Philippians chapter 1. I just want to read two or three
verses here in this chapter. Philippians chapter 1 and look
in verses 6 and verse 7. being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ, even as it is meet for me, fit
for me, right, to thank this of you all, because I have you
in my heart, inasmuch as both in my bonds, in my chains, he
was a prisoner at this time, and in the defense and confirmation
of the gospel, ye are all partakers of my grace." Then over again
in verse 17, he mentions again that he is set for the defense
of the gospel. But the other of love, the other
preached Christ of love, knowing that I am set for the defense
of the gospel. When the Lord Jesus called Paul
to salvation and called him to be an apostle, called him to
preach the gospel, The Lord revealed the Gospel to this man, this
Apostle Paul. And not only did he save Paul
by this Gospel, but he put the knowledge of it in his heart
to preach to others. That he was to go among the Gentile
world and preach this Gospel to others. Brother Larry told
us Sunday that a light isn't given to be put under a bushel
or under a bed but on a candlestick that it may give light to all
that's in the house. And when the Lord gave the gospel
to the Apostle Paul, he went out and shared that light. He
went out and preached this gospel to others. And he says it like
this, when the Lord opened his heart and sent him to preach,
he said this to Paul, to open their eyes and to turn them from
darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they
may receive forgiveness of sin and inheritance among all them
that are sanctified." That was the gospel he went out to preach.
And Paul describes it like this, his ministry, his preaching like
this. He said, My preaching, my exhortation was not of deceit,
nor of uncleanness, nor in guile, but as we were allowed to be
put in trust with the gospel. When the Lord gave him his gospel,
revealed it to him and put it in his heart, he said, He trusted
me with it. He entrusted me with this gospel
to keep it, to protect it, to guard it as I preached it to
others. And he was writing in another
place to Timothy, And he said this, according to the glorious
gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. And when the Lord had saved Timothy,
Paul's helper, He put the gospel in his heart. And here's what
Paul instructed Timothy to do. He said, O Timothy, keep that
which is committed to thy trust. So Timothy had the gospel entrusted
to him, And then Paul writes to him again in his last epistle,
and he said, Timothy, the things which you have heard of me among
many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall
be able to teach others also. So we see that this gospel was
entrusted to Paul. It was entrusted to Timothy.
It was entrusted to a host of other men. And you know, it's
entrusted to the church. The Gospel is entrusted to this
church and especially those who preach it. God has put it in
our little vaults, our little hearts. And He says, You keep
it. You protect it. You hang on to
this Gospel. And when Paul thought about this,
he thought about these two things. And he mentions them here in
verse 7. The defense of the Gospel. God
has set me as to defend the gospel, and secondly, the confirmation
to confirm the gospel. This word defense means to oppose
or resist, to prohibit, to forbid, to drive back a foe or danger,
to protect by opposition or resistance, to prevent from being injured
or destroyed. We see this in military terms,
don't we? When you set up a defense, you
have soldiers and they set up a defense when they have an imposing
force to come in. Clarence, you guys used to do
that in Vietnam. You set up a line, you know,
and you oppose the incoming force. Sometimes we use this in sports
analysis when we talk about defending the line, defending your goal
post or defending your plate or something like that, defending
your basket. And that's what he's talking
about. Paul said, I am set for a defense. I'm set to defend
the gospel. God's entrusted me with it, and
I defend it. To use sort of a cruel analogy,
if somebody came up in my presence and started trying to mess around
with my wife, you know what I'd tell him? Buddy, listen, knock
it off now, or you're going to feel my big fist under your nose.
Ain't that the way you feel? Why do we do that? We're jealous.
When he says, I've been set for the defense of the gospel, that
means, man, I'll fight you over this. You're not coming in here. You're not going to destroy this
gospel. I'll defend this gospel. You say, well, what if he's a
big old guy like old Steve McCrary and he can whip you? Well, he'll
have to. He'll have to. That's the way
we feel about defending the Gospel. We're jealous of the Gospel. Somebody told me one time, I
forgot what it was, but he said, you know, the Gospel don't need
defending. Well, we know God can defend His Gospel. He does
and He will in time. But He uses means, doesn't He?
