At the beginning here this morning
of our message, I want to read two verses found in the Gospel
of Mark chapter 16. You can hold your finger here
in Acts if you want to, but I want to read verse 19 and 20. Maybe
it'll give us a better understanding of what we're dealing with in
the book of Acts. So then, after the Lord had spoken
unto them, that is, unto the apostles, unto the disciples,
he was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of
God. This is talking about the ascension
of our Lord Jesus Christ back to glory after his crucifixion
and after his ministry among the disciples for 40 days. And
so it says that after the Lord had spoken to them, He had just
told them that he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,
but he that believeth not shall be damned. And He spoke of the
signs that would follow those in the first generation that
was to believe on His name. And then it says that after the
Lord had spoken these words, He was received up. We believe
that the Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. He was
crucified by the hands of wicked men, but he was raised up by
the power of the Father from the grave. And after he was raised
up, he was received into heaven. He ascended into heaven. And
the Bible says that this same Jesus, you remember the words
of the angels? They said, why are you, why do
you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus. whom you seem
taken up, shall come again in like manner." The Lord Jesus
Christ is coming back to the earth. We believe it. At the
sound of the great trumpet, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
will come back the dead in Christ will be raised and those that
are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him to
forever be with the Lord. And so the Lord Jesus was received
up into heaven and the Bible says here that he sat down on
the right hand of God. Now the reason that he was received
was because his work on earth was done. He had provided eternal
redemption for his own. The Lord Jesus Christ had suffered
and bled and died on behalf of those that the Father had given
to Him. He had provided them, for them,
eternal redemption. And He accomplished the work
that the Lord, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus had given Him
to do. He accomplished that work. And
so He was received back into this place of eternal majesty
at the right hand of the Father. And the Bible says He sat down.
He sat down. And the reason He sat down was
because His work had been accomplished. His work to save His people had
been accomplished. And then it tells us what the
disciples did. And they went forth. And they
went forth. We believe that they went forth
at the command of the Lord Jesus. They had received power from
him, they had received authority from him, and had received commission
from him to go into all the world and preach the gospel. He said,
all power is given to me in heaven and in earth, go ye into all
nations, go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And so they went forth and preached
everywhere. They preached everywhere the
Lord opened a door for them. And some places where there was
no door open, they went ahead and preached. They preached the
glorious gospel of that Savior who had been crucified and buried
and was raised again from the dead. They preached everywhere,
and the Bible says the Lord working with them. The Lord working with
them. Brethren, all of our preaching
is vain, wherever we do it, if the Lord is not working with
us. The Bible teaches that we're
ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, be you reconciled to God. But we're laborers together,
Paul said, with Him. Laborers together with Him. And so He must be in the work. He must be at the work with us. And it's so important that we
see that, brethren. all is vain unless the Spirit
of the Living God comes down and gives us that anointing,
that anointing whereby we're able to do His work, and do it
in His name, and do it with His authority, and do it with all
boldness and clarity. And so He says that they went
forth, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming
the Word with signs following. Amen. Now then when we turn here
to the third and fourth chapter of the book of Acts, we see this
happening. We know that they went to Jerusalem.
and they carried there until the power of God came down upon
them. In verse 8 of chapter 1 the scripture
says, but he shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is
come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem
and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of
the earth. And so these brethren had been
baptized in the Holy Ghost and the Spirit of God had come down
and had filled them. And God was working with them. And so when Peter said to this
impotent man, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have,
give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, rise up and walk. There was power associated with
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this impotent man was healed,
the Lord giving confirmation to the Word that was spoken by
Peter and John. The Lord confirming His Word. The Lord working with them. Now you may wonder are there
any signs today for those who have been converted, those who
have been healed, and those that have been delivered out of sin.
Is there any signs in their lives? Well I believe there is. Mighty
and glorious signs. God confirming his word in the
lives of those that he saves. I believe that the changed life
of an individual whom God saves is a great confirmation of the
power of Christ in the life. The Bible says, if any man be
in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away, and
behold, all things become new. If we were to call upon you to
do it, there are those this morning that could testify of the change
in power and ableness of the Lord Jesus Christ. How that He
can change the life of an individual and make that individual love
the things that they used to hate and make them hate the things
that they used to love. The power of the Lord Jesus in
doing that. It confirms the Holy Word and
then answers to prayer. It's wonderful to hear young
believers say, the Lord has been answering My prayers. We believe
that God is a hearing. He hears prayer and he answers
prayer. He said, call unto me and I will
answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou
knowest not. The Lord hears his people. He
hears his people. And the frequent and fervent
prayer of a righteous man availeth much. God comes to the deliverance
and the rescue of His people as they pray. But young converts,
God establishes in them His work by hearing them and by answering
their prayers. This is very important to see.
