Acts chapter 3, if you would please, Acts chapter 3. And if you have a book, you can go to page number 39. Page number 39. Now if you don't have a book, I trust you're not finding this too overwhelming as far as us going and saying we're reading this portion and that portion. We don't wanna leave you out of our study by any stretch of the imagination. You might just have to really center your attention and focus on what is written in our book by Brother Cloud. And of course we try to add some things that surround the various points that we think might be applicable for the congregation, for us, as we are going through life in general, and as the Lord just impresses certain aspects of the truth to us. As you've already realized, there's no way that we can handle everything that's being addressed in the book or in the scriptures. The Bible is inexhaustible. so we just need as preachers and teachers to try to find that truth that God wants to have emphasized at this particular time. And sometimes to be sure that is a challenge when there is so many places for us to park so to speak. I'd like to begin by reading in Acts chapter 3 the first 11 verses of Scripture, and we'll get right into the study this evening. The Bible says these words as we read through Acts 3, verses 1 through 11. Now, Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. That's about three in the afternoon. And a certain lame man from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful." If you're going to Israel, we'll see that. To ask alms of them that entered into the temple. Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked an alms. And Peter fastening his eyes upon him with John said, look on us. And he gave heathen to them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up. And immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood and walked and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him. And as the lame man, which was healed, held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering." Now, if you do have your book, at the very top there it says, note the crippled man, and he was prepared for this event. One thing we have to realize as we move through the Scriptures is as you start with Genesis and go to Revelation we have more and more of God's truth being opened up to us. In other words as you've heard me say in the past that which we have in the Old Testament in say shadow form we have in substance. That means we can actually see it more clearly in the New Testament. Those types and pictures that were really forerunners to give us a little bit of an idea of the coming Messiah are we find complete in the person of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. And so we have to also recognize the fact that at different periods of time God worked with humanity in different ways. And so in the Old Testament we have the Holy Spirit, for example, coming upon His people now in the New Testament he indwells the believer. And so it is important for us to see this. Now at this time of the writing the canon of Scripture, which we call the canon of Scripture, we are talking about the 66 books of the Bible, we know that it was not complete at this time. The book of Revelation wasn't really penned by John until about 96 AD. And And so at this particular time, God was active trying to let other people know as well as give confidence to his own people that they were the preachers, the apostles and so on, they were speaking in the place of God, that they were giving God's word. And so that's how he authenticated the message that these men gave was through many times their miracles that they would perform. so I wanted to see if you'll take your Bibles and go to John chapter 9 I want you to see in this particular case how when Jesus was here on the face of the earth and doing His public ministry, well He was trying to show everybody that He indeed was the Messiah. And And so a lot of times they wouldn't just go by His Word and so He did that by the signs and wonders that He did. Now we know from 1 Corinthians chapter 13 that with the close of this canon with the 66 books of the Bible then there was no more need for miracles to take place. In fact we find early in the record as you look even at the writings of the Apostle Paul as he started out performing miracles and so on but surely that began to cease that 1 Corinthians chapter 13 points out. That's why we hold today such a high view of the Scriptures. That's why we also make statements that the Holy Spirit of God will never lead you contrary to the Word of God. And we have a lot of people around today that say, well I feel this, or I experience this, and so on. And many times it goes against a clear teaching of the Word of God. So you'd have to say that their experience and what they say is wrong is and the Word of God is right. But you build up some high emotions with people when you start saying, well, I know what you say, but that's not right. I know what you say you experience, but that's not of God. You can really get somebody's dander up, so to speak, by talking like that. But in John chapter nine, here we have, and Jesus passes by, verse one, and you have Him in his earthly ministry, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. It says, and his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? That's just like we humans, isn't it? Right away, we wanna know somebody has some physical malady or they're going through some problem in life that somehow they must have sinned. and exactly what's taking place here. And notice it didn't come from the unsaved crowd. It came from his disciples. It says they are the ones that asked Jesus, hey, did this man sin? Or his parents that he was born blind? Jesus answered, neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work. As long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world. And so I think it's interesting that here we have in John chapter nine, a man who was born blind, and so that the glory of God could be revealed. And you know, He was quite old at this time, even by our standards. As far as chronology is concerned, as far as living this long, this length of time, blind from birth, just so at this particular time in human history, Jesus could come on the scene and He could heal this man so that Jesus Christ could be manifest to those people. That's pretty strong. That's something to really