The Resurrection - God's Declaration - Acts 5:29-32 - Martyn Lloyd Jones

Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him. Acts 5:29-32

In an attempt to discover the true nature of the Christian church and the Christian message, we have been looking at the speech made by Peter and the apostles to the Sanhedrin, and I should now like to consider with you the witness of the apostles to the resurrection.⁹

Perhaps the best way of approaching this whole matter is to take this passage in its context. The apostles were on trial, having been arrested for preaching the Gospel, and Peter was explaining why they must continue to preach. Why did they speak as they did? Their lives were in jeopardy because their adversaries had authority—they were the great Sanhedrin, the highest court in the land. Those leaders were well connected to King Herod, well connected to the Roman governor. And here were these simple apostles—fishermen, artisans, “unlearned and ignorant men” (Acts 4:13)—daring to defy them and refusing to keep silent.

The apostles said they had to speak because of the character and nature of their message, which concerned Jesus, who had been exalted by God to be “a Prince and a Saviour.” “We are his witnesses of these things,” they said. Moreover, they were filled with a new life, with a new courage. Their lives had been revolutionized. They were entirely different people, filled with a joy and a happiness and peace that nothing could remove from them. They had to witness to this change that God had brought about in their lives, and nothing could silence them.

And I think the apostles had to go on preaching because of something further—namely, that they were animated by their desire to be of help to their fellow men and women. They knew that there was power in this Gospel to transform others as it had transformed them. Their very love for the souls of men and women, their very pity for those who were ignorant of “these things,” impelled them to preach. They would defy any authority; they would die rather than refrain from preaching this glorious Gospel of the blessed God.

Those were the reasons for the apostles’ defiance of the Sanhedrin. We have already considered some of the things of which they were witnesses. They were witnesses of our Lord’s person and also of His incomparable teaching and His astonishing miracles for three years.

They were witnesses of His teaching concerning His death, how He had prophesied it and indicated its meaning, and they had seen Him dying, nailed upon a cross.

But now we go beyond this. These men had been completely shattered by our Lord’s death. As Jews, they had thought that He would deliver them in a political sense. They had pinned their hopes on Him, but He had been crucified in weakness, He had died and been buried. And the records show us that when this happened they had been completely disconsolate, utterly cast down. Never were men more hopeless than these apostles were after the death of our blessed Lord and Savior.

But then something had taken place that changed everything. What was it? It was Easter morning, the resurrection on the third day! Very early, even before daylight, some of the women had gone to the tomb with spices but had found it empty. They had come came rushing back with the news, but the disciples had not believed them.

Luke tells us that when the women came back and reported that He had risen, “their words seemed to them as idle tales” (Luke 24:11). The apostles thought the women were mad. Resurrection? Nonsense! Such things do not happen. But then they had become curious because the women seemed so certain. So Peter and John had run to the tomb together. John outran Peter and, peeping in, had seen the clothes. But he had not gone in. Peter, the more impulsive of the two, entered and saw the burial clothes lying in one place and the cloth for the head in another. And they had been filled with astonishment.

Then we read of our Lord’s appearances to these very men. On the first Sunday evening, He suddenly came among them. They were very afraid, but He said, “What are you frightened of? I am not a ghost. ‘A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have’” (Luke 24:39). Then He asked, “Have you anything to eat?” And when they produced some broiled fish and honey, he ate it in front of them. Ghosts do not do things like that!

In John’s Gospel, we read the story of Thomas—“doubting Thomas.” Like all the disciples, Thomas had not taken in our Lord’s teaching about His coming death and resurrection. The Gospels record with great frankness that they had never understood His teaching; they had their own ideas. That is the trouble with people who are sinners. As we have seen, they are prejudiced and blinded. Instead of listening to the teaching, they go on thinking their clever thoughts and miss the glory.

Now Thomas had not been with the disciples when our Lord appeared to them on that first Sunday night, and when they said to him, “We have seen the Lord,” he said, “I will not believe it unless I can put my fingers into the imprint of the nails and thrust my hand into His side.”

