Acts 3:1-8

[0:00] So in Acts chapter 3 we'll start reading at verse 1. It says, Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour, 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.

[0:20] Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.

[0:34] Then Peter said, Silver and gold, have I known, 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 right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.

[0:49] 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 was sat for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple.

[1:05] And they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto them. We'll start reading right there. God bless you for standing. Back to verse 1, we're talking about Peter and John.

[1:17] Peter and John, obviously, being close, one to another. We see this in the Gospels and even more so throughout the book of Acts, when it says that they're going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, which would have been the ninth hour.

[1:34] This would have been the time of the evening oblation, as you read it, put in the Old Testament. But this was an hour of prayer that they were going up to, an hour where people would ascend into the temple.

[1:47] They would go up there, they would pray, they would offer sacrifices. And Peter and John go there, and there's a certain man, the Bible says, was lame from his mother's womb. This wasn't something like we see in the Old Testament.

[2:00] If you've ever read the account of Mephira's share, it's not a case like his, where he was made lame by accident. He was dropped by his nurse at a very young age. This isn't something that happened later on in life.

[2:13] This is something that says that he was lame from his mother's womb. I don't know if it was a misformation of bones. I don't know if it was a disease in the bones, but the Bible says, when the healing took place that he received strength in his feet and in his ankles, regardless of what his situation was, though, it says that he was lame from his mother's womb.

[2:35] He had always been that way. Folks, this is a beautiful picture. These 10 verses here, it's a wonderful picture of salvation that comes by the name of Jesus Christ.

[2:46] It's a beautiful picture of salvation that comes by the blood of Jesus Christ. This man, he was lame on his feet from his mother's womb. Not a thing in the world that he could do about it.

[2:59] It says that they, it doesn't say who they were, but it says they carried him and they laid him at the gate called beautiful folks. It doesn't matter how beautiful that gate was.

[3:10] It doesn't matter what kind of truth adored that gate. It doesn't matter what it was made of, whether it was gold or brass or platinum or what have you. It doesn't matter how good and how pretty man, not man, made that gate.

[3:26] What mattered was that two men that were under the influence of the Spirit of Almighty God, they were making their way to the temple and God met them there.

[3:37] And this man that was lame on his feet, he received healing by the name of Jesus Christ. Through the power of Jesus Christ, by these men doing nothing but saying silver and gold.

[3:51] Have I never such as I have given out there. And the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. Praise God, the same thing happened to me one day when I got saved.

[4:06] The same thing happened. I'd heard preaching when I was younger. I'd heard preaching through my teen years. I even heard some in my twenties and on up into my early thirties. I'd heard preaching.

[4:18] I knew what the Word of God said. I knew who Jesus Christ was, the historical Jesus Christ, but I didn't know him personally. But one day he came to where I was.

[4:30] One day, hey, the man had already been saved. He had already joined and already passed by multiple times in my life. But he said, this isn't doing enough good.

[4:42] I'm going to go myself. I'm going to redeem him. I will save him through the power of the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah. Praise God, these men, they woke up to the temple together.

[4:57] It says Peter and John went up together. Together, it tells me they were in one mind and they were in one accord. They had the idea they were going up there to worship God, to pray to God, to make their petitions and their supplications known unto God.

[5:14] Hey, I doubt either one of them had any idea whatsoever that this man would be laying there. And this man, hey, he had been laying there all his life as far as we know. All his life, he'd been laying there.

[5:27] He'd been carried up there probably by his parents, by his friends, by family members, by good Samaritans, by the do-gooders. He'd been carried up there by everyone and anyone, but none of them were able to do what Peter and John told him that Jesus Christ could do for him.

[5:47] Praise God! Folks, the world promises us a lot. How many countless Jews walked into that temple by that man and they threw him a couple of denarii, a couple of pennies, maybe just a half a day's wages, or maybe a quarter day's wages.

[6:07] How many thought, well, that should be good enough. That should get him some bread. That might buy him a fish. Folks, that'll do us no good. It does us no good to be physically sustained if we are not spiritually sustained.

