Look at verse 9 of Acts chapter 14. This man who is described in
verse 8 as impotent, being a cripple from his mother's womb and who
had never walked, the same heard Paul speak. Now, we know that
he heard Paul preaching the gospel. The same heard Paul speak. And I don't know if there's another
statement like this in the scripture, but Paul was steadfastly beholding
him and perceiving that he had faith to be healed. He looked at this man and he
perceived that he had faith to be healed. And what did he do? He said with a loud voice, stand
upright on thy feet. And this man who had been a cripple
from the womb, leaped. He didn't just try to get up. He leaped and he walked. Now I have entitled this message,
Faith to Be Healed. Faith to Be Healed. this word healed is the word
that is usually translated saved the scripture by grace are ye
saved same word you could just as easily say faith to be saved
now if we simply read this as one of the miracles that took
place during the New Testament era and move on, we'll miss a
glorious illustration of the gospel. Every aspect of the gospel
is in this story. And it reads much like an Old
Testament type. May the Lord help us to understand
the gospel from this passage of scripture. Now, it begins
with a Phrase I always love reading. And there said a certain man
at Lystra. Now this story begins with God's
sovereignty. God's salvation is not generic. It's not universal. It's not
potential. It's not an offer up for you
to accept or reject. It's no such thing. And whenever
it's presented in that light, the gospel is not preached. God always saves certain men. The ones he saves, the men and
women, the boys or girls that he saves are only those whom
he intends to save. He always saves certain men and
women. Now there may have been other
cripples at Blystert this time, I don't know, but this certain
man was the one God intended to save. I love what the Lord
said, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which
was lost. I think of that scripture in
First Thessalonians 2.13, but we're bound to thank God always
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. This was a certain man that God,
through Christ, intended to save. I'm so thankful for certain men,
aren't you? This is something that's in the
scripture so often. I want to be one of these certain
people that he has come to save. Now we have a statement about
this man's condition. Verse eight, there said a certain
man at Lystra, and four things are said about this man. He was
impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who had
never walked. Now there are the four statements
made regarding this man. And this would be an accurate
description of me and you. First, this man was described
as impotent. You know what that means? Powerless. Without spiritual
ability. Powerless. Now this word is found
10 times in the New Testament and seven times the word is translated
impossible. Impossible. This word is used
with regard to the disciples coming up to the Lord and seeing
the rich man walk away. They said, who then can be saved? This is the best humanity has
to offer. Who then can be saved? The Lord
said with men, it is impossible. Now, Inability. Did you know that
you can't believe, you cannot repent, you cannot love God,
you cannot come to Christ unless He causes you to. Because you
and I are in a state naturally of inability. Now, the question I got for you,
Is this a theological concept to you, or is this you? Is this
your reality? Unable. The Lord said, no man
can come to me except it were given to him of my father. It's
impossible. It is impossible for a man to
do anything to save himself, and let me say this as clearly
as I can, if salvation is any way dependent upon you doing
something before God can work, you won't be saved and I won't
be saved. This man was impotent, powerless,
without strength. And the next description of him,
he was impotent, he was powerless, being a cripple. That was his state, being a cripple. Now this word cripple, means,
if you look up the definition of the word, it means without
a foot. Without a foot. And the same
word is used when the Lord was talking about it's better to
enter into life with one foot than having two feet to be cast
into hell. This man did not have what it
was he needed to believe, to repent, to love God, He was without
something that he needed that rendered him impotent and powerless. You see, he didn't have a new
nature. He didn't have a holy nature. See, the Lord said, you
must be born again. You must be born from above. Whatever it was that this man
needed to believe, to repent, to love God, he did not have. You see, it's the holy nature,
it's the new nature that performs all the actions of spiritual
life, faith, repentance, and love, and these things are impossible
for the natural man. He was without a foot. I don't
know whether he actually just only had one foot or whether
one, a club foot or some kind of deformity, but he didn't have
what he needed. It would have to be given to
him. Now, the third thing that I would
notice about this man, it says in our text, being a cripple
from his mother's womb. How long had he been that way?
