Acts chapter 4. We're going to read the first 31 verses. The word of the Lord at Acts four, verse one. And as they speak unto the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, being grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day, for it was now eventide. Howbeit, many of them which heard the word believed. And the number of the men was about five thousand. And it came to pass on the morrow that the rulers, and elders, and scribes, and Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, by what power or by what name have ye done this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole, be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him, doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which has become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled, and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, saying, What shall we do to these men? For that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But that it spread no further among the people, let us straightly threaten them that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them because of the people. For all men glorified God for that which was done. For the man was above 40 years old on whom this miracle of healing was showed. And being let go, they went to their own company and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is, who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, why did the heathen rage? And the people imagined vain things. The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word by stretching forth thine hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. We read thus far in sacred scripture. Our text this afternoon is Lord's Day 11 of the Heidelberg Catechism. Lord's Day 11, why is the Son of God called Jesus, that is, a Savior? Because he saveth us and delivereth us from our sins. And likewise, because we ought not to seek, neither can find salvation in any other. Do such then believe in Jesus, the only Savior, who seek their salvation and welfare of saints, of themselves, or anywhere else? They do not. For though they boast of him in words, yet in deeds they deny Jesus, the only Deliverer and Savior. For one of these two things must be true, either that Jesus is not a complete Savior, or that they who by a true faith receive the Savior must find all things in him necessary to their salvation. Recognize the postmodernism in your heart today. I remind you that postmodernism claims that there is no such thing as truth, with a capital T, absolute truth, things that are always true no matter what, especially as regards morals. Postmodernism wants everyone to be able to decide things for themselves. It doesn't like when Christians make sweeping statements to the effect that such and such behavior is always wrong, no matter who you are or no matter where you are. Truth is supposedly relative, so thinks the postmodernist. And that thinking, has affected every one of us. We want, to varying degrees, the postmodern approach. Some of us are stronger in faith in this area and are more equipped to battle these tendencies. Others have more of a weakness in this. But every one of us has that desire in our hearts. to adopt this sort of mentality, to shrink back from the teachings of the Scriptures, and especially from the one that we consider this afternoon on the basis of Lord's Day 11, that Jesus is the only Savior, that there is no salvation apart from Him. That seems so mean. That seems so hard to accept. That seems like such a hateful thing to say to somebody else. We need to battle those thoughts as they arise in our own hearts. The reality is twofold. On the one hand, that this is necessary. Saying that Jesus is the only Savior is necessary if we are to put out a loving message. The only way to express love to one who does not put their trust in Jesus is to show them that there is no other way. No matter what the world tries to tell us, no matter what the world tries to tell itself, this is the loving thing to do. But then, additionally, taking the time to think this through, really think it through, we realize that this is not just a hard pill to swallow. It's an eminently comforting thing to know that there is salvation in no other. Jesus gave himself to the end for all of his own people so that every one of them might be saved to the uttermost. It's an amazing thing. And so consider the language That's given in the Belgic Confession to express the same truth that we find in Lord's Day 11. The Belgic Confession in Article 21, which says this in part. Wherefore, we justly say with the Apostle Paul that we know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. We count all things but loss and dung. for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, in whose wounds we find all manner of consolation or comfort. Neither is it necessary to seek or invent any other means of being reconciled to God than this only sacrifice, once offered, by which believers are made perfect forever. This is also the reason why he was called by the angel of God, Jesus. That is to say, Savior, because He would save His people from their sins. With that by way of introduction, I call your attention to Lord's Day 11 under the theme, Confessing Jesus, the Only Savior. First, we'll look at the salvation, then the Savior who grants it, and finally, the confession. Salvation. That is an enormous concept. Absolutely enormous. The whole of what we call the Ordo Salutis, which means order of salvation, the whole of that, everything that fits into it, is all bound up in that one concept, salvation. And when you start to think about what the Ordo Salutis contains, you start to realize how big salvation really is. One common way of presenting the order of salvation is to say this, regeneration, calling, faith, justification, adoption, sanctification, preservation, glorification, all of those things and more are part of this. One or more