[6:21] It does us no good to live a hundred years on this earth and I don't care what charities we donate to. I don't care how many naked people we clothe. I don't care how many homeless people we help or how many hungry people we feed if we do it outside of Jesus Christ.

[6:40] It is all for now if we do it inside of Jesus Christ. If we do it at the commandment of Jesus Christ, then it counts something to the glory of God.

[6:52] It counts for the glory of the kingdom that he has promised to come. Praise God! We do those things outside of Christ though, because it's all for naught.

[7:04] I feel that you'll get a pat on the back from your fellow man. Maybe a fellow preacher or a Sunday school teacher, maybe a parent or a child, maybe a grandchild, maybe someone will pat you on the back and say good job.

[7:19] And they'll say, God's given you a check mark upstairs for that. Hope says that ain't the way this works. It is not the way this works. You're either saved or you're not. It's not a matter of how many check marks you've got or don't have.

[7:32] It's not a mark. It's not a matter of a grading pattern of God. What matters is that when God looks before or looks on top of you, when the day of judgment comes around, if he sees you, you are in trouble.

[7:46] But if he looks down and he sees the righteousness of his only begotten Son, then we can say, we can call him Father. Then we can say, Glory, Hallelujah, Amen.

[7:58] Then we can say, I am a child of the King. Praise God. Peter and John, they go to this man. Neither one of them have any idea what's going on or what's going to take place.

[8:14] The lame man had no idea. Peter and John sure had no idea. But when God gets in the mix of things, when God meets on the scene, it doesn't matter who knew what before him.

[8:28] It doesn't matter when God can convince two of his men and he can direct them to say what they need to say. That's when the miraculous can happen. That's when salvation can occur.

[8:40] Hey, God doesn't need us to go out so that he can save people. God can do it all on his own. He doesn't need you and he doesn't need me for anything. He is completely self-sufficient. He doesn't need us to do anything.

[8:54] The folks purr the words of the Holy run of Scripture. He expects his people to go out and spread their gospel from one side of the world under the other. He expects us to go, go, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every living creature back to them.

[9:15] In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. He expects that of his people. He doesn't need it. He doesn't need me to do that. I need him. He doesn't need me.

[9:29] I hope I'm going to die and I'm going to go on. One of these days, I don't know when it could be tonight. It could be next week. It could be 50 years from now. But I promise you, if God didn't come back and I die, this world will continue spinning.

[9:45] May God will still rule this world in 50 years, the same way that he rules the world right now. I spoke about that this morning. I hear so many people say, well, I believe in God. I go to church. I believe the Bible.

[10:00] But I don't like that God does this, this way. And I don't like that he says it's got to be that way. Now, I'm telling all the same thing. When you can go off on your own, and you can create your own universe and your own world and your own air and your own water, and mold your own people out of the dirt that you have created, then you can rule your own world.

[10:21] But until that day, you are in the world of an omnipotent, omniscient, holy, and all-ruling God, whether you like it or whether you don't.

[10:32] It is. This fellow laying here at this temple door, the gate called beautiful. I'd say he might have had some bad thoughts along the way.

[10:44] Lame from his mother's woman. Why me, God? How many of you have said that? I have. I've said it since I've been saved. Why me, God?

[10:56] Why me? It's like we think that God owes us something. God don't owe us a thing. God don't owe us salvation. Salvation is a gift. Hey, the healer, this lame man at the gate called beautiful at the temple, that was a gift from God.

[11:12] That was nothing more than the grace of Almighty God. Everyone at Jesus' hill while he was here on this earth, in his ministry throughout the Gospels, whether they were blind, whether they were lame, whether they were deaf, whether they had leprosy, no matter what their problem was, what their ailment was, whether it was physical, whether it was mental, whether it was spiritual, Almighty God through Jesus Christ did not have to heal any of them.

[11:39] It was by grace, it was because of love, it was because of mercy, it was to demonstrate his power. Here on earth. And it was also to glorify God. Don't you forget that I spoke on that this morning too.

