Turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter
3. It is so good to be reminded,
isn't it, that in the book of Acts we actually see the continuing
works of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our great God, our great God
and Creator, our great God and Redeemer is alive right now. He's alive and He's reigning
right now. Our great God and Redeemer does
not change. He says, I will never, never,
never, never leave you nor forsake you. What a great blessing it
is. In the Book of Acts we actually
have the witness of the continuing works of the Lord Jesus Christ. which is why in this miracle
before us we actually see it so wonderfully typifying the
miracles that He did. See, the Lord Jesus Christ on
the tree has put away sin, for then He must have suffered once
since the foundation of the world, but now, Hebrews 9.26, in the
end of the world He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. And now where is He? He's on
the throne of this universe. He is alive. What did He say
to those apostles? He says, because I live, you
also shall live. He's on the throne. Therefore,
Hebrews 7.25, wherefore He is able to save them to the uttermost
that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession
for them. One of the things that is so
disheartening to me about theological discussions of all sorts is that
they almost appear so often that the Lord Jesus is some object
to be discussed by men and to be debated and tossed around.
And I don't encourage any of you to go into debates. Our job,
our task is to simply proclaim who He is. keep proclaiming who
He is. This miracle is sandwiched between
these remarkable declarations of the Gospel. We'll spend some
weeks looking at Acts chapter 2, and Peter just describes the
Lord Jesus Christ as He is, and he describes the Lord Jesus Christ
as He is right now, exactly as the Old Testament scriptures
described Him to be. And then sandwiched in between
This glorious declaration, which is repeated again in Acts 3.13
down, and repeated again in Acts 4, is this miracle, this remarkable
miracle. It says in Acts 2, as we saw
earlier, that many other wonders and signs, Acts 2.43, were done
by the apostles. But as you read through the book
of Acts, you don't see a lot of wonders and signs done by
the apostles. Just as John said that if you
actually wrote the story of the Lord Jesus Christ, this earth
couldn't contain the books that should be written. So much has
he done, so much is he doing. When we have miracles like this
described in the scriptures, they are there for a very specific
purpose. They are there carefully selected
out of hundreds and hundreds of miracles in that apostolic
age, hundreds of miracles that point to the Lord Jesus Christ,
but also they validate the Gospel that's proclaimed. That was this
miracle. It was a validation and it gave
opportunity, but also this miracle is recorded because we'll see
in Acts chapter 4, that this was a miracle that brought the
first persecution upon the church. That opposition that the Lord
Jesus encountered in Nazareth, the opposition that followed
Him all the days of His earthly ministry, and then the rest of
Acts you'll find that that persecution followed the apostles. When the
Gospel is proclaimed, there will be opposition and there will
be division. There will be a challenge. And
there will be a revelation, a revelation of God, a revelation of sinners,
and a revelation of religion. And I trust that we'll see those
things today. Let's read these verses together. Acts chapter 3. 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 up, stood 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. And they knew that it was He
which sat for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple. And they
were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto
Him. Salvation. It's a remarkable
thing, isn't it? It's a remarkable thing. Salvation
is a deliverance, isn't it? We read about it in Isaiah 61
and the Lord Jesus repeated it in that sermon in Nazareth. It's
a deliverance from bondage. It's a deliverance from the captivity
of sin. It's a deliverance from the world
and the devil. It's the deliverance from man's
religion. It's the deliverance from man's
righteousness. It's the deliverance from the
captivity of this world. It's the deliverance from the
wrath of God. It's the deliverance from death
by the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is. It is something. which is worthy of wonder and
amazement. So let's follow these apostles
on this journey. In verse 1 it says, they went
up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the
ninth hour. The ninth hour was three o'clock
in the afternoon. It was the hour of prayer in
Psalm 55. It says, morning and evening
and at noon I will pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice. It was also the time, three o'clock
