This temple at Jerusalem must
have been a magnificent structure, with all of its ceremonies and
rituals and traditions and holy days and gates and so forth,
with all of its porches, magnificent structure. People came there
not only from Jerusalem but from all over the world to worship.
or for sacrifices, trying to find God. But also around the temple were
beggars, lame people, seeking help from those who came to worship. And at one of the gates called
Beautiful, there was a man whom they brought every morning, probably
had been doing this for a very long time. He had been crippled
from the day he was born. I don't know how old he was,
but evidently he was a man up in years, very frail, crippled,
helpless, hopelessly lame. And he was lying there at the
gate called Beautiful, and the people were coming by, going
into the temple to worship, have prayer, whatever. And as people
would pass him, he'd hold out his hand like this and ask help
of them, ask for alms, ask for a handout. But two men came to
the Temple that day, two men who were apostles of the Lord
Jesus Christ, Peter and John. They started through the gate
called Beautiful, and there was this beggar lying there in his
crippled, helpless condition. And he reached up to Peter and
John, asking for some help, begging from them. And Peter looked at
him and he said, look on us, as Peter and John stood there.
And he said to the man, look on us, look on us. And the fellow, of course, he
looked at them with attention then. I suppose up until now
they just looked like two of the many people coming through
the gate there, and he just tried to get something from everyone.
But Peter and John said, look on us, and he focused his attention
directly on them, expecting to receive something tangible from
them, expecting that Peter was going to reach in his pocket
or robe or whatever he had and hand him something. And he looked
intently on Peter, and Peter said to him, I don't have any
silver or gold, but such as I have, give I unto thee. In the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, rise up and walk." And he reached
out and took him by the right hand, this man in his impotence,
in his hopeless, helpless, withered condition. that never in all
of his life ever stood on his feet. He stood up perfectly straight
on his feet, and his ankle bones and legs received strength, and
he began to walk, and the scripture says to leap up in the air, to
leap, and to praise God. And Peter and John went on into
the temple where they were going, and this man, of course, and
ran around them and all around, and everybody was standing around
looking. He was a common sight. I've been
to Mexico several times, and nearly always there's this one
fellow sitting there in the doorway of one of those old Catholic
cathedrals in Mérida, the same fellow. I see him, and I recognize
him. every time I go down. And then
there's a little old lady with leprosy. You remember her down
on the street? She's always on the same corner,
always got that. She doesn't have any fingers
left. She's got that little old nub of a hand. And I can close
my eyes and see her right now. She always sits in the same place
on the same corner every day. And every time I go by there,
I'll put a peso or something in her hand. I can see her right
in there. And those people had seen that fellow sitting there
at that gate for years and years and years. And now they're looking
around, here he is bouncing through the temple, jumping up. And they'd
seen his little old legs, not much bigger than a banana, with
no muscle, no sinew, scarcely any weight or anything. They'd
seen his twisted feet. And here he was walking and leaping.
And they began to gather around the apostle Peter. They began
to gather around Peter and John. They knew what had happened.
And Peter, of course, began to preach to them Christ. He began
to preach the gospel. As I said a while ago, he went
from the less to the greater. He said, don't you people be
amazed by this and look on me as if I had some special power
or holiness to heal the sick? I don't have. It's the name of
Christ that healed him. It's the faith of Christ. It's
the life of Christ. It's the hand of Christ that
has made him whole. And I won't tell you who Christ
is. This is the one whom you rejected. The one who came, the
one of whom Moses wrote and Abraham wrote and David wrote and Isaiah
wrote, he's the Messiah, he's the Christ. And he came and you
nailed him to a cross. The stone which God had established,
you builders rejected. And God raised him from the dead
and raised him to glory. And he's seated at the right
hand of God. He's the only hope, the only
Savior. Moses wrote about him, he said, he said, God's going
to raise up a prophet like unto me from among the brethren, and
him you shall hear, and the man that won't listen to him shall
be destroyed from among the people. Well, when that happened, verse
chapter 4, look at verse 1, and as they spake to the people,
Peter and John preached Christ. And the people were listening
to them, they preached Christ. Notice this. Peter and John,
their ultimate goal was not just to heal bodies. As far as I know,
they didn't heal another person there. There were blind people
and deaf people and lame people and crippled people, and you
can just imagine how many folks back then needed that kind of
help. But he used this to preach the gospel of Christ. He used
this power God had given him, this gift God had given him.
this experience that God had given all of them, to all of
them to preach Christ. That's what they needed. They
didn't need their bodies healed, they needed their souls healed.
