It won't be anything new for
this telecast, but I'm going to bring what I would call a
controversial message today. I'm going to speak to you on
this subject, something better than miracles. And when I'm talking
about miracles, I'm talking about tongues and healing and discernment
of spirits and prophecies and these various gifts 1st Corinthians
12 now I've chosen as my text 1st Corinthians the 12th chapter
verse 30 and 31 now listen to it it says are all apostles are
all prophets are all teachers are all workers of miracles have
all the gifts of healing do all speak with tongues do all interpret
but covet But covet, desire, the best gifts, the gifts of
the Holy Spirit. And yet, and yet, Paul said,
covet the best gifts, and yet I show you a more excellent way. I show you something better than
miracles. You see what he's saying? Covet
the best gifts, and yet, and yet I show you something better,
something better, something more excellent, something better than
miracles. Now then, without a question,
in the early days of the church, God bestowed upon the disciples,
upon the apostles, and other leaders, great, powerful, and
unusual gifts. When our Lord sent his disciples
out in Mark 16 to preach, he said to them, go and preach the
gospel to every creature. And he said, these signs shall
follow them that believe. He said they'll drink deadly
things and it won't hurt them. They'll run into poison snakes
and it won't hurt them. They'll lay hands on the sick
and they'll be recovered. The blind will see and the dead
will live. And then at Pentecost, the disciples
preached the gospel of Christ in many languages. It says everybody
there, people were there from all these different countries
and they heard these men preach the gospel. in a language that
these men had never learned. They spoke in tongues at Pentecost. And then at the gate, beautiful,
Peter healed a man, made him completely well, just like that.
Just like that. A man who had been born lame.
Lame from birth. And then at Troas, Paul raised
a man from the dead. A man who was dead, Paul laid
his hands on him and he lived. And then Peter was able to discern
the hypocrisy of Ananias and Sapphira. These people stood
before him lying to God, lying to the Holy Ghost, and Peter,
God's preacher, knew they were lying. He told them they were.
He knew their thoughts. And then Peter was able to discern
the hypocrisy of Simon Magus. He said, your heart's not right
with God. Peter couldn't see his heart,
could he? Well, that's what he said, your heart's not right
with God. Now, that's without question. These signs followed
these apostles and early preachers. Yes, they did. Gifts and wonders
and miracles and powerful things. Now, secondly, without question,
no question about this, these gifts and signs and miracles
and wonders were given to these apostles for a reason. God had
a reason, a divine purpose. And these signs and wonders and
miracles and the ability to perform them, speak in other languages,
were given to these apostles and early preachers as credentials,
as proof, as proof that they were sent from God, as proof
that they spoke for God. Here these men came saying they
were speaking for God. And these signs and miracles
and wonders were credentials or proof to the people that they
were speaking for God. Even our Lord Jesus Christ used
it as a proof. He said, if you don't believe
me, believe me for the work's sake. The miracles that I do. Nicodemus said to Christ, we
know your teacher come from God. No man could do the miracles
you do except God be with him. Huh? Isn't that what he said?
We know that. We know that. And then in Hebrews
2, now listen to this. Listen. Hebrews 2, 3, and 4. The gospel at the first began
to be spoken by our Lord and was confirmed unto us by them
that heard him, who were those people? The apostles. God also
bearing these men witness with signs and wonders and different
miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his will. Our Lord preached the gospel
and it was confirmed by them that heard him And they preached
it to us and God bore them witness. God gave them credentials. God gave them proof that they
spoke the truth and they spoke for God by the different miracles
and wonders and signs and gifts of the Holy Ghost. Why? What
was this divine reason and purpose? Well, the only scripture those
people had back then was the Old Testament scriptures. The
New Testament wasn't written. That's all they had. They had
the Old Testament scriptures from Genesis to Malachi. That's
all the scriptures they had. That's all the Bible they had.
And these disciples came preaching the fulfillment of the Old Testament,
the fulfillment of all the prophecies and all the ceremonies and all
the sacrifices and all the types that I preached about last week.
They came preaching the fulfillment of those things in Christ. It
was necessary then that they have some proof that God sent
them to declare this message, that God sent them to declare
this good word, this good news, these glad tidings, this gospel
of our liberty in Christ Jesus, this gospel of a covenant and
grace, not in works, this gospel of a finished work. That's right. They needed proof. They needed
credentials. They did. I don't need it because the New
Testament is completed. The message of Christ, now watch
this, here's another reason why they needed credentials and gifts
and wonders and signs that we don't need. These men were going
to the Gentiles, the heathen, the pagan, that's us. We were
not Jews, Gentiles. They were going to the heathen
to preach Christ and to preach the fulfillment of God's promise
and prophecies, and the heathen, the Gentiles, had no scripture
at all. They had no knowledge of the
scriptures. They had no knowledge of the law. They had no prophet,
priest, or tabernacle. And these men were going to Ephesus
and Galatia and other places to preach Christ. And they needed
proof. They needed credentials. The
people needed also to be convinced that these apostles and preachers
were not impostors, but they were men of God. Literally, in
reality, men of God. Why don't I need these miracles
and wonders and signs? I've got the whole Bible. The
Gentile world has the whole Bible. The whole Bible's been printed
in over a thousand different languages all over the world.