in the afternoon, was the time of the evening sacrifice. The
time when the Lord Jesus Christ gave up his spirit. It's the
hour of his death. It is to this temple that the
apostles went and you might wonder why, now that all that the temple
had foreshadowed had arrived, why are they at the temple? They
were at the temple because that's where the people met. They were
at the temple and then the temple course to proclaim the Gospel. They weren't there to go back
to Jewish religion. They were there as an opportunity
to proclaim the Gospel. They were there to meet with
people they cared about and longed for. You might recall from Acts
chapter 2 that they gave themselves steadfastly, these apostles,
they gave themselves steadfastly to the apostles' doctrine and
fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers." They gave
themselves to fellowship steadfastly. They gave themselves to the teaching
of the Gospel, the doctrine of God. They gave themselves to
the breaking of bread and they gave themselves to prayer. Peter
and John went up there at that time of prayer. The Church is
a praying body. The Church prays. God's people
They went up there at this time because this was the place where
God's people had met. This was the place where that
church was gathered again and again and again to bear witness
to the Lord Jesus Christ. They went there because this
was the appointed time for this man to meet with the Lord Jesus
Christ. This was the appointed time for
this man to be gathered to the apostles. This is this certain
man, this certain man, verse 2. I love how the Lord, again
and again, He deals with certain men. He always deals with people
as individuals, certain ones. A certain woman, a certain man,
laying from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily
at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, and asked
alms of them that entered into the temple. It was this glorious
gate. Joseph says there were nine gates
all covered with gold and silver, likewise the side posts and middles.
It was a most glorious structure, these huge gates covered with
gold and silver, but there was one without the temple of Corinthian
brass, which in dignity greatly exceeded the silver and the gold
ones. It was the most magnificent edifice. It covered 25 acres of land. That's over 10 hectares of land
the temple covered. A huge thing. And there it was,
this enormous building, and it was polished white marble. And it glinted from a distance.
And the gold was extraordinary. No wonder the Jews were so envious
of the temple, and so highly esteemed this temple. This beggar was there laid. He was laid there at the gate
of the temple. And from Acts chapter 4, verse 22, we find
out that he was 40 years of age. It took 40 years to build this
temple. He'd been carried there probably
for most of his adult life. He was carried there daily. He's poor, he's helpless. And there are many other poor
and helpless ones there. You can read about them in the
Gospel accounts around the pool of Bethsaida and other places.
There were many people gathered there, but this is a certain
one. When God saves, He saves certain
ones. He saves them on purpose. And He had He had, in the providence
of the Lord, been carried to this place for 40 years. He was lame from his birth. And it is, as you no doubt will
take note, it is just a picture, isn't it, of the crippled state
of our nature as children of Adam. His defect, his infirmity
was a defect of nature. It wasn't a defect of accident.
He'd been lame from his mother's womb. We were fallen in Adam
and we live out our fallen lives as children of Adam in this world
until the grace of God comes along, until God in sovereign
mercy comes. You see, Divine Providence had
brought him to this place at this time. But it's good, it's
interesting to ponder, isn't it? This man had been there for
40 years. The Lord Jesus Christ had been
coming to that temple since he was a baby. For three and a half
years the Lord Jesus had been in and out of those temple gates
every day. every day of those festival times
that he was there. He taught there continually. He and all the devout Jews went
at least three times a year to the temple for those festivals. And there he was. How often it
seems to us, doesn't it, that like this cripple for all of
those years, He had been there unnoticed. It seemed as if the
Lord Jesus Christ had walked by him and walked by him and
walked by him for all of those three and a half years of his
ministry. Do you feel like that sometimes,
brothers and sisters? Do we feel like that for people
that we love and care for, that it seems as if the Lord has walked
by? It seems as if the struggles
of their life, the realities of the sin that's in them and
the sin that's around them has just been ignored. How often
do we feel that the Lord has been merciful to others and we
are left? This is a wonderful picture.
