Acts chapter 3. Acts chapter 3. I pray this will
be an expositional message. I don't think I'll have you turn
anywhere. I just want to go down through this text here. There's
11 verses in Acts chapter 3. I pray it's an evangelical message. That the Lord will use us to
make His people leap. I said, it's lame. And his people
will be glad to hear it. I pray so. But I know, I pray for those
two things. I want to be an expositional
preacher. I want to be an experiential or an evangelical preacher. But I know this is an experimental
message. I know I've experienced it. It's
so with me. More than you know, I pray for
you that it's for you too. I pray it's a blessing for you.
Lord has to bless it. I can't do that. I work as hard
as I can work. I can step as late as I can.
I dream about this. First thing I think of when I
wake up in the mornings, but I just, boy, I beg the Lord,
bless your people. Do something good for them. Wake them up. Make them look
at these things. Look at them. Look down at verse
four. I'll go ahead and jump to that. If I lose you in the
first three verses, here's where I'm gonna tell you ahead of time,
I'm a game planner. I'm gonna catch you back up at verse four.
It said, Peter fastened his eyes upon him with John and said,
look on us. They didn't entertain him. They
didn't go there to give him gifts and make him a cake. He said,
you look at me, look me in the eye. This is important. This is eternal life and death.
This is a message of life and death. This is a man that's lame that's
healed. He walks again and he leaps and
he goes into God's house for the first time. with God's people. He hadn't been there before.
And that's what I want to tell you. That's what we just read
for a scripture reading. The Lord said, go tell John again
how the blind receive their sight and the lame walk and the lepers
are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead's raised up and the
poor have a gospel preached to them. And then tell him again. Lord told him to, didn't he?
It says in verse one, now Peter and John, went up together into
the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. It was
time that they all gathered together to pray, and they were going
there. They'd been there many a time before, and they're going
this time, and they were gonna go up there and pray to God,
and they was gonna do some preaching. They was gonna preach. Verse
two, 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. Now, who's here? We're looking
at Peter, and we have John, those are apostles. And we have this
unnamed lame man. There's a man that can't walk,
he's lame. And he's there, and Peter and
John's there. What's happening? Well, these
two apostles, they're going to the temple. They're gonna go
worship God, and they're gonna preach. And this man, he's out
front. He's not in a temple. He's by
the gate of the temple. And he's begging, trying to get
some money. But this isn't any old beggar.
This isn't any old homeless man with a sign. This is a certain
man. A certain man. Not just any old
man. There's particular people. And he was lame from birth. Paul
heals a man when we get to chapter 14 of Acts, and it says, there
sat a certain man at Lysteria, impotent in his feet. He was
lame in his feet. This man's gonna have his ankles
and his feet strengthened. And he said, being a cripple
from his mother's womb who had never walked. This man was from
his mother's womb, was lame. He had never walked. He never
had, if we could get this. This is all of mankind born of
Adam. We're lame from birth. That's us. We're lame. Every
child of Adam. We have never walked. We could
never walk. I'll tell you what, we will never
walk. You won't do something you can't do. The Lord said,
no man can come to me except my father, which has sent me
drawn. I'll give him every last line. You can't come. That's
a wild difference from everybody else that calls themselves Christians.
And every church that litters this nation, and that's what
it is. It's litter. It's pollution. You can't come. You can't walk. He goes on back
in John 5, he says, search the scriptures for in them you think
you have eternal life. And there they which testify
of me and you will not come to me that you may have life. You
can't come and you won't come. Those Pharisees that he was speaking
to, those real religious people, when he said, you will not come
to me, where were they? They were in the scriptures.
They were reading their Bible every day. He said, you won't
come to me. You won't come to me and you
can't come to me. Old preacher brought up this point and I just,
it was too good not to share. This lame man that's here at
the church house, day in and day out, begging everybody that
comes through those gates, he's to be pitied. He's to be pitied
and he is to be blamed. You can't blame us on the Lord.
You can't blame us on anybody. It's not recorded. He never said,
well, take me inside. Let me go hear the gospel. No, I can't
walk. Give me some good news. He said, nah, I'll stay. You
brought me far enough. I'm going to stay right here
on the outside. I'm going to stay on the fringes
of that church house. Not by the door. I told you that before as an
article there in David Edmondson's bulletin last week. Woe unto
me if I preach not the gospel. I'm aware of that. But woe unto
those that hear it and don't believe it and won't believe
it. Those that they're sitting right
there and two apostles walk past and nobody cares. They're just,
well, there'll be 500 more pass through this gate. If you don't
like that one, just wait, we'll get you another one. There's
a vending machine full of preachers over there. Woe unto them. The Lord took comfort in my people,
didn't he? And he said, you tell them all flesh is grass. You
tell my people that. And you tell them, behold, the
Lord. And he said, you warn them. And if you don't warn them, it's
on you. They had to be warned. That's what he kept going there
in Matthew 11, if we'd read in our text for the scripture reading.
