And the title of this is The Message of Restoration. So if you remember from last week, we looked at a miracle, a remarkable healing that took place outside the beautiful gate of the temple in Jerusalem. Peter and John were on their way to the temple between 3 and 4 o'clock in the afternoon. This is during the time of prayer when there would have been quite a few people in attendance. They came in contact with a man who'd been lame from birth. And because of this, he's relegated to sitting outside the temple. He has to sit outside the gate and receive alms from the world as it passes by. That's all he has to look forward to in life, just to sit out there and just receive whatever the world wants to give him as it passes by. This man is completely helpless to do anything to change his physical condition or to restore himself to health. Because of his condition, he can't even go into the temple. The law prevents him from entering the presence of God to seek mercy and healing. So he is just literally without hope and without God in the world. As such, He is a perfect representative picture, spiritually speaking, of every human being that's ever lived, aside from the Lord Jesus Himself. He's just without help and without God in the world. And the man isn't even looking for healing. He's not looking for God. He's just asking for alms. But the Holy Spirit, acting through Peter and John, gives him Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, instead. He got much more than he was asking for. He's wonderfully and miraculously healed both physically and spiritually. And he immediately leaps up and begins walking and leaping and praising God. He begins to live. So immediately he got up and he started walking with the apostles. And he entered the temple. He got to go into the presence of God. So through this miracle, we got to see that the primary purpose of the church is not to give people alms. In other words, our purpose is not to put band-aids on people's earthly problems. The primary purpose of the church is to give people Jesus and watch him transform them. That's our purpose. This lame man was radically publicly transformed. And when a person is truly transformed, the world takes notice. People see. Your family sees. Your friends see. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5.17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. Behold. That word means... Behold is the most important word in that verse. It means, see for yourself. Paul is not saying, I'm trying to convince you that somebody who's born again is a new creature. He says, you can see it for yourself. If anyone is in Christ, it's obvious. They're new. They're different. They're not who they were before. See for yourself. Well, this man is obviously not who he was before. This man has sat in front of the gate all of his life. And now he's walking and leaping and praising God. Let's read through our text. While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement. But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? Or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release Him. But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. But put to death the Prince of Life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know. And the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Therefore, repent and return. so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things, about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. Moses said, The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. To him you shall give heed to everything he says to you. And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announce these days. It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your father, saying to Abraham, And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. For you first God raised up His servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways." So, the man was healed. And there's a crowd comes and Peter gets up to preach. So what does Peter preach? Well, he preached the gospel. But I want to submit to you that Peter preached the whole Bible, basically. in encapsulated form. The message that Peter preached, and we're going to look at it today, is the message of the entire Bible. And this is the gospel. The gospel is not... The gospel is as simple as Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and he was buried, and he was raised again the third day according to the scriptures. That's the gospel. That is just a way of briefly stating what this whole book says. This whole book is an illustration of that verse, of those couple of verses. The gospel is throughout this whole book, and the sermon that Peter preaches here is the whole Bible in abbreviated form, and we'll look at different aspects of it. Let's look at verse 11. While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement." So the man's clinging to Peter and to John. Now, of course, we would think this is natural because of the great blessing that's just come to him through them. I mean, if I haven't walked all my life and somebody just comes up and grabs me by the hand and suddenly my legs are alive, And now I can not only do my legs work, but I know how to walk. And I can leap. I've never done anything like that in my life. I'm going to be a little bit joyful and I'm also going to be a little bit attached to the fellow that just picked me up. So we would think that this is natural. And it's true. But I think there's even more to it than that. You know, his clinging to the apostles is more than just gratitude for now being able to walk when before he couldn't. See, he knows, he knows more than anybody that he's received a great gift from God. He's like that blind man in John chapter 9. You know, whether this man is a sinner or not, I don't know, but what I do know is I was blind and now I see. I was lame and now I can walk. He's received a great gift from God. And the gift that he has literally received is life in Jesus' name. That's what he's received. He was basically dead, in a manner of speaking. He could not do anything for himself. He's just sitting there. But suddenly his legs are alive, and he's able to move. He's received life in Jesus' name. If you remember from Acts 2.42, The first characteristic of the people of Christ's Church, those who have received life in His name, is that they are devoted