Take your Bibles and turn with
me to Acts chapter 3. Acts the third chapter. And this
morning we were going to be dealing with the subject of the lame
man healed. The lame man healed. In Acts
chapter 3 and beginning in verse 1, the Scripture says, Now Peter
and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer
being the ninth hour. 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, who seeing Peter and John about to go into the
temple, asked an alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes
upon him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto
them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver
and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee. In the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took
him by the right hand and lifted him up. And immediately his feet
and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping stood up and walked
and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and
praising God. And all the people saw him walking
and praising God." The title of the lesson again is, The Lame
Man Healed. I had three points, but I had
to delete one. I don't think I'd finish it.
So I'm going to just give us a couple of things here from
this passage of Scripture that we can feed on this morning. First of all, I want us again
to look at this lame man. The lame man. Now, we know that
all sickness and abnormalities, all physical ailments, we know
this, that they come into the world because of sin. We know that. We know that our
father Adam was created perfect and right and whole, but yet
when sin came in, when sin entered into our world, into this world,
we know death came by sin and all of the things that we feel,
all of the pains that we experience are because of sin. Now I know
each one of us in this building are not normal. Where each one
of us have some peculiarities or some abnormalities, and if
you think that you're normal, it's because you're not. You're
abnormal just like I am. We all have something wrong with
us somewhere along the way. This man had an ailment that
he was lame. He could not walk. He could not
stand up, he could not have any strength in his ankle bones,
but was from his mother's womb lame. He could not walk. And yet we know this, that we
have a much greater problem than our abnormalities and peculiarities. We have a much greater problem,
the human race has a much greater problem than any mental disorder,
any physical disorder. We have a sin problem. We have a sin nature. We have, by our dead spirits,
we are dead in our sins according to the Word of God. And he uses
these physical abnormalities. Every time in Scripture you read
of a man who had a physical abnormality that was healed, or had something
wrong with him and they were healed, God is using these things
to picture the greater problem. The greater problem. You take
all of the abnormalities and all of the sicknesses of this
life, and they will not begin to compare with the sickness
of sin. These physical deformities are
a picture of the horribleness of our nature and to show us
the result of sin. Y'all remember the man that was
born blind? The Lord Jesus Christ healed
a man that was born blind. And I know you know the whole
story about this, that his disciples came up to him and said, Lord,
what was wrong with this man? Why was he born blind? Was it
because he sinned or was it because his parents sinned? Which was
it? Now, we know that all sickness
comes in by sin, so they must have done something really bad
to just inherit this specific one, this being born blind. And many people are like that.
They're very superstitious that if you have a child that has
deformities or something, people by their wicked, evil nature
will look at you and say, well, you must have did something really
bad. No, that's not the reason. That's not the reason, although
we know that if somebody engages in evil actions, there will be
consequences to those actions. You play with fire long enough,
you're going to get burned. That's just the rule, the law
of the nature of the thing, that we're all going to get hurt if
we... do things that are wicked and evil. If you take drugs,
for instance, it's not that you are any more wicked than somebody
that wouldn't take drugs. The problem is now you've entered
into something that's damaging to your health, and eventually
it will kill you. This man that was born blind,
Christ said something was very important. He said this man wasn't
born blind because his parents did something extra evil or it
wasn't because of this man's evilness. Why was this man born
blind? He said this, for the glory of
God. For the glory of God, this man
was born blind. To manifest to you the glory
of God in salvation. And that's exactly what we have
here. by this lame man. This man that was born lame was
for the same reason that the man was born blind, so that God
might give us a picture of salvation. And that's what we have before
us, a picture of the salvation of God. This man that was born
lame. You see, that lameness manifests
to us a characteristic of our sin nature. As the blind man
represented a characteristic of our sin nature, telling us
that we were blind and we could not see the truth. We could not
see Christ. We didn't know Him. This man
here, by his lameness, tells us more about our nature that
we were born with. We were born spiritually lame. Spiritually lame. This expresses man's inability
to come to Christ. Just as that man sat there at
the temple of God. It was the ninth hour. It was
time to go in and pray. And they laid that man down at
the gate of that temple. Imagine if you saw that man laying
at the door of our church as you walked in. And you tell that
man, you say, hey, come on in. Just stand up and come on in. If you want to, just do that. And you come in and worship God
