So, Acts chapter three now, let's
turn back to Acts chapter three. Look at Acts chapter three. The apostles of Christ performed
many miracles and signs and wonders during
their ministry. They would cast out devils. They
would heal the sick and the lame. They would even raise the dead. Marvelous, wonderful miracles,
amazing miracles that were sure to to cause wonder and amazement
in those who witnessed them. But never, never, not once did
they make a public display of doing those miracles. Not once
did they ever make a public display of their miracles or promote
their miracles or even promote their preaching by announcing
that they were going to do some miracles. Right? Not once. Never did they
subtly take any glory to themselves for the performing of those miracles.
Now, everyone here who owns a television has witnessed these charlatans,
these crooks on TV, who go by the title of preacher. They do
very little. They do no preaching of the gospel. But they go by the title of preachers,
men who you readily can see are full of pride and arrogance and
vanity. making a great pomp and show
of their bogus miracles and signs and tongues, or what they claim
to be tongues. And all the while they're doing
these things, they're claiming to do that in the name of some
Jesus, right? They'll say at the end of, after
performing some hocus-pocus, dominocus, they'll say, give
Jesus a big hand. Yet all the while, they themselves
are the object of the admiration of the people, of the wonder
and the praise of the people. Is that not right? Can you not
see through all of that? Are you with me? Can you not
see through all of that? Can't you see their true motive
and attitude and what doing what they do. And these so-called signs and
wonders are all magicians tricks. Paul talked about Janice and
Jambres you know that was in the scripture Janice and Jambres
who withstood Moses and perform their tricks that was some of
the sorcerers of Pharaoh who performed some of the similar
miracles at Moses, at least the one with the rod turning into
a snake. And they do these things in their
own names and for their own honor, and make a mockery of God, a
mockery of Jesus Christ. And I say this with the utmost
authority and without apology, that these men are fit for the
burning. that there are evil men and seducers
who are waxing worse and worse. Can they get any worse? You've
seen it, worse and worse. Paul said, deceiving and being
deceived. Deceiving multitudes of people,
and they themselves have even made themselves believe in what
they're doing. But that doesn't surprise me
because Paul said that in 2 Thessalonians 1, that they would receive strong
delusions and believe a lie. God is not in any of that, people.
God is not in any of that that's going on today in the name of
Jesus. How do I know? Because they're
not preaching the gospel. It's the only reason the apostles
had these miracles to begin with, because they did not have a completed
Bible. a completely written Bible, a
New Testament such as you have, and God gave them signs and wonders
as credentials for their message. You see, they preached the gospel
of Christ. And these miracles were in order
that the people might see that, hey, there's something to this. These men are from God, and we
need to hear what they're saying, right? But we don't need those
miracles anymore. God does heal. He's still in
the healing business. God does still do wonders and
signs, but men aren't going to get the glory for it. Not in
the same way as they used to be. And God is not in any of
that. And God is someday going to put
an end to all of that. And the sooner the better, as
far as I'm concerned. The sooner these fellows are put out of
business. the better, as far as I'm concerned. In the second
chapter of Acts, the people were taken. In Acts chapter 2, of
which a whole denomination is built around, the people were
taken up by these signs and wonders and amazed by the apostles, weren't
they? when they first saw these Galilean fishermen preaching
in languages which they had never studied, and they said, How do
these men speak in these languages, these unlearned men? And they
were amazed by that and the signs and the wonders. But after they
heard the message, after Peter got through preaching about the
sovereign Christ on the throne and his work and his glory, and
how that all men were in his hands to do with them as he pleased. He didn't ask anybody to accept
Jesus. He didn't ask anybody, What are
you going to do with Jesus? He didn't tell anybody, You need
to make him Lord. He merely proclaimed that God
had already done it a long time ago. And they did what they determined
to do. They did what their evil wills
wanted to do, that is, kill Christ, but they did what God had determined
before to be done. And now they were in his hands
to do with them as he pleased. And what did they go out of that
place being taken up with them? They didn't go out of there talking
about the tongues. They didn't go out of there talking
about signs. They went out of there convicted
of sin. They didn't go out of there talking about the languages.
