Thank you for our church and the opportunity to salvation of you in Jesus let me pray second
song go to one hundred and my soul so much for coming to set fast bad to receive a bulletin
and you would like to still have one just slip your hand roll up you guys a bulletin
the front have our Bible memory passage we're working on the entire chapter of verbs 31
any child able to remember verse 18 thunder receive ice cream on our Wednesday service
on the inside is our service and so many times also take note of our church stats if you
have soul winning information that you need to turn in make sure you're turning that into
your soul winning captains and lieutenants so that way they can update our church stats
on the right we have several ladies who are expecting please be in prayer for all of them
we have our prayer list as well so if you have a prayer request that you would like
for us to add to the prayer list please email us or we have a communications card and you
can just fill that out flip it into the offering plate when they come by so put those in there
if it is a private request make sure to indicate that either in the email body or the prayer
card on the back have about coming event children's Christmas music recital it's going to be on
the sixteenth boy last year was amazing and I anticipate this one's probably gonna even
be better even if you don't have a child participating in the recital you're still welcome to just
come and enjoy and so it's going to be from two to four on the sixteenth there is a reception
to follow so even if you didn't like the music you can enjoy a cookie or a drink or whatever
okay so I'm just kidding you'll like it also if your child is wanting to participate we
have a rehearsal the week before just so we we can make sure that all the children are
prepared and ready to go you must sign up it's this is the week right before at the
same time approximately there there's a sign up sheet and it even has like a time slot
where you can select that so you don't have to show up for the full two hours you can
just show up for your portion just to do your rehearsal and the songs do not have to be
a him just but if you are singing if your child wants to sing it needs to be a him and
then it's ages 5 to 18 everyone is invited so there's the instructions below also there's
a ladies Christmas party it's going to be Friday the 8th so that's coming up pretty
soon from 6 to 9 p.m. dinner is going to be provided there is a gift exchange if you
would like to participate just bring something wrapped you can ask my wife about details
if you have a question about that and it is nurselings only so that's for you guys that's
for you men to take note of that you try to watch the kiddos to let all these ladies enjoy
the evening and have a really good Christmas party and so also we have a Christmas cookie
bake off there's details there about we've done the same competition every year where
we have a best tasting cookie a best decorated cookie and then a most creative cookie and
you can enter I'm not discriminatory you can enter as many different cookies as you want
okay so if you want to bring 10 different types of cookies go for it typically also
just as a reminder if you want to win you typically have to bring a pretty big batch
just because everyone this is the one time the church gets to vote okay you all get to
vote on what's the best cookies and if you only make one then only one person is going
to vote for you so you got to make a lot of them so then that way you can get a lot of
votes also you can win there could be somebody that wins every single category there's also
no discrimination there whatsoever so your cookie if it's the best looking the most creative
and the best tasting i mean you just jackpot okay so this is pretty much you know we're
just we're just going for who can do the best here there's been some amazing cookies especially
in the creative section so and we'll let everybody vote so that'll be a lot of fun that's going
to be on the 24th so if you are here for christmas please join us bring some cookies and we'll
have milk and everything like that also the mexico missions trips this weekend so please
make sure to pray for those who are traveling down there that they would be safe and that
everything would go smoothly i anticipate that it's going to go really well also we
have a note about the last day of the year there is going to be a new year's eve party
that sunday it's actually sunday this year and that sunday night service we're going
to let some of the guys in church preach sermon when we get a little bit closer i'll probably
have a sign up sheet or some information on that as well but just giving you an idea so
lots of events to put on the calendar oh i didn't mention the caroling caroling's on
the 11th as well and that is uh is that what is that like a tuesday or something it's a
monday okay so we'll we'll give you as soon as we get the details i'm not sure if we're
going to meet here at the building or if we might meet somewhere else but as soon as i
get the details then i'll update the church on that just at least put it on your calendar
we'll probably meet around 6 6 30 and then we'll head out for caroling so that's pretty
much all i have as far as announcements we're going to go ahead and sing our psalm of the
week psalm 147 psalm 147 if you have a special handout that's that's the best way to sing
it if you need to you could always use the king james bible psalm 147
bring plates being passed around please turn your bibles to deuteronomy 13
deuteronomy chapter 13 chapter 13 we'll read the entire chapter this is our custom starting
in verse number one where the bible reads if there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer
of dreams and give it thee a sign or a wonder and the sign or the wonder come to pass were
what he spake unto thee saying let us go after other gods which thou hast not known
and let us serve them thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer
of dreams for the lord your god proveth you to know whether ye love the lord your god
with all your heart and with all your soul ye shall walk after the lord your god and
fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice and he shall serve him and cleave
unto him and that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he
hath spoken to turn you away from the lord your god which brought you out of the land
of egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage to thrust thee out of the way which
the lord thy god commanded thee to walk in so shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee
if thy brother the son of thy mother or thy son or thy daughter or the wife of thy bosom or thy
friend which is as thine own soul entice thee secretly saying let us go and serve other gods
which thou hast not known thou nor thy fathers namely of the gods of the people which are round
about you nigh unto thee or far off from thee from the one end of the earth even under the other end
of the earth thou shalt not consent unto him nor hearken unto him neither shall thine eye pity him
neither shalt thou spare neither shalt thou conceal him but thou shalt surely kill him
thine hand shall be first upon him to be to put him to death and afterwards the hand of all the
people and thou shalt stone him with stones that he died because he hath sought to thrust thee away
from the lord thy god which brought thee out of the land of egypt from the house of bondage
and all israel shall hear and fear and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you
if thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities which the lord thy god hath given thee to dwell there
saying certain men the children of belial are gone out from among you and have withdrawn the
inhabitants of their city saying let us go and serve other gods which he have not known then
shout thou inquire and make search and ask diligently and behold if it be truth and the
things certain that such abomination is wrought among you thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants
of that city with the edge of the sword destroying it utterly all that is therein and the cattle
thereof with the edge of the sword and thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the
street thereof and shalt burn it with fire the city it shall burn with fire the city and all the
spoil thereof every wit for the lord thy god and it shall be in heat forever it shall not be built
again and this shall cleave not of the cursed thing to thine hand that the lord may turn from
the fierceness of his anger and show thee mercy and have compassion upon thee and multiply thee
as he hath sworn unto thy fathers when thou shalt hearken to the voice of the lord thy god to keep
all his commandments which i command thee this day to do that which is right in the eyes of the
lord thy god let's bow our heads for a word of prayer father god we thank you for deuteronomy 13
and also lord for the service we have this morning and coming up also this evening i pray
that you fill pastor shelly with your spirit and just enable him lord to preach the sermon with
boldness that you've laid on his heart and help us to apply the message to our lives so that we
may glorify you and everything that we do we love you and in jesus name i pray amen amen i want to
focus at the beginning of this chapter where we read here in verse one the bible says if there
arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams and give it thee a sign or a wonder and the bible
often uses this terminology or this phrase of signs and wonders signs and wonders and it's
addressing this in the law about certain people coming and performing a sign or a wonder now what's
very interesting about this section of scripture is notice what it says in verse two and the sign
or the wonder come to pass so it says if someone goes out there and performs some quote miracle
or perform some sign or perform some wonder and it even happens exactly what they said or exactly
what they're describing or or something that you can't explain happens exactly as they describe it
it says in verse two where have he said unto thee saying let us go after other gods which thou
is not known and let us serve them so there's also something attached to this not only to do a sign
or a wonder there's false religion or some kind of heresy attached to it it says in verse three
thou shalt not hearken under the words of that prophet so what the bible is trying to say is
just because someone can perform a miracle just because someone can do a sign or a wonder does
not validate or ensure that this is someone that's of God in fact there are people that are capable
of performing signs and wonders through false religion through demonic means or in many cases
just trickery and deceit and this is a common thing that's happening in our world and even
in Christianity today where people are going after signs and wonders rather than the truth
if we kind of pay attention here what's more important than the sign and the wonder
is the message that's being communicated isn't it is checking the doctrine and making sure is this
person really of God because if they're trying to draw me away from the Lord or draw me away from
God's word then this person's not of God it doesn't matter what kind of miracles or signs
or wonders that they can show unto me I need to seek the truth and really I have only two simple
points this morning I'm going to probably go back and forth on them a lot throughout the scripture
because really what I want to do is I want to show you a lot of Bible today because I think that
for this topic there's a lot of places where people are confused or don't understand but the
first point I have is God tells us to seek truth not a sign we're supposed to seek truth and not
a sign because if you're just seeking signs only and you don't really care what the truth is you
could fall victim to one of these individuals one of these false prophets or false teachers
who are using trickery deceit or even potentially powers of the devil and this is a scary thing
when we think about the end times because there is coming a anti-christ with all lying signs and
wonders as the bible describes and there's going to be a lot of people who are seeking for a sign
or they're seeking for some kind of a wonder and they're going to be led astray not only that
