The Only Savior
Acts 4:12
March 4, 2018
We are currently in that 4th SOLA known as SOLUS CHRISTUS
And we have been talking about what that means.
Primarily it is a study of what Christ did FOR us.
• It focuses mostly on the reality that Christ did not come to make me righteous but to BE my righteousness.
• It is a doctrine which emphasizes that the salvation which I enjoy was provided for me solely by Christ apart from any assistance from me.
• It is not what Christ did IN me, but what Christ has done FOR me.
And the first question we answered was:
WHAT DID CHRIST DO FOR ME?
• We saw that in His ACTIVE OBEDIENCE He lived a perfectly righteous life
and perfectly fulfilled God’s righteous requirement.
• We saw that in His PASSIVE OBEDIENCE He died a sacrificial death and
perfectly satisfied God’s divine wrath.
And since His righteousness is imputed to me
And my sinfulness was imputed to Him,
Then we say that Christ did both of those things FOR me.
He lived for me and He died for me
And now, having been clothed in His righteousness by faith
I am counted justified before God.
It has nothing to do with any good works I did
It has nothing to do with any punishment I have taken
Jesus paid it all.
That is really the heart of the doctrine of SOLUS CHRISTUS
But as we have also said from the beginning
There are certainly OTHER ELEMENTS included.
The most popular (and indeed the one most people think of)
Is the reality that CHRIST IS ALSO THE ONLY SAVIOR
We answered the question: What did Christ do for me?
Now we are asking the question: DID ANYONE ELSE DO IT TOO?
Certainly if we understand anything in our CONSUMER DRIVEN MARKET of America we know that there is always more than one option.
It doesn’t matter if I’m buying shoes or tools or milk or an electrician
There are always multiple options.
Our question tonight is: Is that true in regard to salvation?
We know what Christ did, but was He the only one to do it?
Now first let me tell you why people would even ask that question.
Let me explain why people would care.
And it really boils down to our consumer mentality.
If you need a new pair of shoes
• The most basic need is for something to protect your feet.
• So in that sense it really doesn’t matter.
However people don’t just say get me a pair of shoes and expect that we’re all going to want the same thing. We want options.
What are some of the factors that determine which shoes we buy?
• Comfort – Do I like the way they feel?
• Style – Do I like the way they look on me?
• Function – Do they achieve what I need from them?
• Cost – Are they worth what I have to pay?
Well all of those also explain why people desire more than one Savior.
• Comfort – Do I like the way this Savior makes me feel?
• Style – Do I like the reputation that comes from following this Savior?
• Function – Does this Savior save me in the way I want to be saved?
• Cost – How much will it cost me to receive this Saviors salvation?
So if there are options then I get to shop around
And find the Savior that best suits my needs.
This explains why people so badly want there to be numerous Saviors.
It allows me to be in control and to dictate my terms of salvation.
We get to apply the “Customer is always right” mentality.
BUT WHAT IF THERE IS ONLY ONE?
• If there is only one, then the consumer is no longer in charge.
• The consumer is faced with a “take it or leave it” dilemma.
When I went to see the surgeon about having my gallbladder removed:
• He told me it needed to come out.
• I agreed.
• He sent me in the other room to schedule when.
• The lady said, we need “X amount” of money paid in full before we will do this.
And I instantly had no power. It was “take it or leave it”
• I didn’t get to select the color of my hospital gown
• I didn’t get to select the temperature of the operating room
• I didn’t get to haggle the price
He was my only option, and I had to consent to his terms.
Typically we don’t like that.
We want the control.
We want the options.
That same mentality is why our world fights so strongly for PLURALISM
You know the whole “many roads up the same mountain” theology.
We like the freedom to choose the Savior which best fits our desires.
Well, part of SOLUS CHRISTUS is to remind us that
Apart from Christ there is no other Savior.
And I don’t know of any verses that state it better than Acts 4:12.
Acts 4:12 isn’t the only verse that says it.
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,”
But neither of those verses says it any better than Acts 4:12
So that is the one we look at.
First, a little context.
• Shortly after Pentecost we have Peter and John still in Jerusalem.
• One day, while heading into the temple, Peter healed a crippled man.
• When this miracle occurred the Peter started flocking to Peter for the same reason they would typically flock to Jesus – they also wanted healing.
• Peter took the opportunity to preach to the crowd regarding their rejection of the One who really healed this man.
Acts 3:13-16 “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. “But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. “And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.”
