I want to read this entire chapter
to you, Acts chapter 3, beginning here in verse 1. Now Peter and John went up together
unto the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour,
about three o'clock in the afternoon. And a certain man lame from his
mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of
the temple, which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered
into the temple. Who seeing Peter and John about
to go into the temple, asked an alms, asked a gift, charity. And Peter fastened his eyes upon
him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto them,
expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver
and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee, in the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took
him by the hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet
and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood and walked
and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and
praising God. And all the people saw him walking
and praising God, and they knew that it was he which set for
alms at the beautiful gate of the temple. And they were filled
with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto
him. And as the lame man which was
healed helped Peter and John, all the people ran together unto
them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering. And when Peter saw it, he answered
unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or why
look ye so earnestly, so intently on us, as though by our own power,
our holiness, we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified
his son Jesus, whom you have delivered up and denied him in
the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go.
But you denied the Holy One and just and desired a murderer to
be granted unto you, and you killed the Prince of life. whom
God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. And
his name, through faith in his name, hath made this man whole,
made him strong, whom you now see, whom you see and know. Yea,
the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness
in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I know that
through ignorance you did it, as did also your rulers. But
those things which God before hath showed by the mouth of all
his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
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. And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was
priest unto you, whom the heavens must receive unto the times of
restitution. of all things, which God hath
spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world
began. For Moses truly said unto the
fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto me
of your brethren like unto me. Him shall you hear in all things
whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass
that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed
from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from
Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have spoken,
have likewise foretold of these days. You are the children of
the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers,
saying unto Abraham, Unto thy seed shall all the kindreds of
the earth be blessed. In thy seed shall all the kindreds
of the earth be blessed. Unto you first, God having raised
up his Son Jesus, Send Him to bless you and turn in every one
of you from His iniquity. I just want to go through this
third chapter with you. And this was the hour of prayer. We sing that old song sometimes,
don't we? John and Peter was going up to
the temple at the ninth hour, three o'clock in the afternoon,
which is the hour of prayer. the hour of prayer. I wonder
if that's where our hymn writer got that title to that verse,
that song, sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, that calls
me from a world of care and bids me at the Father's throne to
make all my wants and my wishes known. Sweet hour of prayer. In the Old Testament, the Jews
had three times a day that they gathered in Jerusalem to pray
here at the temple. David spoke of it. He said, Lord,
I will call upon you in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. And that's when they prayed.
That's when they had the hour of prayer. And they still practiced
that here in the New Testament. Went up to the temple to pray.
When Daniel was in captivity, three times a day, He turned
His face towards Jerusalem, towards the temple to pray. He was in
captivity and He was threatened with His life. If you pray anymore,
we're going to put you in the den of lions. And He opened His
window towards the east. He looked towards that temple
to pray to the Lord three times a day. But you know, we don't
have this temple anymore, do we? This old temple is gone. Jerusalem is gone. It would do
us no good to turn towards that temple. That was the old Jewish
temple. But you know, this Jewish temple has been replaced by a
greater temple and a better temple. What is that? Well, that's the
person of Jesus Christ. He is our mediator between God
and man. He is our access now. They look
to the temple because there's where God's presence was. He
promised to meet them there. But Jesus Christ is our access
now. God meets us in Jesus Christ. He said, destroy this temple
and in three days I'll raise it up again. And they said it
took us 52 years to build this temple. How are you going to
raise it up in three days if you destroy it? But He spake
of the temple of His body. He spake of Him in His humanity. Jesus Christ has been glorified. He's on the right hand of the
Father. And you know something, brothers and sisters? There is
where God meets with us. There is where we experience
God's presence. When we turn our hearts, when
we turn our eyes to the Lord Jesus Christ. They went up to
the temple to pray because they said God has promised to meet
us there. But God meets us now in Christ. Doesn't he? He meets
us in Christ. And something else I noticed
how the Holy Spirit puts this here. They went up. They went
up. What does prayer do? Where does
prayer take us? I've never prayed honestly and
sincerely to the Lord and looked to Him that I was taken down.
Taken down in myself. But doesn't prayer to God take
us up? Doesn't it take us up out of
the cares and the anxiety of this world and the concerns and
the heartaches? Doesn't it take us up into heavenly
places? Haven't you ever gone to the
Lord in prayer and you've been so anxious about something in
your soul? I mean, you had no rest. You
sought for help and mercy, but you're seeking it in all the
wrong places. You were seeking for strength
in the wrong places, but what happened when you earnestly turned
your thoughts, turned yourself to Him in prayer? You went up,
didn't you? It's almost like you went up
above your troubles, and you sat there in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. That's a good way to describe
prayer, is it not? It's going up. I lift up my eyes,
unto the hills." What's that? But praying to Him. From whence
cometh my help? My help cometh from the Lord.
