Better than gold. You know, they've
got this lottery thing up to way over a billion dollars. But
I'm richer than any billionaire that's ever lived. God who holds
the whole earth, the heavens and the earth, and all the sea
and everything that's in them. He's wealthier than anybody. But you know, there he said,
when he told him, that man asked him for an alms, and Peter said,
you know, silver and gold, I don't have any of that. I got something,
I only got one thing I can give you. One thing I can give you.
And here in this lame man being healed, we had the first miracle
recorded in the Bible, or in the book of Acts. I shouldn't
say the Bible, in the book of Acts. We had the first miracle
recorded in the book of Acts. And there's no doubt many others,
you remember there in verse 43 of chapter two, where it said,
I think it's 243, yeah. Where it says, you know, and
fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done
by the apostles. So, but the Holy Spirit gives
us the detail here of what took place, what took place in this
miracle. And there's two reasons why he
done it. Because of the message of Simon Peter, he'd get an opportunity
to preach. It's his second recorded message.
And the second reason is because the miracles lead to the first
persecution of the church and to the Lord's preachers. And
the first thing we see here as we look at this man, which says
Peter and John went up to the temple at the ninth hour, it's
time for prayer, they always do that. But it said a certain
man, lame from his birth, from his mother's womb, mother's womb,
was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple. It's
called beautiful to ask alms, to be a beggar, to be a beggar.
And you know all the time, you find this throughout the scriptures,
especially in the New Testament, they'll just say a certain man.
Rarely that they gave a name, but a certain man or a certain
woman. And I think the reason God did that was put in a certain
one because it could be us, it could be anybody, it could be
any of us. But it said he is born, he is
laying from his mother's womb. That means he was helpless, He
was powerless. He had no ability to walk. In
fact, that's the way Mephibosheth was. I understand that that's
what Paul preached from last week. It's about Mephibosheth,
dead dog sinner. And I tell you, Mephibosheth,
he couldn't walk. He was lame, he couldn't walk.
If he got any worse, somebody had to carry him. And when David
said after him, they had to carry him over to David. And that's
the way it was with this fourth man. It says here they carried
him. Every day they would carry him.
And you know where they'd set him? And he was so poor he'd
ask alms. And he was laid at a good place.
You couldn't have found a better place to put a man begging than
right there at the door of the church house. Right there where
the people's going in and out, going in and out of the temple.
And at this time, people was, you know, it's the ninth hour,
all these Jews are going and coming, all the time, in and
out of the temple. And what a, could you ask for
a better place to be if you're gonna be begging to somebody's
fix to go into the worship service, go in where the offerings are,
go in to pray? I mean, you know, it'd be awful
hard to pass by a man with whatever he's got in his hands begging
to pass by him and not do something for him. I remember the last
time we were down in Mexico, and Shirley, you was with us,
and you and Todd and Lynn went into that. There was two people
sitting up outside this cathedral in Mérida. One woman, she's sitting
just on a stool because she had no legs. She's rolling herself
around. But she was right at one of the
doors begging. And everybody go in there, just
drop a coin in there, just about. And then there's one over here
at this other door, doing the same thing. And you couldn't
be in a better place. They sent him right where religious
people are going in. And if anybody would care for
the poor, it'd surely, surely be folks that's religious. And
oh my, so they put him in a good place, they carried him, and
he was begging, he was begging. And they laid him there, and
then it says there, he asked alms of them that entered into
the temple. Every time somebody went by him, he'd say, hold his
cup out of whatever he had. Help me, help me, help me, give,
give, give. And then he watched Peter and
John, and then he's watching everybody that's going in there.
And look what it says in verse three. Who seeing Peter and John
about to go into the temple, you know what they said? He stopped
them and said, Held out his hand, whatever he had, said, give me
something. Give me anything. I don't care
how little it is. Give it to me. He was asking
them alms, two preachers. He didn't know that they were
apostles. He didn't have a clue who they were. But he was asking
them, stopped them, and said, give me some money. And look
what happened. And I tell you, these were Jews,
and they kept the Jewish ceremonies. And I tell you, they're going
to the evening prayers and evening offerings. And the book of Acts
is a transition book. It goes from the Gospels to the
Epistles, and it tells us the history of what went on. But
now look what happens. Look what happens now. Look here,
what a work of faith. He saw Peter and John. He says,
come from now on. And Peter stopped. Peter stopped
and set his eyes upon that man, looked hard at that man, set
his eyes on him, and glared at him, and stared at him, and just
set his eyes on him, and John did too. And then Simon Peter
says this, he said, look on us. Instead of asking for something,
look on us. Set your eyes on us. Pay attention
to us. And then look what happens. And
he listened. He said, man, he set his eyes
on them. And he says, you know why he
gave heed to what they said? Expecting to receive something.