A week later Jesus again appeared among the disciples, and He looked at Thomas and said, “Thomas, reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.” And Thomas could only fall down at his feet and say, “My Lord and my God.” And our Lord said to him, “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:24-29).

After the resurrection, the apostles were transformed. After observing their Lord on many occasions, and, still more, after listening to the instruction that He had given them—the way He had taken them through the Scriptures, showing how His death, His burial, and His resurrection had all been prophesied—they had been convinced. Then He gave them a commission. He said in effect, “Now I am leaving you. I am going back to heaven, to the glory I had with the Father before the foundation of the world. I am leaving you as My witnesses. I am sending you.” It is all there at the end of Luke’s Gospel. Luke writes:

Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. —Luke 24:45-49

So our Lord had commissioned the apostles to do the very thing that the Sanhedrin now prohibited them from doing. Our Lord had said,

“Wait until you get the power; then go and bear witness.” That is why they defied the Sanhedrin and refused to keep silent. It is all because of the nature of these facts. Their meaning, their import, is summed up in Peter’s statement: “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” This Jesus, whom the Jews had rejected and slain upon a tree, is God’s Prince, the Prince of the universe, the Savior of the world. He is the only Savior, and there is no salvation apart from Him. That is why the apostles had to defy the Sanhedrin’s edict.

In order that we may understand what all this means, let us look at it in the light of the resurrection. Like Paul, the apostles preached “Jesus, and the resurrection” (Acts 17:18). But why did the apostles stress the resurrection in particular?

First of all, it is the resurrection that finally proves who our Lord is. It is the resurrection that finally establishes the point that this Jesus whom the Jewish leaders had despised—Jesus the carpenter, this fellow, this man who had learning, never having learned, this imposter, this blasphemer, this one who claimed equality with God—really was all He claimed to be. It is the final proof that He is none other than God’s only begotten Son, the eternal Son of God; that though He was a man, He was not only a man.

“Ah,” you say, “but what about the case of Lazarus? Didn’t he also rise from the dead?”

Lazarus was merely restored to life, and he died again later on. Our Lord, by contrast, is “the first begotten of [from] the dead” (Rev. 1:5). He is the first person ever to have gone through death and come out the other side alive. And that is the proof of the fact that He is the Son of God. The apostle Paul, writing years later to the church at Rome, puts it in those very words. He says:

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God, (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. —Rom. 1:1-4

The resurrection was the final proof. And, as I have already indicated, it was the resurrection that finally convinced these apostles themselves. They had half believed in our Lord before. Peter had made that great confession at Caesarea Philippi, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16), but he had not known what he was saying and went back on it later in disappointment. But after the resurrection there was no doubt.

Peter himself, preaching on the Day of Pentecost, worked through a wonderful piece of argumentation to demonstrate that the resurrection proved our Lord to be the Son of God. He reminded the people at Jerusalem of how they had crucified our Lord, and then he continued:

Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.

And then Peter quoted Psalm 16:

For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.

And Peter expounds:

Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. —Acts 2:24-32

David wrote that sixteenth Psalm, says Peter. But obviously he was not writing about himself because we know that David died and was buried. There is his sepulcher; you can go and visit it whenever you like. His body is rotting in that tomb still. David has not risen from the dead, but this one has. David was speaking as a prophet of one who would be descended from him, and Jesus was born of the seed of David. David’s words indicate that the resurrection was prophesied in the Old Testament, and the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled that prophecy. The resurrection is proof that Christ is the Son of God of whom David spoke.

So that is the first reason why the apostles emphasized the resurrection, and it is the most staggering thing that the world has ever heard or ever will hear—God has visited and redeemed His people. He had sent many prophets, many teachers, but they could not bring about salvation. Then He sent His own Son, His only begotten Son, and this is the message of the church to the world. We are not left to the mercy of men. God is concerned, and God’s own Son entered into time. He lived, died, and rose again. God is saving the world, and He is doing it through His only begotten Son. And the resurrection establishes that these facts are true. The apostles were witnesses to this blessed person and to the truths concerning Him.

