All right, if you will now take
your Bibles and turn with me to John chapter 14. I'm going to take my lesson this
morning just from a few verses, and I titled the lesson, Do You
Believe in Miracles? That's the subject of these verses.
14, 15, and 16 of John's Gospel, the
Lord comforts His disciples. That's what He's doing in these
chapters. And He gives in these chapters just a host of reasons
for His going away and reasons why they should not be overwhelmed
with the fact that He is going away. He's trying to brace them
for the impact of what's about to take place. Now, these men
had given up their living. to follow him. You have to try
to project yourself into their shoe. They were in a day where
Jewish religion was dominant, had been for centuries and centuries. And these men were being asked
to come away from that and to not even consider those things
and to follow him. And then they followed him. And
for three and a half years, they followed him. And this man went
here and there, and he taught them, and he did miracles before
them, and he did these things, and they believed absolutely
that he was the Christ. But their ideas and concepts
of the Christ were still rooted in those old traditions, in this
old school Jewish religion. They still believed that the
Messiah was going to be a man like David, a special man, a
prophet of God. They didn't have any problem
with that. They were willing, all of the Jews were willing
to give Christ the name of prophet as it applied to David or as
it applied to Solomon or as it applied to Isaiah or one of the
prophets of God. They were all willing to do that.
We know is what The rabbi told him when he came to him at night,
Nicodemus, he said, we know thou art a teacher sent from God.
They were willing to give him that title. But that's not what
he was declaring to them that he was. All through the book
of John, he keeps telling his disciples and those who come
to hear him, I and the Father are one. I and the Father who
sent me. I came to do the Father's will
which has sent me. I and the Father are one all
the way through the book of John. And so it is now. He said, I'm
going to leave. And the way you know. And you
know where I'm going. And Thomas said, we don't know
where you're going and how can we know the way? He said, I am
the way. Well, he said, show us the Father and we'll be satisfied.
He said, have you been so long time with me, Thomas? Have you
not seen the Father? Have you been listening to me?
Have you been listening to my my teaching? I am in the Father,
and the Father is in me." Now watch this down here in verse
11. He said, "...believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father
in me, or else believe me for the very works sake." In other
words, if you are not satisfied with my testimony as a man, then
Hear that testimony in view of the miracles that God does by
my hand. No man from the beginning of
time has ever given a man sight who was blind from birth. That
was the testimony of the blind man that he gave sight to. Here
was a man paralyzed for years and years and brought to the
pool of Bethesda. The Lord took him by the hand
and raised him up. He picked up his bed that he
was laying on and his wraps and stuff and walked away. Undeniable
miracles. He said, if you will not receive
my testimony as a man, then consider this. And keep it in context
now. Keep it in context to what he's
telling Thomas. The Father's in me. He said,
then you believe Me for the very work's sake. The very work's
sake. Now watch this up here in verse
12. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me,
the works that I do shall he do also. And greater works than
these shall he do, because I go unto the Father. And whatsoever
you ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be
glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in
my name, I'll do it." Now, this opens the door for unlearned
men. ignorant men, ignorant, fallen,
false prophets of God. This opens the door for them
into these ministries that we see and hear in our day. Name
it and claim it. That's where they get that, right
here. Whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do. I've
heard them read this scripture on TV before who knows how many
millions watching them. And so whatever you pray for,
if you pray in His name, He's going to give it to you. He's
going to give it to you. But all of these things must
be held in context, in the context of the conversation. Brother
Mahan used to tell us, always read what it says before and
what it says after, and then go back to what it says, and
you'll have a whole lot better understanding of what it is that
he's saying. And what he's telling these disciples
is that there is a divine purpose in his coming to the earth. And
this purpose is inclusive of the cross. This purpose was far
more than they were able to perceive, far greater than they had ever
imagined. These three years with Christ,
the disciples, they tried to listen to what He taught, they
tried to listen to what He had to say, but they applied and
mixed those things that He said with their old traditional understanding. They wanted to take what He said,
and then mix it with what they thought they knew. And that's
where we get in trouble today. Men and women hear the gospel,
and they hear what you say, but they try to mix it with what
they think they know. And we get in trouble. We get
in trouble. And this is something we need
to keep in mind. There was going to come a time when his words
would be remembered. His words would be recalled and
applied to their hearts. and have their intended effect.
