often keep a verse that has been taken up for Corinthians, but still is very effective and affectable. Romans, verse four, for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. And then that one in first Corinthians ten, and verse eleven. Now all these things happened unto them for example, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. How often in the New Testament in the Acts and the Apostles you will find the writers referring the Jews of that day and the nation, the Lebanon of them, back to the Old Testament and how God dealt with the nation of Israel, especially from its beginning. And I want to draw a parallel, because I believe we have a remarkable parallel in the early days of the church to the early days of Israel as a nation. Now, some people, very able men, believed this charismatic movement that's creeping the country and has for the last several years, is more or less a revolt against dead formalism and ritualism in a lot of the denominations, especially the old shade ones, rocking on, as they were, year after year, ever since modernism seemed to have taken a hold, and they seemed to be given over just formalism and ritualism and seemingly very dead. Then all of a sudden this thing takes over. And it's in some of those old state churches where it has seemed to catch fire. Now one wonders if the pendulum is not swinging. And certainly we are not to look upon fanaticism or anything like that as a substitute for ritualism going from one extreme to the other. The devil, if he can't deceive people one way, he's going to deceive them another. This can happen with an individual as well as a movement. If the devil can't keep a person back from the line that pleases God, he'll drive them over the line. Could it be there were a lot of people getting exercise and concern in the denomination with their ritualism? and so on, formality, were some getting concerned about spiritual things and getting exercised, and so the devil took advantage of that and drove them to fanaticism, to the other extreme, and to avoid the clear-cut line of the gospel as given us in the world. And so today, we find people who are once souls fade in their ways and seemingly very reserved, and yet they've gone right over. to this charismatic movement. That's the allot of Episcopalians. There are some of the major ones in this movement. When thinking back over that, I tried to think of God's dealings with Israel. And after all, there's such a thing as history repeating itself. But remember, true history as it relates to Israel is his story. History is his story. God's story concerning his people. And it's very noticeable back in the Old Testament, especially in the light of what we've read in those texts. What was written before time was written for our learning. Now here you have the birthday of a nation. We're talking about the birthday of this nation, two hundred years ago. But the birthday of Israel, and you might go back to about the sixth chapter of Exodus. And that takes you right on through to about Joshua chapter six, when the walls of Jericho went back. And that are exactly forty years between Exodus six and Joshua six. And forty is the number of probation. Very interesting forty days between the time of the risen Christ until when the Spirit of God came. And forty is often found in your Bible at times probation. So in thinking back over that, I thought, now I'm going back and going to detail about these judgments that fell upon Israel, the miracles that were performed. When you talk about today what they're seeing in this charismatic movement, it's only miniature compared to what happened in the beginning of Israel history. When you think of what happened on Egypt, The miracles, the plagues, the physical, visible manifestation of God's power. Think of the first one that fell upon Egypt back there in those days when Aaron cast down his rod, and his rod became a serpent. Now notice the devil coming in and imitating that. When Aaron threw his rod down, it became a serpent, and the magicians of Egypt did also. did like what? They cast down there rod, and they became servants. But here's where God comes in and overrule. Aaron's rod swallowed up the magician's rod. Now that was our first demonstration. You won't see anything like that today, but that happened back then. And then the second one was when all the rivers, Aaron used his rod again, and all the rivers in Egypt were turned into dust, and that was a terrible plague. And it says the magicians did likewise, showing how Satan is going to demonstrate his power to try and imitate what God does. And he always ties into that very thing. And in the third plague, Aaron used his rod, and he brought frogs up. out to the swamp to fill the land and fill the houses and the kneading cloth and everything else. Now that was quite a place. And at the same time, Aaron did all the frogs return to where they had been. And the magicians did that. So here is plague after plague, miracle after miracle taking place, and the devil is keeping step. Then you remember something else happened. And here you find Aaron, and he smites the dust of the earth, and it turns into nice. Now the magicians stopped. They said, this is the finger of God. They couldn't create life. And so when that happened, and the magicians were stumped, They turned to Pharaoh. They said, This is the thing that have gone. We can't go further. But Pharaoh, even after that demonstration, he hardened his heart again. God says, All right, we'll send another plague. And this one was flies. Swarms of flies came up all over