You're certainly welcome to pull your Bibles out and follow along, but I'm going to be doing another topical sermon this evening, so I won't be expounding any one particular text. I'm actually going to be, for a number of reasons, going to be continuing that study of cessationism that we began, I don't know, it was several weeks back. I'd say everyone here is familiar enough with my background where I don't need to rehearse it, but this is what I'm, I guess, going to be contending against here is actually the Christian tradition that I grew up in. Anytime I'm doing so, I like to give this qualifier at the beginning that I can say I have a good relationship with my family and this isn't brought about as a referendum against them because I'm bitter or think they damaged my emotional frailty as a child or something like that, as so many in my generation do today. Okay, I have a good relationship with them. I'm very thankful for the family I had, particularly my immediate family, but also my extended family. So this is just an attempt to be faithful to the Word of God and not an attempt to attack them. So I want to state that up front. Let me say this, I can't remember who was here back then, but if you weren't here for the first part of this, you may want to go back on Sermon Audio and check that out, because then I gave a lot more introductory comments and qualifiers than I'm going to today, just for sake of time. We really need to get to the end of this. This doesn't need to become part three, okay? So let me just encourage you, if something seems lacking or I mean, obviously, I'll be here for 18 hours after the sermon. You can ask me questions, but just let me encourage you, if you feel like some foundational part wasn't laid, maybe go check that out on Sermon Audio. But we'll do a bit of review after we pray. But let's do pray and ask the Lord's help and blessing, because Certainly, this is not a subject that should be taken lightly, given the claims that those who would disagree with this make. This is one way or another is very serious where we fall on that. So let's ask for the Lord's help. Father, we look to you. You're the source of truth. We know that. We confess that. We thank you for that. Thank you that you have spoken to us and spoken clearly in your word. We want to be faithful to what you said in it. We want to be accurate concerning this subject and concerning the appropriate relationship that we're to have regarding the gifts of your spirit and his working. So we ask that you would help us with all those things tonight. Guide us into truth, help us to repent where we may be misled, myself included, and help us to all walk faithfully before you. In Jesus' name we ask, amen. All right. Well, bit of review. Let's begin with what we mean by these things, right? This is the definition that we looked at last time from Nelson's. It defines cessationism. That's a lot of syllables, right? Think of the word cease in that. It's a position that says something is ceased. They say it's the belief that the charismata or the supernatural gifts of the apostolic church, only the supernatural gifts, ceased with the death of John, the last apostle by the end of the first century, or with the completion of the canon of the scripture. And there are various views of that, but that's basically the thing. That's basically the definition. Now, last time I made a point to say This is what we don't mean by cessationism. We don't mean, first and foremost, that we think the Holy Spirit has ceased to work, that the Holy Spirit has ceased to do miracles, or that God has ceased to do all miracles, including maybe a healing or something like that. That's the only hope we have is that the Spirit of God continues to do miracles, right? When a person truly comes to repentance and faith in Christ, that's a miracle wrought by the Spirit of God, okay? So to be cessation is not to be anti-miraculous, okay? And most cessationists I know would say the same thing of, I said last week, your common miracles, right? Which compared to regeneration, healing your body is comparatively small, right? But I think most cessationists, I know not all, but most would still say God, when he wants to, can and does do miraculous things even today when he wants to, okay? So what we don't mean by cessationism is that none of those things still happen. Here's what we do mean. This is from Tim Challies. I thought it was really succinct and good. We mean that the Spirit no longer gives believers miraculous spiritual gifts as a normative Christian experience as it was for the apostles. What does that word normative mean? Regular, right? Normal, yeah, basically. As something that can be expected to regularly happen. Other men have stated it this way, and I think it's good. What we mean by that is there are no longer any miracle workers. There are no longer men or women who are gifted to work miracles normatively. Here's the thesis for that, and I stated it last week, that It's the idea that miracles have a very specific purpose in the Bible, and that purpose has been fulfilled. To flesh that out, we began looking at the first miracle worker, if you will, not the first miracle. Creation was a miracle, right? On and on we could go, the flood, on and on. We began to look at the first man who was a gift of miracle worker, that was Moses. And remember how all that started was God had met Moses in the wilderness, right? And he had commissioned Moses to be a spokesman to the nation of Israel, or a spokesman to be the to the nation of Israel. Remember that? And then remember it was Moses that had brought up the issue of attestation, of proof, right, of his speakership. Remember Exodus 4 when Moses had said, Behold, they will not believe me or to listen to my voice. They'll say the Lord did not appear to you. So in other words, the idea of Moses is, how is it going to be proven to them? How are they going to know for sure that I speak with your authority? That what I'm saying is your words, that I'm your prophet, right? And that I'm not just lying to them. And remember, to prove that, he gave Moses his first set of miracles, that he could work, seemingly at command, right? And he was allowed to turn his staff into a serpent and then turn it back again. He was enabled to turn his hand leprous, remember, and heal it back. He was enabled to take water from the Nile, like on the dry land, and turn it into blood, right? Remember all that? And then this was the purpose, just