But you have to hear first. And this was the time of hearing.
And it's something we need to keep in mind sometimes when we
say things to our children or neighbors or at work. And you
know when you're telling them that they're not understanding
what you're saying. You know when you tell them that
they're still trying to mix those things with what they think they
know. Well, don't be worried about it. Don't be anxious about
it. What you say of the Gospel and
of the Word of God will not return void. Void. It'll have its effect in due
time. It'll have its effect. And the lesson today is a subject
that I know we've all been confronted with and a subject we've all
had to wrestle with. And the subject is these supernatural
works and gifts and evidences of the Holy Spirit of God in
men. I knew when I read this that
this is where people's minds was going to stop. It's like
a log in front of a train. You can just go so far and then
you run into this log. And even if you go further, everybody's
mind is still back on the log. So we're just going to deal with
it, and I'm going to use the whole rest of the time in dealing
with this subject. I believe I've got some things
to say to you that will help you if you can be helped. But to comfort His disciples,
the Lord again points to His miracles that His Father had
done through Him. He didn't do these things so
that they might be impressed with Him. He did these things
that they might know that He was sent of God. It had to do
with His ministry. It had to do with the things
which He would accomplish. That's why these miracles were
done by Him. And so he says, believe me that
I'm in the Father, and the Father in me, or else believe me for
the very work's sake. And what he says next, if it's
set in a wrong light, if it's applied wrong, it'll lead you
to a place of false security and a false sense of peace. He
said, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that
I do, verse 12, John chapter 14. The works that I do shall he
do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I
go to the Father. Now, we have in our day what
is commonly called, if you pass by the front. Signs in front
of churches have a lot to do with what they preach. That's
why we have grace on our sign out here. It has a lot to do
with what we preach. Men and women who drive by, if
they even have a passing interest in the grace of God, any understanding
whatsoever about the grace of God, that sign is going to catch
their eye. You go past a fundamental church, you see that word fundamental,
that strikes a chord. You go past these other churches
with other names and those names strike a chord and you go in
and see what it's all about. But we have in our day what's
commonly called Pentecostal churches, charismatic churches, and apostolic
churches. Now, I want to give you these
three definitions of these terms. Pentecostalism identifies with
the gifts and evidences of the Holy Spirit which was poured
out on the church on the day of Pentecost. When they say we're
Pentecostal, what they're saying is we base our mainstream of
what we preach in this church on those gifts and evidences
of the spirit poured out on the early church at the day of Pentecost. We are Pentecostals. Charismatic
has to do with the ability to perform miracles according to
divine power and gifts. And apostolic means things pertaining
to the faith, teaching, and practice of the apostles. Now, sometimes
you'll see this on their signs. I see it a lot as I drive across
the country and through these little towns and things. I pay
attention to these signs that I see, and a lot of times on
these signs in these charismatic Pentecostal churches, you're
going to see in parenthesis down underneath where it says, we
are a full gospel church. Now what they're saying is that
most everybody else is leaving off these evidences. They're
leaving off these signs. They're leaving off these miracles
which God has given to His church. But we don't. That's what they're
saying. We're a full gospel church. And they're saying that what
we believe and preach is true faith, and it's always accompanied
by these same gifts and evidences, same as the early church. Though
they differ in the type of gifts, they differ. Some of these churches
major on tongues, unknown tongues they call it. Some of these churches
major on gifts of healing, faith healing and so on. Some of them
up in the mountains even take up serpents and drink poison.
