of
the temple and the Sadducees came upon them. So the first
miracle was recorded and it led to the first persecution of the
church, of Christ's little flock. And it's amazing to me, it always
was amazing to me, and it still is, To me that the miracles of
our Lord and the apostles caused so much hatred and opposition.
Even the Pharisee said he cast out devils by the beasel buff.
He cast out devils by the devils. They hated him so much. In fact,
after he raised Lazarus from the dead, the Pharisee said we
need to kill him too. They hated the miracles of our
Lord. But for us, for anybody, it ought
to be a cause for joy, for thanksgiving, for praise, for worship. But
everything that God does in true religion, true religion, biblical
religion, everything God does is supernatural. It?s supernatural. There?s no other way you can
say it. It?s supernatural. It comes from
above. It?s something that the natural
man cannot have any part in. from the moment that we have
the revelation from God. And when God reveals Himself,
there's two things He reveals about Him. First of all, He reveals
Himself. And when we see Him and He makes
Himself known to us, secondly, He gives us a revelation of ourselves.
Those two things go together. When He makes us to see Him and
know Him, He makes us to see ourselves and to know ourselves.
And that's why that's a supernatural act. That's a supernatural act. And then in regeneration, in
the new birth. That is absolutely a supernatural
act. Man cannot save himself. When
our Lord, you know, he said, it's easier for a camel to go
through an eye of a needle than for a rich man to be saved. Well,
the apostles looked at him and said, Lord, who then can be saved?
Who can be saved then? He said, with men, it's impossible. But nothing, nothing's impossible
with God. All things are possible with
God. And I'll tell you what, from revelation to regeneration
to us continuing in the faith, it takes the supernatural power
of God to keep us day in and day out. And but it says, as
they spake unto the people, you know what happened? They got
arrested for preaching. They got arrested for preaching.
Oh, look at the persecutors. Here s what happens now. It says
in verse 1, As they spake unto the people, the priest, the captain
of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them. And it tells
us that there were already 3,000, 3,200 people already believing on the day of Pentecost. And
now here's 5,000 more people. When it says men, it means men
in a generic term. That means men and women. That
means people, souls. 5,000 more were converted. Look
what it says down in verse four. Howbeit many of them which heard
the word believed, and the number of the men was about 5,000 people.
So you got 8,000 people already, 8,000 people. There were a lot of believers,
but there were few leaders. And none of them had any experience
in leading that many people. And you know when you look at
it, it's a small band of people compared to the whole Jewish
nation. There's millions of people in the Jewish nation. And here
is 8,000 people. And here is 11 apostles, two
apostles here preaching. And out of all those Jewish people,
And then it says, they came upon them. But all the powers that
be came against this little group of people. Everybody that was
anybody, like our Lord Jesus Christ, everybody that was anybody
was down against our Lord Jesus Christ. And here they start with
the apostles. Now look how important, how powerful
these people were and who these people were that gathered together.
First of all, you have the captain of the temple. He's the one that,
the ruler over the temple. He governed the temple. He's
like the policeman of the temple. And then there were the priests.
It didn't say priest, priest, priest. And then it says also
there in verse one, the Sadducees came. You know who the Sadducees
were? They were a political party,
really. Because they did not believe in a resurrection. They
didn't believe in angels. They didn't believe in heaven.
They were just a political party, but they would get in power.
And so these Sadducees, they came upon them. And then look
down in verse five, and it came to pass on the morrow that their
rulers and the elders and scribes, You know there's 70 people, what
they call the Sanhedrin, there was 70 of them. But already we
got a whole group of people that's gathered together against two
men. Two men. John and James standing
there preaching and somebody comes up and arrests them. And
oh my, then it says the rulers and the elders and the scribes.
And then look down in verse six, and here comes the high priest.
Here's the high priest, he shows up and his son-in-law Caiaphas
and a man named John and Alexander and as many as were of the kindred
of the high priest were gathered together at Jerusalem. I mean,
can you imagine this great mob of people? They got their robes
on, they got their importance with them. These are some people
that they're somebody. They're powerful people, prestigious
people, religious people, political people. And oh my, all kinds,
all the kindred of the high priest said, I want to see this. I've
got, I think people come just out of curiosity. I'm sure to
see, how are they going to deal with these fellows? How are they
going to deal with them? I mean, there was a mob there.
I mean, a mob. And oh, why were the princes
of this world so upset? Why, that's what they're called,
the princes of this world. This is the wisdom of this world.
