The Exclusivity of Christ

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

2 views

0 comments

00:01
I want to invite you to open up your Bibles to Acts.
00:07
I've given you the outline, as I have each week.
00:12
It's nice to have our Bibles open together.
00:15
We're going to go to chapter 4, to one of my favorite passages of Scripture.
00:22
This series, Bible Memorization for Evangelism, could have just as easily been called Pastor's Favorite Passages, because really, each one of these ones that I'm seeking that you would memorize are ones that I have memorized for the purpose of evangelism, but also because they're passages that I believe have significance within the context that they come from.
00:50
And tonight, we're going to be looking at something that is such a huge idea.
00:59
It's so important, it cannot be overstressed how important it is.
01:10
And that is the exclusivity of Christ.
01:15
Now, what do I mean by the word exclusivity? Exclusivity means that Christ is the only way for anyone, anywhere, at any time to be saved.
01:33
That it's salvation is exclusive to Jesus.
01:41
And my friends, beloved, that is so unpopular with the mass of humanity.
01:53
In fact, I remember Oprah Winfrey.
01:56
Yeah, I'm going to quote Oprah.
02:00
Oprah Winfrey, on her television show, was talking about spiritual things, because she often does, in very paganistic ways.
02:11
She was talking about something, and one of the ladies in the audience said, the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ.
02:22
Now, I don't know who this woman was, I don't know what church she represented, I don't know why she was in Oprah's audience, but she was there.
02:29
But, huh? Yeah, but she was there, yeah.
02:32
Praise the Lord, she was there.
02:33
And she said, the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ.
02:37
And Oprah looked her bald face straight and said, He can't be.
02:47
Not, I disagree.
02:49
Not, well, I have a different opinion.
02:51
Not, well, my religion says something different.
02:54
She said the three words, He can't be.
02:59
That just can't be.
03:02
Now, why would Oprah say that Jesus can't be the only way to heaven? Because she's trying to start a fight? Okay.
03:17
Why else do you think that? I mean, it could be.
03:20
She might have just been trying to start something.
03:24
Okay.
03:25
She doesn't want to submit to that particular truth.
03:29
Why else? Yes.
03:30
She draws a bigger crowd.
03:33
It's much more popular to say Jesus isn't the only way.
03:38
Yes.
03:41
She doesn't believe in Jesus.
03:42
Okay.
03:43
All of these are good.
03:44
Yes.
03:48
That's getting close to where I'm at.
03:50
Very close.
03:51
It makes everything else wrong.
03:53
Why else? Any other reason? Here's why I think.
03:58
And in a way, and I'm not giving Oprah any good...
04:03
And I'm not giving her kudos at all.
04:07
I think in her mind, though, the only way for her to make God fair is to make God not exclusive.
04:23
And that's the modern expression of religion.
04:29
Is that the only way God can be fair is if everybody has equal opportunity to be in His presence or in a relationship with Him.
04:44
And because there are many people in the world who have not heard of Jesus, or many people in the world who have only heard of Jesus through the lens of Islam, or through the lens of Buddha, or through the lens of any of these other ways, because they believe that God must be fair to these people, and the only way for Him to be fair would be that Jesus can't be the only way.
05:13
And so while certainly I'm not giving Oprah any props, I'm saying that I think what she was trying to do in her own mind was what we call idolatry.
05:26
She was creating a God who she would consider to be fair.
05:34
Well, yeah.
05:38
Yeah, for her to say Jesus is the only way means that all those Muslims who don't believe in Jesus ain't got a shot.
05:47
And so to her that's not fair.
05:49
Again, I'm not defending Oprah.
05:51
But what I am saying is I'm saying the exclusivity of Christ, the exclusivity of the gospel does force us to say this.
06:08
God has chosen a way of salvation which there are people in the world who will never hear of it.
06:25
Think about how many Native Americans preceded Christopher Columbus.
06:32
How many people say Columbus discovered America? You ain't discovering something if you show up and there's people there.
06:39
It's like if we got to the moon and somebody walked up and shook your hand.
06:42
You didn't discover that.
06:44
I mean, I'm just saying.
06:46
So he discovered America in a sense.
06:50
He discovered America for the West, if you will.