They went out of there talking about the Lord, talking about
this sovereign Lord that they had heard preached. Do you see?
And here in chapter 3, another miracle is performed. We looked
at this last Wednesday night. We looked at this miracle in
depth, or as much as 45 minutes will allow you to. We looked
at it, and another miracle is performed. It is a picture of
salvation through Christ. We saw that, didn't we? But the
people are once again, shortly after Acts chapter 2, shortly
after the miracles of Pentecost, the people witness another miracle,
the healing of this lame man, and once again they are taken
up with and amazed by this miracle and taken up with these men.
So here we have the story. Now look down beginning with
verse 11 in our story. And as the lame man which was
healed held Peter and John, and rightfully so, he loved these
men. He held on to them, literally, was hugging up to them, so grateful,
so thankful for what had happened to him. All the people, it says,
all the people ran together, ran, came running to see this
unto them in the porch that is called Solomon. There was a big
mass of people that gathered together, greatly wondering at
what had taken place, this miracle. Are you with me? This is the
scene here. A great miracle had been performed,
a sign, a wonder, and the people saw it, and they were marveling
at this. They were amazed at this, and
they came running to see what was going on here. And Peter,
verse 12, when Peter saw this, all this commotion around this
miracle and so forth, he answered the people. Now, he said, you
men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Why do you marvel at this? You
know, it says a great multitude of people, or people came running
together. to see this miracle and so forth. You can attract large crowds
by these things. It did. It attracted a large
crowd, this miracle. You can attract large crowds
if you have some unusual goings-on in your church house. If I were
to announce or to send out flyers that something great, we're going
to have a miracle meeting. A miracle meeting here this morning.
We would have an overflowing crowd. We'd have to put some
chairs in the aisle this morning, wouldn't we? It's just so. This
building couldn't hold the people if I announced that we were going
to have a miracle healing service here this morning. And this is
what's going on today. This was on the door of the church
house this morning when I came here. And at first, you can see
how wrinkled it is. At first, I just wadded it up
and threw it in the trash can. But when I came to this verse
of Scripture, looking back over my notes, I said, hey, I'll use
that. And I got it out. Now listen
to this. This is just so typical. This
is what's going on today. This is what will attract the
crowd. It says, don't miss your miracle breakthrough banquet. You've got to have something
unique, you know, behind your miracle breakthrough banquet,
seed faith, come seed. It says, with Nora Lamb, whoever
that is, this Chinese woman, it says she was on TBN, some
movie, hear her tale. Now listen to this. This is how
they're advertising this meeting. Hear her tale of her miraculous
deliverance from a Communist firing squad. Be blessed with
her. One-on-one ministry. That's all
it says. No mention of God, no mention
of the gospel, no mention of Christ, no mention of nothing
of the sort. Bible, hear her tale of her miraculous
deliverance from a Communist firing squad, and oh, by the
way, down here at the bottom, tickets are $11. And in case you all want to go see
that, there it is. The address and so forth is down.
They'll get a crowd. There'll be people at the Roanoke
Civic Center, they'll be packing that place. Why? To hear her
tell about her miraculous deliverance from a firing squad. But it's
scarcely possible to get a crowd when the only attraction is God! Right? I mean, you'd think a
man says, I'm going to stand up this morning, I'm going to
tell about the glory of God. You'd think the people would
just crowd this place to overflow in one day. I'm going to tell
you about my miraculous deliverance from sin, from hell, and from
death and destruction, through the blood and the righteousness
of Christ. Come hear about deliverance from sin, not your arthritis.
You get a crowd, you talk about arthritis. A lot of people got
it. But sin? No. Why won't it come, Stan?
Ain't many sinners out there, you see. I need deliverance from my sickness,
but I ain't no sinner. I'll have you know that." That's
what the saying. Well, it's scarcely able to get
a hearing when the only attraction is God or the gospel. Isn't that
a crying shame? So the people swarmed these apostles.
They ran together in wonder and amazement and adoration. And
Peter said, you men of Israel, why are you marveling at this?