Why were they so upset? It said in verse two, being grieved. That word being grieved means
they were highly, highly incensed. Oh my. Why were they incensed
about? Because they preached through
Jesus the resurrection from the dead. Now they didn't like that. They didn't like that. Why didn't
they like that? They was being grieved because
they preached that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. You
keep Acts two and look in Matthew 27. Look with me in Matthew 27. Look over here in verse 62. Matthew 27, 62. Oh, these princes
of the world, they were so upset. They was grieved. Oh, it bothered
them, grieved them at the heart. They got upset. They were angry,
upset at these fellas. And look what it said here in
verse 62 now. Now the next day that followed the preparation
of the chief priest and Pharisees came together under Pilate, saying,
sirs, now they had already crucified him now, he had already put him
in his grave, and saying, sir, we remember that that deceiver
said, talking about Christ, while he was yet alive, he said, after
three days I will rise again. They call him a deceiver. Command,
therefore, that the sepulcher, the grave, be made sure until
the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away,
and say unto the people, he is risen from the dead. So the last
error, the last thing that happens would be worse than the first
we did by crucifying him. And Pilate said unto them, you've
got to watch. You set up a watch on yourself.
Go your way and make it as sure as you can. So they went and
made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone and setting the watch.
And then when Mary Magdalene come there, the stone was gone.
Back over now here, Acts chapter four. And here's why also, because
they preached that Jesus through the resurrection from the dead.
In verse three, they laid hands on them and put them in jail,
put them in jail overnight for as in the evening. And here's
another reason they were upset. It says down in verse two, being
grieved, and here's the first reason, that they taught the
people. They taught the people. And priests, they taught the
people. And you know why these fellows were so upset? They were
the teachers. They were the preachers. They're
the ones supposed to do all the teaching. These men were the
teachers of the people. They said these apostles are
usurping their authority. They hadn't been to any of their
schools. In fact, that's what they said. They're ignorant and
unlearned men. That's what their view of them was. They're ignorant
and unlearned. And that's what they said here,
they taught the people. And they said, oh, you haven't
been to any of our schools, you ain't, you got no reason to be
teaching the people. It's our job to teach the people.
And these preachers, these apostles, they threatened these people's
authority, these rulers' authority. And this is what they hated about
the Lord Jesus Christ himself, his teaching and his authority.
And I'm gonna show you that. Look in Luke 20 with me. You
know, that's why they sent some fellas to take him one time.
And they went to get him, and they was going to arrest him.
And they came back and said, why didn't you bring him? They
said, well, we got to listening to him. And I'll tell you what,
I never heard anybody, no man spoke like this man, because
he spoke as one having authority. But this is one thing that they
hated about Christ, was his authority. And people gather around them
and not around, gather around Christ and not around these Pharisees.
And look in chapter Luke 20. And it came to pass that on one
of those days, as he taught the people in the temple and preached
the gospel, the chief priest and the scribes came upon him
with the elders. Here we go. He's big shots. and spake unto him saying, tell
us by what authority doest thou these things? Where do you get
the authority to do this? Who do you think you are? Or
who is he that gave thee this authority? Who told you you could
do this? They're talking to the Lord of
glory now. They're talking to the God man. They're talking
about Christ and talking to him. And he answered and said unto
them, I'll ask you one thing and then you answer me. The baptism
of John, was it from heaven or of men? Well, these fellows,
you know, they're not fools. They reasoned among themselves,
saying, if we shall say from heaven, he'll say, why believe
ye not him then? If you say from heaven, why didn't
you believe him? And if we say of men, the people have stoned
us, for they persuaded that John was a prophet. So these fellows
talked themselves right into a corner. And look what our master
says. And they answered that they said,
well, we can't tell. They reasoned this thing out.
If we say from heaven, why didn't you believe? If we say he was
from above men, then they're gonna stone us. So we can't win
no way we get out of this. And look what our Lord says.