06:54
But the reality is there were so many Native Americans who had their pagan religions, who had their pagan systems, and never heard of Christ.
07:07
When we say that Christ is necessary for salvation, what we are saying by default is that every person who never hears of Christ is, by virtue of that, outside of any chance of ever going to heaven.
07:36
Yes? When you make that statement, then...
07:42
No, no, we're not.
07:45
Think about what I'm saying.
07:46
What I'm saying is, okay, what does the Bible talk about? Some people wore a line who couldn't get saved because they didn't hear the name of Jesus Christ.
07:57
Yes, yes, I do.
07:59
And you're paid by saying that.
08:01
You're saying...
08:04
Let me finish what I'm saying.
08:07
You can answer the matter before me, okay? But what you just said, to say that you don't believe that, you're saying that they don't hear the gospel of Jesus Christ after Jesus Christ has come.
08:32
Everyone else who goes in any other way, Jesus himself said this, he is a robber and he is a thief.
08:40
Jesus Christ fulfilled all of the Old Testament.
08:44
So when the Native Americans bowed down to a totem pole, they...
08:50
I get that, I get that.
08:52
But do you think every Native American was bowed down to a totem pole, just like every person that claims to be a Christian? If they bowed down to anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the wrath of God abides upon them.
09:06
And I agree with that.
09:07
But my point is, I...
09:08
Well, we have to...
09:10
Yeah, this...
09:11
That...
09:12
That is what makes this...
09:14
No, I...
09:15
Just so that I may move on.
09:17
The hardest part of this is getting to the fact that a person who doesn't hear of Christ continues in their sin and will be judged for their sin and will go to hell.
09:32
We don't like to think of it that way.
09:35
But that is what the Bible teaches.
09:37
I understand that.
09:44
And we talk about prior to Christ, we have to understand who was saved prior to Christ? Only those that placed faith in Yahweh.
09:52
Only those who had heard the gospel.
09:59
You see, they don't understand the gospel preceded the coming of Jesus Christ.
10:03
Paul tells us that.
10:04
He says the gospel was preached to Abraham.
10:06
And he believed it and was saved.
10:08
Genesis 15, 6.
10:10
Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him as righteousness.
10:13
The apostle Paul puts in Romans 4.
10:15
That is how the person is saved, right? That the person is saved because he believes God is accounted unto him as righteousness.
10:21
The person who does not hear of the Lord Jesus Christ prior to the cross doesn't make sense because there is no Jesus Christ.
10:30
But the person who does not hear of Jesus Christ after the cross is by virtue of the fact of not having that door open to them cut off from salvation in the same way that in the old covenant how many Egyptians went to heaven? Okay.
10:52
I would agree.
10:53
Just like I would say some Native Americans were converted by some missionaries.
10:57
But the vast majority of them did not hear the gospel.
11:02
And the vast majority of them rejected any godliness that was brought into their life.
11:08
And what was God's mission in the light of the Egyptians that He brought to them? Did God bring to the Egyptians blessing or curse? Curse, and curse, and curse, and curse, and curse ten times.
11:24
Now here is the thing.
11:25
This is hard stuff.
11:27
This is the Oprah thing.
11:29
Because what happens is we start by saying yes, Jesus is necessary for heaven.
11:35
And then when we're pressed we have a hard time even holding to that ourselves.
11:49
So, is Christ necessary for a person to go to heaven? And if He is not I only ask this.
11:56
If He is not tell me then how anyone would go to heaven apart from Him.
12:04
Now, this side of the cross there is the answer.
12:10
Everybody knows that's where we are.
12:12
We preach and teach the exclusivity of Christ even though it's hard to do in a world that doesn't believe it.
12:25
It's not hard to do because it's hard to believe.
12:29
It's hard to do because it's hard for people to receive it.
12:32
And so we don't want to preach it.
12:34
We want to preach anything but that.
12:36
We want Jesus to become sort of an ecumenical chameleon where He'll just sort of blend in to everything and everybody has Jesus.
12:47
In fact, do you know why tonight I'm preaching Acts 4.12 and not John 14.6? By the way, what's John 14.6? No one shall come unto the Father except through Me.
13:03
Why did I choose Acts 4.12 and not John 14.6? Because both teach the exclusivity of Christ.