• And of course Peter demanded again repentance and faith.
Acts 3:19 “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;”
• Well, in the middle of this sermon the priests and the Sanhedrin show up. This was the Jewish mafia family (Annas and Caiaphas and you know the crew)
• And these men surround Peter and try to bully him to stop preaching
• But Peter simply turned and started preaching at these men too.
Acts 4:8-12 “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people, if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead — by this name this man stands here before you in good health. “He is the STONE WHICH WAS REJECTED by you, THE BUILDERS, but WHICH BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone. “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
And it is this last verse we want to specifically focus on tonight.
There are two main points I want you to see from this verse.
And we’re actually going to look at the end of the verse first.
#1 THE NECESSITY OF SALVATION
Acts 4:12
In particular I want you to recognize that
Peter ends that verse with the statement, “we must be saved.”
This is a very important truth to learn, and even in those 4 words
There are some very important truths revealed.
I would look at those 4 words and first remind you of this:
1) THE NEED OF SALVATION IS UNIVERSAL
Peter doesn’t say, “You must be saved” or “They must be saved”
But “WE must be saved”
It is that very important reminder that
The fall of man is a universal condition.
We read from Paul about what Adam did to us.
Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned”
We are familiar with Paul’s famous monologue in Romans 3
Where he reminds us that “there is none righteous; not even one”
We are familiar with that great summation verse in:
Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
We understand that all men are sinful.
Very early in the Bible we are approached with this understanding.
In Genesis 6 God makes this assessment of all humanity.
Genesis 6:5-7 “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.”
We could listen later as the prophet Ezekiel recorded:
Ezekiel 22:30 “I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.”
And it is not just the worst among us, it is all of us.
Romans 3:12 “ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”
There is a universal need here.
Also implied by Peter is this:
2) THE NEED OF SALVATION IS REAL
Peter says “we MUST be saved”
• He doesn’t hold up salvation as something you might want to look in to.
• He doesn’t advertise salvation like a new pair of shoes that you might really enjoy if you are so inclined.
THIS IS A NECESSITY
Jesus told Nicodemus
John 3:7 “…you must be born again.”
There is in that an implication.
Man is in grave danger and must have salvation.
Well that promotes a couple more questions.
• SAVED FROM WHAT/WHO?
• WHY DO WE NEED TO BE SAVED FROM IT/THEM?
These are important questions
And some that have even become blurred in recent years.
I’ll never forget as a young aspiring minister in Stephenville
I would go to Brownwood on Tuesday nights with our church’s youth minister to sit and listen to a retired preacher named Richard Jackson.
In many ways it was a very beneficial time of learning
The practical responsibilities of ministry.
But there was one thing he taught that messed up my theology for many years, and one which God had to straighten out.
He was talking about the necessity of salvation (which he certainly proclaimed) however when asked: What does man need to be saved from? His answer was “Sin”.
To which he said, “Jesus didn’t come to save you from God, as though God is up in heaven shooting at us, Jesus came to save you from sin.”
Now, in one sense there is some truth to that.
After all the angel Gabriel did tell Joseph:
Matthew 1:21 “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
But Richard Jackson was applying that verse
In a way in which Gabriel certainly did not intend.
According to Jackson God is not angry, God is not “shooting at us”,
It’s just that sin has made such a wreck of the human condition
That Jesus must come and save us from it.
That is not what Gabriel meant.
Gabriel knew that we must be saved from our sins
Because of what our sins bring with them.
They bring with them nothing short of the very wrath of a holy God.
Psalms 5:4-6 “For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You. The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity. You destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.”
Psalms 7:11 “God is a righteous judge, And a God who has indignation every day.”
Even listen to Paul at Athens:
Acts 17:30-31 “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
There is no doubt what we are being saved from and it is a “WHO”.
• Sinful man must be saved from God.
• They must be saved from His wrath and full fury.
And let me even take it a step further to remind you.
• It is not simply God’s wrath on sin.
• It is God’s wrath on the sinners who commit that sin.
As R.C. Sproul so profoundly put it.
“Men say God hates the sin but loves the sinner. But God doesn’t send the sin to hell, He sends the sinner there.”
https://youtu.be/DXX0r8enBdY?t=2m16s
Proverbs 6:16-19 “There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers.”
Psalms 11:5 “The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, And the one who loves violence His soul hates.”
To claim merely that man only needs to be saved from sin,
Or that God is only angry at the sin and not the sinner
Is a HUMANISTIC GOSPEL.