the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh, of course, he saw this display of God's power, but he hardened his heart, and he begged, however, that these flies be made to leave Egypt and Aaron, got permission from the Lord, used his rod, and all the flies left. And I love this. There wasn't one fly in all the land of Egypt. Now, that's a pretty clean house, isn't it? Not one fly. in the whole land of Egypt. We could do with some of that power today in America, in the Son of God. But to think of all those flies coming up all over the land of Egypt, and then the command was given, and not one fly was in the land of Egypt. Then there was another plague that fell, and God killed all the cattle, cattle, horses, and sheep of the Egyptians. And it says, but not one horse, Carl Cattler sheep of the children of Israel died. That was a mighty display of power. For God to wipe out all the stock of the Egyptians and not touch one with the children of Israel. You don't have anything comparable to that today in the way of miracles. Think of these mighty wonders God did back in Israel today. Then again Moses took a handful of ashes out of the furnace, and they cast it into the air, and it became dust. And dust is like a huge dust storm. And all the way you've seen it, I'm sure Brother Roger's seen somehow in this part of the country. I went out there one time to Kansas, and it was terrible. But in those days, all Egypt, there was this dust. And what happened? Boils? big boil that came up upon men and beasts, a dreadful disease, a death swept through the land. There's another mighty act of God, but here on this occasion it says, and singled out the Egyptians and on the magicians also. So the magicians came on this one, and these boils, sores broke out upon these magicians. Of course, there was no reaction on their part. They couldn't perform this miracle. Then there was one more, and that was the hail storm. When hail and fire ran along upon the ground, and so fearful was that storm that Pharaoh finally begged for Moses and Aaron to come in. He said, I've had enough. Now, here are demonstrations of God's power. It says in that connection with that storm and the rain and the hail, It flew all animals and trees and herbs. That was quite a devastating storm, wasn't it? But it says the land of Goshen was not touched, for that's where Israel was. See how God could draw the line between his people and his enemies. Now these are some of the mighty demonstrations of the power of God back in the infant days of the nation of Israel. Then, of course, the Passover night and when they came out. And you add to all we've mentioned the miracle of the Red Sea, when God rolled back the waters and the children of Israel went through. You think of the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night? Another mighty miracle, a demonstration of the constant presence of God with his people. You think of the manor that fell from heaven and gave them food. As they passed through the wilderness and the water from the smitten rock, they came to Mount Sinai, and it was all a glow and an earthquake. Fire on Mount Sinai, another display of the majesty and power and greatness of God. Think of all these things that happened in the life of the children of Israel. Then they came to Jordan, and Jordan parted and met them through. Then the four walls of Jericho fell down flat. Talk about miracles and signs and wonders, mighty manifestations of God in forty years. All of that happened in forty years in Israel's history of the beginning of that nation. There were a few scattered miracles in that time right up until John the Baptist came. Elijah and Elisha now and again performed miracles, but the most of them were right at the beginning and the mighty ones. Then John the Baptist, which was the last of the prophets, the long of prophets went until John. John came to minister to Israel. And there's a remarkable text that just thrilled me the other day when I read it. And this is it. In John ten, it says, And many resorted unto him, John, and said, John did no miracle, but all things that John spoke of this man, Christ, were true. John didn't even perform one miracle. God had visited that nation of Israel, especially in the first forty years, with miracle, miracle, and wonder after wonder sign after sign. But right at the end, John the Baptist didn't perform one miracle. That's a remarkable thing, but that's what the Bible says. And now you come to the beginning of the life of Christ. The early life of Christ began with a miracle. The miracle of his birth. the miracle of the star, the miracle of the angelic choir. These things were miracles in the life of the Lord Jesus, and then think of his life. Many miracles and signs were done by the Lord Jesus Christ to prove that he was the Messiah. And it ended with the greatest miracle of all his wonders of resurrection. Now listen to what it said in Acts chapter twenty-two about that. Ye men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourself also know. And so God was proving that this is his Son, the promised Messiah, by miracles and wonders from beginning to the end. of the three and a half years ministry of the Lord Jesus. Think of what he did. Raising the dead. Three of them. Feeding the five of them. Four of them. His life was packed with miracles and wonders and science. And this is God's way of trying to convince the Jewish nation that this is his son, my son, your promised Messiah. Then you come to the church age, the age of the church. And this is where Acts goes. What do you have