13:09
Number one, I figured you already knew John 14.6.
13:13
So I had a practical reason.
13:17
But also this.
13:19
There have been many who have gotten around John 14.6 by saying this.
13:24
Everyone, when they die, will meet Jesus and Jesus will then open the door to heaven to anyone who has been good.
13:35
And so they all go through Him.
13:37
And when He said, no one comes to the Father but through Me, Jesus stands at the gate of heaven letting all who have done good come in.
13:45
So the good Muslim can come in.
13:46
The good Buddhist can come in.
13:48
The good pagan can come in.
13:49
The good atheist can come in.
13:50
In fact, recently the Pope said in a statement in the media that the good atheist will go to glory.
14:04
Well, the question I have is where is one? Where is the good atheist, the good Buddhist, the good Muslim? When by good we mean morally perfect.
14:14
The standard is moral perfection.
14:16
That's what the Bible calls good.
14:18
And guess what? There is none good except God alone.
14:21
Jesus said that.
14:23
So I would agree with the Pope.
14:26
The good Muslim will go to heaven.
14:27
There aren't any.
14:29
The good Buddhist will go to heaven.
14:31
There aren't any.
14:32
The good atheist will go to heaven.
14:34
But there aren't any.
14:36
So I agree at least on the surface.
14:39
Yes.
14:42
Yes.
14:56
And that was getting back to what I said from Genesis 15.
15:00
And the Gospel goes back to...
15:03
We could argue that the Gospel goes back to Genesis 3 with the Proto-Evangelion, which is where the first promise of a Redeemer is given in Scripture.
15:14
So we could say the Gospel was preached to Adam and Eve in the garden.
15:18
The Gospel was further preached to Abraham in the Abrahamic Covenant, Abraham 12, in Genesis 12.
15:26
Not a book of Abraham.
15:28
In Genesis 12.
15:29
And then throughout, we see the expansion of the Gospel throughout the Old Testament and then into the New Testament when the Gospel is fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.
15:37
And there's an expansion there.
15:38
So like I said, the reason why I went to Acts 4.12 is for two reasons.
15:42
One, is because of a purely practical reason.
15:46
I want you to learn this passage.
15:47
But two, because of the expression that is used by the Apostle Peter when he says what he says about the exclusivity of Christ.
15:56
As I said, John 14.6 has been robbed and neutered by some.
16:02
Because they say, yes, you'll only go to Heaven through Jesus Christ, but He's there waiting to take everybody.
16:08
So they know that passage is there and they've misinterpreted it, twisted it out of context to sort of make it a universalistic passage.
16:17
So let's go to a passage that's less able to be manipulated.
16:23
And the passage is Acts 4.12.
16:27
And because this says, And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
16:46
Just think from an English, we're going to get to the Greek in a minute, but just from an English perspective, because I think the ESV really gets it good here.
16:53
Think of the, first of all, it uses two universal negatives right in a row.
17:00
You know what a universal negative is, right? If I say, no one can, I'm making a statement of universality.
17:10
If I said, no one can ride a bike.
17:13
And then some kid comes along, ching, ching, ching, riding a bike.
17:16
I'm wrong.
17:17
Because I made the universal statement, no one can do that.
17:21
And here comes the little boy on the bike.
17:23
So he breaks my, and this again, if you think of John 6, Jesus said, no one can come to me unless the Father in heaven grants it to him.
17:32
That's a universal negative.
17:34
That's a universal negative.
17:35
The word all is not a universal positive.
17:41
The Bible says all Judea went out to John and was baptized into Jordan.
17:45
Not every single person.
17:46
That is all without distinction, not all without exception.
17:50
So the word all can have a distinctive meaning or a universalistic meaning.
17:55
But no one is a universal negative.
17:58
So when he says, and there is salvation in no one else, that's the first use of the universal negative.
18:05
And then he goes on to say, for there is no other name.
18:09
That is the second universal negative in the same sentence.
18:15
Two parts of the sentence, both of them using the universal negative, no one, no other.
18:22
There is no one else that you can be saved through.
18:27
There is no other name by which you can be saved.
18:31
And so you see two universal negatives side by side.
18:35
And then he uses a very forceful word, must.