to the Apostles' teaching. Acts 2.42 says, they were continually devoting themselves to the Apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. The first characteristic of a believer is that they're devoted to the Apostles' teaching. And I can testify to that in my own life. I was saved as an adult. I had read through the Bible as a teenager for a couple of reasons. One was just so I could say that I did it. And another one was to see if I could find all those contradictions that people talked about. And I read through it, but that was it. I put it down. But when I was born again, I fell in love with the Bible because that's where Jesus is. That's where my Lord is. That's where I draw near to Him and where I learn about Him. When this man is healed and restored, it's just fitting that he's going to be clinging to the apostles. He's going to be with them because that's where his healer is. That's where his healing comes from. It's through them to him. Now they were at Solomon's portico. Portico just means porch. It's a large covered porch on the east side of the temple and they called it Solomon's portico after obviously King Solomon. It was large, it was like 23 feet wide down the length of the building. It would have been an odd, and it's covered, so it would have been a really good public place to gather for preaching and teaching. And we see the apostles there in both Acts 3.11 and 5.13. So It's likely that they gathered there commonly. They probably gathered there to preach to the people in the temple. But, you know, we were talking in Sunday school. There was 3,000 people added to the church in one day there in Jerusalem. And they didn't have any buildings. So it's probably a really good place for them to meet and have service together, too, with a big crowd of people. But anyway, this is where they're at. This is where they're at. This is Solomon's portico. All the people ran together to them. Now, does that mean everybody in Jerusalem? No. But all the people, there was a big crowd, came running and gathered around. Because why? Well, there's a miracle that's taking place. And the truth is, this guy's been sitting there for 40 years, it's probably pretty likely that almost everybody that comes to the temple regularly has passed by him, and most of them have probably given him some alms. at one time or another. They know Him. They know that He was really lame. They know that He's been there. And this miracle has happened. They've heard this. They're hearing it. The Word is just traveling and people are hearing, Hey, that guy that sat outside the gate, he's not lame anymore. He's walking and leaping. He's in the temple. And so they run to see what's going on. to see if it's true, to see if someone has really been transformed. And you know, there's another sermon in that. The world's going to watch you. If you're a Christian and you start living for the Lord, they're going to watch to see if it's real. You've got a great opportunity to testify to the gospel just by being faithful and living a life that glorifies God as a Christian and staying true to Christ. They're going to come running to see if it's real. Verse 12 says, but when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? Or why do you gaze at us as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? So Peter looks out, he sees this crowd gathering, and he begins to preach. And the first thing he does is he begins to preach by establishing the identity of the crowd and then asking them questions, rhetorical questions that would bring them to the answers that they need. He learned this, I'm pretty sure, from the Lord because Jesus did that all the time. Someone would come and ask him a question and it would be the wrong question. He would ask the right question and then answer it for him. So I'm sure that Peter learned that from him. And so he immediately begins asking questions of them and then answering the questions. He says, men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? So he's gonna establish their identity, they're men of Israel, and he's gonna call them out for their unbelief. These people, they're men of Israel, they have the scriptures. The law and the prophets are theirs. And they testify over and over again to God, working miraculously to deliver his people. And then on top of that, they've just experienced three years of Jesus healing people and transforming them. You think about that when you look at this. It's like it never happened to them. They blocked it out. They wanted to get rid of Jesus. They think they've got rid of Him. And they blocked out those three years of Jesus going around doing good and healing people, even raising people from the dead. You know, it kind of reminds me If anybody's ever seen the movie, it's a wonderful life. You know, the main character is played by Jimmy Stewart, and he gets depressed, and he's going to commit suicide, and the Lord sends this guardian angel to talk him out of it. The angel's name is Clarence Oddbody, and he's kind of an odd little character. But anyway, he pulls him out of the river, he jumped off the bridge, and they're sitting there in the gatehouse there by the bridge, and the caretaker is sitting over there, and Clarence the angel is talking to the character. And he's talking about being an angel. And the guy's about to fall out of his chair, you know, over there. And so the main character's saying, hey, let's kind of take it easy on the talk about angels. And Clarence says, well, don't they believe in angels around here? He said, well, yeah. He said, well, why would they be surprised when they see one? And so the guy does fall out of his chair then. But that's the whole point. They've seen a miracle, but they're shocked as if They haven't just seen three years of miracles because they blocked it out. And the truth is that they're foolish men and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken. That's from Luke 24-25 when Jesus comes to the men on the road to Emmaus and He's explaining to them what has happened. They're foolish. This is even further demonstrated in their willingness. The people here's willingness to give Peter and John the credit for the miracle. as if men could somehow give life to dead flesh. You know, it's amazing all of the places that people will assign credit or blame for things that happen, rather than just