Acts 4 Explained: The Only Name That Can Save You

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, let's go right back to where we left off again last program, and that was in Acts chapter 4. We were at verse 11. And again, we'd just like to welcome all our television viewers to our program, to our class, and nothing we like better than to hear you say that you just sit down in the living room, you get your Bibles, and you chase down these references with us. Because I have said so often, and I'll say it again, I don't want you to rest on what I say, but rest on what the book says. I'll never forget one of the first teaching experiences I had, and that goes back a long, long time. And our pastor was aware of a couple coming into our church who were married, and both from diverse church backgrounds, and they were having marital problems over it. And so he asked if I would just go out one night a week and teach those two. They were the same age as I was, I was going to say two kids, and I guess that's what I was. But anyhow, he asked if I'd go out and teach that couple from the book. Boy, I'll tell you what, what a learning experience. Because you see, the first opposition I got from the lady was, Well now Les, we've always been taught that it isn't the Bible that is the authority, it's our church. Now how are you going to overcome that? And so it took a lot of patience, and then of course her husband was from a totally different view. And between the two of them, and myself and the work of the Holy Spirit, over a period of about four, five, six months, we finally got them squared away. They both came to know the Lord, and to this day they're both active up there in a local church. Their kids are all believers, and every time I go up and see that family, I think, well now I had a little part in that. But it was such a learning experience for me, because you see, you do have that mentality. Well now, we can't go by what you tell us, we can't go by what you say the book says, we have to go by what our church says. And there are a lot of groups that do that. In fact, I had a lady in one of my classes just a couple years ago, who had come back from her denominations convention. And she said, Les, I just want you to read the first paragraph. She said, this is shocking. Well I read the first paragraph, and in so many words what it said is, don't you try to interpret Scripture on your own. You wait until you hear it from behind the pulpit. Now you see, that's where people are getting led down a primrose path. Some pulpits are alright, but there are a lot of them that aren't. So we have to get to the place where we can discern the Scriptures. I don't want people to just say, well that's what Les said. I want people to be able to see where I've shown what the Scripture says, and then come back on their own and say, well yeah, this is what it says. That's my only reason for teaching. I think all of you know that I don't build an organization. I'm never in it for money. I don't take offerings. And the only money we take in for television goes to buy TV time. I do this only because I think people have to get back into the Book. Now then in Acts chapter 4 verse 11. Peter is continuing his message to the leaders of Israel, the religious leaders. And then he comes to this verse. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, who is become the head of the corner. Now there's an interesting, I guess it's a legend, it's certainly not in Scripture, but it is certainly applicable, that back when they were building Solomon's temple, and you remember the unique thing of the building of Solomon's temple, there was never a hammer sound at the site. It was all done out at the quarries. Every stone was so perfectly pre-cut that they could just set it in place and everything was quiet. But according to legend, the chief corner stone, now you want to remember in the ancient architecture, especially of arches, the final stone that goes in is the one at the center of the top of the arch. And all the rest of the arch rests against that one. So that becomes the chief stone. Now the legend has it that this chief stone had come to the builders, and in their confusion they couldn't find a place for it. And so not knowing what else to do with it, they just drug it out in a vacant lot, whereupon the weeds grew up around it, and there it laid. But every time someone would go through that vacant lot to take a shortcut, what would they do? They'd stumble over that stone. Now I could say that's a legend, but the story is so apropos, because this is the analogy that Peter is using. Israel was the builder of God's Kingdom, and their Christ was to be the Messiah of it, the chief corner stone which would hold it all together. But Israel rejected it, and like the builders, threw it out in a vacant lot. And what has Christ become to the nation of Israel ever since? A stone of stumbling. A stone of stumbling. Now like I said, I could just almost teach for an hour on just the Scripture verses that deal with this aspect. Over and over, beginning way back in the Psalms, Israel is warned that their chief corner stone would be rejected, and would be laid aside, but He would become their stone of stumbling. Now then, I'll have to come into verse 12, because again there is so much, what shall I say, departing