Why are you looking at this? This is nothing. Oh, it's a wonder,
it's an amazement, this miracle, but why are you so marveling
at this? At this miracle, this sign. Turn
with me to Romans chapter 1, OK? Look over at Romans chapter
1, if you're still with me. Men and women and boys and girls, people by nature, and I'm not
trying to offend anyone, but this is what this Bible says,
all right? Are you interested in knowing
what the Bible says? That's all I'm interested in
knowing. I'm not interested in knowing what Norah Lamb says. I am interested in knowing what
the God's Lamb says. No play on words there, it just
happened to be. I'm interested in knowing what
the Word of God says, more specifically Christ himself. Men and women
and boys and girls by nature are in ignorance and darkness
and superstition and blind to the truth. I wish I could say
that more with a tear in my eye. And though possessing, many people
possess great degrees of education and titles, such as teachers
and scholars and lawyers and doctors and so forth. Wise men,
look here at Romans chapter 1 verse 22. The word of God says, professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools. Why? Why does God call men and
women by nature fools. Look at verse 19, and you just
have to take my word for it, and I'm reading from the Word
of God if you don't have one with you. But I am. I'm reading
from the Word of God. Romans 1, verse 19, it says,
Because, why are they fools? Because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them, or revealed to them. God has showed
it unto them. The invisible things from the
creation of the world are clearly seen. It's clear that an all-wise, sovereign creator, architect, made this
world? Is that a mystery to anybody? If anybody's ignorant of that,
they're willingly ignorant, Peter said, didn't he? If anybody would
believe that absolutely absurd theory, and that's all it is,
of evolution, A fool has said, there's no God, that this miraculous
and marvelous and complex and amazing creation called planet
Earth, and more specifically, me, this body, what just happened,
just a big explosion took place, and therefore here I is, that
I came from an amoeba floating. Oh, come on. Only a fool would believe that
notion. Well, it says, professing themselves to be wise, they became
utter fools, because that which was known of God, the creation
of the world, is clearly seen being understood by the things
that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that all
men are without excuse. Verse 21 explains it, because
when they knew God, or that is, saw something of the glory and
the power and the creative power of God, they glorified Him not
as God. Why do men and women refuse to
believe that an Almighty God created the planet? Are you with
me? Why do men and women refuse to
believe that an Almighty God created the planet? Because if
there's an Almighty Creator, we're a creature. Right? What does that mean? We're answerable
to it. We're answerable to it. And I've
never once seen a creature do what it Wanted to do. Anything
you want to do a pot Jeremiah eighteen talks about pot Romans
nine talks about a pot in the hands of a potter have you ever
seen. A potter I used to have a pottery
wheel used to make some pottery never once and all the time I
made any pottery or any sculpture whatever did did that pot rather
than say I don't like this you can't do this to me I don't want
to be this I'm going to be so much. I'm getting out of here
and I'm going to be my own pot. A man says the same thing. He
has a free will. Hath not the potter power over
the clay to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? God is the potter. We are the
clay. He is the creator. We are the creature. So it says
they refuse to acknowledge God as creator, verse 28, and they
did not like to retain God in their knowledge. Oh, no, if there's
an almighty, sovereign God on a throne, that means you're answerable
to him. So they don't even like to think
about God. So, verse 28 says, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind. What does that mean? A mind void
of any judgment or understanding. I'll just believe what I want
to believe, and they do. I'll just believe any notion,
and they do, don't they? No matter how ridiculous it is,
you'll get a following, you'll get somebody to believe it. Look
at verse thirty-one, without understanding, totally without
understanding. Now go back to the text there
in Acts. So man, man, and I said all that to say this, man was
created in the beginning in the image of God. He was created
in the image of God. His nature in the beginning was
originally united to and interested in God. He was totally taken
up with God. Adam enjoyed and appreciated
the garden and so forth, but that's not what enamored Adam.
It was God. So man was originally created
in the image of God and interested in God, but not anymore. Man's nature is fallen, it is
depraved, it is absolutely warped. It is altogether the opposite
of what it once was, right? God, man's thoughts and God's
thoughts and man's ways and God's ways used to be one, didn't they
not? Huh? Huh? Yes, they did. And now God says my thoughts
Your thoughts are not my thoughts, and my ways are not your ways.