He's expecting to receive something. Well, these fellows, I mean,
they're gonna really deep down, get down deep in their pockets.
They're gonna do something for me. But look what happens. Peter
said, listen on us. And he expected to see something. Then look what Peter's head.
I ain't got no money, I ain't got no silver, and I ain't got
no gold. I can't do a thing in the world
for you, didn't that? I can't do it. I ain't got no
silver, I ain't got no gold. But he said, I said, I've got,
he said, but such as I have, I'm gonna give you. And that
fella didn't know what in the world he was saying. Such as
I have, I'm gonna give you. What did he have? Huh? Oh. He said, I have no silver
and gold. There's not very many preachers
like that today. There's a lot of preachers, extremely,
extremely, extremely wealthy. They, in fact, they're worth
a fortune. They get on television and that, and this one fellow
that got caught up in all this adultery and everything here
a few months ago, they gave him millions of dollars just to get
rid of him. Listen, on your way out the door, how many million
do you need? And I tell you what, but there's two preachers, two
apostles, and remember our Lord said, when you go, take nothing
with you. And he said, did you lack anything?
And they said, no, we didn't lack nothing. He said, just go. And he said, I'll take care of
you. And that's what he's telling these preachers. They said, listen,
they told that man, you know how crestfallen he was when they
told him, I ain't got no silver. And I ain't got no gold. His
heart just sunk. He said, well, what in the world?
These guys ain't going to be able to do nothing for me. And
then look what he said, but such as I have, I give thee. You know, we may be able to give
some beggars some money today, but I tell you one thing, if
they're lame, we couldn't cause them to walk, that's for sure.
But oh, they had something infinitely, infinitely better than silver,
infinitely better than gold. They had faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. They had a relationship with
God Almighty. They had a relationship with
the Lord Jesus Christ. And He said, I'm gonna give you
what I have. And look what he says now, in
the name, in the name. God gave him a name that's above
every name. God, his name means his power. Thou shalt call his name Jesus.
He's gonna save. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
Jehovah's Savior. And he said, oh, they said, in
the name. And then looks at that. That's
the authority, that's the power. And then he said, in the name
of Jesus of Nazareth, that God-man, that Jesus of Nazareth that lived
on this earth. And then look what he said. Rise
up and walk. This man don't know what it is
to get up. He'd never gotten up before. He had to be carried
everywhere. Tell me to get up? How am I gonna
get up? I've never, God never has stood
up in my life. Everywhere I went, somebody had
to carry me. But look what happens now. And
then Peter reached out and took him by the right hand and lifted him up. Listen, we're
going to get to how this happened. But he let rest down and took
his hand. Took his right hand and lifted
him up. And that fella started getting up. And look what it
says next. And immediately his feet and
ankle bones. Feet and ankle bones. That's
where his problem was. His feet and his ankle bones.
He couldn't walk. And it says they received strength. Immediately. Immediately. He didn't have to keep going
back to the prayer line, he didn't have to keep going back and praying
and waiting, nor immediately his feet and ankle bones received
strength. This was proof, oh my, a miracle,
a miracle of God's blessed grace. And look what it says, and he
leaping up. When he got up, now I don't think he jumped up and
down, I don't think it says he leaped. That means he jumped. When you leap somewhere, you
don't jump up and down. But he leaped. He said, oh, look
at this. I can do that. He just leaped. He was overjoyed. I mean, he
was overjoyed. And then it says there, and leaping,
Leaping up, leaping up, stood. Stood. He leaped up and then
he stood. Can you imagine what he was thinking?
Here's a fella that never walked. And he leaped up and he just
stood there for a minute. Stood there for a little while.
I'm standing. I'm standing. I've never stood
in my life. Here I am, I'm standing. Nobody's going to have to care
of me anymore. And oh my, it didn't look quite as it says.