sermons. on every one of those elements would be legitimate and, in fact, needed. And then you factor in that there are certain theologians who would incorporate other things into the order of salvation. It's an enormous concept. And we see that all the more when we remember that you can talk about salvation from a variety of different viewpoints. You can talk about it from the angle of the individual being saved, or from the angle of the whole body of the Church of Jesus Christ being saved. You can talk about it from the angle of God's decree. or from the angle of its realization in the cross of Jesus Christ, or from the angle of its realization in our own lives, our own lifetimes, or even from the angle of its ultimate realization, final realization, at the end of days when Christ returns. All of this, and more, is bound up in that word salvation. And it's bound up in that concept of salvation as we see it in Acts chapter 4 and as it appears in Lord's Day 11. So what is it? Considering everything we've just been saying. If we had to nail down a specific definition, apply a definition to that entire concept of salvation, how would we go about doing that? How do we define what that is? We might define it this way. Salvation is God's gracious work in Jesus Christ to rescue his people from the greatest evil and give to them highest good. The gracious work of God in Jesus Christ to rescue His people from greatest evil and give to them highest good. Notice a few things about that with me then, about that salvation. In the first place, salvation is from something and unto something. It has both of those aspects. It is from sin and the spiritual effects and the spiritual consequences of sin unto life with God. So that salvation presupposes the fall and it presupposes original sin so that every single person is under this and is in need of saving. Original sin with its guilt and its corruption. Only a sinner is in need of saving, so that Jesus could rightly say that He came to this world not to call the righteous, who feel as though they have no need of saving, but to call sinners and call them to repentance. Such salvation then also presupposes the spiritual consequences of that sin. These things are a reality. They are the true fruit of sin in men's lives so that we truly do need deliverance from these things. They are not an empty threat. The greatest evil from which we are rescued is not only sin, but then we can say also the guilt of sin and the hell unto which we are liable. Secondly, we can say that this salvation is tied to election. This is not something that is available to all men. Election is presupposed by salvation because it is part of God's saving of us. That's evident from a passage like Romans 8 in the well-known verses 29 and 30, which is a passage that really is sort of an abbreviated order of salvation. Romans 8, 29 and 30 says this, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called whom he called he justified whom he justified he glorified it's a shortened version of the order of salvation and it features very prominently that god predestinated those who are saved unto all the elements of that salvation Third, we can say that this salvation is a covenantal matter. It is a covenantal salvation. It is, we just defined it as, being rescued from the greatest evil and given, receiving from God, the greatest good. And what is that greatest good but covenantal life? Life with God as our friend and as the friends of God. Now, already in this life, and forever. to all eternity. For God to save us is for Him to make us His own people, those with whom He is friends. And that again comes out in Romans 8, 29 and 30, because it begins by saying, whom He foreknew he predestinated. And foreknew, might very well be translated, foreloved, whom he loved beforehand with that friendship, that knowledge of love. He had a relationship with these people. It's covenantal. And then that little order of salvation in Romans 8, 29, and 30 ends by saying, whom God justified, them he also glorified. He brings them home to be with himself so that he might fellowship with them all the more directly. Salvation is covenantal. And then finally, this greatest good is given. Put that this way as well. Salvation is gracious. We defined it as God's gracious work, and in the end we said it's rescue from the greatest evil unto the highest good, God giving us the highest good. It's not something that we go out and obtain by our own efforts. More on that a bit later in the sermon. The evidence for that would be verse 12 of Acts chapter 4. That central verse in this passage, neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Be saved. We do not go out and save ourselves. That was not what Peter told the people. He said there is no name besides the name of Jesus whereby we are saved. To further explain that, the focus is rescue from sin, but even there we can go into greater detail and we can divide that up and understand that sin has both of those ideas of guilt and power. Rescue from the guilt of sin and rescue from the power of sin, both. Sin's guilt hangs over us, and it is on our own account. It makes us liable to payment. Of course, that payment is hell. Salvation, though, means having rescue from that guilty conscience, exactly because salvation is a rescue from the guilt that results in that guilty conscience. Salvation is the paying of that debt of guilt. And then since power, since power is the lasting effect that sin has on us, its grip, its corrupting influence, being in bondage to sin so that all we can do is sin and will not serve God. Salvation. also includes being released from that bondage, so that the chains fall off and we're set free, no longer under the power of sin, but under the power of God, so that we might not serve sin, but might serve our God. We have a fitting picture for all of this, for this great salvation, in the chapter that we read, Acts 