stop and think about. You know, that I wonder the things that we go through, what God has been preparing us for. I wonder why we're here. Sometimes we wonder why something maybe lingers in our life for a long period of time. We go back to Acts chapter 3 and we see the same kind of thing here that here's a man who's lame and yet we find that the glory of God is being revealed through the preaching of these two men, this miracle that's about ready to take place or does take place in this passage of Scripture. Now let's go if you would to the Old Testament to the book of Esther. to the book of Esther. And we'll look here at chapter 4. You know here that this is the account where Esther and you have Mordecai, you have Haman who is gotten the king to agree to an edict that would actually set the wheels in motion to destroy all the Jews of the kingdom. And so Mordecai is concerned about this to be sure, and he appeals to Esther. And in chapter four and verse 10, we'll begin reading there. And it says, again, Esther spake unto Hathak and gave him commandment unto Mordecai. All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces do know that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come into the king, into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter, that he may live. But I have not been called to come in into the king these 30 days. was essentially saying is you just didn't have access to the King. Just like today if you were to go to Parliament or you were to go to the White House you couldn't go right in and see the Prime Minister and you couldn't go right in and see the President of the United States. You would be stopped at multiple locations. And And the same thing here is you couldn't just waltz right in and speak to the king. Didn't matter who you are, didn't matter what your credentials were, and he had this scepter in his hand. You've probably seen the pictures and so on. If he would extend that scepter to someone, if they came to his presence, that gave the guards the okay that they could come on in. If he did not extend that, that person would be killed. So you can imagine Esther, as she's gotten message from Mordecai of what the dire straits that the Jews are in, that she was really concerned about this. She said, you know, this could cost me my life. And it says here in verse 13, then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, think not with thyself, that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. In other words, he was reminded her of her birth. He was reminding her that she was one of God's chosen. He was reminding her that she was a Jew. And if the Jews were gonna be killed throughout the kingdom, she actually was part of that crowd. And so he was reminding her of that. Verse 14, for if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, like this, "'Then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place.'" Mordecai knew the Scriptures. He knew here as you look at this, he knew that God was going to somehow protect the Jewish people because they were His people. And he promised that he would do that. Didn't mean that they would, you know, all survive. It didn't mean that they wouldn't go through hard times. But we see here that, hey, if Esther was not going to rise to the occasion and be the instrument that God would use, then God's gonna use another instrument. You know, years ago when I read that, that really stood out to me because I thought, you know, God wants to use me. And you know, the opportunities that come my way, I can either take them or I can leave them, so to speak. And you know, it could very well be that God opens up doors of opportunity to us. And if we say no or we lollygag too much, then what happens is that he just says, okay, I'll just scoot you aside. I'll just set you aside. We call it today, putting it on the shelf. And we get put on the shelf and he just finds somebody else that he could use. It's important for us to realize when opportunities come our way, they could be very much divine appointments. And it says here, but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed, and who knoweth, this is the key here, and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. So when you put the package together of this passage of Scripture in Acts chapter three, you find this lame man who is looking for healing and actually he's looking, he's not looking for healing, he's looking for money because that's the only way he could earn a living is through the generosity of others as they would be going into the temple area and he was asking alms. you have this man in John chapter 9 who was born blind and Jesus comes on the scene and heals him. You have Esther at this particular time in history. And Mordecai reminds her, he says, you know, who knows whether you've come to the kingdom for such a time as this. So as it says in your notes there, God is in control of every individual's life. We have no control over our nationality. It almost sounds like Sunday, doesn't it? Sunday morning message. Our family condition, our physical condition, our economic condition, all of this is in God's sovereign hands. My part is to accept what God has given me and to serve Him in that situation. Of course, you know, when we're young, we have dreams and aspirations and we think life is going to go this way and this way and this way. And usually we have this pie in the sky kind of a idea. It's almost like the honeymoon, you know, everybody says, oh, marriage is this way. And then we talk about, hey, the honeymoon's over. Come on down to reality. Well, I trust your marriage isn't that way. But at the same time, that's how sometimes we joke and kid around. And here I think it's interesting that we have this idea given to us that, hey, we are in this period of time of human history. We find ourself in the circumstances that we're in, and many times they are circumstances that we have no control over. and we get all bent out of shape and we get discouraged and we get depressed because things aren't working out the way we envision. Could it be that we need to let, what, patience have her perfect work? Could it be that God has had us here for this particular time so that he could be manifested to a lost and dying world? If everything was perfect, then there'd be no need really for our witness and testimony. but we live in a sin-cursed earth. And as we go through