I'm home now. I'm going to take
my coat off. All right. If you will, turn
back with me now to Acts chapter 3. While you're finding the text,
let me just say that I'm glad to be back home. I love to go out. I recognize
that as the prophets of God sending me, and I'm excited that wherever
I go, somebody's going to be there by the Lord's hand, and
they're going to hear the gospel of God's sovereign grace. It's a miraculous thing to me
and that's just exactly how I look at it. It's an unfolding of God's
providence and the miracle of his grace. But there's no place
like home. I have to agree with whatever
worldly poet wrote that, I agree with him. There's no place like
home. Somebody said home is where the
heart is. and my heart being given to this
place for the past 11 years, and I don't expect it ever to
fade away. We had absolutely wonderful meetings
up in Hendersonville, North Carolina. I got to meet some new people,
and I got to spend some time with Brother Carol Poole, whom
I've known for some time, but I've never had time really to
sit and talk to him much. But then when the meeting was
over, I was ready to go home. And it's a long and accepted
tradition to give gifts to those you love. We were all out hunting
for something to give to Brother Carroll and his wife, just as
a token of our appreciation. I took some snapshots and decided
I'd wait till I got home and have some printed up and put,
and I'm gonna send them to him in the frame, different places
in the conference and different pictures that we had taken. But it's a longstanding tradition
to give gifts to those you love. But there's too many of you and
my bank account's too little. And I just don't know what to
give. But I wanted to give something. And I was sitting around the
house just thinking about that and thinking, where could I go?
What could I get? Could I get something to give
to all of them at the same time? Or do I get different things
for different people? What am I going to do? How am
I going to give this? And all of a sudden, this text
just It fell on me like a ton of bricks. And I got thinking
about that old beggar who was carried up to the temple, been
lame from his mother's womb. They took him up there every
day, every day. What a great place to take somebody,
up to the temple, up to that place of worship. And they sat
him there every day. And as people went in the door,
his trouble was before them. They could see, he's lame, he
can't walk, he's laying on that old dirty blanket. Same guy,
they've known him since he was a little kid. Everybody that
came into that place knew him. But on this particular morning,
He saw Peter and John coming into the temple. He didn't see
them any different than he saw anybody else. But they saw him different. And when Peter saw him, he fashioned
his eyes upon him, and when that old beggar held out his little
pan or cup or whatever it was he had in his hand, Peter looked
at him and said, silver and gold, have I none, but such as I have." Paul said that. He wrote that
letter to the Romans and he told them about his calling and his
commission of God and all of those things. And then he said,
as much as in me is, Not more that's in me and not
less, but as much as in me is, I'm ready to preach the gospel
to you. To you. Such as I have, give I unto thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right
hand and he lifted him up and immediately his feet and ankle
bones received strength. This man's been sitting on a
blanket his whole life. And he don't even get him all
the way up and now he's looking like a Pentecostal. He's jumping
up in the air. He's leaping. He's leaping around. He has strength
in his legs. And he's amazed at what he's
feeling and what he's experiencing, and he begins to leap, and he
stood, and then he walked. They said, where are you going?
I said, we're going in here to worship. He said, I'm going with
you. I'm going with you. This is the story recorded in
Acts chapter 3, the story of the lame beggar and a servant
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the title of my message this
morning is such as I have. All kinds of things here that
we could talk about. Things concerning the events
of this day. But I just want to confine myself
to three things. Peter said in Acts 3, 6, silver
and gold have I none. but such as I have, give I unto
thee. Now I want to see if I can ask
and answer three questions concerning this lame beggar. And if I can, by the power and
presence of the Holy Ghost, I will have given to you such as I have. First of all, what did Peter
have? He didn't have any money. He said, silver and gold have
I none. Or at least he had nothing that
could have helped that poor beggar. I don't have any silver and gold. He had nothing to give, and even
if he did, it wouldn't have had any lasting effect on this man's
dilemma before God. Religion treats the symptoms. If they're naked, give them clothes.
If they're hungry, feed them. If they're homeless, give them
shelter. And these things are all good and taught in the scripture.
