All right, you can be seated. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter one. Now we've been talking about the part of our doctrinal statement at the end of the spiritual gifts, and the end of that last sentence there under that part of our doctrinal statement says we believe that the sign gifts, like speaking in tongues and healing, ceased with the apostles. And so we've been working our way through that. I'm gonna spend this week next week for sure and we'll see how far along we get this week. I tend to overthink. I'm going to get through more than I do and I don't. So, but you all understand that, I hope. So, we talked about the sign gifts last week and what exactly they were. And we said that they were listed there. We're not going to go there. We read them last week but they're listed there in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 all in one place. And they're the gift of healing, the working of miracles, prophecy, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. And I'll talk a little more about, for example, tongues. I want to spend a little more time on that. I may make a comment about it this morning. But again, a spiritual gift is something that's given to an individual. So no one's saying that God doesn't heal people today. I'm not saying that God doesn't heal. If you're in the hospital and I come pray for you, I'll pray that God heals you. And I believe God could heal you, but that doesn't give me the gift of healing. Now, if I pray for 100 people and they all get healed in a cancer ward, well, you'd probably look at me and say, well, that guy's got the gift of healing. So that's what we're saying. No one's suggesting that God can't do a miracle and that God can't heal somebody. And I pray for healing. We have a prayer list, and there's a lot of people we're praying for physically on that list. I pray for my kids. My kids, a couple kids are sick right now. I pray for them every day. Lord, help me heal them. Help me get better. But we're talking about a gift that's given to somebody, an individual that has the ability to do it. consistently. All right, so I gave three reasons last week. We'll start with the first reason this morning. Three reasons why we teach that the sign gifts are not for today. Now, ultimately, we teach it because the Bible teaches it. That's why we teach it. I think the Bible's very clear on this. The first reason I gave you, and we'll talk about that reason this morning. We might get into the second reason as well. The first gift is that the sign gifts were primarily for the nation of Israel. That was the first reason I gave. And when God cut off the nation of Israel, as it says in Romans chapter 11, he grafted us in. And we are a spiritual people, blessed with spiritual blessings. We are not the nation of Israel. We were not promised physical promises with a physical kingdom, with a physical land, with a physical king. That's not what we've been promised. We're not hoping for that in this life, in this world. But the nation of Israel was. And a lot of the doctrinal error today is because people don't divide between Israel and the church. They're not the same. And you got a lot of people out there saying that they are. But the sign gifts were unique to the nation of Israel. They were also, well, I'll talk about that a little bit. I'm getting ahead of myself. That was the first reason. We'll talk about that this morning. The second reason was the sign gifts were given during a time when God's word was being revealed and they were necessary to authenticate those by whom God was revealing his word. And I'll get into that this morning a little bit, I think, if I can, if I get the time to it. But the men that God gave these sign gifts to were very unique individuals, men who were the prophets, men who wrote the scriptures. I mean, you look at how much scripture Paul wrote. I mean, 14 books, most likely, if you count Hebrews, which I do. Mark and Matthew and Luke and John and all these men Peter John I mean they wrote the scripture they wrote pretty much the entire New Testament and those men needed to be authenticated as God's men and they were given these gifts so that God stamped them and I'm gonna give you an example at here either this morning or next week and the last reason I said was that the even if you don't understand any of that if you just compare the sign gifts as supposedly being manifested today, and you simply compare that to what they are in the scriptures, you'll find they're not the same. They can't be the sign gifts as outlined in the scripture. And so even like if I was talking to a charismatic, I don't even think I'd argue that the right division, I wouldn't start there. I just wouldn't, that wouldn't be a winning argument. I wouldn't get anywhere where they'd be like, well, I don't, you know, but what I would tell them, I would say, well, wait a minute, what happens at tongues in your church? Is it a language that someone else can speak? That's clearly in the Bible, what tongues was in Acts 2. That's the tongues of angels. Well, no, that's not right. It's not