Woe unto thee, Chorazin. Woe unto thee, Bethsaida. For
if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in
Tyre and Sodden, they would have repented a long time ago in sackcloth
and ashes. But I say unto you to be more tolerable for Tyre
and Sodden at the Day of Judgment than for you." How many cars have passed by
in the last 10 minutes? I don't care. I'll go to church someday. There's that one. It's uncomely.
It ain't pretty. Ain't a whole lot of cars in
the parking lot. We'll go to a good one. It's a shame. Where is this man? At the beautiful gate. It says
in verse two, a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried.
We've been carried from conception. We've been carried from before
time began. No man comes to the father, he's
drawn. We're carried. We were carried here tonight.
Whom they led daily at the gate of the temple, which is called
beautiful. What good friends this man had,
or family, whoever it was that brought him. What better thing
could they have done for him than to take him to where God's
proclaimed? What if he's tired? Don't matter
if you're tired, we're carrying you. Get in the car. Get in the cart. Get on the rug. Everybody grab a corner. Make
him go. Good for them. Good friends.
It carried to the gate of the temple and the beautiful gate.
That's a capital B. It's a proper noun. That was
the name of the gate. But that makes you think of somebody
else as beautiful, don't it? A gate's like a door. The Lord
said, I'm the door. You ain't been in that temple.
You ain't been in there where you ain't heard nothing from
God. You got to go through me. I'm the door. If any man enter
in, he shall be saved. We can bring a horse to water,
but you can't make it drink. Many a people, they've set up
that gate of the City of Refuge, and they've never went in that
City of Refuge. Many a people walked past the ark, however
many hundreds of thousands or millions or whatever it was in
that town, except for eight. And they looked at it, and they
made fun of it, and some said, well, that's a magnificent ark. That's a sturdy
ship. I can tell you all the parameters
of it. and never got on the boat. Many sat in faithful church houses. I told you there's the Lord's
church we looked at. Well, we remember these things,
we learned something. And then where they meet's a
church house. Them women met down by the river, and Paul said,
they just want to be in prayer. We'll go down by the river. You
don't have to be in a building, but many people sat in faithful
church houses. They're in the pews and they
hear the gospel day in and day out, and they've never sat in
Christ. They rest their bottoms on a pew where the gospel is
preached, and they never rest in Him who is the gospel. Enter ye in at the straight gate,
for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction,
and many there be which go thereat. You know why they go the wide
way and the easy way? How narrow is it? It's one man
wide. He said, I'm the door, I'm the
gate. It's a person. It's not an experience or a theological
position or a dissertation. It's a person. If the Lord put
it in our hand to bring a loved one, that's gonna be somebody
we cannot help, and we could not provide for, and we could
not mend. We can't do it. But to bring them to the feet
of Christ, where his words proclaimed, maybe, just maybe, he would pass
by and draw them to himself. He ain't gonna do it on the lake.
He ain't gonna do it at the fishing hole, or the tree stand, or the
movie theater. He's gonna do it where his words
proclaim. When do these people bring them? Daily. We bring our
loved ones and our children before the Lord in prayer daily. We
pray for them. Prayer of a righteous man availeth
much. Lord ain't done this for me.
You ask him? No. Well, ask him. Ask him. He'd be amazed what I do. What's
happening here? This man's at the house of God.
I thought this too. He was begging out front of church
house. Why don't people beg in front of casinos? A lot of losers walking out of
that place, but buddy, if there's a winner, they're going to be
happy. They'd probably be generous. People don't beg in front of
casinos, do they? I've been by a lot of casinos. They go churches.
I guess people feeling guilty. I ain't won the lottery. But this man was here, he's looking
for something that he wants and he thinks he needs, and he's
looking for money. He's looking for financial means.
Look at verse two. 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. That's a beautiful
gate. To ask alms of them that entered into the temple. He went
there to beg for alms, to ask for a handout. And you know,
some people come to church for money. That's so, that's something
I've had to experience a little bit, had to deal with. But some
people come looking for a handout. Some people come for socializing.