From the womb. This illustrates me and you being
born a cripple and impotent from the womb. That is the way we
were born. Because of Adam's sin, we were
born into this world in this horrible state, being a cripple
from the womb. David said, I was shapen in iniquity
and in sin did my mother conceive me. I was born this way. I was
born bad, born evil. That's why I was born. As a result
of Adam's fall and me having Adam's fall in nature, I was
born into this world evil, impotent, not having what I needed to perform
the functions of spiritual life. And what was the consequence
of this dreadful state of this man? And you think of how horrible
this must have been. He was powerless. He was a cripple
from the womb. And as a result of that, the
scripture says in verse eight, he never had walked. Because of my sinful nature,
I have never done anything but sin. Romans 3, verses 10 through 12
says, there is none righteous, no, not one. There's none that understands.
There's none that seeketh after God. They have all together become
unprofitable. There's none that doeth good. No, not one. Beloved, me and you have not
kept one commandment one time. Even now you're saying that about
yourself with regard to the holy law of God. If you think you
have kept one commandment one time, you just don't understand
the law. You don't understand who God is, you don't understand
who you are. This man had never walked. Now let's go on reading verse
nine. The same, this certain man, this
certain man God intended to save. This certain man who was impotent
in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never
had walked. Now, I don't know what position
he was in. I don't know what he was in the temple, but the
same heard Paul speak. The same heard Paul speak. And it says, who steadfastly
beholding him, Paul beholding him, and perceiving that he had
faith to be healed, or faith to be saved, is the word. This is what Paul perceived.
He perceived in his face something in his countenance. Now, I'm
gonna talk about that in a few moments, but I think it's interesting. They weren't wearing masks back
then. And he could see something in
this man's face that caused him to perceive that he had faith
to be healed, but faith to be saved. Now the word saved, this
is very important. The word saved is in the passive
voice. Do you know what that means?
That means in this thing of salvation, he was saved. passive. He had faith to be saved. Now if any part of my salvation
is dependent upon some activity on my part, something active
that I do, I will not be saved. If there is one step I must first
take before God can do something for me, I will not be saved,
and salvation is by works in the first place, if that's so.
If that's so, that would make salvation by works. Now, faith to be saved in the
passive. Let me say this. Now, somebody
will hear this and say, well, passive, nothing I can do. I'll
just wait and see what God does, if he does anything. Now, if
you have that kind of attitude, Well, God's not done anything
for you, you can be sure of that. I mean, if somebody would just
think, well, passive, okay, I'm okay, I'll just wait and see.
That should, well, none of the elect will respond like that.
Not a one of them will. But let's consider this thing
of passive. The faith I have, I have it,
but I didn't actively get it. He gave it to me. By grace are
you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. The
repentance I have, I repent. But the repentance I have, I
didn't actively do something to get it. He gave it to me.
Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance to life. I love the Lord. But that didn't
begin with me. We love him because he first
loved us. Everything in our experience,
we were passive in it. It's what God did for us. And the language is so exact,
faith to be saved. Salvation is what God does for
you. It's not what you accept from him or what you allow him
to do, it's what he does for you. Now you think of all the
aspects of salvation, election, God choosing who would be saved
before time began. I'm passive in that. God didn't
ask me if I wanted to be one of the elect. He didn't look
down through the telescope of time and say, well, I can see
Todd's gonna believe. No, he chose me. to be saved. I was passive in this thing.
It's what He did in redemption. He didn't die for me in response
to me asking Him to do it. He didn't die for me because
of something I could do for Him. I was passive in this thing.
I wasn't even born when He did it. And He put away my sin. Injustification. This is something
I was passive in. I didn't do something for God
to declare me to be justified. He declared me to be justified
because of what Christ did. It's not something, He didn't
say, do you want to be justified or not? No, nothing like that.
