Good morning. We're going to
be in the 14th chapter of Acts this morning. If you would like
to turn with me there in your Bibles, Acts chapter 14. I've titled this message the
salvation of a certain man. The salvation of a certain man.
And I hope and pray that the Lord will apply the truths of
this passage to each of our hearts and that we will find ourselves
to be that certain man. Let's ask the Lord's blessings
on his word. Our glorious, great and gracious
Heavenly Father, We come before thy holy presence as sinners in need of your grace,
thankful that we have thy dear son as our advocate, as our sin
bearer, as our substitute to satisfy in thy holy presence
all that you demand and all that you require for our salvation. We thank you for the promise
of your spirit. Lord, we pray that you would
bow the heavens, that you would come down, that you would bless
your word, cause it to be alive, cause it to be effectual, cause
our hearts to have the ability to hear your voice, Give us faith
to believe all that you've declared. Give us hope and rest in Christ. Give us the forgiveness of our
sin and the hope of eternal life. Lord, we are completely dependent
upon you for all these things. And so we plead with you, Lord, to be pleased,
to bless us, with the blessings of your grace. We ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. We'll begin reading in verse
eight. And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his
feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had
walked The same heard Paul speak, who steadfastly beholden him
and perceived that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud
voice, stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked. We find this word certain many
times in the scriptures. When we declare the gospel publicly
and audibly, we don't know who those certain men are. We are
commanded to preach the gospel to all men everywhere, and we
don't pretend to know who the Lord would give ears
to hear. But we know that there are certain
individuals that will hear and that will believe and that will
rejoice that the Lord as he gave to this man will have faith to
believe what's being said. And so we continue with that
hope. we continue to declare the gospel.
And those certain individuals for whom the gospel is intended
and for whom it will be effectual are always pleading with the
Lord in their hearts, Lord, make me to be a certain man. Make
me to be that certain individual. When the Holy Spirit speaks to
the heart, It is to certain individuals, those who have been chosen of
God, the elect of God. The Lord's not in the streets,
as the scripture says in Isaiah chapter 42, raising his voice,
pleading with men to come to him. He has certain individuals
that he's already elected in the covenant of grace. And he
gives them in the day of his power. Paul said, when it pleased
God, when it pleased God, that's when certain individuals here,
when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by his grace, when it pleased God to reveal Christ
in me. That's our hope. Every time we
preach the gospel, Lord, reveal Christ in me. I don't want to
just know about him. I don't want to be just dependent
on the intellectual knowledge of a doctrine. I want Christ
to be revealed in me, that I might be healed, that I might be saved. For by his stripes, by his stripes,
Isaiah 53, we shall be healed. In Acts chapter 10, The scripture
says there was a certain man in Caesarea named Cornelius. There were a lot of men in Caesarea.
There were a lot of men in Joppa for that matter. But the Lord
sent the apostle Peter to a certain man, a man that he had chosen
according to his grace. a man that he had prepared, a
man that he had put into his heart a desire and an interest
in the gospel. And so the Lord sends Peter to
Cornelius' house, who is referred to as a certain man. In John chapter 5, there was
a pool in Jerusalem called the Pool of Bethesda. And the scripture says that there
were many cripples, there were many halted, there were many
that were lame, that would go to that pool every day. And they
would wait for the angel to come and stir the waters. And the
first one into the pool would receive the miracle of a healing.
And our Lord went to that pool, and you can just imagine throngs
of people everywhere. But there was a certain man who
had been lame for 38 years. And our Lord fixed his eyes on
that certain individual and asked him, what would you have me to
do? What would you have me to do? And the man said, Lord, I've
got no one to put me into the water. And our Lord chose that
one certain man out of all of those other men. Why are we making
an emphasis of this? Because this truth causes God's
elect to plead for mercy. Lord, this salvation is not a
general offer being extended to mankind left for them to decide
what to do with it or to make it effectual for them. It is up to you to choose me. The Lord said, you did not choose
me. You did not choose me. I chose you. I chose you from
the foundation of the earth and God's people. You see, some will
say, some will say to that truth, well, that's not fair. Believing
that God is obligated somehow to give everybody a chance. Some will become fatalistic.