4. And the picture is of being made whole. Understand the context of Acts chapter 4. Acts 3, I meant to say this before we read the chapter and forgot. Acts 3 details the healing of a lame man. We read about this man in chapter 3, verse 2, this. And a certain man, lame from his mother's womb, was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple. That man, Peter, then heals, a man lame from the womb of his mother. From the time that he was born throughout the entirety of his life, he was lame. And we learn in chapter four, which we read, verse 22, the man was above 40 years old on whom this miracle of healing was showed for 40 plus years. This man was lame, unable to walk. And we read that Peter heals the man, so that, chapter 4, verse 14, the man which was healed was standing with them. And more than that, back in chapter 3, we read in verse 8, he leaping up stood and walked and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. This man who for 40 plus years, his entire life, could not walk, now stands, walks, and leaps around and praises God for his deliverance. His body was not whole prior to his healing. it lacked a significant ability. This man was lame and helpless. He could not stand. He could not walk. What a wonderful miracle, then, that this man is given strength so that he can do those things. He can stand. He can walk. He can leap following the healing. And about that, Peter says this. Now, in chapter 4, Verses 9 and 10. If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man by what means he is made whole, be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom he crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. In verse 9, when Peter says that the man was made whole, the word is actually saved. He was saved in the sense of being saved from his infirmity, physically speaking, but naturally The point is also that he is saved spiritually. The man was saved, verse 9, saved from his affliction. And then verse 10, it's a different word, where we have Peter saying, he stands before you whole. This time, it means what we would think by the word whole, sound, complete. So that we might say, Peter is saying there, he's been made complete again. He's been restored. as the fruit of having been saved, healed, restored. That corresponds well to this whole concept of salvation and illustrates it in a very beautiful and helpful way. Deliverance from the two aspects of sin, its guilt and its power, both of them, so that our conscience is freed, freed of the guilt, but then also our body, our mind, our will, that too is set free so that we are no longer in bondage to the power of sin either. So we're made whole. We are complete. We are sound, because all of us, every part of us, has been rescued from sin. Not just the guilty conscience, but the mind, the body, the soul, every part of us. Before, in the state of sin, we were, we could say, fractured. We were incomplete, lacking some very important thing. And God now makes us to be whole. Prior to that, we were not whole. We were not, from a certain point of view, what God made us to be. We were like the impotent man, lame, unable even to stand, let alone walk and leap. But now we're restored, completed, made to be sound, given what we lacked, and God still now is in the process of remaking us, according to the image of his Son. So, everything that we have been saying regarding salvation fits with this. The whole of the Ordo Salutis is the work of God to make us whole. That whole That making of whole means that we are delivered from sin, from wrath, from hell, delivered from the greatest evil. And it means that we are given the highest good. We are given friendship with God. The whole of us and our whole salvation comes through this great Savior. So who is the Savior who grants this salvation, this making whole? His name is Jesus. There is disagreement regarding the origin of that name Jesus, but it's very likely that it is a coming together of the name for Jehovah and the word for salvation. He is Jehovah Salvation, which affirms that God saves His people. Only one God does that. There is only one God that saves human beings, and that God is Jehovah God. But then also, the fact that this is His name underscores something about Him, that He is Himself Jehovah. This is who He is, Jehovah Salvation, the Son of God, God of God. That is who we are discussing here. So that, as Lord's Day 11 says, He is called Jesus because He is Savior. That's what that means. That really is the heart of what it is for him to be Jesus. The heart of the meaning of the name Jesus is Savior. That name was given to him by God himself through the word of the angel. It was not a totally unique name. If you were to study this, you would find very quickly that there are many people who lived in the time of Jesus who had that same name. It was not uncommon. And even in the scriptures, there are other people named Jesus or who have names that are built off the name Jesus. There are numerous examples. So his name wasn't unique, but his naming was unique. This was not just a matter of Mary and Joseph deciding that they liked the sound of that name, nor was it a matter of, this is a family name, and so let's give it to this new child. No, God himself decreed that this would be the name of his son made flesh. And he did so for a very particular reason. It's because this is who he is. He is the Jesus. That name is true of him in a special way. That name functions as his identifier in a very different way than your name or my name functions as our identifier, just to set us apart from others. When you read typical literature, an average book, the names that are given to the characters are Sometimes there's a little bit of deeper meaning, but in large part, they're only there to identify different individuals so that you don't get confused as you read. Of course, that's not true in this situation. It is not as though there