according to the Bible. And why are all the women doing it, by the way? 1 Corinthians 14 says the woman should be silent in the church. That's in the context of prophesying and speaking in tongues, in the proclaiming of the word of God. So why do the women, by and large, do it? And why there's no interpreter? Come on now, fellas, we got some problems here. And really what it comes down to is an experience. And it's an experience. They felt something, it feels like the Holy Spirit, and it seems right. And I will tell you, as having been a Christian for 40 some years, when you deal with people that have experiential truth, you are walking up a steep hill. And you're not likely gonna get anywhere with people. At my age, in my life, and God's called me to minister to my family and my church. I don't go pick arguments with charismatics. I don't find them on Facebook, I'm not on Facebook, and try to debate them, you know. That's just stupid. It's not the forum for that. But if you ever come up, God may put one in your life. And you may, and God may want you to say something. You may be able to help him. So I'm not saying you just chuck him off and you know, if God gives you an opportunity, I would start with that last point. Is that what you're telling me is a sign gift and the way that's being manifested in your life or in the life of those people you're around, it's not consistent with the scripture. It's not right. And so we'll talk about that a little bit. So we said a sign gift is the manifestation of miracles to create wonder, to point people to God. All right, that's how we defined a sign gift. I did that last week. All right, sign gifts were given for the nation of Israel. This is my first point. I had you turn to 1 Corinthians 1, says there in verse 21, but after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. All right, so according to the scripture, Paul says the Jews require a sign. We preach Christ crucified. One of the great problems in the focus on the sign gifts is that it takes away from Christ crucified. And we preach Christ crucified. But the Bible does say the Jews require a sign. And that was the way God interacted with the nation of Israel. I'll get to that point I just made in a minute, but go to 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5. It says there in verse 7, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Now the nation of Israel walked a lot by sight. You realize that? I mean, they had a pillar of fire by day, a cloud, a pillar of fire by night, cloud by day, and when that physically got up and moved, they just, okay. I mean, wouldn't that be great? I mean, you know, if God just gave you a, You know, every day showed up in your bedroom and say, here's the four things you want to do. Maybe it wouldn't be all that great because you wouldn't like some of this stuff he told you. But he very visibly manifested himself to the nation of Israel. But we don't live in that time. We live in a special time. We walk by faith. Faith is believing in something. It is a substance in the sense that it is tangible because it's evidence that there is something that's not seen. But that's what it is. It's confidence in something that you cannot see. I have faith there's a God. I've never seen God. I've never seen the Lord Jesus Christ. I have to walk by faith. I have to walk by faith. We don't walk by sight. But a lot of what happened in the Old Testament dispensation, you had a lot of stuff very visible, very tangible. And again, that was largely because God was dealing with the nation of Israel and he dealt with them differently. Now, if you understand the birth of the nation of Israel, we understand back in Genesis chapter 12, God called Abraham out from among his family. And he said, okay, I'm gonna deal with a nation now. With this whole thing with, you know, the Tower of Babel and the flood and trying to deal with humanity, they all fail. So let me pick out a nation and that nation's gonna be the nation of Israel. And really, the birth of that nation is when they came out of Egypt. God took them into captivity. They went there with Joseph, and Joseph was there, and ultimately, they got put in bondage, because the new pharaoh that came along after the one that knew Joseph passed away, and he was afraid of all the Israelites that were there, and so he put them in bondage for 400 plus years, and they were there for about 400 years. And then God shows up, and he sends Moses, How does God show up to the nation of Israel when he burst the nation? It was the birth of the nation. It was the Passover Exodus chapter 12 That's the calendar the Jews still go off of by the way. That's the calendar. They still follow you talk to a Jew It's a year 4,000. I know one hits for I mean I can ask him. What year is it 4,000? Whatever, you know, they've got this calendar they never reset the clock and you know at the at the at the admin at the first coming of Jesus Christ and But the birth of the nation of Israel was back in the book of Exodus. And how did God deal? How did God originally show up to the nation of Israel? Go to Exodus chapter 