Now you can go over to Mark chapter 16 and you can read what they
use as a foundation. These things shall follow them.
that believe, you know, they'll take up serpents and they won't
harm them. They'll drink. If you drink any
deadly thing, it's not going to harm you and so on. Well,
they take that as gifts and evidences of faith. They say that all true faith
is evidenced by these apostolic gifts. And to me, this is nothing
more than just another work of antichrist to deceive and blind
men to the sufficiency of Christ to save sinners. What I do want
you to see is that these gifts and things had a reason to be
given. Turn with me to 2 Peter chapter
3. Now here's where I want to start. Peter writes two general
epistles, 1 and 2 Peter. He tells us in his first epistle
to whom they were written. These little groups where Paul
and these other men had gone out and preached the gospel.
had established local churches all over the place. And so Peter
writes this letter to all of them. It's inclusive of all of
them, the churches which are scattered abroad throughout Pontus,
Galatia, and so on. And he writes these letters to
encourage them in the faith, point them to Christ alone, and
to warn them about the enemies of God and the spirit of antichrist
that was even then rearing its evil Here, Antichrist is not
an individual. Antichrist is a spirit, an attitude. And it simply means against Christ. Anything that has to do with
the fundamental doctrines of Christ, Antichrist is against
those things. Is Christ sovereign? Antichrist
says he's not. Is his sacrifice sufficient? Antichrist says it's not. So
on. You see what I'm saying? And
in this particular passage over here in 2 Peter, the subject
is denying those. There were some that said all
things are the same since the beginning. There's not going
to be a judgment. There's not going to be an end of time. There's
not going to be a hell. There's not going to be an end
of this universe. Things are just going to continue
on just like they always have. Now here's what Peter says about
this. Look down here in 2 Peter 3 verse 15. Now, he talks to
them about it. He tells them, as the world was
before the flood, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of
Man. He said, here's what they're ignorant of. This world was standing
out of the water by the decree of God, by the hand of God, by
the power of God. And when God got ready, He took
His hand from those waves and He buried this world in water
and He judged it. He said, even so today the same
world kept in store unto judgment. But he said, God is not willing
that those should perish, those for whom He had purposed to save. He's not willing that they perish.
And so He's long-suffering, not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come under repentance to Him. They're every
one of them going to be saved before He folds this thing up.
That's what He's saying. All right, now look down here
in verse 15. an account that the long-suffering of our Lord
is salvation. That's why it's continuing on.
You count that salvation. That's the only reason this thing
keeps rolling on. God's going to save a people.
So you count that. You count that salvation. Even
as our beloved brother Paul, also according to the wisdom
given unto him, hath written unto you, as also in all his
epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are some
things hard to be understood. Now here's what I want you to
see. Which they that are unlearned and unstable rest. See that word W-R-E-S-T? Rest. You know what that means? Back in the old days they had
a torture device called a rack. They put somebody on that, they
wanted information, they wanted that person to recant the faith
or whatever, they put him on that rack and they'd crank that
thing and stretch his arms backwards or his legs apart or whatever.
It would contort his body to the place and after a while he
just couldn't take the pain and he'd do whatever it was they
wanted him to do or else he'd take the pain and die on the
rack. Well, this word rest means to distort as on a rack. That's what it means. To bend,
to pull something out of place to get a required effect. That's
what it means. They rest, he said, they rest
means to contort as on a rack, to stretch things out of proportion,
to pervert. to rest this truth of judgment
as they do also other scriptures. See that? Unto their own destruction. I hope God will be pleased to
give you a heart to hear what I'm going to say to you now.
Apart from divine revelation both in the preacher and in the
hearer, we are all at the mercy of the God of this world. He
is a master at resting the scriptures. He is a master at deception. He takes things out of context,
takes them over in an isolated passage. Do you know that we
have church organizations today built on one scripture, Acts
2.38? The entire denomination rests
on that one portion of scripture, not the whole verse. Not what
it says in the chapter, just Acts 2.38. And you can go through
the scriptures and I can show you hundreds of denominations
that rest on one or two isolated bits of verses. And apart from divine revelation
in me and in you, we're all at the mercy of the God of this
world, we're at the mercy of our minds which are enmity against
God. Let's say you've got an enemy
somewhere. About everybody does. And this person, you just can't
stand him. I mean, you can't stand to look at him. You just
look at him and your blood starts to boil. And this fellow comes
to you and he's going to teach you something. Are you going
to listen to him? You can't stand to look at him,
let alone listen to him. The scriptures say that our mind
is enmity against God. Not at enmity, it is enmity. It can't stand. When we know
who the living God is and what He requires of us, we just sit
there and our blood boils. He can't tell me what to do.