is this man named Andrew, and he's a disciple, and there's this man named Nicodemus, and he happened to come to this other person at night, and the one who taught both of them, well, that one was Jesus. No. Jesus is who he is as Jesus. He is the saving one. He is the Savior. That name genuinely speaks to His own identity and to His own work. He's called it because He is the Saving One. And here, remember what we read from the Belgic Confession. At the end of Article 21, this is also the reason why he was called by the angel of God, Jesus. That is to say, Savior, because he would save his people from their sins. He saves from our sins all the guilt of sin, all the power of sin, all of salvation as we saw it before. All of it consists in Jesus, the whole of the Ordo Salutis, the order of salvation, rescue from evil, being given the highest good. All of these things, all of them bring us right back to Jesus and to that name, Savior. That's who he is. Did you notice, as we read Acts 4, all of the references to the name of Jesus, whether just that actual name, Jesus, or the reference to the name, or both at the same time. There are numerous such references. Verse 10, be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the man was healed. Those are also the words that Peter uses when he heals him in chapter 3, verse 6. And then chapter 4, verse 12, under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Verses 17 and 18, they threaten them not to speak in this name. Verse 30, by stretching forth thine hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. The name, the great name of Jesus, the greatest name, the powerful name, powerful even to save. Exactly because he is. The Jesus, he is the savior. And don't miss. That he is the. Savior. He is the Jesus. There is none other. There are no other Jesuses in this real sense of the name. He is called Jesus because that's who he is. He saves, no one else does. The catechism calls him the only Savior, and it does so on the basis of the Scriptures. We just read Matthew 1.21, because it's quoted at the end of that Belgic article, Belgic 21. Call His name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins. Similarly to Acts 4, verse 12, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." That's offensive. That's offensive. He's not just one among many. He is the only Savior. There's evidence of the offense that that causes in this very chapter. In verse 2, reflecting on the message that Peter had been preaching and the healing that Peter had done. This is what we read, verse two, being grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. Not just that they preached the resurrection, although they probably wouldn't have been happy about that either, but that they preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. Then we have 17 and 18. But that it spread no further among the people, let us straightly threaten them that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. And then, verses 26 and 27, they reflect on this in their own prayer. And they say, The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to kill him. They hated the name of Jesus because He was presented as the only Jesus. He is not one among many. He is the Savior. That was a message that evoked hatred. And still today, that message evokes hatred. But that doesn't change the fact that it's true. So what are some implications that arise out of these things? One would be exactly what we read in Question and Answer 30 of the Heidelberg Catechism, that to seek our welfare or salvation in any other person or thing is unbelief. If Jesus is the alone Savior, then he refuses to share that work with anyone. In fact, he can't share it. If he did, he would no longer be the Savior. Only he can rescue from the greatest evil. Only he can bestow the highest good. Verse day 11 says that all things, all things necessary to salvation are found only in Him. The only alternative to that is to say that He's not enough, that He is insufficient. And there too, take heed to the words of the Belgic Confession in Article 22, where we confess this. I can find the reference. The word is, faith is only an instrument with which we embrace Christ our righteousness. I'm not finding what I intended to read, but the point here is that the Belgic states, to trust in anything besides Jesus would be too gross a blasphemy. There is no higher blasphemy than to say that Jesus is but half a Savior. Specifically, then, there are other implications as well. When people try to find their salvation and their welfare in another or in others besides Him, the reality is that that is a denial. of Jesus, even if they say good things about the name of Jesus, even if they say good things about the person of Jesus. And we can trace down through church history, down through the ages, all sorts of controversies regarding Jesus. and regarding his person, and regarding his work, and regarding his identity as the only Savior. Through the ages, that truth has constantly been attacked. In the early centuries, there were denials of Jesus' full deity, which would necessarily mean that he could not be the full, complete Savior. In the Middle Ages, leading up to the Reformation, and in fact, in the hundreds of years since, the Roman Catholic Church, with its semi-Pelagianism, works righteousness, and even teaching that Mary and other saints are another option to whom we might go for getting what only Christ can actually give. And, of course, that's what the Lord's Day has its eye on, in particular, because it's a Reformation-era creed. It's responding to Roman Catholicism. But it responds to so much more than that. In more recent years, In the later period of the Reformation, there is the era of Arminianism, with its idea that Jesus died for all, but then leaves it up to all people to decide whether or not they will be saved. So that in the end, Jesus is not the Savior for all whom