AWord in Season: No Other Name (Acts 4:12)

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June 15, 2020

Subscribe to A Word in Season on Apple Podcast (bit.ly/WISPod) or Spotify (spoti.fi/AWISPod) For this special season of uncertainty, Jeremy Walker, pastor of Maidenbower Baptist Church in Crawley, England, began making short devotions to warm ou

00:00: The Apostle Peter stood before the rulers of the people and the elders of Israel, the
00:06: Sanhedrin, the highest court of the Jews. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he was responding to the charges that had been laid against him and John and others about the preaching of Jesus Christ, and how in the name of the
00:21: Lord Jesus they had healed a man who had been lame from birth. And Peter said to the
00:26: Sanhedrin, Peter's insistence upon the uniqueness of the
01:05: Lord Jesus as the savior of sinners is resonating still today.
01:11: For the Jews to whom he spoke, it might have been Moses to whom they were inclined to look, but the law came by Moses, grace and truth by Christ Jesus.
01:21: The law condemned, the law exposed, the law showed us our need of a savior, but the law could not save.
01:29: There is no other name but that of Jesus Christ. The Norse gods, the
01:36: Egyptian gods, the Aztec gods, whether it be Allah or Buddha or Confucius or Rama, Krishna or Vishnu, whether it's
01:45: Mother Nature, whether it's Mary, the Saints, Moroni, whether it's another
01:50: Jesus, a Jesus not described and declared accurately and entirely in the
01:56: Bible, some blasphemous variation, some diminution. These other names are excluded by this statement.
02:06: It's a total declaration, no other name under heaven among men.
02:11: It's the broadest possible sweep. It's the greatest possible scope throughout all creation.
02:19: Man's wisdom and man's intention cannot produce another savior.
02:26: It's a generous gift. This name is given among men. Everywhere else is hopeless.
02:33: No one else can truly help. You and I cannot save ourselves, but here is
02:38: God acting. Here is a name and the language speaks of the totality of a being.
02:46: Everything that someone is. There is no other name under heaven among men by which we must be saved.
02:56: Not just could be saved or might find a way of salvation, but must be saved.
03:02: It is Christ Jesus and Jesus alone who is the savior of sinners like me and like you.
03:10: We need him. This is not a matter of mere theory. This is not just dry speculation.
03:16: This is about the salvation of the soul. And Peter's bold insistence as he stood before the
03:23: Sanhedrin on that day is the same bold and humble insistence that we need.
03:29: It is not arrogance to speak the truth. Yes, you can speak it arrogantly, but it is not arrogant.
03:37: It's not proud to insist that God has made a way of salvation. And that way is through Jesus Christ.
03:45: We need to understand this because we need to turn from anyone, anything, everyone, and everything else if we are to have peace with God.
03:56: Our Lord himself said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
04:02: Father except through me. And that message was picked up by the apostles and is still humbly, but graciously, firmly, and definitely insisted on by every true
04:15: Christian church and every true Christian today. If a sinner is to be saved, it must be by Jesus Christ.
04:24: There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
04:31: If you would be saved, you must leave everyone, everything else besides, and you must come to Christ and Christ only and trust yourself to him for the healing of your soul and the hope for all eternity that you need.