It's a wonderful picture of saving grace. It's a wonderful picture
of prayer answered. It's a wonderful picture of the
way God sustains His people in circumstances which are so extraordinarily
difficult, and yet He sustains them until there's that time
of love, that time when Christ is revealed to them. He is Jehovah
Rapha. He is the Lord that healeth thee. We have, in this story, I believe,
great reason to keep pleading at the Throne of Grace for those
that we love. When the Gospel has come and
we have been moved and we've seen others completely unmoved,
pray, brothers and sisters, pray. These people gave themselves
steadfastly to prayer. This man sitting there, for all
of those years, is a picture and a stark reminder that with
all of the magnificence of that temple, with all of the rituals,
with all of the priests, all of those activities, the religion
of the Jews was empty and it was desolate. God had left it. The glory of God had departed. There was in that magnificent
temple, there was in the Holy of Holies in that magnificent
temple, there was no mercy seat. They never had the Ark of the
Covenant. God took it away hundreds of
years beforehand as a symbol of the fact that people are needing
to look and God's children look beyond the shadows and they'll
look to the reality that is promised. He is our altar. He is our Ark. He is our Mercy Seat. It's His
blood on that Mercy Seat that saves sinners. And there was
this beggar, each day they'd come and go, morning and evening,
all day, doing their religious duties, and he had received nothing. It had done absolutely nothing
for him whatsoever. There is in the religion of men
As there was in the religion of the Jews, there is so often
something that looks very polished on the outside. That's what the
Lord Jesus said of the Pharisees' religion, wasn't it? They were
like whitewashed tombs. I've just whitewashed our fireplace
at home. It's amazing how many things
you can cover up with whitewash. If you want to cover them up,
you just paint it on thicker and thicker. If you stand back, I
actually took a picture of it the other day with the fire in
it because it looked so nice. And I've covered up so many things,
don't dare go near it with anything and touch so many bits of it,
it'll fall apart. But there it is, covered up.
That's exactly what the Lord Jesus described of that religion,
wasn't it? It's a whitewashed tomb. It looks
very, very fancy on the outside. The inside is full of dead men's
bones. There is in the Jewish religion,
as there is in so much religion, there is so much to impress the
flesh, isn't it? It has wealth, it has talent,
it has influence, it has entertainment, it has rituals and ceremonies,
so much. It has a form of godliness. It
has much of the scriptures in it. They talk much about God,
they talk much about Jesus. But a religion that has no Gospel,
and has no grace, and has no Christ, the Christ that is declared
here, it's a mockery to God. And it leaves the souls of men,
as this beggar was left for those 40 years. See, he had been untouched
in his heart. untouched. But also in this man we actually
see a glorious picture of salvation by grace. You see the remarkable
thing is that he didn't ask for healing. All he'd ever seen in
religion was fleshly activities of men. All he had seen was things
to sustain men in this world. And that's what he asked for,
wasn't it? He didn't even know the depths
of his need. He didn't even know that. He
didn't even ask for that. Verse 3, Peter and John about
to go into the temple. He was asked for alms. He was
asking them for alms. He wanted money. He was unconscious
of his real need and he was unconscious of the cure to his greatest ailment
and how much had this man heard in those last months. How much had he heard and witnessed
as the Lord Jesus went in and out and the people plotted and
schemed. How much had he heard that should
have caused him to think so deeply and seriously, not about his
legs and not about the money, but to think deeply and seriously
about the things of God and the things of eternity. You see,
brothers and sisters, when God describes people as dead in trespasses
and sins, He actually means dead. It's spelt D-A-D and it means
in the scriptures exactly what it means everywhere else. It
means there is no life in them. They cannot see and they cannot
hear. It must, it must be an act of
sovereign grace. Here's a picture of salvation
by sovereign grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's unconscious,
he's unconscious. And Peter, verse 4, fastening
his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave
feed to them. He gave heed to them, expecting
to receive something from them. See, Peter had asked, hadn't
he? He'd asked that crowd, that great multitude from those 15
different nations on the day of Pentecost. He'd asked them
twice. He said, hearken to my words. Listen and take notice
of what I'm saying. You men of Israel, hear these
words. This man gave heed. The children of God. will hear,
and they will hear in the words of God's servants at the time
of love. They will hear a word and a voice
which is much bigger than the words of men. He was, Peter,
just a fisherman from Galilee, but when he stands and speaks
in God's behalf, God will cause his chosen ones to hear him. And Peter said, verse 6, silver
and gold have I none. He said they didn't go up to
the temple to give offerings like the Jews did. Silver and
gold have I none. But such as I have, give I thee. So he hadn't gone up to the temple
to give an offering, he'd gone up to the temple to preach. And they had nothing of themselves,
the apostles. They had nothing of themselves,
because they needed nothing of themselves. But then he has this