he desires to save, and in fact, Even for us, He is not ultimately the Savior, because we are the ones, ultimately, who make the decision to be saved. And then, in our own denomination's history, at the origins of our denomination, there is the well-meant offer, with its idea that God and Christ truly want everybody who hears the preaching to be saved, and extend that possibility to everyone who hears, and leaves it up to them to accept or to reject. And then, in the more recent years yet, the federal vision with its teaching that trusting in Christ is not enough, and in the end, our good works play the decisive role. All of these and more are examples of making Jesus-to-be only half a Savior. And in the words of the Belgic, too gross a blasphemy. But we do need to be careful. We need to be careful in a couple of respects. On the one hand, because there are some people who are part of churches that officially hold to such doctrinal errors, but who do not themselves understand the implications of these things. In their heart of hearts, they may very well believe that Jesus alone saves. And they do not, in their heart of hearts, put their trust in themselves or in somebody else or something else, even if they have a wrong understanding on various doctrinal points. And we cannot ultimately judge the hearts. We need to be aware of that and recognize that reality. But we also need to be careful in that this is in us too. We need to recognize the unbelief in our own hearts. Because of the old man, we still have a works righteousness spirit in us, which sometimes comes out, so that we say that we put our trust in Jesus Christ alone. But, in fact, we also try to cling to other things, maybe to my praying enough, maybe to my repenting enough, maybe to my not being as bad as so-and-so who lives down the street. Maybe even by drowning ourselves in our work, being so busy as a mother or as a provider that we begin to think we've done so much, we start to put stock in how much we get done every day as something that must, it must somehow earn God's favor. You see how easily it can happen. And that, too, is unbelief. We need to recognize that, see it in our own hearts, and turn from it in humility. But the point of Lord's Day 11 especially is this, that there are many, many who do lip service to Jesus while, in fact, trusting in their works. And such people do not truly believe. so that we pray that they would come to genuine faith in the Lord Jesus. They still might. So we long for that. We don't know the decrees of election and reprobation. We don't know who is elect and who is not. We earnestly long for even those who have this misguided trust in self and works and others to come to genuine, wholehearted faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. because such people really are still in the greatest evil, and they are liable to the greatest punishment of hell itself, and they have not had the greatest good, the highest good bestowed upon them. We long for that for them, and we pray for it too, earnestly desiring that God would do that, would give them that highest good through his own Son, the only Savior, Jesus Christ. And that really brings us to the confession of this glorious truth. We confess Him in private life as the only Savior, and we confess Him in public life as the only Savior. Privately, that means that we seek no other, so that there is an implied calling here. When answer 29 says, that we ought not to seek, neither can find salvation in any other." There's an implied calling. Don't seek it elsewhere. You ought not. You may not. We may not do that. And so, insofar as we have been, the calling, the implied calling is, stop. Turn from that. Cease to put your trust in yourself and in your works. Of course, we recognize that that's unbelief, and as we just saw a moment ago, that every one of us has done it. And therefore, part of confessing Him in private life is also that we then turn to Him. We turn to Him as the only Savior. We repent of that unbelief that is in our hearts. As we see it, we cry out from the heart in confession so that the other part of the implied calling here is belief. put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, not in your works, but in the only Savior. And then, having confessed Him in private life, we also confess Him in public life. The apostles did that And they suffered greatly. Peter made that bold confession in verse 12. Jesus is the only Savior. That's what that is saying. And the result of their making that confession was threats from the foes of the gospel. And later, you keep reading through the following chapters, Further threats develop into active persecution, imprisonment, whippings, beatings, and so forth. And so, they prayed all the more for boldness. That's the last part of what we read in chapter four, that prayer to God that he would grant them boldness that they might continue to speak, even though saying that Jesus is the only Savior evokes hatred. And we need to expect the same. We need to expect threats. We need to expect opposition for confessing Him as the only Savior. That is an unpopular truth in our post-modern age. And so we, too, need to pray for boldness. And then we join that prayer to the prayer that they make at the end of verse 30, that signs and wonders may be done by the name of Thy holy Child, Jesus. We hope for wonders, especially for the wonder of salvation in all of its fullness, in the lives of others, so that they too would be made whole. And we pray for that. We pray for it in the name of God's holy child, Jesus, who is the only Savior. Amen. Father, may we take to heart what we have heard today. And may we with boldness speak of Jesus, thine own Son, the only Savior. And may we ourselves turn from every false savior and put our trust entirely in him. We pray in his name, amen. Let's sing psalter 387. 387, we'll sing the first stanza and then four through six.