Next time you get down, next time you get discouraged, next
time you're so anxious and overloaded with cares and concerns, do what
these men did. Go up. Go up to the temple to
pray. And something else I think here
is very profitable. They went up together. They went
up together. You know it's a good thing to
pray one for another. But I tell you something else
is good too, to pray with one another. They went up together. We used to say that, have that
little adage, the family that prays together, stays together. Well, it's the same way with
friends, isn't it? Friends who pray together, they stay together. These men love one another. They
desire one another's communion. And you know something about
having sweet communion one with another? It'll last if you'll
pray one with another. If you pray one with another.
I tell you, there's two things that can't go together. They
just can't get. You can't have hard feelings
towards somebody and pray with them. You'll lose one of these. You'll either hold to the hard
feelings, the ill feelings, and pray with them no longer, Oh,
you'll let go of the hard feelings and pray with them. And they
said, John, Peter said, John, I got so aggravated with you
the other day, but listen, I forgive you. I ain't going to hold that
against you. And they did have some hard feelings.
Don't you read in the gospels where they got mad at each other?
James and John come and brought their mother with them and said,
we want you to ask the Lord to let us set one on your right
hand and one on your left hand in your kingdom. And Peter said,
you sorry bunch of fellas. You saw a bunch of fellas. If
anybody deserves a scepter, it's me and you guys trying to get
the place. And he got mad at them, didn't he? They had this
contention among them. But now here they are. And what
are they doing? Going up together to pray. Oh, if you want sweet communion
with your dear brothers and sisters in Christ, then not only pray
for them, pray with them. They went up. They went up together
to pray. Sweet hour of prayer. And you know something always
seems to happen when the Lord's people have this kind of an attitude,
a prayerful attitude. We need preaching. We need good
preaching so bad. We need good teaching. We've
got such good teachers. But you know what's just as important? And maybe if I had one thing
to commend to you over preaching, it would be this. Prayer. Prayer. We've got a lot of good preachers
in our day. But you know what we need? We
need people that say, let's go to prayer and really pray. Let's go together to prayer.
We have a prayer meeting here on Wednesday nights, just in
case somebody wants to know that. We go to prayer Wednesday night
here every Wednesday night. That's a good thing, is it not?
If my people which are called by my name would call upon me,
would seek my face in prayer. There's always something good
comes out of people when they earnestly and honestly pray to
the Lord. And that's what you see here.
Just thinking about going up to prayer. Just desiring to go
up to the temple to pray. Something good came out of that.
And here we have it beginning here in verse 2. As they went
up to the temple to pray. Now look in verse 2. 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. And there
they laid him every day. And the Bible says he laid there
and asked alms. Now the history of this lame
man is somewhat amazing. And I'll tell you why it's amazing.
He was about the same age as our Lord. The next chapter tells
us He was above 40 years old. So He's probably 41, 42, 43.
And our Lord was somewhere around 44 years old or something when
they crucified Him. So they were pretty close to
the same age. And here's what's amazing when
you think about this. This man was laying from his
mother's womb. And they carried Him daily and
laid Him there at that temple. And you know something? The Lord
Jesus was often in that temple. He told them, He said, I was
with you daily in the temple. Every trip He made to Jerusalem,
He spent a lot of time in this temple. And the Bible says they
brought unto Him the blind and the lame there to the temple
and He healed them. You wonder where this man was. that he's had to see the Lord
coming in and out of that temple. Those that brought him there
have saw the Lord come in and out of that temple. And yet it
says here that this man lay, he was brought and laid there
all of this time, in this awful condition, all of these years,
and he still never was healed. And you know, he tells us here
in verse 2 and 5 that he wasn't even thinking about being healed.