a few verses later, that was clearly stated. It was that they may believe that Yahweh, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, has appeared to you, right? That was the purpose for those miracles. In other words, we get, charismatics get this wrong today. The purpose of biblical mirrors, the ultimate purpose was not to alleviate human suffering. That was a tertiary purpose, a very beneficial one. But ultimately, God didn't give Moses the ability to turn serpents into sticks so he could get free firewood. Right? Or to get rid of the snake problem in Egypt. And I know that sounds silly, but I mean, it's an equivalent that we need to wrestle with, right? It was ultimately about this issue of attestation. And think about this, we looked at a lot more passages than we're going to here, but remember how Stephen had summarized Moses' ministry like this. He said this man, Moses, led them out, doing what? As he led them, authoritatively, as God's mediator. performed signs and wonders, Egypt, Red Sea, wilderness for 40 years, right? So throughout this period of Moses' tenure as covenant mediator, as prophet of God, bringing the revelation of God, the commands and will of God, establishing the deposit of truth that we now call the law, Moses was enabled by God to continually I say continually, but throughout this period worked many signs and wonders. Does this make sense to those of you here? Are you remembering? Okay. Now, I gave this qualifier. I think we have to give it again. It comes from Deuteronomy 13, actually beginning in the verse before. This is an extant qualifier, meaning what? Its principle is still valid today, very much so. We would call this the principle of Sola Scriptura or the sufficiency of Scripture, maybe. We'll say Sola Scriptura. Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it. What deposit of truth is he talking about here? The law, right, that Moses had given that's now codified to the people. Now watch. If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, remember that's the thing that's supposed to attest that a person is speaking for God, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass. Guys, did Pharaoh's serpents, Pharaoh's servants turn sticks into serpents with their magic arts? Okay, and we're gonna finish with that, this concept, so bear this in mind. Hopefully, if we don't have to go to part three. The sign of wonder comes to pass and yet he says let us go after other gods which you have not known and let us serve them. What's the problem with that? you've got dueling revelations, right? You've got dueling truth claims. The word that God has laid down that's now become scripture, for there, he's given it through signs and wonders, that's now laid down, it can't be contradicted by any future word from God, even if signs and wonders attend it. So which one's supreme? The scripture, right? Once it's codified, It's done, right? The law of non-contradiction applies to the nature of God and to the revelation of God. Why? Because his nature that's unchanging is the basis for that law that we all just assume, right? Getting into apologetics a little bit, maybe. Would you say that's a fair statement? Okay. Look, even if he performed signs and wonders, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. Look, the Lord's allowing it. For the Lord your God is testing you. That has huge implications to the modern charismatic movement. Testing you to know whether you'll love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Here's what that looks like. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him and keep His commandments and obey His voice and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. How do we know to do that? Through His Word, right? Through His Word. So keep that qualifier of the supremacy of Scripture, of the principle, the reformed principle of Sola Scripture in mind, because we're going to revisit that a lot, I think. Now, I told you last time, we're still in review, that there were three primary periods of miracle workers in the scripture. The period of Moses and Joshua, of Elijah and Elisha, and Christ and the apostles. And let me qualify now, as I said then, miracles are interspersed throughout the Old Testament. Okay? Hear me. But it was often, if you look at it chronologically, it might be tens or even hundreds of years centuries between the occurrence of those miracles. Now we can read through them in 30 minutes, and it looks like, oh, this happened every day. It didn't, right? It was not normative even during the period of the Old Testament, except in these three periods, or these two Old Testament periods. And that's a very important distinction. I'll show you a chart in a minute, but remember this. Okay, so throughout these periods where God's pouring out revelation, He's attesting to it with signs and wonders. There's this expectation that sort of looms over it all. Every time there's a prophet, every time there's a great miracle worker like Moses or Elijah or Elisha, there's this expectation of, is this the prophet? Remember they asked John the Baptist, what, are you the prophet? Right? See, there's this expectation. Why? Because in one of these passages like Deuteronomy 13 that affirms the supremacy of Scripture and says to stone a false prophet, right, and make him meet criteria, It also gives this promise that God was going to raise up a prophet from among the Israelites, and this prophet is going to have the ultimate authority of God placed on him. Remember, the language goes on to say, if you don't listen to him, God himself is going to make sure that you pay for it. God himself is going to require it of you. Remember that? Okay, so there's that expectation. Now, here's this I don't know what you'd call this, tabulation that I showed you before. I can't remember where this is from exactly. Like I told everybody in the first one, these were notes from a sermon, modified, but from two sermons that I did when I went to Africa for that. strange fire-esque conference over there. So, it's been a while on a lot of this, so bear with me on that. But, so these are, from whatever this list is, these are confirmed, attesting miracles in the Bible for each person. Moses, that first lawgiver, had 22. Pretty significant, wouldn't you say? Right? Aaron, remember his mouthpiece, so there's a correlation there, seven. Think about this decline even here. Joshua, who succeeded Moses in that inaugural covenant period, only three. Only