Some will say, well, you know, what does it matter then? What
will be, will be. I'll just wait and see what God
will do. And then the others will prove themselves to be the
certain men by becoming mercy beggars. Lord, bid me to come
unto thee. Lord, choose me. Lord, have mercy
upon me. This is completely in your hands
and completely up to you. Oh, don't fall prey to those
first two categories. There's no hope of salvation
there. The only hope of salvation is for those who say, Lord, salvation's
of the Lord. It's all in your hands. Would
you have mercy upon me? It's a certain man that heard. Now Paul's preaching in Lystra
to a large group of people, but he perceives that there was a
certain man who had faith to believe what he was preaching. In Luke chapter 18, Our Lord
was walking through a city and there was a, Jericho
was the city, and there was a blind man by the name of Bartimaeus. And the scripture says, and a
certain man, a certain man, a particular man by the name of Bartimaeus
cried out, son of David, have mercy upon me. Everyone else had a curiosity
of what he might do and who he was. But Bartimaeus was a mercy
beggar, a blind mercy beggar, poor, had nothing. And his cry became so loud that
everybody was embarrassed by him, wasn't he? Weren't they?
And Bartimaeus shut up. He's not going to have any interest
in you. Oh, and he cried more louder, all the more louder. Lord, son of David, have mercy
upon me. And his friend said, Bartimaeus,
be of good cheer, the master calleth thee. And our Lord had
mercy upon that certain man. So every time we read of a certain
man in the scriptures, let us be reminded that those certain
individuals are those whom God has chosen and whom God will
have mercy on. Secondly, God makes it certain
to those certain individuals. He makes the gospel certain.
When our Lord asked those disciples in John chapter six, will you
lead me also? They said, Peter said, Lord,
to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal
life and we are sure, we know and are certain, we're certain
that thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Say, well,
how do I know that I'm one of those certain individuals? Because
you are certain of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. You are certain
of what it is he has accomplished. There's no doubt in your mind.
Now you may doubt from time to time whether he did it for you,
but if you're a certain individual that God has chosen, you have
absolutely no doubt as to who he is and what he accomplished
in fulfilling the purpose that his father sent him to save his
people. You're certain of that. That's
your hope of knowing there. Paul said, I know, I know whom
I have believed and I'm persuaded. I'm just persuaded a lot of things. I don't know. Well, I'm not sure
about anything else really for sure, but I'm sure of that. I'm persuaded that he is able. I'm not able, but he is able
to keep that, which I've committed unto his trust against that day. That's the certainty of faith.
The certainty of faith is being sure who the Lord Jesus Christ
is. What did Philip say to that Ethiopian
eunuch? If thou believest with all thine
heart, thou mayest. And what'd that Ethiopian say?
I believe. That Jesus you just spoke to,
he didn't say, I believe that I'm saved. He didn't say, I believe
that he did it. He said, I believe the Christ
that you just preached to me is the son of God. I know that
he's the successful savior of sinners. I'm certain of it. And
he was baptized. is baptized. That's what faith
is. Faith is being certain about who Christ is and what it is
that he accomplished. Nothing doubting, we have a sure
word of prophecy. Scripture says that the law of
the Lord is perfect, converting the soul and the testimony of
the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. I am sure that what
this book declares about the Lord Jesus Christ is true. And
I'm hanging all the hopes of my immortal soul on it. I'm just
that sure of it. God has given me certainty. I
can't trust my feelings. I can't trust the words of men,
but I can trust God. That's what being certain is.
It's those that, Isaiah chapter 40 verse 31, they that wait upon
the Lord. To wait upon the Lord is to rest
in Him, is to believe on Him. They shall renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and
not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.
Now here's what this man wasn't able to do. He was crippled in
his feet from his birth. He was not able to run. He was
not able to walk. The Lord had not given him faith
yet. But when he gets faith, what's he do? He leaps upon his
feet. These certain individuals to
whom God gives certain faith have a certain salvation. A salvation
that is sure, a salvation that is steadfast. The foundation
of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them
that are his. That's how certain it is. It's
so certain that our God cannot change what he has determined,
what he has purposed, is sure and steadfast. the salvation
of a certain man. Our Lord said, I will give to
you the sure mercies of David. And what did David say? He has
made a covenant with me. He has made a covenant with me. The surety, the certainty of
my salvation is not determined by any promise that I've made
to God, but it's determined and it's sure by covenant promise
that he has made to me. ordered in all things, and what's
the next word? Sure. Sure. Certain. And David went on to say, this
is all my salvation, this is all my desire. The covenant promises
of God fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, who the Bible says,
all the promises of God are yea and amen in him. That's what
he came to do. He came to fulfill the prophets.