They're things that we need to do. But all that you have accomplished
when it's all said and done is to have made a sinner comfortable
that was uncomfortable. Is that right? He was cold. I gave him some clothes. Now
he's warm. But he's still a sinner. He didn't have anywhere to live.
He's sleeping on the sidewalk. So I gave him a bed. I gave him
a shelter. Now he's comfortable. but he's
still sinning. You see what I'm saying? You hadn't had any effect on
his soul or on his standing before God. You just treated the symptoms. It's okay to do that. The Lord
took care of us long before we knew him. But he said, such as I have,
give I unto thee. Well, what did he have? Peter
had the commission of God. Now I'm gonna tell you something. You kids better listen to me.
This world is full of preachers. There's a preacher on every block.
And they don't all have churches. They're not all pastors. Some
of them just live at home. I had a man come up here in the
parking lot when we was remodeling the church, and he come out and
gave me his little card. He said, I'm an evangelist. He
said, anytime you need any help, give me a call. He said, you
need somebody to sing, I can sing. You need somebody to preach,
I can preach. Do whatever you want me to do. Be whatever you
want me to be. I'm here for you. He handed me
a card. I took the card and threw it in the waste can. This world is full of preachers.
But there's a handful. There's a handful that have been
commissioned by God. Commissioned by God. And there's
ways to know who they are. Peter and 10 other disciples
met with the Lord as they were summoned to do so in a mountain
outside of Galilee. And over in Matthew 28, 18, it
said, Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all power is given
unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Ghost. And then in the book of Mark,
he adds these words. And he that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be
damned. Peter had the commission of God. God Almighty called him to be
an apostle. He didn't take it to himself.
He didn't go to seminary and earn a degree and trust in the
degree. God gave him his commission. He didn't need the recommendation
of anybody. That's what Paul said when he
went to the church at Corinth. He said, I don't need papers
from you or papers from somebody else recommending me to you.
God has commissioned me to be an apostle. All right, what else
did he have? He had in his possession the
power of God unto salvation. Paul said in Romans 115, as much
as in me is, I'm ready to preach the gospel to you that are in
Rome also. A bunch of Roman and Greek heathens, how to worship. And he said in verse 16, for
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation. Now listen, to everyone, does
that leave anybody out? To everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. There's not going to be any salvation
to any man apart from the designated means ordained of God. He has
a gospel and he's commissioned certain men to preach that gospel. This is the means that God's
ordained. I'm not trying to limit God.
God said this is what pleased me to do and he does all that
he pleases. That's all I need to know about
it. I'm amazed sometimes at how we
try to take our own experience and push God into a corner because
it don't fit our experience. Why don't we just believe God? Just believe God? And I don't care what any man's
biographer said, God said the gospel of Christ is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. And I say, let
God be true in every man alive. Well, I was just sitting out
there one day in the boat, and it just came to me. Something
did. Something came to you, but it
wasn't God. It wasn't God. Oh, He just whispered in my heart,
you're saved. Let God be true, never a man
a liar. I'm gonna take God's word for
it. It pleased God through the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Paul said this, he said,
who then is Paul? Now he just got through telling
them that God had trusted him with the stewardship of the gospel.
