All of this Word of God, all of the Word of God was written
for one reason only. One reason only. Every book,
every chapter, every verse, it was written for one reason only.
And that's to point men and women to Christ. That's the whole reason
it was written. We need Christ, and so God wrote
this word for us. It's to reveal Christ, that's
what it's for. It has been said that the scriptures
are bifocal. And they are. They're bifocal. Every story, every account has
a physical side to it. It has a physical view, a physical
application, but more importantly, every scripture that is written
has a spiritual application. It was all written to teach us
something spiritual. The spiritual truth. Go with
me to 2 Peter chapter 1. 2nd Peter chapter 1 verse 20 knowing this first If we're gonna
study God's Word, if we're gonna read this Word and learn anything
through this Word, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the
Scripture is of any private interpretation. Nobody wrote anything in this
book of their own will, of their own accord. I was watching a
documentary a while, years ago, and there were, you know, these
theologians talking about Paul, you know, and he wrote this is
where he was at this stage of his life, but then he learned
some things and he changed and that's why he wrote it this way
over here. That is total hogwash. Verse
21 says, For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of
man, but holy men of God spake, moved by the Holy Ghost. You
see that? They did speak as they were.
But I love, if you take those words out, I love how it says,
holy men of God spake, moved by the word of, moved by the
Holy Ghost. That's what it says, moved by
the Holy Ghost. God used men to pen this word. And they wrote their own experiences. They felt and they lived what
they wrote. David, bless his heart, he committed
adultery with Bathsheba and he felt his sin. He wrote against
thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.
That was a real physical side to that verse of scripture. But
God allowed every bit of that to happen for a spiritual application,
for spiritual good, spiritual truth. And it's the same thing
with our text tonight. It's the exact same thing with
this text. Now let's go to Acts chapter 3. Acts chapter 3, and if the Lord
will be merciful, and if He'll get your ears past my voice,
this is a wonderful story. really is. This is an amazing
miracle, physical miracle. But by God's grace we're going
to see a spiritual miracle. Verse 1 says, Now Peter and John went up together
into the temple at the hour of prayer being the ninth hour.
Peter and John, God's messengers, there's not one account in the
scripture of anybody being saved without God sending them a messenger. There's not one account. So verse 1 says, Peter and John
went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer being the
ninth hour. Their day started at six o'clock
in the morning. That's 3 p.m. And that hour was the time of
the evening sacrifice. That's what was going on at 3
p.m., the evening sacrifice. And before we get into any of
this, let's acknowledge the sacrifice. Let's start right there. This chapter begins by saying,
these men went up at the ninth hour. Let's start at the sacrifice. This is all happening at the
time of and because of this sacrifice. It's the exact same for you and
me. This is the story of you and me. This man, this is me. This man is me. Why have any of God's mercies
come to us? You know what the answer is?
A sacrifice. That's the whole reason. because
of a sacrifice. I am what I am by the grace of
God. Grace means gift. You know what
that gift was? A sacrifice. A sacrifice. Verse 2 says, And
a certain man... All of God's people are certain
people, aren't they? They're chosen, particular, loved
on purpose people. Look at what it says right here.
Verse 2 says, "...and a certain man, lame." Lame means crippled. Can't walk. Can't stand. No ability. Lifeless in his legs and his
feet. Lame. That's me. That's you and me. We cannot
walk before God. We cannot stand in His presence. No ability to come to Him. You
know the commandment is come to Christ? No ability to come
to Him. None. No ability to call on Him. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. No ability to call on Him. None. No ability to do anything, any
work before Him. Why? Lifeless. Totally lifeless. What do you mean? Physically?