And another sign that I've witnessed is that immediately when an individual
is saved, when God saves an individual, immediately that individual becomes
concerned about others being saved. They're interested in
others coming to the saving knowledge of Christ. They begin to ask,
what can I do to get the message of salvation to those around
me? What can I do? What is it, Lord,
that you would have me to do? We know that Saul of Tarsus was
converted, mightily converted on the road to Damascus, and
immediately began to cry out, Lord, what will thou have me
to do? What do you want me to do? And
Paul received a great burden on his soul that he had such
a burden for a lost man that he was willing to suffer persecution
and he was willing to go, he was willing to do whatever was
called upon that he might be an instrument in the salvation
of souls. And so we witness that ourself. What, Lord, would you have me
to do? How can I get the message that saved me? How can I get
that message to others around me? How can I do it? Give me
an opportunity, Lord. Give me an open door. Give me
someone to witness to. And I'll bear the message of
your grace. But now we come to the fourth
chapter here of the book of Acts, and we see that the brethren
was called on the carpet because they had said not only that God
was the author of this healing, but that Jesus Christ was the
author of the healing. Now, he says in verse 10, Be
it known unto you all, Peter speaking, unto all the people
of Israel, by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom he crucified,
whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand
here before you whole. This is so important that we
point this out. Now, if Peter would have said,
God is responsible for this, those Jews would have said, fine
and dandy, thumbs up, that's wonderful, okay, okay. But no, my friend, when he pointed
out that this was by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
Whom ye crucified, he looked him in the eye and said, you
nailed the Son of God to the cross. You crucified him and
God raised him from the dead. It's by him that this man stands
here before you whole. And then listen to verse 11.
This is the stone which was set in all of you builders. Ah, you
builders went through all of the stones and you selected the
ones you thought were important And you turned thumbs down on
the stone which God had hewed out, which God had set into the
world that he was to become the head of the corner. And you turned
thumbs down on him. Everybody in Jerusalem that was
anybody had turned thumbs down on the Lord Jesus Christ and
said, You're an imposter. You're a fake. There ain't anything
to you. You're not the Messiah. You're
not the bread of life which come down from heaven. You're not.
They testified and said, this cannot be the Son of God. We
will not have this man to rule over us. And Peter accuses them
of saying this stone is not fit to be the head of the corner. But then he comes to this. He's
been bringing them slowly unto the Lord Jesus Christ and to
the message of Christ and the gospel. And he would start with
this healing in order to get their attention. And he got their
attention. They could not say anything against
this. The man was standing there that
God had healed. And so he brings them now to
the gospel. They wouldn't have listened to
a thing he said if God had not confirmed their word by this
sign following. And so it was that he did so. But now he gets to verse 12 and
he says, neither is there salvation in the other. Did you hear me?
This is the stone which was said in all of you builders he's 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 now what a message what a message
so beloved as we get to this verse of scripture we begin to
ask some question Salvation. We want to talk a little bit
about this salvation that Peter was talking about here. Neither
is there salvation. Now we have in this verse both
a negative and a positive. Neither is there salvation in
the other. No other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. But there is salvation
in that one. Jesus Christ, there is salvation
in Him. That's the positive. So let's
talk a little bit about this salvation. I say that the word
salvation is a blessed word. It is perhaps the greatest word
in the language of man. I know there was a day in the
long ago that it was the most blessed word to me. I lost condemned
sinner when I was 16 years old. The Lord spoke the word of salvation
to my soul and brought me out of sin and brought me into a
living union and relationship with Him. Now, salvation is also
a very inclusive term. Not only is it a great and blessed
word, but it's a very inclusive term. It takes in all the blessings
of grace in this world, and all the bliss of heaven's glory in
the hereafter. It takes all of it in. What is
it? Salvation is to be saved from
sin. It's to be saved from its penalty.