They can have friends, and they have somebody to talk with and
chat about the current events, or modern medicine, or whatever. Have something to talk about.
Just to have friends. Some people come to be seen.
That way others say, well, they go to church regularly. They
don't hardly ever miss. They never get Sunday-itis. You
ever notice that people are fine Saturday night, they party all
night. Well, Sunday morning, they get sick as a dog to about
1230 p.m. All of a sudden, I'm feeling a lot better. Some come to get a warm, fuzzy
feeling. They just want to know that they're doing OK, that they're
doing a good job or everything's going to be all right. Some people
come to church just keep mommy and daddy happy. I did. Dad was paying my car insurance.
I wanna keep that man happy. Keep mom and daddy off my back.
I came. Some come for companionship.
Find a date. Look for a good moral woman that
knows how to cook or something. Done that too? Guilty. Lords
used that a lot. Henry said them young women there
at 13th Street were the best missionaries that was on the
field in Kentucky. I know several preachers come
out of that too. For the first time, you come here not because
you want to, but you have to. God's people have to hear the
gospel preached. Something more important didn't come up. That's
a lie. I've said that to somebody. I
said, well, I guess you had something real important going on Sunday. I
was being sarcastic and rude to them people. It ought to be
laughable. But none come the first time. None come to worship
a holy God, the holy God of heaven and earth that rules and reigns
all things. Just to praise him. I don't want nothing from him,
he just deserves to be glorified. Nobody comes the first time for
that. We're coming for self. And so, what's gonna happen? This man's
gonna receive something he didn't even know he needed. He's asking
for something else. And he's gonna be happy about
it. Lord said in Isaiah 65, I am sought of them that ask not for
me, I am found of them that sought me not. Well, I was just reading
my Bible every day and I was looking for God. No, you wasn't,
you was looking for God to make you happy. You were not looking
for him. He was looking for his sheep. This man happened to be in the
right place at the right time. Beautiful there, that word beautiful
is the appropriate hour. This is right on, today's the
day of salvation. Maybe this will be an evangelical
message, huh? Verse three, who seeing Peter
and John about to go into the temple, ask an alms. He saw these
two people. He didn't know who they was.
And he said, you got any money? Can you give me a dollar? Here
were two apostles. Peter. That rough, the outspoken
one, the one that was just bold. And John, just like his brother
James, a son of thunder. And they walked by, and he said,
you got any money? You got any alms? I'm gonna give you two
points about these two apostles. First, they blended in. They
was just a retired fisherman. That's all they was, nothing
fancy, no ornate garments, no air about them as they came,
no haughty, front or posh language. Good afternoon, fellow traveler. Nothing flowery, made up. Ugh. It was just two of the 12
apostles. Two manly men sent up God. That's important. It ain't just
that they were males, they were men. They might have been tall,
they might have been short, they might weigh 100 pounds, they
might weigh 400 pounds, but they were manly men. With the same
message that every one of his preachers in this day have too. What's the difference? What's
the difference between this John and John Reeves up the road?
Did this message change? Ain't no different. If Peter
and John was here, you reckon folks would look? You reckon
they'd pay attention? What's the difference? Well,
Paul Mayhem was here. Same message. Men don't matter, does it? But
there's nothing about them that pronounce themselves to others
either in their flowery language or their flowery garments or
their flowery sales. They're just men. Second, this
man did not care for these two. He didn't know them. He didn't
care to know them. He didn't love them. He just
wanted something out of them. It won't be long. We'll see at
the end. This attitude is going to drastically
change. He's going to realize that the
Lord's ambassadors are not a dime a dozen, that you can't go down
to a vending machine and get you another one. This is something
special. This is a providence of God that
did this. He's going to find their feet beautiful here soon.
But how did this rough fisherman, these fishers of men, and this
son of thunder, how did they react? Look at verse four. And
Peter fastened his eyes upon him with John. They looked him
dead in the eye and said, look on us. You look at me. Look me
in the eye. They looked him in the eye and
they talked to him. We're in the people business.
We ain't in the reading business and the watching on TV business. We're in the people business,
one-on-one. I'm going to look people in the eye. I'm going
to talk to them. Yeah, I work on illustrations and things,
and I scrap a lot of them. And I can read a room. I've met
a couple of people in my life, and I know if I've got somebody
and if I just cling lost them. And I'll say something to illustrate
it, and I'll just see nothing but deer in the headlights. Huh? And then one of them I threw
away. I'll try that one. And I'll hit
it and I'll see two or three heads go, huh? I said, okay,
I can move on now. The point, they got it, you know.