God doesn't have to prove anything. We don't need any divine proof.
We don't need any signs and wonders and miracles to tell you God
reigns, that He will redeem sinners through the blood of Jesus Christ.
Read it yourself in the Bible. However, my friend, the Scriptures,
when they were completed, now listen to me, when the Scriptures
were completed, when the New Testament was written. We have
a history of the church after the days of the apostles. We
have the writings of men like Ignatius and Polycarp and Augustine
and men who lived back in those in the third, fourth, fifth,
sixth century all the way up to this present day. And I'm
going to tell you something. I know a little bit about church
history and I know that these unusual gifts Speaking in other
languages discernment of the spirits and prophecies Other
than the Word of God are not mentioned They're not mentioned
by proven servants of God Augustine never talked about him. He never
had him John Galvin never had him Martin Luther never had him
John Huss John Owen never had him Huss never had him Whitfield
Wesley Charles Wesley Isaac Watts, John Newton, Zwingli, Spurgeon,
Gill, Edwards, keep naming these men of power, these men of proven
ability, these theological giants, these men who wrote the confessions
of faith that we have, the Heidelberg, the Westminster, the Philadelphia,
and all of these great confessions of faith, the 39 articles of
the Episcopal Church. These men knew nothing about
this sort of thing. They never even talked about
it. They never even referred to it in their lives or in their
churches. It's only in recent days, I'm telling you the truth,
it's only in recent days, in the days of all these cults and
sects and all the other different offshoots of church splits that
men have claimed to have the ability to speak in an unknown
tone and to discern thoughts and situations And I'll tell
you this, you listen to me. And most of these men who claim
to have the gift of tongues, and they call it an unknown tongue
because not even themselves or anybody else knows what they're
saying. These men who claim to have these superb, unusual, supernatural
gifts to heal the sick or to speak in other languages or discern
the spirit, they major on those gifts. They rarely ever preach
Christ. They preach the Holy Ghost and
they preach the gifts. And they're always having healing
services, but they rarely ever tell sinners how God can be just
and justify the ungodly. They rarely ever preach Christ.
They don't preach what Calvin and Luther and Whitefield and
Zwingli and Huss and Owens and Edwards and Gill and Spurgeon
and Watson, Newton and Cowpery. They don't preach what those
men preach because they don't have their message. One thing
is very noticeable in this day. You listen to me now. One thing
is very noticeable. where men and women, preachers
and congregations claim these so-called gifts of the Spirit.
They, the preachers and the people, are more taken up with and concerned
with the gifts than they are with the gospel. That's a fact,
and you know it. They're more concerned with the
tongues. They're more concerned with the hoopla. They're more
concerned with the healing of the body than the healing of
the soul. They're more concerned with the gifts than they are
the gospel of God's grace. Our Lord experienced that when
He was right here on this earth. It says in John 2, when they
saw the miracles, when they saw the miracles, not when they heard
His message, not when they heard His gospel, when they saw the
miracles, many believed on Him, but He did not commit Himself
to them. He did not. He knew their hearts.
He knew there were miracle followers. He knew they were miracle tasters. He knew they were people who
lacked emotionalism. Also, he said to another group,
I know why you're following me. You ate of the loaves and were
filled. Labor not for the meat that perisheth. A man's life
does not consist in the things he owns and the clothes he wears
and the food he eats. It's righteousness and peace
with God. That's exactly right. It's not the purpose, my friend,
of the Holy Ghost to call attention to Himself or to the gifts of
the Spirit. That's not why the Holy Spirit
was given. The Holy Spirit was not given by Christ to call attention
to play pretties and gifts and to Himself. The purpose of the
Holy Spirit is to reveal Christ, to reveal Christ to the hearts
of men in saving faith. Listen to our Lord in John 16,
verse 13, when He, the Holy Spirit, is come, When he the spirit of
truth is come not an evil spirit not an idle spirit not another
spirit But the Holy Spirit of truth when he's come He will
guide you into all truth now listen for he shall not speak
of himself Isn't it unusual that everywhere preachers who claim
to have the gifts and the baptism of the Holy Ghost and these unusual
miracles About all they ever talk about is the Holy Ghost,
the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost. Have you received
the Holy Ghost? We lay our hands on you and you
get the Holy Ghost. They don't preach Christ. And our Lord said
when the Holy Ghost has come, he won't speak of himself. He
will not speak of himself. What will he do? He shall glorify
me. He shall speak of Christ. You
know the man who has the Holy Spirit is the man who preaches
Christ. The man who preaches Christ.