He uses us. He uses the church to defend
His Gospel. This word here, The second place, the confirmation
of the gospel. We have the defense of the gospel.
Well, Paul called down a curse on anybody that would pervert
this gospel, didn't he? Men or angels. And now he says,
I'm set for the confirmation of the gospel. This word confirmation
means to confirm, to establish, to make firm or more firm, to
give new assurance of truth or certainty. to put past doubt,
to confirm by giving evidence, proof, convincing testimony,
to present facts and arguments for a confirmation of what has
been alleged. And you know, most of the New
Testament, I bet you a great percentage of the New Testament
is set as proof of the Gospel. It's said to prove that the gospel
is true. I remember in Luke 1 when Luke
was writing and he said that the Lord Jesus raised from the
dead and by many infallible proofs." You say, what? He said something
like that? By many infallible proofs. His resurrection is that
He raised from the dead. He's proved it. And one of the
ways He's proved it, Paul said, above 500 brethren saw Him at
one time after His resurrection. I remember when Brother Wayne
first started his study on the book of Romans. He gave one of
the proofs that Jesus Christ was the Son of God according
to power. Do you remember that, Wayne?
And Wayne said, what does that mean? He was proved to be the
Son of God with power by the resurrection of the dead. He
raised Himself. He gave proof. He confirmed who
He was. And that's what Paul said he's
doing with the Gospel. I'm not only defending it, but
I'm confirming it. I'm offering evidence from the
Old Testament and experience that this Gospel is true. You
can trust this Gospel, the defense and confirmation of the Gospel. And I've said all of this for
this reason. You and I are studying some eras what we call, and what's
been called now for well over a hundred years, the dispensationalist. We may call them ultra-dispensationalist,
hyper-dispensationalist, but that's what we're studying, and
we're setting a defense against that. We're looking at some eras of
that teaching. So, on what grounds can we do
this? How can I stand up here and say
we're going to confront these errors because we're set for
the defense and confirmation of the gospel? These fellows
now for many, many years, well over a hundred years, have brought
these errors right into the church. If they were outside the church,
if it was Mormonism or Jehovah's Witness or some other cult, then
we could go out there and fight them. They're not out there anymore. I said last week that there's
a couple here in the church and one of their very, very close
and dear relatives, they found out that he's one of these dispensationalists.
So it's getting close, isn't it? And therefore, we take this
Scripture here. We're set for the defense and
confirmation of the Gospel. And man, it's got right into
the Christian churches today. Right into the Christian churches.
And I bet it won't be long until you'll run into somebody. I have
some dear friends that got mixed up into this stuff. But let's
go over just a little bit and let me remind you a little bit
of some of these eras. What is the dispensation? And I'm not talking, let me make
this clear, I'm not talking about some of our dear brothers that
believes in the premillennial return of Jesus Christ. We're
not talking about those people. I don't look upon that as a great
era. even though that's not my understanding.
There's some dear brethren that believe in the premillennial
return of Jesus Christ, that He's coming in a secret rapture.
There'll be seven-year tribulation and so on. I'm not speaking about
those folks. And I want that to be clear.
You can talk with those fellows. You can reason with them. You
can't reason with these dispensationalists. these hyper-dispensations. Let
me remind you, and let's go just a little bit further into what
they believe. Let me give you about four things
quickly and remind you of this. And you'll probably remember
this. They say, and I quoted last week, there have been other
valid Gospels, valid Gospels, true Gospels in the past and
will be valid Gospels in the future, real Gospels. And you
and I saw that there is only one Gospel. You go all the way
back to the beginning, there in the garden at the fall, when
God put those clothes upon our first parents, there is the Gospel.