[11:56] I am beginning to repeat this morning so much. God don't save you because he loves you. He don't. He tells me he does. I'll point you to the scriptures and say otherwise. God saves you to bring glory to himself.

[12:11] God saves in Galatians 3. Forgiving you one another even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. He forgives you for the sake of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ didn't die in vain. That's why God forgives you.

[12:26] It ain't because he loves you. The Bible says that God so loved the world he gave his own begotten son. Hey, he loved the world so much that he gave his son. He gave away that we could be saved.

[12:37] He gave away because he loved us. He didn't save us because he loves us. He saved us because of his son willing to put down his life that we could be saved.

[12:48] Amen. You read it all throughout the scriptures, all throughout the New Testament. God the Father constantly glorifies and glorifying God the Son. This is my beloved son and humongous well pleased.

[13:00] This is my beloved son. Here you hear him. This is my beloved son. God constantly glorifying the Son and the Son constantly glorifying the Father. It's my meat to do the Father's will. That's what he told them in John 3 when they came.

[13:15] Hey, there are other boys that had gone into town. That woman at the well. Or John 4, I'm sorry. That woman at the well. Jesus met her there. He showed her who she was. He showed her who he was. And they came back. He said, you don't have any meat. He said, my meat is to do the will of the Father.

[13:30] Hey, we as New Testament Christians, that should be the meat of every one of us. Whether we're eating bologna sandwiches or tea-boned steaks, our meat should be to do with Father's will.

[13:43] Hey, man. I'm getting off track, but that's okay. God's good. After they said the line, that's quoted so often. After Peter says the line, it's over and gone.

[14:01] After this, he says he took them by the right hand, lifted them up. Folks, this is something the church needs to grasp. Discipleship of new converts. Discipleship.

[14:18] He didn't just leave them sitting there and say, well, you're healed. The old man about to do business doing what you want to. He says he reached down, he took them by the hand and he lifted them up. That speaks volumes about discipleship of new converts. Too often, and especially in certain denominations that I won't name.

[14:40] But too often, somebody comes to the altar, they make a profession, they say they get saved and the church leaves them there. They say, well, they got saved, he should be alright now. I ain't saying God can't take care of them. But folks, discipleship is taught in the Scripture. It is taught in the Scripture.

[14:59] In fact, Paul wrote to the Galatians church, Galatians 6 and verse 1. He says, if a brother be taken in a fall, ye which are spiritual are the ones that are supposed to restore him. We're the ones that's supposed to lift him up. We're the ones that's supposed to exhort him. We're the ones that say, yeah, you messed up, but praise God, he's just as forgiving now as the day that he first saved you.

[15:21] We need to remind people of this. God don't lose his goodness just because we get saved. He don't lose his grace just because we get saved. Oops, this man here says they reached down, he reached down, grabbed him by the hand and pulled him up.

[15:40] He says immediately, he's feeding his ankle bones, received strength. My Bible says in the book of Hebrews, he's able to save to the other most. When this man was healed, I don't read that he stood up and then he hobbled around. I don't read that he walked around with a limp for a few minutes.

[15:58] I read that he leaped and I read that he went into the temple. He didn't go running into town. He didn't go running to the bar. He didn't go running to the hell holes that he had come from. He says that he went directly into the temple. He went to the place where he knew that God would be. He went to the place where Peter and John were gone because they're the ones that told him about the Savior.

[16:22] So if you got saved and you're still doing the same things you were doing before, you never got anything. You never got anything. If you're still going out to the places, doing the things, hanging out with the same people, all these things.

[16:37] If you're still doing those and you feel no conviction, you never got salvation to begin with. This man's a picture of what a new convert should be, how a new convert should act. I was there healed completely and I got saved. It was like 33 years of sin was taken off my shoulders. It was like all that sin was lifted off at once.

[16:57] I felt like a new creature because bless God I was a new creature. I was a new creature and Christ at that point. That's how I felt. Every new convert should feel that way. I ain't saying that you should cut a shine and I ain't saying that you should act a fool.