And certainly that is a popular false gospel proclaimed today.
We like to say,
“God loves you just like you are, and He has such a wonderful plan for your life, and He is so grieved that sin is keeping you from that plan, and He so badly wants to remove that sin so that you can enjoy the good life He intended for you to have.”
THAT IS NOT THE GOSPEL MESSAGE OF THE BIBLE
The gospel message of the Bible is:
• The creature has infinitely offended the Creator by reason of their rebellion against the Creator’s righteous standard.
• Because of this rebellion the Creator has determined to crush and destroy sinners.
• He did it first by the flood
• He’ll do it again by fire
• Because of this sure and certain judgment of the Creator, the creature is in desperate need of salvation.
In fact “we MUST be saved”
We must be born again.
We must be delivered from the wrath of God.
So if you want to know what does man need to be saved from it is this.
MAN NEEDS TO BE SAVED FROM GOD.
WHY?
Because man has offended Him.
To refer again to a favorite R.C. Sproul quotation.
When asked: “If God is slow to anger and patient, then why when man first sinned was His wrath and punishment so severe and long lasting?”
Sproul responded:
“Time out… that God’s punishment was so severe? This creature from the dirt defied the everlasting holy God; after that God had said “The day that you eat of it, you shall surely die”. And instead of dying, “Thanatos”, that day, he lived another day and was clothed in his nakedness, by pure grace, and had the consequences of a curse applied for quite some time, but the worst curse would come upon the one who seduced him whose head would be crushed by the seed of the woman. And the punishment was too severe? What’s wrong with you people? I’m serious. This is what’s wrong with the Christian church today. We don’t know who God is and we don’t know who we are. The question is why wasn’t it infinitely more severe? If we have any understanding of our sin; any understanding of who God is, that’s the question, isn’t’ it?”
https://youtu.be/iP4A3C3E4Cs
Man has defied the God who created Him.
This is why God is angry and this is why man must be saved from Him.
Have we so quickly forgotten Romans 1?
Romans 1:18-21 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
Because of this we read 3 times in Romans that “God gave them over…”
To various sins and the just consequences of those sins.
If you follow that thought on through into the next chapter we find:
Romans 2:5-6 “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS:”
And on that note we would do good to
Remember the words of the writer of Hebrews who wrote:
Hebrews 10:30-31 “For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Man must be saved from God
Because man has offended God and He is angry.
But there is even another implied truth
That Peter gives us here in these last 4 words.
Certainly we understand the universal need of salvation. “we”
Certainly we understand how much salvation is needed “we must”
3) MAN IS HELPLESS TO SAVE HIMSELF
Peter said “we must BE SAVED”
That is not an active verb that is a passive verb.
Man is not commanded to save himself,
But is instead instructed that he needs someone to save him.
This past week I spent some time reading the 78th Psalm.
• I’ve always called it “Israel’s sin Hall of Fame”
• It is certainly a record of the continual and repeated failures and rebellions of Israel.
We don’t have time to go read it all,
But I can quickly give you the sense of it.
Psalms 78:17 “Yet they still continued to sin against Him, To rebel against the Most High in the desert.”
Psalms 78:21-22 “Therefore the LORD heard and was full of wrath; And a fire was kindled against Jacob And anger also mounted against Israel, Because they did not believe in God And did not trust in His salvation.”
Psalms 78:32 “In spite of all this they still sinned And did not believe in His wonderful works.”
Psalms 78:34-37 “When He killed them, then they sought Him, And returned and searched diligently for God; And they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their Redeemer. But they deceived Him with their mouth And lied to Him with their tongue. For their heart was not steadfast toward Him, Nor were they faithful in His covenant.”
Psalms 78:40-41 “How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness And grieved Him in the desert! Again and again they tempted God, And pained the Holy One of Israel.”
And that isn’t close to all of them.
And for years I saw this as a Psalm of ISRAEL’S STUBBORNNESS.
What is really is, is a Psalm of ISRAEL’S WEAKNESS.
They didn’t ever do right because they couldn’t ever do right.
That is why Psalm 78 ends with the promise of God choosing Judah.
Psalms 78:68-69 “But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which He loved. And He built His sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which He has founded forever.”
This is the prophetic picture of choosing Jesus…why?
To be the Savior of all those who could not save themselves.
AND AGAIN THIS IS IMPORTANT.