He came to satisfy all that the law required. In Daniel chapter 2, you remember
when Nebuchadnezzar had that dream of that great figure that
had a head of gold and arms of silver and a belly of brass.
and legs of iron and feet mingled with iron and clay. And those
were representing of the kingdoms of this world. And then the scripture
says there was a hand. It was the hand of God that cut
a stone out of a mountain. And that stone came and it crushed
that figure. And that stone grew into a great
mountain which the Lord said is the kingdom of God. And here's
Daniel's closing, after he interprets the dream, which none of the
other soothsayers, none of the other religious men could give
an interpretation. God had given that dream and
only God's prophet could interpret it. And once Daniel interpreted
the dream, here's what Daniel said, the dream is certain and
the interpretation thereof, sure. Period. Oh, that's faith. The dream is certain and the
interpretation thereof, sure. So God chooses certain individuals. He gives them certainty in his
promises. And the hope of their salvation
is sure and steadfast. It's certain. There's no way
it can be changed. Notice that this man was impotent
in his feet. Now, what do we do with our feet?
Well, we stand on them and we walk with them. And that's what
this man was unable to do. The scripture says we shall all
stand before the judgment seat of Christ. How are we gonna stand
in the presence of a holy God? If thou, O Lord, should mark
iniquity, O Lord, who shall stand? You see, by nature, you and I
are crippled in our feet. We're impotent, we're unable
to stand in the presence of a holy God. And only through faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, only as he gives us his righteousness,
his grace, his presence, his person to stand in our stead,
are we able to have any hope that there will come a day when
we will be able to stand accepted in his presence and we have hope
today. that we can stand in the presence
of God. That's why the Lord tells us, come, come before the throne
of grace with boldness, with confidence, knowing that everything
that God requires of you has been accomplished by the Lord
Jesus Christ. We can stand in his presence
now. This man reminds us of that man
at the gate called Beautiful. You remember when Peter and John
were going into the temple? And that temple represented heaven,
and there was a man who was crippled, and his feet had been crippled
from birth. And he stood at the gate begging
for alms, unable to go in and to participate in worship because
of his being crippled. And so Peter
looks upon him, and he told Peter, he said, look here. Peter told
him, he said, look at me, look at me. Silver and gold have we
none, but such as we have, we give unto thee in the name of
Jesus of Nazareth, stand and walk. And he stood and he leaped. And where'd he go? Right through
the gate, beautiful. Right into the presence of God,
right into the place of worship where he had not been able to
go before. This certain man represents each
one of us. He reminds us of Mephibosheth
as well, doesn't he? You remember Mephibosheth, Jonathan's
son, hiding out in Lodabar, a place where there is no bread? David
said is there anyone left from the house of Saul that I might
show him kindness for Jonathan's sake Jonathan being a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ Mephibosheth being a picture of you and I
well, there's a young boy Jonathan's son Who was he was crippled in
a fall when he escaped? from Jerusalem and And what David
tell his servant, Ziba, he said, go fetch him, go get him, bring
him to me. Bring him to me, oh, Mephibosheth,
Mephibosheth. When David set his eyes on Mephibosheth,
he saw the likeness of Jonathan. He said, you're gonna sit here
at the king's table and you're gonna eat at the king's fare
all the days of your life. There we are. By nature, as a
result of the fall, by birth, we're crippled in our feet, we're
unable to stand, we're unable to walk. Scripture says that
we walk by faith, not by sight. But how can we walk by faith
if the Lord doesn't restore our crippled feet? If he doesn't
give us faith to walk, we can't walk. The natural man has no faith.
The natural man can only walk according to what he sees. That's
it. He can't believe. Faith, faith
is a miracle of grace. You cannot receive the things
of the spirit. The natural man can't. He just
walks according to what he sees, and he walks according to what
he feels, and he walks according to what he's able to understand. And this gift of faith enables
those who are by nature crippled in their feet to walk the walk
of faith, to follow after the Lord Jesus Christ, to believe
what God has said. We can't do it without the new
birth. This faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the Word
of God. In our prayer right now, for those that God has given
faith, you're expressing in prayer right
now, Lord, increase my faith. Lord, help my unbelief. And I hope that Someone who has
never experienced the grace of God and the gift of faith might
be crying out to God right now for the first time, Lord, I want
to walk in faith. I don't want to be a part of
what everybody else in this world is doing. There is a way that
seems right unto the natural man, but in the end that way
leads to death. Walking by sight is just walking
by that which can be perceived by the flesh. Notice in our text that this
man being crippled and impotent in his feet was in that condition
from his mother's womb. from his mother's womb. He didn't
contract a disease. He didn't have an accident. He
wasn't the victim of a war. He was born this way. And that's
the way you and I come into this world. impotent feet, unable
to walk, unable to stand, unable to believe, unable to follow
Christ, unable to walk the walk of faith, unable to stand in
the presence of God. We're born that way. David said
that he was shapen in iniquity and in sin did his mother conceive
him. He was a sinner by nature. That's
why the Lord Jesus Christ had to be born of a virgin. He couldn't
inherit the seed of Adam. You and I have inherited the
seed of Adam. We were in the loins of our father
Adam so that when Adam fell, we died. The scripture says in
Adam all died. Adam's not just our representative
head, he is our seminal head. We were actually in Adam there. All of us are the descendants
of Adam. And when Adam died, we died. And so all of our children
come into this world speaking lies from their mother's womb.