taken place in the Acts? Well, it begins with a miracle. The descent of the Holy Spirit, that mighty rushing wind, and the soven tongues fall upon them. Here's a great miracle right at the beginning of the age of the church. And also the tongues that accompanied that. And during the Apostolic era, the gospel was authenticated by signs and wonders and miracles, miraculous gifts and tongues and so on. This is what you read. God also bearing them witness both his signs and wonders and with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will. Well, this is what God did at the beginning of the church age. of all these tongues that we've been talking about. Now, because this happened in the beginning of the church age, have we any reason to believe that that is to continue to the end of the church age? I don't think so. These signed gifts were present at the commencement of the church age. We have no evidence that they are to continue until the end. I took the time one night this week to go right through the act. and write down every miracle performed in the Acts. I have them here, but I'm not going to read them. From the early days, I could have recited them. But there are thirty-one miracles performed in the Acts of the Apocalypse. The first fourteen chapters, there were twenty-one miracles performed. In the last fourteen chapters, just ten. So you see how the miracle of his wonders are tapering off. And the first part of the act is taken up by the ministry of Peter, and he was the apostle to the Jews. The latter part, the apostle to the Gentiles. This is an amazing thing. You know, the last time any mention is made of signs and wonders in the act is in act fourteen and three, at Iconium. Twelve years after Pentecost. And the last time you hear anything about a miracle, or even the word miracle, in Acts, nineteen eleven, twenty-two years after Pentecost. The last time the very mention of tongues is used. Acts nineteen six, twenty-two years after Pentecost. The last time the word prophecy is mentioned, in Acts twenty-one and nine, and that twenty-seven years, after Pentecost. And if you go through the Acts of the Apostles and note these things, it's amazing what you'll see. Now when you think of what happened thirty years after, when Paul got into the writing of the Epistle, thirty years after Pentecost, here is Paul. He's in prison at Rome. Why is he in prison? In the fifth chapter of Acts, the Apostles were put into prison. They were delivered. In the twelfth chapter of Acts, Peter was in prison. God sent his angels and delivered them during the night. Why didn't God do that to the Apostle Paul? He's in prison. God delivered them in the early part of Acts. Why doesn't he deliver Paul now? He's there in prison. Furthermore, Epaphroditus went to visit Paul in prison, and you know what it says? He was nigh unto death. And Paul didn't heal him. Why didn't you exercise your gift of healing, Paul? Here is his eighth apostle coming to see you, Epaphroditus. He's nigh unto the death for the work of God. And you let him leave in the same condition, and you didn't heal. I'd like some of our friends to answer some of these questions. No mention of tongues in the epistles except First Corinthians. Now listen to what you read in Ephesians, where they only mention in the epistles after the First Corinthians, none of the others, what reference do you have to the Holy Spirit? This is what you read in Ephesians five about the Holy Spirit, the filling of the Spirit, not the baptism of the Spirit, and I subdue with the baptism of the Spirit of the Church in the second chapter of Acts we were speaking on this morning. Here you have this in Ephesians five. And this is for us the filling of the Spirit. One baptism, many fillings. In verse eighteen, and be not drunk with wine, what is, and except within is except, but be filled with the Spirit. How? Speaking in tongues or performing miracles? No. Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. There's nothing said about tongues when you're filled with the Spirit in the Epistle. There's not a lot of glamorization here. Talking in tongues, confusingly, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. singing hymns and so on, in your language, that others may understand and sing and join in. This is what you find in the word of God. Another occasion when Paul writes to Timothy, he says, Take a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and thy often infirm, often, infirm. Oh, Paul, Why don't you consider this young brother laboring to young children? Is Israel? Why don't you heal them? No. God says, let Timothy take some wine. If you want to go back to the Old Testament, when Hezekiah was nigh unto death, God says, I say, Tell him to get a lump of figs and put it upon the boy and he shall live. Why didn't God heal them? He used means. He uses means today. We'll take that up more in detail. We speak on the Bible. Then on another occasion, Paul says, Trofimus, have I left that Miletum sick? Paul, why did you leave them there sick? Why did you heal them? I guess a little sarcasm. I have a little. When I was reading this tonight, I thought, well, how do they get around this? Here's the age of the prophet. And he's traveling around with a doctor, Luke, the great physician. That would have kind of hit his healing business on the head, wouldn't it, the kind of doctor around for himself. I thought at the moment about Paul Roberts when he was back having those big healing meetings all over Carolina back many years ago. Wouldn't there have been something if he had a