4. Exodus chapter 4. And in Exodus chapter 4, and God here is dealing with Moses. Moses is the chosen one that's going to go in. and do some things before Pharaoh to get the Israelites out of Egypt. And he says there in Exodus chapter four, Moses says, but behold, verse one, they will not believe me nor hearken unto my voice. For they will say, the Lord hath not appeared unto thee. I mean, Lord, you want me to go in there? And I've been, you know, I've not been there for 40 years. I've been gone now. You want me to go to Pharaoh and go before my people and just announce that it's time to come out, guys? They're not gonna believe me, Lord. And the Lord says unto him, what is in thine hand? And he said, a rod. And he said, cast it on the ground. Then he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from before it. And the Lord said unto Moses, put forth thine hand and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand, that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob had appeared unto thee. And then he does the same thing. He does another miracle here with the hand in the bosom. He puts his hand in the bosom and it turns into leprosy. And then he does it again and it comes out clean. And look at what it says in verse nine. And it shall come to pass if they will not believe also these two signs. They were miracles. And then look at what he says over there in same chapter, verse 28. Exodus 4.28, and Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded him. And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel, and Moses spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. What signs were those? The miracles that God had just showed them? And the people believed. And when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped. So when God shows up to the nation of Israel and says, I'm gonna bring you out of captivity, how does he show up? He shows up with miracles and signs. Go to Exodus chapter seven. Exodus chapter seven, verse three. The Lord here is talking to Moses, and I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. And go to chapter 10, verse one. And the Lord said unto Moses, go in unto Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants that I might show these my signs before him and that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son of thy son's son what things I have wrought in Egypt and my signs which I have done among them that ye may know how that I am the Lord and those are the sign gifts those are the signs that God showed and when God very initially showed up to the nation of Israel he showed up with signs he showed up with miracles let me give you a New Testament verse on this Matthew chapter 11 Why did Jesus Christ do all those signs? Why did he do all those miracles? Well, because that was the promise, and I'll get to that here in a minute. But in Matthew chapter 11, this is the passage of scripture where John is in prison, and John's kinda wondering, Lord, are you really the one? I mean, this hadn't worked out so well for me. You know, here I am in prison, and so he says in verse two, John 11 two, and when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and said unto him, Art thou he that should come? Or do we look for another? And Jesus answered and said unto him, Go and show John again those things which you do hear and see. What was that? The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them. So what was the evidence that Jesus tells John of his messiahship? The evidence was the miracles that he did. and it was the signs that he did. And just like God first shows up to the nation of Israel with signs, Jesus Christ is coming. And we know from John 1, verse 12, I got a bunch of verses on that. I'm not sure if I'm gonna go through all that this morning, but he came unto who? His own. He came unto the nation of Israel. So how does he come into the nation of Israel? The same way God did in the Old Testament with signs and miracles to remind them of who he was, because the Jews do require a sign. And so that's what he tells John. He said, well, you go tell John that the lame walk and the blind see and the deaf hear. Why? Because that was the promise. Go to Matthew 12, just a page over there or two in your Bibles. Matthew 12, it says there in verse 38, then certain of the scribes and the Pharisees answered saying, master, we would see a sign from thee. Now, why were they asking for a sign? Well, in this case, they were asking for a sign because they just, they weren't gonna believe anyways. And he rebukes them for being an evil and adulterous generation. But they were asking for a sign because they understood the Old Testament. They understood the Jews require a sign. So they felt like they were in their right, going to the Lord and saying, hey, why don't you show us a sign? But they weren't, they were just wanting to show is what they wanted. But they were asking for a sign, rightfully so. I don't ask God for signs. I don't pray the Lord, hey Lord, if you're really God, would you just show up in my bedroom today? People do that today, but that's not for us. Now