Well, I wouldn't worship a God like that. How many times have
you ever heard that? Enmity. We're at the mercy of
our rebellious minds and the ignorance of our fallen nature. And there's not a chance or a
spark of potential in any fallen son of Adam that he can, by his
own intellect and ability, understand the gospel of God's redeeming
grace in Christ. Romans chapter 3 tells us there's
none that understandeth and none that seeketh after God. Yet I'm
surrounded by a world who tells me they're seeking. I'm surrounded
by men who stand up and tell people to seek. I'm surrounded
by a world who stands up and says, we do know God. We do understand
these things. I've had people who couldn't
even quote a single verse of scripture in the Bible, who've
not read this thing cover to cover. They haven't read the
New Testament, let alone the whole Bible. They've not given
years of study to this thing. They've not sit under faithful
pastors and learn this thing, but you say one thing to them
and they bow up and they start an argument with you with no
foundation whatsoever to support what they say. That's our fallen
nature. That's what we are. That's what
we're up against. And that's why God must be in
this thing. It tells us that there's none
that understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. What I'm saying to you is this.
Somebody's deceived. Somebody, maybe I am, but somebody
is. We're all not saying the same
thing. We're all not preaching the same gospel. Somebody's believed
a lie. Somebody's been influenced by
the spirit of antichrist. And the scriptures say, after
the working of Satan. That's what he is. After the
working of Satan with all signs and powers and lying wonders.
with all deceivableness of unrighteousness. Now these apostolic charismatic
gifts and evidences poured out on the church were not given
to men to be practiced perpetually through all generations. They
were given to evidence the beginning, and here's what I want you to
see, of a new age. A new age was being ushered in. A new time. We're in the gospel
age. We're living in the last days. One time. He said, In the end
of the world hath Christ appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. This is the last days. Our Lord
time and again told His disciples that they were living in the
last days. The last days. Summer's over. Isn't that what He said? Summer's
over. These things were given to evidence
the beginning of a new age, the gospel age. Now, the word dispensation
appears four times in the New Testament, and it means administration
or economy. To administer... I'm going to
administer medicine to you. That's the man who takes the
medicine and he gives it to you. That means to administer. Administration
has to do with the whole of... of the hospital and the councils
and the people who watch over it and the heads of the hospital
and all the medical profession. That's the administration. So
what I'm saying to you is this. This was going to be a new administration. These old things, this old economy
of the priesthood, this old economy of the animal sacrifices which
had been here since the gardens. Talking thousands and thousands
of years these things had gone on. All of these practices were
about to be rolled up and set aside. Now, let's just suppose
that somebody come in here this morning, and they stood up here
like I am, and they said to you, we're not going to meet here
like this anymore. We're not going to have churches
all over the country anymore. What we're going to have is one
temple. And you're going to have to get you some sheep and goats
and cows. and turtle doves and things,
and we're going to administer these things through the death
of these animals, and we're going to have a priesthood, and we're
going to appoint a high priest, and you're going to have to bring
your stuff. You can't come all the way in, but you can come
so far, and you give us those things, and then we're going
to take them, and we're going to go in, and we're going to
offer these animals and stuff, but y'all don't meet in churches
anymore. Not going to have preaching anymore. We're just going to
have this priest. Why, you just look at him like
he was nuts. Well, that's exactly in the reverse
of what was going on here. These people had offered those
animal sacrifices and had served that priesthood and that temple,
and that had been their form of worship for thousands of years. And now it's not going to be
anymore. That's what made him say, he said, tear down this
temple. Tear down the temple? That's the only place we have
to meet with God is this temple. You're crazy. He was the temple. Tear down this temple. I'll build
it again in three days. You ain't even 33 years old yet. You're nuts. You're nuts. You
see what I'm saying? A new age was being ushered in.
This didn't have to do with individual's faith. This didn't have to do
with evidence of each and every believer that was born of God. That's not why these things were
given. These things were given of God to confirm this new age
that was being ushered in. A new dispensation, a new administration. And I challenge you, just get
you a strong concordance and look up that word dispensation.
