Now please to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. For some weeks we have been studying the epistle to the Galatians, and we're now at chapter 3. Then follow, if you will, from verses 1 through 5 as I read. Galatians 3, beginning at verse 1. O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you. Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? And our attention this evening is going to be given to verse 5. He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith." Now, in our study of Galatians, we've come to Paul's defense of his own doctrine. His doctrine was that men gain eternal life only by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Since he had taught in Galatia, other teachers came and taught that men had to obey the law to gain eternal life as well as believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul begins his defense here in chapter 3 of his doctrine with a series of questions. Questions that are calculated to humble any Christian who has gone astray in this doctrine as to how God can receive and accept the persons of sinful men. In the first verse he asks questions that intimate that they were very foolish, that they were deceived, that someone had pulled the wool over their eyes in turning them away from what Paul preached to a new doctrine. Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Who has you under their charm, that you should not obey the truth? the truth that we preach to you, of Jesus Christ as the only object of your faith and the only hope of your salvation. Then in verses 2 to 4, Paul asks a series of questions that appeals to the evidence of their own experience. How is it that you received the Holy Spirit in the first place, you who are Christians? How did the Holy Spirit come into your heart? By your keeping the law? Obviously not. By the hearing of faith? Yes, by the hearing of faith. And now in verse 5, Paul, in the same interrogating style, turns attention to signs or to miracles. He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you, does he do that by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? There have been certain men in Galatia, Paul is saying, certain men in the region of Galatia who ministered the Holy Spirit to the Church. By that he is referring to the fact, as we read in Acts chapter 8, that there were certain men who laid their hands upon the heads of other men, and those men received unusual gifts of the Holy Ghost, the ability themselves to prophesy and to perform miracles. And those who ministered the Holy Ghost also themselves did miracles. And Paul was saying in this place, how did these people do such wonderful things? What doctrine attended those who performed miracles in your very presence? And as Paul asked these questions, the church would remember that Paul himself had probably been the greatest miracle worker in their midst. And Paul is the one in the regions of Galatia who would lay his hands on other men and they would receive miraculous gifts. Obviously receiving a special portion of the Holy Ghost to do wonderful things in the region of Galatia. And Paul is asking, what doctrine was attached to these signs of the power of God? What doctrine do these men teach who came with such evident power of the Holy Ghost? What did they teach you? Did they urge on you works of the law as a way to salvation? The Gentiles in Galatia would have to say no, they didn't do that. Did they preach salvation by the hearing of faith? Yes, that was the heart of their doctrine. That men are saved by trusting in Jesus Christ and by no other way. That's what the men taught, who came with such marvels of the Holy Spirit attending them. Now here, in these questions, I think Paul is really poking fun at the new teachers who had come to Galatia. I think Paul almost casts a glance to the side at those whom he had condemned in the early chapters of the Epistle, because you can almost hear the thought ringing through these questions to the men who were now new teachers in Galatia. You new teachers have told the people at Galatia that I, Paul, am a minor officer in the Church of Jesus Christ. But you have set yourselves up as the new wave of teachers. You came out from Jerusalem, you're more important teachers than I am, that's what you said. And you've come to the people of Galatia with a new doctrine. You say that you came from Peter and James. Well, Paul is implying in this place I have done great miracles and I have imparted the Spirit to men by the laying on of my hands." Well, you new teachers, where are the miracles that you're doing? Well, is there any sign that God is really behind what you're teaching? Then have you ever laid hands upon men and they have received the obvious gifts of the Holy Ghost? You've come with a new doctrine, where is the new measure of spirit to attend that new doctrine?" And there would have to be silence, there was none. And so too this was a rebuke to the Galatians. Paul is saying, look, when we came with our gospel we were miracles in Galatia. God attested to the fact that we had come from heaven, not from hell. We had come from heaven with a new truth. We are the very prophets of God telling you to believe in Jesus Christ. Attended with miracles and signs and wonders. Why then did you leave our teaching for the paltry theory of ligoliths who never did any wonder