He wasn't even concerned about being ill. It never seemed to
dawn upon him. Why was he here? Asking alms. He's begging. Wanting a morsel of bread or
wanting somebody to drop a penny in his cup. We read enough in
here that he even dawned upon him that Jesus Christ came into
this world to heal people. For three and a half years he
was healing people. never dawned upon him that Christ could make
him whole? As he saw the Lord Jesus coming
in and out of the temple, never dawned upon him that Christ could
heal him of his language? Well, that's a mystery, is it
not, when you think about that? But here's another mystery. There's
multitudes of people today just like this man. We sang of Christ
all the time to them. Christ our Redeemer died on the
cross, died for the sinner, paid all His due. We preach Christ,
we witness of Christ, we sang of Christ. I preached a message
a few weeks ago, come to the supper. All things are now ready. Remember that? I know beyond
a shadow of a doubt that there were some people left here and
did not come to the supper. They did not come to eat of the
redeeming body of Jesus Christ and to partake of His blood. Why? Why? They left you, and I bet you
anything, if you could get in their heads, they were thinking
about the little things going on in this life. The little things
going on in their own personal lives. It was so important to
them. And though they had Christ preached
to them, and they were so near to the words of life, they left
here thinking about, what am I going to do tomorrow? What
am I going to do this afternoon? Ain't that amazing? That's just
absolutely astounding, isn't it? You know the Bible says,
you talk about Brother Thornton, he preached a message one time
on God has set the world in their hearts that they cannot find
out the works of God. And sometimes the world gets
in the person's heart and it so occupies the heart. And all
they seem to want is a little alms. Just give me a morsel of
meat. Give me another penny. Give me
a little more of this. Give me a little more of that.
And all along, here's Christ coming in and out of the temple
healing people. And this man missed it. John
Bunyan, I think it's in his Pilgrim's Progress, he talks about this
muck raker. Always impressed me, this muck
raker. I've got a neighbor just like this muck raker. And he
talked about this muck raker with his old rake, and he's all
bent over raking around in the dirt. Looking for a piece of
copper to take to the scrap to say. Looking for something. This little muck that he keeps
raking. And Bunyan said, the amazing
thing just over his head is this crown of gold. But he doesn't see it. Why? All
he's concerned in his arms, asking in arms what he can get out of
this world. And he misses that crown of life,
that crown of gold. This poor man here was just a
muckraker, poor thing. Give me a little bit more of
this and give me a little bit more of that. And all the while,
there's this crown of life. All the while, there's this healing.
Can't you imagine? Can't you imagine? If he'd have
cried out like Barnabas did, Lord, thou Son of David, have
mercy on me. What would the Lord have did
for him? Why, he'd have seen him from there leaping and singing
and praising God from the low bottom of his heart. But there's
people like that today, is there not? Just like this man here. But it tells us here in verses
4 through verse 8, this man was an object of a miracle. Finally,
finally, the Lord does a miracle on this man. You know, it comes
right back to this, in spite of everything I've just said,
it comes right back to this. If the Lord's going to save you,
He's got a time He's going to save you. And we may say, why
in the world did it take Him so long? I say sometimes to myself,
why did I go through my teenage years and my early twenties?
Why didn't I seek Him back there? Why didn't I do this, do that?
And you just boil it down to this. Paul said, when it pleased
God. That's when a man is saved, when
it pleases God. And here this poor man lay crippled
for all of this time. But finally, the Lord sends His
preacher. This lame man was laying there
in this beautiful gate of the temple. And Peter said unto him,
Rise up and walk. That's not what he said, was
it? If he had said that, that poor lame man would have still
been laying right there when Peter left. But Peter said this,
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. This was a supernatural thing. This wasn't Peter's own strength. This man had laid for 40 years
and suddenly he walks and leaps and probably runs. Can't you
just see this man? I love to think that, you know,
can you imagine how weak his ankles was? You couldn't even
hold him up and you'd have to carry his entire weight. He couldn't
hold any weight on these little ankles and feet. And suddenly
he's leaping and he's running and shouting. That's a miracle,
isn't it? And what Peter basically tells
him here is, says, look at your pathetic condition. Look at your
life, what a miserable existence you have. But you're going to
be delivered. You're going to be delivered.
You're going to receive strength. You're going to receive strength
from a source altogether outside of yourself. Jesus of Nazareth has grace and
power to deliver you. And he says immediately, his
feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaped and stood
and walked. Now that's a miracle, isn't it?
That's a miracle. You know, salvation is a miracle,
isn't it? Just like this, it's a miracle. We're in a miserable,
pathetic condition. Never walked a day in our life.
We've never walked with God. We've never come to God. And
we cannot come to Him. He comes to us and does a miracle
in us and for us. And you know why He does it?
For the sake of His dear Son. That's what Peter's meaning here.
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. That's why you're going
to be healed. In His name and for your glory.
And that's exactly the thing that Peter tells them in verse
13. God has glorified His Son, Jesus. That's why God saves sinners,
isn't it? It's not even for their sake.