18:40
He says, there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
19:16
Well, the gospel is exclusive and that is kind of what I am talking about tonight.
19:21
The hard truth of the exclusivity of Christ.
19:26
Let's look at the NASV.
19:27
It says it pretty much the same way.
19:29
There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men.
19:36
That is just using a different tense there of the verb.
19:39
Well, it is the same tense, but it is just used in a different way.
19:41
That has been given among men by which we must be saved.
19:45
And then the King James Version, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
19:57
If you got your little pen, underline must, must and must.
20:02
It is such an important word in that sentence.
20:07
What is great about this in the Greek, it is so simple.
20:10
You know what it says in Greek? The same thing it says in English.
20:14
I love it.
20:15
I always like these guys get all fancy.
20:17
They will spend ten minutes breaking down the Greek and then they will say, but really what it says, is what it said.
20:23
What it said in English is what it said in the Greek.
20:25
There is nothing really fancy.
20:26
καὶ οὐκ ἐστιν ἐν ἄλλω οὐδε νῆ ἐ, σωτέρια οὐδε γὰρ ἄνωμα ἐστιν, ἐδερὸν ὁποῦ τὸν οὐρανὸν τὰ δεδομενὸν ἐν ἄνθρωποῖς ἐν ὁ δὲ σὸ θεῖ νὰ ἡμᾶς.
20:53
And again, the word in Greek, if you look at the last sentence there, it looks like the letter D, the letter E, and the letter I.
21:01
That is the Greek word for must.
21:04
Should be over must, but it didn't end up working like that.
21:09
N-O is by which, and day is must, and then so theinai is saved, and amos is we.
21:19
So it's by which must save we, or we must be saved by this name.
21:25
Must.
21:26
That word there, they, means obligated.
21:30
If we are to be saved, it is obligated to go this way.
21:35
It is obligated that this be it.
21:40
I think a lot about Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus said there is two ways, a way that leads to life, and a way that leads to destruction, and the way that leads to life is narrow, and few there are that find it.
22:01
Isn't that a hard thing to think about? How many of you have family members that you love with all your heart, but yet your family members you know have not found that way? Yes.
22:13
Oh, you're saying yes, you do.
22:15
I'm sorry.
22:16
Looked like I questioned.
22:18
We have family members, all of us, that have not found that narrow way.
22:24
We have coworkers that have not found that way.
22:27
If we work at schools, like my wife and I, we see kids, we see young people that have not found that way.
22:33
I want to tell you a story.
22:35
Jennifer did a little subbing right before the end of the year.
22:39
This little boy was in the class, and he was, and this is middle school, and he was pronouncing that he was gay.
22:47
Just, you know, that's big now, especially in middle schools, saying they're gay.
22:53
This girl, now listen to this story, because this gets weird.
22:59
This girl, he says, is it a sin to be gay? Well, she pulls up the Bible on her cell phone, and she begins to read Leviticus to him.
23:08
Leviticus, of course, Leviticus 18, talks about not to lie with one man as you do with a woman, or lie with a man as you do with a woman is abomination.
23:16
So she's reading this to him, and he's, of course, saying, you know, oh, well, if that's the truth, I was born this way, then I can't be a Christian, blah, blah, blah.
23:23
They're going back and forth, and Jennifer's sort of overhearing this situation.
23:28
Same class, same kids.
23:34
Yearbook comes up missing.
23:38
Stole it.
23:41
You know who stole it? The head security come in? The girl reading the Bible.
23:49
The one who was answering the question all proud of knowing where Leviticus was.
24:00
So few have found that narrow way, even the ones who think they have.
24:04
Think back to Matthew 7, where it says, many will come unto me on that day and say, Lord, Lord, have we not done this and done that and done the other in your name, and yet you'll say I never knew you.
24:19
I like the old Baptist preacher who was asked by the Roman Catholic, well, you're one of those Baptists who think only Baptists are going to heaven.
24:25
He said, no, I don't even think all of us are going to make it.
24:30
But the reality is the truth is there is a narrow way, and it's the exclusivity of that way that makes people uncomfortable.
24:39
And here's what has happened, beloved, is that we've created a new spectrum.
24:45
I'm going to draw because I like to draw.