circumstances of life, even the unideal, we can allow God to work through us. He says, as long as I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world. And of course, when we have Jesus in us, then we are the light of the world as he shines himself through us. I wanna also, if you could, go to Matthew chapter six. Matthew chapter six. And I just want to talk about, once again, we saw in John chapter 9 how that particular event in Jesus' ministry authenticated who He was. We see here in Acts chapter 3 where I believe that this authenticates the apostles' ministry. And I wrote here in my notes, God will allow things to come into your life to authenticate the Word of God in your life and ministry. And many times what happens is, is we need to understand that He is preparing us, okay? He prepares us. He prepares us for the ultimate in our lives, I guess you could say. It might be some of the early life experiences that we go through. This is why it's important for us as we preached a year ago, going through reclaiming surrendered ground. And we talk about dealing with some of those things of our past. Because many times we're hanging on in a negative sense to those things that have happened in our past that may not be ideal, that may be sin, not sin that we've committed, but sin even done to us. Circumstances that we have allowed to embitter us towards people and places and things. And what we may fail to realize is God has allowed us to go through some of those things so that we might be a shining light and testimony to others of His saving grace, as well as His sustaining grace as we go through those circumstances. If everything's working out fine through every circumstance of life, then many times people don't notice that they need a Savior. But when they see us going through some, what we would say, deep waters or unbelievable circumstances, and they see us trusting in the Lord, they see that we draw on our strength of the Lord because the joy of the Lord is our strength, and they see us go through these valley experiences and keep our faith and keep moving forward for God, then they say, that's what I need. I need that because they're gonna be going through deep waters. They may be going through deep waters and they need the solid rock, amen? And so we see this, and it could be the health issues we go through. It could be money issues. It could be, you know, the church ministry and things we go through. And so I think we need to understand that God chooses the circumstance for authentication. Okay, God builds a man, I always say this, God builds a man before he builds a ministry. He prepares us for the task, amen? And so, I wrote here, don't blow what God is trying to do in your life. Don't blow what God is trying to do in your life. That's essentially what Mordecai was saying to Esther. He was saying, Esther, don't blow it now. You're in a place of influence. You've got the ear of the king. So use it to the honor of God. And you and I, we have been placed at this particular time in history. Quit thinking you wish you were born 100 years ago. Quit thinking, oh, I wish I was in heaven now. The fact of the matter is, if God wanted you in heaven now, you'd be in heaven now. If he wanted you born 100 years earlier, you'd be born 100 years earlier. Now notice I didn't say how you feel tonight. I said, you know, the actual age that you are and the time in history that you find yourself. But I think what we need to understand is our life is a life of faith. This man who was born blind, he needed to live by faith. We notice that this man, even though he's asking alms, it was faith that was critical to his healing. And I think for you and me as Christians tonight, we need to understand how important faith is to our everyday life. So I just, as a reminder, want us to look at this passage of Scripture here in Matthew chapter six, and I wanna begin reading here in verse 19. The Bible here says, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, Where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." So where is your heart tonight? Then one of the ideal ways to test that is where's your treasure? In other words, what do you spend your time thinking about? What do you spend your time dreaming about? Where do you put your effort, your time? Where do you put your resources? Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And notice here, it says, don't lay up for yourselves. He's not saying that it's wrong to have money and things, but what he is saying essentially here is that ought not be your focus of life. Your focus in life ought to be eternity. Your focus in life ought to be serving God. And we get all wrapped up if we're not careful on not only just making a living, because most of us are past the stage of making a living, we're actually working for leisure things. A lot of the stuff we do, you stop and think, do you really need what you got? Do you need the extent of the things that you have? Do you need everything that you seemingly are going after now, paying for or paid for? I know I'm treading on thin ice here. The light of the body, look at verse 22. The light of the body is the eye. He says, if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? No man can serve two masters. And that's one of the problems we have today is we're trying to serve two masters many times. And there's that pull. I think that's where you flip over to, we're not gonna do it tonight, but you flip over to Romans 6 and 7, where he says, you know, there's that war that goes on in my members. And you sense that, where I'm sure even on a busy work week, there may have been a war in some of your minds in regards to coming to church tonight. And praise God you're here tonight, and look who won. It was the Lord that won, amen? And that's good. But it says, no man can serve two masters and you get pulled this way and that way. He says, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life. what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air. For they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?" You know, we're in that time of year where now that the snow's coming and it gets cold, have you ever just looked out your window and seen the birds still flitting around and they seem to be getting along just fine? I don't see them, you know, going to the doctor's office and trying to get antidepressants and things of that nature