three. You have, we'll see in a minute, you have ones and twos interspersed throughout the intervening period. Then you get to the period of Elijah and Elisha. You have seven with Elijah, 16 with Elisha, who had a double portion, remember? There's an equivalency here. And then look, let me show y'all these, look. Twos and ones and blah, blah, blah. Well, you get to the New Testament. And Jesus has 104. And John says, this ain't even everything. Right? Remember in 2 John he says, hey, speaking hyperbolically, if I suppose all the books in the world couldn't contain everything Jesus did, what's recorded is 104 different miracles. Exponentially more than anyone else. Right? Now, why is that? Because he's that prophet. Right? It's God attesting. This is the one. This is the greatest prophet. This is that chief and foremost prophet. The fullness of the divine revelation is going to come through him. If you remember, we looked at those foundational passages of Hebrews 1 and 2 last week. I know this is a lot of review. If it's any consolation, I'm a third of the way through my notes already. You don't seem consoled. Okay, you remember this, Hebrews 1. Think about it, he opens this something sermon up like this. Long ago at many times in many ways God spoke to our fathers, divine revelation revealed himself by the prophets. We looked at those. But in these last days, this final period of revelation, God has spoken to us in his son, literally in the Greek, in a son. Right? In not a prophet, not a servant, but in a son. And look at what he says of the son in verse 3. He's the radiance, the outraying, the effulgence of the very invisible divine essence. That's what's connoted by that glory of God. He's the outraying, the outward manifestation of that invisible nature of God is in the Son, guys. He's the exact imprint, think about the icon in the Greek, the exact imprint of the divine nature. Guys, who can reveal God more clearly than that? What are you going to add to that? If God has revealed Himself through the One who's the exact imprint of His nature, the effulgence of His own essential glory, how are you going to add to that self-revelation? Is the revelation complete once it's been revealed in Him? See the premise. It all falls apart if we don't get this. And I have no basis. But you'll see. We've got more and more. Hebrews 3, this is still review. Second chapter, remember, therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we've heard, the New Testament deposit of truth, the apostolic deposit of truth. Verse 3, it was attested to us by those who heard, who's that? The apostles, right? Jesus Apostles? Look, while God also bore witness, how did God in heaven bear witness to the revelation of himself that was coming through Jesus Christ? With signs and wonders, the same way he did with Moses, just to an exponentially superlative degree, right? By signs and wonders and various miracles, by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed not according to your asking, but according to his will. He poured them out as he wanted. Now, so much about the modern charismatic movement is not biblical, this being one. You're taught you can receive whatever spiritual gift, particularly some, by the simple asking, this earnest, sincere asking. Scriptures I mean Paul says desire them right but here he says that they are actually distributed according to his will Right do we desire some things that we don't get it's still a good desire Sure, right a young man might desire a godly wife and never be provided one, but is it a godly desire? Sure, okay I've got to move on John 5 36 Look, I'm just gonna show you this concept. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. Jesus talking, for the works that the Father has, remember John's the last Old Testament prophet. And Jesus says, the testimony I'm bringing is greater than John's. And he says, look, the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I'm doing at that time, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. See the principle? This is the stamp of heaven. That my message has heaven's authority. Remember, he's speaking of himself in his incarnation. Speaking of himself as a man, right? Acts 2.22. She's good, she's good. Don't do that on my account. I just thought it was cute. She does talk. At least she's not mine. Peter said this at Pentecost. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man, but a man attested to you by God. How did God attest to the veracity of the message of the man Jesus? You ought to know by now. With mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, right? It's all over. Let me say this, I asked you this last time if I recall. So then, why do we see people after Jesus died, rose, and ascended into heaven doing signs and wonders? See, those men, okay, and we'll qualify why other people in a second, were Jesus' emissaries. Meaning what? Jesus said, just as the Father sent me, so I send you. See? So the heavenly stamp of the prime approval that attested to the words of Jesus, the truth, the deposit of truth that Jesus brought, similarly attested to the servants of Jesus, the emissaries, the apostles of Jesus that spoke on Jesus' authority. For example, Paul said, 2 Corinthians 2.12, the signs, semion, the attesting signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works. See, that's a sign of apostleship. Why? Because it shows he had the authority of heaven, the authority to speak on behalf of the now-enthroned King of heaven, Jesus. Acts 2.42 and following, they devoted themselves to the apostles, teaching the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayers all came upon every soul. Many signs and wonders were being done, look, through the apostles. Guys, was it only the apostles? It wasn't. But notice, there's always this reference given, not always, but there's so often this reference given, it was being done through the apostles. Why? It was linked to their position and authority. We'll talk about that more in a minute, okay? They are distinctly apostolic, okay? Acts 511. Great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard these things. Many, remember what had just happened there, right? Many signs and wonders, look, were normative, right? Were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. This was a period of normative things. Look at the nature of them, because this is important, because men claim to perform, usually men, sometimes women, claim to perform apostolic