All right, good evening everybody. We come to session six in understanding and using spiritual gifts. We changed the order around, so tonight we're actually gonna start on what I titled The Case for Cessationism. And it answers, seeks to answer the question, Are the supernatural gifts normative for the church today? The gift of tongues, miracles, healing, prophecy, understood correctly, understood the way it was in the New Testament. New Testament gift of prophecy. I've argued that there is a gift of prophecy, but it's very different than it was in the New Testament. So this is asking about this other kind of prophecy, the New Testament prophecy. So are these gifts normative for the church today? That's the question. So let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask his blessing on our time as we look at this important issue. Father, we thank you for this time to be together. We come praising you, that you are the God of truth, that you have spoken with great clarity and specificity in your word to give us everything that's necessary for life and godliness. We thank you that the Christian life is about faith from beginning to end, trusting in all that Jesus is, all that He has done, and putting all of our hope in His finished work. We thank you for that. the effectuality and power of His work, that He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, that He's also the resurrection and the life, that He who believes in Him will live even if He dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Him will never die. We pray that you would help us to, as we talk tonight about this important area, to have the mind of Christ, to think biblically, to walk through these things in a way that will build us up and make us a blessing to others in our body and others we have opportunity to minister to in other fellowships and just throughout our lives. We pray these things for Jesus' glory in his name, amen. So, the question, are the supernatural gifts normative for the church today? That is the question that the two main schools of thought are continuationism and cessationism, definitions we need to talk about. Continuationists and cessationists. Continuationists basically believe that the spiritual gifts, the supernatural gifts, are normative for the church today. that it continues on, that they continue on, so that miracles, healing, prophecy in the New Testament form and tongues would be normative for the church today, that the church should have these things. And the idea generally is that it's maybe a lack of faith is why there's not more of that in the church. This would be the continuationist position. A lot of wonderful godly people. They're continuationists, people in our own fellowship and church here, but also just that we have great respect for in the body of Christ. One of the outstanding New Testament scholars to me is D.A. Carson, and he's a man who believes, is a continuationist, John Piper. Wayne Grudem, who uses systematic theology in my men's Bible study. So they're wonderful people who have this position, but what we as a church, as elders, our position is not continuationism, but is cessationism. And cessationism is the idea that these supernatural gifts ceased at a point in time. It's not normative for the church today. Now, I like what Tom Schreiner says. Tom Schreiner's another one of the outstanding New Testament scholars who is a cessationist. He calls his position nuanced cessationism. That's that first blank there, nuanced cessationism. And he articulates something that I've believed through the years since I first started studying this in seminary, And that is that though the gifts are not normative for the church, that is not to be expected, not to be basically sought, that God may give these gifts at a particular time in a particular place by, you know, as the gospel goes particularly into new areas. where there's great spiritual power at work, maybe of evil. Sometimes you'll see supernatural miracles of God, even associated in a way that's like spiritual gifts, associated with a person, though maybe not exactly like the New Testament, but something approaching that order. So that's nuanced cessationism. That's the idea that basically it's not normative for the church, that it's not what we should be seeking as believers. We should be praying for the gift of tongues or praying for the gifts of healing or things like that. That's not really built on a good understanding of Scripture, the best understanding of Scripture, in our view. Now, I really am looking for a better term than nuanced cessationism. I haven't found it. I've been wrestling and turning it over my mind recently just thinking somebody needs to come up with a better term on this. We talked about how there's not a lot of stuff on spiritual gifts out there anyway, especially from a Reformed perspective. I think what's happened is we've reacted against the extremes on the other side and just said, well, we're not going to talk about that as much. We're not going to talk about the Holy Spirit as much or about the gifts of the Spirit as much. And so we kind of left that area not investigated enough like we need to. And even in this debate of continuationism, cessationism, I feel like that Our terminology doesn't do justice to the scriptures. Because I don't think it's really that the gifts or the supernatural miracles have ceased. I think they've become better. That's what I've tried to argue and some of the stuff I've preached on Sunday mornings is that I did this when I talked about Acts, John 14, 12, when I was preaching that message on Acts 2. And Peter, remember saying that you saw these things, God attested to you who Jesus is, and you killed him? And I made the application that in reality, people that are around the church have seen God attest to who Jesus is in spiritual miracles that are even greater. If you've seen someone's life changed to being born again, you saw something that was greater than the miracles Jesus did in his earthly ministry. That's what he says in John 14, 12, the one