Just look at it. Paul said, if so be you've heard
of the dispensation of the grace of God given to me concerning
the Gentiles, and so on. All these dispensations. Well,
I've got to hurry. There's five things which were
unprecedented before this day. Five things. Five things is the
reason why God gave these extraordinary gifts and evidences to the church. Here's the first one. All temple
and altar worship was coming to an end. He is the end of the
law, the consummation of it, to everyone that believes. He's
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Christ is. There's not going
to be any more righteousness by keeping the law. There's not
going to be any more righteousness in bringing these animals sacrifice.
He's the end of the law for righteousness. The Gentiles were about to be
manifest as being included in the promises of God as a part
of true Israel. The Gentiles, Ephesians chapter
3. And then thirdly, the New Testament
scriptures were about to be penned. There was no New Testament when
Paul and Peter and these men stood up and preached to them.
These epistles that what we're calling here are letters that
they penned and wrote and sent to the church. The New Testament
Scriptures were being completed and penned by these men. Now,
if I'm going to read this book, and I'm going to read Paul, or
John, or Mark, or one of these men, and I'm going to accept
their word the same as I do Isaiah, and Moses, and Jeremiah, then
God's going to have to do something. because he did for them. And
he's going to have to do the same for these men in order for
me to understand that what they're saying is from God. They were being pinned. And fourthly,
the gospel of Christ was about to take preeminence in the worship
of God. It's going to take preeminence. Paul, and especially Christ,
when he come in, he just pushed the high priest aside. When these
men come to preach the gospel under the power of God's Spirit
in the book of Acts, go through there and read. They swept that
high priest and that council aside. The high priest and the
council said, you can't preach these things. And they said,
well, we'll leave that up to you whether it's more important
to listen to men or God. But we cannot but preach the
things that we've seen and heard. They swept them aside because
they knew this gospel took preeminence. And this worship now was going
to be in the heart through the spirit and not in the letter. And then last of all, the Holy Spirit of God would
be poured out as never before upon these local assemblies.
Again, I remind you, all this time they'd been going to the
temple and going to the priest and going to the common priest
and so on under them and going through the ceremonies with the
anointing and the smoking and all these things. They did all
these things for years and years and years. Now all of a sudden
there's little bands of believers like we've got here today all
over the country. How do I know that's of God?
I'll tell you how they knew. He poured out His Holy Spirit.
He baptized His whole church in one operation. You can read
about it over in the Book of Acts. Baptized them in the Holy
Ghost, the whole outfit. And every one of them. Every
one of them came forth speaking in tongues. Every one of them
came forth. Why, Peter, in places in the
book of Acts, they said they brought the sick and the lame
and laid them down beside where they knew he was going to be
walking, lest his shadow would just touch them and they'd be
healed. You know anybody today got that kind of gift? Uh-uh. But I tell you this, this is
not an evidence to us of faith. But it's a comfort to us to know
that the way we practice and the gospel we preach is certain
because of these gifts. You see what I'm saying? Here's
where those gifts shine in the hearts of those that believe.
They understand why they were given. I don't have... All of
religion is against me this morning, things that I'm telling you.
I know that. Hundreds of millions of them
would stand here this morning and deny everything that I'm
teaching you. Well, how can I be so sure that
this is the way? Because God didn't accompany
their work with these miracles, but this way I'm teaching you,
He accompanied with miracles and signs and wonders and did
it right before their faces. And when God opens their heart
to see it, they'll do the same thing they did at Peter's message
over there at Pentecost. They'll say, we messed up. We
crucified the Lord of Glory. What are we going to do? What
are we going to do? That's why these gifts were given.
And I hope when men come to you now and talk to you about these
gifts and speaking in tongues and all that kind of thing, that
you understand what it is. They rest the Scriptures. They take them to mean something
that they don't mean. They contort them and pervert
them. And what it does is leave them in a... If you want an evidence,
Satan will give it to you. You want to speak in tongues?
Now I know most of it's mimicked and mocked and taught. But there
are some who I honestly believe that I know, I have known all
my life and know that they don't fake it. It was something given
to them. If you want these kind of evidences
and signs, Satan will give them to you. He'll give them to you.
But they've got no foundation in the Scriptures, and therefore
they can't have anything to do with true faith. Father, take the Word this morning
and bless it for Christ's sake. Amen.