And he just used that as a springboard to preach Christ. This is the
issue that I have with the so-called healers today. You have a half-hour
television program or an hour and they go around healing everybody
and all these things. But they don't preach what men
and women need, and that's to know Christ. One thing about
this lame man, he may walk and leap and praise God today and
be healed, but he's going to die in a few weeks or months
or years and be buried. What he needs to know is Christ,
and that's what Peter did. Verse 1, And as they spake to
the people, the priest and the captain of the temple, and the
Sadducees, incidentally, who denied the resurrection, came
upon them. being grieved that they taught
the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the
dead. These Sadducees and Captains
and Elders and Chief Priests didn't care if they healed people.
What they objected to was the gospel of Christ. That's what
they objected to. That's where the battleground
was. That's when our Lord Jesus was here on the earth in the
flesh. He said, Many good works have
I done among you, for which of these do you stone me? They said,
We don't stone you for good work, but you being a man, make yourself
God. That's what we're stoning you
for. That's what we object to. They objected to the message
of Christ and his resurrection. See that in verse 2? That's what
they objected to. And they laid hands on them and
put them in prison until the next day. This was evening. It
was now evening time. Howbeit many of them which heard
the word believed, and the number of the men," not counting the
women, were 5,000. You can imagine what an outpouring
of God's Spirit came upon these people as the Lord brought them
to the knowledge of Christ. It doesn't say he healed 5,000.
It said that many people believed the gospel. Well, verse 5, it
came to pass on the morrow that the rulers and elders and scribes,
and I'm telling you, everybody came to that meeting. Annas the
high priest, think about it, Annas the high priest, the high
priest of Israel, and the rulers and the elders and scribes, and
Caiaphas, you recognize these names? These are the very men
before whom our Lord came. before he went to Pilate in the
judgment hall, Annas and Caiaphas, the high priest. And John and
Alexander and as many as were of the kindred, the kinfolks
of the high priest, were gathered together in Jerusalem. And when
they had set Peter and John in their midst, these two servants
of God, they asked them, By what name, by what power and by what
name have you done this? And Peter filled with the Holy
Ghost said unto them, You rulers of the people and elders of Israel,
if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent
man, by what means he is made whole, be it known unto you,
all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised
from the dead, Even by him doth this man stand here before you
whole. And this is the stone which was
set at naught of you builders, the cheap cornerstone, that triad
stone, that foundation God laid that Isaiah talked about, which
has become the head of the corner. And I'm telling you this, neither
is there salvation, neither is there salvation in any other.
But there is none other name unto heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved." I wish we could learn from these disciples.
I wish we could learn. Peter went from the less to the
greater. They wanted to talk about this
man being healed. By what authority, by what power
have you done this deed? And he said, while I'm accounting
for the healing of this lame man, I have an opportunity to
tell you who will not listen to me otherwise. of the great
salvation of the soul, the way of salvation, the healing of
the spirit, by the name and the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Always forcing the issue, always bringing men to Christ. I heard
the story one time of a young preacher who was preaching a
message at an old, well-established church. He was a well-educated
young man. and an able speaker. And he brought
an interesting sermon. And after the message was over,
he stepped down out of the pulpit and came and stood down front,
and the people came by to shake hands with him. He was a visitor. He was filling their pulpit,
and he had done a commendable job of speaking. And they came
by, and as they were passing by shaking hands with him, an
old gray-haired whom this young man knew, one of the leaders
of the Church, one of the pillars of the Church, came by and just
shook hands and never opened his mouth, never said a word.