who believes in me will do greater things than these. It's because it's of the new order with the Holy Spirit. So, we've entered into a greater experience of all that God has for us. So, like, cessationist sounds like we're done with it. What I would say is we've gone to something better. I just want to try to come up with a better term. Like, you know, not cessationist, but... Graduationists, that's terrible. But the idea is we graduated to something better, right? I don't think that's gonna catch on. You don't have to worry about that, graduations. Anyway, okay, so is there a better term? To answer this question, the question is, are the supernatural gifts normative for the church today? I think we need to enlarge our frame of reference. Enlarge our frame of reference. I think that too often this debate, when you read the different brothers talking about it, there's a lot of really helpful stuff out there. I think one of the things that can help us is to step back and look at the whole big picture of Scripture and make sure we're interpreting the individual passages in light of the whole. We need to step back and do that. And I think there's two areas that this is really helpful in. And one is, and I want you to think about this with me. So we're looking at the issue of continuationism versus cessationism. Yes, we're looking at that. But let's step back from it and think about what is God's desire for your life? What marks real spiritual maturity for a Christian. And what I'm gonna suggest to you is that the apex of spiritual maturity is greater and greater faith, okay? Now, what is faith? Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, Hebrews 11.1. Faith is rooted in the promise of God. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of Christ. Faith takes God at his word against what he sees and believes the word of God. In fact, if you think about this, one great example of this is Romans chapter four, Abraham, and what I'm trying to say is, look at who God commends as the ones we should follow their example, okay? In Abraham's life, he experienced God working in wonderful ways, but he is pictured to us as the great example of faith. Paul turns to him in Romans 4 as he's explaining justification by faith, and he talks about Abraham's faith, particularly in, well, verse 16, we'll start there. For it is this reason, this reason is by faith in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, the father of many nations have made you. So Abraham's our father. He's the father of everyone who believes. And to follow in his steps is to walk by faith. And look what it says about him after you move through verse 17. In the presence of him whom he believed, verse 17, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist, in hope against hope he believed so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken to him, so shall your descendants be. Abraham was a great man of faith because Abraham believed the promise of God against what he saw. He believed that God was going to make his descendants like the stars, like the sand, because God said that. Even though the Lord tarried and waited, and he got older and older and older, and Sarah has gone through menopause, she's barren, there's no way we can have kids naturally. So it did take a miracle, but what was beautiful about God, about Abraham was he believed God without any empirical evidence to look at. He just believed the promise of God. And that's what God is looking for, that kind of faith. He goes on in verse 19, without becoming weak in faith, look how he's looking at things as they are. He contemplated his own body now as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God. How did he grow strong in faith? What did he look at? The promise of God. He kept looking at the promise of God. Not what he saw, but the promise of God. The word of God. You see that? The word produced faith, and that's what God said, that's how you live. Now what I'm gonna basically, my argument is, that miracles, supernatural wonders were given to authenticate the Word as an initial confirmation that someone's speaking from God. And what God then wants from His people is to no longer need the signs, but believe the Word. Okay? And I think that's a big picture look at the whole purpose of miracles and the goal that God has for his people. Now, if you understand that, then it starts to make sense of the biblical data about the way miracles happen in the scriptures. And I think that's the best case, one of the best arguments you can make for cessationism. that continuationism is wanting to go back to putting training wheels on your bike of faith. I don't need training wheels. I've learned to ride my bike of faith. I've learned to trust the Word of God, you see? So that's kind of the big picture of where we're going. I wanted to say that up front because it's easy to me to get lost in it as I get into the details. Jonathan? I'm curious, does anyone have an idea of what point in time the gifts ceded or were? Yeah, that's a good question. We would say by the time the apostles died, the supernatural gifts were no longer there. And basically, both sides would pretty much agree that the character of miracles is very different today. Those who would still say that they exist, They would have, like say for instance, this is another point I'm gonna go ahead and deal with right now, because that's a good question. So the gift of healing, the gift of miracles. If you go to continuations churches today, and you talk about these gifts, the gifts that they point to are lesser in splendor than the New Testament. Okay? What I'm saying is they don't claim to have people that were really lame and then they just got up and started walking or they were blind and they see. They'll tell you something about a guy who had back aches and now he's better. And somebody has the gift of praying for people with, you know, they prayed for a person with a backache and they stopped having pain. They prayed for a person who, you know, it's less sensational today. And so you're