And in verse eight, Jesus said, I'm neither tell you by what
authority I do these things. But that's what there's interest
in, authority. And that's what these fellows are interested
in. We're in the world and you get the authority. My they sent
to arrest him one day, and then they couldn't because he's had
such a thing They killed him and now they had this people
they killed Christ, and they had these men to deal with Now
you know what weapon they these fellas had Against the Apostles
you know what weapon they had You know the weapon of their
warfare was just authority Naked power That's the only weapon
the world has It's just power, naked authority and power. Sometimes
men have the power of wealth. They're very rich and they use
that power that they have in wealth and they use it to control
other people. And I'll tell you what, they
use it to manipulate people and control things and get things
done their way. But I tell you, if anybody's
got any power and authority in this world, be very, very careful
how you use it. Be careful how you use it. And
the government, that's the only thing the government's got, is
they just got naked raw power. Huh? They'll use the courts,
the policemen, guns, army. And that's the only power they
got. The government has so much power here recently that they
told people they couldn't go places, couldn't do things, and
everybody kowtowed to it. What could they have done to
us if we hadn't have done it? That just goes to show you how
much power, just the world scares people today. And that just goes to show you
that, and that's what these fellas had. And they first tried to
intimidate them. They tried to intimidate them. They came upon them suddenly,
arrested them, stopped them from preaching. And what they were
saying was, we've got the power here. We're the one with all
the power. We're the one with all the authority.
And what they're telling these apostles, if you preach, if you
preach, we let you. If we decide you can't, we got
the power to arrest you anytime and put you out of business.
You reckon this shook these fellas up? Well, I'm gonna have to go
to the house and take some baby aspirins. Look what it says down
in verse 13. Now when they saw the boldness, now when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John and perceived that they were unloved and ignorant
men and marveled, they knew they had been with the Lord Jesus
Christ. And they used threats against
them. Look what it said down in verse 21. Look how much threats,
they even had, Threatened them. So when they had further threatened
them, threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how
they might punish them. Because of the people, for all
men glorified God for what was done. You know, oh boy, I tell you, people that
hate Christ, And they used threats. The weapons that they had was
just power. And they had lots of it there.
Everybody that was anybody in the nation of Israel was gathered
against these two men. Here's two men standing in front
of them. And they're circled. Oh man,
they got everybody that's anybody circled all around them. And old Peter's just bold as
he could be. They were intimidating them. But then they had to make a charge
against them. Wonder what they charged them with. If you arrest
somebody, you gotta have something to arrest them for, and what
you gonna charge them for? Well, look what they charged
them for, down in verse seven. All these folks had got together,
and when they had set them in the middle of them, Right in
the midst, I mean, they was all circled around them. And when
they sent them in the midst, they asked them, by what power
or by what name have you done this? And they're talking about
healing that impotent man. And that's what, by what power?
Where'd you get the power? What name did you use to do this
mighty work here on this impotent man? Now we're gonna see what
power is. We're gonna see the real power
of God. And oh my, look what it says. Peter said in verse
eight, then Peter filled with the Holy Ghost. Oh, he said unto
them. He said unto them. Let me tell
you some things he didn't do. He didn't question their authority.
He didn't find fault with them. He never argued with them. He
didn't say, why in the world did you all arrest us? He didn't
say any of that. Being filled with the Holy Ghost,
He didn't defend Himself. He did what all Spirit-filled
men do. They preach the Lord Jesus Christ. And look what He said. And He
said, first of all, He said, you rulers of the people. He
knowed these fellows were rulers. These are the rulers of Israel.
He said, you rulers of Israel. He addressed them for what they
were. And then he says this, and elders of Israel, the elders
were gathered there with him, and the rulers and elders, and
elders of Israel, and listen to what he says now. If this
day you've got us here to be examined, examine us of the good
deed done to the impotent man by what means he has made whole.
Oh, is that what we're here for? Because there was a good deed
done to this man. He was an impotent man. He's
been made whole. This man was impotent. You want
to know how he's made whole? You'll arrest us for that. And
I'll tell you something, look down at verse 14. That impotent
man was standing there with them. And beholding the man which was
healed standing with them that could say nothing against it.
He was right there with them. He was right there with them.