It's to be saved from its power. And someday, thank God, we shall
be saved even from the presence of sin. It is the redemption
of our souls from the curse of the law. We're told in Galatians
3 and 13 where it said, Cursed is everyone that continueth,
not in all things of the book of the law to do them. But Jesus
Christ was made a curse for us, answering to God for our law
infractions. It is the renewing of our hearts
by the Spirit of God. If any man be in Christ, we quoted
the verse a while ago, he is a new creature. Paul in Titus
talks about the renewal that has been brought about by the
Spirit of God, Titus 3 and 5. So to be saved is to be loved
It is to be chosen, and these words that we speak here are
full of meaning. It's to be loved of God. It's to be loved of God of old,
everlastingly, before the foundation of the world. It was for God
to have said His love. and His affection upon us. Somebody
can say this morning that they're saved. It is because God loved
you in old time. God loved you before the world
was ever formed. God loved you before you came
forth out of the womb. You were loved of God and you
were chosen of God. Chosen in Christ according as
He had chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
Justified in Christ. The Bible tells us that we're
just as if we never committed a sin as we stand in the Redeemer,
the Lord Jesus. Forgiven of all sin we've been
adopted into the family of God Accepted in the beloved one if
I have salvation I have God's wisdom I have God's righteousness
I have God's sanctification I have his redemption because all of
that is in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ salvation might
I say is the undoing of all that Adam did and more and Salvation
is the total restoration of man from his fallen state. I say
the total restoration of man from his fallen state. Salvation
in Christ fixes our standing more secure than it was before
we fell in our father Adam. Grace finds us broken in pieces
by the sin and fall of our father Adam. It finds us defiled. It finds us stained. It finds
us corrupted and condemned. Salvation, my friend, heals our
wounds, takes away our curse, washes us clean, and sets our
feet on the solid rock. the Lord Jesus Christ, rock of
ages, cleft for me, let me ever hide myself in thee. And it is finally in salvation
lifts us up above all principalities and power and crowns us with
eternal glory in Christ the King of Heaven. Spurgeon put it this
way, salvation begins with us as wandering sheep. It follows
us through all the mazy wanderings. of the world. It puts us on the
shoulders of the shepherd. It carries us into the fold.
It calls us together. It calls together the friends
and the neighbors, and it rejoices over us. It preserves us in that
fold through life. And then at last, it brings us
to the green pastures of heaven beside the still waters of bliss,
where we lie down forever in the presence of the chief shepherd,
never more to be disturbed. Now my friend, this salvation
has come to those of us who are genuinely believers in Christ. It comes to only those who are
by virtue of Christ, that blessed name, only by His merits, only
by His power, only by His authority. My friend, salvation should be
a matter of great concern to you. You're here this morning.
You're a son of Adam, born of a woman. You're unclean. You're
unclean before God. The matter of salvation, restoration,
forgiveness, and cleansing ought to mightily concern you. You
are by nature lost without Christ. You're without hope. You're without
life. You're without God in this world. You are a cursed member of a
cursed race, and the judgment of God and the wrath of God abides
on you this morning. Soon, your life on earth will
be over. Your body will return to the
earth. and your immortal soul will stand
naked before God in the judgment. It is appointed unto men once
to die, and after this, the judgment. And God, listen to me, when you
stand before Him at the judgment, that greatest size at the last
day, God will require two things of you in that day. God will
require two things of you in that day. Hear me out. Hear me
carefully. First of all, He will require
complete satisfaction for all your sin. God will have satisfaction
for all of your infractions of His holy law. God will have satisfaction. He is not going to save you,
pardon you, bring you into His eternal kingdom. unless he is
fully satisfied on the behalf of your sin. And the second thing
is he will demand of you that you have a perfect righteousness. And what I'm saying is that God
will demand of you that you be as righteous as his own son in
that day. These two things you will and
must have or you will be forever lost in hell. But this will sober
us all. We cannot on our own produce
neither of these two things. We cannot. We cannot. I want to talk a little bit about
the saving ability of our Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that
this one Jesus will not fail nor be discouraged. I believe
this one Jesus is mighty to save. I believe that this one Jesus
shall see of the travail of his soul, and he shall be satisfied,
and by the knowledge of him shall many, many be justified. I believe in the saving ability
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the saving ability of the
Lord Jesus Christ must be determined by that which he does for those