[17:12] I ain't saying that you have to do those things, but I am saying that if you are a new creature and Christ, you will look like a creature and Christ. You'll act like a creature and Christ. You dress like one. You speak like one because you are one.

[17:29] The old saying, if you walk like a duck, it must be a duck. Same way with the lost world. Same way with the lost world that is still inside of many of our churches. They might come in, they might sing the songs of Zion, they might sing with a beautiful voice.

[17:45] Then they'll be right back out in the bars the night after. Or they were there the night before. Now, if you continue reading this scripture, we didn't read it tonight, but if you continue reading this chapter, you'll see where this man went on into the temple.

[18:02] First you see that the people gathered around, wanted to see what was going on. They all recognized. They all recognized. And then Peter comes up. Peter and John both. Namely Peter, though. He comes up. He sees this crowd around this new convert. And they all say, goodness, this is the man that laid out here begging homes. This is the same one.

[18:26] It ain't like the man over in John chapter 9, if you're familiar with that account. Hey, there was a blind man over there that Jesus healed. And when he healed, they said that the scribes and the Pharisees, they had all these questions for it. And they said, who done this to you? And the man said, I know not. I don't know who done this to him. Because Jesus had done left to see and gone on away.

[18:44] But where did Jesus find him? Just a little while later, he found him in the synagogue. He found him in the temple. He found him in the place of worship exactly where he should have been.

[18:55] All these people are gathered around. Peter says, this is a wonderful time to present the gospel. This is a good time to do some preaching. And Peter does just that.

[19:07] Boy, he rakes them over the coals, too, if you read this account. And Acts chapter 3, he rakes them over the coals. He says, this Jesus, what you crucified. He says, this man, hey, you would rather have a murderer as to have had this man. He says all these things in this sermon that he preaches. He says the same to these people. And some of them fell under conviction.

[19:26] Many of them fell under conviction. Many of them got saved. How many people got saved that day? Because of one man's testimony. I laid here all my life laying on my feet from my mother's womb and these men come by. And they told me about a man named Jesus Christ. And this same Jesus is the one that healed me. This name of Jesus is all powerful.

[19:48] How many people got saved because of one man's testimony? Don't hide your testimony from anyone. You never know who it's going to influence.

[19:59] Your testimony can't save. Only the blood of Christ can do that. But I wonder, I have to wonder, in the same Bible, as the Bible says, but I wonder how many of those people that were gathered there in the temple yard that day, seeing this man that had been laying on his mother's feet.

[20:21] I have to wonder how many of them knew about Peter's denial. And now that son Peter is standing there, preaching Jesus Christ to them. Preaching the same man that he denied three times. And folks, we can't look down our nose at Peter for that.

[20:37] We can't look down our nose at Peter. I've denoted more times than three. I praise God that we only have three times from Peter in Scripture. That's recorded that he denied them in our Jesus Christ. I wish I could say it was only three times. But I can't. But I have to wonder how many of those people stood there listening to Peter preach Jesus, preach the same Jesus that he denied.

[21:02] I have to wonder how many of them knew and knew about Peter's denial. But the man leaped up and walked and there with him in the temple walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God.

[21:15] He wasn't ashamed of it. He wasn't ashamed of what God had done for him. And not only that, he wasn't praising Peter and John for what had happened. They had told him in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

[21:28] It says that he leaped and he walked and he praised God. He didn't turn around and say, hey, you fellows, my life, here's a couple of hundred dollars. Go on your way and get what you want.

[21:39] He was praising God because he knew it was God that it worked a miracle in his life. If you're sitting here saved tonight, it wasn't a preacher, it wasn't your mama or your daddy. It was God that worked that miracle.

[21:54] They knew that he would set for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple. They were filled with wonder and amazement, as that which had happened under him.

[22:06] I would have been filled with wonder and amazement too. And remember, these Jews, these were Jews and they were very religious. Religion never got them anywhere with God. Religion never got them one step closer to God. No more than it will us as the New Testament church.