And then he says, oh my. He said, I want you fellas to
know something. You rulers and elders of the
people. He said, I want you to examine
us because something's been done for a man who never walked. And here he is made whole. He
said, I'll tell you what, I want you to know this. Be it none
unto you, and all, I want to know none to you, and all, You
all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, oh my. Peter had a four-point message
to these fellows, four-point message. Here's the first point
that he had to them. He said they, first of all, he
accused them and charged them with the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom
you crucified, you crucified him. You were there. Caiaphas,
he was one of the ones in us, was one of the ones who said
that it's profitable for somebody to die for the nation of Israel
to spare us. Talking about the substitutionary
death of Christ. He said, the one whom you crucified. And oh my, he laid it right at
Jesus' hands, the one you crucified. Facing the powers that be and
looking square in their eyes said you look at you you took
Christ and crucified him You have priests you elders you rulers And then the second point is
this whom God raised from the dead I That's what he told him over
there in Acts chapter 2 and 3. He says, you know, he says, you
crucified the prince of life, but God raised him from the dead
and we're his witnesses. We're his witnesses. Oh my. God raised him from the dead
and his resurrection from the dead proves everything, everything
concerning our faith. Our faith. You know what it tells
us is that Christ was God. Our Lord said, I lay down my
life. No man takes it from me. I've got the power to lay it
down. I've got the power to take it up again. Nobody's taking
my life. I lay it down, and when it's
time for me to get up again, I'll get up. And all His resurrection
showed that He was God. And secondly, it shows us that
a salvation was accomplished. If God raised Him from the dead,
that means that God was satisfied with what He did. And the proof
of it was that He raised Christ from the dead. And I tell you
what, death doesn't end it for everyone. It didn't end it for
Christ. And it won't end it for us. Oh
no, there's a resurrection, a blessed resurrection for the Lord's people.
And then God did this, God raised him up. And oh, you all know
that that tomb was empty when you went out there, you had that
watch on it. And when you went out there,
all those fellows were laying there sound asleep, and the stone
was gone. Who put them to sleep? God did.
Who blew the stone away? Christ did. Who got out of the
grave? Christ did. Who appealed to the disciples
in the middle of that room? Christ did. And I tell you what,
that upset these fellas. That upset these fellas. And
here's the third point that Peter preached to them. And God's purpose
is fulfilled even though they oppose God. Look what it said
in verse 11. This is the stone, Christ is
the stone, the chief cornerstone. The stone which was said of naught,
that mean you said that thing has not worth anything. It's
zero to you, it meant nothing to you. That the stone which
was said of naught of the builders, God said it's become the head
of the corner. You said that, said Christ ain't nothing. God
said him to be the head of the corner. He's the chief cornerstone. You said it not, but this is
the Lord's doing and it's marvelous in our eyes. They said, oh listen,
this Jesus Christ is nothing. God said, I tell you what, He's
the stone, and I'm gonna put Him in the corner, and I'm gonna
build a church on Him. He's gonna be the chief cornerstone,
and I'm gonna lay the, He's the foundation on which I'm gonna
build everything in this world. Oh my, you set the stone as nothing. But God made it the head of the
corner. Oh, go ahead, go ahead and fight God if you want to.
But God's will's gonna be done. Oh, you think you can stop God's
work? Let me tell you where Zechariah
is. I want you to see this in Zechariah. Malachi is the last
book in the Old Testament, right? Go to Matthew and then you're
in Malachi. And then from Malachi to Zechariah. And look in Zechariah chapter
four. I want you to see this. The stone which the builders
rejected is made the head of the corner. This is marvelous
in our eyes. And they said, this is the day
the Lord hath made, the day that Christ would come and be made
the head of the corner. Look what he said here in verse
six of Zechariah four. Then he answered, spake unto
me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel,
saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith
the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt
become a plain. And listen to this now. And he
shall bring forth the headstone, the headstone, Christ, the headstone. thereof was shouting, crying,
grace, grace unto it. That's what we say about it.
God's grace set this stone. God's grace did. In spite of
rejecting it, in spite of opposing it, in spite of denying it, God
made Christ the head of the corner. And they said it's zero. It's nothing. It's nothing. And
oh my, this man standing here whole, by the power of the one
you crucified, the one who now lives. You sent him in nothing. And I'll tell you something that
people can't stand. The world can't stand it. The
average religious can't stand it. The world hates personal
guilt. People hate personal guilt. That's
why they try to justify themselves. That's why if somebody does something,
they want to justify themselves. People hate to be charged with
a crime and hate to be found guilty. You go to jail and most,
9 out of 10 of them or 8 out of 10 of them in there say, I'm
not guilty. I got railroaded. And people
hate the fact personal guilt. And that's what these fellas
say, you're guilty. What are you guilty of? Crucifying
the Son of God. Nailing Him to a tree. You hated
Him, you despised Him, you rejected Him, you said Him is nothing,
and you killed Him. And they hated that. And then
talk about after you killed Him that He raised up and you're
going to have to face Him again? You're going to have to deal
with Him again? Oh my. Power and life over death proves
that life's over death after death. Oh, it really hates that
God's will is accomplished. Said even nothing, but yet God's
gonna stop it. And then look what he says there.