in your midst? Why did you leave us miracle workers to turn unto them? And so he is contrasting here the doctrine of one group with the doctrine of the other group by the miracles which the one group were, and with the miracles that were not at all ascending. The second group was teachers who followed the apostles. Now at this point we have basically explained the immediate intention of Paul in bringing up the matter of miracles in verse 5. The question of miracles was brought up in the debate concerning the way of salvation. Paul is trying to prove by miracles that his doctrine, the salvation by grace through faith alone, is the true doctrine and that the other is false. But you know, sometimes it's necessary to take a verse, not only in the context of the chapter that you find it in or the book that you find it in, but you have to take some verses at times in the context of the whole of the Bible to understand all that's being said and to get some applications that are necessary for today. And we're going to leave the immediate context of this chapter of Galatians now, after noticing three things that are implied in verse 5. And we're going to try to look at the total biblical context concerning miracles, so that we understand the problem that is hounding the Church of Christ today. The three things that I want you to notice in verse 5, and I hope you'll look at it, is this. There were men performing miracles in the church at Galatia. There were men who were performing miracles in the church at Galatia. That's the first fact. He's talking about people who came to Galatia working miracles. And then he asked what doctrine those people taught. The second fact I think you ought to recognize is that these miracles were so common in the New Testament church that Paul could mention miracles casually and just pass on to another thing. He could mention it in one verse and not have to talk much about it or worry that the attention of the people would still be focused on the miracle. It was so common in the New Testament church that he could just mention miracles and pass on. Everybody knew that there were miracles going on in Galatia. And this is apparently the common circumstance of the New Testament church. You read of the church at Corinth, where people were speaking in tongues and healing and prophesying. Great miracles were going on. You read in the book of Acts that Peter would walk by and wherever his shadow touched, if a person had a disease, he'd be healed. Scars would be taken from Peter to someone who was sick, and they would be healed. This was apparently the common pattern of the New Testament church, and no surprise to the people at all. They had experienced miracles commonly. The third thing that I would have you notice is that Paul uses this fact of miracles to support the validity of his doctrine. Paul uses the fact of his performing miracles to support the validity of his doctrine. He is saying, in effect, to the people, since we do miracles, why don't you believe what we teach you? These Judaizers are sterile as far as wonder-working is concerned. Why did you leave us to go to them? Miracles attest to the truth of what we're teaching you, is basically the argument of Paul in this fifth verse. Now, based on these three facts, we're going to dwell on the question of miracles, probably tonight and next week as well. in the total biblical context, for there are implications in these facts that are mentioned, that I mentioned from verse 5 in Galatians 3, which have important lessons for you and for me and for the Church today. Really, I scarcely need to mention to most of you the practicality of the subject. And yet, because you may not notice today the extreme importance of this question of miracles, I'd like to review for you for a moment some of the reasons that I see for having to consider this subject as the Church of Christ. At the end of the last century there arose the Pentecostal Church, and with it and since it has come a Pentecostal movement that has crept into almost every denomination. in the United States. It's in the Roman Catholic Church, it's in every large denomination, it's in almost every type of evangelical church. The Pentecostal movement. And with this Pentecostal movement has come what men call a renewal of charismatic activity, a renewal of miracles being performed by men. People are saying, And at this particular moment, this movement has grown in its impetus. Healing and speaking in tongues are particularly in the attention of people today in these various churches. But the existence of the movement within Pentecostal churches and without is growing by leaps and bounds. Scarcely one of you, I'm sure, has escaped knowing somebody who claims to have spoken in tongues or been present when a miracle of healing was performed. It's becoming such a common thing to hear of this now that most of you have run into people who are claiming this. And if you're a thinking Christian, you've got to have questions in your mind. So forceful is the movement that it has occasioned a great crisis in the Church throughout the world. I don't know of any mission field throughout the world that's not touched by Pentecostalism. And as the mission fields are touched by Pentecostalism, mission boards are in confusion, some of them. Many of them have people in their personnel who have