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my thoughts
and ways higher than man's." Man doesn't even like to think
about God. He doesn't like to think about
God. Let me illustrate how ignorant
and foolish, depraved man is. Rather than be taken up with
the Creator and the source of all things, rather than be taken
up with Him who made everything, they'll be taken up with the
things. Have you ever run into this in your child, your own
child at his birthday or whatever? You give the child a gift and
rather than be so overjoyed with thankfulness and praise to you,
they're totally enamored with the gift. They even forget to
thank you. Huh? Oh, they'll do it because they're
supposed to, you know. What do you say? You know, eat
a big meal. What do you say? You have to make them say thank
you. Fill their belly up. That's exactly what men are doing.
God is their belly, the Scripture says. Not the God who filled
their belly, but their belly is their God. And you have to
make a child say, thank you. And men and women are doing it
by rope the same way. Oh, yeah, thank you, God. Get
ready to eat, you know. Oh, we forgot to pray. Thank
you, God. Rather be than be taken
up with God. Rather than be taken up with
God and eternal things, men and women are absolutely taken up
with the most absurd and ridiculous things you can imagine. Sunday
morning, every major sporting event or whatever, it takes place
on Sunday morning. Millions upon millions of people
will spend long hours waiting in long lines in hot sun or pouring
rain or driving snows to go watch men run around and play a game.
Is that not correct? To go watch a ball be hit back
and forth across the net and just totally enamored with that.
This is the greatest thing I've ever witnessed in my life. intelligent
people, the king and queen of England, or witnesses. This is fabulous. Or racing. Oh, this is better than tennis. Right? This is… Oh, we're so smart. Isn't man
so smart? So wise? Rather than be taken
up with God, you can't get Won't give God five minutes of
their time, but will stand for hours so they can get ready to
do this. Won't give God five cents, will
invest it all in some chance. This fellow is a fellow on the
radio around here. The title of his program is God's
Minute. That's indicative of our day. We'll give God a minute of our
time. I'm here to tell that man, it
ain't yours to give. It was God's a long time, 24
hours in a day is God's. The audacity of a man to say,
well, we're going to stop, pause, and give God a minute. And he's
got a longer program he calls God's Half Hour. Oh, he's being
big-hearted now, isn't he? He's going to give God 30 minutes. Well, Peter says, and this is
the sense of what Peter's saying, why are you taking up with this? Or why, he says here, or look
at verse 12 again, why do you look so earnestly on us? Peter
says, what are you looking at me for? Just a few days ago I
was a fisherman in a boat, just like you are, or were, or I was,
just like you are. What are you looking at me for?
Huh? Like a child playing with a box
and ignoring the toy that came in it. This is what men and women,
they glorify and worship Mary, in whom Christ was born, and
forget the Christ. Hail Mary, Mother of God, pray
for us sinners. When the scripture plainly says
there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus,
they will praise and worship the boss and forget the gift.
They don't worship the gift. Here's what Peter said, verse
13, "'The God,'' why do you look at us as though by our own power
or holiness we have made this man to walk, the God of Abraham? You know, the Jews did the same
thing. Terry, they were taken up with Abraham and not God,
weren't they? And Paul addresses these Jews
and says, the God of Abraham. Abraham didn't save you. He was
an idolater until he was seventy-five years old. Abraham was an unbeliever. It wasn't Abraham's great faith.
It was God's faithfulness to Abraham, choosing him, electing
him, bringing him out of idolatry. It's the God of Abraham you need
to be praising, not Abraham. And the God of Isaac and of Jacob,
the God of our fathers. It's God. You see that? It's God whom we need to worship
and be taken up with and enamored with. It's the power of God,
God's eternal wisdom. And look at this. Here's my whole
text right here in a sentence. The God of our fathers hath glorified
his Son, Jesus." Romans 3.25 says, "...whom God
set forth." Like when God set the sun in the heavens to shine
down upon his creation, God from the very beginning has been setting
forth his Son, has been revealing his S-O-N, his Son. He was in
the beginning glorified with the Father. He was with the Father in glory
before anything was, Christ is. He was with the Father when he
created the world. It says in the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Without
him was not anything made which was made. The Word. Christ created
the planet. What are you going to do with
Jesus? He made us. What are you talking
about doing with Jesus? He made us. He was glorified in the creation.
