If you would, go ahead and turn
back with me to Acts chapter 3. And while you're turning,
let me ask each and every one of you this morning, do you believe
that the Bible, the book that you hold in your lap, in your
hand, is the inspired Word of God? That is a very important
question. There are many people that think
that This book was written by men and therefore it's fallible,
but it was written and were told by the Scriptures themselves
that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. This is God's
Word to men and women. And if you do believe that the
Bible is the inspired Word of God, let me ask you, do you believe
what the Holy Scriptures say about you? Well, God's people
do. And we often say that a believer
takes sides with God against themselves. And I think of that
woman who begged healing of her daughter from the Lord Jesus
Christ. She said, it's not right for
me to give what belongs to God's children to dogs. And she said,
yeah, Lord, I'm a dog. But even the dog gets the crumbs,
if all, from the master's table. Have you seen that you're a dog? a dead dog sinner, as my former
pastor used to say. Well, the scripture's clear and
it's direct when it speaks of men and women born of the flesh. It says there's none that doeth
good, no, not one. Have you seen that there's nothing
good in you? Have you seen that by the disobedience
of one man, Adam, that you were born spiritually dead and eternally
condemned? Have you seen that? Do you believe
it? You see, for the most part, people
believe that basically men and women are born good, and that
at some point in their life they do something bad that labels
them a sinner. Friends, God created Adam perfect,
holy, and righteous in his own image. And he gave him simply
one commandment, just one. He said, but of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. all the
other trees that bore the fruit that God made. Can you imagine
how good that was? Just one tree you shall not eat
of. And he said, for in the day that
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And Adam rebelliously
ate and died, he did. Spiritually, he lived for several
hundred years according to the scripture, but he died spiritually,
dead unto God. out of fellowship, no longer
walking with God in the cool of the day. Well, you might say,
well, how does what Adam did affect me? Paul answers that
in Romans chapter 5. You don't have to turn there,
but he says, Wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the
world. That one man was Adam. And death
by sin. We inherited by birthright the
spiritually dead condition of our father Adam. And Paul goes
on to say, in death by sin, so death passed upon all men. Not just some, not just a few,
but all men, for then all have sinned. That's why I say, not
only by birthright from Adam, but by practice. Every man and
woman are born spiritually dead and eternally condemned. Death
came by sin, and sin is what we are. This past week at Brother
Jack's funeral, I had a young man come up to me, and I made
that statement in the message. We're not sinners because we
sin. We sin because we're sinners.
He told me over and over again that that opened up something
in his mind, and hopefully it will his heart. You see, it was
sin that caused Adam and Eve to hide and run from God. It was sin that caused Cain,
their son, to kill their other son, his brother Abel. Sin! Do you know what caused King
David, the beloved psalmist, to take another man's wife and
then kill her husband? Sin! Sin. What caused Israel? We read in
the Old Testament deliverance of God by sovereign power and
might from the Egyptians. Immediately when they come out
of Egypt, they begin to murmur and complain and say, God, did
you deliver us out of Egypt to let us die here in the wilderness,
to let us die here at the shores of the Red Sea? What caused that? Sin. Sin did. No man or woman, now listen,
has ever become a sinner because of the sin that they've committed.