• We have talked a lot about the sovereignty of God throughout this study,
• And most of you are well aware that the great argument against these doctrines is the common argument of man’s “FREE WILL”
Let me again explain free will to you.
Reformed theology does not deny that man has FREE WILL.
• Obviously man has freedom to choose.
• Man makes choices all of the time according to what he wants.
• He chooses according to the inclination of his nature.
So we definitely say man is VOLITIONALLY FREE
To choose whatever he wants.
The problem is that MAN IS NOT MORALLY FREE to choose what he should.
• He is bound in sin.
• He is held captive to sin.
• And because of that, he cannot choose what is right.
• He is a captive to his own sinful nature and in need of divine regeneration.
That was the problem with Israel.
It wasn’t a knowledge problem, it was a heart problem.
They couldn’t do right.
This is why God promised the New Covenant in which He would change their heart and write the Law on their heart.
AND THIS IS MAN.
He cannot save himself.
He is like a man drowning in the river and your solution is to yell at him and say, “Hey get yourself out of there!”
He can’t. He needs to “be saved”
And He needs to be saved from God’s wrath.
Now, that is just the foundational backdrop to salvation.
We still haven’t answered the question yet.
After seeing that man needs to be saved WE UNDERSTAND THAT JESUS DID THAT.
• He lived that righteous life.
• He died that atoning death to save us from God’s wrath.
Jesus is in fact a savior exactly like what we need.
Our question was, IS HE THE ONLY ONE?
I mean
• This Jesus is going to ask us to deny ourselves.
• This Jesus is going to require us to repent of our sin.
• This Jesus is going to require us to take up our cross.
Those are steep conditions.
So, before I run to this Jesus for the salvation I need,
I want to know if there are any other options.
(That’s the world’s thinking)
Peter is answering that question here.
First we saw the Necessity of Salvation
#2 THE NARROWNESS OF SALVATION
Acts 4:12
Well there is you answer about as clearly as it can be given.
“And there is salvation is no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men”
• No one else ever lived a life which satisfied the righteous requirements of God.
• No one else ever died an atoning death fully bearing God’s wrath.
Well how do we know that Jesus actually did those things?
Acts 4:10 “let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead — by this name this man stands here before you in good health.”
Because God raised Jesus from the dead.
Acts 2:32 “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.”
Listen to Paul again in Athens:
Acts 17:30-31 “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
• Only Jesus was raised by the Father.
• Only Jesus satisfied His righteous requirement.
• Only Jesus satisfied His terrible wrath.
And no one else ever did that.
That means He is the only Savior.
Peter even gives another important criteria:
“for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men”
Jesus “has been given”
This indicates that only Jesus
Was first given to us by the Father
He was not a Savior of our own election.
He is not a Savior of our own pleasing.
HE IS A SAVIOR WHO IS PRE-APPROVED BY THE FATHER.
And since it is the Father whom we must appease,
Then certainly we must run to the Savior who comes from Him.
And this was a point Jesus routinely made:
John 5:36-37 “But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish — the very works that I do — testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me. “And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form.”
John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”
John 6:57 “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.”
John 8:16 “But even if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me.”
John 8:42 “Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.”
John 12:49 “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.”
The implication here would be.
• That man who is drowning in the river in need of someone to save him.
• God throws that man a life preserver, but the man rejects it in favor another
option.
But there is no other option.
If salvation is to occur, it will only occur
Through the One whom the Father gave.
No one else ever provided salvation.
And I realize that for a SUNDAY NIGHT CROWD
This is probably obvious to most of you.
Jesus did for us what no one else could do for us.
This not only makes Him a Savior, but the only Savior.
What I also hope you gained tonight however
Is a clarity of the gospel which we must preach.
I think the church is terribly distorting the gospel when we say things like:
• “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”
• “God isn’t angry, He just wants you to have the abundant life.”
• “I just want you to accept Jesus so He can fix your life”
And put in there any other of the common clichés we hear today.
The reality of the gospel is this.
• God created man in His own image.
• Man then rebelled against the Creator thus incurring His wrath (see the flood)
• In order to be reconciled to God, God in His mercy sent a Savior to deliver sinful man.
• God then commanded men to submit to this Savior that they might be forgiven of their rebellion against Him.
The gospel isn’t an optional message
The gospel isn’t a recommended message.
It is a command
And it is absolutely exclusive for there is salvation found nowhere else.
You must be born again, You must be saved
And Jesus is the Only Savior who can accomplish it.