and seemingly worried about where they're gonna eat. They just go about and flit around. They eat and they seem to be fed and they get fat and they keep going. You know, God takes care of them. And you know, just as we look out and we see how he takes care of those in nature, the birds in particular here, he says, aren't you much better than they? I mean, you're better than some bird. Okay, you're made in the very image of God. And so you're special to Him. And He has obligated Himself to take care of you. But our problem is it boils down to trust. It boils down to faith. Who are we gonna rely on? Are we gonna rely on ourselves? We're gonna rely on somebody? We're gonna rely on our wealth? And folks, there's all kinds of illustrations that we can go back to in history of men and women who were rich and they had money and yet, you know, when ill health struck them, they couldn't find the doctor that could give them the healing that they needed so that they could live here that much longer. And so we need to understand that God is who we need to put our faith and trust in. He does everything well. Verse 27 says, which of you by taking thought can add one cubit into his stature? I know what you're thinking. Yeah, Pastor, you thought you could be six feet tall. And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin. It just comes natural to them, doesn't it? I mean, the flower just grows. Those dandelions just grow, don't they? Let's go on, verse 29. And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, because of the above, "'If God so clothed the grass of the field, "'which today is and tomorrow's cast into the oven, "'shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? "'Therefore, take no thought saying, "'What shall we eat? "'Or what shall we drink? "'Or wherewithal shall we be clothed? "'For after all these things do the Gentiles seek.'" Notice that's in parentheses there, and a Gentile, in reference in the New Testament like this, in this context, is talking about the unsaved. It's natural that the world would be concerned about the car they drive, the house they live in, the clothes they wear, the money they make, and what kind of food they have, but that not ought to be our main concern. That's what the unsaved crowd goes after. You see, we ought to what? Seek to be godly. 1 Timothy chapter six, okay? Godliness with contentment is great gain, the scripture says. Go on, it says here, for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Notice, it's interesting, it says you seek, God and His things and His righteousness. And then it doesn't say, okay, after you get through thinking about this, number one, then you can worry about what you're gonna eat. Then you can worry about what you're gonna put on and then you can work. No, no, no, it just says all these things will be added unto you. You don't have to worry about it at any time. It's not a one, two, three, four, five. It's just, hey, serve God and He'll take care of you. Let's think about that for just a moment. John the Baptist served God, but it cost him his life. And so does that mean that when he's gonna take care of us that everything's gonna work out as we think it ought to work out? Or are we willing to allow God to do with our lives what he wants so that he can get the glory he deserves and needs so that we can be the instrument that he wants to use to reach the world for himself? That takes on a whole different view, doesn't it? Whole different perspective. And you know, sometimes we are more impressed with someone's faith and the glory of God and the truth of the scripture as we see people going through hard times and standing up to it well. Amen. How many times do we read and hear about a testimony of those who've gone through some horrendous circumstances of life and yet because they did it trusting in God, it was a faith builder for us who've not experienced anything like that. And that's one of the values. It says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Some of you may even be worried now about tomorrow. And what this verse of Scripture says, don't do that. Because a lot of our worries never end up taking place anyway, do they? And so he just says, hey, you deal with today. Just live today, moment by moment, trusting in God. So it's important for us as we see the healing of the crippled man. And how many times you may have gone to Acts chapter three and read this account and just said, okay, he got healed, that's great. And you just go on and keep reading because, oh, it's history. This is what's happening. And boy, that must have been exciting to be a part of that. But there's a far deeper lesson and many lessons that we can gather from this particular account. So he was prepared for this event, the crippled man. We see that God is in control of every individual's life. Okay, and I like what he says here. My part is to accept what God has given me and to serve him in that situation. So whatever happens to us, we just need to keep on serving Jesus. All right, just keep serving him. Now notice it says, number two, these are the marks of the apostolic signed gift of healing. And here he goes through and he shows this, and I'm not going to reiterate all of these as far as looking at the text, but we see that when this man was healed, that healing was instant and it was complete. It wasn't gradual. And he gives some examples here. The next thing here is the healing was observable. Many times when you go to these faith healing crusades, you hear about it, you read about it, it talks about how a lot of them are what we would call psychosomatic healing. What that means is, is a lot of times it has to do with what's taking place behind the ears, or between the ears, not behind the ears, behind the ears. between the ears, okay? And so you need to understand that when these miracles took place, here was an obviously crippled man. And so he was healed immediately. And it was something that everyone could see. There was no doubt as to what was taking place or if anything took place, or maybe we better keep watching this to see if this is real, it took place. And the healing was permanent. The healing was permanent. None of this business that after the hype was over, that all of a sudden, you know, it came back. No, the healing was permanent. And then the healing was not done through a healing campaign. I remember years ago, I may have