like, well, why is that? Because Jesus said we're gonna do greater works, not lesser works. You see, because they're still holding on to the physical miracles, and I think it's not consistent. And we would say throughout church history, they can't point to a time where there's been an explosion of miracles like there was under the apostles, Jesus and the apostles. Just hasn't happened again. And the question is why? So that's an argument from church history. So thanks for that helpful point. I hope that helps a little bit in answering that. And we'll kind of get back on track with the basic argument here. So I mentioned the relationship of physical and spiritual miracles, right? That's the second point there. Two key issues to provide context, connection between miracles and faith. I didn't give that to you, did I? That's miracles and faith. And the second is relationship of physical miracles and spiritual miracles. I think those are two big issues in the scriptures that once you understand them, really help you to see this issue in the full light of scripture. I've been talking about miracles in faith here, because that's what I'm gonna talk about today. And Lord willing, I'd like to talk about physical miracles and spiritual miracles a little more next time. In fact, next Wednesday, the plan is to do Wednesday night. I'm going to be in Louisville for graduation. I've got to be there for practice Thursday morning. So we've got to drive up Wednesday. So we're going to do, we're going to try to do a Zoom class. So I'll be on the screen, hopefully, Lord willing, pray for that. And we'll be doing that. So we'll be doing next week's that way. Anyway, I've done a little bit of teaching on zoom. Otherwise, hopefully it'll work out okay. But we'll see. Let him who thinks he stand right. So Yeah, yeah, actually I've been doing it with his students. I've taught some in South Africa on Zoom, and so he's more experienced with it. So yeah, he'll be there, that's actually a good point. But still, we won't count our chickens. All right, so now tonight, the connection between miracles and faith. So let's look at the purpose of miracles. The first time you really see miracles done in a way associated with a person, and you see miracles, of course, the miracle of Abraham's and Isaac having, I mean, Isaac being born to Abraham's a miracle, of course. And there are other miracles in Genesis, number of other miracles. But the first time you see miracles associated with a person like a miracle worker, And this is one of the things that you're gonna see about Moses and Joshua and then other times that Jesus and the apostles, where miracles are associated with people in a way, that they're doing the miracles. I mean, God's doing them through them, of course, but he's using a human instrument in a very clear way. The human instrument is the vehicle through which miracles are being done by the Lord, okay? Well, in Exodus chapter four, this is right after, this is still when Moses is talking to the Lord at the burning bush. Chapter three, he's told him, I'm sending you to my people in Egypt to get them out of bondage, and I'm gonna take them into the land of Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey, and I'm going to fulfill my promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Tells him, my name is I Am Who I Am. And in chapter four, verse one, This is after the Lord has told him, I'm going to deliver them out of Egypt. They're going to go out of Egypt with plunder. And Moses says in chapter four, verse one, then Moses said, what if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? The word believe is a key word here. It occurs five times in these nine verses, the word believe. What if they will not believe me? or listen to what I say. For they may say, the Lord has not appeared to you. I mean, go down there and tell them the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob appeared to me and said, he's going to deliver you from Egypt. And Moses is asking a very reasonable question. Who am I? Why are they going to believe me? What if they say the Lord hasn't appeared to you? The Lord said to him in verse two, what is that in your hand? And he said, a staff. I love how the Lord asks questions like that. What is that in your hand? Like the Lord didn't know what a staff, I mean, of course he does. But here in Moses, no, you look at, I'm looking at a staff, throw it on the ground, turns into a snake. Now stretch out your hand and grasp by its tail. So he stretched out his hand and caught it and it became a staff in his hand, that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has appeared to you. That's why that happened. So they may believe that you speak for me. Verse six, the Lord furthermore said to him, now put your hand into your bosom. So he put his hand into his bosom. And when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. Then he said, put your hand into your bosom again. So he put his hand into his bosom again. And when he took it out of his bosom, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. Verse eight, if they will not believe you or heed the witness of the first sign, they may believe the witness of the last sign. But if they will not believe even these two signs or heed what you say, then you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it out on the dry ground. And the water which you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground. Three miracles so that they may believe that the Lord has appeared to you. Okay, so Moses, we find out later in Deuteronomy, he has the office of prophet. Deuteronomy 18 and 13, he talks about how you recognize true prophets. And he says in chapter 18, I think verse 15, the Lord will raise up for you from among your countrymen a prophet like me. He's about to die, I want you to know how to know when God speaks to you, he's gonna raise up a prophet like me. Moses is God's prophet. He is the one who has the words of God. This is what, as the Old Testament unfolds, the prophet, we talked about this when we talked about