And he said, who then is Paul and who is Apollos but ministers
by whom you believed? Even, are you listening? Even
as the Lord gave to every man. Preacher, I was just laying on
my death bed. I was out on the battlefield. A throat was slit
ear to ear. Blood was gushing out. I knew
I just had a moment to live. And I made a deal with God. I
said, if you'll let me live, I'll serve you till I die. Sell
it to your grandma. Don't bring it to me. Let God
be true and every man a liar. Peter had the gospel of Jesus
Christ, the power of God, unto salvation and he had God's commission. What else did he have? Well,
thirdly, he had the presence of the Holy Ghost. He said, repent,
he tells them down there in verse 19. Repent ye therefore and be
converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times
of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Oh my. The Holy Spirit and He
alone is able to take that blood and sprinkle it on that guilty
conscience. He alone can do that. I can't
do that. I can tell you about it. I can read to you about it,
but I can't do it. But He can. He can. And He does. He does. The gospel is the revelation
of Jesus Christ, but no man will receive it apart from that life-giving
power of the Holy Ghost. Paul said, oh, you Thessalonians. He said, I know your election
of God, because my gospel came not in word only. It came in
power, and it came in the Holy Ghost. And you become followers
of us and the Lord. What else did he have? He had
the promise of the Father. In James 1.17 it said, every
good gift, such as I have, give I unto thee. Every good gift
and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the
Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow
of turning. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his
creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren,
let every man be swift to hear. If that's how it comes, and it
does, if that's what pleased God, how it pleased God to do
it, then hear, he said. Be swift to hear. No, we want
to talk. We don't want to hear. We want
to talk. We want to argue. We want to debate. We're gonna
go back and forth. Now be swift to hear. Be swift
to hear. And be slow to wrath. So what
did Peter have? He had the commission of God.
He had the gospel of Christ. He had the presence of the Holy
Ghost. He had the promised blessing of God the Father. Such as I
have, give I unto thee. All right, here's the second
question. What caused Peter to give what
he had to this beggar? He wasn't the only lame man in
that city of Jerusalem. He wasn't the only needy sinner
in that city of Jerusalem. Why did he stop in front of that
man? What caused Peter to give what
he had to this man? Well, I can tell you this by
experience. God's providence led him to that
man. Our text said there was a certain
man. Not just any man. There was a
certain man. And he'd been carried out there
from his youth. Carried out there and laid on
that blanket. But not on this day. He's going to be done with the
blanket today. God in his providence sent this
man to him. And I tell you, God's preachers
are especially aware of God's providence in the ministry. Now,
God's providence is in everything. It's in everything. You think
about this. If God had caused a gnat to fly
in the eye of that rifleman, John Kennedy would still be alive
today, wouldn't he? God providence, he worketh all
things after the counsel of his own will. We say that's kind
of going to an extreme. Well, he told me not even a sparrow
can fall to the ground without your father. He said, did God
take thought for sparrows? Or did he say it for your sake?
God's providence rules over all things, but ministers who preach
the gospel, who see men converted, see men born of God, they're
especially aware of God's providence. Paul even went so far as to say
the Holy Spirit forbade him from going into this place of that.
And you read on, you'll find out it was something that happened
in God's providence that kept him from going. Beautiful illustration of Lydia.
He wanted to go into the city. He didn't know Lydia, but he
wanted to go into the city where Lydia lived. And the Holy Spirit wouldn't
let him go. This happened, that happened. He couldn't go there,
so he had to go somewhere else. Lydia wasn't at home. She was
over here where God shut him up to go. And they didn't even
have a synagogue. They went down on the river bank
to worship. And he went down there, and there's
Lydia. He preached to her. God saved her. Isn't that something? That's God's providence. Preachers
are aware of this. They know how this thing works. He told those Jews, Christ said,
don't murmur. Why are you murmuring about?
Except the Father which has sent me draw him, he can't come to
me. He can't come to me. God probably
didn't lead Peter to this man, and then the Holy Ghost singled
him out. I don't have a clue as to how. I don't know. I don't know what
Peter felt or experienced, but something caused him to fasten
his eyes on this sinner. Now I've had that happen to me,
different places I've been. It happened this last time up
in Hendersonville. I don't know why all the people
in that congregation and all the different visitors that came
in and out, but there was a young man there. And my mind just went
to him, my heart went to him, and when I preached, I preached
to him. Everybody else in there got it.
He might not have got anything, but I don't know. But I'm telling
you, the Holy Ghost sometimes does this. And that's what happened
this day. He laid this man on his heart. I'll give you another example,
one a little more current. There was a meeting up in Ashland,
Kentucky years ago. And the evangelist that was supposed
to hold the meeting couldn't come. He got sick in God's providence. And they said, man, we've been
out knocking on doors and passing out pamphlets. We've advertised
this. And now our speaker can't come.