doctor traveling with him to take care of him? That would have hit his business on the head. have a doctor travel to him. But here's one traveling with Paul, showing that Paul will sickly man. He needed a doctor to look after him. That kind of nullifies the healing business of him. These are things I think we do well to look into and examine. When you start to think of thirty-five years after Pentecost, what was going on. There was no call to go back to Pentecost, none whatever. Do you never find in your Bible, in any of the epistles written, thirty-five years after Pentecost, go back to Pentecost, go back to Pentecost. Pentecost is only mentioned twice, and that was when Paul went there for the feast, the great bread, and to keep the feast of the Passover. He didn't go back to Pentecost for any filling of the Spirit or refilling or baptizing of the Spirit. And therefore you don't have going back to Pentecost. The writings of the New Testament is to go on, not go back. And instruction for the church is given to you over in Colossians chapter three and verse one. What's he telling us there? He says, set your affections on things above and not on things on the earth, where Christ sits on the right hand of the Father. Don't be going back to Pentecost. You're not going to get anything back there. It took place once and never will be repeated. For the Christian is looking up and looking on. That's the instruction of the epistle written to the church. How clear the apostle is in this matter you know so often you find people saying in the latter days there's going to be an outpouring of the holy spirit in the latter days i just can't find it i cannot find there's going to be a mighty movement of the spirit just before the lord comes in the latter days of the church if we're to take a pattern of israel with a mighty thunderous beginning of a display of the power of God, God manifesting himself with signs and wonders and miracles in a remarkable way that dwarfed all that happened in the early church except the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But those mighty miracles that God did in the beginning of the first forty years of Israel and then it tapered right off to the end. And John even didn't commit one miracle. Then you have the church, miracles and wonders during the birth and life of Christ. Yes, because they didn't have a New Testament. How was he going to convince them that he was the sent one of God by his mighty power in miracles and wonders? They hadn't a New Testament in Acts either. So when Christ went to heaven, they likely thought, well, I suppose all these miracles are going to stop. The miracle man's gone. God says, no, I've got some that's taken his place. And so here we find the apostles in the early chapters of the Acts, they manifested and demonstrated that same power. They demonstrated that one who had gone to heaven. He left his messengers behind. They had the same power. And this was given to them and miracles were performed, but it faded out, faded out. Why? Because the Apostles' writings came into existence. And if you go back to the Old Testament, what do you have in Joshua chapter one? This book of the law shall not depart from thy mouth. Thou shalt meditate in it day and night. God gave them his word. when they got into the land. Now God said, instead of depending upon these wonders and fright, these miracles and displays of divine power, you rest on my word. The same thing happened in the New Testament. When the miracles began stopping the Scripture of the New Testament writing, came into existence. God says, now I don't want you to look upon the miraculous. the visible, the physical displays. I want you to rest on my word. That's why the miracle stopped, who has certainly said, no, I can't say, and I wouldn't have said, but there have been miracles now and again that have taken place down the church's history. There have been some wonderful things happen. On occasion, some people have been healed. We've got to admit that, but it's not the rule. It's an exception. Because in the age of the church, God says, I've given you my word. And he gave his word and woe be unto any man who abstueth or takes from it the closing curse in the book of Revelation. God has given us his word. And after he's given us his precious word and has blessed our own hearts, responding to our faith when we believe that for salvation we've got the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we know it's true. Do I need any further evidence that there's a living God in heaven? Do I have to see someone perform a miracle to convince me there's a living God? No, this is his word. To ask God for a miracle is more or less to say, Lord, I don't believe in your word's not enough. I want your word plucked. God says, you've got my word, period. Therefore, we're not living in this age, this age of what they call miracles of wonders and signs and so on. And I don't see in my Bible where there's going to be a great outpouring of the Spirit in the latter days. If I read my Bible right, and I try to, all the second official has to do with the latter days. You'll find that. Second Thessalonians, Second Corinthians, Second Peter, and so on, you'll find that they, and Second Timothy, they have to do with the latter days. And what are the warnings? Well, the Lord gives one verse in Mark chapter, the thirteen, I think it is, and I'm going to read that. In chapter thirteen, what does he say? And verse twenty-two, For false Christ and false prophets shall rise and shall show signs and wonders to seduce if it were