And he walked. And he walked. Leaping up, walked. And then he entered with them
into the temple. Oh my. Here he is, laying in
the gate, begging. Next thing you know, he leaps
up and he starts, stands there for a minute, then he starts
walking. And then the next thing you know, from sitting at the
gate, going into the temple. Going from being nothing to being
one of God's elect, God's chosen, a miracle of grace. And the first
place he goes, you know where he goes? He goes where God's
worshiped. He goes where God's praised.
Oh my, I'll tell you what. Leaping and praising God. I tell
you what that's He had reason to leap. He had reason to praise
God and we've got reason to praise God and bless his name and then
Look what I said in verse 9 and all the people saw him Walking
in praising God There was a lot of people there It's all these
Jews are showing up there at this particular time. People
going in and out of the temple all the time. And a whole lot
of people were there. And all the people that were
there saw him walking and praising God. Oh, truly, truly, this beggar
was taken from the dunghill. Oh, he was taken off the dunghill.
And oh, blessed be the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm telling
you, whosoever shall call upon his name shall be saved. And
Peter called upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this
man was saved. And I tell you, he entered with
them, went from being poor and helpless and unable to walk,
with no abilities, walking and worshiping God Almighty in the
temple. Now look what happened next.
And you're talking about wonder, there's a great wonder and a
great amazement. And it says this in verse 10,
and they knew that it was he which sat at alms at the beautiful
gate of the temple. They knew it, that's him. They
knew what he looked like. They recognized him. And they
were filled with wonder and amazement. at that which happened unto him. These folks, I tell you, we get
touched. Our hearts just, it brings tears
to our eyes when somebody makes a profession of faith. Somebody
wants to confess their faith in Christ. Oh, how it blesses
our hearts. How thankful we are. And these
fellas was filled with wonder and amazement, and that's the
way we are, filled with wonder and amazement that God Almighty
would even look in our directions, much less save us. Are you still
standing in amazement that God would do anything for you? That
God would consider you for a moment in time? Oh, and I tell you what,
filled with wonder and amazement, I am too. that we can walk with
God, know God, believe God, enter into the worship of God. And
then all right, they was going in there. And in verse 11, look
what it says. And as the lame man which was
healed, listen to this now, held Peter and John. He held them. What do you think
that means? I think that he was so thankful
that he embraced these men. held on to these men, loved these
men, so thankful to these men, what they said and done, that
they reached out and out, they held them. Held them. And oh my, and then look what
else happened. As they held on to Peter and
John, that man that was healed, all the people ran together unto
them. Three of them, Peter, James,
and John, and this Peter, James, Peter, John, and this lame man
that was healed. And they ran together unto them
in Solomon's porch, as it's called Solomon's, greatly wondering,
oh my. I'll tell you why, and then look,
Peter gets an opportunity to preach over this one miracle.
He goes, you know, Why marvel, Peter said it in verse 12. Peter
answered and said unto the people. So all the people gathered around.
You men of Israel, he's talking to a bunch of Jews. You men of
Israel, why marvel at this? Why you look on us, sir, as though
we had by our own power, our holy living, made this man to
walk? He said, we've got no power.
We have no holiness that would do anything to cause this man
to walk. You see, these people saw only the instruments. They
saw these two men. They didn't see the one who gave
them the authority and gave them the power. They didn't see the
one who said, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth.
And he didn't see the one who says that God gave him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. And old Peter started preaching.
He started preaching. And you know what the first thing
he did? Start talking about a covenant God, first thing he did. Look
what he said in verse 13. The God of Abraham and of Jacob,
the God of our fathers, hath glorified his son Jesus, whom
you delivered up and denied him in the presence of Pilate when
he was determined to let him go, but you denied the holy and
just and desired a murderer to be given his place. And then,
look what he said. First of all, he said, God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's a covenant God. He made
a covenant with Abraham. And it went on down through Isaac
and Jacob, and that covenant involved his son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the seed of Abraham. And Peter said, you, and he said,
not only this, but he hath done this and glorified his son, Jesus
Christ. You know, God done everything
in this world, and he brought this world into existence. He
put this world into existence, called the star, everything He
done on this earth, He done for one reason, to bring glory to
His Son through the redemption of His people in this world.
And He said, and that's what He done. God hath glorified His
Son, whom you, He put it back on them again, whom you delivered
up in the presence of Pilate. Oh, He coulda, you know what
He coulda said? And this is what most preachers would have done.
