Let's open our Bible to begin
our service to Matthew chapter 11. In case you haven't noticed in the
bulletin, you men, we're gonna have a men's lunch Thursday,
this coming Thursday. The location is here in the bulletins. I hope y'all can attend. Have
a good time together. We'll sit and eat and solve all
the world's problems. Matthew 11, we're gonna read
the first six verses. And it came to pass when Jesus
had made an end of commanding his 12 disciples, he departed
thence to teach and to preach in their cities. Now when John
had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his
disciples and said unto him, art thou he that should come
or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto
them, go and show John again those things which ye do hear
and see. The blind receive their sight,
and the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed, and
the deaf hear. The dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel
preached to them. And blessed is he whosoever shall
not be offended in me. All right, let's stand together
as Shawn leads us in singing our call to worship. in thy name now draw near. Teach us to rejoice
with trembling, speak and let thy servants hear. While our days on earth are lengthened,
may we give them, Lord, to Thee. Cheered by hope and daily strengthened,
Till in heaven my glory see. There in worship, purer, sweeter,
All thy people shall adore, Tasting glory so much greater, Full unmixed
and evermore. ? On such love my soul still
ponder ? Love so great, so rich, so free ? Stay well lost in holy
wonder ? Why, O Lord, such love to me Okay, if you would, turn in your
hymnal to song number 117. He was wounded for our transgressions. 117. He was wounded for our transgressions. for our sins in his body on the
tree for our guilt he gave us peace from our bondage gave relief
And with his stripes, and with his stripes, and with his stripes,
our souls are healed. was numbered among transgressors. We did esteem him forsaken by
his God. As our sacrifice He died, that
the lonely satisfied. And all our sin, and all our
sin, and all our sin was laid on Him. We all have wandered far from
the fold of the shepherd of the sheep. But He sought us where
we were On the mountains bleak and bare And brought us home
And brought us home And brought us safely home to God Who can
number His generation? Who shall declare all the triumphs
of His cross? Millions dead now live again,
Myriads follow in His train. Victorious Lord, Victorious Lord,
Victorious Lord and coming King. Turn with me, if you would, to
Acts chapter three. Pastors ask us to read the first
11 verses of Acts chapter three. Acts chapter three, starting
in verse one. Now Peter and John went up together
into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour,
and a certain man, lame from his mother's womb, was carried,
whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called
Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple.
Who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked
an alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes
upon him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto
them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver
and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee. in the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took
him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet
and ankle bones received strength. And he, leaping up, stood and
walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking and
leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking
and praising God, and they knew that it was he which sat for
alms at the beautiful gate of the temple. They were filled
with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto
him. And as the lame man, which was healed, as the lame man,
which was healed, held Peter and John, all the people ran
together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly
wondering." And we'll end our reading there. Let's pray together. Our Holy Heavenly Father, what
an amazing privilege it is to call upon your name, to be permitted
to call upon your name because of Christ and his work, and to
be called to call upon your name, that you've seen fit to give
it to undeserving sinners. born just as this man, lame from
our mother's womb, born sinful, born sinners, born separate,
and deservedly so. But according to your goodness,
you've seen fit to make a way for righteousness and for repentance
unto you, and because of Christ, to not only make that way possible,
but in fact to call us. What a privilege this is to call
upon your name and to sit here this morning and to learn of
you. Father, above all, we ask that
your will be done. We acknowledge that we don't
know what to pray for and that even if we did, we pray that
your will be done first and foremost and above all. And you've, you've
instruct us to make our, our prayers, our, our, our needs.