with us. Could he do that? No. He was lame. He can't walk. He can't come. And so this describes to us the
inability of man to come to God. This describes the inability
of man to come unto God. You could put a man at the threshold
of the worship of God, but he can't enter in. He can't understand. He can't come in. Why? He's lame. He's spiritually lame. You can
bring a lame man to the gate and tell him, just walk on in,
but that won't work. Tell him that if he just would
get up enough determination, that you can get up and walk,
man. We used to do this in school to explain some academic problems. Some kids have some learning
disabilities. And I don't know how many times
a teacher would say, well, you just don't try hard enough. And
so to illustrate this, they took a candy bar and they got up on
a ladder and put it up real high. And they told us that you couldn't
use a ladder, but you just reach as high as you can. And if you
just try harder, maybe you'll get it. No, you can't. You can't
reach it. Man by nature cannot come to
God. He's lame on his feet. He cannot
come to God. It's foolishness to tell a man
who is lame spiritually, that if he'll just take the first
step, Jesus will do the rest. It's just foolish to determine
if you just determine within yourself to get up and come to
Christ, you can come to Christ. My friend, this is foolishness
and this is the spirit of Antichrist. This man could not walk and had
no strength, not because he didn't have determination. I'm sure
this man determined to get up plenty of times. But he just
could not. It's inability. Do you think this man wanted
to be lame? No. He didn't want to be lame.
I'm sure many times he probably went to many doctors to try to
get him better, but he couldn't. And no one could help him. No
one. The Scriptures are plain. Salvation
is not of the will of man, it's not of him that runneth, but
God that showeth mercy. We which were born again are
not born of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God. And this, my friend, is how this
lame man was healed. He wasn't healed by his determination.
He wasn't healed because he was willing. He was healed because
God healed him. He was healed because God healed
him. And this brings me to my second point. A preacher was
sent and then he was healed. Look at that. Peter and John,
they went up to the temple and beginning at the ninth hour to
pray. It was the appointed time that
these men were to come to pray. This shows us the faithfulness
of John and Peter in the worship of God. These preachers of the
gospel were faithful to attend at the appointed time for prayer
and worship. And as they were faithful, God
sent them to declare this message of Jesus Christ that they had
preached just previously. And to whomsoever This Word is preached. The Spirit of God heals whom
He will. We are all born lame, but God,
if He will be gracious, will send a faithful man to preach
the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and by the preaching of this Gospel
are men healed and able to come. Peter said this, he said, look
on us. This man was a beggar and he's
looking down there and he's looking up at Peter and John and he says,
hey, give me some money. And Peter and John, they turned
and they looked at him. And they went over to him and
he said, oh boy, I'm getting something from him. I'm going
to get some money. Peter and John says, I ain't
got no money. Silver and gold have I none. But I'll tell you
what I do have. That I'm going to give you. And
he said, by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise and
walk. This man wanted to receive something
tangible, something of this world, but that's not what God would
have for him. God had something much greater.
And many times we were looking for something in the church.
I don't know how many times I've heard that, you know, I used
to go to church because there was a girl there or something. You know, I would go trying to
seek something else. You know, maybe I wanted to please
somebody or please my parents. And I went and I went to church.
One day, God, I've expected to receive something and God gave
me something totally different. God gave me what I wasn't expecting. He gave me liberty and He gave
me freedom and strength and ability to come to Christ. And that's what He gave here.
He sent these preachers. And that's what we are to be
faithful preachers of the gospel. And God, by His grace, may use
us, like He did Peter and John, to save His people. He may use us as a means by which
the Spirit of God touches a lame sinner's legs, and he can walk
and come to Christ. But I'll tell you what, this
is what this religious generation is looking for, isn't it? They're
looking for a handout. They're looking for a handout.
They want something of this world that they can have. And that's
why the coffers of these con men are so full. Because men
are looking for something for nothing. And they think, well,
let me go to this church because I hear that God is giving money
to people and I want to go over there because that's where I
can get something from people. And that's why the con men are
so rich. of people lusting after the things
of this world. They say, give me a hundred dollars
and I promise you God will give you a thousand. What a crock. What a horrible, horrible thing
that is. But these fools fall for it.
Why? Because they expect to receive
something of this life only. I'll tell you what, you know
that man that crashed into that IRS building? You know, why would
he do that? Why would he strive to kill others
and himself? Why? Because he had a love for
the things of this world so much, when they took it away, he didn't
have anything else. He didn't have anything else.