No. Spiritually. Spiritually. Go over to Romans 3. Romans 3 verse 10 says, As it
is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that
understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. What do you mean? We're seeking
after God. No, we're not. I'm going to show you that. We're
not. Romans 3, verse 12. They are
all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Even the preacher? No. Not one. Not one. Back over to Acts chapter
3. Verse 2 says, And a certain man
lame from his mother's womb. He didn't become like this. He was always like this. Always. Go with me over to Psalm 51. Psalm 51 verse 3. David says, I acknowledge my
transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee,
thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear
when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. And in sin did my mother conceive
me. I was conceived in this. I didn't
become this. I have always been this. Look at Psalm 58 verse 3. The wicked are estranged from
the womb. They go astray as soon as they
be born, speaking lies. That's me. That's you. The way you're gonna know a wicked
person is they speak lies. That's me, that's you. We can't
deny it, can we? We cannot deny this. Nobody had
to teach me how to lie. My dad never sat me down and
taught me how to lie. Not one time. I came forth speaking
lies. We are not sinners because we
sinned. We sin because we're sinners. That's why. There's none that
do us good. The scripture says, Seek the
Lord. And that would be a good thing,
wouldn't it? Man, that would be a good thing. Turn to Psalm
14. Psalm 14 verse 2, the Lord looked
down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. No, not one. I've had different people tell
me this before. And it's so sad and it's what
everybody thinks. There's a little bit of good
in everybody. Somewhere down there, there's
a little bit of good. And you know, we hear that and we just
think, oh, that's poor things. People believe that. I mean,
they believe that. There's got to be a little bit
of good. There's a little something that makes you want to open the
door for somebody, or there's a little bit of good in there.
You know what God says? No. Not one. Not one. Not one sinner has ever
sought the Lord. Not one. What are we doing here then?
How did we get here? Here's how we got here. Go to
Isaiah 65. Isaiah 65 verse 1 says, I am salt of them that asked
not for me. You know that scripture our Lord
says, ask and you shall receive. Nobody has ever asked. Isn't
that something? Nobody. This gospel declaration,
it's all good news. Every bit of it. It's all good
news. And it all requires nothing of
us. Ask and you'll receive. And we
cannot do any of it. If we could just ask, we would
receive. Nobody has ever asked. He said
right here, I am sought of them that asked not for me. I am found of them that sought
me not. They were never even looking. Never even looking. I said, behold me. Behold me unto a nation that
was not called by my name. You know what that means? That
means the Lord is good. It means the Lord is good. Our
Lord is so good. You know, we in the gospel, we
preach the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So help us God.
And we tell people about sin because it's the truth. We got
a fire pit at our house in the backyard. And in the spring and
in the fall we like to have a fire. And I'll start it up and I believe
with all my heart there has not been one time that I built a
fire that I didn't tell Isabella and Sophie, don't touch that
fire. Don't run around that fire. Do
not fall into that fire. Every time, don't I? That's why
we talk about sin every time. It's because I love them. I love
them. Don't... People don't want to
hear it, do they? Don't tell me that again. I got
to. I love you. I said, behold me unto a nation
that was not called by my name. The Lord is so good. He's so
good. We teach this. We preach this.
We talk about sin. We talk about the warnings. And
it's because the Lord is so good. It's because He is so good. It's
all good news. Go over to John 6. John 6 verse 44 says, No man can come to me, except
the Father which hath sent me draw him. And I will raise him
up at the last day. Now do you remember the story
we just read? What's going to happen to this man? The Lord
said, No man can come to me. except the Father which hath
sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day."
Verse 45 says, it is written in the prophets, and they shall
be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard, and faith comes by hearing, every
man that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh
unto me." Every person that the Lord opens that ear and every
person that hears his voice something happens in that person and they
come, every single one. So back over in Acts chapter
3 verse 2 says, and a certain man
lame from his mother's womb was carried. Was carried. He was brought. He couldn't come
on his own. The man was brought. So was I. So was I. I was brought. Who brought him? Well, physically
it says they did. It says whom they laid daily
at the gate of the temple which is called beautiful. But what
really brought this man? What really brought this man
to the exact place at the exact time he needed to be there for
the eternal good of his soul? What really brought this man?
Here's the answer. Grace brought this man. Grace
brought this man. Turn to 480. This is a this song. This is a wonderful song. 480 verse one says. In tenderness. He sought me. I was the one who
was weary and sick with sin. And on his shoulders brought
me back to his fold again. While angels in his presence
sang until the courts of heaven rang. Oh, the love that sought
me. Oh, the blood that bought me.
You know, we're going to be singing this in glory in some way, shape
or form. We're going to be singing this.
We're all going to be singing. Oh, the love that sought me.
Oh, the blood that bought me. Oh, the grace that brought me
to the fold, wondrous grace that brought me to the fold. Verse
2 says, He washed the bleeding sin wounds and poured in oil
and wine. He whispered to assure me, I've
found thee, thou art mine. I never heard a sweeter voice,
yet made my aching heart rejoice. Oh, the love that sought me.