Our Lord said, He, the Holy Spirit, shall receive of mine and show
it to you. Receive what of mine? His righteousness,
His sanctification, His atonement, His justification, His redemption. Those are the things of Christ.
Those are the things I need. I may have poor eyesight and
still go to glory. I may be hard of hearing, my
soul still be saved. I may be lame or crippled, but
I can be right with God. It's my heart that needs a work
of grace, not my body. I don't need money, and finances,
and clothes, and popularity, and health. I need Christ. I
need my sins forgiven. I need my name written in the
Book of Life. Our Lord said to His disciples, don't rejoice
that the devil's a subject unto you. That's nothing to rejoice
about. I'll tell you what you shall rejoice in. Rejoice that
your name's written in the Book of Life. Sinners aren't saved
by seeing miracles. They're saved by hearing the
Word of God. You listen to Romans 10, 17. Faith cometh by hearing.
How does faith come, preacher? By hearing. Not watching some
preacher throw a crutch across a building or throw a wheelchair
down an aisle and see some person get up and walk and then have
to go back and get in a wheelchair when they get home. Claim to
be healed of cancer and then die, refusing to take their medicine
or go to a doctor. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing, not
by miracles and signs and wonders done by impostors. It comes by
hearing the Word of God. The rich man in Hell said this,
Father Abraham, send Lazarus back to earth and let him warn
my brothers that they come not to this place. And Abraham said,
well, they have the scriptures. They have Moses and the prophets.
That's the scriptures. Oh, he said, no, he said, they
won't listen to the Scriptures. If one rose from the dead, they'd
believe. Do you know what Abraham said
to him? He said, if they hear not the Word of God, they will
not believe, though one rose from the dead. Did you know that?
Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. You
see, the foundation of faith is not an experience, it's not
a miracle, it's not an emotional experience. It's the Word of
God. I believe because God has said. I believe because God said
it. Let me tell you something else,
friend. And you listen to me. You read the second chapter of
Acts. The tongues spoken in the scripture were known languages. Known languages. Peter and the
apostles spoke in other languages. They didn't speak in a gibberish,
in an unknown tongue. The scripture plainly says that
everybody there heard the gospel in his own tongue, in his own
language. The gospel was preached. They
didn't just get up there and demonstrate what power they had,
what ability they had, and how they could discern the spirits.
They didn't entertain sinners on the road to hell. They preached
Christ. And they preached it in a language
supernaturally given to them by the Spirit of God, and every
man heard the gospel in his own tongue. Greeks and other people
of other nations. The so-called unknown tongue
and the gibberish being spoken today is as phony. Now listen
to me, and I know what I'm saying. This so-called unknown tongue
that nobody understands, not even the person who's given it.
He says it's his spirit praying anyway, not his understanding.
But I'll tell you, when a man speaks in a language God gives
him, The people to whom he speaks will understand it. He may not
understand it, but somebody will. Somebody will. And this gibberish
that's spoken today is as phony as the people who speak it. And
that's exactly right. They don't understand it, and
nobody else does. It's another spirit. And it accomplishes
nothing whatsoever, and it serves no purpose. Now you listen again. Grab hold of your chair there,
and you listen to me. I'm telling you the truth. I
hear people say this, well tongues, to speak in an unknown tongue
is a sign. It's a sign. It's a sign to believers
that they've been baptized by the Holy Ghost, they got the
gift of tongue. Listen to 1 Corinthians 14, 22. Wherefore tongues are for a sign. That's exactly right, they're
for a sign. Not to them that believe. What
did you say? Read it yourself, 1 Corinthians
14, 22. Tongues are for a sign not to
them that believe, but to them that believe not. Yes, tongues
in the New Testament were a sign. They were proof. They were credentials
to show people that God was speaking. What people did they show that
to? Unbelievers. The believer doesn't need any
sign. This sinful and adulterous generation seeketh a sign and
no sign will be given. Our Lord said no sign will be
given. It's exactly right. Signs are for unbelievers. Believers
don't need signs. They walk by faith, not by sight.
God doesn't have to prove anything to a believer. Job said, though
he slay me, I'll trust him. And he doesn't have to prove
anything. I'm not questioning God's power to do anything. I'm
not questioning God's power to do anything. All life is of God.