Then, second, the apostles emphasized the resurrection because it was God’s declaration that He was satisfied with the work of His Son. This is the great argument that you find in so many places in the New Testament Scriptures, and it is absolutely vital to this message. The apostle Paul puts it like this in Romans 4:25: “Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” He has already been saying something similar in chapter 3: “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (vv. 25-26). And God, in raising His Son from the dead, was saying to the whole world, He has done the work that I sent Him to do.

What was that work? It was the work of fulfilling God’s law. This is why none other than the Son of God could ever save us. God made man in His own image; He made him perfect and told him how he was to live. God told him that if he did not live like that, he would be punished, and that the punishment would be death: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezek. 18:4); “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23).

God is holy and just. “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). He cannot play fast and loose with His own holiness, if I may so put it with reverence. He cannot pretend that He has not seen the sin. You and I do that. We are shams, we are frauds, we are liars; we are not true, and we are not just. All humanity is confronted by the law of God. If we do not keep it, we must bear the punishment; and the punishment is eternal death and banishment from the life of God.

The Lord Jesus Christ came to deliver us from that punishment. That was the direct object of His coming. And in the resurrection we have proof that He has done it. To quote the apostle Paul again:

Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. —Rom. 10:1-4

“There the Jews are,” Paul says, “going about with all this sweating and effort and striving to keep the law and to justify themselves by

observing the deeds of the law. Nobody can do it, but the tragedy is that nobody need any longer try to do it. God has sent His only Son, and He has done it. He is the end of the law. He fulfilled the law.”

The same truth is stated again in that glorious chapter, one of the most eloquent passages in the whole realm of holy writ, 1 Corinthians 15. We hear it at funeral services, and people so rarely understand it because they are fascinated by the glory of the language. But let me show you what it means.

Paul says, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:55-57). He is saying that sin is what makes us all afraid of death (“the sting of death is sin”) because we know that at death comes judgment upon sin. Yes, and sin is made powerful by the law (“the strength of sin is the law”), because it is the law that pronounces the verdict that an action is sinful. The law shows how powerful sin is. Sin, and the law’s judgment of death upon that sin, are the problems that confront us.

But, says Paul, the resurrection answers the question, “O death, where is thy sting?” and solves the problems. The fact that Christ has come again from the dead, that God Himself brought Him from the dead, means that God’s law is honored and absolutely satisfied (“Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”). How? Well, He has fulfilled the law. During His life He actively observed the law’s every demand, so that the law could not pronounce Him sinful; and in His death He passively bore its penalty upon our sins. Therefore the law is satisfied. It has nothing to say. Our Lord has fulfilled its every demand on behalf of all who believe in Him. And that is what the resurrection establishes.

If our Lord had not risen from the grave, it would have meant that the law had demanded such a penalty of Him that even He was killed by it, and that would have been the end. But He came through death. He will not die again. He has borne the full penalty—which is death—and yet He is alive. He has finished the work. He has satisfied all the demands of God’s holy law both positively and negatively.

Now the fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians is a very long chapter of fifty-eight verses, but it only has one theme: the resurrection and the vital importance of believing in the physical resurrection of Christ. The apostle wrote that chapter because there were certain clever people in the first century— there were clever people in the first century; they were not all born in this century, as some people seem to think!—who denied the physical resurrection. So you are not being very novel if you deny it. These people were saying that the resurrection was past already and that there is no such thing as a literal, physical resurrection for anyone.