the word, the gift of prophecy. Nabi is the Hebrew word, which means spokesman. It means a mouthpiece for God. And so the prophet has the words of God. And so what we see here is the Lord is authenticating his prophet with signs. You claim to speak for God, you gotta have some way of demonstrating that you speak for God. How will the people know? Gives them three signs. Okay, so, and it's all about so they may believe. Now, I want you to see this, this is so consistent. In chapter 11 of Matthew, this is where John the Baptist is wavering. Matthew 11, two. Now when John while imprisoned, John's been in prison now, when John while in prison heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, are you the expected one or shall we look for someone else? Jesus answered and said to them, the disciples that have come from John, Go and report to John what you hear and see. The blind receive 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 to them. He quotes two verses from Isaiah 35, five and 61, one or two. And he says, look, look at the signs. The things that God said would happen when the Messiah came are happening. I am the one from God. I am the expected one. I am, as John's gospel says, the Word. I am the one who speaks for God. And it's confirmed in these miracles. So, the idea is the miracles confirm the word they confirm the prophet they confirm the office they confirm the word the same argument is really clear in the gospel of john the whole gospel is is organized around a key word and the word is signs you have in john 2 verse 11 this first time this word appears when jesus turns the water into wine does his first miracle well it doesn't use the word miracle to describe it it was a miracle but it we read in verse 11 this beginning of his signs jesus did in cana of galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him john is making the argument that jesus his signs are what proved who he was. In fact, the word used in the Greek means a distinguishing mark, a authenticating, certifying mark that verifies someone's identity. And so these miracles are certifying and authenticating that Jesus is the one from God. And John basically, how did he begin his gospel? In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, the Word was God. The Word, the Word. He is the one who revealed, and remember John 1, 14 to 18. He says, the Word became flesh, dwelt among us, we beheld His glory. Verse 18, no one has seen God at any time, but the only begotten who is in the bosom of the Father. He has made Him known. So the invisible God was made known through His Word. Jesus comes telling us who God is. Jesus is the one. His signs prove it. So the reason the miracles were there was to do that, to authenticate that. And you see it, John 3, 2, Nicodemus says, we know you couldn't do these signs unless God was with him. Chapter 4, 54, the second sign he does. Chapter 6, 2, when he feeds the 5,000, they saw the sign, or they were coming because of the signs, and then when they see this sign, verse 14, Therefore, when the people saw the sign which he had performed, they said, this is truly the prophet who is to come into the world. The sign authenticates he's the prophet. John 6, 14, the prophet Moses was talking about. Not the many prophets, but the final word from God. And then John 10, 37 and 38, we could spend a lot of time in John's gospel. I just want to show you this one other passage tonight. the Jews aren't believing in him. And so he says to them, if I do not do the works of my father, do not believe me. But if I do them, Though you do not believe me, believe the works so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father. So believe the works, they authenticate who I am. So that's the purpose of miracles. And that's the purpose of the, and John has basically organized his book around seven main signs that Jesus does. He did many, he did so many of these that we couldn't even fill up, we couldn't even describe all that Jesus did, but, These have been written so that you may know that he is the Christ, the son of the living God, and believing you may have life in his name. So the purpose of miracles is to authenticate the prophet as the one who speaks for God. That's the purpose. Now, what we see as we look at the rest of scripture, let me see how I, yeah, okay. Oh, Matthew 17, five, okay. Another example, the man of transfiguration, Remember, they see Jesus transfigured before them. Peter and James and John wake up. They see Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. Why Moses? Why Elijah? Yeah? Yeah, that's right. The law and the prophets. Moses and Elijah with Jesus. And Peter says, let's make three tabernacles. It's good for us to be here. He's scared to death. He knows they're going to die because he sees Jesus' glory. And he says, I'll make three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah. And he hears a voice out of heaven. This is my son whom I love. What does God say after that? Well, you know, whom I will please, but then listen to him. Listen to him. What you have seen authenticates him. He is the one. You see his glory shining out. He's not saying don't listen to Moses and Elijah. They were pointing to him, but he's saying now the final word is here. So even the transfiguration was an authentication that Jesus is God's ultimate prophet. He is the word. So that's the purpose of miracles, was always to authenticate the word. And like I said, you also had this parallel development happening where it's all about faith. It's all about trusting God, even when you don't see things on the, you know, confirmed in the outer evidence of your life. Now, let me show you the limitation of miracles. This helps a little bit too. John 12, 37. This is where John, just turn over to chapter 12, verse 37. And you hear this amazing indictment of the Jews, but though he had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in him. So the signs actually encourage you to listen to the prophet, but the signs never were intended to save. The word is intended to save. Seeing