signs and wonders today. Let's look at what the normative signs and wonders were then. They carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, and when Peter came by them, his shadow would fall on them. The implication being what? they'd be healed by that, by his shadow. Guys, is anybody doing that? No, they're hiding these people in the shadows and they're not getting anywhere close to them. Why? Because they cannot do this. Because they're false. They're false prophets, usually. They're certainly false miracle workers. Anyone who's claiming to do these things, I'm saying, to have the ability to normally, regularly work these miracles, Prove it. Show it. Everybody in the world has a smartphone now. YouTube's free. Look it up. Bush of Africa, I said this last time, they've got smartphones. They can upload to YouTube for free. They can live stream on Facebook for free. Unless you have a commercial account, apparently. Then you have to have 100 followers. That was totally unnecessary. Look, the people also gathered from towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits. And look, they were all healed. If they had enough faith, they were all healed. Okay? Why? Because the point was the attestation of these messengers of God who were laying a foundation, a deposit of truth upon which the church is going to be built. We'll see that in a minute. Acts 14, 3. So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord. who bore witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. See, it is all over. This isn't some foreign, isolated idea to one or two passages of scripture. This language is all over. This is the purpose, right? This is the primary purpose given in the scripture for these signs and wonders. Not saying there weren't secondary benefits, they were. Alleviating human suffering is a great secondary benefit, but it wasn't the primary cause. Guys, think about it. Does God have the power and ability to heal every sickness of every human being on the face of the earth right this second? Would he break a sweat to do it? You understand what I'm saying? Could the collective unbelief of all men prevent him from doing it if he wanted to? Of course not. Our God's in the heavens. He does all that He pleases. See, that's not the point. See, not the ultimate point. Now, He's gracious. He does do those things. He does heal us at times. He does at times grant miracles if He wishes. Okay? And we pray and ask for those things. But to say this is a normative experience today, I think, is simply dishonest and disingenuous. Even think about this. Now, we didn't get here last week, I'm pretty sure. Even those Gentile Pentecost, if you will, were meant to be attestations. What do I mean by that? Remember that original Pentecost was poured out on Jews, basically, right? That original outpouring of the Spirit that was evidenced by the miraculous ability to speak in other languages. Languages unknown to the people who were speaking them. Guys, tongues is just a King James word for language, okay? It's just been mystified, but you look up the word in the Greek and it's used synonymously, languages, right? It's the same word, okay? And you're, anywho. That's overly simplified, but this can't be just a referendum on that, because I'm already way too far gone here. Acts 8, 12. When they believed Philip as he preached good news, so there's laying that deposit of revelation, good news about the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. These were the, thank you, these were. Okay, this means go back. I've got it now. Brandon helps me with this a lot. Okay. They were baptized, both men and women. These are Samaritans. Half Jews, half Gentiles, basically. You're going to see this centrifugal motion here. Began in Jerusalem. Judea, Samaria, ends of the earth, right? The centrifugal motion here. So it's gone from the Jewish Pentecost here to the Samaritan Pentecost. And guys, are the Jewish people are just going to simply accept that those Samaritans who since the time of Jeroboam, maybe, have worshiped false gods on a mountain outside of Jerusalem that God just poured out salvation on them? Are they just going to accept that readily? No, not for a second. Right? They were marveled that Jesus was even talking to them. Right? So what did God do? Signs and wonders to prove that He had brought them into the people of God. See? Seeing great miracles performed, He was amazed. When the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, look, they sent Peter and John down to them. Sorry. They came down, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because He had not yet fallen upon them, because they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Why did God break the normative cycle and withhold the Holy Spirit upon these Samaritans until the apostles came? authority, validation. You see that? And when the Apostles, who themselves had been attested to with signs and wonders, go down, lay their hands on these people that the Jewish believers would never accept otherwise, and God pours out the same signs and wonders, the exact same ones that He did to those Jews at Pentecost, through the authoritative laying on of hands of the Apostles, then what did the Church do? You say, how can we deny it? Right? How can we deny it? Heaven has testified to it. See? Same principle. A little different application. Same principle. Acts 10, Cornelius. God-fearing Gentiles. So Gentiles, it's moving out. Gentiles who worshipped in a Jewish fashion. Right? While Peter was still saying these things, the gospel, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard. Believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of this Holy Spirit was poured out even on Gentiles. See that? Attestation. That's why. That's why God wrote that normal pattern and giving in these circumstances. Acts 19.6, same thing. Now it's just pure Gentiles. No God-fearers, no Samaritans, just those who were formerly no connection to the God of Israel. On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, so they responded to the message proclaimed. And Paul, when he had laid his hands on them, The Holy Spirit came on them, they began to speak in tongues, languages, and prophesy. See, those same attestations. What I'm trying to show you in all that is how these signs and wonders are linked to the apostolate. Again, not saying only the apostles performed them, but it was only those who were under apostolic authority that performed