It's not even to save them from hell. That's not the first reason
He saves sinners. If He did that, He'd save everybody,
wouldn't He? You know why He saved sinners? For Christ's sake. He's getting His Son a great
name. He's glorifying His Son. God has glorified His Son. That's
what all this is about. You look around you, you look
up in the universe, you see everything that's going on. What's this
about? It's about something besides
just you and me. I tell you, this is for the glory
of Jesus Christ, God's Son. Father, the hour has come. Glorify
your Son, that your Son may glorify you. And that's why everything
that's happening is happening. For the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. God will save us from our sins. He'll give us eternal life. He'll
bless us with His blessings. He'll uphold us through this
life. He'll smile upon us. He'll receive us into heaven
at last if it's for the glory of Jesus Christ His Son. And if it's not, He won't. Old
Scott Richardson used to say, He won't even spit in our direction. He won't even spit in our direction.
He won't look in our direction. unless it's for the glory of
His Son. Boy, that's the best plea for
a poor sinner to come and those who have come to keep coming.
For Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. I don't care
how big a sin a person has fallen into, let him plead this for
Christ's sake. And I bet you God will forgive
him for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. There was a reason why the Apostle
Paul said, we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord. We don't draw attention to ourselves,
do we? We can't help anybody. I can't
help anybody. I used to think my preaching
can really help somebody. My preaching can't even help
nobody. If the Lord don't help you, you won't be helped. That's
why we don't go around drawing attention to ourselves. Because
we can't help nobody. We're just like Peter. Silver
and gold, how about none? Ain't no sense to look on me.
I don't have anything for you. But I can tell you about one
who can help you. I can't save you, but I can tell
you about one who can save you. I can't help you when you're
discouraged. I can't help you when you're going through a long
valley or climbing a high hill, but I can tell you about one
who can help you. I'll tell you about one who will
help you. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. These were such great men, but
one thing you notice here in our text, in verse 12, these
fellas came running, running to Peter and John, and just like
these Jews would have done, you know, they, and the Gentiles
too, they'd almost worship somebody. And here they come running to
Peter, and they came running to John, and wondered, and Peter
said, why are you looking on us? As though we're, as though
we're something. You're looking upon us like we,
by our own holiness, by our own merit, have made this man whole? We didn't do a thing. We're just
instruments. We're just water boys and seed
sowers. We're just the boys in the wilderness. It's Jesus Christ who has made
this man whole. Here's these great men. These
were great men. My goodness, Peter raised the
person from the dead, didn't he? Look at the miracles that
they were doing. Look at the folks that were being
saved under their ministry. And what did Peter say? We're
nothing. We're just absolutely nothing. Don't look upon us. We have no holiness. It ain't but our power that this
happened. I was thinking the Pope, he says
he's a descendant of Peter. I wish he'd have Peter's attitude.
The Pope calls himself a holy father. Peter said, I have no
holiness. My holiness is in heaven. And
I ain't got no power or holiness to do anything for anybody. It's
Jesus Christ that matters. And you know, brothers and sisters,
when God calls us, He calls us for one reason. The main reason
He calls us is to show forth His praises. We should learn
to strip ourselves from any glory whatsoever and praise Him and
ascribe all glory to Him that's called us out of darkness unto
His marvelous light. That's why He calls us. That's
why He sent back Gadarene Mann that Brother Larry told us about
this morning. You go tell them how you decided
for Christ. That wasn't what he said, was
it? You go tell them, have you made this great decision and
this great choice? You go tell them what the Lord
has done for you. That's what you tell them. Give
me all the glory for it. Brothers and sisters, if there's
one harsh breath of our salvation wrapped up in us and self-glory,
then I'd have to doubt our salvation. I'm telling you, when the Lord
saves us, He saves us in such a way that He's going to get
the glory for it. We're going to divert any glory
that would come in our direction. And the Lord told us, as Brother
Larry said this morning, let your light so shine before men,
but let it shine in such a way that they don't look to you and
say, But let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good works, and do what? Glorify your
Father which is in heaven. And when people start bragging
on us, just divert it, divert it, divert it. We're nothing
but a bunch of worms. And tell them so. Tell them so.
Let not the wise men, glory in their wisdom, Don't let the rich
man glory in his riches. Don't let the mighty man glory
in his might. But he that glories, let him glory in this, that he
understands and knows me, that I'm the Lord. I'm the Lord. Look here what he says in verse
16. Here's what he turns their attention to. He's speaking about
how this man received all of this strength and was leaping
and praising God. And His name, through faith in
His name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know.