go back to Isaiah 35, Isaiah chapter 35. A prophecy here, and this is a prophecy of what's gonna happen in the millennium. But again, you're gonna have signs. It says in Isaiah 35, five, then the eyes of, well, let's read verse four. Say to them that are of fearful heart, be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance. Even God with a recompense, he will come and save you. And the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a heart and the tongue of the dumb sing. For in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desert. Now a lot of that happened at his first advent. And when Jesus Christ came, he came to offer his kingdom to his people. And it was prophesied that when the king would come, there'd be some miracles. And they're listed right there. And we know Jesus Christ did many miracles. And so the signs were specifically for the nation of Israel. Now, if what I'm saying is true, then that would be evidenced by the scripture. Now, how would we prove that out? Well, we'd look in the Bible And we would say, okay, well, during what times was God using human agents to do miracles? And if what I'm saying is correct, and ultimately I'm saying it because if the Bible says it's correct, but y'all know what my point is, then the scripture should bear that out. We ought to be able to look in the Bible and we ought to be able to see that the times in human history whereby God was doing miracles was times when he was primarily dealing with the nation of Israel. And that's true. Now, some of you are thinking, well, what about all the miracles of the flood and the miracles of creation and the confusion of the languages and God pouring down, you know, fire on Sodom and Gomorrah? Well, none of those were through a human agent. God didn't use a human agent. He just did it himself. And God spoke. Wasn't creation a miracle? I mean, yeah. I mean, he spoke. Boom. Stuff was there. That's a miracle. pouring down fire from heaven. That's a miracle. God did that. He superimposed himself into nature and he did something. But as far as using human beings and human agents to do miracles, you go through 2,500 years of human history, from Adam to Moses, and there's not one miracle done by a human agent. Not one. You read it for yourself. God was doing miracles, but not through a human agent. And the times that God was doing miracles And there's primarily three times in the Bible when God was doing miracles. One was during the time of Moses and Joshua. And a lot of those miracles were done in the book of Exodus. The book of Exodus covers about 200 years and there are 29 miracles in the book of Exodus. Most of them were obviously most notably the 10 plagues that God did in Egypt. which all happened in a relatively short period of time. I mean, one of the points you're gonna see I'll make here, and I'll just go ahead and make it now, is if you study the scriptures and you look at the timeframes of when miracles were happening, they were not even predominantly in the timeframe of the scriptures. The timeframes they were happening were rather short durations. It wasn't like God in the Old Testament was just doing miracles every day and it was happening all the time and everybody was doing them. It was very specific and very specific timeframes. Moses obviously was leading the nation of Israel out of Egypt. It was the birthplace of the nation. God was doing signs and miracles. We read the verse, I think it was there in Exodus, was it Exodus chapter 10? So they would tell their children and their children all the miracles and all the things that God had done. And so some of the miracles listed in Exodus, obviously the 10 plagues. You have the miracle of the burning bush. You have the miracle of the Red Sea divided. The bitter water of Merah was sweetened. You had manna coming from heaven. You had water from a rock when Moses struck it. And during the time of Joshua, you had some miracles. You had the walls of Jericho came down. Joshua tells the sun to stand still. And Moses really was the first human agent that God used to perform miracles, 2,500 years into human history. And that was one of the timeframes. And obviously, that's in the context of the nation of Israel, Moses and Joshua. The second timeframe, where you have many miracles being done by men would be the time of the prophets. And when you think about miracles, who do you think about? Kids, you ever think of any prophet in particular or prophets maybe? Elijah, certainly think about Elijah. Elijah did some miracles. And Elijah and Elisha, they were kind of the main prophets that ushered in the time of the prophets. There are 42 miracles recorded. in the time of the prophets 24 of those were done by Elijah and Elisha Mary Elijah had eight miracles all recorded between first Kings 17 and second Kings 2 Short period of time 50 60 70 years maybe and all those miracles were recorded by Elijah in that time eight eight miracles He including some of those miracles included the the print when he shut the heavens and stopped the rain for three years when he prayed over there In 1 Kings chapter 17, he