24:51
We've created in evangelicalism, I'm limiting this to evangelicalism, not Christianity as a whole, because you just, the scale would be too wide.
25:05
In evangelicalism, there has become what we would say the purely exclusive.
25:15
We might say the partially exclusive and then the non-exclusive.
25:29
So you have the purely, why don't we say totally? That'd be easier.
25:32
The totally exclusive, the partially exclusive, and the non-exclusive.
25:39
And this is in evangelicalism.
25:41
I'm not saying Roman Catholics and everybody else that would be, if you ask a surveyor who Christians, they'll say, yeah, a third of the world's Christian.
25:50
Why? Because they're counting everybody.
25:52
They're counting Roman Catholics, they're counting Mormons, they're counting Jehovah's Witness.
25:56
Everybody is a Christian.
25:58
And that's why the surveys that say there are two and a half billion Christians in a seven billion people world, it ain't so.
26:06
It's just not so.
26:08
But the totally exclusive would say that a person must understand who Jesus is and receive him by repentance and faith to know salvation.
26:22
This would be me, in case you're wondering.
26:24
Yeah.
26:24
I would hope it was you, but I'm not going to say you.
26:26
I'll say it's me.
26:28
The totally exclusive.
26:29
And then you have the partially exclusive.
26:32
These are the ones who have made limitations for certain groups.
26:39
For instance, there'll be those who say, well, if a person lives a good life but doesn't hear about Jesus, then his goodness will go up before God, be seen as worthy of God's attention, and God will give him grace, and he will somehow on judgment day be treated better and will not go to hell because Christ's atonement is universal.
27:07
Again, this is getting back to theology now because we would be particular redemption.
27:10
We would believe in limited atonement.
27:12
They believe in a universal atonement.
27:13
So because of the universal atonement of Christ, their sins are paid for anyway.
27:16
So all God has to do is pretty much just say, okay, you did good.
27:20
You did good with what you had.
27:22
You did the best you could with what you got, so I'm going to let you in.
27:25
So they would say that Jesus is necessary but only in the sense that if you've heard of him and rejected him, then you can't be saved because you rejected truth.
27:38
But if you've never heard of him, then God's got another way for you.
27:44
Okay? That's the partially exclusive because they'll say Jesus is exclusive if you've heard of him and haven't believed, then that's on you, fella.
27:51
You know, that's your bet.
27:53
Then you've got the non-exclusive evangelicals.
27:56
They're rising.
27:57
This is people who say you don't have to believe in Jesus even if you've heard of Christ, even if you've heard the gospel, as long as you live a good life, as long as you're doing good things, as long as you're seeking after whatever you think God is, God will see your sincerity as good enough and when you die and you face God, he will see your sincerity as righteousness and you're going to go to heaven.
28:18
So you can see how this works.
28:23
And here's the problem.
28:25
Is more and more people are over here than you realize that the non-exclusive, but they're hiding behind language.
28:36
Because they'll quote John 14, 6 as quickly as you will.
28:41
But in quoting John 14, 6, they have a different understanding, a different meaning, something that doesn't agree with Scripture.
28:48
And they'll say, yeah, Jesus is necessary, but if a person doesn't believe, God sees their heart and he knows that they're really worthy of heaven and he'll let them in.
29:00
See, that's the issue is we've got very few people willing to be totally exclusive.
29:12
Very few people are willing to be totally exclusive.
29:15
And so my question is, what were the apostles? They're our example.
29:20
We are an apostolic church in the sense that we follow the teachings of the apostles.
29:25
A lot of churches now call themselves apostolic and have a weird meaning of that.
29:30
What I mean by apostolic, we believe that the apostles were unique in their office, that they were given gifts that were unique to the early church for the establishment of the church.
29:42
And so those men were important and they were the ones used to bring about the New Testament Scriptures.
29:48
And so they have a value to us even though they are dead.
29:52
They come to us through the Scriptures by the virtue of the Holy Spirit having spoken through them.
29:57
So they were totally exclusive and that's what I look at in this passage because this passage comes to us in the context of Peter preaching to the Sanhedrin having himself been arrested for preaching Jesus.
30:12
And what does he say in the midst of his arrest? There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
30:26
And that includes all of those men who are listening.