god doesn't want us to seek a sign he wants us to seek the truth and and then when we see people
in the bible seeking signs and not really seeking the truth christ ends up rejecting them or not
giving them the signs and the wonders that they truly wanted and even when he does they still
reject it anyways um i want to go go to exodus go back just a little bit go to exodus chapter seven
what's kind of interesting is there was a lot of miracles at the time of moses and pharaoh
and you can say these are a lot of signs and wonders and really you know i think that when
we talk about signs wonders miracles i'm using all these words interchangeably meaning the same
thing okay i'm not really differentiating between signs and wonders and miracles there might be a
little bit of nuance there but just generally speaking if i use any of those phrases i'm
referring to the same thing and god wants to deliver his children out of egypt from under the power of
pharaoh but pharaoh doesn't care who the lord is you know when moses comes unto him and they
talk to him moses makes it clear hey the lord's told us that you're supposed to let him go and
he's like who's the lord and you know he's just kind of rejecting god's word on the onset well
erin and moses are supposed to go back to pharaoh under god's commandment and they're supposed to
speak to pharaoh again and god's trying to tell them that they like basically what's going to
happen before it happens it's kind of like an anticipation so here in exodus chapter number
seven this is god talking about what's going to happen look at verse number nine when pharaoh
shall speak unto you saying show a miracle for you then thou shalt say an errand take thy rod
and cast before pharaoh and it shall become a serpent and moses and erin went in unto pharaoh
and they did so as the lord had commanded and erin cast down his rod before pharaoh and before
his servants and it became a serpent then pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers now
the magicians of egypt they also did in like manner with their enchantments for they cast
down every man his rod and they became serpents but erin's rod swallowed up their rods and he
hardened pharaoh's heart that he harkened not unto them as the lord had said now this is what i want
to kind of draw out in the text here is that pharaoh doesn't initially listen to god's word
isn't going to just let them free doesn't really care what the truth is what does he ask for i
don't want the truth i don't want god's word i want a sign and then moses takes a rod and turns
it into a literal serpent that's kind of terrifying number one i wouldn't really want that sign
but of course it was a sheer miracle but then what does pharaoh do does pharaoh then seek the truth
no he seeks a sign from what his magicians from his false prophets from his false teachers and
they're able to deliver aren't they according to the text they also produce a snake from their rods
now of course there is some significance here where moses's rod swallows up the other two serpents
and so you can see that god is going to triumph in signs and miracles and wonders but also another
thing that's interesting about this is it's actually really just kind of foreshadowing the
gospel you kind of have the three days with the three you have his serpent you have the two
serpents you have three serpents here kind of picturing the three days and three nights of
christ and the serpent is kind of picturing the fact that christ took upon our sin upon himself
he became that serpent upon the stake and he because he took our sin he had to basically
take our punishment but then after that you know we see that serpent turning back into the rod
and so you kind of have that death barrel resurrection with christ foreshadowed so he's
kind of getting a mini gospel here in this particular sign in wonder albeit even having
seen the sign does pharaoh end up believing no and what you'll see is a consistent theme in the
bible is those who seek a sign even when they get it they still reject it they still don't even end
up believing in the lord and then many other times people end up believing the lord or trusting the
lord maybe they don't even want a sign or maybe they're not even looking for a sign they'll get
signs they'll end up getting a lot of wonders they end up believing the miracles of the bible and
you kind of see this contrasted in a lot of places in scripture i want to go to matthew
chapter number 12 now go to the new testament go to matthew chapter number 12 point one is this
seek truth not a sign what did pharaoh seek pharaoh was seeking for signs and even after
getting them he still didn't believe it he still didn't turn his heart to the lord he hardened his
heart god hardened his heart and even having so many miracles before perform before him he never
he never really trusted in the lord i mean at one point he lets the children of israel go
after a pretty mighty sign having lost his firstborn child but he still isn't trusting
in the lord or he didn't really repent because afterwards he then chases them into the red sea
and god has to destroy him and his army and it wasn't like pharaoh oh well after that sign he'd
believe there wasn't a sign he could have ever gotten and he would have believed and you kind
of see this in two different extremes one extreme is kind of this atheist viewpoint out there where
they kind of deny all the miracles of the bible they kind of deny the power of the bible and you'll
hear sometimes they'll say these things like well if god was real why wouldn't he just come down
from heaven and show himself to me and tell me that he's god because then i would believe in him
you know what's so silly about that is that god literally did come down from heaven his name was
jesus christ and he literally did perform miracles in front of people and he literally did tell them
i'm the son of god and they didn't believe him and you think oh well if he did that for me though
then i i would believe no that person still wouldn't believe and you know we have to understand
is that just because you know we're abstracted from the new testament gospels by a couple
thousand years we're not any different kind of people than they were it's not like well