raised the widow's son from the dead. Also in 1 Kings 17, he called down fire from heaven. In 1 Kings 18, and then you had the parting of the River Jordan when he was taken up in 2 Kings chapter 2. Elisha had more or less miracles than Elijah. He had more. Remember that? He was a bold man. He's a man that we could all learn from when I think Elijah asked him. I think it was Elijah there right around 2 Kings chapter 2. He said, what do you want? He said, I want a double portion. I want two times God. I want two times what you had. And Elisha did. He had 16 miracles. Elijah had 8 miracles. Elijah had 8. Elisha had 16. And they're all recorded between 2 Kings 2 and 2 Kings 13. And Elisha, outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, and obviously we don't know about the apostles. They did many miracles. I don't know that we could actually count them. In fact, I'm sure we can't. But, and Elisha did 16 miracles. He raised a child from the dead. In 2 Kings chapter 4, he healed Naaman through that little Israelite girl. There in 2 Kings chapter 5, he had an axe head float. In 2 Kings 6, he gave sight to the blind in 2 Kings 6. And he even did a miracle after he was dead because some guy died and touches his bones. And just the fact that this man had touched Elisha's bones, he came to life. You can read about that in 2 Kings chapter 13. And again, dealing in the context of the nation of Israel, but also dealing in a time when, and this kind of goes to my second point a little bit, where God was ushering in the era of the prophets, and how much of the Old Testament was written by a prophet? Think about it. You got Isaiah, Jeremiah, you got Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, all of them, the rest of the Old Testament. I mean, a big part of the Old Testament was written by the prophets. Who else wrote a big part of the Old Testament that we just talked about that did a bunch of miracles? Moses. Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. So God said, you know what? That man's going to write five books of the Bible. I'm going to stamp him with some signs. So there's no question about who he is. And as he's ushering in the time of the prophets, which is a lot of the revelation, a lot of the Old Testament, these men that wrote the scripture, he said, I'm going to stamp my hand on some of these prophets. And you're going to know they're my men, because they're going to do some things. And I got some scripture on that here when it comes to particularly either Elijah or Elisha. And then the last timeframe in the human history where God is doing a lot of miracles is obviously the time of Jesus and the apostles. And there are at least 40 recorded miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know there were many more than that, because over there in John 20, verse 30, it says, now there are many more and many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. And that's what John says. John says, you know, we've given you some miracles that Jesus Christ has done, but there are many more that are not recorded in the book. And the time of Jesus' ministry to the time of the apostles was less than 100 years. Jesus started his earthly ministry, and he was doing all these miracles. And after he passed away, you had the apostles doing miracles, some of the real close associates to the apostles that were doing some miracles. And then by and large, I think I've got that here later in my notes, Miracle stopped. Miracle stopped. And these men that were doing, Paul himself, I'll show you here in a minute, who had the ability to heal people, later in his ministry couldn't do it. He didn't have that ability anymore. And God had given it to him for a time, but it was taken away from him because he was dealing with the Gentiles, no longer with the Jews. So, those are the three time frames in human history where God was using a human agent to do miraculous things. What's my point? Well, they weren't happening all the time. They were not happening all the time. The times that did happen were relatively short periods of time. Forty-two miracles done by, I'm sorry, 24 miracles done by Elijah and Elisha in a relatively short period of time. Now you talk to your modern Pentecostals or charismatic and they just think everyone should get a miracle. They should be happening all the time every day and every Tom, Dick and Harry and I'm a Tom or a Dick or Harry, either one. And you'll see in the scripture that they were not being done by just regular old Joe people. I'm not saying that to minimize people. God uses people how he wants to use them, but they were given to very special men, very unique men. They were given to Moses. They were given to the prophets. They were given to the apostles and the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And in some cases, there's some very close associates to the apostles. But they weren't given to everybody. And I'll show you that when we get to the tongues. Not everybody was speaking in tongues in Acts chapter two. We'll probably get to that next week. It's very clearly unscriptural. And