No known before you, not that we would ever instruct you, but
rather as children, we come asking for mercy from your hand. We pray that you leave us not
alone, that, that you wouldn't leave us to what we would ask
for, which as we heard this morning is, is no further than the end
of our nose that we'd be asking for for comfort for the flesh,
and only to satisfy this flesh. And indeed, Father, we do come
to you for comfort. We have needs that you know,
and we pray that you fill them. Most of all, our need is to know
you, and our need is to see Christ. We pray that for ourselves, we
pray that for our children. We ask that for congregations
that are meeting even now, wherever they may be, that you take care
of our fleshly need and also most importantly, our spiritual
need. And we thank you that you do. We thank you that you do
take care of us and that you've seen fit to reveal to us that
it's from your hand that these blessings come. Pray for a, ask
a blessing for our pastor during this hour now that you be with
him and strengthen him, give him a word from you and to give
us listening ears. We pray this thankfully, humbly,
and thankfully in Christ's name, amen. Keep your Bibles open there to
Acts chapter three, that'll be our text this morning. Titled the message, How the lame
are healed. Now this is the first miracle
after Peter preached that great message on the day of Pentecost,
And this miracle is a picture of what happens by faith if we
really hear and believe the message that Peter preached that day. This miracle is a picture of
the power of Christ to heal his people spiritually. Spiritually,
not just physically, but spiritually. And if Christ heals you, he washes
you in his blood. He applies that sweet balm of
Gilead to your soul You are instantly, completely healed. Instantly. You're completely righteous. Completely justified without
any sin. You're completely holy. That's
the only way God can accept you, isn't it? Is if you're completely
holy, completely righteous. You're completely accepted in
Christ. You've been redeemed. You're
saved. and you'll never be more redeemed, more saved, more righteous,
and more holy than you are right now. Even in glory you won't
be. Now, by God's grace, we'll grow
in grace. We'll grow in knowledge of the
Savior. Hopefully we'll learn to follow
him and grow in grace, but we'll not be more righteous. We'll
not be more saved. Christ, when he saves his people,
completely heals them spiritually. This is a picture, this miracle
is a picture of how Christ gives his people complete health. He takes our sickness and gives
us his health, his health. Well, then it's perfect, isn't
it, if it's his? Well, our story begins in chapter three of Acts. It begins with our need of Christ,
that all men spiritually are born spiritually lame. Verse
one says, now Peter and John went up together into the temple
at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain
man, laying from his mother's womb, was carried, whom they
laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful,
to ask alms of them that entered into the temple. Now if Lord
is ever gonna save us, he's got to show us our need of saving,
doesn't he? If he's gonna heal us spiritually,
he's gotta show us our disease, our deadness, our rottenness.
This man is such a good picture of you and me. He's lame from
his mother's womb. He's not even like Mephibosheth,
who was born whole, born being able to walk, but became lame
when his nurse was carrying him and fell, and he became lame.
This man was lame from his birth. This is what we would call today
a birth defect. He was born with a birth defect
so that he could not walk. And that's such a picture of
us. Our conception, our birth is defective. I mean, you talk
about a birth defect, we're born dead, dead in sins. We're conceived
in sin, so that the only nature that we have, the only nature
our parents had to give us, our father had to give us, was the
nature of Adam. A nature of sin that can't do
anything but sin. We don't even want to do anything
holy. We don't even want to do anything
righteous. We're filled with sin. Filled
with it. There's no goodness in us. There's
no soundness in us. Isaiah said we're nothing but
wounds and bruises and putrefying sores from the sole of the foot
to the top of the head. There's no soundness. There's
no health in us. Now this man was lame, and we're
talking about being spiritually lame. But we don't mean spiritually
lame so that spiritually speaking, our legs won't work, but we can
still move our arms and we can still maybe drag ourselves along
and do something for ourselves. This is just a picture. This
lame man shows us that you and I are completely impotent, completely
powerless to do anything spiritual for ourselves. We can't do anything. We're not just lame. I mean,
that's a term that we use, but in reality, we're dead. We're
dead in trespasses and sins, and the only thing a dead man
can do is stink. Now, we do that real well. We stink real well. The only thing you and I can
do is sin, the filth and the corruption of sin. This man's
problem was with his legs. This is just a picture. His problem
was with his legs. But our problem is not with our
legs. Our problem is our heart. Our problem is our nature, that
it's dead, that it's defiled, that it's filled with sin so
that we can't, we cannot come to Christ unless the father draws
us to him. We cannot, we don't even want
to come to Christ. If you and I are going to come
to Christ, God's gonna have to give us a new one too, isn't
he? Because by nature we don't even want to come to Christ.