What are we going to do? And one old deacon, he said,
well, I know this old fellow. He said, I think he'd be willing
to come if he ain't already booked. And he said, his name's Rolf
Barnard. And they said, well, give him
a call. And they did. And old Rolf come up. And he
got up to preach, and old Henry, just a young man, fresh out of
seminary. They sent him up there. He assisted
pastor over at Pollard Baptist Church, and I guess later on
become pastor. But he was sitting there on the
front, and there was pastors all over the place. I mean, all
the pastors from all those Baptist churches in that whole area was
at this meeting. It was a citywide meeting. And
old Ralph started preaching, and right out of the blue, He
looked right down at Henry Mahan. And he said, can you quote Romans
8.28? And Henry said, well, I think
I can. Well, he said, quote it. Henry
stood up and he said, all things work together for good to them
that love God. And he sat down. And old Ralph
had these little old granny glasses. And he looked down over them
glasses. He said, do you know it all? And Henry said, yes sir. And he said, we'll take another
shot at it. And he stood up and he said,
and we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
And then Roth let out a scream like only Roth could do and rattled
the back doors and he said, God saves men on purpose. And he pointed right down at
Henry and he said, if God ever reveals that to you, he'll open
his book to you. And he said, I couldn't get that
off my mind. I went home and I looked and
read everything I get my, the Lord saved him. The Lord saved
him. How come old Ralph looked at
him? There was three or four or 500 people in that place.
Huh? You see what I'm sayin'? God
sometimes just, I don't know how, there ain't no way in the
world to explain it. He just does. He just does. Why did Christ stop for that
blind beggar? Oh, there he sit. Yellin' at him, Jesus thou son
of David, have mercy on me. Old blind boy to me. The Holy Ghost singled him out. Singled him out. And then thirdly,
I know this was involved in Peter's statement. His heart was filled
with love and mercy and grace and gratitude to God as he looked
on that lame beggar he saw himself. I think that's what captured my mind about that young
man. I can remember myself at his
age. Filled with religious concepts
and ideas, ready to do anything I could do. Go out knocking on
doors and play my guitar and travel and sing in churches,
do anything I could do. That's what I was taught. And
one day I heard the truth. And old Peter, he looked at that
man, And he saw himself, he saw himself. Old bankrupt beggar, shut up
to the mercy of God. Our Lord said, I'll have mercy
and not sacrifice. Now you go learn what that means.
You're gonna worship me, you're gonna follow me, you go learn
what this means. I'll have mercy, not sacrifice. I think Peter looked at this
old man and saw himself having been carried by the Lord. Who
carried you? Huh? From the day of your birth,
who carried you? I tell you, he carried me. I don't
want to change a thing. People say, I'd like to go back
and change everything. Boy, not me. I don't want to
change nothing. Because everything that was is
what brought me to Christ. You here this morning shut up
to the mercy of God? God carried you here. He carried you here. Preachers see themselves in those
they preach to. Blind beggars, lame from their
mother's womb, palsied, demon-possessed, living in the tombs of the dead. They don't look down their noses
and say, well, I thank God I'm not like him. Oh, no. They said
we're worse than him, but I can identify with him. Be ye kind
one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, forgave you. Did he forgive you? Well, you should never doubt,
never doubt that he would forgive somebody else. God's providence led him to the
center. The Holy Ghost singled him out.
His heart was filled with mercy and grace and the love of God,
and he saw himself in the center. That's why he did and said what
he said. Now here's the third question. What did he give this man? He gave him what he had. He gave him his greatest position,
the gospel of God's sovereign, effectual, reigning grace. That's what he gave him. In the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. None other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. You're not going to
be saved talking about reformation of life. You're not going to
be saved talking about walking isles and signing pledge cards.
You're not going to be saved out there in your boat on the
lake. You're going to be saved when
you call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now how are you
going to call on Him in whom you have not believed? Now how
are you going to believe in Him of whom you have not heard? And
how on earth are you going to hear without preaching? And how's
he gonna preach? Except he'd be sent. Huh? You're beginning to get the picture.