if we were back then we would be so much different or so much better you know there's no new
thing under the sun people are people and the people that don't want to believe are going to
believe okay it's not like the sign and wonder is going to change their mind and why it's because
they're not seeking truth they're seeking a sign or a wonder okay now look at matthew chapter 12
and look at verse 38 then certain of the scribes and of the pharisees answered saying master we
would see a sign from thee yeah hey show us some miracle and verse 39 but he answered instead of
them an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign and there shall no sign be given to
it but the sign of the prophet jonas so he's saying you're wicked for wanting a sign you're
evil for even wanting this and the only sign that i'm going to give you is the sign of the prophet
jonas what is that verse 44 is jonas was three days and three nights in the wells belly so shall
the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth the men of ninova shall
rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching
of jonas and behold a greater than jonas is here so this is what i want to point out about this text
is notice that the sign they get is related to what is related to the gospel of jesus christ
for just as jonas was three days and three nights in the wells belly jesus christ comparing himself
in saying how he was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth okay and that's basically
the death burial and resurrection of jesus christ and he's saying that's the only sign
i'm going to end up giving this entire generation and you know what's going to happen in the great
judgment in the great white throne judgment all the men of ninova are going to be why in the world
did you not believe jesus is preaching we believe jona's preaching and jona's not nearly the preacher
that jesus is and jona surviving a whale is not nearly as miraculous as someone dying and then
coming back from the dead so he's what he's trying to compare here is you should have believed you
should have repented and trusted in christ and because you didn't these people are going to
condemn you notice it says in verse 42 the queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with
the generation and shall condemn it for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the
wisdom of solomon and behold a greater than solomon is here also signifying that she is going to judge
people for not seeking truth especially in this generation when they had jesus christ himself on
earth and she's saying i didn't have jesus to seek after but i did seek after solomon being the most
godly wise man on the earth at the time and how can how can you be justified and having not sought
the lord jesus christ when he was in the flesh if i was willing to seek out for solomon and so it's
saying that she also will judge them and condemn them for not having sought what truth not having
sought the truth and what was it that the men of ninova what convinced them to change their ways
did jona come into their town and perform a bunch of miracles did jona come in and do a bunch of
tricks and you know hoopla and heal everybody or no no no you know what jona did yet 40 days
and then she'll be overthrown he just preached meaning what that we should repent at preaching
okay so here's the two points that i want to make this morning and i'm going to prove them over and
over again but point number one is this don't seek a sign seek the truth and when you get the truth
when you hear the preaching repent you don't need a sign to repent you don't need a sign or a wonder
or a miracle to change your ways to change your mind and to follow god's word we should just
believe the preaching the first time we hear it you know there's a lot of people that didn't
how about john the baptist's dad he didn't believe the first time he heard it and then the angel
punished him and he caused him not even be able to speak as a result of not believing on the spot
we see that on the walk to Emmaus jesus christ rebukes the two men that he talks to oh fools
and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have written he's saying why in the world what
kind of a sign in the miracle do you need why can't you just believe the bible when jesus came
unto the disciples he up braided them the bible says up braiding is like rebuking really harsh
scolding he up braided them for their unbelief because they hadn't believed initially that he
had risen from the dead and you say well what do they have to believe that the scripture what do
they have to believe that the preaching of jesus jesus literally preached it to him like dozens of
times in the scripture alone let alone how many times he really did in in history i don't know
but we have multiple times jesus christ telling them hey i'm gonna be betrayed into the hands
of the Pharisees they're gonna condemn me they're gonna crucify me but i'm gonna rise again on the
third day he kept telling them this over and over they should have believed it shouldn't and i think
what the bible is trying to hammer into our minds and into our hearts is this stop looking for the
miracle and start believing the truth just just seek truth seek truth and and what's interesting
is when people seek truth often god ends up still giving them signs and wonders and miracles and
the other things so it's not that god won't give signs it's not that god doesn't give signs
and and this is what's a little bit paradoxical about this particular passage is don't we read
in matthew mark and luke and john jesus doing miracle after miracle after miracle after miracle
didn't go into every single town and heal every single person of every single disease absolutely
so then why is it that he's saying to these people that he's not going to give them a sign
or that he's not going to do anything other than this sign of the prophet jones and i find that
kind of be kind of an interesting dilemma of the text but i want to explain to you what i believe
it's trying to say here go to matthew chapter 16 go to matthew chapter 16 who's wondered that
anybody else okay a few people yeah you kind of read about it's like hey i'm not going to give