I think from the truth of Scripture, that people can be saved outside of faith in the Gospel of Christ. And this is dangerous. There is no such thing according to Scripture. Now I know it's a narrow concept, but it's a narrow book. And I remember talking to a man of a group whose particular group was vast in numbers, and he was convinced that his was the only group that had salvation. And I said, now wait a minute, Jimmy. I said, I've got a Scripture verse that proves you wrong. And he looked at me and said, show me. So I went in the house, and we had a lot of discussions back in those years, and that goes back a long ways too. And so we sat down and looked up the verse in Matthew where Jesus said, wide is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many that go in thereat. But narrow is the way that leadeth to eternal life, or whatever, and what? And few there be that find it. Now listen, this is a fact of Scripture. It's a fact of the whole human race. God has always had only a remnant, even in Israel, the covenant people. How many Jews were true believers? Just a small remnant. And today we're living in a time when, oh, there may be a lot of talk about this, and there may be a lot of preaching, but how many are genuine believers today? Well, it's getting fewer every week because we've got so much false teaching coming in on us, and people are flocking for that. They'll always flock for the false before they will the truth. And so Peter says so clearly here now then in verse 12, and don't lose sight of it, because this still spills over into our Gospel, absolutely there is no other name under heaven. But starting at the beginning, neither is there salvation than any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Now there's a lot of good, sincere folk who are following a cult leader, who are following a Buddha, or a Muhammad, or whatever. But listen, this verse is narrow. This verse brings it right down that there is only one way. For the Jew at this particular time that Peter is dealing with, they had to recognize that Jesus was the Christ, and only Jesus. Now you see it's amazing that the Jews of our present day, for the most part, the Orthodox especially, they refuse to admit that Jews ever followed Christ. But we know that thousands of them did early on. Archeology is proving it, that there were a lot of Jews who had embraced Christ as their Messiah and Redeemer. But granted, the vast majority of course rejected it, and as I've said so often before, they let the ball drop, and God went to the Gentile without them. But we're not there yet. We're still dealing with the covenant people. And so now continuing on in verse 13, when these magistrates and these religious leaders saw that these were unlearned, verse 13, and ignorant men, in other words, they weren't taught by the rabbis, they hadn't been in any seminary, the only thing they'd had was the presence of Christ for three years, but they marveled, and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. And then verse 14, and beholding the man which was healed standing with them, proof positive, proof positive, that they had a power that those religious leaders couldn't touch. They couldn't do it. And so beholding the man who was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. But when they had commanded, verse 15, them to go aside of the council and conferred among themselves, they said, what shall we do to these men? For that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them as manifest to all that dwell in Jerusalem, we can't deny it, but that it spread no further. You see how Satan uses religious people to stop the truth, and it hasn't changed. I always remind people of history. Human history is abounding with wars that were fought over religion. War after war after war on religion, and it's not much different tonight. Yugoslavia, when it gets down to the nuts and bolts, what is it? It's religion. The Middle East, what is the basic controversy? They're religions, and so it hasn't changed. And so religious people will often be instruments of Satan to hold back the truth of God. And that's what they're doing here. Oh, they were religious. They were sincere. They really thought they were keeping the law, and to the best of their ability they were. But when we get to the book of Romans, we'll see how futile that is, that human beings can't keep the law. Human beings cannot attain unto God's righteousness aside from having it imputed. And so we come on down through the account here, and finally verse 18, "...they called them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus." Now it would have been real easy for Peter and John and the others to just agree and say, well, all right, we'll go back to our fishing. We'll just mind our own business. See, that's what a lot of Christians do even today. It's so easy to just give up and say, well, all right, let them have their way. But that's not God's will for any of us. Now Jude says that we are to contend for the faith. Now we're not to be contentious for contention's sake, but we are to contend or stand up for the truth of the Word of God, and God give us grace to do so. All right, now then verse 19, "...but Peter and John answered and said unto them, whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than to God, you judge. 