Oh, the blood that bought me. Oh, the grace that brought me
to the fold. Wondrous grace that brought me
to the fold. Isn't that good? Oh, the love that sought me.
The blood that bought me. The grace that brought me. That's
what brought this man. Grace brought this certain man.
The faith of Christ, the faith that begins with Christ and ends
with Christ and belongs to Christ and is given by Christ, the faith
of Christ brought this man. God's providence brought this
man. God's purpose brought this man.
He was predestinated to this. And so were all of us. Every
single thing that's happened to you in your life has happened
on purpose in order to bring you to this spot right now. Every
single thing that's ever happened to you. I was predestinated to be here.
I remember when you had the conference eight years ago in the Renaissance
Center, the big conference. I came to it, had no idea I was
going to pastor this church. Sitting there, just enjoying
the preaching like everybody else. I was predestinated to it. I
was brought. God brought me. He brought us
all. Verse 2 says, 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. This man came the only way he
could come, as a beggar. That's the only way he could
come. That's the only way we can do anything, as beggars.
What do we have that we have not received? What do we have
that we have not received? This man was a beggar. Verse
3 says, Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple,
asked an alms. Something for the flesh. You
know that's why people go to church in the first place usually? You know that? Something for
the flesh. You know, I got in a bad way
and I'm down, I need to get pumped back up. Something to glorify my flesh.
Something to make me feel better about me. Something to make things
go a little easier for me. Could you give me something that
would make this life go a little bit easier for me? We all come
for different reasons and usually it's the wrong reason. But if
we belong to God, He is gonna bring us, we're gonna be brought
for the right reason. The one reason only. Verse 4 says, And Peter, fastening
his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. This is not
a general thing. This message that goes out, this
is not a general. We are to preach to all the world.
But whenever God applies this message, when the Holy Ghost
takes this message and applies it to a sinner, it's not a general
thing. It's a very individual thing. You look on us. God's about to
perform an operation on this one man. That's how He operates,
individually. Verse 5 says, And He gave heed
unto them, this crippled man, He gave heed unto them, expecting
to receive something of them. He still has no idea. Something
amazing is about to happen to him, and he has no idea. No idea. I think about people who come
in any church that preaches the truth. Who knows why they came?
Maybe they want to date somebody there. Who knows why they came? They're the friend of somebody.
Any of them will do, yeah, let's do this one. And they have no
idea that God is about to open their heart. Open their eyes. Open their ears. Show them something
glorious. Break them. Raise them. They
have no idea. No idea at all. Blind all the
way up to the moment that God opens His eyes. The Apostle Paul,
whenever the Lord came to him, he said, Scales fell off of my
eyes. over in Acts chapter 9. If Lord
willing, we'll get there. Scales fell off of my eyes. We're
blind until God opens them. Verse 6 says, Then Peter said,
Silver and gold have I none. And I don't have any silver or
gold either. I don't have any silver or gold. I don't have
anything that's going to make my earthly life for your earthly
life easier and that's what people are looking for you know they'd
like to tap into God's storehouse and all that kind of stuff verse 6 says Peter said silver
and gold have I none but such as I have do you know what I have? God's
Word We have God's Word. What do you all offer down there?
God's Word. What do you have for the children?
God's Word. What do you have for the singles?
God's Word. God's Word. That's all we have.
It's all I have. But such as I have, give I thee. He says in verse six, In the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Nobody is going to do anything
without this name. Nobody is going to do anything
on their own. Nobody is going to do anything
in their own name. But in the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, the commandments come, I can't. The commandment
is ask, I can't. The commandment is seek, I can't.
But He can. In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, His name means Savior. In the name of, in the work of
Jesus Christ, He said, Rise up and walk. Physically, for this man, yes. Spiritually, for you and me. Rise up and walk. I hope we've clearly established
that we're all dead in sin. We don't have any ability to
come to Christ, right? But in the name of Jesus Christ,
I say to you, rise up and walk. What that means is come. Come. We feel so cold and we feel so
dead. You know what the remedy for
that is? Come to Christ. Lord, I'm so cold and I'm so
dead. And you're the only one who can
change that for me. We're down about everything.