He was glorified in the times of the prophets. The prophets
wrote of him. Christ preached and said, Moses
saw my day, wrote of me. Abraham saw my day and was glad. Beginning with Moses and the
prophets and the Psalms and all the scriptures, he expounded
to the people everything concerning himself. He said, they are they
which testify of me. The spirit, the testimony of
Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy. People are looking
into prophecy in Old Testament and New and Revelation and Daniel
and Ezekiel and so forth. It's all about Jesus Christ.
There are people who are interested
in his second coming who don't have the foggiest idea why he
came in the first place. That's what we need to be taken
up with, and he's only going to come the second time to those
who know something about his first coming. He was glorified
by the prophets. He was glorified in time as a
man on earth. He was glorified as God's Lamb
on the cross, and someday he's going to return. And the Scripture
says God's going to place him on permanent display. For all
eyes to see, as he is, not as men think he is, some pitiful
Jesus who can't do what he wants to, except they let him. No!
As he is, Lord of the dead and the living, with the keys of
hell and death at his side. And when the people heard that
in Acts chapter 2, they fell on their faces. And when they
heard this in Acts chapter 3, they did the same thing. And
only when men and women throughout our generation hear this same
message of an exalted Lord, Jesus Christ, will they come and worship
God properly. Until then, they're going to
be taken up with these goings-on or the men who are performing
these bogus tricks. Right? God—I wish I could preach this
like it needs to be preached. God hath glorified his Son, and
there's nothing and nobody worthy of any time or effort or adoration
or amazement other than Jesus Christ and him crucified. The
Scripture says that he's all. What does that mean? When it
says Christ is all and in all, what does that mean? That means
in everything else there is what? Nothing! That there's nothing worthy of
time or effort or notice but Jesus Christ. And unbelief says this, I'm taking
up with this, I'm taking up with that, I'm this, I'm that, I'm
that, and ignore We live because of it. You see,
this whole planet lives because of the S-U-N. The whole creation
lives because God had a Son. And because of God's mercy and
grace in that Son, he upholds it all by the word of his power.
And when God finally has his Son shine in his full strength,
It's going to burn this planet completely up, people. And everybody in it who does
not see his glory and worship him as such is not taken up with
him. See, unbelief is more than just...
Unbelief says, I'm not interested in God's Son. And God says, well,
I'm not interested in you. I mean, you're... God says, you're
out of here. You're going to be a nothing.
You're going to be a blotch on the pavement soon. Not interested
in my son? It's because of him that you're
living and breathing. You're breathing his air. You're
eating his food. You're wearing his clothes. You're
existing because my son sits on a throne, because of my long
suffering. You're not interested? That's the reason he says in
Proverbs 1, I'm going to laugh. You laugh and make a mockery
of my son and my gospel, I'm going to laugh at you when your
calamity comes. He says here in verse 13 of Acts
3, it says, God hath glorified his Son, whom you delivered up. Man, it said back there in Acts
chapter 2 that they, in verse 23, they took him by wicked hands
and crucified him. Man got their hands on God Almighty
one time. You've heard preachers say, What
will you do with Jesus? You've heard that. Everybody's
heard some preacher say that, isn't it? Well, God Almighty
put his Son into the hands of men one time to see what they
would do with Jesus. Oh, they say today, it wouldn't
happen today if Jesus was here today, I'd love him, I'd adore
him, I'd receive him as my personal Savior. No, you wouldn't. Men one time got their hands
on Jesus, what'd they do with him? They said, kill him, slaughter
him like a lamb. Men exercise their free will,
which is only free to sin, since the fall. And they killed God's
son. That's what he said here in verse
thirteen. You just delivered him up and denied him. You denied
him. And the press still denying him
today. Verse fourteen says, And you denied the Holy One. You denied the Holy One. Does
that make sense to anybody? What is he saying here? You denied
the Holy One. Men are still doing it today.
They're denying the absolute holiness of God, are they not?
They're saying God's not that holy. They understand God's not
that holy, is it? God's love. Yes, the average
man or woman or young person, what about God? What is God like?