that he saves. Now my friend, I want you to
understand that somebody's going to have to satisfy God on your
behalf. Oh, will you die and go to hell
to satisfy God if you suffer eternal vengeance in the lake
of fire forever and ever? My friend, you will never get
done paying off the debt you owe to God. You will never satisfy
His inflexible justice if you suffer for all eternity in the
lake of fire. How are you going to pay what
you owe to God Almighty? And then secondly, how are you
ever going to become as righteous as the Lord Jesus Christ is righteous? How are you going to have that
perfect white righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I said
that you could not produce these things. It needs to be impressed
upon you that there is salvation, neither is there salvation in
any other. We are talking about Christ and
Him being that one that provides what God demands of us. The saving
ability of Christ must be established by what He provides on the behalf
of those that He saves. I had a dream the other night,
and I dreamed that there was a young lady listening to this
message Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved. And I was talking about this
righteousness that we must have in order for men and women to
be saved and how that this righteousness could only be obtained by faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And in this dream that I had,
my soul in this dream I saw this young lady and she began to clutch
her breast, her chest. and would say and cry out and
wail before God. You mean that I cannot, I cannot,
I cannot, and her mother was standing right by her side in
this dream. You mean that I cannot, that
I cannot obtain this righteousness and go to heaven except I get
it from Christ. And she wailed and she wailed
and she said, Mother, you know I'm a proud girl and I cannot,
I cannot confess Christ and believe on Him. And her mother could
answer not a word, not able to answer a word. In this building
this morning there are those of you that are struggling hard
in your heart You know that you must openly confess the Lord
Jesus Christ because there is salvation in no other one except
the Lord Jesus and there's none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. And you gotta get your
righteousness from Him. Thanks be unto God, there is
an imputed righteousness. And those of you that are doing
battle now, those of you that are struggling a struggle now,
and you know you ought to confess Christ today, you ought to stand
and testify that your soul is lost forever unless Jesus Christ
comes in and provides for you everything God's going to demand
of you in the day of judgment. Oh, might you hear it today.
Atonement for sin and righteousness can only be found in the Lord
Jesus Christ. If you die without Christ, you
die without hope. But if you have Christ, you have
everlasting life. John 3 and 36, He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. 1 John
5, 12 and 13, He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath
not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto
you that believe. on the name of the Son of God,
that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may
believe on the name of the Son of God. That you may believe
on the name of the Son of God. Now beloved, you cannot obtain
salvation by anything that you can do. Because it says here
plainly, neither is there salvation in any other. Now in making that
statement, the apostle says the door of salvation is closed everywhere
else. It's open one place, and the
door is Jesus Christ. John chapter 10 says, I am the
door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall
go in and out and find pasture. I'm the door. And so you cannot
be saved by anything that you do. I doubt that anyone ever
comes to God directly through the straight gate. Works are
so ingrained into our natural religious consciousness that
we all, like the prodigal, have to somehow or other give them
a try. But until we're beaten and foiled
and defeated, we will not come to Christ. We come to Christ
only when we're pressed to do so by necessity. You cannot satisfy
God. You are not righteous. If all
of us together were to get together and pool our righteousness, we
could not save the one who is the least sinner in the building.
We couldn't save him. We wouldn't have enough righteousness
to do it. I'm telling you, you can't do
it. Good works, religious reformation, baptism, prayers, tears, vows,
and resolutions will never bring salvation to your soul. If you've
been trying to do something to get saved, give it up! Give it
up at once! Give it up! Quit trying to do
that which only Jesus Christ has the ability to do. The Bible
says in Hebrews chapter 7 and verse 25, He is able to save
to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him, seeing that
He ever liveth to make intercession for them. The saving ability
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, we want to see this
crystal clear. We need to trust Christ. We need
to trust Him alone. We need to trust Him alone. for
salvation, alone, alone, Christ only, Christ only. I assure you on the authority
of God's word that there is one name under heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved, one name, one name, there's one. who has the ableness to save.