But every man and woman, born with the exception of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the God-man, has sinned because they were a wretched
and depraved sinner. We must not get the cart before
the horse, as the old saying goes. And as early as the sixth
chapter of Genesis, we're told from Scripture that God saw the
wickedness of man, and he saw it was great in the earth, and
that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually. Well, some might say, what about
a newborn baby? They seem so precious and innocent. And they do. Totally dependent
upon their parents for life and sustaining of life. And they
may seem so outwardly, friends, but not inwardly. I have a, as
most of you know, a granddaughter due any day now. That's where
Teresa is. Any day now, this precious little
girl is going to come into the world and I already know that
she's going to be precious to me. She's going to be precious
in my eyes, but she'll be a sinner in God's. You see, David wrote,
and you're very familiar with these Scriptures, but he said,
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. It's not like we're born and
then we do something to become sinners. No, we're born that
way. He said in Psalm 58, 3, the wicked
are estranged from God, out of fellowship with God, from the
womb. From the womb. And they go astray as soon as
they are born speaking lies. Well, I was shaped and formed
in my mother's womb in iniquity. And so were you. That's what
God says. Conceived in sin. And I went
astray as soon as I was born speaking lies. Now, many of you
have raised children We raised three children, good kids, naturally
speaking. Didn't give us any trouble. But
something I noticed in all of them is when they were small,
young, could barely talk, and they'd do something wrong, we'd
say, did you do that? And immediately, that head began
to shake. And if they could talk at the
time, they'd say, no. No, I didn't do that. Saw them
do it. No. No one has to teach us how
to lie. We come forth from the womb speaking
lies. That's talking about the nature,
the heart of every, every man and woman born. The Apostle Paul
said there's none that understand it. There's none that seeketh
after God. They're all gone out of the way. They're all together
become unprofitable. Don't ever think that you're
an asset to God. Don't ever think you're anything
special. Only in Christ are you special.
They're all together become improper. There's none that doeth good.
And he reiterates by saying, no, not one. Not a one. Now let me ask you
again. Do you believe this Bible is
the inspired Word of God? Do you believe that this is God's
Word to us? If you do, do you believe what
the Bible says concerning you? That's very important. I'm convinced
that a man that never sees his condition will never see his
need of a Savior. And if you have, and if God has
shown you what you are, then you will agree that you're condemned,
spiritually dead, wicked, and depraved. And none of us have
an excuse before a thrice holy God. And oftentimes in scripture
we have accounts of men's physical conditions, which are true pictures
of what we are spiritually. You see, I'm a spiritual leper. My flesh is decaying and rotting
with my horrific disease. I have an issue of blood because
sin runs through the veins of my body with every heartbeat.
I'm blind and I'm deaf and I'm crippled spiritually. I'm a spiritual
maniac like that man of Gadara, constantly doing harm to myself. I'm my own worst enemy. Every
deformity, disease and infirmity that the Lord Jesus Christ healed
on earth, friends, I am that and more, spiritually speaking. I'm that blind man begging by
the wayside. that the Lord gave sight to.
That's me. That picture's me. I'm that lame
man that lay impotent at the pool of Bethesda that Christ
caused to walk. That's me. As I said, I'm that
possessed man that lived among the tombs that the Lord delivered.
And I'm that dead man that was in the casket as they took out
of the gate there at the city of Nain, and the Lord touched
just the coffin and raised him from the dead. That's me. That's
what God did for me. Spiritually dead. dead in trespasses
and sin. And I'm that man full of leprosy
that the Lord healed. I'm that man with that withered
hand that can do nothing for himself. Absolutely nothing.
Because Christ did everything for me. And I'm that woman with
the issue of blood that the Lord cleansed and made whole. Every
single disease Every sick, blind, deaf, dumb, lame, withered, dead
man and woman that Christ healed represents me and you spiritually
if you know Christ. We say this often, can't say
it enough, Christ did for us what we could not and would not
do for ourselves. Now this morning, just for a
few minutes, I want to show you that again. It's all through
the Scriptures, especially the Gospels and then the book of
Acts. So again, if you're turned with me to chapter 3, first of
all, we're told in chapter 2, verse 43, if it's right there
close and you want to look at it, "...and fear came upon every
soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles." And
in verse 1 of chapter 3 as we read, Now Peter and John went
up together into the temple at the hour of prayer being the
ninth hour. Now let me first have you consider
where this miracle that we're about to look at took place.
It was at the designated, ordained place of God. It was at the hour
of prayer. This is where God's sermons are
found. Praying, preaching, and worshiping
the Lord. This is where almost always the
miracle of the healing of sin is given by God. You see, wherever
God's messengers preach Christ and Him crucified, That's where
the temple is. There's no significance in this
building other than we thank God that we have a place that
we can come and sit comfortably and stay out of the elements.