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, the healing of that lame man." And now we find Him again in verse 22, "...for the man was above," or over, and there's that number. How old? Forty. Again, what did this man's lifespan indicate? Oh, a time of testing. A time of testing again, and Israel is on trial here, and Israel is going to be on trial until we come to the end of the book of Acts. But God is not going to wait all the way to the end of their 40 years to start calling out a people for His name, as we're going to see in Acts chapter 15. Now those of you who have watched the tapes of past programs, way, way back two or three years ago, we digressed a little bit from the book of Genesis, and we went to Acts 15, and we've had such a response to that tape. I think it's number 6, isn't it, honey? And James in Acts 15 recognized that Paul indeed had a ministry among the Gentiles, that Peter and the eleven knew nothing of. And so he made that classic statement, that yes, God is going to call out of the Gentiles a people for His name. And that's what He's been doing now for 1900 and some years, whereas Israel has been blinded, and now of course we see the stirring of the nation and preparing them for God to pick up where He left off. All right, now come back to the text then. Verse 20, "...for we cannot," Peter says, "...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 the man was above 40. All right, now come down to verse 23. "...and being let go, they went to their own company," back to that group of believing Jews in Jerusalem. Now I'm going to make a statement only to make you and our television audience search the Scriptures. Now I read a lot of good men, the famous authors that you are all aware of, and over and over I'll see these men refer to these Jewish believers as Christians. Now, I'm going to give you something to look for. You find in your Bible that the Word of God does. Does the Word of God ever refer to these Jewish believers who are primarily centered around Jerusalem? Does it ever call them Christians? Well, no it doesn't, but if you can find it, I'll admit that I'm wrong and you're right. But the Word never refers to these Jewish believers as Christians. Acts 15? No. Acts 11. Acts 11 says that the Gentile believers up there at Antioch they were first called Christians. That's what the Book says. But see, the best of theologians are constantly ignoring that statement and they go back and call these Jewish believers Christians, and I refuse to do so. They were Jewish believers under the covenant promises, the same as John the Baptist's followers, the same as those who came under Christ's ministry, those that were saved on Pentecost, and all the rest of the way thus far. And you can't call a person a Christian who has not been saved according to the Gospel of the grace of God that Christ died for our sins, He rose from the dead, and He has ascended. What a difference. But you see how they mix mash it, even the best of men. All right, now let's go on. Verse 24. So when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, That's Psalms chapter 2. The kings of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ. Now you see how that involved Jew and Gentile? Psalms 2 says the same thing. Now do you see how Peter is coming over now to bring them together? It isn't just Israel. The whole human race is guilty. And the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy consul determined before to be done. Now you remember we looked up in Acts chapter 2. Go back there with me a minute. Verse 23. Acts chapter 2, verse 23. Oh, another verse that just sort of buried in there, and most people never see it. Most people never see it. But here it is. Acts 2, verse 23. Was God caught by surprise? No. Did anything happen that God didn't foreordain? No. It was all in His eternal purpose. In fact, let's look that up. Eternal purpose. Yes, He came to be Israel's king. Now go with me to Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 1. Now I'm in Philippians. No wonder I can't find it. Ephesians chapter 1. Drop down to verse 11. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 11. Now the apostle Paul is writing. After all these further revelations. And here it comes. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. Now did you catch the word purpose in there? According to His purpose. All right, now flip over a little further to Timothy. And let's see what that purpose that Paul is referring to really boils down to. Second Timothy, chapter 1. And again drop down to verse 9. And Paul is writing to a fellow believer, a Gentile by the name of Timothy. Though he's just as well be writing to us. Look what he says in verse 9. God, verse 8, hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works. In other words, our merit doesn't mean a thing. He didn't call us as people who have earned something. But the call goes out to every son of Adam. And so He has not called us according to our works, but according to His own purpose. If you're a child of God tonight, you know why you're a child of God? Because it was in the purpose of God. You were saved for a purpose. You were saved for a reason. Every one of us were. And this is what we have to understand, that we were already in the mind of God before He ever created Adam. And so we have a