looking to God. We will give credit to luck. We will invent things to give credit to, rather than just looking to God, who is the source of all. And Peter's going to have none of it. He's not going to allow it. He's going to call them out of it. See, I think it's a supernatural blindness. It's a veil. Verse 13. He's going to start answering them. It says, "...the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the One whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when He had decided to release Him. He says, God, not us, is responsible for the transformation that you have witnessed today. God is responsible for it. Psalm 115, 1 through 3. The psalmist says, Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory. because of your love and kindness, because of your truth. Why should the nation say, where now is their God? But our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases. God is the one who has performed this miracle. And not just a God, but the God. The God that our fathers trusted in. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the one who is responsible for this miracle. Peter specifies that the God he's referring to is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for a reason. All he had to do was say God, and they would have assumed that. But he specifies this for a reason, and the reason is because they think that they believe in and worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they don't. They really don't. And Peter is about to prove it. He says, "...because this God of our fathers has glorified His servant, His Son Jesus, who even the pagan Gentile Pilate could see was innocent. But you disowned and delivered Him over to be crucified." Look at Luke chapter 19. Verses 11 through 14. Jesus is telling a parable, but He also makes a really good point about the way Israel views Him. It says, "...while they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately." So he said, a nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself and then return. And he called ten of his slaves and gave them ten minas and said to them, Do business with this until I come back. But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him saying, We do not want this man to reign over us. John 1.11 says, "...he came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him." Jesus tells them at another point where He's disputing with them, He says, they claim that Abraham is their father. He said, if Abraham were your father, you would love Me. Because Abraham looked to My day, and he saw it and was glad. See, they don't worship the God of Abraham. They think they do. But they don't. Verses 14 and 15, he says, But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. But put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. And this is where we see, I told you that Peter preaches the whole Bible to them. He's starting at the beginning. You had the same alternatives that Adam had in the garden, and you made the same choice that he did. You had the prince of life, the author, the source of life in your midst. You remember how the Lord walked with Adam in the garden. You could have listened to him and bowed to his rule. But instead, you disowned Him and chose the murderer." Remember how Jesus said that Satan was a murderer from the beginning? And man chose to listen to Him. You had the choice between life and death, and you chose death. But here's the kicker. This One that you disowned, He is the Holy and Righteous One. And God proved it. God declared it by raising him from the dead. Romans chapter 1, verses 1-4. It says, "...Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his son, who was born of a descendant of David, according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord." The resurrection is extremely important. That is God's declaration and testimony to who Jesus is. and to what He's done for us. Christianity is not philosophy. It's not religious dogma. It's historical fact. Peter says, "...to which we are witnesses." We are witnesses. God raised Him from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. Actually, there were more than 500 of them. Eyewitnesses to the resurrection. You wanna talk about, people want evidence? That is overwhelming evidence from a legal perspective. There were over 500 eyewitnesses to Jesus' resurrection. And Paul testified in 1 Corinthians 15, six, that when he was writing that letter, most of them were still alive. If what he had written was false, there would have been 500 people out there saying, wait a minute, wait a minute. If the Gospels were false, there's 500 people out there that say, hey, we got a little bit of problem here. But you don't have that. It's historical fact. And they don't argue with him. You notice that in the text because they know it's true. They know it's true. They're getting eyewitness testimony. In verse 16, Peter says, And on the basis of faith in his name, it's the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know. And the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all. This Jesus, the Messiah from Nazareth, the one despised and rejected by men, is the Prince of Life. He's the source of life, physical and spiritual. Dead limbs, like legs, only receive life from Him. Dead hearts only receive life from Him. His is the name that is above every name. The name that redeems, renews, restores, and reconciles only this faith that does this only comes through Him as a free gift from God and His faith in His name, the name of Christ, the name of Jesus the Christ. And His name, it's not a talisman or a mantra. It's not like, you know, the charismatics might say, well, anything you want, you just claim it in Jesus' name. No, that's not what he's talking about. It's not a mantra. It is the source of authority. See, the apostles are saying, Peter's explaining that healing and restoration and even the faith that came to the lame man through him and John didn't come from them. It didn't come from them. They were just emissaries or ambassadors or like soldiers in the military. They're acting in the name of their king under his power and authority. That's what Peter is belaboring here. Jesus is the source and it's his power and his authority through which you see this, not ours. Jesus is the source. We are his messengers. And you know, we were talking about the church