He would have said, everybody come up here and look at this
fella. Come up here and look at him, examine him. Look and
see if this is really what took place. Examine the man, look
at this miracle, examine this miracle. Or he could have turned
into a praise and a testimony service. He could have said,
now brother, you know you've had this miracle on you, now
tell us about it. Tell us about it. Now that you've
been healed, tell us how this happened, what all went on about
it. Tell us about your experience. Tell us what everyone, tell everybody
here what Jesus did for you. But that's not what he did. No,
he charges them with guilt, whom you delivered up. You delivered
him up. You denied him in the presence
of Pilate. When you could have stood up
for him. But God, he was determined, Pilate was determined to let
him go. But you denied the holy and the just. And you said, give
us Barabbas. Give us Barabbas. Give us a murderer.
Give us someone that's a criminal. Give us a murderer. And let the
murderer go free and let us kill that man. And that's what Peter
said. Pilate would have let him go,
but you wouldn't do it. You ordered a murder, and then
look what it said, and killed the Prince of Life. And when
you look in the margin, it says the Author of Life, and killed
the Prince of Life. Killed Him, the Prince of Life,
the Author of Life. But oh my, bless His name. God hath raised Him from the
dead. He always talks about the death of Christ, and then Christ
being raised from the dead. And oh, listen. He said, you
denied Him. You wanted to murder. And God
raised Him from the dead. He said, we're witnesses. He's
done the same thing over in Acts chapter 2. We're witnesses. We
witnessed to the fact that He was raised from the dead. We
witnessed Him. We saw Him for 40 days and 40
nights. And I tell you what, this man
standing before you is proof. Ain't that what He goes on to
say? And in verse 16, and in his name,
through faith in his name, hath made this man strong. Through faith in what? The Lord
Jesus Christ. You know this man, that's why
he says, you know him, you see him, and you know him. Now watch
what, now he clarifies this business of faith. He said, yea, the faith
which was by him, whose faith? Christ's faith. God's faithfulness,
Christ's faithfulness. Yea, through the faith which
is by him, by Christ, hath given him this perfect soundness in
the presence of y'all. Peter had faith. He had faith. But it's the faith of Christ
that does the work. It's the faithfulness of Christ
that does the work. And it was by him, by Christ,
by his name, by his power, by his authority. And on by. You did it, and they said, now
you all did it through ignorance. You were ignorant of who this
man was. You was ignorant of God's purpose. You was ignorant
of God's determination. You was ignorant of the Lord
Jesus Christ being God and man. And you were ignorant, you was
ignorant of it, you did also. That's why Paul said, he said,
I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And then look what he goes on
to say now, but God foretold the sufferings and death of his
son. But in verse 18, but those things
which God before had showed, made known by the mouth of all
his prophets, all of them, from Genesis to Malachi, all of them,
that Christ should suffer, and he's fulfilled it. He's fulfilled
the suffering of Christ. And he said, erase him from the
dead. But now look what he goes on to say now. Well, what are
we going to do? He said, repent. Repent. Turn, turn, turn, turn. Change, change, change. You turn
to God. Turn to Christ. Turn to this
man. Turn to the one that was suffered,
and we are witness of his resurrection. that your sins, that you be converted,
that you would turn. A conversion means, you know,
you look this way and you turn around and go this way. And that's
what he's talking about, converted. Converted from your false doctrine,
converted from your traditions, converted from your Jewish religion.
And he said, oh my. And he said, that your sins,
they be blotted out. Oh my. Thank God that God granted us
repentance. And you know, you know how many
times believers have probably been converted? We've been, we
get, you know, God told Simon Peter, when you're converted,
you tell the brethren. He had to be converted from self-confidence
and self-righteousness. Had to be converted from fear
of man. Had to be converted. And I tell
you, God converts us and saves us from ourselves so many times
in our lifetimes. And then he said, in the times
of refreshing, and when the times of refreshing,
and look what it says, shall come from the presence of the
Lord. Times of refreshing to be converted, sin gone. And there's a time of refreshing.
I don't know about you all, I hope you don't do this, but sometimes
I get stale. You get stale, your faith gets
stale, your mind gets stale, and your scriptures get stale,
and we get stale in our thoughts and everything about us. But
sometimes God will send a refreshing. You know where it comes from?