We've got problems with everything. There are problems everywhere.
What do we do to that? Come to Christ. Rise up and walk. Come to the Lord Jesus Christ,
but don't physically move a muscle. Spiritually. Don't physically
move a muscle. We don't come to the preacher.
I'm here for everybody. But we don't come to the preacher.
That's coming to the preacher. Right? We don't need a mediator
between man and Christ. Aren't you glad for that? We
don't need a mediator between man and Christ. Christ is the
only mediator between man and God. Come to Christ. We don't come to the preacher.
We don't come down front. This is an operation on the heart.
Every bit of this is on the heart. Every sinner who receives the
miracle of God's Spirit, his heart, his heart. Proverbs 4.23
says, Out of the heart are the issues of life. His heart is
going to do what this man did physically. Bifocal. Okay? His heart is going to do what
this man did physically. Look at verse 7. And he took him by the right
hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and his ankle bones
received strength. And he, leaping up, stood and
walked and entered with them into the temple, walking and
leaping and praising God. Has your heart ever done that
after coming to Christ? Has the Lord ever blessed the
message, blessed the word, blessed Christ in the word to you? Caused
your heart to do that? Did not our heart burn within
us? This man was leaping and praising God. Why? Because God
saves beggars. That's why. He's sitting there watching all
these people in their nice clothes and their nice things go in and
out walking. He can't even walk. All of a
sudden, he too is leaping and praising, walking, running, standing. You think he was trying out his
new legs? God saved beggars. Blind Bartimaeus
was a beggar. That gives me hope. I'm a beggar. That's all I am, is a beggar.
First Samuel 2 verse 8 says this, just listen to it. It says, He
raiseth up the poor out of the dust. That's what happened to
this old man. He raiseth up the poor out of
the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill to set them
among princes and to make them inhabit the throne of glory. We're beggars, aren't we? Well,
the good news is, there's some good news here and it's God saves
beggars. Verse 9 says, 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. It all happened to him. He didn't get saved. God saved
him. Everybody goes around saying,
I got saved. This man didn't get saved. God
saved him. And he knew it. He knew it. God
saved me. He didn't even know it was coming.
God saved him. Verse 11 says, And as the lame
man which was healed hailed Peter and John. Now I want to take
myself out of this portion of it, okay? I'm just one of us. We thank God for his message,
don't we? I thank God for his message.
I spend all my time in there begging God for his message.
Lord, just send me your message. I just want your message. We
thank God for his message. And we hold on to God's messengers. because we're so thankful for
God's message. And I want to take myself out
of this. But wouldn't you love, right now, don't you wish Brother
Tom was sitting here with us right now, after this is over,
wouldn't you love to give him a huge hug and say, thank you
Brother Tom for five, six years every Sunday. Thank you so much. Two hours and two hours. Thank
you. So just hold on to him. I would. We hold on to God's messengers
because we love God's message. It's all about God's word and
God's message. Brother Henry is a wonderful
man. He really is. He is a wonderful man. But that's
not why I love him. You know why I love him? God's
message. That's why I love him. When I
listen to him, I hear God's message. Verse 11 says, And as the lame
man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran
together unto them. They all ran together, just so
excited and thankful for him. Ran together unto them in the
porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering. God's grace
is a great wonder, isn't it? It's a great wonder that God
would have mercy on sinners like us. What a wonder. We don't deserve it. We don't
even come close to deserving it. We can't appreciate it. We can't enter into it. It's
wonderful. It's wonderful. That song says,
wonderful it is to me. I pray the Lord would open my
eyes to it and make it more wonderful to me. I want it to be more and
more wonderful to me. Alright, let's stand together. Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank
you for your word. Lord, we thank you for sending
it to us. Lord, we all heard it, and you
opened our eyes through it, and you blessed our heart because
of it, and you broke our heart because of it, and you saved
our soul through it. Lord, we're so grateful for your
word and your message. We pray, Lord, that you will
help us and keep us in it. Let us not leave it. Let us not
go after other things. Let us just continue to preach
the word. Just preach the word. Let us
continue to love the Word, Lord, desire to only hear the Word.
Help us, Lord, and be merciful to us and watch over us and protect
us, Lord. Keep us and bring us back safely
to worship your holy name again, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.