I think we're going to finish
chapter 9 this morning. And let's pick up in verse 32.
We finished up to verse 31 last week. Let me just read this. We're going to note two times
of healing, physical healing, but in that we're going to see Use those lessons to show us
spiritual healing as it is in Christ Jesus. Verse 32 of Acts
9, And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters,
he came down to the saints, which dwelt at Lydda. And there he
found a certain man named Aeneas, which had kept his bed eight
years and was sick of the palsy. And Peter said unto him, Annias,
Jesus Christ maketh thee whole, arise and make thy bed. And he arose immediately. And all that dwelt at Lydda and
Saron saw him and turned to the Lord. Now there was at Joppa
a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called
Dorcas. This woman was full of good works
and almsdeed, which she did. And it came to pass in those
days that she was sick and died, whom when they had washed, they
laid her in an upper chamber, and forasmuch as Lyda was nigh
to Joppa, And the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they
sent unto him two men desiring him that he would not delay to
come to them. Then Peter arose and went with
them. When he was come, they brought
him into the upper chamber and all the widows stood by him weeping
and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made while she was
with them. But Peter put them all forth,
and kneeled down, and prayed. And turning him to the body,
said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes, and
when she saw Peter, she sat up. And he gave her his hand, and
lifted her up. And when he had called the saints
and widows, presented her alive. and it was known throughout all
Joppa and many believed in the Lord and it came to pass that
he tarried many days in Joppa with one Simon a Tanner." As
I said, we see two instances of physical healing and we're
going to look at the lessons of spiritual healing or a poor
soul brought to Christ. We're going to use this illustration
in this healing, which actually took place. And again, there
are no more apostles, so there's no more gifts, spiritual gifts
like this. I know many religions center
in on this kind of thing. And the thing is, is every time
something like this happened, Christ was magnified. The people
worshiped Christ. They honored the Lord. They looked
to the Lord. They didn't look to the preachers.
They didn't look to the denomination. They didn't make a big scene
about it. What they did is that when this
type of thing happened, any of these miracles, because they
were used for a short time to confirm the message that the
apostles were preaching, that Christ was indeed the Son of
God who suffered, bled, and died, But every time these things happen,
people look to Christ. They seek the Lord. They follow
after Him. Whereas these faith healers,
so-called false faith healers and preachers, they take these
things and they're getting more money from the people. They're
trying to rob God of His glory and they bring attention to themselves.
It's basically, as far as I'm concerned, it's just another
type of Hollywood situation, but it's just being done inside
buildings and deceiving people. But let's look at these physical
healings and look at it as the aspect of, as it is, spiritual
healings. And the first account we have
is this one called Aeneas. We have his account in verse
32 and 33 and forward. And it came to pass, Peter passed
throughout all quarters. He came down to the saints which
dwelt at Lydda. Now, one thing about The beauty
of this here is that wherever Peter is needed, he's, again,
in the ministry, whether it's you at home, whether it's you
at work, whether it's you at your job, it doesn't matter.
The thing is, we're just like Peter. We're the Lord. Has us
We that's where we serve him. You know, we don't we just do
what we do for the glory of God We don't have to have bells and
whistles. We don't have to have all this stuff Accompanying what
we do and we don't have to have do things to be seen of men But
Peter he's at one place then he goes down to to to Lyda and
Saron and then the next situation with with Tabitha she's at She's
at this other location in Joppa, he goes there, he goes where
the Lord, where he's needed. So he's serving the Lord in his
capacity. Paul served him in his capacity,
Peter served the Lord in his own capacity. But we've got this
one called Aeneas. And look at the wording of Scripture. And there he found a certain
man named Aeneas. He found a certain man. First
thought, first point. I think I have four under this
particular one. A certain man. Now I'm sure there
was many sick people in Lydda and in Saron. But there was just this one,
a certain man, a chosen vessel of God's mercy. a chosen vessel
of God's mercy. God had marked this man. He's
going to do something for him. And such is the same case when
God, through no good on our behalf, nothing found worthy in us, because
we're not, but reasons found only in the purpose and the mind
and the grace of God. He's going to show mercy to this
one over here, a certain man. We saw the same concept throughout
the whole scriptures. according to the grace of God.