distinct purpose. My, I've had so many people, there's a couple sitting right here, who in God's divine, sovereign way brought them halfway across this country, plunked them down in a little town where they never would have dreamed of living. He's going to start smiling here in a minute. The only reason he came to my class, he and his wife, he was running for mayor. And when he heard that there was usually 40, 50 people meeting over there every Tuesday night, he got the idea that it'd be a good place to go and gain some votes. And that was the only reason, he'll tell you. And he's not embarrassed to tell everybody. That's the only reason they came. But you see, God had more than just a run for mayor on His mind. God had two people. And they've shared it with me over and over to think that He brought them clear from Phoenix, Arizona to a little town in Oklahoma, so that they'd hear the gospel, right? Now that's the eternal purpose of God, see? And I imagine almost all of us can look back and see how God meticulously just brought us along and got us to where He could get a hold of us. Got another gentleman, he wouldn't mind either. My, he came to my class for three years, ungodly as they come. And he'll tell you he was. Ungodly, but yet he kept coming. And finally, finally, he said, Les, we've got to talk. And he came up the house one night, and we just took him through the Roman road and led him to the Lord. And what a change, what a change in his life. And he'll tell anybody that that's where it all began, when he finally came. And then one night I was teaching that Martin Luther again had made the statement that the work of the Holy Spirit is the hound of heaven. Now, you know, I said something rather unkind about Martin Luther earlier, but on the other hand, the man had some good things. And that was a good analogy. Those of you who know anything about coon hounds and beetle hounds, beagle hounds, my, they don't give up until they finally get their quarry. And so he used that analogy, that the Holy Spirit is the hound of heaven. And then I went back and I used in Psalms where David says, "...my heart paneth after thee, O Lord, like a heart or a deer paneth after a bubbling brook." And he came up after and he says, you know, that's me. He said, I was doing everything but what God wanted me to do. And he says, he never gave up. Finally he latched on to me, and now he said, I can't get enough. He said, the last thing I do before I fall asleep at night is study this book. Imagine, the most ungodly man in the community. But that's how it works, and that's why we teach, see. All right, so now then come back to Acts for just a little bit. Our time is nearly gone again. And so they've now rehearsed with their fellow believers all that had taken place. And verse 31 now of Acts 4, "...so when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spake the word of God with boldness." Absolutely. Now verse 32 to the end of the chapter. And this is going to finish this lesson. I probably haven't got time to comment on it verse by verse, but read it carefully, word by word. And you tell me, is this the local church that you and I are acquainted with? You know, I made a statement in last taping that if you found the perfect church that was like this church in Acts chapter 2 and 3, tell me where it is and I'll go join it. And somebody told me afterward, don't you do it, Les, because that'd spoil it. And that's so true, you see. If there was a perfect church out there and you or I would go and join it, it would no longer be that good, because there is no perfect church. But look at this one. Oh, look at this one. And if your church measures up with this, then I'll say, yeah, I'm wrong. But I don't think it does. Verse 32, "...the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul." In other words, no argument. "...Neither did they say anything that they owned belonged to him, but they had all things common." You know what that is? That is pure biblical communism. They sold what they had and they put it all in a common kitty. And then they parceled it out as they had need. You find a church that does that today and then I'll tell you, well, maybe I'm wrong. But they don't. This isn't church language. You know better than that. All right? "...And so with great power had the apostles witnessed of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus." Yeah, that He was still alive. He was still able to be their King. Verse 34, "...Neither was there any among them that lacked for as many as were possessors of lands and houses, sold them, and brought the prices of the things which they sold, and laid them down at whose feet?" Not the pastor and the deacons. Who? The apostles. See? The apostles' feet. And even, verse 36, "...Jose, who by the apostles of a surname Barnabas, being interpreted as son of consolation, having land clear out there in the Mediterranean on the island of Cyprus, he sold it, brought the money, and laid it where? At the apostles' feet." Now, is that church language? Not as I understand church language. This isn't what we're expected to do. I've never had a pastor ask me to sell my land and cattle and bring it to his church, and neither have you. What? Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer -supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.