From the presence of the Lord. Lord, we sung that song, showers
of blessing, showers of blessing, Lord, let them fall on me, even
on me. And I'll tell you, we have many
times had refreshings, but it always comes from the presence
of the Lord. And then let me hurry on. And
it says here, and he shall send Jesus Christ This is talking
about the second coming of Christ, and also through Christ in the
gospel. And he said, Jesus Christ has been preached unto you. You've
had Christ preached to you. Christ himself preached, and
you've heard people preach before. And he's talking of his second
coming. He's also talking about him coming in the gospel, gospel
power. And look what he says. For Moses
truly, Verse 21, whom the heaven must
receive, he's got to be set there at the right hand of God till
the times of the restitution when there's a new heaven and
a new earth of which God has spoken by the mouth of all his
holy prophets since the world began. You know how long Christ
has been preached and how long Christ's been believed in? Since
God's made him lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Gospel's always been the same gospel. And he's in glory now,
whom the heaven has received. He's in glory, going into the
presence of God for us. And he'll stay there until all
things are ready. And he started at Moses, then
he talked about Samuel, and he said this thing, all the prophets
since the world began. And oh my, this is the message
since the world, world began. And oh, he talks about the prophets.
And you know, he gives them a word of warning. Oh, what a word of
warning he gives them. He said in verse 22, for Moses
truly said unto the fathers, a prophet, a prophet, shall the
Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren. That's the
Lord Jesus Christ, God's prophet. And oh my, like unto me, like
unto Moses, he said, like unto me. And listen to what he says
now, what a warning here. Him shall you hear in all things
whatsoever he shall say unto you. What this prophet tells
you and teaches you, you listen to him. God said, I'll put my
words in his mouth and you better listen to what he's got to say.
You better hear his words. Now that's what our Lord said. If you don't believe me, you
wouldn't believe Moses. And if you believe me, you'd
believe the Father which sent me. And look what he goes on
to say. Yea, Samuel and all the prophets.
And this shall come to pass in verse 23. What a warning here. That ever so we shall not hear
that prophet, hear the Lord Jesus Christ, shall be destroyed from
among the people. Be destroyed. Won't have any
part in the blood and righteousness and death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And all, if you don't hear the Christ, you'll be cut off. And
all the prophets told of him, told of his days, look what it
says. And Samuel and all those follow after, as many as have
spoken, have likewise foretold of these days, right here, these
days, these days, these days of Christ, these days of the
gospel, these days of miracles, these days of wondering. He said,
oh, the days of His coming, the days of His serpent, the days
of His dying, the day of His resurrection, the day of His
ascending. And then look at the blessings
as promised here. And you are the children of the
prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers.
Oh my, children of the covenant. Saying unto Abraham, and in thy
seed, in that seed, is the Lord Jesus Christ, didn't say seeds
as of many, but one, which is Christ. Shall all the kindreds
of the earth be blessed. That's us. And unto you first
God, what a promise. Having raised up his son Jesus,
send him to bless you. Send Christ to bless you. In
all how he's blessed us. He blessed us with His grace,
blessed us with His mercy, blessed us with His love, blessed us
with His patience, blessed us with His kindness, blessed us
with His compassion, blessed us by sending His Son into this
world. And this is one of the greatest
blessings. Listen to this one. He blessed
us in turning every one of you away from His iniquity, saved
you from your sin, and turned you from it. Saved you from your
iniquity. Who did that? Christ did that.
Blessed us. Amen. Turned every one of you
from your iniquities. Oh, you reckon this is better
than silver and gold? That fella never had to beg ever
again in his life. Huh? And that's one thing God's
people, the only place we'll ever beg, the only place God's
people ever beg is Him. Mercy beggars. The only place
we ain't gonna beg, we ain't gonna beg nobody, nowhere, anyway,
anyhow. Nope, we ain't gonna do it. But
that old fella ain't gonna ever beg again anyway. You know, what
little bit of money he had that day, I wonder what he done with
it. You reckon he put it in the treasury? He said, the Lord gave
me all this. I'll just believe I'll put that
over here in the offering box. That's what he did with it, put
it in the offering box. Well, I pray that's a blessing. Our Father, in the Lord Jesus
Christ, in his precious, precious, precious name, glorious name,
powerful, powerful name, that name that made this man whole,
that power that made this man whole, the same power that made
us whole. We didn't have no more ability
than this man did. We couldn't walk to Christ. We
couldn't come to Christ. We had no ability. And we got
our nature from our mothers and our fathers. And yet, Lord, you
came to us and you healed us and you gave us the ability to
come to you. And we thank you for it. Thank
you for this truth that we find in your precious word. God bless
it to our hearts and our understanding. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Lord,
for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me Thy great salvation so rich and free.