There's nothing we can do to save ourselves. There's nothing
we can do to make ourselves have life. We're completely and utterly
helpless. Now since this man was lame,
he couldn't walk, he couldn't work, he was a beggar. He was
reduced to begging. This man, if he's going to survive,
was dependent on other sinful men to give him something. To
give him something so that he would have enough food to scrape
by and whatever it was that he's gonna have, he's gonna have it
because somebody gave it to him out of the goodness of their
heart. Well, that's what we are spiritually. Now, whether we
know it or not, that's what we are spiritually. We're beggars. We're beggars before God and
we don't deserve anything from God. A true beggar is somebody
that doesn't deserve to be given anything. They're begging. You
and I, whether we know it or not now, we're completely dependent
on the Lord for everything. Your next breath, your clothes
you wear, the food that you eat, and spiritually, God demands
righteousness from us. The only way we'll have it is
if Christ gives it to us. God demands that we have a sacrifice
for our sin that washes our sin away. The only way we're gonna
have it is if Christ suffers and dies for us and applies his
blood to our hearts. Everything, the only way we'll
be saved is if we're kept to the end, but we can't keep ourselves. Christ must keep us in everything. We're completely and utterly
dependent on Christ. I've used this illustration before. You've all seen that. picture
of the footprints in the sand and the little poem that goes
with it. And it's supposed to be the, you know, my footprints
and the Savior's footprints. And the person asked, well, when
I look back over my life, why, when the times were so bad, was
there only one set of footprints? Why did you leave me? Supposedly
the Lord says, well, those are the times I was carrying you. I can't take a step by myself.
Not one step. The story that the Savior gave,
the illustration he gave of the good shepherd. The good shepherd
didn't go find that sheep out there and tell the sheep to follow
him home. And sometimes you'll walk and
sometimes I carried sheep. Put him on his shoulders and
he carried him all the way home. If I'm gonna reach glory. If
you're gonna reach glory, that's what we need the Savior to do
for us. We've got to be carried all the way home. I cannot stress
how utterly dependent we are on God to do something for us. Now, the good news for sinners
is God delights to show mercy to sinners. But before God's
gonna save us, He's got to teach us how dependent that we are. We cannot save ourselves. We
need a Savior to come and do something for us we can't do
for ourselves. And the believer loves it that way. Oh, I wish
I could tell you how much I love that everything God requires
of me, he looks to Christ for. He doesn't look to me for one
thing. I mean that, I just can't even tell you how much that thrills
my soul. The believer loves it that way. Everything God requires
of me, he looks to Christ for. Here's the second thing I see
here. God in his mercy always saves certain people. Certain men and certain women. Luke says here in verse two,
and a certain man who was laying from his mother's womb. God always
saves certain people. I'm gonna read you a few examples.
Matthew 9 verse 18 says, there came a certain ruler and worshiped
him saying, my daughter is even now dead, but come lay thy hand
upon her and she shall live. A certain ruler came and Lord
raised his daughter from the dead. Mark 5 verse 25 says, a
certain woman, which had an issue of blood, a certain woman. This
certain woman came behind the Lord, crawled up behind him on
the ground and touched the hem of his garment and she was made
whole. A certain woman. In Mark 7 verse
25 says, a certain woman whose young daughter had an unclean
spirit heard of him and came and fell at his feet. This was
a certain woman. She's a Gentile. And the Lord
insulted her. Now he told the truth about her,
but he insulted her and couldn't run her off. He called her a
dog. He said, it's not right for me
to give the children's bread to dogs. I came for the house
of Israel. You're not of the house of Israel.
And everything he said about, she just said, true Lord, true.
But dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table.
And Lord gave that certain woman exactly what she wanted, what
she was asking for. He healed her daughter that very
minute. In Luke 7, verse 2, a certain
centurion servant who was dear unto him was sick and ready to
die. And this centurion, this certain man, came to the Lord
and told him about his servant. The Lord said, I'll come heal
him. And he said, no, no, you don't have to do that. I understand
authority. I understand authority. I'm not
worthy that you come under my roof. Lord, you just say the
word only, and my servant will be healed. And that certain servant
was healed. John 5, verse 5 says, a certain
man was there. The Lord walked by the pooled
Bethesda, And a certain man was there that had an infirmity 38
years. 38 years this man had been laying,
and a certain man. The Lord healed him instantly.