Here's this old leper, they had to carry him out there. He couldn't
walk, he couldn't scoot, he couldn't do anything. He was lame. And
they carried him out, bore him out there on a little stretcher
or whatever it was, and they set him down there on that blanket,
covered him up a little bit, gave him his little tin pan,
and he sat there begging alms. Alms. Alms for the poor. He gave him a name. All power
given to me in heaven and earth. Now you go preach. You go preach. Not only that, but these were
apostles. God said, I'm gonna confirm you as my apostles. Now I'm gonna give you something
nobody else in this world has. I'm gonna give you spiritual
discernment. He knew Ananias and Sapphira
lied to the Holy Ghost. Huh? He could walk in a pavilion
and there'd be, I don't know how many different nations he
names over there in the Book of Acts at the beginning of it,
but every one of them heard them in their own language. Huh? That's not this gibberish you
hear out here in these Pentecostal churches. This was men and women
hearing these men preach, and every one of them in their own
language. Paul didn't have to study French
to preach to the French. He just spoke French. God gave
it to him. He knew it already. All of the things given to God's
elect by the Father in Christ, our eternal quickening into a
spiritual union with His Son, our living in Him, dying in Him,
being raised in Him, being seated with Him in glory. Now listen,
that in the ages to come. He might show the exceeding riches
of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. They said who sinned that this
man was born blind? He said he was born blind for
the glory of God. God will speak to him and he
gonna show him the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness
toward him through Christ Jesus. That's what was going on here
at the temple. or by grace are you saved through
faith. He gave him the gospel of Christ. Secondly, he giving him the gospel,
he gave him the power of God unto salvation. Paul said in
one place to the Corinthians, he said, you've got a lot of
people out here, a lot of things that you, but he said, you just
got one father. He said, I have begotten you
through the gospel. Paul knew he didn't. He didn't
raise them by his own power, but God used him to do that and
gave this guy a new birth through him. It's the power of God. Peter said, we're not born of
corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. And then he goes on and describes
the ungodliness of men. We just, oh, we're horrible. We're like the flower of the
grass. Come out and bloom for a season and then fade off into
oblivion. But he said, and this is the
word which by the gospel is preached unto you. And the word seed in 1 Peter
1.23 is semen. I often hear men talk about being
born again through all sorts of experiences and situations
and some under the preaching of false prophets. I'm wondering
if these same men, if these same men would be sympathetic to their
wives if they came in one day and she said, honey, I'm just
out pulling weeds in the flower bed and now I'm pregnant. No sir, they'd be down at the
courthouse in just a day or two suing for divorce. Why? Because they knew she lied. They
knew she lied. And that's what you and I need
to do with people who claim to be saved contrary to the scriptures. He said, to as many as received
him, to them gave he power to become sons of God. Otherwise,
they wouldn't have received him. Even to them that believe on
his name. They'd have never believed if
he hadn't given them the power to do this. And that power came
through the gospel. And then lastly, Peter gave this
man the word of faith. Paul talked about the word of
faith over in Romans chapter 10. He said as he preached to
them, the word is nigh thee. When does the word come nigh
to a man? Call ye upon him while he's near. When is he near? Today is the
day of salvation. He says that over and over and
over over there in Hebrews chapter three and chapter four. Well, Paul said as he preached
the gospel, he said, the word is nigh thee. Even in thy mouth and in thine
heart, that is the word of faith which we preach. When does it
come nigh? When it's being preached to you.
When God carried you out and sent his man and set you down
in a position where you shut up to mercy and shut up to grace
and shut up to God. and you hear it now he's near now he's near call you upon him
while he's near don't put it off don't put it off today is
the day of salvation and then he said this after he
said that he said this that if thou shalt Confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved. Such as I have, give I unto thee."
Huh? Everything that Peter had except
his office as an apostle and those supernatural gifts he was
given to confirm his apostleship, I have. I have, such as I have,
give I unto they. May the Lord reveal that to your
heart and make an impact on you with it. It's the gift of my
love. Thank you.