Yea, the faith which is by Him hath given him this perfect soundness
in the presence of you all. Faith in Christ. Faith that comes
from Christ, because He's the author of it. And faith in Christ. Ain't that amazing how faith
comes to us? It's a mystery, isn't it? I don't know how. I
don't know how I believed in Him. I don't know how. Don't
know for sure when it started. But looking back now, I know
where it came from. It came from Him. It's by Him. And you know,
faith is reciprocal. When He gets it, when He gives
it, it goes right back to Him. When He gives it its eyes to
see, and who do they see but Him? Faith is ears, and who do
they hear but Him? Faith is feet, and who does it
come to but Him? Faith is arms, and who does it
embrace but Him? It's Him. It's Him. What was it that received
strength into these ankle bones? It was faith. It was faith. That's the mystery of faith.
There's but one thing, brothers and sisters, in this world that
connects us to Jesus Christ, and that's faith. There's but
one channel by which we receive this strength and this saving,
except it comes by faith. That woman that had the issue
of blood for 12 years, she was bleeding to death, she said,
if I can just touch the hem of his garment, I know I'll be made
whole." Listen, that wasn't a physical touch. That wasn't a physical
touch. I know she touched Him physically.
But there's a lot of people who touched Him physically. When
she touched Him physically, she was made whole immediately. And
the Lord turned around and said, Woman, your faith has made you
whole. How did faith make her whole?
Faith had no perfect soundness for this man. Faith had no healing
to heal that woman of her bloodletting. Faith connected her to One that
had that virtue that came out of Him and entered her. And when
Peter said, Look on us, and Peter said, In the name of Jesus Christ. Boy, just like that, that man's
faith out of his heart looked to Christ and strength came. That's what Peter tells us. That's
how it happens. Boy, that's a miracle because
it happens so quick. Charles Spurgeon was telling
about how faith unites us to Christ when nothing else will.
And he was, you may have read it if you read the little pamphlet,
Around the Wicked Gate. And he was, he was given an illustration
and he talked about these two men on the river that went down
to the Niagara Falls, and their little boat had capsized, and
they were being swept down the river to go over the falls, and
somebody floated them a rope down the river. They floated
them a rope. Both of them grabbed the rope, and they were pulling
them to shore. And a big log come floating by,
and one of them turned loose of the rope and grabbed ahold
of the log, probably because it was bigger or something. They
pulled the one out to shore. He was saved. The other went
over the falls on his log. And Spurgeon made this statement.
He said, you may think because something is bigger or looks
better in your own eyes will save you. But he said the reason
faith saves is because it connects us like that rope to the shore. Faith connects us to Jesus Christ. And all His saving benefits come
to us because we're connected to Him by faith, through this
faith. That's why God never saves us
without it. He gives it and He gets it right back. Faith in His name has made this
man perfectly whole, give him this soundness. in his side. Now look here in verse 13 and
verse 15. Boy, what Peter's going to say
to these fellas. Look here quickly. Here's what
he's going to say to these Jews who killed the Lord Jesus. The
God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers,
has glorified his son Jesus. These fellas love to talk about
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And they call them our fathers.
They say, we're children of Abraham. And they traced their lineage
all the way back to Jacob's sons, one of his twelve tribes. They
loved them. They loved these men. They at least professed
it. And Peter said, you know something? You guys are glorying
in these prophets. Well, the God of these prophets
has a son. And He sent His Son into this
world. Jesus of Nazareth. And look what
you did to Him when He came. Boy, this had to be cutting.
This had to go home to their heart. You delivered up. You delivered Him up. When the
soldiers come and got Him, you didn't raise a voice and say,
you can't have it. When they took Him and delivered
Him up to Annas, the high priest, and falsely accused Him of blaspheming,
you never raised a voice to stop it. When they took Him up to
the judgment hall, And the soldiers mocked him and stripped him and
whipped him. You never lifted a voice to stop it. You delivered
him up. And look at this, you denied
him in the presence of Pilate. What did they say to Pilate?
When Pilate said, I'm going to let him go, they said, you let
him go, you're no friend of Caesar's. But this is your king. He's not
our king. We got one king and that's Caesar,
and you let Him go, He ain't going to reign over us. We will
not have Him to reign over us. They denied Him in every sense
of the word. And look what else they did.
They desired a murder. They desired a murder. You denied
Him in the presence of Pilate when He was determined to let
Him go, but you denied the Holy One and the just one, and you
desire to murder." You desire to murder over the
Son of God. And He's the Holy One. He's not
like us. Peter said, we're born in sin.