Tell me what God's chief attribute is from the Scripture. What does
Scripture say? God's chief attribute, they'll say God is love. Well,
let's ask the angels who kept not their first estate, God's
love, those that are kept in the everlasting chains of darkness
reserved for the day of death. Let's ask the people outside
of the ark. Let's put a bumper sticker on
Noah's ark and say, Smile, God loves you! While those people
are swimming around out in the flood, huh? Let's ask the people at Sodom,
whose fire is raining down on them. What about the love of
God? What do they say? What do they
say about God, the first thing? What is God like? Ask everybody
who's in hell right now, what is God like? They'll tell you
He's holy! They'll tell you that. Ask the
people in heaven. He says the angels fly around
His throne 24 hours a day, day and night, don't they? What are
they saying? Holy, holy, holy. Oh, they'll say love, but not
until they say holy. Right? Because His love is holy
love. Holy love. He can't love unholy
things. And it says here, Peter says,
you denied the Holy One. Men got their hand. I'll tell
you what men really think about true holiness. They like to talk
about it, don't they? You put true holiness in front
of them, and they'll deny him. They'll get rid of him. They'll
discount him, discredit him, and deny him. And the just, do
you see that? The holy one and the just. Do
you see that, Terry, verse 14? And the just. They deny the justice
of God, don't they? They believe that somehow or
another, God is in us all over, whether I've believed on Christ
or not, whether I've believed the truth or not. No matter how
I've lived, I'm going to make my peace with God. When I get
on my deathbed and no matter how I've lived all my life I've
lived wickedly or unrighteously and unbelief and I'm going to
make my peace with God. I'm going to preachers going
to come in and he's going to say a few words and jerk a profession
out of me and I'm going to be grabbing at every straw I can
and I'm going to make my peace with God. You can't do it. You
can't do it. God's the one that's been offended.
God's the one that's been sinned against. You can't just go running
up to God who's been a pen. I decided to make peace with
you. No, no, no, no. He's the one who has to make
peace. Right? How does he do this? Scripture
says, by the blood of his Son's cross. By the blood of Christ's
cross. You've got to have a sacrifice.
It goes deeper than just believing on Jesus. You've got to know
that, hey, I've offended a holy God, and you've got to know you're
only here before that holy God. Is that Jesus Christ, God's Son,
the just one, the only just and holy man who ever lived, came
down here as a man? Why did he do that? To live a
life that God demands of us. It's more than a doctrine. Christ
came down here to live a righteous life because God demands that
of us. And God said from heaven, now
there's a man that I approve of. There's a man that I approve
of. And the only way, Jeanette, you're
going to be approved of God Almighty is how? In him. Not by what you do. Nothing you
do will make you acceptable to God. It's altogether filthy rags,
Isaiah 64, verse 6 says. It's got a bad motive, it's got
a sinful motive. But Christ's motive was perfect in thought,
in word, in deed. He lived righteously. Why? Show us how to do it? Oh, no,
no. Although he did. Some of you
are with me. Christ is our example, but not
first. He's first our substitute. You see, he came to be a substitute. This is the gospel. If you hadn't
heard anything I've said, this is the gospel. Christ came to
be a substitute, to live a righteous life. And all those whom God,
by his mercy and his Spirit, bring to Christ by faith to see
their need in Christ, he puts them in Christ. It's like taking
off Christ's robe, his life he lived, and wraps it around them.
Righteousness wraps it around those people, and God can't even
see their sin. Even the holy eyesight of God
can't see their sin. It's covered in the righteousness
of Christ, in the blood. And then, justice. Christ had
to satisfy justice, didn't He? Something had to be done about
our sins, John. Right? God will by no means clear the
guilty. God just can't say like an old
loving grandfather, you know, well, boys will be boys, you
know, let bygones be bygones. He's so cute, I just hate to
do anything to him. No, he says that the soul that
sins must surely die. The wages of sin is death. We've
got to, our sins have to be paid for. God's too holy. He can't
let one slip. If he let one sin slip, he wouldn't
be God, would he? He wouldn't be holy. God says
they're all going to be paid for. Every last cent of all of
my people are going to be paid for. How? How, Stan? Christ. Because who that was
on the cross, and it says he was made sin for us who knew
no sin. And God punished him in my stead,
and now all my sins are paid for? I'm holy acceptable, unblameable,
unreprovable in the sight of the Holy God. Now what am I going
to talk about throughout eternity? What's going to be on my lips?