And then John 11 verse one, there was a certain man who was sick
named Lazarus. And scripture said the Lord loved
him. The Lord loved this certain man. He loved him, he loved his
sisters, and the Lord came and raised him from the dead. All
those examples I just read, they're objects of mercy. And every single
one of them was a certain man, a certain woman. They were certain
people that Almighty God knew from all of eternity. He knew
them. He set his love upon them and
he chose, he purposed, he elected to save them by his grace in
his son. And every last one of them was
drawn to Christ. The Lord always saves certain
sinners, always. It's the people that he chose
to save from all of eternity. And you say, now, how of all
the people in this world, are they gonna be saved? Are they
gonna be brought to come to Christ? You just leave that to God. He's
gonna cross their path with the gospel, and they're gonna hear
it. And sooner or later, the Lord's gonna give them faith
to believe it. a certain man, a certain woman. That's God's
electing love. This is another one of those
things I just love. It genuinely gets me excited. God did not leave the salvation
of his people up to chance. Well, you know, God's merciful. This is God's character. He's
merciful. He must show mercy to someone. Just as surely as God must be
just, God must be merciful to someone. And he didn't leave
it up to chance that somebody might decide to accept him and
then God could be merciful to him. No, he didn't leave it up
to chance. He didn't leave it up to the will of man. Well,
whoever wants to be saved, if they'll help themselves, I'll
help them. If they'll take the first step,
I'll go the rest of the way and save. He didn't leave it up to
the will of man. Because Jonathan, if you left it up to the will
of man, nobody'd be saved. We will not come to Christ that
we might have life. We will not. So God in his electing
love chose a people to save, a people who would never choose
him unless he chose them first. A people who would never love
him unless he loved them first. A people who would never come
to him unless he reached out his mighty hand and drags them
to Christ. A people who would never do anything
but sin against him, God chose to save them and gave them to
his son to save. Now I understand that the natural
man hates this truth of God's electing love. And I understand
why the natural man hates that, because the natural man says,
I want a chance to be saved. I deserve a chance to be saved.
Americans are probably the worst of everybody in the whole world
saying that, right? I deserve, you know, my, I got my rights.
You know, I got my rights. I deserve for God to give me
a chance. The believer loves God's electing
grace, his electing love. Oh my goodness, because that
is the only way my salvation, a sinner like me, that my salvation
can only be sure if God chose me first. It's the only way. My only hope of salvation is
that God chose me when I would never have chosen him and he
will bring me to Christ. He sent his son to suffer and
die and put my sin away, and he brings me to Christ. I love
that. I love it. It's my only hope. Election, the doctrine, the truth
of election, God's electing love tells me this, that salvation
is of the Lord. From its beginning to its ending,
salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord's will. It's
not my will, it's the Lord's will. It's not my doing, it's
God's doing. Salvation is of the Lord. And
if God ever shows us that truth, that salvation is of the Lord,
God does not have to save me. God doesn't have to save my children.
God doesn't have to save my loved ones. God does not have to save
me. Because salvation is of the Lord.
He's gonna save whom he will, when he will. If the Lord ever
teaches us that truth, that's the first time we'll ever truly
worship the Lord. That's the first time. The only
way we worship the Lord is when God finally shows us, I can't
do anything for myself. I can't do anything to make myself
savable. I can't do anything that would
get God to save me. I can't do anything. I'm completely
dependent on him to show me mercy. That's what a dog licking his
master's hand is. It's worship. I'm completely
dependent on the Lord to do everything for me. One of the examples I
love the most in scripture of worship is that leper that worshiped
him. Lord, if you will, you make me
whole. Admitting my total dependence
on the Lord and waiting to see if he's gonna show me mercy or
not. I'm completely dependent on him. That's worship. And I'll
never worship until I see that I'm in the hand of the sovereign
to do with me as he will. And again, the good news for
sinners is this, God delights to show mercy to sinners. This
is the question for you and me. It's not, do we know all the
right doctrine? It's not, have we memorized all
of our Bible verses? You young people, memorize your
memory verses. It's so important. What you learn
now, you won't forget. When you get to be my age, you
can't learn new ones anymore. You learn them, you forget them.
But that's not our salvation. It's not how good we are to people,
and we ought to be good to people. We ought to be good to beggars.
We ought to be kind and loving to one another. But that's not
salvation. Salvation is if the Lord wills. If he wills, I'll be saved. He delights to show mercy. The
question is, are you a sinner? That's the only question. If
you're a sinner, God'll save you. Well, here's the third thing. This beggar is a picture of religion
without Christ. He was begging alms. And that
word alms means a donation to the poor. That's what he was
begging, a donation to the poor. And I would just imagine this
man's life is miserable. I mean, it's just one day of
misery after another, after another, after another. He can't do anything
for himself. He can't go out and work and
earn a living. He can't go out and do a good
job and get a raise and have a better standard of life for
his family. He can't even go anywhere that he wants to go
by himself. Somebody's got to carry him.
Somebody carried him to this beautiful gate to beg for alms
every day. He can't do anything for himself.