And that's why he gave his life, that's why he killed himself,
because he held on to the things of this life. But gospel preachers,
we are not here to tell you how to be rich in the things of this
world. We're not here to win friends and influence people.
We're not here for that. I'm here for one purpose, to
declare unto you, Jesus Christ, the only hope of men's souls.
That's what I'm here for. And by this message of Jesus
Christ, I know this, that God will raise up lame men. He will. He has promised to do
it by this means. And this was done by Peter. And
he said, such as I have, give I unto you. Peter was given the
gift of healing. Now, I don't have that gift of
healing. But I have the same message that
Peter had. I have the same gospel message
that can do more for you than heal your abnormalities or your
peculiarities. I have something greater. I have
the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that heals the lameness of a
man's soul. Look at verse 12. It says, when Peter saw it, These
people, when they came, and he answered the people and said,
you men of Israel, why marvel at this? Why you look on us so
earnestly, as though we by our own power or holiness made this
man to walk? Peter, they walked in with this
lame man. He'd been sitting there a long
time. These people knew who he was. He walked in there with that
temple with him and they looked at Peter and they go, Look at
Peter. Oh, look at John. They must have
some kind of great power to heal this man. Peter said, don't look
at me like I had any power to raise this man. But let me tell
you who did. Let me tell you who did. His
name is Jesus Christ and He has risen from the dead. They marveled
at Peter, and I'll tell you this, if I preach the gospel and anyone
is saved, don't look at me, I didn't do anything. It's Christ. He
did it. It is His power. And so we preach
the gospel of Christ and there is salvation and power only in
the name and by the authority of Christ. And if there's any man that is
lame, I point men to the only source of healing, Christ. I remember my own experience.
Many times I realized this fact. I could not come to Christ. You that know Christ, do you
remember that? When you realized your sin and your inability to
come, the hopelessness you felt? You see, I'm talking to those
people. I'm talking to those people. I realize my inability. But then by the authority of
Christ, He came to me and touched me and healed me, and He did
that to you. How was this man made whole? This man was made
whole. Look at this in verse 16. And
His name, Jesus' name, through faith in His name, hath made
this man strong, whom you see and know, yea, the faith which
is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence
of you all." What makes a lame man walk? You that were lame
and now walk, what made you walk? How did you come to Christ? You came by faith. It's faith. This man believed Christ. He believed in the authority
of Christ. And he was raised up from his
lameness. This is how we come to Christ.
We come to Christ by faith in Him. And all that come to Christ
by faith are saved. And you that came to Christ,
are you not still coming to Christ? Do you not still come by faith?
I do. I still come. I'm coming right
now. I believe Him now. I trust Him
now. We come by faith in the finished
work of the redemption of Christ. There are none that are ever
made spiritually whole without faith. You must believe. No man can believe for you. You must believe. And all who believe, my friends,
are made whole. But where religion gets this
wrong is that they think the faith comes from within a man.
Look at that verse 16 again. I want you to notice this. In
the middle of the verse it says, "...the faith which is by Him."
Not by the man, but the faith which is by Christ. How do we
have faith? It is a gift of God. Faith is
a gift of God. We are given faith to believe.
Just like this man was given strength in his ankle bones,
that's what faith is. It gives us the strength in our
bones and it causes us to rise up and to come to Christ. Faith. Faith. Faith is the channel by
which the blessings of God flow to us. You see, preachers are the means
by which the message of Christ is declared unto men, but we
are not the means of faith. I can't give you faith. I can't. You wouldn't want my faith if
I could give it to you. It's not worth anything. I couldn't
give you my faith and I wouldn't want you to have my faith. It's
so weak. But I know this. Christ gives
faith to everyone He heals. Faith is necessary. Believing
the truth of Jesus Christ is necessary. And it is by this
faith that we come and see the acceptance that we are accepted
by God through the blood of Jesus Christ. And lastly, I want us
to see the whole man's affection. When his man was made whole,
I want us to see what he did. Look at this. Go back in your
Scriptures to verse 8. And he, leaping up, stood and
walked and entered with them into the temple, walking and
leaping and praising God. This man, first of all, stood. He stood. This man had not any
strength. He had never known what it was
to stand up, and yet there he was standing. He stood. He stood. And so does every believer. When we come to faith in Christ,
we stand. in Christ. We stand in this. Salvation is of the Lord. And just as this man didn't know
how to stand, yet he stood. So many of us, when we believe
in Christ, we say, Lord, help our unbelief. Why? We never believed
before. We don't know what that is. But
yet here we are believing. Here we are standing in this.