in Sunday school. That is the way the church works. That's what the whole book of Acts is about. The church is going forth into the world, and Jesus, through His Spirit, operating through His people in His church, is expanding His kingdom in this world. That's what we see in the book of Acts, and it's still going. That's what He's doing right now. It's going forth. Verses 17 and 18, and Peter says, and now brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance just as your rulers did also. Matter of fact, I could just imagine that Peter's probably thinking, yeah, you know, you guys disowned him, but I did too. I did too. You acted in ignorance. just as your rulers did also. But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled." You know, you and the rulers, you guys acted in ignorance when you crucified the Lord. There was plenty of evidence. I mean, the signs were all there. Three years. Jesus is going around preaching the kingdom, and He is performing all the signs that the Scripture said that He would, that would give testimony to who He was and why He was here. But there was a supernatural veil keeping you from seeing and understanding the truth. I'm going to look at Psalm 53, verses 1 through 3. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt and have committed abominable injustice. There is no one who does good. Verse 2, God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there is anyone who understands, who seeks after God. Every one of them has turned aside. Together they have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one. They don't understand. There's another place where Paul says, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving. There's a veil. And Peter tells them, he says, you're responsible for your actions. But through your sinful actions, God was sovereignly fulfilling His eternal purpose that He announced through His prophets to make atonement for His people and reconcile them to Himself. He said the same thing in His first sermon in Acts 2. In Acts 2, I'm just going to read it to you, starting in verse 22. He's preaching that first sermon at Pentecost. He says, Men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs, which God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know. The evidence was there. This man, delivered over by the predeterminate plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death since it was impossible for him to be held in his power. So you did it. And you're responsible for your actions. But God was fulfilling His purpose through it. And His purpose that He announced beforehand through His prophets was to make atonement for the sins of His people and reconcile them to Himself. An example of that I'm going to give you is from Isaiah 53. I'm not going to read all of the prophets to you, but I'm going to go to Isaiah 53 and just give you one example, one taste of this announcement of what God is going to do through the suffering of Christ. I'm going to start in verse 3. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised, and we did not esteem him. Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. I'll skip down to verse 10, it says, But the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. If he would render himself as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring, he will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied by his knowledge, the righteous one. Remember what Peter called him? The righteous one, my servant. will justify the many as he will bear their iniquity." See, Peter is telling them, over here, by the language he's using, he's saying, you remember who Isaiah was talking about in chapter 53? The righteous one. The servant that God has sent. That's him. That's him. And it's through him that you see this miracle, this transformation taking place. If you remember from Genesis chapter 50, talked about it here a while back, Joseph was the second in command in the nation of Egypt. And all of his brothers who had beat him up and sold him into slavery, they were worried he would kill them after their father Jacob died. They send him letters, you know, and messages, hey, Jacob left orders for you to forgive us and not to kill us. He called them together and he says, listen, you're responsible for what you did, but he says, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result to preserve many people alive. That's Genesis 50, 20. God meant it for good. Peter's telling them, you know what? Yes, you acted in ignorance and your rulers did. You crucified the Prince of Life, but you were accomplishing God's will. God's purpose was fulfilled. This purpose that He has announced through His prophets from the very beginning. This purpose that He's working out in history. So let's look at 19 and 20. He says, "...therefore repent, and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus the Christ appointed for you." He says, you know what? You did this, but there's a reason. God had a purpose for this. And you know what the purpose was? The purpose was that your sins could be wiped away. If you'll repent, if you'll change your mind, think again, That's what it literally means is think again, think differently. This Jesus is the Messiah. He is the righteous one. And his suffering, his death happened so that you could turn to God in him. Repent and turn to God so that your sins can be wiped away. Be reconciled to God. Paul says in Romans 8.1, Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Yes, you did this, but you know what? The purpose was so that your sins could be blotted out, repent, and be reconciled to God. And times of refreshing will come, and you will walk in newness of life. The one whom you despise will come to live in you. This Messiah appointed for you. He will come to live in you and give you eternal life, reconciled to God the Father. A couple of scriptures. One from Jesus. Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him. You've been alienated from God. You thought you were worshiping God, but you weren't. You weren't. But you can be reconciled to Him. You can be restored. Paul says, Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. That's Galatians 4.6. If you will repent and you will look to God in Christ, if you will look to this One that you've despised, He will come to you. and He'll be in you, and you'll be reconciled to God in Him. Verse 21, talking about Jesus says, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. I told you, Peter preached the whole Bible. This is what we call eschatology, the study of end times. This is what our hope is, our Christian hope. If somebody asks you, what is the Christian hope? You know, most people are going to say, well, so I get to go to heaven when I die. Was that it? Well, yeah. That's what they told me. They told me if I'd ask Jesus into my heart that I could go to heaven when I die. So I did, and now I've got my insurance. There's a lot more to it than that. That's not really the Christian message. Yes, the message is that whenever we die, our spirit goes to God. And our God is in the heavens, and our citizenship is in heaven. But that's not what we're looking for. Paul, when he's on trial, he says, I'm on trial for the resurrection of the dead. See, the testimony of Scripture is that there's coming a time, this world, when you start at the beginning, whenever Man chose death over life. He chose to sin, to rebel against God. Death comes into the world. This whole world is under a curse. But God began promising immediately that He was going to restore all things. He was going to send His Son. He was going to send a seed through which all the nations, all the families of the earth would be blessed. And He was going to redeem His people, and He's going to restore all things. And now he's talking about, he's looking ahead to that. After Jesus, Jesus ascended into heaven. You know, if we look back at Acts chapter one, I'm going to go back to Acts chapter 1, where Jesus was received into heaven. In Acts 1 verse 9, this is the last time that Jesus is physically meeting with His disciples. And He commissions them and it says, And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. I'm gonna go ahead and read 10 and 11. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while he was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. They also said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus who has been taking up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you've watched him go into heaven. So that's the first thing we know about eschatology, the study of the end, is that Jesus is coming back. Just like he went, he's coming back. And when he's coming back, What Peter's saying here in this sermon is he's coming back to restore all things. Heaven has received him, but he's coming back, and when he comes back, he's going to restore all things. Well, what does that mean? Well, we look around at the world, and we see that it's broken. We see that there is death, and there's pain, and there's lame men. There are blind people. There's sickness and disease, and there's evil. And all of these things end in death because the wages of sin is death. And sin has come into the world. But God has promised that He's going to restore it all at the end. At the end. And Jesus is seated on the throne in the heavens ruling and reigning over all creation until this time of restoration of all things. And then He's going to return. He's going to return. He's going to make all things new. Paul actually talks about what's going on here in Romans chapter 8, in verses 18. We read from chapter 8 earlier. I'm going to skip ahead from where we were at earlier and read 18 through 23. This is talking about now, this time period, the time period that Paul was ministering in. And he says, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time, the sufferings that we go through in life that are a result of the curse of sin in this world, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body." So what's all this mean? Well, what it means is this. Jesus is going to come back and it's all going to be made new. We're going to get new bodies. We're going to have a new heavens. In 2 Peter chapter 3, Peter who is preaching here in the text that we're looking at today, he talks about this and elaborates a little bit more on this time of restoration that's coming. And it's coming when Jesus comes. He says, "...know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation." He goes on, he says, do not let this fact escape your notice, down in verse 8, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. I mean, time, the Lord is outside of time. And in verse 9 he says, the Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, toward the elect, not wishing for any to perish, but all to come to repentance. Christ has said He's not going to lose one of His sheep. And he's not coming back until they're all brought in. But then when he does come back, verse 10 says, But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. In other words, this cursed world, the whole universe that is perishing and degrading and dying because of sin that came into it, it's all gonna be destroyed. And it says in verse 13, but according to his promise, we're looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. You know, God has been speaking about this coming restoration. through the mouths of His prophets from the very beginning. He's been speaking about it from the very beginning. There's coming a new heavens and a new earth. There's not going to be one trace of sin or sickness or pain or suffering or death. It's all going to be removed. That's our hope. That's what we're looking for. That's what Peter's preaching here. And he goes on in verse 22, he says, "...Moses said, The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. To him you shall give heed to everything he says to you." The Law and the Prophets and the Psalms are all a prophetic witness pointing to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of them. Moses, who wrote the Law, is himself a type or a shadow that points prophetically to Christ. In Moses' day, God's people were in bondage to Pharaoh in the land of Egypt. And God sent Moses to them as a deliverer who would bring them the Word of God and lead them out of physical slavery in Egypt into freedom as God's people in the land of promise in Canaan. Moses deliverance was a physical shadow Jesus deliverance is the spiritual substance The spiritual reality is that all of God's people everywhere are enslaved to sin All of us were enslaved to sin and the flesh and ourself in the Egypt of this world that's perishing because of the curse the wages of sin is death and God sent his son Jesus to