He declared me to be justified. I was passive in this. Intergeneration. Being born again. When you were
first born, were you passive or active in that thing? Well,
you were passive, weren't you? You didn't have anything to do
with it. Even in this thing of perseverance, persevering in
the faith. I'm passive in it. The reason
I persevere is because he preserves me and causes me to. So in this
thing, it's faith to be saved. And if you're saved, you know
it's that way. Somebody that argues against
this, well, the reason you'd argue against this is because you've
never experienced it. If you're saved, you know this is the way
you're saved. God saved you. Christ saved you. The Holy Spirit
gave you life. He didn't do it in response to
something YOU did. He did it as an act of His own
free and sovereign will, by grace ye are saved. The salvation of
the righteous is of the Lord. Now, Paul looked at this fellow
and he HEARD Paul preach. I like the
way this says the same HEARD Paul speak. He heard Paul preaching
the gospel and he was giving ears to hear. Turn with me for
a moment to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. Verse 13. For this cause also,
thank we God without ceasing. Why, Paul? Because when you received
the Word of God, which you heard of us, you received it NOT as
the Word of men, not as a denominational distinctive, not because some
theologian said this. You didn't receive it as the
Word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God. which effectually worketh also
in you that believe." Turn back to 1 Thessalonians 1. Verse four,
knowing brethren beloved your election of God. Now, how do
you know something like that, Paul? How do you know somebody
is one of God's elect? Do you have access to the Lamb's
book of life? Have you been in heaven and seen
that? No, but here's how I know. Our gospel came not unto you
in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and much
assurance. Now, that's not talking about
much assurance of your personal salvation. That's talking about
much assurance. This is the Word of God. This
is the very truth of God. When you heard it, you knew. You know, one of the things I
love about the truth, as soon as you hear it, you know it's
true. You know it's true. And Paul saw that this man heard. He was like those people. Look
in Acts chapter 13, verse 48. That's real close. This is part
of this, close to this story. Look in verse 48, Acts 13, 48. And when the Gentiles heard this,
they heard the gospel Paul preached. They were glad and they glorified
the word of the Lord. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. Now, I think it's so interesting
that Paul perceived something that made him know that they
had faith to believe because I know I don't have that gift.
I don't have that gift. Now, I look at countenances.
I look at people. You know what I'm preaching.
You might have somebody that's disinterested, bored. You might
have somebody who's even mad. You might have somebody who has
a great countenance, and you can just tell. It appears that
they're hanging on every word, but then maybe you find out if
you ask what I preach on, they might not even know. They just
look good, do it. But the thing is, I don't have,
whatever Paul had, I realize I don't have that. When I think
I do is when I get miserable. I start thinking I can see in
somebody's mind what they're thinking and everything, and
I start getting mad for not even knowing what it is. I'm a mess. But Paul had some kind of ability
where he could actually see on the countenance of this man. And what a blessing it is when
you're preaching and you really feel like there's communication
going on between you and somebody listening. They're hearing this
as the gospel, not as just a preacher giving his words, but actually
hearing God's word declared. And Paul looked at this man and
he saw that he had faith to be saved. Faith to be healed, faith to
be saved. Saving faith. Saving faith. Now, I'm not saved because of
my faith. I'm saved because God saved me.
I'm saved because God elected me before the foundation of the
world to be saved. I'm saved because Jesus Christ
came as my surety and took full responsibility for my salvation.
And he took my sin upon himself and put it away and gave me his
very righteousness to make me stand before God just and complete. I'm saved because God the Holy
Spirit gave me life. He gave me ears to hear the gospel
and a heart to receive the gospel. That's why I'm saved. I'm not
saved because of my faith. I'm saved because God saved me.