In verse 12, oh my, this is the fourth point. This man stood
here whole, oh my, by the power of God. And look what power of
God was it to done this. He said in verse 12, he said,
I'll tell you how this happened. And I tell you, whatever you
all did, it didn't amount to nothing. Neither is there salvation
in no other name, for there's none other name under heaven
given among men whereby me must be saved. Oh, there's no other name under
heaven. You go any place on the face
of this earth, any place on the face of this earth, and you're
under the heavens. So where can you go where His
name is not the only name that you can be saved by? Tell me where you can go. where
the heaven ain't. Wherever you go, no matter where
you are, there's no other name under heaven. Under all the heavens and all
the earth. He said there's not another name
no matter where you go. Go to China where they love Buddha
and they love Taoism. Go to Mexico where they're Catholics
through and through. Go any place you want to go. Go into Saudi Arabia where they're
all Muslims. And no matter who you go, where
the heavens are, there's no other name under heaven whereby a man
can be saved. Bruce Crabtree told me this the
other day, he read somewhere that 60-something percent of
what they call evangelicals, I guess that's people that attend
services and say that they're trying to win people to Jesus,
that first of all, they don't believe every word in the Bible
is the word of God. Second thing is that 60-something
percent of them believe this, or maybe 70 percent, that a man
can be saved some other way than Jesus Christ. You know how many
preachers are out there preaching that? God said there's no other name. If you're gonna be saved, there's
only one name that God will answer to. Only one name that God will
let you come into his presence with. One name that God will
use to save a soul, and that's the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And look what it says. No other
name under heaven given. Oh, this name was given, Jesus
Christ of Nazareth. How did he get that name, Jesus?
God gave it to him. He said, thou shalt have a child,
and thou shalt call, what did he say? Call his name Jesus. Why you gonna call him Jesus?
Because Jesus means Jehovah Savior. And it says, call his name Jesus,
and the next word out of that angel's mouth was, for he shall,
he shall save his people from their sin. And I tell you, not
only was it given by God, but God gave this name and his blessed
name to men to declare what I'm telling you tonight. That's what
Peter told these fellas. He said, He's raised from the
dead, and if you're gonna be saved, you're gonna have to deal
with this man. Oh, God give us, that's what I'm doing tonight,
declaring His name. And then it was given also to
men to believe on His name. For this salvation is no other
name. If you want salvation, if you
want to be saved, He's the only Savior. Salvation's the only
one that can give it. And oh my. And oh, he's despised,
he's rejected, he's denied, but I'll tell you one thing, that
he's the only redeemer, he's the only sacrifice, he's all
the satisfaction, and there's no one ever like him, and no
one will ever be like him. And I was talking to Les Heller
today, and we was talking about what a blessed, blessed day it
is when God calls us home and to be in his presence. Oh, to
be with Christ is far, far, far better. And oh my, you say, well
this is too narrow. Yes it is. God made it narrow.
There's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must
be saved. Huh? It's exclusive, yes. It's exclusive to Jesus Christ.
Salvation's exclusive to Him. And God gave Him that name. He's
exclusive to God. Huh? It's intolerant. Yes it is. God said I ain't gonna
save nobody apart from Jesus Christ. You refuse Him? A man refuse
Him? He'll one day regret it for eternity. Because I'm telling you, there's
no other name, there's no other power, there's no other person
in this whole universe that can save a soul. but the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I tell you what, I call on
that name every single day. Call on Him continually and constantly. You know why? Because God put
everything in His blessed Son. If I won't speak to God, you
know I come through the Son. Oh my. What a blessed, blessed,
blessed Savior we have. Oh, what a blessed Savior. And
to think, there was a time I didn't know that. I didn't know that. I didn't know anything about
that. Now, now I know it. And I believe it. And that's
all I'm going to tell you about. Amen. All right. Oh, our Father. Oh, blessed God in heaven. Thank
you for meeting with us tonight. Thank you for your precious word.
Oh, Lord, thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you, Lord
Jesus, for being our Savior. And oh, Lord, we come in your
blessed name, that name that's above every name. One of these
days, every knee's gonna bow, and every tongue that's ever
been on this world is gonna confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And
they're gonna do it for your glory, for your glory. And Lord,
we do it now for your glory. Thank you for meeting with us.
Bless these dear saints. Please be with those that's not
with us and those whose bodies are so frail, Barb and Fran,
who ask these things in our Lord Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.