30:33
All of whom would have been dedicated to their understanding of God, religion, and righteousness.
30:41
And yet he looks them dead in the face and says, without Jesus you will perish.
30:51
The apostles were exclusive.
30:54
So too are we exclusive.
30:57
Not because we wish to exclude but because we know that God has excluded those who are outside of Christ.
31:10
And it would be wrong of us to try to make another way to heaven when God has only given one.
31:24
R.C.
31:24
Sproul was in a class and the teacher asked, does anyone here believe that you have to believe in Jesus to go to heaven? R.C.
31:35
was the only one.
31:36
It was a secular school.
31:37
It was the only one who raised his hand and she looked him, this secular college professor teacher looked him and said, you're arrogant! He said he was mortified.
31:50
I mean, any one of us would have been at least shaken for a teacher to ask a question thinking in good faith, hey! You ever do that? You raise your hand and go, oh wait.
32:01
I'm the only one.
32:02
And he raises his hand, realizes I'm the only one.
32:04
She points at him and says, you're arrogant! After class, he goes to the teacher and he says, I need to say something to you.
32:14
He said, I believe in Jesus.
32:19
I believe what the Bible says about Jesus.
32:23
Jesus said He was the only way to heaven.
32:27
For me to believe anything else, if I say I believe in Jesus, would mean that I think He was wrong.
32:39
And then I would be arrogant.
32:41
Because I would say I know more than the person who himself was God in the flesh.
32:49
It's not arrogant if you believe in Jesus to say Jesus is the only way.
32:52
It's arrogant if you believe in Jesus to say that there's some other way because Jesus didn't believe there was.
32:58
So that's the issue.
33:01
Jesus has made it clear there was only one way.
33:03
His apostles reaffirmed that there was only one way.
33:05
And thus, if we go preaching other ways, what have we done? We've abandoned the prince of our faith, Jesus Christ, and His messengers, the apostles who themselves preached exclusivity.
33:26
So we are left in a very tiny minority among not just Christians.
33:32
We're left in a minority among evangelicals.
33:39
To non-exclusive, yeah.
33:58
And like I said, this is in...
34:00
I could find several churches who would call themselves evangelical churches that if I went and sat down with the pastor, and I gave him a certain amount of parameters, he would come up with several ways people could be saved outside of Christ.
34:16
Because the culture has forced that upon us.
34:20
The culture has demanded that of us.
34:23
And so many men who call themselves preachers find themselves in a situation where they feel like they have to maintain their position by kowtowing and bowing down to bad teaching.
34:35
Because they don't want to rock the boat.
34:40
It's the truth.
34:42
They don't...
35:00
That's funny, because that's part of what I say here at the end about the fact that it's gracious not to only have one way.
35:07
We shouldn't argue that there is only one way.
35:10
We should think of the blessing of the fact that he gave any way at all.
35:13
Because he didn't have to.
35:14
He made it very clear which one it was.
35:16
Yeah, and he made it very clear which one it was by raising him from the dead.
35:19
Absolutely.
35:20
Unique experience.
35:21
There's only been one.
35:23
Alright.
35:24
Well, let's read the context and then we're going to answer the fill in the blanks.
35:29
The context begins in chapter 4, verse 1.
35:33
And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
35:48
Right there, just to mention this, they're preaching in Jesus' name.
35:52
That is the problem.
35:54
And that becomes important later because that's the name that Peter invokes.
36:00
Verse 3.
36:01
And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day.
36:04
So they spent a night in jail for it was already evening.
36:07
But many of those who had heard the word believed and the number of the men came to about 5,000.
36:12
This is up from 3,000, which happened on the day of Pentecost.
36:16
On the next day, the rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and all who were of the high priestly family.
36:29
And when they had set them in the midst, that is in the middle of them all, they inquired, By what power or by what name did you do this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified...
37:04
I always think about Peter sticking his finger out.
37:06
He doesn't say he did, but I always think, you know, you did this, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man is standing before you.
37:19
Well, this Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.
37:27
And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
37:36
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived they were uneducated, the Greek there is agromatoi, it means without letters.
37:46
They didn't have any specific ranking or education among the people.
37:51
They were letterless, if you will.
37:53
That's what they were.