But there's no spiritual significance to this building. But this is
where God's people meet together and God is pleased by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe, 1 Corinthians. That's
how God saves sinners, by the preaching of the Gospel. And
to neglect that, friends, is to neglect your soul. So I ask,
O Lord, be pleased again today by Your sovereign mercy and grace
to save a lost soul. by the foolishness of preaching."
Okay, in verse 2 we see something that we've seen in many of our
studies. We see, "...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." That means to beg. to beg of them that entered into
the temple." And here again, dear brothers and sisters, we
find a certain man. He was a certain man because
he was God's certain man. All men and women whom God crosses
their path in sovereign providence and divine purpose are certain
men and women. That simply means distinguished
from others. We talked about that in the Sunday
school hour. God's grace is distinguishing.
God's grace is differentiating. Some are chosen, called and saved,
and some are not. God Almighty from His throne
of grace declares today as He did in the time of Moses, for
He said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,
and I'll have compassion on whom I'll have compassion. And He
concludes, so it's not of Him that will it. It's not of him
that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." Well, can you
see the salvation's free gift of God in Christ? It's not of
your willing. It's not of your running, working,
doing. But it's God who showeth mercy. Therefore hath He mercy on whom
He will have mercy, and whom He will, He hardeneth. For shall
the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why did you make me
this way? And the Apostle Paul goes on
to say, hath not the potter power over the clay and of the same
lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? What are you saying, preacher?
I'm saying that God says whom he wills, how he wills, when
he wills, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what are
you doing? That's what I'm saying. Salvation is distinguishing and
it's differentiating because God has the sovereign and lawful
right to do what He will with His own. That's what our Lord
Jesus said. Is it not lawful for me to do
what I will with my own? Matthew 20 verse 15. Now this
man was a certain man. We see that right off. Certain
man. But he was also a crippled man. There again, what a picture of
me. He was a poor, lame beggar at the temple's gate. The Spirit
of God again shows us our spiritual state and condition by birth. He was not a crippled man by
an accident that occurred. He was lame from his mother's
womb. You and I have been crippled
and lame the day we were born. Crippled and lame. We didn't
become crippled. We were born spiritually crippled.
Now that's important. You see, because of our crippling
disease, we are reduced to no more than mercy beggars begging
for alms of grace. Yet men and women don't beg because
they don't see their need. And you'll never see your need
unless God shows it to you. Now, we kind of read between
the lines here that, and I suppose that this man's friends laid
him, it says he was carried and laid daily at one of the gates
of the temple. And if you could just imagine
with your mind's eye what a miserable spectacle this must have been.
I can just see his little legs all withered and small, bone,
just flesh upon bone, as they laid him there at the temple's
gate and he cried, alms, alms, please help me, begging. What a miserable spectacle. Unable
to do anything for himself. That again pictures you and I,
friends. We can't do anything for ourselves
spiritually. We can only beg alms, and that's
what he did. He begged to those who entered
and exited the temple. He couldn't work. He couldn't
earn a living. And you and I cannot work and earn salvation that
we desperately need to live eternally. We receive what we need, now
listen, by God's free and sovereign gift, Christ alone who is salvation. Those that cannot work, one old
writer said, must not be ashamed to beg. Oh, that hit home with
me. Are you ashamed to beg God for
His mercy and grace? If you seem that you're a poor,
crippled man or woman, You won't be. I can assure you that. Matter of fact, you'll be like
blind Bartimaeus. Lord, have mercy on me. Shut
up, you old blind beggar. And the scripture says, he cried
all the more. He got louder. He got more repetitive. Lord, have mercy on me. Jesus,
our son of David, have mercy on me. And the more they told
him to shut up, the louder he cried. That's what a beggar does. That's what a beggar does. He
cries for mercy. No need to tell him to shut up.
He's going to cry for mercy. Yeah, if you see what you are,
you won't be ashamed to beg. And I can tell you this from
Scripture. I can assure you that those who
truly beg, truly, truly receive. Nowhere did the Lord turn away
those who begged, they received. And the gate in which God's people
beg is most definitely called beautiful. The throne of grace. What beauty it is to the sinner.