I'm sure he's dirty. His clothes are threadbare. More
than likely, they're just rags. He's dirty and filthy. He stinks. And he just spends every day
trying to get something, some penny, some nickel, to do something
to make his life just a little bit better. Maybe he can buy
a new rag. He can get a few pennies. He
can buy a new rag to cover himself with. If he could get a nickel,
he might buy some day-old bread. Just something to make life a
little bit better. But you know the sad thing? I
don't care how much money people give him. It won't deal with
the root of his problem. This man cannot walk. And I don't
care how much money people give him, how much better food he
could get or nicer clothes he could buy. No matter how much
money anybody gives him, it still won't help him walk. It won't
get to the root of the problem. Trinkets. and creature comforts
will not deal with the root of his problem. And that's man's
religion. Most of man's religion today
is focused on the fleshly, isn't it? What can I do to make my
life better? How can I have more friends?
How can I do something that, you know, keep my children off
drugs and make my children successful? You know, what can I do that,
oh, I do so many good works and I do all these things that God
will bless me and give me more money and give me a big raise
and, you know, I send in my seed money and God will give me more
money. It's all about the flesh, isn't
it? It's all about getting blessings in this life to make the flesh
feel better. It could be something like, wow,
I went to the worship service today. Not only did I go to the
worship service, I went to the Bible class. I really sacrificed
for God today. I feel so much better about myself.
That's man's religion today. And those worthless trinkets
will not, they might make the flesh feel better, but they'll
never deal with the root of our problem, our heart. None of those things gives a
new heart. None of those things cleanses us from sin. We don't
need trinkets of this life. We need a miracle for our soul.
We need a miracle for our heart. That's the root of the problem,
and that's what we need from God. And in a picture, that's
what the Lord's getting ready to give this man. Now here's
the fourth thing I see. God's gonna save his people.
He chose them unto salvation. He's going to save his people.
But God uses means. to save his people from their
sin. Did he use means to put the sin
of his people away? God didn't just wave a magic
wand and say the sin of his people is gone and forgiven. No, he
used means. He used the sacrifice of his
son. He used the pure, precious blood
of his son to put away the sin of his people and to pay their
sin debt. And even then, God doesn't wave
a magic wand. Does he say, well, they're all
saved now. No, God uses means. He uses the means of preaching. The preaching of the gospel to
reveal Christ to his people. And many times, the Lord reveals
his son to people who aren't looking for him. I was found
of them that sought me not, the Lord says. This poor man was
not looking for Christ. He was looking for donations
to the poor. That's what he was looking for.
But he was in the right place to receive mercy. They brought
him to the temple. Now that's the place at least
God's supposed to be worshipped. I mean, one would hope that the
people going there to the temple to worship have a kind and caring
and generous heart. One would hope. But there's something
a whole lot better than that there. This is the place where
God's to be worshipped. This is the place where the presence
of God is promised to be. And that's a good idea. Be where
it is Christ is promised to be. If you want to meet him, if you
want to receive mercy from him, be where he is. You know, I just
can't stress the importance of public worship. I know I can't
get God to save me. I understand that. I understand
there's nothing that I can do to deserve to be saved. I understand
that. But if God's gonna reveal himself to me, I know where it's
gonna be. It's gonna be in the public worship
service, where his word is being preached. Because that's where
Christ promised to be. Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. If you
want to be saved, if you want to be an object of God's mercy
and grace, you want to be one of these certain people, be a
mighty good idea to avail yourself to the means of grace. The means
of grace is the preaching of the gospel. It pleased God by
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. This
man was here at the temple and you know who he met there? Two
preachers, two preachers. Look at verse three. Who seeing
Peter and John about to go into the temple asking alms. And Peter
fastening his eyes upon him with John said, look on us. And he
gave heed unto them expecting to receive something of them.
Then Peter said, silver and gold have I none. But such as I have,
give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, rise up and walk. Peter told this man, I'll give
you what I have. I'll give you everything I have.
All I have to give you is Christ. And if you find one of God's
preachers, every single one of them will tell you that. All
I have to give you is Christ. All I have to preach to you is
Christ. I can tell you about his name.
His name reveals his character. I can tell you from God's word
what he's like. I can tell you how he saved sinners.
I can tell you about his glory that will make you come to him
and beg him for mercy. God showed that to me and I can
tell that to you. And I don't have anything else.