glorious word, doesn't he? In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, rise up and walk. And we'll look at more of that
later on. But we have, and we need to remind people again,
that there is, throughout this religious world, in every church
that's meeting today and has met for the last 2,000 years,
there are people who are talking about those words, Jesus Christ. They talk about Jesus, Jesus,
Jesus. As we go through the Book of
Acts and as you read the New Testament, please take note,
brothers and sisters, the apostles, consistently give the Lord Jesus
Christ the title that God gave Him. God gave Him the title Lord
Jesus Christ. God has made this Jesus and you
crucified both Lord and Christ. Almost in every case where the
Lord Jesus is referred to, and it's not to do with the Incarnation,
He's always given His titles. And they always have, they always
have in the scriptures all of the meaning that the apostles
have given us, all of the meaning which the Old Testament has given
us. And so those, when he says in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
he's actually describing a particular Jesus and he's describing a particular
Christ and he's describing a particular Lord. And when people want to
talk about a Jesus who doesn't meet that criteria, they are
talking about what He said was coming. other Jesuses, other
Christs and other spirits. The name of the Lord Jesus Christ
is not just the words and it's not just a name. It is a description
of Him, Jesus Christ and Him crucified, Jesus Christ God in
human flesh, Jesus Christ ruling over this world, Jesus Christ
dying for the sins of His people. Jesus Christ who came with an
everlasting love for his own and with everlasting love for
the cause he draws his people to himself. That's what the Gospels
are describing, isn't it? To talk about a Jesus who loves
everyone and can't get them into heaven because their wills are
so strong. To talk about a Jesus who died
for everyone and yet his death doesn't accomplish their salvation.
to talk about a Jesus who wants to save everyone, but he can't
save them because they're so big and strong and powerful.
It's not talking about the name of this Jesus. That's not the
Jesus that Peter was talking about. That's not the name of
this Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And I love what Peter does. See, so helpless are sinners.
So helpless are they. that he took him by the right
hand and had lifted him up. and immediately his feet and
ankle bones received their strength." So helpless are we, brothers
and sisters, that we need for someone to come and we need to
have someone take us by the hand and to lift us up and carry us,
as it were, with them into the temple. I love those descriptions
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's one in Mark 1.41 where
the Lord Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. He reached out his hand and touched
him. When the Lord Jesus Christ touched
that leper, two things must happen. Either the leper is made perfectly
whole or the Lord Jesus is defiled according to the law. It's remarkable,
isn't it? Our God doesn't change. He still
touches people today. He touches people in the Spirit
as He comes with power in the preaching of the Gospel. I love
how the Lord Jesus looked upon that leper. He was moved with
compassion. He was moved with compassion.
Saved sinners need to be lifted, don't they? They need to be taken
by the hand and lifted up. And saved sinners need to receive
strength, strength from outside of themselves to stand, to walk,
and to join in the Church. So it was immediately that this
man was made whole, wasn't he? Immediately. It was a miracle
which had all the fingerprints of the Lord Jesus Christ stamped
all over it. If you were a detective and you
had to work out who did this, who did this miracle, there's
only one person in all of Israel that had been performing those
miracles. He entered into the temple with Peter and John, walking
and leaping and praising God. a remarkable picture of what
happens when the Lord Jesus saves someone. There is a walking and
there is a leaping and there is a praising God. And they do
it into the temple. They enter into the temple with
Peter and John walking and leaping and praising God. O the inexpressible
joy, says my friend Mr Hawker, when at the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, and in the power of his strength, poor crippled
sinners, yea, dead sinners, and from their mother's womb, dead
in trespasses and sins, are called into spiritual life, and walk
and leap, and enter with the Lord Jesus into the temple, and
the galleries of his grace, walking and leaping and praising God. Song of Solomon has a beautiful
description, doesn't it? He brought me into the banqueting
house, into his banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. My beloved spoke to me, rise
up, my love, my fair one, and come away. He came with them into the temple,
didn't He? He was now one with them to hear more of the Lord
Jesus, who by His sovereignty and His almighty power, He had
received this new life. And He clung to them. He was
cleaved to them. He has now a strength that He
didn't ever have before. It's not a reformation, is it? It's a regeneration. It's a new
life altogether. Isaiah 40 gives these remarkable
descriptions, isn't it? He gives power to the faint,
and to them that have no might he increases strength. Even ewes
shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. And
the word renew doesn't mean to reform your strength. To make
yourself a little bit better, it means to change your strength
altogether, to have strength from outside of yourself. They
shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not
be weary, they shall walk and not faint. He'd been waiting for 40 years.