Isn’t there? asks Paul. And he adds that if there is no physical resurrection of the dead, “Then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. . . . If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (vv. 13-14, 17), and “we are found false witnesses of God” (v. 15). This is absolutely vital; it is the resurrection alone that gives me assurance that God is satisfied, that the law has been honored and fulfilled and that

The terrors of law and of God, With me shall have nothing to do; My Saviour’s obedience and blood, Hide all my transgressions from view. – Augustus Toplady

Third, the apostles gloried in the resurrection, and nothing stopped them from bearing witness to it and preaching it, because it is the proof that this same blessed Lord has conquered all our enemies. There are powers and forces that are set against us. We know something about them, do we not? The world and the flesh—here are our enemies. The world pollutes us. Peter talks about the pollution that is in the world through sin, and we see it today. Look at the Sunday papers—pollution. Look at the clever satirists, as they are called, on your television screens. What is it? It is filth and mire. Peter describes it like this: The man who returns to his sin is like “the sow that was washed [turned again] to her wallowing in the mire” (2 Pet. 2:22). And what a perfect description that is of the filth, the foulness, the uncleanness of the world.

With its suggestiveness and all its subtle attraction, all its glorying in the illicit, the world pollutes us and robs us of all that is best and highest and noblest in us. The world and the flesh, these enemies, defeat us all. There is not a man or woman who has not sinned. We are all

polluted and bespattered by the mud of this evil world. We cannot conquer it. We have tried, and the men and women of the Old Testament tried before us, and the world has defeated us all. But here is one who was undefeated. The world never got Him down. He never gave way to the flesh. He walked through this world perfect, pure, separate from sin.

But not only that, the devil is our enemy. The world knows nothing about Satan, the god of this world. The world thinks we are mad when we talk about this subject. People say, “Fancy a man in the twentieth century still believing in the devil!” But where does all the evil in the world come from? Why are all the efforts of statesmen and others always frustrated? What is it that dogs the footsteps of the human race and always robs it when it thinks it is on the verge of gaining a victory? What is it? And the Bible has the complete answer. It is the devil. “For,” says Paul, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12)—the devil, hell, evil spirits with a malign power who are ever surrounding us. This world has known only one who has been able to defeat the power of the devil and all his forces, and that is this selfsame Jesus. During His life on earth He defeated the devil, routing him every time he tried to tempt Him; but above all, He defeated him at the cross. It is there that our Lord finally exposed the devil and made him look ridiculous to everyone in the world with eyes to see.

The author of the letter to the Hebrews puts our Lord’s victory over the devil in very striking words in his second chapter:

Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. —Heb. 2:14-15

By His death on the cross, and especially by the resurrection, our Lord robbed the devil of His power. Satan no longer controls death as He did before.

The marvelous thing about Easter is that it tells us that the last enemy that shall be conquered is death. You live in this world, you fight the world, the flesh, and the devil, but there, at the back of it all, is death and the grave. Here is the final enemy, and it gets everybody down.

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow’r, And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave, Await alike the inevitable hour, The paths of glory lead but to the grave. – Thomas Gray

Great men, great statesmen, great kings, great philosophers—they all die; everyone who lives is born to die. Yes, here is the final adversary, the last captain, who defeats everybody; all become his victims. There is only one who has conquered him, and that one is this same Jesus.

“The God of our fathers,” said Peter to the Sanhedrin on behalf of his fellow apostles, “raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand.” The power of Almighty God took hold of Christ in the tomb and raised Him up, conquering even death and the grave. The last enemy has been conquered, and in the light of Christ we can again repeat these words: “So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor. 15:54).

Christ has conquered the last enemy, and even after death, as I have already shown you, when you stand before God in the judgment and God’s law speaks against you, it is already answered, it is forever settled. “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (Rom. 8:33-34).

Or again, let me give it to you in the eloquent language of the author of the letter to the Hebrews. Here in chapter 7 is the resurrection message for you. The writer is comparing the Lord Jesus Christ and His way with the old way of the temple and the priests, and he says:

And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. —vv. 23-25

We do not need earthly priests. We do not need popes and cardinals. We have one high priest, the only one, Jesus, the Son of God. He is changeless, and He always lives to make intercession for us. There is one God and one mediator, and only one, between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. I do not even need Mary, His mother. He is enough. He has proved it in his resurrection.

He helps, He aids, and, of course, this is the thing that thrilled the minds and hearts of these New Testament writers. Listen to Hebrews 2 again:

Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. —vv. 17-18

He is God, I know, and is at the right hand of God; but He became man and knows what it is to suffer and to be tempted.