like I said, God is very clearly dealing with the nation of Israel during these times. Now, some people struggle with this idea that when Jesus Christ came, he came to the nation of Israel. And that's, The modern church, somehow you get to Matthew chapter one and they flip the switch and you're in the church age, which is just ridiculous biblically. You cannot have a church age saint until Ephesians two, until the cross, until the breaking down of that partition. Nobody was saved as a believer in Jesus Christ till after the death, burial and resurrection. It's not possible. How can you be in the body of Christ when he hadn't even died yet? We're the body of Christ. And when Jesus Christ came, he was dealing primarily with the nation of Israel. Now he accomplished the greatest thing for us, and that was the death, burial, and resurrection, bar none. He came unto his own, his own received him not. And now we have the chance as Gentiles, we've been grafted in. But when he came initially, he came to the nation of Israel and he came doing miracles. And I just got a few verses on that. Romans 15, verse eight is one, and I've got about five here. I'm not gonna read them all, but it says in Romans 15, eight, now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. Who are the fathers? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The promises given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were largely physical promises about a physical land, about a seed that would come, about a ultimately in the Davidic covenant, a king that would come and rule on a throne. And Jesus came according to that verse to fulfill those promises. Now they wouldn't have him and they rejected their king. And so God cut them off. They said, well, these scumbag Gentiles will take me. I'll go to them. And sure enough, we did. Praise God, praise God. Acts 2.22, give you some other verses on this to show you that when Jesus Christ came initially, he primarily was coming to the nation of Israel as their promised Messiah. Acts 2.22, Peter here is talking and he says, ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs. Who's he talking to, Israel? He's saying, ye men of Israel, Jesus Christ came, your Messiah came, he proved himself that he was the Messiah by miracles and wonders and signs, and ultimately you rejected him. But he came to you, he came to you men of Israel. Matthew 10, I'll just read this one if you want any more, I've got a few others here, but let me just read this other one and I think I've made my point here. But Matthew chapter 10, he is now, Jesus is commissioning his disciples, and he says there in verse one of Matthew 10, and when he had called unto him his 12 disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. Now the names of the 12, and he gives the names of the 12 disciples, and then he says in verse five that these 12 Jesus sent forth and commanded them saying, go not into the way of the Gentiles. And into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, heal the sick, cleanse the leopards, raise the dead, cast out devils, freely you have received, freely give. So when Jesus Christ sends his disciples out here in Matthew 10, imagine that. Don't go tell these Gentiles. Why wouldn't you tell the Gentiles? Because the promises were not for them. The promises of the Messiah were for the nation of Israel. And now the Lord knew they would reject their king, and ultimately Jesus Christ would die and pay the penalty for our sins. And even if he hadn't, even if they would have accepted him, he still would have died and been buried in a rose again, and you would have just, we'd have been missed. We wouldn't be here today. Praise God for those Jews who rejected their Messiah. I mean, seriously, I mean, that sounds bad. I shouldn't rejoice in iniquity of others, but I'm glad they rejected their Messiah, because we got in. And so, God is clearly dealing, Jesus Christ is clearly dealing with the nation of Israel during that last time frame when you have those sign gifts. We read Acts 2.22, ye men of Israel. Acts 2.36, let all the house of Israel know assuredly. Ye men of Israel, Acts 3.12, why marvel ye at this? For Acts 4.8, ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel. God's still dealing with Israel there early in the book of Acts. Very clearly directing. Stephen's preaching to Israel in Acts chapter seven. You read it. And God is still dealing with the nation of Israel. Well, how long? How long did God deal with the nation of Israel? Well, throughout the book of Acts, he's dealing with them, but you get over there to Acts chapter 28. Why don't you go turn there? Acts chapter 28. Acts chapter 28. And here you have the end of the book of Acts, and it says there in Acts 28 verse 23, and when they had appointed him a day, there came, let me start with verse 24, and some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not. And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed. After that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias, the prophet under our father, saying, go unto this people, and saying, hearing you shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing you shall see and not perceive. For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Be it known therefore unto you that the salvation of God is sent, unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. And Acts 28, my people, he says, they're not listening. Their ears are waxed dull, they're waxed gross, they're dull of hearing, their eyes are closed, I'm done. I'm done, and I'm gonna go to the Gentiles. You know the last recorded miracle in the book of Acts is earlier there in Acts chapter 28? When Paul goes on that, he gets over there and that serpent bites him, remember that? and he shakes the serpent off, and they're all expecting him to die, and he doesn't die, and they're like, oh, you must be a god, you know? And they, yeah, they said he was a god. That was the last recorded miracle. Paul, when you get over to his prison epistles, which now you're clearly dealing with the church, the saints that are in Christ Jesus, Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, first and second Timothy, Titus, Philemon, all written about 64 AD, probably 15, 20 years after what we have here in the Book of Acts. You have over there in 1 Timothy 5, 23, Paul tells Timothy to take some wine for his stomach's sake. I mean, why, Paul? Paul could heal people back in the Book of Acts. Why is he telling Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach's sake? You know, I'll pray for you when you're sick, but if your doctor gives you a prescription, I'll say, yeah, you better take that prescription. He's smart for you to do that, you know? And Paul, who had the gift and the signs of an apostle, the stele on Timothy, to take some wine for his stomach. Why would he be doing that if he had the gift of healing? Over there in Philippians chapter two, verses 25 to 30, he talks about Epaphroditus, a fellow laborer with him, says he was sick, nigh unto death. Epaphroditus was. Well, Paul, why don't you just go over there and lay hands on him? You had to get to healing, why didn't you do that? Well, apparently Paul didn't have that anymore. And he couldn't heal Epaphroditus. And over there in 2 Timothy 4, verse 20, he said he left Trophimus at Milenum. And he left him there because he was sick. Paul himself traveled with Luke, a physician. Because that man had been probably so mangled and so abused as a physically, but all the stuff he went through that he physically had a lot of ailments and Luke's with him and my point being as you get into those prison epistles written later into the church age and You don't have this stuff going on. You don't have any recorded miracles and you have the opposite being true and so That is the evidence of the scripture the time frames where those miracles were happening were clearly in the time frame when God was dealing with with the nation of Israel. Let me go on to my next point here. I can cover a little bit of this. I have a point on tongues here. I'm going to cover that with tongues. I'm going to probably talk a little bit separately about tongues, because that's probably one of the most believed. I mean, when you talk about charismatics, everybody speaks in tongues in the charismatic world. And so I'll deal with that separately. But the second thing I told you about the sign gifts is they were given during a time when God's word was being revealed. And they were necessary to authenticate those by whom God was revealing his word. And I talked a little bit about that, Moses and Joshua and the scripture they wrote, Elijah, Elisha, the prophets, Jesus, the time of the apostles, and all the scripture that was written. Moses and Joshua obviously was given during the time of the law. Elijah and Elisha ushered in the era of the prophets. There are 17 books of prophets in the Bible. There's 12 minor prophets and five major prophets. You'll see some miracles that also surrounded Isaiah and Daniel's ministry. You think of a miracle about Daniel. What was the miracle? The fiery furnace, right? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego go into that fiery furnace and they're untouched. It's a miracle. You could say that Daniel and the lions did, and that was a miracle. So there were some miracles even in the times of those prophets, and Isaiah and Daniel saw that. You have probably one of the greatest miracles that surrounded the prophets was not the miracles they did in healing and those kind of things. It was the miracle of this book and the prophecies they gave. Prophecies that regarding the first advent of Jesus Christ that every single one was fulfilled. And oftentimes we think about miracles and we think about healing and all that. Well, this book's a miracle. You know, this book's a miracle. And so these prophets were writing things that they didn't even understand, according to Peter. They didn't totally, fully understand what they were writing, but those things were fulfilled. Those things happened. That's a miracle. Obviously, during the time of Jesus and the apostles, Jesus was the revelation of God himself. The apostles were authenticated