his people as the deliverer who not only brings the word of God, Moses wrote words from God, but Jesus himself is the word of God incarnate. And he is the word of God incarnate who will lead his people out of their bondage to sin and death in the Egypt of this world and into the freedom of the sons of God in the new heavens and the new earth where righteousness dwells. All of Christ's sheep will hear His voice, they will listen to Him, and they will follow Him. He says in John 10, 27, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. Verse 23 says, And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. Every soul that does not heed that prophet. Jesus is the Prince of Life. He's the only way to life. He said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. The new heavens and the new earth are not going to contain even a hint of sin, unrighteousness, or opposition to God and His Christ. Not even a hint. The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. The one who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. This is the testimony of the Scriptures, and this is what Peter is preaching. Every soul that does not come to Christ, that they might have life, will be utterly destroyed from among the people. There is no other alternative. Christ is the only source of life there is. To hate Him is to love death. Period. Now, do you understand, I know this is kind of belaboring it, but do you understand why Peter is going overboard to make sure that they understand that he's talking about the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. See, the only way to get to this God is through His appointed means. He's the God who is. And the means that He has appointed that we are to come to Him is through Christ, and only Christ. It matters how you come to God. You can only come to God through Jesus. You can only have life through the Prince of Life. It says, and likewise, in verse 24, all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and his successors onward also announce these days. Moses wasn't the only prophet who pointed to Christ. All the other prophets as well, from Samuel forward, were all preaching the same message. And verse 25, he says, it is you, speaking to the men of Israel that he's talking to in this sermon, he says, it is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant, which God made with your father, saying to Abraham, and in your seed, all the families of the earth will be blessed, shall be blessed. So Peter's gonna wrap up the sermon and he's wrapping it up by pointing out to them that they are physical descendants of the fathers and the prophets to whom the promises were made. And the covenant was given. The covenant was given to them. They're blessed to get to see the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham because Jesus is the seed who was promised to them as a people. Jesus is the seed that was promised to them as a people that through them all the nations would be blessed. Through that seed. Verse 26, he says, For you first God raised up His servant and sent him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways. That seed was sent to them first. To turn them from their wicked ways, to restore them to God. They were very moral religious people. What do you think the wicked ways are that Peter's talking about here? Keep in mind, these are religious people. They've got laws about laws, and they're very stringent about following them. Jesus actually accused them of straining out a gnat. They worked so hard at trying to follow the law. Well, You know, these folks that turned to Jewish religion, which was supposed to point them to Christ through the sacrificial system, it was supposed to point them to Christ and to teach them to rest in God's provision alone. And they turned it into a legalistic system of religious box-checking through which they could justify themselves and establish their own righteousness before God. That's what it says in Romans chapter 10. Not knowing about the righteousness of God, they sought to establish their own. Jesus came to them first to bless them by turning them from their own works and back to God. That's good news. Jesus has come to us for the same purpose, to turn us away from justifying ourselves, to turn us away obviously from immorality and wickedness and lying and all those things that even the world knows are wrong. But the worst thing is, It's choosing death over life. Choosing to believe the lie instead of trusting in God's provision. Choosing to try to establish our own righteousness instead of turning to the Prince of life and resting in Him. And His atonement that He made for us. Well, this sermon that the Holy Spirit delivered through Peter here, both visibly through the healing of the lame man and then verbally through the sermon that followed, captured the message of the whole Bible in abbreviated form, I believe. Man chose to listen to a murderer rather than the Prince of Life and plunged the entire world into ruin. All sickness, suffering, oppression, or death, et cetera, results from that choice. Man is enslaved to his fallen flesh and utterly helpless to do anything to change his fallen condition, just like the lame man. He's literally paralyzed by his sin. God has promised from the beginning that He was going to send a Redeemer who would restore His people to relationship with Him and renew His fallen creation. Jesus is the Christ, the Holy One, the Righteous One who came to redeem His people and give them life. He suffered and died as a substitute to blot out the sins of His people. He was declared to be the Son of God with power through the resurrection from the dead. He ascended into heaven. He sat down at the right hand of the throne of power and is ruling over all creation as He builds His church by the power of His Spirit proclaiming His gospel through the mouths of His people. When the period of the restoration of all things comes, He will utterly destroy all opposition and restore the entire creation without even a trace of sin, suffering, or death. All who come to Him will be restored to God and enjoy eternal life with Him in the restored creation. In a nutshell, this is the message of the Bible. This is the message of the living Word of God. Do you hear His voice? His sheep hear His voice and they listen. And He knows them and they follow Him. Let's pray.