It seems like a long time, doesn't it? It must have seemed to so
many that the Lord had passed him by while others he was calling. But the Lord's timing is always
perfect. The Lord's timing here, this
man, like that blind man in John's Gospels, He had been left blind
all of that time that the wonderful works of the Lord Jesus Christ
might be displayed. And He now has been in glory
for all this time. Those 40 years, those 40 years
of seeming left, those 40 years of helplessness disappeared in
an instant, brothers and sisters, in the presence of His God and
with His people. I will go, says Psalm 71, I will
go in the strength of the Lord, I will make mention of thy righteousness,
of thine only. Our God, our God is a mighty,
all-sufficient Saviour. This is our great God. Norm read it to you a little
while ago. to appoint unto them that morn is iron, and to give
unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, a garment
of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called the
trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be
glorified. These people saw Him, didn't
they? They all saw Him, Acts 3 verse 9, and they all saw Him
walking and praising God. And they knew that it was He
which sat for arms at the beautiful gate of the temple. And they
were filled with wonder and amazement. Are you filled with wonder and
amazement at saving grace, brothers and sisters? Are you filled with
wonder and amazement? of the Lord Jesus Christ, are
you filled with wonder and amazement at the wayside sinners, the wayside
helpless, dead sinners. There's wonder at the diapentacost,
there's wonder at the preaching of the gospel, there's wonder
when the Lord is revealed again in this remarkable miracle. As
this man is brought into that temple, Grace, we speak much
of it because it's how we're saved. This man had nothing to
offer God. He, like a thief on the cross,
had no good works and no ability to do any good works. And immediately
he was made whole, completely healed, perfectly fit, like those
swans that the Lord added to the church daily. At that moment,
they're perfectly fit for Heaven's glory. Religion is busy, isn't
it? Getting people to do and to do
and to do, and to act and to act and to act. But there is
something remarkable about the fact that in saving grace, it
is God who's the one who acts. Our task, and the Church's task,
as we'll see, was simply to proclaim the Gospel. The Gospel was proclaimed
in Acts 2. Then this miracle happens in
Acts 3, and immediately the response of Peter is to proclaim the Gospel.
And then persecution happens at the beginning of Acts 4, and
Peter's response is what? To immediately proclaim the Gospel.