I really don't. I don't have psychological methods
to make you feel better. I don't. I don't have any sales
techniques that will motivate you to come do something for
Jesus. I don't have that. I don't have
any charisma. I mean, I just don't. And it's
a good thing, because if I did, that gets your attention off
Christ. I just, I mean, I can't tell you why things are the way
they are. I can't tell you what's gonna happen in the future. I've
got no gift of prophecy as far as being able to tell you what's
gonna happen in the future. I just am a very untalented person.
But God, in his mercy, in his grace, has been pleased to show
me something of Christ the Savior. He's all I got. And as much as
the Lord will enable me to do it, I'm gonna tell you about
him. Oh, let me tell you about him one more time. Let me tell
you about him. Because if the Lord shows you
him, you'll be saved. His name is all I've got to preach. There's none other name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. If God gives
you faith in his name, you must be saved. There's no stopping
you. There's no keeping it from you.
You must be saved. This is what God's preacher,
only thing he has to tell you is about Christ, who he is, what
he's done, why he did it, where he is now, and you look to him,
you trust him. In a sentence, that is the message
of every one of God's preachers. And if the Holy Spirit will enable
you to hear it, you'll be plum saved. Here's my last point. Salvation in Christ is instant
and it's complete. Verse seven. Peter told him,
you rise up and walk. And he told a man who'd never
walked in his whole life to rise up and walk. And he reached down
and took him by the right hand and lifted him up. And immediately
his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood
and walked and entered with him into the temple, walking and
leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking
and praising God. 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. And as the lame man which was
healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto
them in the porch that's called Solomon's, greatly wondering. Now Peter told this man who'd
never walked before, get up and walk, and he did. He didn't just
walk, he jumped around leaping and praising God. There's no
physical therapy. There was no surgery and a recovery
time and then you start some physical therapy and you slowly,
slowly, slowly build up. Instantly, this man was jumping
and running around. His bones and his muscles were
instantly healed and made strong enough to jump up and down and
to run. You know, there's been a couple
of times I've been laid up for a little while, and I experienced
some muscle atrophy. My muscles got smaller, and particularly
in my legs, I had some atrophy just from lack of use. This man
didn't have any muscle atrophy, because he had no muscles to
atrophy. He had no muscles to get smaller.
He never walked. He never used muscles to walk.
His bones had never been strengthened. you know, walking or, you know,
impacts what's to strengthen your bones. He never had any
of that. He didn't even have a good diet.
He had calcium to strengthen his bones. His legs were just
skin over bone. I mean, just imagine how small
those legs were. And instantly, he's jumping up
and down and running around, praising God. He was instantly
healed. That's God's salvation. That's
God's salvation. When God saves a person, they're
instantly, completely made whole. That new man, born in the hearts
of God's people is instantly ready to go straight into glory,
into the presence of God. With no probationary period,
with no other changes required, instantly. fit to go into the
presence of God Almighty. And my commandment to you, based
on the Word, from the Word of God, my commandment to you is
you believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You believe
Him and you come to Him. Right where you sit, you don't
have to get up out of your chair, in your heart, you come to Him.
You believe him. That's the commandment of God.
The commandment of God is to believe on his son. That's the
commandment of God. And bless your heart. There's
somebody here that doesn't know Christ. And hearing the preacher
say one more time for the 10 millionth time, come to Christ
is so frustrating to you because you can't do it. And my heart
goes out to you because I've been there. I know the misery
that feels like to be told to come to Christ and you can't.
I don't know where He is. I don't know what that means.
I don't know how to do that. But I'm telling you this, you
keep coming and hearing the gospel. Because if God the Holy Spirit
ever speaks to you in words that you can't hear just in your heart
and tells you, rise up and walk. You come to Christ. You believe
on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You will do what you
cannot do. With the commandment from God
comes the ability to do it. When God tells you to believe,
you believe. When God tells you to come, you'll
come to Christ and you'll be instantly whole. You keep coming
here in the gospel. Here's one thing I know about
this gospel. It's always successful. Always, it always accomplishes
the purpose that God sends it to accomplish. And if God sends
it on a mission of mercy to his people, it will be successful. The dead will live, the deaf
will hear, the lame will rise and come to Christ. You come
to Christ. I would ask you this, what are
you waiting on? Don't wait to get any better,
I'll tell you that. Just come to Christ as you are. and he
will instantly heal your soul. And that salvation is gonna be
a wonder. These people wondered at what
happened. They were amazed at it. God's salvation is a wonder. And I reckon people that used
to know you in the past will say, oh, you know, you're, you're
so different now. Maybe they'll be amazed. I don't know if they
will or not, but I can tell you who's going to be amazed. If
God saves me, me, that's the most amazing thing I've ever
heard of that God would save me. And that makes me want to
spend my time seeking Christ to worshiping him, to follow
after him, You know, I can't tell you exactly how God did
it. All I know is this. I was lame, and now I can run
and follow after Christ. I know that. I was blind. I couldn't see what the big deal
was about. I couldn't see Christ. I couldn't
see. And now I see, because God gave me eyes to see. And I'll
tell you what I see. You know how you know if God's
given you eyes to see? You see Christ. You see Him. You see
Him as your only hope. You see Him as the only thing
you want. I used to be tongue-tied. I mean, I couldn't say anything.