And you know what? I believe that. I believe that with all
my heart. I know that that is so. Faith is believing God. Faith is believing Him. Faith is not believing you're
saved. Faith is believing He is the Savior. Faith, now let
me repeat this as strongly as I can. Faith doesn't have anything
to do with what you believe about yourself. Faith is 100% what you believe
with regard to Him. I love it when the Lord said
to that woman at the well, woman, believe me. Faith's believing
Him. Let me show you a passage of
Scripture in John chapter 11. Would you turn there? John chapter
11. This is when the Lord was talking
to Martha. He said in verse 23, Jesus saith unto her, thy brother
shall rise again. Talking about the resurrection.
Thy brother shall rise again. Remember Lazarus had died and
they're all upset about it. And he says to Martha, thy brother
shall rise again. Well, she already knew that. She understood the doctrine of
the resurrection. And she said, Martha said unto
him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection of
the last day. I've already got that down. Jesus said unto her,
I am the resurrection. The resurrection is not simply
an event. I am the resurrection. and the life. He that believeth in me, there's
the key. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? I know you
believe in the resurrection. Do you believe this? Now, what does it take to believe
him? Do you know all it takes is to
know who he is? That's it. All it takes to believe him is
to know who he is. Do you know he's the Lord? That
means the absolute sovereign, the one whose will is always
done. Do you know he's the Christ?
God's prophet? God's priest? The priest after
the order of Melchizedek? Not one of those Levitical priests,
but the priest after the order of Melchizedek, who has no beginning
and no end, abides a son eternally, a priest eternally. Do you know
He's God's King? He really is King. It's not a
figurehead, He's King. He's King of Kings. He's Lord
of Lords. Everybody and everything is in
His hand and His will is always done. Faith is believing Him. Faith is knowing who He is. You
know, Bartimaeus knew who he was, didn't he? Jesus, thou son
of David, have mercy on me. That leper knew who he was. Lord,
if you will, you can make me clean. Faith is knowing who he
is. You know, he's the son of God. He's got the son. You know, this
is something you don't so much understand as believe. God is
one God in three distinct persons. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. He's the Son of God. You can't call on his name if
you don't know who he is. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart. God
hath raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved. Whom do men say that I am? Well,
they say good things. They put you in some high company.
Whom say ye that I am? Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. Now, if you believe him, everything
else falls into place. If you know who he is, everything
else becomes obvious. You don't struggle with anything.
He's the Lord. He's God. Whatever he does is
right. Whatever he does is good. I just get behind that. He's the Lord. And I don't need
to understand everything he does. I don't understand, but I believe
he is the Lord. And obviously, he must be successful. He must, just on and on, because
of who he is. Faith to be saved is the type
of faith that believes only. What do I mean by that? Well,
Jairus heard that his daughter was dead, and I can imagine how
much he must have slumped when he heard that message. And the
Lord said, fear not, believe only. Now, what's it mean to
believe only? I think one of the things that
aggravates me as much as anything I ever hear a preacher say is
repent of your sins and believe on Christ. Turn from your sins and trust
Christ. Now, if I present the gospel in that light, I'm putting
a barrier between the sinner and Christ. I'm saying, here's
what you need to do before you can trust Christ. And that is
called salvation by works. Now, are you saying it's okay
to remain in your sin? Sin's never okay. Sin's never
okay. And I'm always a sinner, so I
don't know what else to say about that. Sin's never okay, and there's
never an excuse for sin, and we ought not ever sin again.
But for a preacher to get up and say, turn from your sins
and trust the Savior. Well, I need to turn from my
sin before I can trust the Savior. That is called salvation by works. That is all it is. Now, I realize
there were people, people would be critical of this. I can't
help it. It's the truth. I'm not gonna try to explain
it away. Believe only, not believe and. Believe only. And if I don't
believe only, I don't believe at all. This is the only way
faith is. It is only. Faith, he saw he
had faith to be saved. Faith to be saved is a faith
that really believes in saving grace. I love what Peter said
in Acts chapter 15. I can't wait till we get to Acts
chapter 15 in a few weeks, I guess. He said, we believe, and this
is every believer's, this is our statement of faith. We believe
that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we will be
saved even as they, those Gentiles. Now, this is spoken in a language,
the Greek language, that actually says, and could be translated
in all three ways accurately, We believe that by the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we've been saved. Plum altogether saved. We believe that through the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we're being saved right now. And we
believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
will be saved. And you know, saving faith, here's,
If you have faith to be saved, you're gonna be like that leper.