And there will be only one Gospel when this world ends, just one
Gospel. The second thing we looked at is this. There was a Gospel
for the Jews in Christ's day and in the early book of Acts,
and that Gospel was completely different from the gospel that
the Apostle Paul preached. We looked at that. The gospel
John the Baptist preached, Christ preached, and those twelve apostles
preached was completely different from the gospel of grace that
the Apostle Paul preached. We'll see that again just in
a few minutes. That's what I want to dwell on a minute. Thirdly,
they make a distinction between the church that Christ said He
would build. Upon this rock I'll build my
church. which was made up, they say, only of Jews. They make
a distinction between that church and the body of Christ which
was saved under Paul's preaching of the gospel of grace. And yet
in Ephesians 2 we are told this plainly, that Christ abolished
in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained
in ordinances, for to make in Himself of two one new man. What is the church? What is the
body of Christ? One new man. So make in peace,
and that He might reconcile both, both Jews and Gentiles, in one
body by the cross. And we looked last week at Galatians
3.28, in Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond
or free, male or female. We are all one. One in Christ. Just one church, isn't it? just
one church. Fourthly, they make a distinction
in the kingdoms, and the Bible makes no distinction in the kingdoms.
They make a distinction in the kingdom of God and the kingdom
of heaven. We saw, I think it was a couple
weeks ago, there's no distinction made in those two kingdoms. The
kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God is one. They make a distinction
in those kingdoms as opposed to the kingdom they call the
kingdom which John the Baptist said was coming and Christ preached
and the apostles preached. They preached the kingdom. And then they make a distinction
between that kingdom and the kingdom of God's dear Son. But what they say about the kingdom
that Christ preached, they say that He would have set that kingdom
up. If the Jews had not refused to
believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. But because the
Jews refused to believe that, that kingdom was postponed. Now we have the church. And later
at the rapture of the church, then this kingdom will be set
up again by Christ and He will reign. That even makes no sense to any
of us, does it? It makes sense to none of us?
Christ is reigning now. He's on His throne now, isn't
He? Now He's on His throne. I was
thinking about this today, and I've been reading about this
for years anyway, but I was reading some more about it today, and
the man, the quote that he made was, if they had only believed
that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. That was the criteria
for Christ setting up His kingdom, to believe that Jesus was the
Christ, the Son of God. But you know, nowhere did the
apostles preach that when Christ was here. They never went out
and preached that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. As a
matter of fact, Christ forbid them to tell people that. Remember
that when He asked them, who do men say that I the Son of
Man am? They said, some say you're Jeremiah or Elias or one of the
prophets. He said, who do you say I am?
And Peter said, you're the Christ, the Son of the living God. And
He forbid them, He instructed them to tell no man that He was
the Christ. So they never even went out and
preached that He was the Christ. If that was the criteria for
setting up His kingdom, He should have at least instructed them
to preach that He was the Christ. But they confuse all of these
things. They confuse all of these things. We saw that there is only one
kingdom. There's only one kingdom. That's
the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God's
dear Son, And Daniel said in these last days, in the days
of these kings, the God of heaven would set up a kingdom which
shall never be destroyed. It would never cease. It would
never be postponed. It would not turn into another
kingdom or a different kingdom. And the kingdom shall not be
left to other people. It shall break in pieces and
consume all other kingdoms and it shall stand forever." Not
a kingdom, but the kingdom. Do you remember what that angel
told Mary when she said, you are going to conceive in your
womb and you are going to have a son and he is going to be called
the Son of the Highest and he is going to be great? And God
is going to give him the throne of David. And he shall rule over
the house of Jacob for how long? Forever. And of his kingdom there
shall be no end. Listen, the very moment that
a poor sinner believes in Jesus Christ, he is born into this
kingdom. The very instant. And he becomes
heir of all the benefits of that kingdom that God has promised
to them that love him. There's just one kingdom. That's the kingdom of God's dear
Son. There'll never be another. He's
not going to set up another kingdom. That's all the one that we find