We don't know much, but we know this. Salvation is of the Lord. We know this, salvation is of
the Lord. Just as a blind man said to those
men, he said, I don't know who he was or where he came from,
but I know this, once I was blind, but now I see. I know that. I
know that. And this man says, I don't know
how in the world these ankle bones came together. I don't
know what happened inside my ankles, but I know this, I'm
standing. I know this, I'm standing up, that I never stood before.
A true believer may not know the systematic theology, he may
not fully grasp the nature of his depravity, he may not know
the absolute perfectness of God in His holy nature, but he does
know this, that salvation did not come from me, it came from
God. It came from the Lord. And He will stand in this. He'll
stand in this, I know not why God's wondrous grace to me He
hath made known, nor why unworthy Christ in love redeemed me for
His own. I know not how God's saving faith
to me He hath made known, nor how believing in His Word brought
peace within my heart. But I tell you this, I know whom
I have believed. and am persuaded that He is able
to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." I
know that. I know whom I believed. I know Him. And number two, He
walked. Notice this, He didn't need therapy.
I noticed that. You know, Joanne and Tammy, y'all
had therapy. Y'all had to get the knees replaced
and you couldn't walk. And then how did they have to
do that? To teach you how to walk. This man didn't have to
learn how to walk, did he? He just walked. He just started
walking. And so is he that never knew
how to walk, immediately knows how to walk. So with us who were
born of God, we were born walking with God. We were born walking
with God. No man had to teach us how to
come to communicate with God. No man had to teach us how to
cry unto God, did they? We cried naturally. We cried
naturally. No man had to say, oh, you're
supposed to now cry unto God. No! I knew I needed to cry unto
God. I knew I needed communion with
God. Remember when Adam... When God
came down in the cool of the day, why? He was walking with
Adam. And Adam was walking with Him.
God and man walking together. And yet when sin came, there
was a separation between God and man. And now then, we that
have come by faith in Christ, we come walking with God. Serving God. You see, we didn't
know how to serve God, did we? But yet we did it anyway. We
did it anyway. Why? They shall all be taught
of God. God taught us. God showed us. We were taken from underneath
the yoke of bondage and put under the yoke of God. And we served
Him gladly and communed with Him. And number three, He entered
into the temple leaping and praising God. who come to God by faith,
who come to Christ and are made whole, all who continue in faith
will continue in the worship of God." Notice that's the first
place he went. I like that. He was at the temple. He was raised. And you know where? He didn't want to go back and
talk to his mom and dad about his legs being healed. He didn't
have to go tell his friends or anything. He walked into the
temple. He said, I'm going to praise God. And God's people
will walk with God and they will leap and praise and worship God. You can imagine the joy of this
man as he walked into that temple. He could not before and now he
can. Now he can. Can you imagine the
joy of that? How much more joy should it be
every time we walk through that door? Every time we walk through
that door and hear the gospel and you say, preacher, I understand
that. Well, you should be leaping and
praising God if you understand what I'm saying. Because there's
a multitude of people who cannot. There's a multitude of people
who would hate to be in that chair where you're at right now.
And here you are. walking and leaping and praising
God. Now, I don't mean jump over the
pews. No, we're not talking about that. We're not talking about
there's a bunch of people that run up and down the aisle and
leap and jump around and they have no idea who Christ is. I'm
talking about leaping and praising God in your heart for what He
has done for you. And that's what we come here
for. You see, I come here to remind you of things. I didn't
come here to tell you anything new. You that have been raised,
you know what I'm talking about. And yet this should instill joy
inside of us every time we hear it. Every time we hear it. And somebody says, well, preacher,
I know that. You're a pretty blessed fellow if you know that
fully and you don't need to be reminded. I need to be reminded. I need to be reminded of God's
great love and mercy for me and how He healed my lameness and
my inability to come. And now, here I am, this morning,
I come. I come to Christ. He is my all
and everything, and I'm leaping and praising God in my heart
this morning. I pray, Lord, bless this to our
hearts.