conflicting views and teach conflicting views to their people. And mission churches are being split over this issue of whether men should be performing miracles today or not. And other churches are being threatened by being wholly taken over by it. And at home here, not just to speak of the mission field, there are few issues that universally interest men. Great and important periodicals like Christianity Today that has such an influence in evangelical circles is almost neutral on the subject, presenting both pro and con views of miracles being performed by men of the Pentecostal movement. Virtually every Christian bookstore not only handles but pushes Pentecostal books, like the Cross and the Switchblade and other such popular books, which is disseminating Pentecostalism or the expectation of miracles in 1969. Schools are being swept with these views and with these experiences. And you have to come as a Christian to say, what do you think of this new movement? What do you think of this speaking in tongues? What do you think of these supposed miracles that people are claiming are being performed? Why shouldn't you, as a church, expect to be like the New Testament church? That's an imperative question. Why not join the movement? Why shouldn't Grace Baptist Church? Or should it? Don't you want our church to be like the New Testament church? Don't you want everything that God has for you in the scripture? And if this is the work of God, it must have been for a good reason that he sent miracles. Surely God didn't do miracles for a low base reason. It was for a good reason. It was for the good of the church. And if it was good for the church then, isn't it good for the church now? And why shouldn't we have men performing miracles in our church? These are the questions that must come to your mind. People are claiming in the Pentecostal movement that they're returning to the New Testament pattern. It's just a furtherance of the Reformation. You see, Luther took the Church back to the doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone. Now they say at the end of the 19th century, a further Reformation of the Church has come by the return to this charismatic, this miracle-working movement that we see in the New Testament. This is a claim that's being made today. This is something that most of you have faith. What do you do when you read the book of Acts and you read about the miracles? What do you do when you read Corinthians and you come to chapter 12, 13, and 14? I'm sure you wonder about some of these groups. You just then try to put it out of your mind. Or are you disturbed by the thoughts, well, what about this? Shouldn't our church get in on the action if it's really from God? Don't you wonder about these things? So you see, it is an important question. that people are bringing up today, and they're questions that really cannot be dodged in a half-hearted manner. How do you answer these things? Well, for these reasons, I want to follow with you a study in Scripture concerning miracles. First of all, I want to spend a little time on the definitions that men give to miracles. Then I'd like to distinguish with you between God doing miracles and men doing them. There is a distinction in the Bible. And then I'd like to find out the purpose for humanly worked miracles. Why did God give men the power to work miracles in the Bible? What purpose did it serve for the Church? What was its main reason in the early New Testament? And then finally we will try to conclude as to whether we today ought to expect men working miracles in our Church. And I do hope you'll be patient here, because there's a great deal of biblical material on it, and we're going to be turning to some of the passages of Scripture, but it's important to look at what the Bible has to say. First of all, let's think about some of the definitions that people have given to miracles. Have you ever tried to define what a miracle is? It's one of the hardest jobs I think I've ever set out on, for myself, and I don't think I've quite arrived at it. Have you ever tried to define what a miracle is? It's difficult. It's difficult because to the sanctified eye, God's power is seen everywhere. To the Christian, there is the power of God evident in all creation, everywhere you look. Creation unceasingly evidences the might of the Creator to the man whose eyes is but opened by the Gospel. And the Bible has taught us that this world is not a dead mechanism. It's not a clock that God wound up and left to run by itself. We read in the scripture that Jesus upholds all things by the word of His power. We read in Colossians 1.17 that by Him all things consist. Christ is holding things together. Whatever you see in the world that men call nature is being done by the power of God. When you put a kernel of corn in the ground, And at the end of the summer it has multiplied 5,000 times. This is a sign of the power of God. And the power is not less great than the power of Jesus Christ when he multiplied five loaves into enough bread to feed 5,000 people. It was a different way of multiplying, but it was still by the power of God. A birth of a baby isn't less amazing than Lazarus being raised from the dead. For at the birth of a child you see the power of the omnipotent God bringing a non-existent soul into being. A great worth of the power of God in what