What am I going to talk about? How I prayed through, how I believed,
how I accepted Him, how I did this, how I worked for Him, how
I gave my life unto Him that loved us and washed us from our
sins in His own blood. Read on with me verse fourteen
we desired a murderer to be granted under you and do you people today
you know they'd rather have that what was offensive about what
I just say it really. Was there really anything of
it. I know when talking about the holy in all his holiness. Why why is that offensive. To
me anyway. I love God that way. That's the
only God I can worship. That's the only God I'm going
to worship. I'm not going to worship a God
who can't do what I won't let Him do. That means He's no more
powerful than I am. I might as well worship Henry
Sword, hadn't I? What's offensive about that?
Why do people get offended at this message of a holy God? That
makes God, God. That declares God, God. Why do people get offended for
calling them what they are? Huh? Why would I get offended
by somebody calling me a sinner? That's what I am. If you're honest with yourself,
everybody in here would say, you'd say, there's no good in
me. Wouldn't you? The best deed you've
ever done, you had to admit it had a bad motive behind it, didn't
it? Huh? Come on, is anybody honest in
here? Are there any sinners in here? If there is, I've got some,
that's good news. Everything I'm saying is good
news. This righteousness of Christ, this blood of Christ, it's the
best news you ever heard. I heard this story one time of
a doctor who came in who came into a waiting room one time
he had waited on so many people this is back when you get in
we had a family doctor back in Kentucky and back when you could
get to see a doctor just any time you know you just go in
see me you need hurt you hear hurt you toe stomp your toe you
go see a doctor and he'd see you charge you about five dollars
whatever you had good old family doctor you know and he got all
day long he'd been treating people that didn't need treating And
finally, he came out into the waiting room after he had treated
somebody who was just aches and pains and didn't have anything
wrong with him. He finally came out and threw
up his hands out in the waiting room and said, Is there anybody
sick in here? He did. Is there anybody sick
in here? If there is, I'll see you in
my office. Otherwise, get out of here. Don't you wish preachers would
stand up and say that? Any sinners in here, if there's not, you
don't need a holy God. You don't need a sovereign Savior.
You don't need blood. You don't need righteousness.
You just need a sugar daddy. You just need a fire escape from
hell. But any sinners in here who fear the Lord, who stand
before a God who's angry with the wicked every day. A holy
and righteous God who by no means cleared the gate. Anybody in
here like that? I've got good news for you. I'll treat you.
There's balm. There's good news. Christ came
for the likes of you. Now the righteous go on down
there to Dr. So-and-so and he'll tell you
how good you are. He'll give you a religious drug to make
you feel better about yourself and not do a thing about the
disease. You see, the good surgeon, Christ
the great physician, he cuts you wide open with his word.
Doesn't he? Cuts you wide open. You know,
some people have heart surgery. You have to cut me that far to
get to your heart, I do. There's a lot of things in the
way. And the Word of God takes an old, self-righteous, religious,
steeped in tradition and ignorance and idolatry, sinner, although
he thinks he's moral and righteous, and God splits him wide open
with the Word of God. Lays his thoughts, lays his heart,
lays his motive open before a holy God, and he says, Oh, you killed
me! If you'd look at one of those patients on that operating table,
you'd say, You killed him, Doctor! You killed him! Wouldn't you? And that's what every sinner
believes. The law comes and it slays me,
kills me, doesn't it? Huh? Oh, God, it kills me. But then this physician, the
great physician, comes along, pours in oil and wine, takes
that old hard heart out of there that doesn't believe the gospel,
just believes it, and puts a heart of beating, pumping, full of
life, heart full of life to God, sows him up, makes him twice
the man he ever was. And he comes out of there regenerated. I can live now, he said, I can
live now. How? If I present my body a living
sacrifice to the Holy, by his mercies. Well, verse 16, let's go on,
I'll quit on this, it's getting too long. God, Peter said, he
said, you've killed the prince of life, verse fifteen, whom
God raised from the dead. You killed Jesus, but you can't
kill God. You killed your body and you
laid it in the grave and you thought you were done with him,
so did the devil, but you can't do anything with Jesus Christ. He's the prince of life. He can't
kill God. You can't exterminate immortality. eternity, where we are witnessing,
verse 16, and his name, and his name, through, oh, what
a name! God has given him a name. The angel said at his birth,
Call his name Jesus. Why? Because it has a good ring
to it. It means something. Call his
name Jesus, because he shall save, not try to, not make an
attemptment, he'll make an atonement. He shall save his people. God's given him a name which
is above every name, Savior. Just God and a Savior. A name which is above every name,
that the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, not ought to,
not will if they let it, they shall bow, and every tongue is
going to confess he's Lord. Now, people, here's salvation.