They stopped and said, man, give me a dollar. He said, you look
at me. Look me in the eye. This isn't entertaining. This
isn't reading a theological dissertation. I will now give you my thoughts
on superlapsarianism and ugh, go to sleep. This is serious,
this is life or death. You pay attention, you pay attention. As a side note, now that's the
preaching, I'm gonna do some pastoring, okay? As a side note,
eye contact is respectable when someone is speaking to you. Especially
if you're little and there's grownups, somebody's older than
you talking to you, you look them in the eye. You don't look
them in the eyes. Eye, pick one, for the rest of your life. I
look everybody in their left eye. In your left eye, it's eye I
look in when I talk to you. Pics ain't shifty eyes. You pick
an eye and you look at it. That's respectable to look to
people when they talk to you. We ought to be trained that way.
It shows people's paying attention. It's respectful. Verse five. And he gave heeding to them.
He said, you look me in the face. Look me in the eye. And they
did it, expecting to receive something of them. They said,
oh, you look at me in the eye. I'm going to tell you something.
I'm going to give you a big ohm. This man's still in it for personal
benefit, isn't he? What can I get out of this? But
God. But God. There was a man sent
from God. His name was John. There was
a man sent from God named Peter and a man named John, not the
Baptist, but John the Apostle here. to this man, and he's like,
what am I gonna get out of these folks? Are they gonna come sip
tea with me? Are they gonna go visit me or maybe buy me some
new blankets and clothes and stuff? But God sent us to preach,
didn't he? It says, then Peter said, silver
and gold have I none, but such as I have, I'm gonna give to
you. I don't have silver and gold to give you. But what I
have, I'm gonna give that to you. You want silver and gold,
you want arms. I don't have T-Times, T-E-A,
and I don't have T-Times, T-E-E. I don't have the liquid and I
don't have the golf clubs. I don't have hospital visits. I don't
have open forum meetings so everybody can discuss things. I don't do
personal counselings. I don't have pep talks. I don't
have those things to give somebody. I do have the gospel. I do have
the gospel. I know it and understand it and
experienced it. I can tell you about him. I don't discuss the
gospel to rebels, to God-hating rebels. I declare it to them.
I don't sit down and let's talk this out. No, you tell them what
it is and go on and come here, man. It's the Lord's business
to take them from that gate into the building. I don't negotiate
terms of surrender. I just yell surrender. Peter, later on in life, wrote
this. He said, for as much as you know, you were not redeemed
with corruptible things of silver and gold. He had a lot of experience,
didn't he? He said, I ain't got no silver
and gold for you. That's what you're wanting. Or from your
vain conversations received by traditions of your fathers, just
because mommy and daddy always said that, that ain't gospel.
That ain't according to this book. But with the precious blood of
Christ, you were redeemed by blood. as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot, who verily was foreordained from the foundation
of the world, but was manifest in these last times to you, who by him do believe in God,
that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your
faith and hope might be in God. That's a whole lot better than
a doubloon and a little piece of gold. Peter said, silver and
gold have I none, verse six, but such as I have, give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, rise up and walk. You're down low. Now get up and
walk. And walk! In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth. Later on Acts 4, it says, neither is there salvation
in any other. For there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. We must be. David wrote and said, I will
make thy name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore,
shall the people praise thee forever and ever at his name. He just said in the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. What's in a name? What's to it? Do we, when we
have children, we just name them, spin a wheel, just close your
eyes. And that's what, I think some people name their children
that way now. Don't you have any thoughts behind those things?
Proverbs 22 says, a good name is rather to be chosen than great
riches, loving favor rather than silver or gold. That's not just
our standing in all, in all, with all men doing as kindly
with them as we can be and be in good favor. But a name is
good. It says the rich and poor meet
together. Silver and gold don't matter. The Lord is the maker
of them all. Money don't matter. A name is
what matters. And that's a name that Peter declared to him. What
name? Jesus. He said in the name of
Jesus, Savior. Savior. Not helper, not copilot,
Savior. That means you need saved. Not
an assistant, a Savior. and shall bring forth a son,
and ye shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people
from..." We need to save them from something, don't we? Their
sins. Christ. What that means? Messiah. It
says later in Matthew 1.23, "...behold, a virgin shall be with child,
shall bring forth a son, they shall call his name Immanuel,
which being interpreted, God with us. This is the Savior,
and it ain't just some really well-equipped man, it's the God-man. The God-man of Nazareth. Jesus
Christ of Nazareth. He came and dwelt in a city called
Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets,
he shall be called a Nazarene. He was born in Bethlehem and
he dwelt in Nazareth. Nazarene. I deliver it unto you first of
all, that which I also received. How that cross died for our sins
according to the scriptures. And he was buried and he rose
again the third day according to the scriptures. Let's not
get amazed and wrapped up on memorizing scriptures and let's
memorize and be amazed at the one who the scripture is about.