we call the natural world. But to the sanctified eye we see the power in the working of God. So the orderly workings of creation reveal the glory of God and it's just that sin has blinded our eyes to that glory. And because men have been so blinded to seeing God in creation, the Lord apparently in scripture has demanded the all-inspired attention of men by working miracles. Thus God has done unusual works of this power that startle us and demand us to think about Him in this greatness. The same power that was veiled in the constant operations of creation is unveiled in miracles. because of the unusualness of it, not because there's greater power in it, necessarily. It's not correct, like some people say, that miracles are violations of natural law. God doesn't do something to fight against the system of creation that he himself has set up. It's not like God's providence is fighting against God's miracles, they're not in collision. Rather, a miracle is God's power superseding working in a greater way than it does, but in a similar way to how it works in creation. It's improper to say that a miracle is God acting without means. Sometimes God does a miracle by means, sometimes he does it without means. For instance, you find that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah without any means by his own sovereign act of pouring fire and brimstone upon them. But when he opened up the Red Sea, he used the means of Moses standing up and lifting a rod. Now the result was disproportionate to what that means would usually bring to pass, but he still used means to do it. Miracles then are, as far as I can see in a biblical definition of them, the extraordinary works of God's power demanding the awed attention of men who are blinded to the normal workings of his power. the unusual workings of God's power that demand the attention of even sinful, blinded sinners. For instance, God usually causes the sun to rise. That's his normal way of working power. But it was an extraordinary work of power when he made the sun stand still for Joshua. It was something wholly contrary to the history and the experience of mankind. It was something new and startling. Not that it was necessarily anything greater for God to do than to make the sun rise every morning for year after year after year. That takes great power. But it startled the attention. It was unusual. Now, as we mentioned that miracles, then, are the extraordinary works of God's power demanding the attention of sinful men, there is no reason to limit God from doing miracles at any time, and there's no biblical reason to say that God can't do miracles in our generation. There's no doubt that God is still performing unusual feats of power. And I think every sincere Christian would say that he is. He responds to the prayers of his people in sovereignly healing those who seem medically hopeless. God heals them, by the way, in answer to the prayers of his people. God has opened and hopelessly shut doors, submission fields, submission boards. Now we find some people who prefer to call these acts extraordinary providence instead of miracles, but the differentiation escapes me. It's still an unusual work of the power of God that demands the attention of men. And it's not very much unlike the miracles of Scripture when he does this healing. God's power then, or His sovereign intention to do wonders, it needs not be limited to any age. It needs not be limited in our age. But, and here's the great point that many men miss, there is a difference between God doing miracles and men doing miracles. The Bible teaches us that men have done miracles. that God has given to men the ability to perform miracles, that he has given them the gift of the Spirit in such a measure that they can go about doing things that are altogether contrary to the normal experience of men by the power of God. There have been certain periods of time in which he has conferred then this miraculous power upon men. And isn't that really the chief question of the day? You won't find a Christian denying the fact that God does extraordinary things today, not any real Christian. Some people may quibble about the name, whether you call it a miracle or whether you call it extraordinary providence, but they all admit that God's doing something unusual when he heals the man who's hopeless, medically. But the question arises, should the Church have men who are able to perform miracles? Men who speak in tongues? Men who lay their hands on others and they're made well? Shouldn't the church have healers like Peter is the real question? Men who were like Peter, who had the ability to heal. Shouldn't there be in the church some people with the power to speak in other languages, to speak in tongues? That's the question, whether men should do these things. The question isn't, shouldn't God be doing miracles? The question is, shouldn't men be doing miracles on behalf of God? That is the chief issue. whether or not we should expect the amazing gifts of miracle working to be conferred on men in the Church of Jesus Christ. Too often the Orthodox Church has slipped into an error here by denying that God can do miracles today, when the real issue is whether God gives men today the gifts or abilities to do miracles themselves. And there is, I believe, a clear distinction in the Scripture. Well, let's ask the question