You remember in Luke chapter 17 how the Lord healed 10 lepers?
He said, go show to Moses the things with regard to your cleansing,
and they went, and as they went, they were healed. Only one returned,
though. And what did he do? He gave Christ
the glory. Now this is what saving faith
does. It always gives Jesus Christ
all of the glory. This one man returned. You can
read about it. Let me look in Acts 17. Let's
just read the last few verses of the, not Acts 17, Luke 17. Verse 15, and one of them, of
these 10, and one of them, when he saw that he was healed, and
there the word is saved. Same thing, the words are used
quite often interchangeably. He turned back with a loud voice,
glorified God, he fell down on his face and his feet, giving
him thanks, and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, where
there are not 10 cleansed, but where are the nine? They are
not found. that returned to give glory to
God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, arise,
go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And there, once again,
the word made whole is saved. Thy faith hath saved thee. I love 2 Thessalonians. This is another thing that is
always, involved in saving faith, there's always love in saving
faith. Now, what do I mean by that?
Paul spoke in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 10, of those who receive
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. You know, I, and if you're a
believer, you do too, I'm speaking as a spokesman for all of us.
I love the fact that God has given us an infallible revelation
called the Bible. And I love what the Word of God
says. And I love the God the Bible reveals to us, the God
who's absolutely sovereign, who really is God. I mean, he's a
God worthy of just bowing down and worshiping. You don't call
him into, he's God. I love the fact that the Bible
tells me that I really am nothing but sin. And let me tell you
why I love that, because it tells me where not to look. I'm not
to look for anything out of myself to be saved. I gotta look outside
of myself. Somebody says, that's a negative
doctrine. It ain't a negative doctrine to me, it's a positive
doctrine, because it causes me to look to Christ. You tell me
I'm totally depraved and totally unable? Lord, help me! I can't do anything to save myself.
It's a good thing. I love the truth. I love the
truth that God chose a people to be saved, because if he didn't,
I know I wouldn't be saved. I love that Christ is a completely
successful Redeemer and that when he said it is finished,
it was finished. My hope is that he died for me. That's my hope,
not anything in me. I love it that his grace is saving
grace, irresistible, invincible. That's the only kind of grace
that'll save me. I love the fact that he preserves his people
all the way to the end. I receive the love of the truth. Now, back to our text. The same heard Paul speak, verse
nine, who steadfastly beholding him and perceiving that he had
faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, won't you accept
Jesus Christ as your personal savior and let him into your
heart? Doesn't that stuff sound ridiculous? Just ridiculous. The gospel is a command. Stand
upright on thy feet. And you know what? He leaped. He leaped up and walked. You
see, it was Christ making this command. Yes, it was through
the voice of Paul. but it was Christ making this
command. I could go up to the fella and
say, stand upright, and he'd just lay there and look at me
and think, are you crazy? Yeah, probably, you know what I mean?
But no, when the Lord speaks through the voice of Paul, this
cripple, impotent from the womb, perhaps without a foot, leaped
up and walked. Now, I pray that I'm this certain
man and that you're this certain man. Hearing the gospel, impotent, being a cripple from
the womb, and had never walked, will hear the command of Christ
and leap up. and walk. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name,
that name that's above every name, that you would say to our hearts, stand up and walk. and that you would give us the
grace to do what we cannot do by nature, believe on your son. I bless this word for his sake,
in his name we pray, amen.