37:54
They were uneducated, common men.
37:55
They were astonished, and they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
38:02
But seeing the man who was healed standing before them, they had nothing to say in opposition.
38:07
But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another, saying, What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.
38:20
But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.
38:30
Do you all see a pattern? What's the issue? The name of Jesus.
38:37
The name of Jesus.
38:38
They preached in His name.
38:39
They were arrested for His name.
38:41
They healed in His name.
38:42
Now what are they being commanded to do? Don't say His name.
38:47
So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
38:51
But Peter and John answered them, Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than God, you must judge.
38:58
For we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.
39:06
And of course the passage goes on, but I thought that was a good place for us to end, simply to say they're preaching in the name of Jesus.
39:14
Why? Because they believe that Jesus is necessary.
39:18
They believe that Jesus is foremost, that He is the exclusive way, and they're preaching in His name.
39:25
When they're told not to preach in His name, what do they invoke? God.
39:29
Who do they invoke? They invoke God, and they say, God has commanded us to do this.
39:33
Should we listen to you or to God? Well, the answer is obvious.
39:35
We have to obey God.
39:38
Because He has commanded us to preach Christ.
39:41
Here's the issue, folks.
39:42
If Christ is not the exclusive way to heaven, why do we send missionaries? If people can be saved other ways, if there are other avenues to go, in fact, here's the argument that I have, because I hear people say, well, if people don't hear about Jesus, remember the partial, they'll say, well, if somebody doesn't hear, then God will give them another way to get to heaven.
40:06
Well, then don't tell them.
40:10
Because if they reject Him, then you're condemning them.
40:12
Then just don't tell them.
40:13
Bring the missionaries home.
40:15
Everybody be quiet.
40:16
We'll sit in church, and we won't tell nobody.
40:20
Because they'd be better off not hearing if all they're going to do is be condemned if they don't believe.
40:25
That's foolish, right? You know I'm being facetious.
40:29
We send out missionaries because there's people who've never heard, and we want them to hear.
40:35
We send out missionaries because there are people that are all over the world who've never had what you have.
40:42
They don't have LifeWay bookstore, which to them is probably a blessing, because LifeWay can be kind of dangerous.
40:47
But they don't have Amazon.
40:50
They don't have iPhones.
40:51
They don't have access to sermon audio and all these other things.
40:54
They don't have any of this.
40:56
And when somebody comes to us, there was a missionary who said he got to a group of people.
40:59
They reached a group of people, and when they got there, they asked the person, what do you believe happened? Remember, these are tribal people.
41:08
And the person talked to him.
41:10
What do you believe happens when you die? You know what the answer was from this person? He said, we don't know.
41:16
No one has come to tell us yet.
41:20
We don't know.
41:23
Nobody's...
41:23
Well, I'm here.
41:26
That's what I came to tell you.
41:29
There are people all over the world that no one's told them yet.
41:33
So that's what missionary work is.
41:35
That's what we're supposed to do.
41:36
We go out because we have the exclusive message.
41:39
But it's not exclusive in the sense that we want to exclude.
41:42
It's exclusive in the sense that we want to include as many as we can because it's the only way.
41:47
It's as if to say the lifeboat is the exclusive way to be saved from the sinking ship.
41:54
It's not as if we're trying to keep people off the lifeboat.
41:57
No, we're trying to bring as many into the boat as we can because it's the only way to stay in the sinking ship is to stay in death.
42:09
For us to say this boat is the only way to be saved is not an offense.
42:14
It's a hand of love to say this is the only way.
42:22
So let me give you the blanks and we'll fill these in and draw to a close.
42:29
This passage confronts the question of religious relativism.
42:41
Religious relativism.
42:42
What's relativism? Relativism is the idea that all things are true or untrue within a context.
42:58
That's relativism.
43:01
It's based on sort of a quasi understanding of Einstein's theory of relativity, but it became social relativism.
43:11
The idea that truth is only truth for an individual.
43:15
So as one person would say, Jesus is true for you so that's true for you.
43:19
But Jesus is not true for me so He can be true for you and not true for me and both can be true at the same time.
43:26
Anybody with any sense knows that's not right because it can't be.
43:30
I'm going to take a page from Oprah's book.