then, why did God commission men to do miracles? Turn to Exodus chapter 3. as the first place we're going to turn. It's rather Exodus chapter 4. Why did God commission men to do miracles and why were they told to do miracles? What purpose did it serve throughout the history of miracle working as we read of it in the Bible? The first man that we read of in the Bible to perform miracles was Moses. Now the miracles that he performed were not the first miracles that the world saw. Throughout the book of Genesis you read of miracles that God did. But the first man upon whom was conferred the power to do miracles himself, depending on God, was Moses. And why did God have Moses doing miracles? What was the purpose that it served? Why did God give him the power to do miracles? Exodus chapter 4 will answer that for you. In chapter 3, Moses was called at the burning bush to go into Egypt and to demand of Pharaoh that God let his people go. And Moses complained. He said, well, Lord, you know, I'm a poor speaker and I don't quite know what I'm going to say to anybody when I get to Egypt. And so God told him exactly what he was to say to the Jews and exactly what he was to say to Pharaoh. So Moses had another objection in verse 1 of Exodus 4. Moses answered and said, but behold, they will not believe me nor hearken to my voice, for they will say the Lord has not appeared unto you. You told me to get down to Egypt and to tell these poor Jews in slavery that God appeared to me and spoke a message from heaven. But they're not going to believe that you really did that. How am I going to persuade them that I'm really a prophet, that I have a message from heaven, that my message that I have for them is inspired by the Almighty? How are they going to believe me? The Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And God said, cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent. And Moses fled from before it. 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, hath appeared unto thee. The reason Moses was given the power of doing miracles was to convince the people of God that he was the prophet of God. That the words that he spoke to them were not the invention of his own mind, the dream of his imagination, but that they had indeed come to him from the Almighty, that he was a true prophet of God. That's the reason Moses was given the power to work miracles, chiefly and foremost. They were his credentials as a prophet of God. They were God's testimony that he spoke the word of truth, that this was the inspired truth that he spoke. And throughout the Old Testament, as you read the rest of the Old Testament, you'll find that prophets are almost exclusively those who work miracles. You find the working of a miracle almost invariably. I've only found one exception to the rule, and that was at a time when there was an unusual act of deliverance on the part of God, a redemptive act of history. I don't know of any others in the Old Testament. As you follow through, whoever did a miracle in the Old Testament, you'll find that they were a prophet. You'll find that this was then the attendance of God, proving that these were spokesmen from God. The miracles were not given for their own sake mainly. They did serve an end for the people of God. It was gracious to the widow. whose son Elijah raised from the dead, it was a great act of grace to her, but primarily this was given to attest that Elijah was the spokesman of God, the main purpose for which God gives the miracles throughout the Old Testament. And those who came to proclaim God's word, inspired of God as prophets, were miracles. As you follow through the scriptures, if you do ever take the time to look up every occasion where it speaks of signs and wonders and miracles in the Old Testament, you'll find that over and over again and almost every occasion in which they're mentioned, signs and wonders and miracles are mentioned to enforce the people to obey the word that the prophet spoke. And so often does it occur that it's an overwhelming evidence. We only have time to turn to a couple of them. Chapter 11. Deuteronomy chapter 11. Look at the first few verses, starting at verse 1. Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments always. And know ye this day, for I speak not with your children, which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm, and his miracles, and his acts which he did in the midst of Egypt unto Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and unto all his land, and what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the Lord hath destroyed them unto this day, And what he did unto you in the wilderness, you remember the manner when Moses struck the rock and the water dushed forth to quench their thirst, until ye came into this place? And what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, making the earth to open up and swallow them miraculously? And the sons of Eliab and the son of Reuben, how the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up in their households and their tents and all the substance that was in their possession in the midst of all Israel. But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord, which he did. I'm not going to repeat these great miraculous acts for every generation of the Jews. That's not necessary. I did them for you. Well, what then? Therefore, shall you keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whether you go to possess it. You'd better believe my prophet Moses, who did all these great wonders. Since you've seen these wonders, you'd better obey the voice of this man. or the words that I speak through my prophet Moses. That's the whole bent of this passage, and time after time it's repeated in the Old Testament. One other passage in the Old Testament, turn to Psalm 74 and verse 9. A very interesting parallel in this place. There's a complaint to God for a lack of miracles in Psalm 74. The Church is complaining to God for a time when There seems to be little power in the church. And in verse 9, the psalmist says, we see not our signs, there is no more any prophet. You see the parallel? We don't have any more miracles going on, which means there isn't any prophet. The two go together, hand in glove. When there are miracles, there's a prophet. When there are no miracles, there's no prophet. It was a miracle. The miracle worker was always a prophet. The prophets were sent. to do miracles, and they attested to the fact that the prophets of God were indeed spokesmen for him. Now it is interesting in the Old Testament that false prophets actually did times and wonders. They didn't merely deceive people, but speakers of lies, servants of Satan, were enabled by the powers of darkness to do unusual feats that demanded the attention of men. Look at Deuteronomy 13 for just a moment, because this has to be said to qualify all that we've said that miracles attest that a man is a servant of God. Because it may not be concluded from that that every time you see someone who does what looks like a miracle, you ought to automatically believe what he says. That's not so. Deuteronomy 13 in verse 1. If there arrives among you a prophet, and it was even, you see, anyone who did miracles even in the realm of darkness was a false prophet. He was still a prophet, though a false prophet. If there arrives among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, then give us thee a sign or a wonder. If he does a miracle, sign he's a prophet of some kind, whether he's a prophet from heaven or from hell. And the sign or the wonder, come to pass, whereof he spoke unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve these other gods, thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God tests you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul." Moses is saying that in these Old Testament times you're going to have some people coming and doing some amazing things, but they're going to tell you to serve an idol instead of serving God. And if their doctrine is not true, don't believe the signs that they're doing. So you've got to test the doctrine as well as the signs. Nevertheless, when a prophet came in the Old Testament from God, and he spoke the truth of God, he was usually also attended by miracle working to show that he had indeed come from God. It's interesting, at the end of Deuteronomy, the very last few verses of the book of Deuteronomy, There's a statement made that never in the Old Testament times was there ever a prophet like Moses for doing miracles. From the time that Moses worked miracles, there was never anybody who did anything like it until Jesus Christ came. Verse 10 of Deuteronomy 34, There rose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. First of all, nobody else walked as close to God as Moses did or received as direct revelation as Moses did. And also all the rest of the prophets were unlike him in all the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land. And all that mighty hand and all the great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel was never any prophet in the Old Testament times like Moses for doing miracles. That in Deuteronomy 18, and we won't take time to turn there. Moses predicted that another great prophet would come who would be just like him in power and innocency with God. And that prophet that he predicted was Jesus Christ himself. So you find in the New Testament with the coming of Jesus Christ there is a flowering again of miracle working. Interesting, even the prophet John the Baptist didn't do any miracles. The New Testament will tell you he didn't do any miracles. But with Jesus Christ, tremendous miracles like the world never saw, even greater than the miracles that Moses worked. And again, if you follow the New Testament and its teaching, you'll find that the purpose of the miracles was God's attestation or proof that Jesus was a prophet. Now, you'll see this in every New Testament gospel, but let's just look at the gospel of John together, at certain verses. And first, let's turn to the end of John. to chapter 20 and see why John wrote about miracles in his gospel. Why did John write about the miracles of Jesus? Why did he tell us that the blind man was healed? Why did he tell us that he turned water into wine? Why did he tell us that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead? What was his purpose? John 20, verses 30 and 31. Many other signs, that is miracles, truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in the book. But these miracles are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. These miracles ought to persuade you that he is the true prophet promised by God, the Messiah himself. Turn to John 4 and verse 48. In that