One, who can provide for you all God demands of you. One,
who can satisfy God on your behalf. One, why would we stay away from
Him? He's able to save all that come
unto God by Him. Come unto God by Him. You say,
I'd come to God if it didn't have to be by Him. My friend,
God says a sinner cannot come except by Him. Jesus himself
said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come
to the Father except by me. You can't get to the Father unless
you come by him. And you've been trying to come
by your works. You've been trying to come by your religion. No,
no, no. We're talking about a person.
And we're talking about a person that has a name. And that name
is Jesus. And that name speaks of his work,
and that is he came to save his people from their sin. The man,
listen to me, who trusts so much as a single hair's breadth to
his own doings and his own merit has missed Christ. Have you singled
out the Lord Jesus Christ and said, in your soul, I must have
Him. I must get to God through Him. I must know Him. I must, I must, I must. Now, beloved, we cannot trust
partly to our works and partly to Christ. You say, Preacher,
I've been working on this thing of salvation. Now listen to me. The Arminian would say that neither
you nor Christ by yourself can save your soul. That the two
of you together cannot do what the two of you separated cannot
do. Or that the two of you together
can do what the two of you separated cannot do. This is blasphemy. We must come to the place where
we're utterly stripped of everything. We cannot assist God in the salvation
of our soul. We cannot make a contribution
to the salvation of our soul. We cannot. It's entirely the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. entirely His work. We must come
to the place where we're utterly stripped of everything. I love
to find those who have nothing good about them. Some people,
some preachers like to find something good in men before they preach
to them. But I like to find poor souls who know there's nothing
good in them and then preach the grace of God to them. Tell
them that everything God demands, He provides in the person of
Jesus Christ. And now if you were in the hospital
and you wanted the attention of a doctor, what would you do?
Would you tell the doctor that there was nothing wrong with
you? Oh, there's nothing wrong with me. I'm going down the road.
Nothing wrong with me. I don't need you. I don't need
a physician. I'm whole. No, if you wanted
the attention of a doctor, you'd begin to spell out. your infirmities. You begin to tell the doctor
about your aches and pains and about your difficulties. You begin to tell him. And so,
my friend, when you come before the Lord Jesus Christ, you, my
friend, you need to come humbly before Him, recognizing that
your life, that your soul is in His hands. This generation
has heard that God is on their hands. But the truth of the matter
is, sinner, you're in God's hand. And it's up to Him what becomes
of you. And you need to come to Him in
humility. Actually, you would be inclined
to appear worse than you really are if you really wanted the
attention of our God. But you certainly cannot exaggerate
your low and sinful condition. There isn't any way. You're at
the bottom of the barrel, my friend. You're at the bottom
of the barrel. You're a lost sinner, dead in
sin. You're alienated from God, having
not the life of God in you. And before God, we need to appear
before Him as the chief of sinners. There is salvation in Christ. Isaiah 45 and 22 says, look unto
me, and be ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and
there is none else. Look unto me, I am God, there
is none else, no other name under heaven, whereby we must be saved. He is able, he is willing, doubt
no more. He is willing to save, he is
able to save. And you've heard words whereby
you can be saved this morning. May you be given hearing ears
and take heed this morning how you've heard this message. The
poet said, thy spirit does not offer life, but raises from the
dead. And neither ask the sinners leave,
nor needs the sinners aid. The Lord Jesus has saving ability. He had so much ability that the
Father turned over the complete salvation of all of His people
unto Him. The saving ability of Christ
can not only be judged by the fact of what He, by those He
saves, lost dead sinners, but the fact that the Father has
absolute confidence in Him and turned us over lock, stock, and
barrel unto the Lord Jesus and said, I gave Him power over all
flesh that He might give eternal life to as many as the Father
has given to Him. And so He has confidence in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And then He has saving ability
because the Father raised Him from the dead. Raised Him from
the dead and accepted Him back, as we said earlier, at the right
hand, His right hand. So, He has saving ability. He's able to save to the uttermost. He's able to save those that
come unto God by Him. Will you come to God by Him this
morning? Father, we ask in Jesus' name
that you might give unction and power to the message that has
been delivered, and we pray that it may please you, even on this
hot July morning, that some poor sinner here may come to Christ,
and they may come, our Father, in faith and humility, and they
may come because He has demanded satisfaction and perfect righteousness
from them, and they can produce neither. But God's Christ can
and has produced them, and He will deliver them to their soul. Be pleased to save, we ask in
Jesus' name. Amen.