Turn to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. And as we've seen this time and
time again, this doctrine, this glorious doctrine of God's free
electing grace is not one to be feared. It's not a high doctrine.
It's basic doctrine 101. It's not, oh, you're speaking
in the clouds. No, no. Woe to me if I do, because
the gospel is simply to preach Christ and Him crucified. You
know, Paul says he was not going to be determined, or he was not
going to be detoured in preaching the simplicity that's in Christ.
You know, don't need to use huge words, don't need to use all
these different things, but this doctrine of election, God saving
a sinner, our children can understand what election is. We're getting
ready to have one in November. What do you do? Well, we gather
together, we go and we vote for the person that we want in office. You made a particular purposeful
decision to elect an official. And we think that we can tell
God what to do and who to save? God elects, selects, chooses
whom he will save. Peter goes down, and there's
a certain man. There's a certain man. Ephesians
chapter 1, verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places, according as He has chosen us in Him, in
who? before the foundation of the
world that we should be holy and without blame before him
in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will."
Election is not salvation. No more than a doctrine can save
you. Election is chosen as unto salvation. Scripture says, elect election
unto salvation. Election is not salvation. Election
never saved anybody, but nobody can be saved without it. But
did you notice that everything that deals with any doctrine
of Scripture, it is tied directly to a person? That's who salvation
is in. There's probably a lot of people
who believe in election, who don't know the gospel, because
the gospel is a person. But that person chooses. And in this case, Aeneas and
Tabitha. A certain man, one God will show
kindness and grace in the name of Jesus Christ. God will call
those whom he will, and those he calls, them he will heal with
the blood and righteousness which is by Jesus Christ." Turn to
Romans 9. Romans 9, which I personally
know several preachers, I call them that loosely, I use that
term real loosely, that wish this chapter in the book of the
Bible was not even in there. They wish it was taken out. So
now they're smarter than God. They're going to pick and choose
what the Bible has to say. Or they'll say, well, it's just
words written by man. Well, then if that's the case,
nobody's got any hope about anything. Romans chapter 9. Again, if our
experience or our gospel or our doctrine or whatever it might
be, if it doesn't fit the mode of Scripture, then it's not to
be trusted and not to be believed. Romans chapter 9. Verse 9, for this is the word
of promise, at this time will I come, and Sarah, speaking of
Sarah, the Old Testament, Abraham and Sarah, she'll have a son.
And not only this, but when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even
by our father Isaac, for the children being not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him
that's God that calls. As it was said to her, the elder
shall serve the younger, as it is written, God says this, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? There's
the objection. That's the preacher saying, I
don't like that. It should be Jacob have I loved and Esau have
I loved less. No, that's the word. Jacob have I loved and Esau have
I hated. So why God doesn't hate? Well then,
I guess there's no such place as hell. Why would there be a
hell if there was none who are going to be eternally separated
from God? Well, I thought my God loved everybody. That's what
John 3.16 says. No, that's not what John 3.16
says at all. And furthermore, if God can love a sinner and
then they still end up in hell, What good and what purpose is
the love of God? It's not good for anything. It's
meaningless. It's kind of like human love.
It can be spoken. I have people say, I love you.
They verbalize it, but there's no actions to back it up. Not
with God. If he loves a sinner and it's
those whom he's chosen, They're going to be saved. They're going
to be saved. He says, what shall we say then? Because the apostle heard the
objections, the objections to God's free sovereign grace, free
electing grace, predestinating graces, never been popular, but
it's the gospel. And so they rejected it back
then as well as they do now. So the objection is brought up.
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Paul says, can't be, God forbid. There's unrighteousness,
men with men, but not with God. There can be unrighteousness,
there can be inequity. For God says to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it, salvation, election,
redemption, is not of the person that wills, nor of him that runs,
but of God that shows mercy. Back to our text. There's one
that God's going to show mercy. But we know that God shows mercy
to a number that no man can number. Don't you believe in whosoever
will? Yeah. Whosoever will are those whom
God's chosen. How does God save a sinner? And
there's a certain man. And there's a certain woman.
Or there's a certain boy. Or there's a certain girl. There
is a certain person. I don't know who they are and
I don't say I know who they are. They are described in this book
as sheep. There's a sheep that went astray
and is by itself is lost. Can't find its way home because
I'm no sheep herder, but I do know and read from the scriptures
and just, you know, in agriculture sense, sheep are pretty dumb.