them. They didn't happen outside of that umbrella of apostolic service and ministry. Here's why. Ephesians 2, this is a very important principle, very foundational principle. We've really slowed down on our progress. Paul says 2.19, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. How many times do you lay a foundation for a house, Benton boys? You hope just one, don't you? That's some hard work, isn't it? Once. So what does it mean that Christ is the chief cornerstone, the one by which everything else is measured, and those apostles and early New Testament prophets, some might argue, some say Old Testament prophets, I'm not gonna weigh in on that, but in any event, how is it that they laid a foundation upon which the kingdom of God is built? It's not on there. It's the Word of God. It's what we call the apostolic deposit of truth. It's the revelation of God given to His Son, disseminated through His authoritative emissaries, through His apostles, right? And that laid that foundation of the revelation of God upon which the whole structure, the church, being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. Right? Look, in which you're being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. See that principle? Because that means that deposit of truth was laid through those men, through their ministry, And then the church was going to be built upon that until it reaches its conclusion. That means the canon of Scripture is closed. That means when the apostles died, God's self-revelation ceased. Why? Because it was completed. You see that? It was completed until the return of Jesus Christ. Okay? Very important principle. Now, let me show you another reason why there are no more apostles today. Okay? First of all, there were qualifications given for an apostle. They had to be able to perform these attesting signs. They had to be chosen directly by Jesus. And they had to be eyewitnesses of the resurrection. Okay? Can those things be said of men today? No, guys, think about it. You might could say one in one qualified sense. Okay, and I'll show you that. But look, remember Paul, whose apostleship was questioned, why? Because he wasn't one of the original 11. People questioned his apostleship. See, they saw this connection to Jesus had to be there. He said, proving his apostleship, he said, the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience with signs and wonders and mighty works, 2 Corinthians 12, 12. That's what we read before, right? He said, here's proof I'm an apostle. I can do apostolic signs and wonders. And again, is there a qualitative difference between signs and wonders that the apostles brought and those that are being purported to be done today? I mean, guys, I spent half my life in it, and I'm telling you, I never saw anything that was beyond question. Is it beyond question to make a man walk who's been crippled for 20 years or 40? Is anybody doing that? They're not, because they don't have, because God, and we'll talk about that in a minute. Chosen by Jesus. Look, remember the apostles understood this, and they're trying to choose a replacement for Judas. Now, I got theories about whether this was proper or not, but they cast lots with the men who were eyewitnesses of Jesus' ministry and resurrection, who had been with them the whole time, beginning from the baptism of John, And they said, Lord, they cast lots. Why? Because they wanted the Lord to choose. Right? Show whom you have chosen. Why? Because the king chooses his own emissaries. Right? Does the emissary choose himself? Designate himself the emissary of the king? Do other emissaries appoint emissaries for the king? Only the king can appoint an emissary. That word apostle's the same thing. See, Lord, show whom you've chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship, which Judas turned aside to go to his own place. Also, look, Galatians 1.1, Paul, an apostle, where did that come from? Not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father. See, there has to be that divine appointment. Jesus said to Paul, or Paul recounted it in Acts 26, rise and stand on your feet, look, for I have appeared to you, witness to the resurrection, for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things which you have seen me, the things in which you have seen me, and to those in which I will appear to you. Sorry, I'm trying to hurry, I'm getting all jumbled up. Eyewitness to the resurrection, again back in Acts 1, verse 21, one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection. You see the problem in that? And it's not just one of these signs has to be present. They all have to be. You see that? Or one of these qualifications. To be an apostle, you have to meet all that criteria. Paul said, look, again, 1 Corinthians 9, when he says, am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Had he? He had Damascus Road, right? That was Jesus, I think, filling the vacancy. But I don't know. It's just a theory. Now, so here's the logic, then, of cessationism. You have to lay all that foundation, because what? if we're properly understanding that, then if the sign gifts are linked to that revelatory nature of the apostolic deposit of truth, apostolic authority, et cetera, then we should expect to see them begin to decline in conjunction with the death of the apostles. Does that make sense? In other words, no more apostles to lay the revelation of God Scripture, no more attesting signs to attest to that revelation, right? Guys, that's exactly what we see. Here's the thing, here's the thing I myself have looked for a long time. Even in the New Testament, you see the miraculous sign gifts beginning to disappear, even in the era of the New Testament. I'll show you some examples. Galatians 4 13 Paul says Galatians written pretty early guys. Okay, pretty early if Paul's writings You know, it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first That's Paul racing away from the dead Healed people with handkerchiefs And he says, it's because of a bodily ailment, obviously one I couldn't heal myself from, that I came to preach to you in Galatia anyway. And that says a lot, that the gospel is more important than a healthy body, right? Because God in his providence afflicted Paul, allowed him to stay afflicted so that providentially he would bring the gospel to Galatia, right? And he says, though my condition, well, I won't even read that for sake of time. 726, 1 Timothy 5, Paul 523, Paul told Timothy, no longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. Why didn't he just heal him? I mean, where did that go? What happened? Either you'd say it's not God's will to heal everybody, it's pretty obvious, Or, you say, the pattern of these things shows us that even in the first century, and we'll see a concluding, or not, a summarizing quote in a minute that's really powerful. But even in the first century, these things were beginning to wane. Look at this, Philippians 2.25. I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, an apostle saying about this man. He's been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. Paul says, indeed, he was ill, and he nearly died from it. This is Paul's fellow worker. He needed him, naturally speaking. He wanted him. The church here needed him, and he nearly died. And when Paul attributes his recovery, he doesn't do so to a miraculous healing, but what? To the providential mercy of God. that would indicate that it's through normative means of providence that God granted this man to be healed. Right? Make sense? At least Gracie makes sense too. 2 Timothy 4.20, Erastus remained at Corinth, Paul says. 2 Timothy is Paul's last writing, guys. And I left Trophimus who was ill at Miletus. Trophimus couldn't come on the journey, on the missionary journey. Why? Because he was too sick. You see, this is Bible, guys. This ain't church history. This is Bible. This is what we see in the very Word of God. We see these things waning. Now here's that summary. I think I read it to you last time, but I didn't give you all the backdrop to it. This is from Tom Pennington, the man who really helped me understand this. He says, the practice of miraculous gifts declines even during the apostolic period. Pentecost and the events of Acts 2 happen, think about this, within 10 days of our Lord's ascension. The second mention of tongues, which we read in Acts 10.46, that was Cornelius and the God-fear Pentecost, occurs sometime within the next 14 years. before the death of James in 44 AD. The third mention in Acts 19.6 occurs early in Paul's ministry at Ephesus. That's in the early 50s AD. Now let's think about this. Now watch this. Now why is he focused on tongues? Because that's the cardinal sign and wonder for the charismatic movement today. Like that's the defining attestation to them. And why is that? Because you can do that without the Spirit of God. You can't raise a man from dead without power. You can make funny noises. You can make funny noises and feel supernatural doing it. It's called glossolalia. It's not an unheard of phenomenon in the world of mystic cults and things of that nature. So why has that been the cardinal defining sign and wonder of the charismatic movement? Because it really don't require anything supernatural, but it sure seems like it to onlookers, right? You don't have to agree with me on that. I'm not saying it developed. They had a council, a little charismatic council, and said, here's what we're going to do. I think that just started in Topeka, Kansas. originally, I forget the name of the second place there, and then that sort of contagion spread. And I'll explain why in a minute, I think, supernaturally, okay? But I'm just showing you why this is why I think Tom Pennington is focusing on this one particular sign and wonder, okay? Okay, so the three occurrences, 14 years apart, what was it? several years later in the early 50s. Watch what he says here. Think about this. 1 Corinthians, the only book outside of Acts that speaks about tongues, was written in 55 to 56 AD. He says, now if you line the New Testament letters based when they were written, 1 Corinthians was only the fourth inspired letter that Paul wrote, following Galatians, et cetera. Think about this, Paul would write nine other canonical letters after 1 Corinthians to six different churches and there's never a mention of the gift of tongues again. That's what's the primary focus of the charismatic movement, the gift of tongues. See, if Paul wrote all that spiritual capital about the way the church was to operate, and he never mentioned it again after these early epistles. And think about this one. In the pastoral epistles, in 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, the books written near the end of Paul's ministry, as permanent directives for the post-apostolic ministry of the church, right? What'd he say? I'm gonna write this to you so you know how to properly order the household of God, which is the church of God, the pillar and buttress of the truth, right? He wrote those two tomes for that purpose, and look, no mention of any miraculous gift. Think about that, guys. That speaks volumes. And indeed, like, this is the, Now this is debated, what I'm about to say. I'm about to leave scripture, so hear me, I'm leaving scripture. I'm going to church history, okay? It doesn't matter what everything in church history says if scripture negates it, amen? All right? Sola Scriptura. But the testimony of church history is very weighty when it comes to this matter, and we need not be ignorant of it, okay? The Didache, which was, actually I think I have. Yeah, so I'll put some of these notes up here. I thought it would be easier because of all the words for you to see it on the screen. The Didache, which is one of the earliest non-apostolic Christian documents, so it's not inspired, it's not scripture, it's just one of the earliest things written by Christians that was not inspired by the Spirit of God. Possibly when John was still alive, it gave instructions on how to discern between true and false prophets, true and false apostles. What does that tell us? Well, it tells us there's a lot of false ones, right? There's a lot of false ones already beginning to claim that revelatory authority. And indeed, there were countless pseudepigraphical writings that were, for the first few hundred years, that were attempted to be passed off as scripture, right? They didn't have apostolic connection or apostolic authority. But you can see there's already a waning, right? They're having to tell people, here's how you judge. It's kind of a little goofy, you know? But I think those first few centuries of Christian writings are goofy for a reason, providentially, and that's so we don't confuse them with Scripture, because they are nothing like Scripture. They are goofy, most of them, and like Catholicism and some other groups, like bank everything on them, and they are goofy. You just need to read them yourself. You'll see