God creates and gives life. All healing is of God. Even death
is of God. God decrees death. Job 14. I'm
not questioning God's power to give men unusual gifts when it
serves a divine purpose, when it serves a divine purpose to
glorify His name, to convert sinners, to bring men to Christ,
to bring men to know the Savior. I'm not questioning his power
or right to give supernatural gifts for that divine purpose
to exalt Christ. I'm not questioning God's power
to heal the body through prayer. James chapter 5 tells us to pray
for the sick, to anoint them with oil. I do that. I pray for
the sick. I'll anoint men and women with
oil. Pray that the Holy Spirit will be pleased to heal them.
What I am questioning is this. Now you listen to me. I'm questioning,
and not only questioning, but I'm denying the false preachers
and hucksters and merchandisers of men in this day in the United
States of America who get rich and deceive people with their
phony healing services and their phony prayer clause and their
rich organizations. I tell you this, if they want
to heal people, the hospitals are full of people that need
healing and the rest homes are full of people that need healing.
And they don't have to put on a great tent campaign that costs
thousands of dollars. They don't need to rent a great
auditorium that costs thousands of dollars and bring people in
wheelchairs to the auditorium so they can pass the collection
plate and pay their bills and drive their big cars and live
in fine homes. They don't need to do that. If
they want to heal people, sick people, go to the hospital. Nearly
every one of them are full of sick people by the roadside. Do like the Apostle, walk down
the street, lay hands on a man at the gate. Don't call a bunch
of people together so you can promote a program and get rich.
The Apostle Paul tells the early church, listen to me, covet the
best gifts, the best gifts. What are the best gifts? I'll
tell you, the power of faith, the gift of faith. Lord, I believe,
help my unbelief. I'll tell you, the power to preach
the gospel. The man who preaches the gospel of Christ, And God
uses to deliver souls from hell and men from the bondage and
slavery of sin and the law. That's a good gift. The gift
of knowledge, oh, that I may know Him and the power of His
resurrection. Covet the gift of prayer. Covet the gift of
humility. Covet the gift of graciousness
and forgiveness and generosity and power to help and give to
others. Covet the best gifts. But I'm
telling you this, I'm telling you this, now listen. In all
of these gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts, miracles, miracles, miracles,
power, power, power, in all of this, gifts and miracles and
power, Paul said, I'm going to show you something better. I'm
going to show you something better, better than miracles and better
than gifts, better. Listen, that's the love of Christ. Listen to 1 Corinthians 13, though
I speak with the tongues, languages of men and angels, That'd be
something, wouldn't it? To speak in all the languages
of angels and men, and I don't have love? God is love. The love
of God is shared abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Though
I speak with the languages and tongues of men and angels, and
I have not Christ, I have not love, why, I'm a sounding brass
and a tinkling cymbal. You might as well hit a big old
Chinese gong for all the good it'd do to listen to you rattle
off in your gibberish and unknown tongue. Doesn't mean a thing.
if you don't have the love of Christ in your soul and in your
heart by the grace of God. That's right. Don't be proud
and lift it up. And though I have the gift of
prophecy and I understand the mysteries, I can take people
deep into the great mysteries of history and the Word. And
I have great knowledge and I have faith so that I could remove
mountains. But if I have not love, the love
of Christ, the love of God in my heart, If I have not Christ,
if I have not his saving mercies, if I have not his love, I am
nothing. You mean with all my power and
prestige and influence and prophetical powers and knowledge and intellect,
that without Christ, that's right, I'm nothing, nothing, a big fat
zero, nothing. And then though I bestow my goods
to feed the poor, I'm for that. I'm for that. Send money to Nigeria,
Ethiopia, anywhere. Send wheat to Russia. Help the
Chinese. Help anyone. Feed the poor. Help the hungry. Supply the needy. Give my body to be burned as
a martyr for my belief, for my theology. But if I do that and
have not the love of Christ, it won't profit me one thing.
Everything starts with a heart knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It continues to walk with the heart knowledge of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and it's consummated with the heart knowledge of the
Lord Jesus Christ. What is this love? It's love
for Christ. It's love for the people of God.
It's love for people everywhere. Let me show you the definition
of this love. And then Paul writes in verse 4, love endures. This
love endures. It's not temporary. This love
endures. It's kind. It's gentle and courteous. This love is not envious and
jealous. This love is not proud and boastful
of what I have, what I know, or what I've done. This love
is never rude. It's never discourteous. This
love does not insist on its own rights. This love is not touchy
and easily provoked. This love does not imagine evil,
read between the lines, This love does not rejoice in another
person's fall, but this love beareth all things, believeth
all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things, and it never
fails. It never quits loving. Now, I
wish that all the folks out there who profess to be saved, who
profess to be believers, would quit seeking the so-called gifts
and seek this love. Oh yeah, I'll show you something
better. I'll show you something more excellent than they. Though
I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love,
I'm a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. That's right. Covet the best gift, but I'll
show you something better. Ask God to shed His love abroad
in your heart, to reveal to you the love of Christ and make you
love like Christ.