They're not real smart. You'd be lost, and all it's going
to do is just whine. So, the shepherd, which is a
picture of Christ, has to go find that sheep on purpose. He finds it, throws it on his
shoulder, takes it home. First thing, a certain man, blessed
be God for his free electing grace. Because other than that,
there'd be no, I wouldn't be here, you wouldn't be here, there
wouldn't be no need to be here. But he's going to be gracious, to
whom he's going to be gracious, and he's going to find his people.
And when that last elect is drawn into the fold, you want to know,
I like John Sebald, we laugh about this, but you know, he
does this, and he's right, he's absolutely right. He talks about
all these false preachers, they have all their schemes. Hal Lindsey
and all these guys have all their schemes about how the world's
going to end. And the apocalypse and all this kind of stuff. And
I sit there listening to John one time, and it was comical,
but it's true. John goes, I know when the world's
going to end. And of course, you've got people picking their
ears up. And you happen to be telling this to another preacher
in the hospital. I know where the world is going
to end when that last election is saved. When that last one is called,
it's over. The second thing is, look at
this certain one. Okay, so another objection I
hear about people say, You think you're special. You think you're
like the Jews, the chosen people. Well, now, the Jews, when they
talk about chosen people, they think they're something. They
only walk around, and a lot of the accusations about the Jewish
people is accurate, because a lot of times they're snobbish, and
they're self-righteous. But the gospel has the exact
opposite effect. When God saves you and deals
with you, you know that He chose you from before the world ever
was. And I told you what the Greek is in the Ephesians. We are chosen from before the
foundation of the world. And that literal translation
is selected prior to the conception of the cosmos. That's a word for word in Greek. And he eventually makes you understand
that. But what does that do? Oh, you
guys think you're the only ones. "...which kept his bed eight
years, and was sick of the palsy. By nature, children of wrath,
even as others." We actually, because he came to seek and save
that which is lost, And those who are well don't need a physician.
Actually, God's people know more than anybody else that we are
the worst of the worst. We know that if He hadn't chosen
us, we would never have chosen Him. If He didn't first love
us, we wouldn't love Him. But see, religion says, well,
I loved Him, I came to Him, I did all this. No, you didn't. Because
there's none that seeketh after God, not one. But when he brings
you to that point that shows you who he is and what you are,
there's no arguing. Secondly, this man was sick of
the palsy. He was sick as in the heart and
soul and mind in relation to God and God's salvation and God's
peace, spiritually speaking. Sick. What I think about this, and
Linda and I were talking about this, if you think he could exercise
his free will, why did he wait eight years? Look at that. Look at it in the verse. He kept
his bed eight years. Lazy bum. Come on, exercise your
free will. People call gospel preachers,
such as myself, they say, well, you guys are mean. You have a
heart of mean spirit. No, the gospel of God's grace
is the only gospel there is. It's the only one that gives
you hope. Our children, children, our grandchildren, our grandparents,
our parents, it's the only gospel that gives hope. Because actually,
what the free will gospel says is, you can do it. It mocks you. It mocks you. And it calls you
stupid. Well, what took you so long to
choose Jesus? How come you didn't choose Him earlier? If it's up
to your free will, here we go, here's this guy in his purse,
He kept his bed for eight years. He was sick of the palsy. Come
on! Nathan, snap your fingers. Get out of it, boy. That's what
the free will gospel does. It puts all the effort and work
into your hands. Well, how come it's taking you
so long? How come you're not a better parent? How come you're
not a better dad? Oh, it's Father's Day. Ron, man,
come on. And that's what religion does.