And they put him in jail, and they tell him to stop, and what
does he do when he's read out? He goes straight back to the temple
courts, and he proclaims the Gospel. Again and again, we must,
if the Lord will allow us the grace, to keep our eyes fixed
on the task appointed for His people in this world, is to proclaim
the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the power of God
unto salvation. The Jewish religion had no power
of God because it had no Gospel. It had what they called a Christ
and they were looking forward to Him. It had what they called
a God, and yet the very God of this universe came amongst them
and for three years He said, I am God. And you have three
years to examine me. You can examine me upside down,
inside out. You can have even one of my close
companions for over three years. And you can have him and you
can examine him. And he can say at the end of
his life, can any one of you accuse me of any sin? is to miss everything, brothers
and sisters. It doesn't matter how much religion
there is. To miss Him is to miss absolutely
everything. These people knew their Bible
off by heart. If you had challenged them about
their devotion to God, they would have been as irate as they were
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet they were lost. They
were lost. the wonder of redeeming love
and the wonder of superabounding grace, the unsearchable riches
of Christ. Because it always gives much
more than we realize. This man thought if he had a
few pennies he'd be a little bit better off and he'd sleep
a bit better and rest with a full tummy that night. But superabounding
grace gives much more than we need. It gives us more than even
we know and desire, doesn't it? It's grace. It's grace that carried
him to a place where the Gospel is preached. It's grace of God
and the providential grace of God, the intravenous grace, the
grace that goes before salvation, had left this man crippled but
had taken him to the one place, the one place where the Lord
Jesus passes by in saving mercy. It's grace of God to have our
need revealed. It's the grace of God that brings
God's people into the company of the Lord's servants. It's
the grace of God that brings spiritual healing in the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ, adjoining with His people. It's the grace
of God that causes people to praise Him. It's the grace of
God that causes a witness to see the Gospel preached. He was,
for many years, considered by so many as they walked by, to
be under the curse of God, to be someone that God had overlooked. And like that blind man, people
would have said, wouldn't they, so often, who sinned? Did he
sin or did his parents sin? There would have been, in that
man lying there, such an exhibition of self-righteousness. What a
revelation of the depth of our wickedness when we see others
and we think, there but for the grace of God go I. See, that's
a statement from the Pharisee at the Temple, brothers and sisters. The publicans stood a long way
off and said, Lord, be merciful to me, thee sinner. May God humble us. that when
we see others, we would not be called to look down upon them
at all. We are crippled beggars, brothers
and sisters. And as Colossians 2 says, as
therefore you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so you walk in
him. The reality is that God's children walk through this world
crippled. We walk through this world We
walk through this world like the Shulamite did at the end
of Song of Solomon. She comes up out of the wilderness,
leaning on her Beloved. You never grow beyond the need
that this cripple had to be with the Lord, to receive strength
and power from Him. That's the power of this miracle,
isn't it? It's the revelation of the Lord
Jesus Christ in it. We go back to verse 16 and we'll
just look at this briefly in closing. Peter had said in verse 6 that
in this name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you rise up
and walk in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in verse 16,
if we go down there, it says, And His name, through faith in
His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yea, the
faith which is by Him, the faith which is by the Lord Jesus Christ,
has given Him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. There is, in the Lord Jesus Christ,
the faith in His name. There is this remarkable declaration
of the Gospel, isn't there? You see, I love what verse 6
says, if you go back and look at it with me. He says, I don't
have any silver and I don't have any gold. I don't have any of
those things. I don't have any of the things
that the world esteems. But see, I have something. See,
there is in the possession of the Church, I have. There is in the possession of
the Church. the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it's the gift. It comes as a gift, isn't it?
Such as I have, I give thee. Such as I have, I give to thee. Not that you will earn it. Grace
comes to those who have nothing in them that warrants that grace
to be given. Grace is unmerited. It needs
to be said again and again, grace is unmerited, it is unsought
for, it is unbought, it is eternal grace, it is covenantal grace,
it is grace that is always in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is
His. But in the Church, which represents
Him in this world, there is this possession. It's a deposit, isn't
it? It is the things that are commonly
believed among us. There is power in the name of
the Lord Jesus. Let's just read some scriptures.