verse, Jesus recognizes the necessity of miracles to persuade the hard-hearted men of his day. It's half a complaint half an explanation of why he was doing miracles when someone was brought to Jesus for healing. Verse 48 of John 4, then said Jesus unto him, except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe. And then he went on to heal the lad that the people might believe. Turn to John 12, verses 37 to 41. One of the great surprises that John himself has in writing his Gospel is the fact that in spite of Jesus' miracles, people didn't believe in him. John 12, verse 37. But though Jesus had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him. John says, this is amazing, yet it is a fulfillment, that the saying of Isaiah, the prophet, may be fulfilled, which was spoken, Lord, who hath believed our report? The great prophet himself came and performed miracles, which was God's sign that he was God's prophet. He is a spokesman. He spoke by inspiration. But people still wouldn't believe him. Turn to John 10 for a moment, and notice how Jesus uses his own miracles in argument. What did Jesus think of his own miracles? Well, here you'll find it in John 10. What purpose did Jesus find in performing miracles? John 10, verse 38. But if I do, that is verse 37, if I do not the works of my Father, then don't believe me. But if I do the works of my Father, though you believe me not, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him." Jesus used his own miracles to try to persuade men of his own doctrine. And we have a very parallel text in John 14, verse 11. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me. And if you can't believe me because of my teaching and the plainness of my doctrine, believe me for the very work's sake. I've raised Lazarus from the dead. Believe me for that at least. You've got to believe I'm a prophet sent from God. And so we find throughout the Gospel of John people who did believe that Jesus was the great prophet because he worked miracles. You find it in John chapter 6, after he fed the thousands of people who were on the hillside. In verse 14, they started to say to one another, this is of a truth, that prophet that should come into the world. Why? Because he did miracles that showed that he was a prophet. That was the main purpose of the miracle, to show that Jesus was a prophet sent from God, to show that people ought to listen to what he had to say. Now the point is, in laboring, and we could go on with many verses even in John chapter 6, The purpose of this is to show that Jesus' miracles were God's testimony that he was a prophet. And it was God's way of saying, listen to this man, what he has to say. He speaks from heaven. He's a prophet. He's come with divine revelation. Well, that leaves us with the rest of the New Testament evidence from the book of Acts on. And it's interesting in the rest of the New Testament that every other example of men doing miracles is connected again with the gift of prophecy or the revelation of God's truth. Every other example throughout the New Testament. Now you do have the two unusual occurrences at Pentecost and in Acts chapter 10 where Peter preached to the Gentiles for the first time. And great miracles were done by a great host of people. But all of those miracles were directly related to prophecy. They spoke with tongues, spoke the revelation of God, controlled by the Holy Spirit. They had visions, they had dreams. All of this related to God communicating truth to men, the gift of prophecy. And apart from these two instances, all miracles were done either by prophets, that is, the apostles, who were the New Testament prophets, All miracles were either done by the apostles, or by those who had received power directly from the apostles. So that when you have some second party doing a miracle, everybody knows that it's because of the apostles laying on of hands that they did it. Acts 8 is a very interesting case, where Philip had been doing miracles and preaching, and the people believed on Christ. He was an evangelist, and people were converted, and they had the Holy Spirit in their hearts, that Spirit that works grace in their souls, but nobody in the region of Samaria had yet received the Holy Spirit in the sense of doing miracles. And so when the apostles came, they laid their hands on them and thus communicated to them the gifts of doing miracles. And when Simon the sorcerer saw that by the laying on of their hands they could make other people able to do miraculous things, he said, look, I'll pay anything to be able to do that myself. That's the whole problem with Acts chapter 8. The people received the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands of the apostles. And so when you turn to 2 Corinthians 12.12, and I think this is an important passage for this matter, Paul calls New Testament miracles signs of the apostle. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 12. Verse 11, he says, I am become a fool in glorying. He's bragging in a spiritual sense about his success in the ministry. I'm become a fool in glorying, but ye have compelled me, for I ought to have been commended of you. In other words, you should have commended me. I shouldn't have had to talk about my own abilities and achievements, I ought to have been commended by you, for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing. I'm not behind the chiefest apostles. Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you, in all patience and signs and wonders and mighty deeds." These miracles that were performed in the New Testament are signs of the apostles, the prophets of God, the spokesmen for God, those who were the channels of divine revelation or communication in the New Testament. And again in Romans 15, we won't turn to this because it's getting lengthy. In Romans 15 verses 18 and 19, Paul is rehearsing all of God's signs and wonders, and because of these signs, he argues, that proves I'm an apostle, because of the miracles. They then bear witness to the apostleship, to the gift of prophecy in Old Testament and New Testament. And that's exactly what we said in Galatians 3.3, isn't it? Isn't that exactly what Paul is arguing in this epistle to the Galatians? They're men who perform miracles. And Paul is arguing our doctrine has got to be right because it was attended by the miracles of God. The main purpose of miracles is God's attestation that we are His folks. And we speak the truth, inspired of the Holy Ghost. Now apart from false prophets who deceive people by miracles, and according to the New Testament, they're going to continue to deceive people. Back in Thessalonians 2.9, Matthew 24.24, Jesus said, in the last days the world will rise, false prophets showing great signs and wonders. They're going to do amazing things, false prophets are. But apart from false prophets, no true believer is ever given the power to work miracles in the Scripture, be it healing, tongues, visions, dreams, or anything else. Now, I didn't say God didn't do them, but no believer was given the gift to be able to do these things unless it is directly connected with prophecy or the inspired communication of God's Word. This is the testimony of all of Scripture, and I challenge you to study it. And if you doubt that this is the great mass of the information, then you look in your concordance at all of the instances of signs, wonders, miracles, the works of God, and such terms that are used to refer to miracles. You follow it through, I've done it. These miracles always attend God's revelation of a new thing by prophets. There is attestation that the prophets have a divine mission, and that therefore their words are to be received as truth. Not merely preachers, but prophets. who are the channels of divine inspiration. Well, fourthly, should we expect men to possess miraculous gifts in the Church of 1969? No, really we're asking, should we expect there to be prophets or further revelation like we had in Scripture in 1969? That's the question. That's the issue. Because the two come together. No miracles, no prophets. When you've got miracles, you've got a prophet in your midst. Should we expect, then, further revelation today? Should we expect to see signs and wonders? Well, God may do some miracles, but should we expect men to be doing them? Well, we may expect false prophets to be doing amazing things. The Bible says they will. How about true prophets? Are there going to be any true prophets in 1969? The answer of Scripture is resoundingly no. The apostles were the last of the prophets. and we're going to have to spend next week in establishing that, I hope. The final revelation came by Jesus Christ, and through his apostles. And though there is yet one stage of revelation for mankind, and that is at the return of Jesus Christ, and at that time we may see great wonders done, when Jesus himself is revealed from heaven, with the shout of the archangel, and with the trump of God, then amazing things may happen again. But until that time, The scripture is clear that there's a cessation of inspiration, and that demands a cessation of men doing miracles, doing wonders in the power of God. So next week I plan to look at biblical evidence that there is to be no more inspiration expected, that the Bible is a complete book, that it's a sufficient book, and alone is to be accepted as the truth of God, and that therefore miracles by Christians are not to be expected. and especially tongues and visions and dreams in which the communication of God comes to man, that is revelation, is not to be expected in our generation. Let us pray. Our Father, we pray that you would make us apt students of the Word. Help us, O Lord, as we do study to keep our studies within bounds, help us not to run off, moved by emotions or first impressions, but to be serious students of Your Word and abide by the principles thereof. We beseech Thee, O God, to have mercy upon us, and as we've considered this this evening, we pray that You would use it for every heart here present, that none may be deceived by lying signs and wonders, that none may be taken up with the superficial argument that we want everything that God has for us. Oh Lord, we do want all that you have for us in this generation and all of the gifts of the Spirit and all of the great power that will bring sanctification and an impetus to evangelism in the Church and it will bring the world to the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ in repentance. Oh Lord, give us all that is necessary here in the form of the usual works of the Spirit within the hearts of men. And help us, O God, to do mighty things in the power of your grace. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.