It makes you feel guilty. But you know what? If salvation
lies with you, you got major problems. But if it rests completely
on the hands, if it's outside of you, then you have hope. Because tomorrow, I guarantee
you, and probably just shortly after you leave this building
like me, you're going to sin. So, why do you think you have
a good hope for heaven? Because your salvation and your
hope is not based on what you do or don't do, it's based on
what He did for you. No, this man is helpless and
ill-equipped to reclaim himself. He must solely rely on another
for help, healing, and future peace. And this is a life-changing
situation. It's not merely a reformation
of character. I told you Linda and I went to
see, we went to see that Indiana Jones movie. We had an experience. Everybody has experiences. But
I wouldn't say it was a religious experience. It better be based
on and in this Word. People reform all the time. People
quit smoking. They do all these things. The
problem is then they tie that to religion and they say God
was... No. No. I think I read something the
other day. I was telling you about the lady at the Pringles. She popped that
thing I poured it out there and there was the Virgin Mary in
the potato chip. It looks like a person. It looks
like a woman. I'll give them that. They have their experience.
But don't tell me it's going to be based on anything in this
book. God doesn't work that way. Doesn't do it. The third thought. Oh, this is... Look at verse
33 or verse 34. That one and only name that can
heal. Physically, spiritually, but we're looking at a spiritual
aspect, and Peter said unto him, and is Jesus Christ maketh thee
whole. Not Mohammed, not Buddha, not
me, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the
Mediator, the Great Physician, the Water of Life, the One in
the Old Testament who's called the Healing Balm of Gilead, the
Door, the Way, the Life, Hope, and Peace for dead, dying sinners. No one else. He's a total Savior,
a complete Redeemer, and an absolute Deliverer. Peter tells us He's
the Just One dying for the unjust. You see, our problem is basically
twofold. I listened to a message by Todd
Nyberg the other week, and when he was saying this, I was thinking,
well, this is what I've said for years, but it was so good.
He said it in a different way. I really appreciate it. But basically,
our problem is, we've got two problems, twofold problem. Sin,
and we don't have a righteousness that God's going to accept. And
sin, in its basic definition, is missing the mark. You missed
the mark. I was watching something the
other day about Extreme Marksman. And it took the guy, he said,
900 tries. Not on television, but in his
lifetime. The guy was probably 59 years
old. And from 30 paces, he split an
arrow in two. Slow motion. It was no Hollywood
stuff. Sin, no matter how small the
mark is, is missing that. So, some people think, well,
you know, I'm not a great sinner. I mean, I'm not as bad as my
neighbor or whatever. It doesn't matter. Sin, in God's eyes, is
missing the mark. Period. That's one of our problems.
The second problem is we have to have a righteousness that
God will accept. So, people say, well, I don't
miss the mark. I'm religious. I pray. I rub my beads. I go
to church. Whatever. Okay. But do you have
the righteousness that God will accept? No. So, basically, the thing
is this, not only can we not heal ourselves in a physician
type sense, in a hospital sense, not only can we not heal ourselves,
but we need a skilled physician to remove the death within. We've
got two problems. We can't even heal ourselves
and we don't have the skill. We need somebody from the outside
to do it. Not only can we not produce the ability to have clean
garments, we have to have somebody clothe us. Not only do we fall
and fail, but we must have someone to be our protection and success. We are blind and in the dark
and therefore must have sight given to us and be brought into
the full light. Christ is these and infinitely
more to his elect or his remnant his selected and chosen people
and he is Tabitha a certain man and a certain disciple the fourth thing is The healing
of this man is just like the healer look at looking in verse
34 Peter said unto him, Jesus Christ,
make it thee whole, arise and make thy bed, and guess what
happened? He rose immediately. Well, I thought you had to believe,
you know, God shows you the gospel, you believe the gospel, and then
somewhere down the line you get a second blessing. Immediately. If God gives you
the grace to trust in Christ, you're saved now. And as we've seen throughout
the whole book of Acts, when the Lord, and not just the physical
healing, but actual spiritual healings, the Lord revealed the
gospel to them, they wanted to be a part of where the gospel
was at, and they confessed Christ in believers' baptism. But just
as the healing is, it's just like the healer. It's complete,
immediate, and sufficient. He's not a partial redeemer.
He told Paul specifically, my grace is sufficient for you. So, these folks that say they're
believers and they're Christians and then they got to have another
experience and another deeper thing and something else always
going on, Christ is sufficient. Who are we going to worship when
we're in heaven? Christ. We tire of it now sometimes because
of the weakness of the flesh. You know, I've told you time
and time again, if you're having trouble sleeping, pick it up and start
reading it. The Bible. You'll go to sleep.
Why? Because we're weak. The Spirit is willing, but the
flesh is weak. But that's what our desire is here on earth.