Look at us. But He was born holy. He had
no words of guile in His mouth. He never did anything. to dishonor
God or anybody. He was the just one. Went about
doing good and healing all that was oppressed of the devil. And
when you come time to make your choice, you deny Him and say, ìGive us
that murder. Give us that murder.î You talk
about manís choice, brothers and sisters. You want to be left
to your choice? You desire to murder. You desire
to murder. And look at this, you killed
the prince of life. The prince of life, you killed
him. Now, if he's the prince of life, he must have let him
kill him. Because you can't kill the prince
of life. That's why he said, no man takes
my life from me. I let down of myself. But his
hour had come, and he delivered himself into their hands, and
they killed the Prince of Life. And he hung there until he gave
his life. He's the only man that had control
over his life, where he lived or died. And you know something? He got control over your life.
You children here this morning, you older people, He's got control
over everybody's life here this morning. When you came into this
world, when you were conceived in your mother's womb, Jesus
Christ of Nazareth is the One that gave your mother conception. He's the Prince of all natural
life. We live and move and have our
being because He gave it to us. And you know something, we'll
never die. until He removes that lie from us. And He's got power
to restore that lie. Lazarus, come forth! He's the
Prince. I'll tell you what else He can
do. He's the Arthur of spiritual life. He's the Prince of spiritual
life. He can give spiritual life. The
hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice
of the Son of God and they that hear shall live. I am the resurrection
and the life. I am the life. God has given
to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He's the Prince of Life. And
Peter said, You killed Him. You killed the Prince of Life. Look in the seventh chapter here
for just a second. Look here what Stephen accused
Him of doing. Look here in chapter 7 and look
in verse 51. Here's the conclusion that Stephen,
as he was preaching right before they stole him, look at this.
Chapter 7 verse 51, You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and
ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did,
so do you. Which of the prophets have not
your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which
showed before of the coming of the just one, of whom you have
been now the betrayers and murderers." Can you imagine one preacher
out of a thousand confronting people with this today? And yet this is what these two
apostles confronted these people with. I mean, laid it right at
their doorstep. You guys are in trouble. That's
what they said, you guys are in trouble. God has a Son, and
He came into this world, and you hated Him, and you persecuted
Him, you betrayed Him, you denied Him, and finally you killed Him. You killed Him. And boy, He adds
this to it. He adds this back in our text. In verse 15, Whom God hath raised
from the dead. whom God hath raised from the
dead." And here's the gospel. Here's the gospel. In spite of
all the evil that you've done, God has brought good out of it.
Peter didn't tell them this just to condemn them. He told them
this because now He's going to let them see. He's wanting them
to see the preciousness of this Gospel. You betrayed the Prince of Life
and God's turned it into a blessing. He raised Him from the dead.
He says in the last verse I read to you, Until you first, God
having raised up His Son, sent Him to bless you. You did the
cursing and now He's doing the blessing. You did the murdering,
He's giving the life. That's the gospel, isn't it?
In spite of all that they had done. Not because of anything
that they had done. God sent His Son to bless you. What a gracious gospel. And who was it being preached
to but the chief enemies of God? These men were the chief enemies
of God. That's why He told His disciples, you begin right here
in Jerusalem. Don't you go to the Gentiles
first. There's somebody I want you to preach the gospel to first.
When I'm raised from the dead and the Holy Spirit comes back,
I want you to preach remission, repentance and remission of sins
in my name. Preach forgiveness of sins in
my name, beginning at Jerusalem. Why? That's where your chief
sinners were. That's where your chief sinners
were. Blood-red sinners. Them that said crucify Him, go
preach repentance to them. The man who cleared his throat
and spit in the face of the Son of God, go tell them about remission
of sin through my blood. Isn't that amazing? Oh, how encouraging this gospel
is, brothers and sisters. How encouraging. If it was preached
to those who murdered the Son of God, oh, don't you think you
and I might have a part in it? Maybe this gospel of grace is
good enough for me. Maybe it will save me. He sent Him to bless you murderers
and betrayers. And he says here in verse 17,
look at this, and I'll hurry up, I've got to quit. And now,
brethren, I know that through ignorance you did it, as also
did your rulers, through ignorance. Paul said if they'd have known
who the Lord of glory was, they wouldn't have crucified. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ain't that the world's problem,
really? You get right down to where the rubber meets the road.
Paul said, all I did when I was lost, my persecution of the Lord
Jesus and killing Christians, I did it ignorantly through unbelief. That's one of the problems. That
was my problem when I was lost. I was ignorant. I was ignorant. That's your problem, Wayne. You
was ignorant. That sounds harsh. Sounds degrading, but that's
the truth. You're just ignorant. The world's problem today is
its ignorance. Why don't it understand God?