He shook hands with the young man and started to pass on. The young man caught him by the
hand and pulled him back and looked in the face of that old
man and he said, What do you think of my message? He said,
Well, young man, it was a poor message, very poor message. And
that grieved the young man because he thought he'd done well, and
he wouldn't let the old man go. He kept holding his hand, and
he said, a poor message? Yes, sir, a very poor message. He said, but I studied, I studied
hard and I prepared well." Oh, he said, it was a well-prepared
sermon, young man. I'm not questioning that, well-prepared,
well-prepared. Well, he said, I presented it
with much logic and argument and reasoning. Oh, no question
about that. He said, you presented it well,
you have a good pulpit manner. Well, he said, was there something
wrong with my illustrations, my antidotes? He said, Son, I'm
not objecting to those things. It was a well-prepared message
and well presented, and the illustrations and arguments were all in perfect
order, but it was a poor sermon. The young man said, Sir, I don't
understand what you're saying. If it was well prepared and presented
and the arguments and logic was clear and the antidotes and illustrations
were clear, how can you say it's a poor sermon? There was no Christ
in your sermon. Christ was not there. But, sir,
he said Christ was not in the text. He said, son, Christ is
in every text. And your business as a preacher
of the gospel is to read the text and get to Christ as soon
as you can, and get to the cross. And that's exactly what Peter's
doing here. This man was healed. You see,
God gave these early disciples, and I'm not making excuses for
our impotence today and our powerlessness, seemingly, but God gave these
apostles and prophets special gifts and special powers and
special credentials, actually to get the attention of people.
You see, at this time, when Peter, James, and John and the Apostles
were ministering, the New Testament had not been written. All they
had was Genesis through Malachi. That's all the scripture they
had. And most of the people didn't even have that. Just the scribes
and the Pharisees had the scriptures. Most of the people didn't even
have any Bibles. Print and press hadn't been invented.
The New Testament hadn't been written. The men who wrote the
New Testament were standing here, Peter and John and James and
Paul and these others. So God gave them gifts and credentials. I'll show you that in Hebrews,
if you want to turn over there a minute, Hebrews 2. I believe
it's the 2nd chapter of Hebrews. It says in verse 3 of Hebrews
2, will you look at it? Hebrews 2, verse 3, How shall
we escape, if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first
began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by
them that heard the Lord, these apostles, God also bearing them
witness? What is a witness? It's a person
who recommends you or witnesses. So God bore them witness with
signs and wonders. And diverse miracles and gifts
of the Holy Ghost according to his will. These men were coming
here to this temple of Judaism and sacrifices and lambs and
goats and turtle doves and all these things in holy days and
feast days. They were coming here saying
that that Jew that they crucified on a cross a few months ago,
weeks ago, was the Son of God. And the fulfillment of this temple
and holy days and sacrifices and priesthood, he's the fulfillment. You want to turn from all these
things and believe on him. That's what they were saying.
Now then, if these men did, and God gave them languages, they
spoke the gospel in every tongue represented in that crowd. And
the people said, well, no man could do this except God be with
him. These men must be of God. Here was a man who was impotent
and lame all his life, and Peter came, and by the power of Christ
healed him. These people saw this, and they
had never seen anything like that before. They said, These
men have got to be from God. We're going to listen to them.
As they listened to them, Peter went back to the Old Testament
and preached Christ. That Christ was the fulfillment,
they held Moses in high esteem and regard, and Peter said that
prophet of whom Moses wrote, that's Christ, that's Jesus of
Nazareth. And that rock that followed them,
that's Jesus Christ, and that Passover is Christ, and this
temple is Christ. He said, destroy this temple
and in three days I'll raise it up. They thought he meant
that building. He's the temple, he's the tabernacle. A body thou
hast prepared me." And this is the thing that we've got to get
back to today. We've got to quit awing people
with so-called miracles, and trying to impress people with
the size of our buildings, and impress people with the size
of our crowds, and impress people with the size of our mouths,
and impress people with all these other things. And we need to
start taking them to the cross, to Christ. They all have Bibles. I don't need to perform a miracle
this morning to get your attention. I just have to get up here and
say, open your Bible there. Let's see what God has said,
is saying, and will say. Just open your Bible. God performs
miracles today. I've seen some miracles. But
like Ron said down at Danville, you're looking at a miracle.