a miracle never saved anybody. is believing the testimony about Jesus that saves. The miracles confirmed the testimony about Jesus and the testimony about Jesus saves. And so, and there's a limitation, miracles just don't do it. In fact, John 16, I got Luke 16, 19 to 31, that's the story of the rich man and Lazarus. When Jesus tells that story, right about the rich man Lazarus, Lazarus, the poor man, the rich man who he is outside his gates, the rich man never notices him, never cares about him. Lazarus is so poor and in such bad shape, dogs lick his sores, he never gets anything. But then in the next life, he's in Abraham's bosom. The rich man is in torment. And the rich man seeing Lazarus in Abraham's bosom cries out, Father Abraham, would you please have Lazarus go to my brothers and tell them about this torment? And what does he say? If they do not believe the law and the prophets, think about this. If they do not believe the law and the prophets, neither will they believe if a man rises from the dead. You see, the supremacy of the Word. It is the Word of God, not the miracle or the sign. And so the miracle and the sign testifies to the Word, but you must believe the Word of God. That's the way salvation happens. And so you go on beyond that to, well, Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing, hear by the Word of Christ. It's faith comes through the Word of Christ, not through miracles. Miracles just basically call your attention that, I need to listen. And now hearing the word saves. You were born again, how? By the living and abiding word of God. Imperishable seed of the word, not of a miracle, but of the word. So, and this is another example, Moses and the people of Israel in Numbers 13 and 14. Think about that. How many miracles did the people of Israel see before they came to the promised land in Numbers 13? I mean, they first of all had Moses come and say, hey, God's gonna do what he's gonna do. We don't believe you. He threw down the staff. He did all of the miracles and signs. They saw that. Okay. Then things got worse for them. They quit believing. They're like, remember the Pharaoh basically turns the screws up on them. And they're like, Moses, why did you come to do this to us? And God then delivers them with those mighty miracles, 10 plagues, the final plague being the plague of the firstborn, but all those amazing miracles that happened. I mean, where basically, you know, the land goes dark in one of the plagues, and yet in the land of Goshen where they are, there is no darkness. The land has frogs over here. In the land of Goshen, there's no frogs. There's flies over here. In the land of Goshen, there's no flies. One after another, after another, they see the power of God. Then they go out of the land, out of the land of Egypt, plundering it, just like God said. And God had also told them though through Moses, what was Moses' message? It was to say the word of God. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has sent me to deliver you from the land of Egypt and to take you, not just deliver you from the land of Egypt, take you in the desert, deliver you from the land of Egypt and take you into the land of Canaan, a land full of milk and honey, which the Lord is going to give you. That's the word of promise. That's what he said. He told Abraham it was his land. Isaac, it's his land. Jacob, it's his land. And God's going to give it to this generation. He's going to give it to you. That's the word of promise. They had all those signs confirming it. They had not only that, they had the Red Sea. The whole Egyptian army killed. They had manna from heaven, water from the rock. All of these incredible miracles, but when it came to the border of Canaan, God could have done some more amazing miracles right before. Hey, you guys are probably struggling a little bit with unbelief. Let me just show you how powerful I am. And he could have zapped some things. Just think about that. He could have. But what did the Lord do at the border of Canaan? He said, Moses, why don't you send some spies in to spy out the land? It was God's idea, not Moses. And why would God do that? God wanted them to see how impossible it was for them to take the land. Yeah, there were some, apparently some giants. I mean, they overestimated how big the giants were. And they overestimated how tall the walls were. Remember 10 spies come back and give a bad report, two spies. And what's the basis of the two spies? Joshua and Caleb's confidence, the promise of God. So all of those signs, did not bring about saving faith for the nation. It wasn't enough. In fact, Exodus chapter, I mean, not Exodus, Hebrews chapter three, the author of Hebrews talks about this. And he says, he says, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried me by testing me for 40 years and saw my works for 40 years. They tried me by testing me. They would not believe me, my promise. And so they saw my works for 40 more years and died in the wilderness." So what he's saying in that chapter, he's exhorting the Hebrews to faith. So what the whole book's about, keep trusting the promise of God against what you're seeing in your life, because they were going through terrible ordeals as Jewish believers in Jesus in the first century. Don't look at what you see, look at the promise of God, look at the glory of Christ, trust in the promise of God, believe. Don't be like your forefathers who saw all those miracles and didn't believe. Many of those people he's writing to were also aware, maybe some of them had seen the miracles that Jesus even did, like were preached about in Acts 2. You saw these things, God attested all these signs you saw. But don't stop believing the word, it's the promise, it's the word. And faith is the key. And so the limitation of miracles, miracles cannot bring salvation, they can't bring faith. Faith comes by the word of God. And that comes to the third point, which I've already kind of led into this, the God-exalting character of faith. And the book of Hebrews makes this so beautiful. In fact, turn to