there is such a clear demarcation between apostolic writings and everything that followed for the first two or three hundred years, it is not even funny. But you'll have to just look that up for yourself and be good brains. Now, if you look this up on Google, you're going to see a lot of continuationists Guys, are continuationist heretics non-Christians? Not inherently, right? So when I say, I don't mean these are non-Christians, just people that think the miraculous sign gifts are still being given and is a normative practice for the church, okay? They're going to point to that first century, the second century, so be like, you know, 100 to 200 AD, and they're going to point to some things that people say in there, and they're going to say, the miraculous sign gifts continued on. And if you read it, just do it, read it for yourself, and actually read the context and what's said. And most of them, it seemed like, or not most of them, it's just a few hand-picked cherry, right? But the ones, most of the ones that did say something that would allude to that, it was almost like it was just, they were assuming that that was happening somewhere. In other words, they're not recording actual miracles that happened. Okay? You see the difference in that? Assuming it's happening somewhere and actually saying this man was raised from the dead by Irenaeus. See the difference? Okay. We'll have to focus on a few things. I know it's getting late, I'm sorry. There was a movement started by a man named Montanus, Montanism, in the late second century. Now, Montanus was a clear-cut, professed continuationist, what we would call a charismatic, okay? He taught that he and his two prophetesses, which women, prophets and such is pretty common in charismatic circles today, received direct revelation from God. He taught that the revelation was not yet complete, the canon was not yet complete. He claimed to have miraculous sign gifts. Okay, so far you're like, eh, okay, you know, but then here we get to where it's like, uh-uh. He was Sabellian, what's that? He was a modalist, what's that? Denied to Trinity, right? One God, three expressions, something like that. That may be oversimplified description of modalism, but it was definitely anti-Trinitarian. He himself claimed to be the paraclete, guys. Look it up. The comforter, that's that Greek word, the English translate comforter that Jesus promised to send if he would go away. Montanus eventually came to the point that he thought he was the comforter. That's blasphemous. He had many false prophecies, the most known of which is he falsely predicted the return of Christ to his hometown. See the similarities, right, of today? The charismatic movement is full of false predictions of the second coming of Jesus, right? 1987, 1988, 2000, 2005. I mean, just on and on, blood moons, non-blood moons, blue moons, white moons. It's all, you know, I'm making stuff up now. But like, okay, anywho. Finally, he was condemned by the early churches of heretic because of all these erroneous doctrines. Why? Sola Scriptura. Deuteronomy 13, right? Doesn't matter what a prophet says, doesn't matter what a prophet does, if he believes and teaches contrary to the scripture, let him be anathema. Right? Yes, okay, John Chrysostom, so by the fourth century, so that went on for a while, by the fourth century, as far as I can tell, there's no longer even an expectation that signed gifts are still extant, signed gifts are still happening. Chrysostom said this, this whole place, talking about 1 Corinthians 12, is very obscure, but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their cessation being such as then used to occur, but now no longer takes place. Okay? Now, guys, what important thing happened in the 4th century? Depends on who you ask, right? But like, that was really, that was the period in which the canon was kind of finally and formally recognized and delimited. Meaning what, the canon was always there, right? But there wasn't this collective effort to recognize it and delimit false claims to canonicity that were circulating out there. This was done in the fourth century. I don't think that's an accidental correlation, providentially, okay? Augustine said this, fourth, fifth century, a little later. At the church's beginning, the Holy Spirit fell upon the believers and they spoke with tongues unlearnt. As the Spirit gave them utterance, it was a sign fitted to the time. The sign was given and then passed away. Augustine says, we no longer expect that those upon whom the hand is laid, that they may receive the Holy Spirit. that they may receive the Holy Spirit will speak with tongues. I know I butchered that, but you get what he's saying, right? Did I butcher it to where it's confusing? Okay. Luther said this, so we're jumping ahead a bunch, 15th century, 16th century, the Holy Spirit is sent forth in two ways. In the primitive church, he was sent forth in a manifest and visible form. It was necessary in the primitive church, which had to be established with visible signs on account of the unbelievers. Luther says, but later on when the church had been gathered and confirmed by these signs, it was not necessary for this visible sending forth of the Holy Spirit to continue. Again, guys, this isn't scripture. These are men's opinions. Can they be wrong? Absolutely. I'm just showing you, like, the claims that the church was charismatic up until, you know, the Reformation, and then it got all Bible-centered. Father, Son, and Holy Scriptures, they like to say about us. It's just false, okay? It's just false. There were a few... I'll talk about it in a minute. Jonathan Edwards. This is an important one. Why? Because charismatics point to Jonathan Edwards as a learned scholarly man who supports their position. He does not. He experienced some wild things in the Great Awakening. And he wrote about how to distinguish the wild things from the true things. And he interacted with a lot of wild things. But look what he said. of the extraordinary gifts they were given in order to the founding and establishing of the church in the world. But since the canon of the scriptures has been completed, guys, John MacArthur didn't make this up, okay? Since the canon of the scriptures has been completed and the Christian church fully founded and established, these extraordinary gifts have ceased. Jonathan Edwards. Charles Spurgeon, put it more bluntly. He says, those earlier miraculous gifts have departed from us, simply