because, obviously, they were those who Jesus Christ ministered to, and they wrote pretty much the New Testament, because Paul was also an apostle. He said he was an apostle born out of due time. But he was an apostle. He had the signs of an apostle. And the New Testament was basically written by them. So some of the things about the authentication of the men and some scripture on that. And we'll close with this. But go to 1 Kings chapter 17. Give you some references on how God authenticated these men by the miracles that they did. 1 Kings. chapter 17. See, I'll start in verse 21. This is Elijah, and he stretched himself upon the child three times. This is the woman down there at Zarephath. And he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee let this child's soul come into him again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down out of the chamber into the house and delivered him into his mother. And Elijah said, See thy son liveth. And look what the woman says. And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth. And God put his hand on Elijah and he said, people are going to know you're my man. And he goes and he raises this child back to life. And that woman looks at him and says, yes, sir, you're a man of God. And what you say is true because of what you did, the miracle you did. It's obviously of God. Go over there to 18, 1 Kings 18. Again, showing how that these miracles authenticated these men. And for very obvious reasons who they were the prophecy and the books they wrote etc In this case Elijah and Elijah who ushered in the era of the prophets, but second Kings First Kings I'm sorry 18 verse 36 and this is of course the great battle with the prophets of Baal and it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said Lord God of Abraham Isaac and of Israel Let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel and that I am thy servant and that I have done all these things at thy word. Let everyone know it, Lord. How are we gonna do that, Lord? How are we gonna make everyone know that I am of you and that you're the God in Israel? Hear me, O Lord, hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God and that thou hast turned their back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and looked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, the Lord, he is the God, the Lord, he is the God. And God gave him a miracle and people could see by that that he was a man of God. Elisha, 2nd Kings Chapter 2, 2nd Kings Chapter 2. And Elisha, as I mentioned before, asked for a double portion. And 2nd Kings Chapter 2 verse 14. And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? And when he had also smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither, and Elisha went over. And when the sons of the prophets, which were to view at Jericho, saw him, they said, The Spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they saw that miracle. They saw the parting of the river there. And they said, The Spirit of God rests on Elisha. And it's obvious the hand of God is on this man. In 2nd Kings chapter 5 verse 10, when Naaman is healed, his response, behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. And Naaman, a great story there in 2nd Kings chapter 5 verse 10. Jesus himself was stamped by God as his man, as obviously in this case God incarnate, by the things he did. I already read Acts 2.22, but it says, ye men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs. So God authenticated his own son by the miracles that he did. John 10, 24 and 25, then came the Jews round about him and said unto him, how long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered him, I told you and you believe not. The works that I do in my father's name, they bear witness of me. I'm talking about his miracles. And John chapter three, verse two, this is Nicodemus. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. So God was stamping these men. You'll see that also in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and we'll stop there. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and pushing up on time here and we'll stop here. 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 11 and this is Paul. I am become a fool in glory. I am become a fool in glory and ye have compelled me for I ought to have been commended of you. For nothing am I behind the chiefest, the very chiefest apostles though I be nothing. Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience in signs and wonders and mighty deeds. What was the sign of an apostle? Signs and wonders and mighty deeds. And Paul said, I have that sign, I have that on my own ministry. I have miracles and signs and wonders. And so part of the reason God gave those signs is to manifest and to make evident that these men were indeed his men. for obvious reasons that I've already provided to you. So we'll stop there. Next week, I'll talk a little bit more about some of the sign gifts, particularly tongues. And then I'll probably maybe finish up next week. If not, it'll be the following week. So anybody have any comments or questions?