You're looking at a miracle of his creative power and a miracle
of his redemptive power. And the miracle of the redemptive
power is greater than the creating power, that God should love such
worms and send his Son to die for them. Let's get to Christ.
Let's quit playing games and get to Christ. And he said in
verse 12, this is the verse I want you to look at for a moment,
"...neither is there salvation in any other." Salvation! Salvation! Now, my friends, we're talking
about the healing of the soul and the spirit. Now, will you
listen to me just a moment? Here's something I want you to
be sure and hear. Listen to me carefully. The average person
understands by salvation two things. The average person, I
say the average person everywhere, understands by salvation two
things. Number one, deliverance from
hell and admittance into heaven. That's what the average person
understands about salvation. Is that not correct? That's absolutely
right. That's not salvation. Admittance
into heaven and deliverance from hell is not salvation. It's the effects of salvation.
It's the results of salvation. We are delivered from hell because
we are saved. And we are admitted into heaven
because we are saved. This is so vital. Do you hear
me? This is so important. Listen again. To consider salvation. as only deliverance from hell
and admittance into heaven is to totally miss the meaning of
the word and the experience. Now, I repeat, deliverance from
hell, and that's what the average person thinks, I've got a home
in glory and I'm not going to hell. And they think that that's
salvation, but my friends, that's not salvation, that's the effects
of salvation. That's the results of salvation.
I do not minimize the indescribable mercy and blessings of these
effects. Boy, I tell you, oh, the horrors of hell. I heard
a preacher this morning on the radio talking about hell, and
I tell you, it just makes cold chills run up and down my back
to think of and speak of. and even contemplate people going
to eternal hell, eternally separated from God in darkness, in darkness
and anguish and suffering. That's terrible to think about.
And then all the glories of heaven, the happiness, perfect health,
perfect sight, perfect hearing, perfect glory, perfect sinlessness,
perfect holiness. eternal existence, eternal glory,
to behold the glory of God, to walk with God in glory, I tell
you, it's breathtaking to even think about it. But our everlasting
state, whether in glory or whether in damnation, is the
effect of or the lack of salvation. What is salvation? Salvation
is the healing of the soul now. Salvation is not something that
is going to happen when I die. Salvation is something that takes
place now. David said, He restoreth my soul. Isaiah wrote, By his stripes
I am healed. And when I live in glory, eternal
glory in the presence of God, that's the effects of what has
been accomplished by God's power now. For example, my blind eyes
right now are open to see the beauty and glory of the Lord.
That's not an experience that's reserved for heaven. Men by faith see Christ now. When the Apostle Paul talked
about desiring to depart and be with Christ, why? Because
he had already been with Christ spiritually. Salvation is having
my deaf ears unstopped and being able to hear the voice of my
Lord and his words and music to my ears. Salvation is having
a dead sinner raised from a spiritual grave. to walk with God in newness
of life, the life of God in the soul. This is salvation. And
the fact that we shall spend eternity with the Lord is the
effects of this work that takes place now. These lame legs are made to walk
in paths of righteousness. This stony heart is removed and
a new heart of flesh is put within that will love God not in eternity,
but loves him now. that I love his word not in glory,
but now, that I love his gospel and his people not in heaven,
but now. Salvation is to have my lips
and tongues, under which by nature the poison of asp lives, Now
they speak the praise and glory of God. My soul in bondage to
sin is set free from sin's penalty and curse and rain. And this
child of wrath becomes a child of God, and the beggars raise
from the dunghill to the throne, and the old man is a new creature
in Christ Jesus. What the Bible calls salvation
does not just populate heaven. Salvation is the work of God
in preparing a people now who know God, love God, enjoy God,
and on this earth are made sufficient and of a nature to enjoy heaven. Let me show you that in Colossians
1. If I could get this point across
this morning, it would be a major step, a major step for every
one of us, if I could get this one thing across. If I could
discount this idea that salvation is nothing more than admittance
to heaven and deliverance from hell, it's not at all, not at
all. Salvation is a work that takes
place now in the heart, in the soul. It's the power of God upon
an individual, healing that person and equipping him, making him
of a nature to enjoy heaven. Heaven is the effects of salvation. Hell is because a man has not
been saved. He's not a new creature. He's
got to be put where his nature will do no more damage and harm
to God and to his kingdom. That's the nature of a fish to
live in water. That's the nature of the fish.