put. And guys, the reality is that really, as far as I can tell, and I'm no church history expert, I like it, you know, I try to read it, but as far as I can tell, and I've tried to look into this in particular, with the exception of a few heretical groups, like the Montanists and the Quakers, maybe some of the Waldensys, some of the crazier forms of Anabaptists, with the exception of just a few small groups throughout the 1900 year history of the church, nobody claimed to have these miraculous gifts, these miraculous sign gifts, as a normative function in their life in church. Now, did they claim miracles happened? Yeah. But they didn't claim these normative speaking in tongues, the gift of healing, things like that that are associated with the charismatic movement today. Nobody did until the 20th century, give or take a little bit. And here's the problem, okay? And this is really it. The modern charismatic revival as it's in their words, to put a good spin on it. It's been absolutely, I think, providentially plagued with unsound and often heretical doctrines. There's been a big swath of oneness Pentecostals. What's that? They deny the Trinity, right? Are they Christian if they deny the Trinity? Is it a Christian? Do they speak in tongues? I mean, but do they profess to? Yeah, right? They deny the Trinity. What does Deuteronomy 13 say? False prophet. See? Little God's doctrine in the 80s? Any of you remember that? Is that blasphemy? That's rank blasphemy. Prosperity theology, which not as blasphemous, but is it hugely problematic with the scripture? Yeah. Do I have this list? Nope. Female pastors running amok in charismatic movement. Word of faith theology, name it, claim it, power in your words. Lots of blasphemous prophecies. Many, many false prophecies. Many, countless, enough to send the whole world to hell if it were tit for tat. The doctrine of sinless perfectionism? The doctrine of the spiritual death of Jesus? That may have been back more along the 70s. Is that blasphemous? Can God the Eternal Son cease to exist? Did He die spiritually as regard to His divinity? You see what I'm saying? Or did He die in His humanity? There are huge problems in this. And that's just a list I jawed down five years ago. In the last five years, you could add a lot to that. With that in mind, let me ask you, if the purpose of signs and wonders, these miraculous gifts, is to attest to a movement, is God attesting to this movement? I don't see how you can say that he is, right? So here's what I think. It's something we need to be aware of, okay? And this is sobering. And remember the qualifiers I gave at the beginning. I'm not saying this with malice. We were warned, 2 Thessalonians 2, 9, the coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders. Guys, do miraculous things happen apart from the power of God? Not the decretive, permissive will of God, but are there spiritual forces in the world other than the Holy Spirit? Guys, yes. I mean, like, we're living in a secular age that just, you know, makes fun of everything. History's full of it. Right? Like, there are real spiritual powers in darkness. And Paul said, and this is just an example of how these things can be and still seemingly be supernatural, that there are such things as pseudosigns and wonders, false signs and wonders. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 24, 24? False prophets will arise, and what will they do? Perform great signs and wonders. Like real signs and wonders? Yes. Not slots of the hand. Real signs and wonders. And they're going to deceive the non-elect by it. He says, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. My point in all that is not to say that every charismatic is seduced by evil spirits. Hear that? Hear that, okay? My point in that is just to say you need to be aware that the Bible warns that just even if something really is miraculous, it doesn't mean it's from God. How do we test the spirits to see if it's from God? By how we feel in our belly? with the Word of God. Right? If it lines up with the Word of God, it's unnecessary. Right? If it contradicts the Word of God, it's forbidden. Right? Any questions? I'll stay afterwards to ask questions. Because how can we Let me say this. Like I'm really done, that's it. Let me say this. Two things. One is, hear my heart here. I know charismatics who think they speak in tongues that I think are genuinely regenerate. You hear me? Hear me saying that. Second thing, not related to that. How do we buttress ourself against falling into this deception? Because I do think it's that. Keep yourself in the word of God and pursue Christ more than you pursue the blessings of Christ. I think that's the two things that are neglected most by those who fall into this trap. Right, the neglect of the word of God, the supremacy, the primacy of it. As I'm telling you, I should have never been doing it. 20 plus years ago I was teaching Sunday school, my charismatic church I grew up in, I should have never been doing it. But I said some statement about the word of, you know, about, you know, the supremacy of the word of God, or the word of God is to define everything we do and say, and I thought everybody would praise that. And somebody withstood me and said, Josh, you've got to be led by the Holy Spirit. Are they not on the same team? But see, it shows the mindset. What's that? People that are so grounded in the Word of God, they won't become charismatic. They won't get swept away in this movement. Why? Not because you don't see tongues in the Bible, or healings in the Bible, or miracles in the Bible, but what? All those other things associated with that movement that is directly contradictory to the Word of God. That's the best way to buttress ourselves against any false movement in Christianity. is to be inseparably tethered to the word of God. To eat it, sleep it, drink it, breathe it. Amen? All right, let's pray. And if anybody has any questions afterwards, I'll certainly try. But I'll let everyone else go. Father, please help us, Lord. Please. Again, we appeal to you to show us truth. Even here, even now, if we're wrong, please show us, help us to repent. We want to be faithful to you. We want to be true servants. We don't want to war against the work of your spirit. We want him to work moderately through us. We want to be dependent upon his power, strength, and direction. Please help us to do that. Please help us to hold highly. your word in our hearts. In Jesus name we ask. Amen.