He did it according to the scriptures that contributes to who he is. To name Jesus, every knee should
bow, things in heaven, things in the earth, things under the
earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
L-O-R-D, Lord. To the glory of God the Father. That's a whole lot of name, isn't
it? Can we just say something like that? And the Lord uses
that to save somebody? Yeah, he can do anything he wants. That's who he is, that's God.
A God that tries to do something, doesn't live up to its own name.
This is God, and he's Lord. He does what he pleases, and
he's the savior of his people, and it's the God-man that saves
his people, and he does it according to the scriptures, just as he
said he was gonna do it, because he's sovereign. Easy thing to read through, isn't
it? Just read over. If we're made to hear these things, if
we hear with hearing ears, you have ears to hear here, the Savior,
God, sovereign, Lord. Now, rise up, Mark. Get up. And he took him, verse seven,
took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately
his feet and ankle bones received strength. Power came to him.
Why'd I take him by the right hand? Paul talked about Galatians
2, giving the right hand of fellowship, because our Lord gave us the
right hand of fellowship. He says, my arm not strong enough
to save you? Can I reach who I want to reach? He reached down
his hand for us. And got underneath us out of
that miry pit and lifted us up. That's what he'd done to Peter.
That's what he'd done to John. How easy was it for Peter and
John? Said, here, I'll hold your hand. You ain't never stood up
before. I'll help you. Lean on me if
you need to. It's all right, buddy. You're
doing real good. I thought you'd be stiff for
a minute. You're not. But just in case, you hold my
hand. Why? Once my soul was astray from
the heavenly way. It was wretched and it was vile
as could be. But my savior in love gave me
peace from above when he reached down his hand for me. So Peter
reached his hand and said, I'm just being like his daddy. His
heavenly father wasn't. Where did this man go now? Verse
eight. And he leaping up, stood and
walked and entered with them into the temple, walking and
leaping and praising God. He'd never been inside that temple.
He just said, that's far enough. This is good enough. I get the
job done out here. Everything I need is out here. I need the
alms. That's what I need. Well, not
now. He had to be in there. This was
necessary. David said, I was glad when they
said unto me, let us go to the house of the Lord. Our feet shall
stand within thy gates. We ain't gonna stand outside
your gates. We're going in. That's Psalm 122, verse two.
We're gonna stand within your gates. Oh, Jerusalem, for the
first time. Do you remember the first time
you heard the gospel, if you ever heard it? What happened?
You leaped. You might not have come out of
the chair, but in your heart you did. Your heart burned within
you. There's a believer saying one
time that his heart burned with him. So you ought not say those
things. Why? That's what the scriptures say. That's two in
a row to Emmaus. My heart's on fire. You leap. You go where God's
people are. I want to talk about him. I want
to hear about him. Don't you? I have to. He's my life. That was the first time you heard?
If you hear the gospel preaches, anything changed? Don't it make you leap now? I see that woman coming down
the driveway, and I grin ear to ear. I got busted the other
day at the grocery store. She always forgot something.
She run to go get it. I could see over aisles. I was there
at the checkout, and I was looking like that, and that lady said,
what you looking at? I said, her. I like looking at her. Don't you like
seeing these things? I'll make you leap inside your heart and
burn. And you forget, because he was brought up, wasn't he?
They came up to the temple. We're down in this world, and
we're down in this pit, and we're down in this world. And everybody
says, well, I just thought of working at a waste facility,
like a septic treatment plant. And you're just down there stirring.
Say, hey, come up out of there, and let's go do something good. Let's
hear about the Lord. Oh, I got to get this done. It's important.