I can't live in water. That's not my nature. I cannot
survive for over 30, 40, 50 seconds underwater. But a fish can't
survive on the land. Nature. It's the nature of a
monkey to live in trees. Swing by his tail, he's equipped.
That's his nature. I can't live in a tree. I couldn't
live there very long. It's the nature of a rebel to
walk in the flesh in total contentment and happiness. in blasphemy and
profanity and self-centeredness and dishonesty and all these
things. That's his nature. It's the nature
of a believer to want to be in holiness and righteousness in
the presence of God. God's changed his nature, given
him a new nature. That's salvation. And this nature
which God gives us by His Son, by His grace, through the work
of His Spirit, can only be happy in one place, and that's in glory.
That's exactly right. You say, what about this flesh
of mine? It's going to die and be buried. The old man is going
to be put away when you die, and you'll only have that new
nature, that holy nature. But the unsaved man, the man
who has not been saved, who does not know God and love God, he
doesn't have a new name. He'd be miserable in heaven.
He's miserable in church now. He's miserable under the gospel
now. He's miserable in places of holiness
now. He can't take just so much. He
can come on Easter or Christmas. That's about all he can stand. That's just about all he can
take. He'll argue church with you a
little bit out there on the job, and he'll argue religion a little
bit. He'll tell you what preacher
he likes and what preacher he doesn't like. He'll tell you what his
old grandpappy believed and somebody else. But as far as getting into
the Word of God and studying the Word, he's miserable. He's
not going to last under that environment. His nature is like
that fish taking him out of water, he's going to flop around. He
may lay there for a few seconds, but after a while he won't be
back in the water. And if you don't put him back, he's going
to die. And this is the way with a man who has not got the nature
of God and the life of God, he's miserable,
he's uncomfortable. He's uncomfortable around people
who know God. I'm not talking about these,
praise the Lord, hallelujah, foolish folks that claim religion.
I'm talking about that solid God-honoring, Christ-honoring,
scripture-honoring testimony of the gospel of faith. He's
miserable around those people. And if you look at Colossians
1, let me show you this. He says in verse 9 of Colossians
1, "...for this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do
not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled
with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
that you might walk worthy of the Lord, unto all pleasing,
being fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge
of God." strengthened with all might, according to his glorious
power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness,
giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet," meet,
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life. Read that
last line again. "...who hath made us meet," that
word is sufficient. God the Father has made us sufficient
to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in life. God has
given me a nature by a miracle and a new birth to live in the
water of his glory and not drown, to live in the presence of his
glory and not be unhappy. to live in perfect undiluted
holiness and not be uncomfortable. He has given me a new nature.