That's where mercy is found. That's why it's beautiful. It's
beautiful to all God's begging mercy beggars. And in verse 3,
who this man, the crippled man, seeing Peter and John about to
go into the temple, he asked in alms, and Peter, fastening
his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. Here we find,
friends, the method of the cure. This is the method that God causes
all His chosen people to be cured by. Now, don't miss the beauty
in this. Him and John both were told, Turn their eyes to Him. And it says that they fastened
their eyes upon Him. I can't help but to be reminded
by the Scriptures that that is exactly what Christ did to me. He fastened his eyes upon me. He determined to show me mercy
and grace. before the foundation of the
world. He ordained it to be so. But this cure didn't come only
by Peter and John looking upon him. His cure came, this crippled
man's cure came by looking on them. They said, look at us,
look upon us. And is this not the case with
the believing sinner? We're told in John 3, as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of
Man, speaking of Christ, must be lifted up. Do you know why?
Well, the answer is in Numbers 21, verse 8, and it says, And
the Lord said to Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, set it
up on a pole, and it shall come to pass that everyone that is
bitten These folks in the wilderness, these fiery serpents were coming
up out of the ground, biting them. They were dying by the
thousands. He said, you make this fiery serpent, you set it
upon a pole, and everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon
it, shall live. Look and live. Look and live. Oh, it's not looking upon the
preacher, not looking upon the dedicated saint who's been faithful
for years. It's looking on Christ. And as Moses lifted up that serpent
in the wilderness, God lifted up His precious Son, and those
that look to Him live. They live. And it seems, according
to verse 4, that it was just almost in unison that Peter and
John said, Look on us. The old hymn writer wrote, O
soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you
see. Oh, there's light. There's life. For a look at the
Savior. Life more abundant and free.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face,
and the things of earth will grow strangely dim. in the light
of His glory and grace. In Psalm 5, verse 3, David said,
I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. Verse 5, and
he gave heathen to them, he looked at them, expecting to receive
something of them. He was a beggar. That's what
he did. That's how he lived, upon the
gifts of others, and he expected to receive something of Peter
and John. And here we have the expectation
of the man. He expected something from him,
but what he expected he didn't get. You see, the provision this
world has to give will never provide to us what we really
need. The provision of men can do us no eternal good. Never. No wonder that John wrote in
1 John 2.15, Love not the world, nor the things that are in the
world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not
in him. The world cannot give us what we need. Religion cannot
give us what we need. Man cannot give us what we need. The priest can't give it. The
preacher can't give it. The deacon can't give it. The
elder can't give it. Only God can give it. Salvation
is by the free, sovereign grace of God. This man looked at Peter
and John expecting a temporal provision, but he got much more
than he bargained for. He may have been disappointed
at first for a short while, but his disappointment was turned
into joy. In verse 6, then Peter said,
silver and gold have I none. That's what he expected. That's what he wanted. Peter
said, we don't have any. But such as I have, give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, rise up and walk. Now allow me just for a short
brief moment to make a few comments here. Matthew Henry wrote concerning
this statement of Peter's, it's not often found that Christ's
friends and favorites, his people, have abundance of the wealth
of this world. The apostles were poor and had
just enough for themselves with no surplus. I say that to say
this, friends, don't believe men when they tell you that it's
God's will that all believers should be rich and wealthy. We
should not believe this any more than we should believe that all
God's saints should always be well and healthy. This health
and this wealth gospel that multitudes of people believe and preach
today is a bold-faced lie. There's some that preach that
God intends for every quote believer to be rich and to never be sick. to anyone who ever endeavors
to make you feel that you're not wealthy or healthy because
you lack faith in God. And that's basically what they
say. You say something like, well, why is so-and-so in bad
health and is poor and needy? He just doesn't have the faith.