Hebrews 11. I quoted verse one a little while ago, but Hebrews 11, six is also a really important verse. And without faith, it is impossible to please him that is God. Without faith, it is impossible to please him for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of those who seek him. And then he starts into a catalog of great heroes of the faith. By faith, Noah being warned, verse seven. Verse eight, look at that. By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed. Verse nine, by faith, he lived as an alien in land of promise. Verse 11, by faith, even Sarah herself received ability to conceive. Verse 13, all these died in faith without receiving the promises. but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance and having confessed they were strangers and exiles on the earth. He said, they didn't receive, they never got the physical end of Canaan, but they started looking at the invisible world. They started understanding, wait a minute, Canaan's a type, I wanna dwell in heaven. And this is what God loves us. This is verse 13. All these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth, For those who say such things, make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And if indeed they had gone out, had they been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them." You see, God loves faith. This is what He's calling us to, a life of faith. Faith holds onto the bare promise of God and believes against hope even. Okay, so understanding that pattern and that, okay, so then 2 Corinthians 5, 7, we walk by faith, not by sight. That's what we're supposed to do. We walk by faith, not by sight. Not what we see, what we see of God's word. We see the unseen. 4.16 says that our outer man's wasting away, our inner man's being renewed. For we see the things which are eternal. They're the things that last, the things that are temporal. No, we're not looking at those. We're looking at the things which are eternal. So faith looks at the eternal and seeks the eternal because it believes the promise of God and the promise of God is about the eternal, not merely the natural. So you see how this movement of scripture kind of then frames how we look at the issue of miracles. Now, with that in mind, now think about the biblical data. Number four, the scriptural pattern of miracles. I really think this is unassailable, even though you gotta be careful to look at it really clearly, because at first glance you can be unsettled, but basically I think it's really clear once you really look deep into it. Three distinct, the blank there, oh I'm sorry, the Hall of Fame is the Hall of Faith. Spiritual Hall of Fame is the Hall of Faith. I always forget. Now we got a visitor back there. Sorry, McKay, I didn't mean to embarrass you. But it's great seeing you. Awesome. Awesome. The Hall of Fame is the Hall of Faith. And so now, number four, the scriptural pattern of miracles. There are three distinct seasons of miracles. The miracles happen throughout the Bible, yes. But even notwithstanding that reality, it is clearly observable to see three distinct seasons of extraordinary miracles. And I think if you read your Bible carefully and you look at all of them, you'll agree with this. First of all, there's the first distinct season of miracles is Moses and Joshua. and the years basically 1445 to 1380 BC. Now you think about it, you read through the book of Genesis in your mind right now, okay? After man is created, obviously the greatest miracle of creation out of nothing happens, but after man is created, God's dealing with man. You don't see supernatural wonders in Adam, Seth, you know, the only thing we have really in the early book is that in early sections of Genesis is the Enoch walked with God and he was no more, okay? Then you have the miracle of the flood, certainly an incredible miracle. Miracle of the flood, but it was a miracle of judgment and deliverance. And even that, think about that though. Look at the quality of that miracle. Moses built the boat for a hundred years. God could have just delivered him supernaturally through it without a boat. Oh, thank you. No, you're right. I always mix those guys up, that oh sound. It would be a miracle if Moses was there too. I'm not saying that. Noah was building that boat for a hundred years. God did it through a natural means and this is what you will see most of the miracles in scripture basically are more sort of natural things happening supernatural things happening in not obviously wondrous ways but ways that cause you to step back and say God did it it is it is miraculous but it's not the same as killing every firstborn male in Egypt in one night. You see what I'm saying? Or parting the Red Sea. You see how that is a wonder that happens. Nobody can deny it. Everyone sees it. It's all inspiring. And it's also associated with an individual. Moses says, listen, if you don't let them go, this is going to happen. And it happens. And then Moses says, okay, I'm going to ask the Lord to take away the frogs because, you know, Pharaoh would say, please, take this plague away. And I'll let him go. Okay, I'm going to do it. And Moses would do it. It's all associated with Moses. Then Joshua, to a lesser extent, the same way. Yeah. That's why he's in the hall of fame of faith too. That's right. I mean, he took God's promise and he, yeah, never rained before. He's not close to water. He's not like he's building a boat by the ocean. What's this guy doing? Yeah. And that glorified God mightily. He believed the promise of God. And therefore he saved him and his three sons and his wife and three daughters along. Absolutely, that's a great point. Yeah, I mean, all the mockery that he had continually from his neighbors, probably even family members. I mean, who knows? Everybody's like, what are you doing? You're making a fool of yourself, right? Yeah, it took great faith. He believed the promise of God over what he saw around him. Nobody else is concerned about it. Why am I doing this? He believed the promise of God. So, now Moses and Joshua, so you