I know we work and do our jobs and pay taxes and all that, but
everything we do, we do the glory of God in Christ Jesus. So, when
we're in heaven, that's all we're going to be concerned with, is
learning all the infinite things and all the things that we missed
about Him in here. He's going to reveal all these
things. But turn to Jude and look at verse 24. He is a sufficient
and complete and successful Savior. There's no partial and then a
gotta come back around and then this happens and then that happens.
I'm not saying we don't struggle with a lot of things, but it's
on our end is what the problem is. Look at verse 24 of Jude. Now
unto him that is able to keep you from falling. You mean I'll never take temptation?
I'll never sin? No. Falling eternally. Because
every day we struggle. But greater is he that is in
you than he that is in the world. We never said it was going to
be easy. Ever. Now unto Him that is able to
keep you from falling and present you faultless." I do not fully understand that,
but I believe it. "...Presents you faultless before
the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." Faultless. Faultless. Ron, you... One day, you'll have no pain. One day, there'll be no sorrow. I mean, this has been a year
of sorrow. You've had a lot of difficult things and people you
love and stuff happens to. It's life. It's going to happen.
One day. No pain. No fear. I won't have to worry about paying
any bills. I won't have to worry about faultless. I get so aggravated with myself. I read this book and it reveals
sin in me and I hear messages and I fellowship with you all
and the Lord will show you something and I'm like, I never saw that
before. I'm like, well, that's just wonderful.
Why? Sin. I'm looking through a glass
Darkly I've got problems and issues and sin and corruption,
but one day Paulus And he closes to the only
wise God our Savior Be glory and majesty dominion power both
now and ever So your hope and your security
and your peace, just like Tabitha, just like Aeneas, is not in what
you do or what you don't do or what you think you can do. It's
in Jesus Christ maketh thee whole. The same thing with this Tabitha.
She's a believer. And did you notice in this short
section the believers are called saints? Don't be ashamed of that
term. It just means those who are set
aside for the master's use. Sinners, yes, but saints by his
blood and righteousness, by his grace. But here we have a precious
sister who, you know, she showed forth works, but it was wrought
out of a heart of grace. It wasn't that she worked and
then became a believer. No, God did something for her
and the outcome is that the believers do things that glorify Him. But
she was busy. There's always stuff to be done,
to someone to help, someone to love, someone to encourage. And
she's that way. Grace made her that way. But the first healing and the
second healing, if you take a step back and you look at the whole
thing, the general thoughts, it shows the wonderful love and
compassion of Jesus Christ. It's so opposite the charge that's
leveled against us for preaching election, preaching sovereignty,
a God who's majestic and holy. I see this whole thing Peter could have just said, forget
it. This whole thing shows the wonderful
love and compassion of the Savior. It shows the compassion and wonder
of the Gospel in God's people. Peter, we need
you here. We need you here. We get so tied up with stuff,
with things. May God show us compassion of Christ, compassion
in the Gospel, and compassion one for another, which is a fruit
of the Spirit. Melinda and I will go through
stuff the other day. We usually go through stuff out
in the shed. We've had this thing for five
years. What do we got it for? And right now, we're in agreement
on this stuff, so it's cool. Get rid of it. You wouldn't think
in Tilsit that you could put anything out on our curb and
it's going to be there. We'd go out and workmen would
come over. They brought stuff, set it down there. Within a day,
30 minutes, it's gone. Somebody drives by, grabs it,
and, you know, cool. We let too much stuff interfere
with what's really important. I sit there and I open up the,
not the tools and stuff, I open up the drawer and I was like,
all these t-shirts. How many t-shirts does a guy
need? You've got to have the blues
t-shirt. I keep that. I keep St. Louis
Cardinals t-shirt. All this stuff. And one from
Iowa. I'm going to keep the one from Iowa. Rock Valley, Iowa.
But I had all this stuff. And the point is that in this
country especially, And I read this and I'm thinking,
well, what's the big deal? Well, I didn't see it until,
actually, I didn't see it until I was doing the outline and I
looked at this and then looked at a couple of commentaries.
They brought up just that small point that Peter, he just went. May God give us grace to see
the bigger picture. It's all about Him, His Gospel,
His glory, and the salvation of His people.