Salvation is for God to show you that now. Salvation is for
God to show us this now, who this Lord is now, and right now
to make our knees bow down to him, right now to make our tongues
confess No, he's not some pitiful Jesus. He's Lord. There's no
debate over Lordship salvation. There ain't no other kind. He
is Lord. He's the Lord of all. He isn't
Lord at all. Right? He's Lord. And you bow
down to him, and you come to him realizing all mercy and grace
is in him, and acceptance with God is in him, and all your Righteousness
is in him, your only hope before God is in him. You come, Lord,
help me, Lord save me or I perish. I deserve to do, like our brother
prayed, Lord, we don't deserve anything but hell. Lord Jesus
Christ, would you make your blood, was your blood shed for me? I'd
sure much be obliged, appreciated if it was. I will. Everybody
comes like that. Christ says, I will. I will. And I'll tell you this, the only
reason you will come like that is because he made you willing.
Day of his power. I'm not going to say now, now,
now. I'm not going to do this. I'm just using an illustration.
Now, everybody who's heard this message, nod every head it's
now. You'll raise your hand. You accept
Jesus as your personal Savior and let him into your life. You'll
come down here and shake my hand. I'll say, well, my counselor,
Brother Rick, one of our counselors will go with you back into the
prayer room and he'll pray for you. And then I'll give you a
book on how to live the good Christian life. I'll say, you
do this, you do this, you do this, you do this, you do this.
If you come, if you come, if you come. I've just told you
how a man saves. I just told you. How we're saved,
not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to his mercy. He has saved us. And all I'll
say is this. Do you feel yourself one of those
sinners that I just described? Well, don't come to me. Don't
come down here. I'll get credit for it. Just
come to Christ like a sinner. Like that old preacher said,
come to Christ, but don't You understand that? You understand
that? Come to Christ. You see, Christ isn't down here.
My name is not Jesus Christ. My name is Paul Mayhill, a nothing,
a nobody, a man. There's no salvation down here.
There's salvation in a person. And he's a spirit. And he's sitting
at the right hand of God. And you can come to Christ sitting
there in your pew right now. Some of you are doing it right
now, aren't you? You're saying, Lord, I come.
Jesus, I come. In my hands, no cross I bring.
Simply to the cross, the Christ of the cross I claim. Lord, I
come. And the scripture says we keep
coming. We keep coming like that. We don't come, make our little
decision, and we're on down the road. No, we keep coming. Keep coming back. Tell me that
again. Tell me about that Christ again. I need to hear him again. He is our altar. He is the, for
lack of a word, invitation. He is the, he is salvation, he
is salvation. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there's none other name under heaven, given among
men under heaven, whereby we must be saved. And his name,
by faith in his name. Peter said this man was healed.
In that man, if you look this message over, I don't have time
to go back over, that man didn't have any faith in Jesus Christ,
did he? Huh? Look it back. Look back
at it. He didn't have any faith in Jesus Christ. Not at all. It says by the faith of Christ
there. That man didn't know who Jesus Christ was. Peter just
lifted him up by the hand and said, in the name of Jesus Christ,
you're saved. You're healed. And that's what
God does to his people. He comes to him and reveals Christ
to him, says, when he reveals Christ to him, you're saved.
That's salvation. And we realize it's by his faith,
his faithfulness, Christ's faithfulness, what he did, who he is. All right.