drinking iniquity as if it was water. We just were sinners by
nature. That's what we are. And if the
Lord doesn't give us a new nature, we'll die in our sentence. He was in this condition from
his mother's womb. You and I are spiritually dead.
And that's why we have to be born again, born from above. A miraculous spiritual new birth
whereby God puts his nature in us and gives us faith to rest
all the hope of our salvation on the glorious person and the
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the new birth. Nicodemus, you've got to be born
from above. Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. Oh Lord, give me the new birth.
Give me the nature, give me the mind of Christ. Don't leave me
to, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. The flesh profiteth
nothing. It's the spirit that giveth life.
But here we are, certain man, crippled from birth, Notice what the scripture says.
We didn't read verse 7 earlier, but I want you to go back to
verse 7 if you will. And there in Lystra, they preached
the gospel. And then in verse 8, the same
heard Paul speak. This man, though he was crippled
in his feet, had ears to hear what was being preached. Paul
was preaching Christ. the successful sovereign savior
of sinners whom God had raised from the dead, who bore in his
body all the sins of all of God's people and put them away by the
sacrifice of himself once and for all to satisfy God's justice. Paul preached Christ crucified. Every time he preached, he preached
the same message. We preach the same message, don't we? If we're
preaching anything other than Christ, we're wasting men's time. We're tickling men's ears is
all we're doing. We're sounding brass and a tinkling
cymbal. We're entertaining men. We're
puffing up men's pride, giving them knowledge. That's all. Knowledge
puffeth up. No, we've got to be, we've got,
the Lord said, and I, and I, not the image of me, not the
idea of me, but and I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men
unto me. And as the serpent was lifted
up at the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
So we preach Christ in Him crucified. And our song that we'll hear
Others that won't. As I said last Sunday, we were
talking this morning about it. And men hear words. They hear words
like grace and salvation and sin and forgiveness and the cross
and Jesus Christ. They hear these words. But because
they think they already know the interpretation of these words,
as they're hearing these words, they're filtering them through
what they believe they mean. And they're not listening to
what we're saying. And that's what Isaiah meant in Isaiah chapter
six. Well, that's what the Lord meant
when he told Isaiah in Isaiah chapter six, they will have ears,
but they will not hear. They won't hear what you're saying. I can't tell you how many people
have come here, listened to the gospel, religious people, and
leave here saying, well, let's see, he's preaching the same
thing my pastor preaches, same thing I've been listening to
all my life. He heard. He heard what was being
said about the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, fully God, And
if he's fully God, he cannot fail. He cannot be dependent
upon man to let him have his way. He can't be, not if he's
God. If he's God, he's omnipotent.
He possesses all power. He's able to make us willing
in the day of His power. He's able to take out our heart
of stone and put in a heart of flesh. He's able to change our
minds and give us a willing heart. He's God. That's what that Ethiopian
meant when he said, I believe that Jesus you just preached
to me is none other than the Son of God. He has the full power
of God and I'm completely dependent upon Him. The little Jesus that's
being preached in the world today is not God. No, man has set himself
up on the throne of God, and that Jesus is in the heavens
pleading with men to let him have his way, isn't he? Paul preached Jesus Christ as
Lord, as God, as sovereign. as the anointed one, the Christ,
the one who was sent of God in the full power of the Spirit
of God to accomplish the purpose of God and the salvation of his
people, who strips men of any contribution that they could
make, who did it all by himself. And this crippled man heard the
gospel, the good news. You see, there's no good news
in a message that requires you to make a contribution. There's
no good news in that. Not if you're an honest person.