We said earlier that to be saved means to be delivered. There
is, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, a great deliverance,
isn't it? To be delivered from the kingdom
of darkness in Colossians. You give thanks unto the Father
which has made us meet. perfect, made us qualified to
be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who has
delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into
the kingdom of His dear Son. It's the work of God. We have been delivered from the
curse of the law. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. We're being delivered
from the grave, the deadness of trespasses and sins. You are
dead in trespasses and sins. No matter how shamanic it looks
on the outside, people are dead in trespasses and sins. You,
as he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, and one
day we'll be delivered from the grave of death. and may he shall
change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his
glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even
to subdue all things unto himself. In this name, sins are forgiven. The declaration that sins were
dealt with by the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree. To
him, Acts 10.43, to him give all the prophets witness that
through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission
of sins. It's remarkable, isn't it, to
think that sins are blotted out. Blotted out. They are separated
from us. They are separated from us as
far as the east is from the west. They are cast into the depths
of the sea. They are put behind the back of God. They are remembered
no more. We have We have an advocate for
the Father, with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our
sins and not only ours, but also for the sins of the whole world,
the whole world of His elect. You see, people who are in need
in a courtroom need an advocate. Those who are brought to the
court of justice need an advocate, someone to plead for them. There
is, in this name, in this declaration of who our Lord Jesus Christ
is, eternal life. And this is the record, John
5. God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His
Son. He that has the Son has life,
and he that has not the Son has not life. These things I have
written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God. To believe on the name of the
Son of God is to believe all of what Peter and the apostles
are declaring the Lord Jesus Christ to be, who He is and what
He has done and what He is doing now. These things that you may
believe on the name of the Son, that you may know that you may
know. Salvation's not a walk in the
dark, it's not a stumbling around in the fog, it's walking in the
light, brothers and sisters, that you may know that you have
eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son
of God, John 5.13. It is a glorious name and He
alone is the only one worthy to wear that name. He is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He was given the name Jesus by
Matthew, wasn't he? It means Jehovah is salvation. That was his name. His title
is Messiah, Jesus Christ the Anointed One. But in their descriptions
of Him, they want people, they want these Jews especially, and
we'll see more of it in Acts chapter 4. They want them to
know very clearly that when they are talking about the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ, they're talking about one very specific
one, isn't it? It's Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
this one who took the lowest place amongst the Jews. Can anything
good come out of Nazareth? Can anything good come out of
Galilee? Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God
raised up from the dead. This is the name of our great
God and Saviour. See, he has a name according
to Philippians 2, a name that is above all names. As I said
earlier, his father, earthly father Matthew gave him a name. You'll call his name Jesus for
he will save his people from their sins. But he has another
name, doesn't he? He has a name. God has highly
exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. To name the name of Jesus is
to declare that He is God Almighty in human flesh. God Almighty
a man sitting upon the throne of this universe. God Almighty
a man still doing the things that He did 2000 years ago, still
coming to His own crippled beggars and bringing healing. still bringing
them light, still bringing them with his apostles by their teaching
into his temple. God calls him, the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, when fishermen from
Galilee are sitting in their boats in Galilee. They look very,
very ordinary indeed. When they stand as God's witnesses
to the Lord Jesus Christ, they take on a different meaning altogether,
don't they? They have an authority. They
have an authority as God's ambassadors. They speak on God's behalf. They
speak, as we saw at seeing this miracle, they speak with God's
power. They speak bringing a very word
from Heaven. Peter spoke to this man and he
reached out his hands and touched him. But it wasn't Peter's power
that healed him. It wasn't Peter's power that
brought him into the temple. It wasn't Peter's power that
joined him with the church. It was all from above. This miracle is performed as
God's word is proclaimed. Brothers and sisters, those who
look on these things with awesomeness and wonder will look upon their
salvation with awe and wonder. would look upon me, that God
would pass by and look upon sinners like us, and at the time of love
He will speak into the hearts of His. We, like this man, were
dead to all the things of this world. We were dead to the Lord's
character, we were dead to His ability, we were dead to His
grace. So many that we love have heard the words of the Gospel
again and again about how our great God saves by sovereign
grace. But there is a time, brothers
and sisters, there is a time in the life of all God's blood-born
children when they will hear a different word, and it will
be a word with power from on high. and they will be raised. They will be raised to newness
of life and they will walk. They will walk in a new way altogether. They will walk with the Lord. They will walk with His people.
They will walk with those that declare His Gospel. They will
be walking and leaping and they will be the ones who praise God. Millions of Jews went to that
temple thinking that they were worshipping God. And only these,
only these will really worship in God. I'll just read a few
words out of Psalm 116 and we can finish. In verse 12, what
shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? These are great words, aren't
they? I will take the cup of salvation
and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto
the Lord now in the presence of all his people. 17. I will offer to thee the sacrifice
of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord. 18. I will pay my vows unto the Lord
now in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the
Lord's house, and in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord. 19. My people, shall be satisfied
with my goodness says the Lord. Let's pray.