43:32
That can't be.
43:34
That can't be because Jesus made exclusive claims that were universal claims.
43:41
No one can.
43:42
That's universal negative.
43:45
He doesn't say no one but the people who don't believe it can.
43:50
So relativism is shot in the foot by this passage.
43:54
It confronts the issue of religious relativism.
43:59
Number two.
44:00
To call on the name of Jesus in this context is to trust in His person and work.
44:16
Person and work.
44:17
And what do I mean by that? There are a lot of people who call on the name of Jesus in a non-salvific way.
44:31
And I could spend a whole other hour on this and I'll try not to.
44:36
There's a lot of people out there that call themselves Christians that aren't.
44:40
But there's a lot of people out there that use the name of Christ that have no understanding of who Christ is or what He did.
44:48
Good person, good teacher.
44:49
Yeah, yeah.
44:50
That Jesus was a good person.
44:51
He was a good teacher.
44:52
Or even to the idea that like the Muslims they see Isa in the Quran as being, you know, as this prophet who prophesied about Muhammad according to them.
45:09
So they don't believe in one, His person, because they don't believe He died on a cross.
45:14
They don't believe He was the son of God.
45:17
They say, cursed is the one who says Allah has a son.
45:20
They don't believe He died on a cross.
45:21
They don't believe that He's the son of God.
45:23
So those things are rejected in Islam.
45:25
So they've denied both His person and His work.
45:28
So even if they say, well, I believe in Isa, or Jesus.
45:32
Well, what do you believe in? This is where doctrine matters.
45:36
This is where theology matters.
45:37
I've got that t-shirt that says theology matters because it do.
45:42
It do matter.
45:46
Believing in Jesus is to call on the name of Jesus.
45:48
This is why I often, in Romans 10, where it says, whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
45:55
But what does it mean to call on the name of the Lord? It means to call on His name, understanding who He is and what He did.
46:03
It's not just hollering out the name Jesus when you're falling off a cliff.
46:06
That's not the same thing.
46:09
So when He says here, the name by which we must be saved, He's referring not just to some magical name.
46:17
It's not as if Jesus is like Hocus Pocus, or Alakazam, and there's a name that you have to say to be saved.
46:23
It's trusting in the person of Jesus that He is the second person of the Trinity, the God in the flesh, God incarnate, those things, and that He actually atoned for sin on the cross, the work of Christ.
46:36
Alright, third, and finally, a word from this passage which we must, which we should stress, is must.
46:45
Simple enough.
46:48
As I share this passage with people, the word that I always stress is I stress the word must.
46:56
By which we must be saved.
47:00
Why is it must? Because again, just like we said a few weeks ago, it's not a suggestion.
47:07
It's a command.
47:09
It's an obligation.
47:10
The only way to be saved is through Christ.
47:13
It's a must.
47:15
It's not a possible.
47:18
Yes? Must be.
47:22
Must be.
47:24
Ok.
47:25
I always say must be saved.
47:27
I'm sorry.
47:27
There's two.
47:28
You're right.
47:29
What I focus on when I say salvation, no one else, no other name, by which we must be saved.
47:35
Must be is the phrase that I focus on with that.
47:40
So let me finish with this thought to consider.
47:42
One of the clearest teachings of the New Testament is the exclusivity of Christ.
47:46
Yet it is also one of the first to be jettisoned when a group begins to move away from Scripture.
47:53
It is much easier to reject than to proclaim because it is a reminder of the truth that man more, excuse me, that more men will be lost than will be saved.
48:06
We should never be offended that God has given only one way of salvation for sinful man.
48:12
We should be grateful that he has offered a way of salvation when he was not obligated to do so at all.
48:21
Let's pray.
48:21
Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
48:23
I thank you for the truth.
48:24
I thank you for the exclusivity of Christ.
48:26
I thank you for this person, Jesus, to whom we cry out as our advocate, who took upon himself our sin, who gave to us his righteousness, and who stands before us as the captain of our salvation.
48:46
And Father, we know that sharing this truth with the world is one of the most difficult things for it to accept because the world rejects the truth.
48:57
But Lord, help us not have a desire for the world, but help us have a desire for the word.
49:05
In Christ's name we pray.
49:07
Amen.