in the Holy Scripture. That's some of the things that
we looked at last week and the week before last. The errors
these dispensationalists are making, and I believe, here's
my estimation of it, are due in great part for their lack
of reverence for God's Word. I think when they open it up,
and more they do, they quote it, they must read it because
they know where all these Scriptures are. They turn to different passages,
you can't keep up with them. But I think, here's my opinion
of them, they have little or no reverence for the Word of
God. Because when you go there and twist these things up just
to fit your system, then you've got a problem. If we go to the
Word of God just to prove or defend a system, we're already
showing a lack of reverence for God's Word. When we open God's
Word up, our hearts should tremble. Tremble at His Word. This is
God's Word. And just to read it, And when
somebody says that's wrong, and you just go on anyway just to
prove your system, something's wrong. Something is wrong. And I think it's a lack of holy
reverence for God's Word. It's dangerous, isn't it? It's
dangerous. We've read of some awful errors that these men have
made. They're making some bad errors
now, and it's probably going to get worse. One of the men
is named Les Feltick. There are several of them. Les
Feltick is the one I'm more familiar with than any other. Let me read
you a statement from him and show you when you go to God's
Word and you don't reverence it and you're just trying to
prove something, you can get yourself in trouble. When you
start on that downhill spiral, there's no telling where you'll
end. Here's what Les Feltick said, I noticed in my studies
this past week that in all Paul's letters that we never have to
beg God to forgive us of our sins. Think about that. And yet
for most people who are putting out the plan of salvation, they
say, you have to ask God to forgive you of your sins. You have to
repent. Well, I can't find that in any
of Paul's letters to the church age believers. It's not here. But rather, my Bible tells me
that when Christ died, the death of the cross, He took on Himself
not just the sins of those who were saved and are being saved,
but rather He took on Him the sins of every human being that
has ever lived or will ever live. And when He took every human
being's sins, then He cried to the Father, those sins are forgiven. And those sins are buried in
the depths of the sea, never, never to be brought before us
again. So even when lost people slip
out of this life into eternity, their sins are already forgiven. But they had not believed into
salvation. You know, I think when people
go to the lake of fire for all eternity, they won't be going
there for all their sins. They're not going there because
of the drunkenness and adultery or whatever you think sin is.
They're going there because of their unbelief. And if I am remembered
for anything else, I want to be remembered for this, that
a lost humanity is going to their eternal doom for only one reason,
because they refuse to believe that everything has been done. Now I tell you, there are so
many heresies in that one paragraph. There are so many eras that we
could do two studies on that one paragraph. Let me just pick
out two or three things. He says, you won't find repentance
in Paul's letters to the church age believers. Now, baby, Christ
knows that's wrong. Paul tells us in Acts chapter
20 verse 28, he said, everywhere I go to preach, publicly, And
from house to house, I preach this, repentance towards God
and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he was riding to the
church at Thessalonica, he said, you turn to God from idols. That's repentance, isn't it?
And he was riding to the Corinthian church and he said, I fear that
when I come among you, that God is going to let me behold many
of you who have sinned and have not repented of all your uncleanness. And for this man to say Paul
did not preach repentance and just go right on without correcting
that, something is wrong. Secondly, he said this, so even
when lost people slip out into eternity, leave this life into
eternity, their sins are already forgiven. Now think of that.
Lost people, unbelievers, rebels, atheists, fornicators, adulterers,
rebels against God, and yet He says here, they are already forgiven. Now listen, brothers and sisters,
forgiveness comes through sharing and believing the gospel. That's the way forgiveness comes.
Listen to what Peter told the Gentiles. To Him gave all the
prophets witness that through His name, whosoever believeth
in Him shall receive remission, forgiveness of sin. But what
about those who do not believe? They are condemned. They are
condemned. They shall not be saved. And
here is what Paul said, be it known unto you, men and brethren,
that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins,
and by him all that believe are justified from all things, by
which you cannot be justified by the law of Moses. By him,
all that believe. Believers die forgiven. Believers
die clear of all guilt. They die without any condemnation.