Why don't it see its needs to be forgiven of its sin? Why don't
it understand the nature of the gospel? Ignorant. Ignorant. Plain old ignorant. Stupid. I know I'm not supposed to say
that, but that's what they are. Stupid. It is stupid. Could you
imagine the poor rich man? sitting there at his table. The
Bible, Luke, tells us about three rich men. One came to Christ,
and Christ said, Go sell all you have and come follow me.
And he said, I can't do that, and he took off. Another one is sitting
at his table, and he's got all these barns and all these crops,
and he's going to tear it all down, and I'm going to say to
my soul, Take your ease. And that night, his soul was
required of him. And the third rich man, he tells
us about, one that lift up his eyes in hell, being in torment. And I just wonder, when the flames
of hell wretched up and licked that rich man's conscience, and
he was in torment, I just wonder if he didn't think how stupid
have I been, how utterly stupid have I been. What was I thinking? Worried about barns and fruits,
and now I've lost my soul for all eternity too? I've lost God. I've lost light. I've lost any
opportunity. I'm gone forever. How stupid!
How stupid! Do you ever get mad at yourself? How could I have done that? I'm
stupid. I'm just stupid. How many years, brothers and
sisters, did you skate around on thin ice over a bottomless
pit singing and whistling with every skate. How long did we
play on a rattlesnake's den like little ignorant children? Ignorant
of the condition of our souls. That's our problem, isn't it?
I'm not excusing it. And hell is full of them. But
that's what Peter told them. Ignorance. You did this in your
ignorance. iglars. God save us from our
iglars. Verse 18, he says this, But those
things which God before hath shewed by the mouth of all his
prophets that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. You know
the gospel of God's grace in Christ is not something new,
is it? He said the prophets since the world began have foretold
of these days The Gospel is old and it goes back before time.
And God had all eternity to think about the Gospel. And He had
4,000 years to predict the coming of these days. Peter said that
Christ should suffer. That Christ should suffer. And
what came out of that? Condemnation? No. Salvation? Blessing? I came not to destroy man's life,
but to save man's life. And that was predicted before
time. The Son of Man came not to condemn the world, but that
the world through Him might be saved. Oh, this is so important
to heaven. That heaven says, I'm going to
predict what's coming. And it's going to be good. It's
going to be a blessing. Forgiveness of sins. Life eternal. I don't want to miss out on this
to you. I'm telling you, if heaven sent this message for 4,000 years,
telling He's coming, He's going to bless, God has raised Him
up and He sent Him to bless you, if all that was predicted and
God is sincere and honest about that, brothers and sisters, I
don't want to miss out on this. Of all the thoughts that could
occupy God Almighty, the salvation of a poor sinner is what has
occupied Him for all eternity. I don't want to miss out on that. And He says, since there is salvation,
since He raised His Son up to bless you, therefore, in verse
19, repent ye therefore and be converted. Repent. Change your mind. Change your
mind. Look at how you've hated the
Son of God. How you've hated God. Change
your mind. Change your mind about yourself. and self-salvation,
self-exaltation. Change your mind and be converted. Turn, turn from your way. Turn from your sin. You're not
walking along parallel with God. You're going contrary to Him.
There's no salvation apart from repentance. There's no salvation
apart from turning and being converted. If men want to be
saved, then let them turn to God and humble themselves before
Him and seek Him for salvation that's in Jesus Christ. And I'm
telling you, when they'll do that, they've got this promise
that He gives you in verse 19. When the times of refreshing
shall come from the presence of the Lord. And this word, when,
every place else, almost every place in the Bible, this is translated
that. I don't know why our dear translators
translated this wind. It's never translated any place
else like that. It's that. So he said, repent
ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted
out, so that the times of refreshing shall come from the presence
of the Lord. And he's saying, humble yourself before the Lord.
Seek Him. And what's going to happen? Times
of refreshing is going to come from the presence of the Lord.
Our poor souls are just like a waist-tallin' wilderness, ain't
they? We're just as dry as we can be.
There's no lye, nothing to refresh us. This refreshing comes from
the presence of the Lord. Oh, forgiveness of sins. Isn't
that refreshing? If you're burdened over your
sins and He gives you the sense and the knowledge that He's forgiven
your sins, oh, it refreshes your soul. When you see His smile
instead of His frown, when you know that He's accepted you in
Christ, that you're complete in Him, that He's your righteousness,
oh, that's refreshing, isn't it? It's like the showers coming
down upon the desert and everything begins to bloom. He's turned
the old waste out in the desert into a garden. Ain't that the
way you feel like your soul? When He visited you, oh, you
felt like He's turned your old waist-tiling heart into a garden,
feeding His presence from His presence. In verse 20, we can't finish
this. Let me quit on this. I don't want to worry you out.