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. —Heb. 4:14-15

We have a faithful and a merciful high priest. He knows all about us.

In every pang that rends the heart, The Man of Sorrows had a part. – M. Bruce

He is there in the glory, but He is still man as well as God, and He is able to sympathize with us, and He sends us His help. The writer of Hebrews continues:

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. —v. 16

It is the resurrection that tells me all this. The one who was in this world and lived and endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself is there in heaven; He is the same one. I can go to Him and know He will never refuse me but will give me all I need. But more, our Lord has been made a Prince: The universe is in His hand. Just before returning to heaven, He said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matt. 28:18). Paul puts it all together in that tremendous statement of his in Philippians 2:

Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord [Prince, Governor], to the glory of God the Father. —vv. 6-11

The resurrection proves that. The world has been handed to Him. It is His. He sits, He reigns, and He is waiting until His enemies shall be made His footstool.

And, finally, His resurrection and ascension, His going back to heaven, are excellent proof that He will come back again to judge the world in righteousness. He Himself said that the Father had committed judgment unto Him because He was the Son of man: “For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man” (John 5:26-27). But listen to it as it is expressed by the apostle Paul—in Athens, of all places. The citizens of Athens were very philosophical; they did not believe in judgment and hell. Such people still do not believe in them, and I gather that they are surprised that some of us do not share their skepticism.

The apostle Paul, preaching to such men, puts it like this: “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.” We ought not to believe in images, says Paul. Some people are very anxious to go back and worship them, are they not? But God cannot be represented by an image. The Second Commandment tells us not to worship God in that way.

Paul continues, “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent”—why?—“because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Acts 17:29-31).

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a proclamation and announcement to the effect that God will judge the whole world by this person, which simply means that in this life and in eternity our fate is decided by our attitude to Him. If you say that Jesus is only a man and, like the Jews, are a bit annoyed with Him and dismiss Him and kill Him and think you have got rid of Him, then you will receive judgment, and that judgment is eternal punishment. But if you believe that God has raised up this Jesus and made Him a Prince and a Savior, and that it is in Him alone that you can have forgiveness of sins and become a child of God, with the hope of glory, why, the verdict is that you will have all you have believed! This is why these men said to the Sanhedrin, “We must obey God rather than men.”

The apostles said in effect, “We are preaching the Gospel even to you. You have to die. You are the judges now, but you will soon be the judged. And how are you going to face God? How are you going to face the law of God? You cannot. The only one who can save you

from the penalty of God’s law is the one whom you have slain and hanged upon a tree. He is the Prince; He is the Savior; He is the Messiah. He is the only one who can satisfy the law and can conquer all our enemies and reconcile us to God and make us His children. Repentance is only possible in Him. There is no forgiveness of sins apart from Him. Members of the Council, we cannot keep silent—we must obey God rather than men. The souls of men and women are in jeopardy. There is no hope apart from this blessed Jesus. Kill us, if you like. His name will go on, and the power of His name will persist.”

All this is why the apostles would not be silenced. This message is the truth of God. Easter reminds us of a fact of history. One has risen from the dead. He is Jesus, the Son of God, the only Savior. He is the only one who can save us in this life, and He is the only one who can take us safely through death. He is the only one who can justify us before God’s holy law and introduce us to the blessings and the joys of the bliss of eternity in the presence of God.

How can one keep silent? The Gospel is so glorious, and men and women are dying in sin and in ignorance. Let them scoff at us, let them ridicule us, let them do what they will, we will go on preaching. We cannot but preach. We cannot but repeat that we bear witness to these things. Christ is the only hope; He is the only Savior. Have you believed in Him? Have you believed these facts? Have you seen their relevance and their significance for you? Have you gone to Him and cast yourself upon Him, asking Him to receive you? If you do, I have His authority for telling you that He will receive you. Blessed be his name. He says from the glory to any frightened soul, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

Martyn Lloyd-Jones