But unbelievers die guilty. They die guilty. They die in
their sins. They're not forgiven. What an
awful statement to make. And thirdly, this statement here
that he made in that paragraph, when people go out to the lake
of fire for all eternity, they won't be going there for all
their sins. They're not going there because
of the drunkenness and adultery and whatever you want to call
sin. You know people don't perish
because they rejected Christ. People don't go to hell because
they don't believe the Gospel. Unbelief is just another awful
sin. It may be the root sin. It may
be the greatest condemnation men will have. But you know people
go to hell to be punished for sin. I thought of Ephesians 5
and Cautions 3 where Paul enumerated all these sins. fornication,
adultery, and idolatry, and covetousness, and uncleanness. He went through
all these sins and He said it is because of these, the wrath
of God comes upon the children of disobedience. He is coming
out of His holy place, Isaiah said, to punish the inhabitants
of this world. Why? Why is God going to punish
sinners? For they are a And for this man
to say that men aren't going to go to the lake of fire, they
won't be judged? But what about those in those
heathen lands down through these last 2,000 years of people who
have never heard the gospel? They've never heard Jesus Christ.
They had no opportunity to believe Him. Will they perish? If men
disperse because of unbelief and not for sins that they commit,
will those men die in their sin? That's an awful statement. But
see what happens when you start just going to the Bible to prove
some system, then that's where you get in danger. That's where
you get in danger. Because it shows a lack of reverence
for God's Word, and when men don't reverence God's Word, then
they come up with things like this. They say these things.
Now I want to quickly leave you tonight We'll go on with this
next week hopefully, but I want to leave you tonight with just
one thing. Look at this one thing so it won't keep you too long.
These dispensationalists say that the other apostles in the
book of Acts, and they said all the way through the four Gospels,
they preached a different Gospel than Paul. Peter and John and
James and Matthew, Nathanael, all the other apostles preached
a different gospel than the Apostle Paul. Let me quote Matthew McGee. He's another one of the strong
dispensationalists. He had a little pamphlet. Brother
Larry got me this a few years ago. And the name of this pamphlet
is Israel's Kingdom Gospel and Our Grace Gospel. Two gospels. Listen now to this heart-breaking,
heart-wrenching accusation He brings against the Apostles of
Christ, Peter and James and John, He brings against them. Here's
what He said, and I quote, Upon close examination it is apparent
that their messages were different from the Apostle Paul's. Before
our Lord Jesus Christ revealed it to Paul, The other apostles
did not know that Jesus Christ's crucifixion was the sacrifice
for sin. Now think of that. Think of that. And here's what's so heart-wrenching.
There's fundamentalist churches tonight, and their pastors are
preaching this. Because men like Les Feldick and Matthew McGee
and other people like that, and they're setting it and they're
soaking it up. In the book of Acts, Peter never
mentions sacrifice or propitiation or the blood of Jesus Christ.
Peter never associates Christ's death with the remission of sins. Our gospel by which we are saved
was a mystery revealed by our Lord Jesus Christ to Paul only. It was not known by any man,
not even the other apostles. When Peter was preaching to the
Jews that they had denied the Lord Jesus, killed the Prince
of Life, that's what I preached on Sunday, was he saying that
Christ gave His life for your sins? No. He was blaming them
for murdering the Son of God. Though Peter mentions Christ's
death and resurrection, Peter did not ascribe salvation to
it. The other apostles never mentioned
Jesus Christ's blood. or his sacrifice or propitiation
in the entire book of Acts, nor do they recognize Jesus Christ's
death as a payment for sin, that was not part of the kingdom gospel
which they preached." Then he continues, what is the difference
between these two gospels? Peter spoke of the resurrection
of Christ in order to show that the Lord was alive and could
still returned to be Israel's king. Christ's death and resurrection,
the sign of Jonah, were stated as evidence. However, Peter was
not proclaiming them as part of the gospel of the kingdom. But Paul taught that the death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ are essential parts of our gospel
of grace. Paul constantly stressed the
sacrificial nature of the death of Jesus Christ, that he was
set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, that
the blood of Christ is not mentioned by Peter and the other eleven
apostles in Acts, yet it is a vital part of the gospel of grace.