That's a lie. Don't you believe it? Oh, you
ignore them and you shake the dust off your feet. Now we know
that Money is not the root of all evil. A lot of people think
it says that. It doesn't. It says the love
of money is the root of all evil. God supplies all our needs according
to His riches in the Lord Jesus Christ. Rarely, though, do God's
people have an overabundance of material riches. And I tell
you, the ones that do, they're our son. The ones that do are
usually the most generous, and they know that it all belongs
to God anyway, and they're so generous to give. Peter and John
had an abundance of money, oftentimes laid at their feet, but it was
always given to the poor of the church and they would not keep
any of it for their own use. And Peter said here plainly,
silver and gold have I none. I don't have many, but such as
I have. That which is greater than silver,
that which is greater than gold, give I thee. That I'll give you."
What Peter had was far, far better. Every believer wants others to
have what they have. Isn't that not so? Oh, the ones that you love, those
of your family, friends, you want them to have the peace,
assurance, and joy in Christ that you have. And Peter said,
silver and gold I don't have, but I'll tell you what I do have,
and I'm going to give it to you. They have eternal salvation in
the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is often the poor believing sinner
that has the greater riches, that seem to be the most happy.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
God. How much richer can you be than
that? The kingdom of God belongs to
me. I'm a joint heir with Christ.
What greater riches are there than that? Now listen, I'm almost
through. This poor, crippled beggar received
that which was far, far better, the cure of his disease. Psalm
107.20 says, He sent His Word and healed them and delivered
them from their destructions. And Peter, he bids the crippled
man to rise up and walk. One day the Lord crossed my path
with the gospel, crippled as I was, helpless, blind, deaf,
dumb, no power in myself, just like this man. He said, You rise
up and walk. And with the command came the
power. God Almighty enabled this man
to do what Peter commanded. How are we enabled to be born
again, delivered from spiritual death and walk in newness of
life? How? Only one way. We say all the time, only one
way. We're delivered from spiritual death in the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth. That's the only way. Christ said,
I am the way. There is no other way. I am the
way. Only one way. Notice here too,
I found this quite interesting and it was a real blessing to
me. Paul didn't only say in the name of Jesus Christ. He added
to it of Nazareth. There's a significance to that.
There's a reason that that's added. You remember in John chapter
1, one of the apostles asked the other, he said, has there
ever been any good thing that came out of Nazareth? Oh, yes. Yes, there has been. Christ,
the God-man, came down from his throne on high and in humility
took residence in a place of reproach. Nazareth. And he came to save poor, crippled,
begging sinners." Can you see the condescending of the Lord
Jesus Christ? Left His throne on high. Took
on flesh. Was born as a child. God was. Laid in a manger. No place to
lay His head, He often said. He said, the foxes have dens,
but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head. Well, it came
time for taxes to be done, and they didn't have any money. He
said, you go down and catch a fish, and you'll find in his mouth
what you need. He lived in total dependence upon his heavenly
Father. And so must we, friends. We're
poor, needy, helpless beggars. And Christ came, made himself
of no reputation, no reputation, to live die in the place of those
who have no reputation, have a bad reputation. And verse 7,
And he took him by the hand and lifted him up. And it says, And
immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. If you're
without Christ, dear sinner, I pray that today the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself might take you by the hand that you might immediately
receive life eternal. Strength. Life. Eternal life. There's no other way and by no
other name that you and I can be made whole. Now, let me wrap
this up by looking at verse 8. And He, leaping up, stood and
walked. Can you imagine? He had never
stood upright. This way from the day He was
born. Never crawled, never walked,
never ran. But this day, He leaped up. And He stood. And He walked. And He entered. This is beautiful. And He entered with them into
the temple. The first place He walked. was
with God's people in the place where God visits crippled sinners. And what did he do? Walking and
leaping and praising God. Isn't that what the crippled
beggar does when he receives strength? Oh, he stands holding
the hand of his Lord. And he walks, but he walks in
where God's people meet, where God's people worship, leaping
and praising God. You read the rest of this chapter
and you'll see after the miracle came a blessed message from God's
Apostle. Friends, if you've seen your
condition before Christ Holy God, you won't be ashamed to
beg. And you'll beg. And if you beg,
sincerely beg, and you want life eternal, you can count on Christ
giving it.