So many people have misunderstood verse 20. The group I've been
telling you about on Wednesday night, they said in this verse
20 and others like it, He shall send Jesus Christ which before
was preached unto you. They said if all Israel would
have repented, then God would have sent the seven-year tribulation
and immediately He would have sent His Son back physically. And to read this this way is
to absolutely ignore verse 21. Jesus Christ is in heaven, brothers
and sisters. Heaven has received Him for how
long? Until the time of restitution,
restoration of everything. That's what He's doing now. He's
restoring for the last 2,000 years. Jesus Christ is restoring
everything. He restored you, didn't He? Hasn't
He restored some of you back to God? Has He brought you back
to God? Yes, He has. And He's going to
keep doing that until finally all creation is going to be restored.
The creation that groans now is going to all be restored and
there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth, a complete restoration
and that's where He is. When you believe in Christ, He's
not going to physically come back to you, but He does come.
How does He come? Well, let's look at that, and
I'll quickly close. And look over in John chapter 14. Look
in John chapter 14. Here's the way he comes. And
Peter wasn't preaching Christ would come back to you physically
and set up some sort of a kingdom. He's going to come to your heart
by His Spirit. Peter got that from the Lord
Himself, because that's what the Lord told him. Look what
he says over in John chapter 14, and look in verse 17. John
chapter 14 verse 17, talking about the Spirit of Truth. And
verse 16, I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another
Comforter, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit
of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him
not, neither knoweth Him. But you know Him, for He dwelleth
with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Yet a little
while, and the world seeth me no more, but you see me, because
I live, you shall live also. In that day you shall know that
I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." He wasn't
talking about coming to walk with Him. He said, I'm coming
to abide in you. God will send His Son, Jesus
Christ, and He's going to come into your heart. That's what
He's saying. Look in verse 21. He that hath
my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me,
and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will
love him, and will manifest myself to him. In verse 23, Jesus said
unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my word, and my Father
will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode
with him. I tell you the very instance.
A poor sinner believes in Jesus Christ. Christ comes. Christ comes. Just like that,
He comes. Not physically, but He comes
in His Spirit. It's one with Him. Another Comforter. But yet He's not another in essence. Just another kind. Jesus Christ
is the second person of the Godhead. The Holy Spirit's the third person.
But it's one God. And I'm coming in my spirit.
You know Christ in my heart this morning is the same Christ who
is in heaven. The same Christ. They're one. They're one. And it's so with
you. Oh God our Father, God our Savior,
thank you for sending us a Savior, a great one. Oh, our Father, we have no words
to say to you, but thank you. We bless you. We praise you.
We were as lame spiritually as this poor man was until you gave
us grace to believe on you. You came to our hearts and you
made us new. You washed our sins. You blotted
them out. You refreshed us. And how often
you returned and make us to know you return. And every time you
make yourself known, Oh, it's a refreshing to us. Thank you,
Lord Jesus, for refreshing us. Would you be gracious to this
congregation? Would you visit hearts, Lord?
Would you bring those that's without you to repentance and
give them grace to be converted and turn unto you? We know that
when they do, you'll turn to them. Please watch over us all as we
go away this week. Be gracious to each one, not
only here, but all your children wherever they're living in this
world. Oh, Lord, how we need, how we desperately need a visitation
of your presence, a manifestation of your presence in our hearts
late at night and in our worship services. Please say, Visit our
homes. Oh, Lord, please visit our homes.
Visit the husbands and the wives and renew their sweet communion
and their sweet marriage relationship. I pray, Lord, that you'd give
them grace to love one another, forgive one another, and they'd
be affectionate one to another. Don't let this world and its
cares and things Tear a man's love away from his wife and the
wife away from her husband. Oh, Lord, we've seen so much
of this and you hate putting away. Oh, visit the homes. Visit the children. Cause them
to love and respect their parents. Cause the parents to teach the
children of the Lord. Pray for them. Oh, Lord, we just
need you in our everyday lives. When we're at home and when we're
on our jobs, we need you. We need you all the time, every
hour of every day. Lord, we need you. All of us
need you. Oh, come and help us, Lord Jesus.
You don't have to leave heaven personally, but oh, we need you
in your spirit. Every day we need you. For your
glory we ask these things. Amen. We're going to continue