I couldn't tell you anything of any spiritual value. Now I
can, because God gave me the tongue of the learned. I used
to be deaf. I just wonder how many gospel
messages, boy, I'd like to go back and listen to all those
gospel messages that I heard when I was deaf. I couldn't hear. I could not hear Christ. I could not hear him and his
word, and now I hear. All I can tell you is this, God
gave me ears to hear. That's all I can tell you. But
I hear, I hear Christ. I was dead. I mean, the gospel
had no effect on me. I've seen someone in the casket,
people in the casket, their loved ones gather around the casket. I'm not saying you shouldn't
do this. I'm just saying this is what we do. We weep over them. We cry
over them. We touch them. We want to reach
down and hug them. Because we're broken hearted.
But they're totally unaffected because they're dead. That used
to be me. I was unaffected by the gospel.
Now it breaks my heart, it thrills my heart, it just affects me
so deeply, because all I can tell you is I was dead and Christ
gave me life. I'm just like Lazarus. He called
me one day and said, Frank, come forth. And I came forth. If God's
given you life, that's what happened to you too. The only thing I
know is this. Christ saved me. And with all
my heart, I want to follow Him. I want to be to worship Him. And that's how you can tell if
God's healed you. If God's healed you, You just want to hear that
same old story over and over and over again. And you never
get tired of hearing that same old story over and over and over
again. And you don't get tired of telling it either. As far
as I know, we don't know anything else in scripture from this lame
man being healed. But I just bet you this, knowing
people like I do, He told that story over and over and over. His family got so tired of hearing
that story. We know, we know. But he never
got tired of telling it. What a miracle. What a wonder
of God's grace that he'd saved me. That's our story, isn't it? God
saved us. That lame man story, that's our
story. I hope the Lord will bless that to you. Let's bow together. Our Father, we're so humbled
in your presence, so thankful, thankful for your mercy and your
grace. We say with David of old, who am I and what is my house? Who are we here that you show
such mercy to us, that you be pleased to reveal your son to
us and in us. Father, how thankful we are.
We praise your matchless name for doing what we do not deserve. For giving your people exactly
what your son earned and deserved by his perfect life and his sacrificial
death for us. Father, how we thank you. Father,
I pray that you take your word as it's been preached and Blessed
to your glory, that you let each of us here see more of your glory.
Those that know you and trust you, that we might know you and
love you and trust you more. And those that don't know you,
that you might be pleased to make this a day of mercy for
a certain man or a certain woman who's here to hear. Bless your
word, Father, for your glory. I know that I ask of great, monumental
blessing, asking for your mercy for sinners like us. But Father,
would you do it for your glory, that your name might be glorified
for showing mercy to such sinners as we are. Father, it's in Christ's
name. For his sake and his glory, we
pray. Amen. All right, Sean. Okay, if you would, turn in your
hymnal to song number 209 and stand as we sing grace greater
than our sin. 200. Grace that exceeds our sin and
our guilt, yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured, there where
the blood of the Lamb was spilled. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse
within. Grace, grace, God's grace. God's grace, grace that is greater
than all our sin. Sin and despair, like the sea
waves cold, threaten the soul with infinite loss. Grace that is greater, yes, grace,
I'm told, points to the refuge, the mighty cross. Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace
that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all
our sin. Dark is the stain that we cannot
hide. What can avail to wash it away? Look, there is flowing a crimson
tide. Whiter than snow you may be. today. Grace, grace, God's grace,
grace that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin. Marvelous, infinite,
matchless grace freely bestowed on all who believe. You that are longing to see His
face, will you this moment His grace receive? Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace,
grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all
our sin.