possible, even the elect, to take heed. Behold, I have foretold you all this. As far as I can see in the latter days, the word of God warns us against the clenching. against apostasy, a falling away, demon activity, false cults. That's what the Old Testament warned us for the latter days. The second epistles especially, this is what we're to expect before the Lord comes. Not an outpouring of the Spirit. And if you turn to Matthew thirteen, you find that those parables given on the kingdom of heaven, they end in a dreadful state of decline. Yes, the kingdom doesn't come in, as a lot of people are expecting it to come, a renovated earth, and an outpouring of God's spirit. They don't seem to differentiate between the millennium and what they're going to do with this world. They don't expect the Lord to come in the tribulation, the battle of Armageddon, and they're coming in the Lord to establish this kingdom. Well, I don't think some of them are getting some sense. They think they're going to bring about the millennium by converting everybody, changing this world. Well, they made an awful mess. And some of the strong Methodists or modernists of twenty-five and thirty years ago have given up that idea. I've read their testimonies. They see where they made a dreadful mistake, thinking they could bring about the millennium by preaching the gospel. That's not the way. God says Christ said he visited the nations that take out of them for a people for his name. And at the end of the church age, just like at the end of the Old Testament, the last word in Malachi, I smite the earth with a curse. The end of the church age, Laodicea, Apostle, I cannot find in my Bible. For the Lord comes an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. But I do see, warning after, warning against a lot of this charismatic thing, demon activity, false cult, the perception, the supernatural, that which pleases the eye. Well, that's what I see in my Bible. You can take it as I've given it. I hope it'll be some help, too. Don't be carried away with these things. that are happening in the last days there'll be an increase of demon activity toward the end that is another verse from Revelation thirteen and he do it this is the coming beast and he do it great wonder or you might say it's the false Christ the false prophet in company with the beast and he do it great wonder so that he make a fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men and to see the den that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he hath power to do in the sight of the beast. When the church is gone, the Holy Spirit leaves in that mighty vacuum will pour those demons out of the bottomless chit of Revelation chapter nine. And it seems that the dreadful demon power of those coming days are the first divisions of that mighty army of wicked spirits that seem almost to have arrived. But I don't think that the age of grace is going to stop at midnight and also the Great Tribulation begin one minute after. A lot of the things that are going to be here during the Great Tribulation will be feeling the effects of them. For the dispensations have a tendency to overlap. somewhat, because it took right from the time Christ came to the end of the act, more or less to change from Judaism to Christianity. And so the dispensations have a tendency to overlap. An ungodly lot that will happen in the Great Tribulation will happen a few years before the Lord comes. We'll begin to see the growing darkness, demon power, maybe years before the Lord returns. I believe we see some redneck. This is a picture, as I see it in my Bible. If you can open your Bible and show me where I'm wrong, I'll appreciate it. But it's a dark picture. I'd like to see it bright enough. That's what the Bible teaches about these things we're seeing around us today. And there's so many things that are so inconsistent that it's charismatic things. and these so-called ministers. And I have more time to pick that up when we get into chapter forty. If you're not a Christian, all I can ask you to do is by simple faith come to this blessed book, acknowledging what you are, what God says you are, a lost sinner. You can't save yourself. And no one else can save you, no human being, no organization. The only way you can be saved is to take this blessed book, and that's why Paul put it so simply in the act. In the midst of all of us going on there in the way of the miraculous, he said to that Philippian jailer in chapter sixteen, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. There it is in a chapter, the simplicity of the gospel, without signs or wonders. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. our Father in heaven in the name of our Lord Jesus we come to thee we thank thee for thy word we ask thy blessing upon it as we reflect upon the past and see such a parallel between thy dealings with Israel and now thy dealings with the church oh Father what a glorious beginning what a marvelous display of thy power the Israel beginning but also the beginning of the church But today, Father, we're left in this world of confusion, so much deceived and distracted. Be crazy for thy word. Thy word is unchanging. It's the same today as it was when given to the church nineteen hundred years ago. It has not altered. And so we rest upon thy precious word and turn away from all that that is so pleasing to the eye, the miraculous. And just have that simple faith God said it, I believe it. Grant that this may be of some help today to stabilize our faith. We ask it in the Lord Jesus' precious name. Amen.