said it here in recent days, but I know I said it to someone. But I remember Ernest Ainsley years ago, I was in high school and I'd gone down with one of my classmates, there was five of us in my senior class, and his, Joey's sister and brother-in-law, they were youth directors down there at a church there right outside Chattanooga, Tennessee. And we went to spend the weekend there with them. And Sunday morning, we were getting up and going, getting ready to go to church. And they had the TV on and it had this Ernest Ainsley on there and they had a healing line. And in that healing line, he was going along and he was, you know, hollering at them and praying for them and pounding them on the head and they'd fall back and, you know, they'd be taken away. And I still remember this lady walked up and he went like this to her and he said, What's your problem? She says, I'm deaf. And he said, which ear? And she said, both of them. And I have never forgotten that. Because I thought, you know, what a farce. We just sat there and laughed. And you know, that's what the world does to a lot of us if we go wacky like that. You know, and you don't find God dealing in that kind of thing. It was not a healing campaign where people had to line up. I would say if you have the gift of healing, Boundary Trails is just down the road. You know, go down there and see how you do. Or if you have the gift of languages, if you think Acts chapter 2 is still for today, which it's not, we've already learned that from Acts chapter 2, hey, man, you need to go to the mission field. because you could go into these countries that there's no Bible in their mother tongue and you don't even have to learn the language. You could just go start preaching the gospel to them. Now, of course, I'm being facetious, but yet it's serious because We limit the work of God in our lives by such caricature of the scriptures and the way that we don't rightly divide it. And we need to understand that God deals at certain times with His people and others in certain ways. Now, look at Peter's sermon here. He preaches a sermon. And let's look at verses 12 to 26 of Acts chapter three. And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on us as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? You know, I'm reminded of 1 Corinthians where, I think it's chapter one where it says, some people say, I'm of Paul and I'm of Apollos and I'm of Cephas. In other words, they were following man. And some said, oh, I'm a follower of Christ. Paul writes to the church of Corinth and say, is Christ divided? Is he splitting himself up here? No. And so we need to understand that Peter's essentially saying, hey, you're heaping praise on us like we're some great saint of the Lord. No, it's God that healed this man. It wasn't me or John, okay? He says in verse 13, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers have glorified his son, Jesus. And you know, from our study in the gospel of John and the person of the Holy Spirit, that Jesus said, he said that I'm the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. And so in other words, if you're going to get to God, you have to come through Jesus. And when the Holy Spirit's involved, he does not magnify himself, he magnifies the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why we talk Jesus up these days. We don't emphasize the Holy Spirit, we emphasize Jesus. because you have to come through Jesus to get to God the Father. So the Holy Spirit is gonna draw people to who? Not Himself, but to Jesus. And that's what essentially Peter is saying here. He's saying, have glorified His Son, Jesus, whom ye delivered up. So that miracle was so that Jesus could be glorified, so that Jesus could be magnified, not man. "'and denied him in the presence of Pilate "'when he was determined to let him go, "'but ye denied the Holy One and the just, "'and desired a murderer to be granted unto you, "'and killed the Prince of Life, "'whom God hath raised from the dead, "'whereof we are witnesses.'" and his name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know, yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all." Notice that. The Holy Spirit makes no mistakes in the giving of his word, 1 Peter. But you notice here it says, perfect soundness in the presence of you all. In other words, when he got healed, He was healed, totally healed. He was perfectly healed, amen, okay? And he didn't have a limp, you know? He didn't have anything wrong with him that way. He was healed. And now brethren, he writes, verse 17, I want that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers, but those things which God before has showed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. "'Repent ye therefore and be converted, "'that your sins may be blotted out "'when the times of refreshing shall come "'from the presence of the Lord. "'And he shall send Jesus Christ, "'which before was preached unto you, "'whom the heaven must receive "'into the times of restitution of all things, "'which God has spoken by the mouth "'of all his holy prophets since the world began.'" In other words, Everyone up to this time, and of course we know past this time, but everyone from Genesis on, they preach the same message. And it says here, for Moses truly said, verse 22, unto the fathers, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me. Him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many has spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. Ye are the children of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, and in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his son Jesus, sent him to bless you, and turning away every one of you from his iniquities. What did that miracle accomplish? It accomplished the people all running together, the crowd was gathered, And then Peter was able to stand up and give the gospel. And then you see what God is trying to do. He's trying through this event to get people saved. Amen. And so we ought to be involved in the work we do to try to get people saved, to lead them to Christ. And so when we're going through our deep waters, when we're going through our valleys, and we're giving praise and honor to God. Could it very well be that God has given us a platform like Peter and John so that we might give out the gospel message and so that we can show forth Christ in us the hope of glory? Amen, amen.