One must conclude, therefore, that either the eleven apostles
were very negligent or that it had not been yet revealed to
them that Christ had died a sacrificial death. Peter does not link Christ's
death to the justification of a sinner. Paul taught that Jesus
Christ died as a sacrifice for our sins and that we are cleansed
by His blood. But in all of his sermons in
the early chapters of Acts, Peter makes no mention of this. Only
decades later, near the end of their lives, Peter and John each
wrote of the cleansing blood of Christ. However, in the early
parts of Acts, they never mentioned the blood, sacrifices, or propitiation,
or that Christ died for our sins because it was not yet revealed. Now I hope you got some of that. What are they saying about Peter
and James and John? They got a bloodless gospel.
They have a bloodless gospel. They preach forgiveness of sins,
we know they did that, without an atoning sacrifice. They didn't even understand that
Christ had died for sin. I'll tell you, if Peter was here,
if John was here, if Jude was here, you talk about skinning
some heads. You talk about bringing charges.
before the church against some people. They would do it. Ain't
that offensive? Wouldn't that offend you to be
accused of such heresy? You better bet they would be
offended. He says here, he makes this statement
that Peter and the other apostles never mentions the blood of Christ
as an atonement, the propitiation, the sacrifice for our sins in
the book of Acts. He fails to mention, neither
did the Apostle Paul. You don't find the word perpetuation
in the book of Acts. You don't find Christ gave Himself
for our sins in the book of Acts. You only find the blood of Christ
mentioned one time and Paul mentioned it in passing to the Ephesian
elders that God had purchased the church with His own blood.
Never one time does anybody say in the book of Acts that Christ's
death is an atoning sacrifice for our sins. The book of Acts of the Apostles
are just that. It's the Acts of the Apostles. They preach these great truths,
but if you want to find them really going into in-depth and
in detail, you go to their epistles. And there's where you see these
things taught in detail. But you don't see it in the book
of Acts. Ain't it strange how they go and say, well, Peter
never preached the perpetuation. Paul didn't either. He didn't
either. But they failed to mention that. If we'll remember that when you
go into perpetuation and Christ's atoning death and things like
that, if we remember that they didn't go into that detail in
the book of Acts. You go into the epistles to get that. You
go to Romans to get that. You go to Peter and get that.
What did Peter say about the blood of Christ? That's what
redeemed us. We're not redeemed with corruptible
things. He never said that in the book
of Acts, but he went into great detail, didn't he? Christ bore
our sins in His own body on the tree. And John said the blood
of Jesus Christ God's Son. If we remember this, that they
go into detail in their epistles on that, then we go to start
looking at the book of Acts and we see that Paul and Peter and
all these other preachers preached exactly the very same. That's what we'll see next week,
but I want to show you two scriptures. I want you to look over here
where I took my text Sunday in Acts chapter 3. You know, almost
every time Peter preached in the book of Acts, he dealt with
these things, almost every time he preached. The death of Christ,
the burial of Christ, and the resurrection of Christ. And listen,
on that grounds, on that grounds, there's remission for sin. Of
course he didn't go into the details about it. They didn't
do that in the book of Acts. Look here what he says in Acts
chapter 3. Mr. McGee made this statement
that Peter never associates Christ's death with remission of sins.
Well, look in Acts chapter 3 and look what he says in verse 15.
Acts chapter 3 verse 15. Here He is talking to these Jews.