Now, you can be a hypocritical religious liar and go through
life convincing yourself by trying to convince others that you've
made the right decision and that you're doing the right thing
and that you were, you know, you did everything. No. No, the
honest person. Yeah, I like what I heard one
preacher said. He said, he said, honest men
don't go to hell. And that's true. That's true. If you're honest. About your
inability. To satisfy any of the demands. Of God's requirements are for
salvation. If you want to be like your religious
friends and family members. Going through life, pretending
to be something that you're not. And be separated from God for
all eternity for it. This man heard and he believed. He heard what was being preached. Whosoever calls upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved, but how shall they call upon him
in whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe on
him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? God has to declare the truth
of who Christ is through the voice of a man in order for us
to hear and to believe. And that's what we pray and hope
for every time we come together. And we know that there are some
that will hear. They'll see themselves for what
they are, crippled from birth, unable to save themselves, completely
dependent upon the Lord to have mercy upon them. You say, well,
what about those who have never heard? Well, let me show you
a passage of scripture. Turn with me to Romans chapter
one, Romans chapter one. Scriptures are very clear about
this. We'll begin reading in verse
16 in Romans chapter one, for I am not ashamed of the gospel.
For it, the gospel, the message of Christ Jesus and him crucified
as the successful sovereign substitute and savior of crippled men and
women, the gospel It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is
written, the just shall live by faith. How are we going to
walk by faith if we're crippled? For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness, because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them. Now he goes on to, you can read
the rest of this chapter, I would encourage you to do so. He talks
about the absolute depravity of the men who refuse to bow
and refuse to believe and how God gives them over to a reprobate
mind to defile themselves with other men. But he says, I've
given them a conscience and I've given them the revelation in
creation and they've rejected the revelation that I've given. It's the power of the gospel,
it's the power of God. And he goes on to say in this
passage, we won't take the time to read it all, they are without
excuse. All men stand before God without
excuse. You know who's without excuse
more than anyone else? Those who have heard the gospel
and not believed it. They stand without excuse more
than anyone else. Now that ought to put the fear
of God in every one of our hearts. How many people in this world
have ever heard the gospel? Very few. Very few. Yet those who have never heard,
according to Romans chapter one, still stand before God without
excuse because they've rejected the revelation that God has given
to them. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great a salvation? You see the burden of responsibility.
To whom much is given, much is required. We've been given so
much grace, so much light. That's why we consider, each
one of us considers ourselves to be the chief of all sinners. Do you know anybody at all in
your life that has been blessed with more light and more truth
and more opportunity than you have and remain as unbelieving
as you are? Do you know anybody? I don't. And so every child of God says,
Lord, if to whom much is given, much is required, I am the chief
of all sinners. Have mercy upon me. Lord, save
me for Christ's sake. He believed what he heard. He
believed the gospel. And let me just point out a couple
of things real quick. Look at The same, verse 9, back to our
text, the same heard Paul speak, who steadfastly beholding him
and perceived that he had faith to be healed. Now, this is a
miracle of healing, there's no question about it. An actual
miracle of healing. But it's a message of salvation. You remember when the angel came
to Joseph who was going to put Mary away privately because he
didn't want to shame her publicly? And the angel said, no, that
which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. Do not be
afraid, Joseph, for you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. That word saved or save, is the
exact same word translated healed in our passage here. This is
a message of salvation. This is not a message of requiring
God to heal me physically. Lord, what I need to be healed of is
my sin. That's my greatest need. And notice, notice verse 10,
when Peter perceived that he had faith to believe. Now you
and I can't perceive whether or not a man has faith. I can't
tell you how many times over the years I've been so encouraged
with some people who seem to have such a interest and love
for and desire for the gospel, and it was nothing but a flash
in the pan. They fall away. And then there's
others. And I've learned over the years
to be more encouraged by those who don't talk than those who
do. There's others who are just listening. They don't say a word. And you wonder, are they hearing
anything at all? And then one day. My point is that we can't
perceive for one another whether or not we have faith to believe
or whether or not someone else has faith to believe. But God
can. God gave this apostle the authority
to be able to do that. And God knows. Here's my point. Look at verse 10. When God perceives
that he has given to us faith to believe. He does not invite
us to come to him. He does not encourage us to make
a decision. He does not plead with us to
walk an aisle and to pray a prayer. He commands us with a loud voice
and he says to us, stand up on thy feet. And he leaped and walked. The gospel is not an invitation. It's a command. It's a command. And your warrant for standing
on your feet is that you believe yourself
to be crippled from birth. You believe the preaching of
the gospel about the Lord Jesus Christ. And God says, stand up,
stand up, come. The spirit and the bride say, Your ability to obey the command
of God is the evidence of your salvation. Our Heavenly Father, bless your
word and save our souls, we ask in Christ's name. Amen.