have all those amazing miracles, like I said, you know, water from a rock, Moses hits the rock, water. He says, the Lord's gonna give you meat tomorrow, and they have quail, you know, come in like crazy. His whole, in fact, the Amalekites, he holds his arms up, they win. He said, so personally associated with his action. The same thing with Joshua to a lesser extent, but still, Joshua says, let's do this seven times, and the wall's going to fall down, blow the trumpet, they do. So there's some sense of that with Joshua, but it's beginning to diminish. Okay, why is that? Is it they didn't have, well, we know they didn't have faith, but they didn't have faith when he's doing all the miracles in the first place. So it wasn't only a function of their faith, it was just what God was doing. Yeah? They were a help to faith. They were a help to get them to listen to the Word. Yeah, yeah, any crazy person could do that. That's right. Good point. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and that's exactly right. Moses had the sense to ask for it, and the Lord obviously wanted him to, and He was going to confirm that and show this is the pattern, that miracles will confirm the Word. And that's what I would get at. Why did they end with Joshua I think it was authenticating Moses and Joshua as the ones bringing them in the land, but particularly Moses gives the law. He's the first one to give the written word of God. So that's why he's the first season of miracles. Now, think about it. You have miracles that happen through judges, but again, they're more natural. Think about Gideon. Okay, well, that's pretty impressive. 300 men, he beats the Midianites. But it wasn't like they all got wiped out. Remember what happens? They use the torches inside the jars, they break the jars, they shout, and then they all kill each other. in the melee that happens. So the Lord is doing a miracle, but it's not quite the same as washing them away in the Red Sea. You see what I'm saying? And it's not quite... Gideon does some things like that. He is used by the Lord, and the judges are. Samson is. But it's not the same as what Moses did. And they're more spread out. Like this was over a 65-year period, 1445 to 1380, that's Joshua death, basically. 1445 is when the Exodus happened. A conservative view of that, when that happened. And anyway, so you go through, think about David, Solomon, Saul, Samuel. You have miraculous things happening, but not of the same character. You know, think about David. I mean, they win battles, but with mighty men who are skilled in battle. And he kills Goliath, which is pretty amazing, but he takes a sling and he kills him. It's not like he says, die, and the Lord sends out lightning and strikes him dead. But when it comes to Elijah and Elisha, you start to see something extraordinary. Elijah, depending on the way you list the miracles, and you read through the first and second Kings, either 14, 15, or 16 miracles he does. I tend to say 14, because sometimes people break a miracle up into like, I think it's really 1A and 1B instead of one and two, you know what I'm saying? So I would say 14. And then Elisha asked for a double portion of blessing. And then when you read through Elisha, he basically works 28 miracles. They both raised somebody from the dead. They both have a situation where food is supplied in an ongoing way in the midst of famine at their word. They both, you know, call down judgment upon people. Remember, Elijah calls down fire three different times, or is it four? You know, once at Mount Carmel, and then at the end of his life, when the king sends people out to arrest him, he calls down fire and kills all the, you know, 50 guys, boom. And then another guy comes out and he's like, Elijah, I'm coming to get you. And then third guy comes out, Elijah, listen, hey, I don't, I'm just here because the king sent me, please don't kill me. Will you come with me? Okay, so that's what happens. But I mean, that's different. than what David did, isn't it? And then Elisha, the same kind of thing. I mean, like I said, Elisha's last miracle, you know what his last miracle was? He's dead and been buried, but he wasn't quite buried yet. They just put him in the grave, and somebody throws another dead body in on his dead body, and that dead body comes back to life and gets out of the grave. That's a personal wonder kind of miracle. And that's what I'm saying. Moses, Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, the miracles have a personal character and a wondrous element that's not there in the other Old Testament miracles. I mean, there's a couple of them that might approximate it, but again, not just the nature, but the quantity. You see what I'm saying? And you ask, why is that? Why is it that there are so many concentrated like that? Well, so you have Moses, and I think that's authenticating. Okay, because they had that. Now you skip over Elijah and Elisha. That's in the middle of Kings. The book, in fact, it's interesting. The book itself, I think the main character in the book of Kings is not a king, even though Solomon's a very key character, and the kings are a key character. The main character, is the Word of God. And Elijah and Elisha take up more of the book than Solomon does. And the man of God in 1 Kings 12, if you read 1 and 2 Kings, you'll see that the main character is the Word of God. God's Word is on display. And there again, Elijah and Elisha and the miracles, what are they there for? Now they also, their ministries were from 860 to 795 BC, 65 years. and they precede immediately all of the writing prophets. Jonah, Hosea, Isaiah, all of the 16 prophets we have in our Bible, the four major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and then the minor, 12 minor prophets, they all come after the ministry of Elijah and Elisha. So I think it is God authenticating, here's now the prophets. And remember at the transfiguration, Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. That is a powerful testimony. Now think about it. So now they've died. and you go