[22:25] I've heard it said many times since I've been saved. Religion will send you straight to hell. And it will. It will. Now, these religious things that we do, every church service, what do we do? We come in, we take up prayer requests, we have singing, we have announcements.

[22:41] What is it? That's religion. We do that religiously and there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that. But when we start depending on, well, we came into church and we went through the motions and we've done exactly what we do every Sunday. We can go home now.

[22:58] Even if the preacher gets up and preaches, okay, we can go home now. We had service. It continues to be a religion if God never shows up. It continues to be a religion if God never enters in on the scene. If the Holy Ghost ain't present, I know that He lives within me and He lives within you and I praise God for that.

[23:17] I understand that the folks at the Holy Ghost don't have His way in the service. If a preacher stands up and preaches something he knows he ain't supposed to preach, it's going to kill the service. If a singer gets up and sings knowing that they're doing it in their own pride, if they're knowing that they're doing it for themselves, that can kill the entire service.

[23:36] If someone stands up to testify and they're doing it in themselves and they're doing it so that the congregation will look at them and say, oh, well, this one is a fine person and that one is a good lady or a good man.

[23:48] If they're doing it for that, it can kill the service better than four o'clock. But when God comes in, just as God had to show up here between these three men, God had to be here.

[24:01] When God shows up, then we can have service. Then we can have a spiritual service. Then we can worship God. If we worship God and don't do it in spirit and truth, what good is it doing?

[24:12] What good is it doing? It'll do us no good. God ain't going to train the tire or count at all. Period. Folks, we just come here, then we go through the motions, or we go out there, then we go through motions when that happens.

[24:26] So I suggest you get in the Word, you find out exactly what it is to worship God. God's got a prescription for worshiping Him. He's got a prescription for it within the pages of this book.

[24:39] If we do it outside of that prescription, we need to really worship God. This man here, he was healed. It says he went into the temple. He went in where he being a Jew, he felt like God was.

[24:54] Folks, that's all the Jews knew for thousands of years. God's in the tabernacle, when the tabernacle was done away with, God was in the temple. He was there in the temple. That's all this Jew knew.

[25:06] He wanted to go where God was. He wanted to go where these men of God were going. Even though they had just preached Jesus Christ to them, hey folks, I hate to think. I hate to think back when I first got saved how bad my theology was.

[25:19] How little I really knew. I knew a lot of the history of the Bible. I knew a lot about the Bible, the historical aspect of it. But as far as salvation went, I was a new creature in Christ. I was a babe then.

[25:34] All I knew was I was a sinner one day and I was saved the next day. That's all that I knew was that something drastic had changed in my life. Something drastic had changed in this man's life.

[25:46] So what if he thought that God was still in the temple? So what if his people had thought that literally for thousands of years? There was nothing wrong with the way he thought as long as he was showed otherwise later. It's when we don't show people. When people are in error and we don't show them that, the book of Ezekiel says in two different chapters, when we stand before God, we will have a dead blood on our hands. If we don't tell them the error of their ways. Like I said, this man here, I don't blame him for doing that. If I'd have been him, that's probably the first place I would have wanted to have went to. But regardless of any of that, I'm getting off track again.

[26:27] Regardless of any of that, the man was healed. He received really quite literally salvation. Salvation, he received deliverance, which is salvation. I'm persuaded this man not only received physical healing, but I'm persuaded that he received spiritual healing.

[26:46] And that's why he's called at the same time. Why? Because he believed on the name of Jesus Christ. Romans 10, Paul tells the church in Rome that if you believe in Jesus Christ, if you confess him with your mouth and you believe that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. This man here believed in Jesus Christ and it says that he walked and he praised God. Hey, that sounds like a confession to me and that sounds like a belief to me.

[27:10] And if you confess something that you don't believe, you're a liar. I'm a little liar. I don't believe in the character kingdom of God. That's all God got. God bless you all. I appreciate your time. I appreciate you.

[27:22] Let's get that for him.