Sitting there, stirring the nasty stuff. We come up out of that
here, and we forget about those things, don't we? And for a moment,
We can't live like that all the time, that's called glory. But
for a moment, sometimes the Lord's pleas make us leap in our chest
and we're just happy and what do you wanna do? Let's hear about
it, come on. I wanna go in there. And who is he with now? He's
alone, he's begging whoever walked by. Now it says he entered with
them into the temple. He entered with them. I'm gonna
go with you. Paul said, knowing brethren beloved
your election of God. He didn't say thank you, here's
a checklist. He said, I know your elect God. For our gospel
came not in you in word only but also in power and in the
Holy Ghost and in much assurance as we know what manner of men
we were among you for your sakes. I know what happened. I saw it. It's what happened in me and
that was for your sakes. Paul said, I'd preach to you
again if I had to. And you become followers of us. Wow, we was
going to the same place. He went with them. That's what
the word says, isn't it? Where are you going? Same place
you are, to him. Wanna go hear the gospel preached? And you became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the word of much affliction with
joy of the Holy Ghost. This ain't something that's hid
in a cave somewhere on some mountainside or in the dark woods of Idaho. Something happens in communities
and people around see these things and they know. Look at verse
9. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. So
he ain't never walked before. Remember that blind man that
the Lord healed? And they said, do you know who
that is? I said, well, it's that blind guy, I think. But he wouldn't
see him before. He looks different now. His eyes
look different. This one's walking. His face didn't change too much.
And he was praising God. I'll tell you what he wasn't
praising. He wasn't praising Peter and he wasn't praising
John. He wasn't man worshiping, he
was God worshiping for the first time ever. Now before he might've
talked about how eloquent this one was and how good that one
was. I like Apollos and I'm of Peter and I'm of Paul. That's
carnal. He was praising God. God did
this. I mean, he used them, but God did it. And it was obvious,
especially to those that knew him. Something's different. His new creation's changed. Old
preacher, been gone a long time, said that if the Lord saves a
man, even his dog's gonna know. Won't kick him so much. It's instinct. It ain't works,
it's instinct. Can't keep from it. Verse 10,
and they knew 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. That's amazing. Lord lets
us watch things like this sometimes. We gotta see it happen. That's
amazing. He says he's gonna do it, I'm
still amazed at how it comes to pass. But you remember how
this man, he really didn't care about those two men of God. Just
like it was a vending machine. He said, ah, you don't like that
one? Another one will come along any moment now. I'll ask somebody
else. I mean, I like that one, okay,
but whatever. We'll just get us another one.
This was precious to me. Look, verse 11. And as the lame
man came, which was healed, hailed Peter and John. He hailed them. He's holding on to them. He stood
up. Well, he can jump now. He don't
need to hold Peter's hand no more, but he hugged them. He
said, God did this, but I love you because he used you, and
I'm thankful for you. He held them. He held them in
high esteem. He knew them. He wanted to know
them more. He wanted to do what he could to support them down.
He appreciated them. And all the people ran together
under them in the porch, which is called Solomon's, greatly
wondering. Everybody saw this and was like,
wow. Look what the Lord did. Maybe
there's one here tonight that's greatly wondering. Maybe there's
one that's made well. Or maybe, finally, after years
in the church house, but never in the church, one's made lame. This man was made whole. What happened to Jacob? Jacob
was fine. And God came to him and wrestled him. He held on
to him too, so I ain't letting you go. Like that persistent
woman that went after that judge, said, I'm just gonna come here
every day. And he was an unjust judge. He said, just do something
with her so she quits bothering me. That woman came to the Lord,
he just ignored her. And then he insulted her. He
said, this ain't fit for the dogs. She said, I'm your dog.
But Jacob grabbed ahold of the Lord. He was fine. He grabbed
ahold and said, I ain't letting you go unless you bless me. And
you know what the blessing was for Jacob? He was lame the rest
of his life. The gospel comforts the disturbed,
but it disturbs the comfortable. Sometimes we start out disturbed
and we need comforted. Sometimes we're a little too
comfortable and we need disturbed. We need to look at it, don't
we? This man was healed. Jacob wrestled, he was blessed,
and he was made lame. Maybe Lord tonight will make
one lame healed or he'll take one that thinks they're healed
and make them lame. Make them limp a little bit, make them
needy. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for letting
us see again a lame man walk and leap for joy
and go to the house of God and worship Make the sacrifices of
the lips and praise his savior, his messiah, his sovereign holy
God and king, Christ our Lord. Make it effectual in the hearts
of us, Lord. Work in your people. Make us
glad for these things. Make us leap for joy. Make others wonder and give us
a word in the season when they ask us about it. Forgive us for
Our wondering and our fear and unbelief though. Because of Christ
we ask it. Amen.