You kill the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead,
whereof we are all witnesses. And then He goes down to verse
19. Repent ye therefore, and be converted,
that your sins may be blotted out, so that the Times of refreshing
shall come from the presence of the Lord. He said you repent
and be converted that your sins may be forgiven. Blotted out. On what grounds? Jesus Christ
has died. He's died. You remember when
Christ sent His twelve apostles out and He said I want you to
begin to preach here in Jerusalem and then go to Judea and Samaria
and the other most part of the world. You remember what He told
them to preach. He opened their hearts that they might understand
the Scripture. And look over here. Just look
right quick and read it for yourself so you'll know. Look in Luke
chapter 24. Look at what He told them to
go preach. Here's what he told them before
he ever sent it back to heaven. Look in verse 45, Luke 24. Then
opened he their understanding, that they might understand the
Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus
it behoove Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the
third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should
be preached in his name among all nations, And ye are witnesses
of these things." On what grounds did Peter preach repentance and
remission of sin? Christ suffered. Christ suffered. He bore our sins in His own body.
You think that Christ told him to preach that and he didn't
go out and preach it? He preached it almost every time he preached. Look back over in the book of
Acts again. Look over in chapter I don't have it down, but I think
it's in chapter 5. I'll have to find it. No, chapter
4. Look here in chapter 4. And look in verse 10. Mr. McGee said, Peter mentions
Christ's death and resurrection, but did not ascribe salvation
to it. He never ascribed salvation to
the death and resurrection of Christ. But look what Peter said
here in verse 10 of Acts 4. Be it known to 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,
even by Him doeth this man stand here before you whole. This is
the stone which was set up not of you builders, which is become
the headstone 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." Doesn't
he ascribe salvation to Christ? And when he says the name of
Christ, doesn't that not include His death and His resurrection? And he said, we must be saved
by this man who died and rose again. And yet this man tells
us that Peter never associated the death of Christ with remission
of sins and never associated it with salvation. One more place
I want you to look at in closing. Look in Acts chapter 10. This is where Peter preached
to the Gentiles. And look what he said. I want to deal with this next week,
so I just want to read this to you. Verse 36 of chapter 10.
The Word which God sent unto the children of Israel. He is
preaching now to Cornelius, the Gentiles, a whole room full of
Gentiles. The Word which God sent unto
the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, is Lord
of all. That Word I say you know. which
was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee
after the baptism which John preached." It must have been
the same gospel John was preaching. Sounds like it, doesn't it? That's
when it began. "...How God anointed Jesus of
Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about
doing good and healing all that was oppressed of the devil, for
God was with him." And we are witnesses of these things. We
just read that, didn't we? Christ said, You are witnesses
of these things. And now Peter says, We are, which
He did both in the land of Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they slew
and hanged on a tree. They are just dead. God hath
raised Him up the third day and showed Him openly, not to all
the people, but to witnesses chosen before God, even to us
who did eat and drink with Him after He arose from the dead.
And he commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify
that it was he which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick
and dead. Now look at this, to him gave all the prophets witness
that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive
remission of sins. And while he yet spake these
words, the Holy Ghost fell. These men were saved. So Peter
did preach through Christ remission of sin. He did associate the
death and burial and resurrection of Christ with salvation. We'll
stop there, but here's two things I want you to think about for
next week. I'll paraphrase these two things
for shortness, but mainly these two things we'll deal with next
week. I quote, John the Baptist in Christ and his twelve disciples
preached the law to the Jewish nation. If you are seeing commands
in the gospel that you're hearing, you are on Jewish ground and
not on grace ground. Now you think about that and
we'll look at that next week. If you're seeing commands in
the gospel that you're hearing. Secondly, and I quote, the words
of Christ in the four gospels are not binding on the church
that Paul established by the preaching of the gospel of grace. Now let me read that again. This
is something. This is really amazing. The words
of Christ in the four gospels are not binding on the church
Paul established by preaching his gospel of grace. But they
are binding only for the kingdom age, which was postponed, which
after the rapture is going to be set up. Only Paul's thirteen
epistles are truly binded on the church age until the rapture
of the church at the tribulation. Now those are the two things
we'll deal with next week. And why are we doing this? A defense
and confirmation of the gospel.