As I was born of my father Adam in the flesh, there is no way,
no way that I could enjoy heaven, no way. It would be a miserable,
miserable place with its glory and beauty and its holiness and
righteousness And it's preeminence given to Christ. I couldn't be
happy there. I can only be happy in the flesh,
in just one place. As long as that's my nature,
God's got to put me in hell where I can't do any more harm. You
see, Satan would be miserable in heaven. He'd tear up heaven. He'd destroy it. He'd have the
angels fighting. And this thing of salvation,
it's not just getting a ticket to heaven. It's not just missing
hell. You're going where your nature
will be happy. You're going where your nature
and your person will fit. You're going where you're made
sufficient to go. And if you're not made sufficient
for the inheritance of the saints in life, you've got to go to
hell. It can't take you and go. You'd be miserable. You wouldn't
fit. And that's what salvation is. You must be born again. That's
what salvation is. Somebody says, well, I don't
love people now, but I love them in heaven. You're wrong. You're
dead wrong. You're dead wrong. Salvation
is now. We have passed from death unto
life. We have been translated in the kingdom of darkness to
the kingdom of God. We are new creatures in Christ.
If any man loved not, he doesn't know God. He said, I don't enjoy
hearing the gospel now, but I'll enjoy it in heaven. I'll sing
with the Ransom Choir. Oh, no, you don't know the tune.
You'd mess up the choir. You'd sing blue notes. They ain't
going to have you up there. The fellow that's going to sing
that song knows it now, and loves it now, and enjoys it now. That's
right. I know it's an imperfect. We're
still imperfect. We haven't arrived. We haven't
laid hold. But I tell you, the bud and the bloom is there, and
the full flower and glory will be realized. But God hath made
us, me, sufficient to partake of that inheritance right now. Oh, I don't praise God now. I give the glory to myself. I'll
praise him then. I'll be changed. I beg your pardon? You hadn't been changed, you
won't be changed. No, sir, that's what salvation is, you see. This
salvation, I don't have time to go fully into it. This salvation
begins with God choosing us. He chose us in Christ before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love, having predestinated us to the adoption
of children to himself by Jesus Christ according to the good
pleasure of his own will, to the praise of his glory, wherein
he made us accepted in the Beloved. And then that salvation was purchased
by the Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin through
his blood. And he hath given us an understanding,
and he hath given us an inheritance in glory to the praise of his
glory. But that salvation, then, is applied by the Spirit. The
Holy Spirit is the agent, and the preaching of the gospel is
the word of God by which God changes a man, makes him over
a new creature. If Ron won't get too mad at me.
There's many examples here, but here's one sitting right down
here. who for years sat back there on that back row. Instead
of listening to me, he was counting the blocks in this ceiling up
there. And looking at the back of the heads of the people, he
said he used to wonder why they all were nodding like this. He
never nodded, you know. And God took him from back there
down here, and he nods now because he knows what I'm talking about.
That's a miracle. God has to do it. I can't do
that. I can't do that. He used to come out of duty,
religious. A person that's a school teacher
and a leader of young people ought to be religious. He ought
to show up to church at least once a week or something like
that, respectable. He's here now because he loves
it. If God had taken you to that
place called heaven when you were back yonder with that cynical,
indifferent spirit, you would have tried to run away from home.
That's exactly right. That would have been the most
miserable thing God could have done to you. But now that you
love every word in the word, that you love the people, that
you have a new nature, not perfectly, myself, I don't claim to be perfect,
but I do know this, I'd heap rather be with him than with
the world, hadn't you? I'd heap rather be hearing his
gospel than hearing what black folks are listening to. I'd a
whole lot rather be in the presence of God's people than to be in
the presence of a lot of folks I know. I know that God's given
me that love and that nature. That's right. And my friends,
that's salvation. That's salvation. And where is
it? Let's read our text again. We'll quit. Acts 4. Peter said,
neither is there salvation in any other. Neither is there salvation
in it. But there's none other name unto
heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. And God's done
for me the same thing he did for that impotent man. He's given
me spiritual legs and spiritual eyes and spiritual ears and a
spiritual nature and a heart that loves Christ. And a heart
that loves Christ. And going to heaven, that's just
the only place my nature would be happy. This nature of God,
the only place that would be happy. That's an evidence that
you've been saved. Hell is not my habitat. Heaven is my habitat. That's
where I belong. Like a place that belongs in
water, I belong with God. And you do too, if you love him.
If you love him.