into the rest of 2 Kings, and some things happen. I mean, God does a miracle and kills 185,000 Assyrians and Hezekiah's king. There are definitely things that happen that are amazing. But again, it's not associated though, it's not that one man is doing miracles the same way. God is doing miracles, but he's doing them in a less personal and less wondrous way in general. Okay, so now we go to Ezra and Nehemiah, which we worked through for a couple years. Are there any miracles in Ezra and Nehemiah? Yeah, there's a miracle. They built the wall in 52 days. That's a miracle. But it wasn't like they said, poof, build a wall. They got rocks, and they got mortar, and they put the wall together. You see what I'm saying? It was a different kind of miracle. And that's really what you see throughout the rest of the Old Testament. It's a different quality of miracle. You don't see anything like that even in John the Baptist. When do you see that? You see that with Jesus. And Jesus comes on the scene, and we looked at this when we looked at Acts 2. I showed you how Matthew 4, 23 talks about that Jesus went throughout Galilee, and He was healing every kind of disease, casting out demons. Everywhere He went, the crowds were coming to Him, and He was healing and healing and healing and healing. And so he was demonstrating, and just as we saw when John the Baptist was struggling, because he's in prison, he's like, hey, I thought the kingdom was coming. He doesn't understand the true nature of the kingdom, even John the Baptist doesn't. And he's wavering in unbelief, and Jesus says, look, the signs of the Messiah are here. He doesn't, and then he, of course, commands him afterwards, but he says, you go and tell him what you see, and tell him not to stumble at me. And then he turns to the crowd and says, listen, I want to tell you, John the Baptist is the greatest that's ever been in this era. No one greater born among women. Then he says this, yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. You see, because a new era is coming. The power of the Holy Spirit is coming. It's greater to be on this side of Pentecost than it was to be on that side by far. So the miracles then, and so Jesus does them, and I would even encourage you to do this. If you walk through the Gospels, you will see that there is a diminishing of miracles as you go through the Gospels. There are all these miracles up front, and he still does miracles. He does some impressive miracles. One of the most impressive is right before he's crucified, the resurrection of Lazarus. But he is withdrawing from the crowds, because they are asking him for signs. And this is another key verse. I think I got it listed here. No, I don't. I can't remember the verse. It's Matthew 16, something, I think. A wicked and perverse generation, 14. A wicked and perverse generation asks for a sign. I think it's actually chapter 14. It's like one to four. that that's too important not to is it 14 or 16 16 16 4 okay so Matthew 16 1 to 4 the Pharisees and Sadducees came up in testing Jesus they asked him to show them a sign from heaven But he replied to them, when it is evening, you say it'll be fair weather for the sky is red. In the morning, there will be a storm today, but the sky is red, for the sky is red and threatening. Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign and a sign will not be given it except the sign of Jonah. He's basically saying, I'm through giving signs. I've given you enough signs and you aren't believing. Are you going to believe if a man rises from the dead, you see? The signs have been given to authenticate me already. You need my word. So you put all that together, and now you see Jesus and the apostles, and the apostles do miracles, and I think the same thing happens. This is why you have the supernatural gifts talked about in one book, 1 Corinthians, and possibly a little bit in 1 Thessalonians when talking about testing of the prophets. So those two are earlier epistles, and as time goes on, there's less and less talk of that because the signs are no longer necessary. So the uniqueness of these miracles over against other miracles, I've already explained that, personal and wondrous. They were associated with Jesus, associated with Peter, associated with Paul, associated with the apostles, and they were wonders, just like Elijah and Elisha, Moses and Joshua. So the application to the question, are they normative? would we expect to need ongoing miraculous signs? You see how that kind of frames the question, doesn't it? I mean, why would we need them? Yes, right. His preaching, just the preaching of The Word brought about great repentance. That's right. And that really is, God uses His Word. It's not the sensational stuff. And you think about it, what appeals to the flesh? The sensational stuff. This is just an attempt to kind of give you an overview of this particular side of the issue. I want to talk next time, Lord willing, about the nature of miracles. And that's where I think we see that because spiritual miracles are greater than physical miracles, and we understand that, again, it frames this discussion in a really helpful way. that if this is the way the whole Bible is calling us to live by faith and not by sight, and the whole Bible is calling us to live not for this present world, but the world to come, not for this present physical body to be renewed, it's gonna have to waste away. You see, we're looking to that which is coming. We'll talk about that next time. So we've only got about 12 minutes left. I'm gonna close us in prayer and then we'll have 10 or 11 minutes small group time. There's some questions in the back. Right there, yeah, Thomas has got them. So we'll break up, let's pray. Father, thank you for this time. We pray that you would help us continue to apply our hearts to wisdom. May use our time together in small group now. Help us encourage one another to think through these things and to submit to your word, but to work through it. in love and in humility as we work through these issues. In Jesus' name, amen.