you any sign but then he constantly is doing all his miracles right and you're kind of thinking
like how does that make sense how does that kind of fit well look at matthew chapter 16 and look
at verse number one the bible says the pharisees also with the sagas came and tempted desiring
desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven now this is later in the text what's kind
of interesting is he's already told him he's not going to give them a sign but they didn't they're
like hey give me a sign anyways right they just keep kind of pestering him keep kind of tempting
him as the bible says verse two he answered and said unto them when it is evening ye say it will
be fair weather for the sky is red and in the morning it will be foul weather today for the sky
is red and lowering oh ye hypocrites you can discern the face of the sky but you cannot discern
the signs of the times a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign and there shall
no sign be given unto it but the sign of the prophet jonah's and he left them and departed
so this is kind of a parallel passage but we get a little more detail here what is jesus christ
saying he's saying as a human species we can literally look into the sky and kind of predict
the future or even know what's coming on the horizon from a weather pattern based on our
understanding our ability to discern calculate i mean we have a whole profession of meteorologists
who are constantly predicting weather patterns they're able to discern things and obviously when
we get pretty far past a day it's pretty inaccurate i mean they start saying all kinds of crazy things
and of course if you live in like phoenix it's pretty easy it's like it's going to be hot you
know it's like okay now they're pretty good but generally speaking this is true and generally
speaking people can kind of tell when a storm is approaching or they can kind of anticipate
certain weather patterns and are pretty reliable for the most part you kind of understand these
weather situations and think about it you're having to use a lot of intellect you're studying
you're calculating and you also have to be focused on the truth because you want to you want to be
right when it comes to understanding the weather and understanding what's on the horizon and he's
saying how is it that you can put all this effort and energy and education and mental capacity
and understanding weather patterns but you can't understand what's going on right now with Jesus
Christ you can't understand that I'm the son of God you can't discern that I am God in the flesh
you can't discern that all the miracles and all the things that I'm doing right now are because
I'm of God and what you'll see consistently in the text is every time Jesus Christ does a miracle
the Pharisees dismiss it don't they he heals a man who's born blind or he heals a man that's a leper
and the Pharisees don't want to give him the credit they don't want to say the person's healed
they they're disputing it so in their mind no sign or no wonder has been given has it they're
basically denying the miracles they're dismissing the miracles they're unwilling to believe just
kind of like Pharaoh he got the sign but then he's just kind of dismissing it acting like no that's
not really they try to explain it away or forget about it and this happens in the world today
where a lot of people will try to explain away the Bible they'll try to explain away the miracles of
the Bible they'll try to explain away the things of God and you'll notice that there's kind of you
know it ends in atheism but there's a wide spectrum that kind of gets there they start people start
slowly just denying the miracles of the Bible and then it leads all the way to atheism doesn't it
and the people who just believe and trust in the gospel and they trust in the Lord they end up
believing all the miracles of the Bible you know it's a big red flag if someone starts telling me
that they don't believe in the miracles of the Bible and you kind of have two extremes that I
want to kind of tease out this morning you have one extreme where they're not chasing signs and
wonders they just are skeptical and don't believe in anything kind of like your Sadducees
they don't even believe in the resurrection okay they don't they basically don't believe any of
the Bible they don't believe any of the miracles and then on the other side you kind of have people
that are only chasing signs and wonders and we see this in Christianity today even what's what's
crazy is that the southern baptist convention in the 60s around that time early 60s and obviously
this is kind of them coming to that point so it probably happened a little before that
but for a large percentage of their history in that period of time most of the leaders in their
movement denied like the miracles of the bible let me just let me just read something for you
in this is this is a news article um coming from kansas city missouri it says one of the catalysts
of the conservative resurgence the elliot controversy this is talking about the southern
baptist history it says was examined by three southern baptist historians in a panel discussion
september 10th at midwestern baptist theological seminary so basically there was a there was a
conference or a convention a lot of southern baptists are there and they're kind of talking
about what they believe and this this person named ralph elliot says the controversy erupted
at midwestern in 1961 when ralph elliot the chair of the old testament department authored a book
published by broadman press titled the message of genesis elliot used a historical critical method
of interpretation to examine the first book of the bible arguing that it is not literal history
but that it could be religious truth nonetheless elliot assumed multiple authors for genesis
and concluded it was full of symbolic stories not to be taken as literally true such as adam and
eve were not actual historical figures this is a this is a southern badness like a leader
in their movement writing a book many people praising this person saying that adam and eve
aren't even real people what in the world like where did we come from at that point like what do
you i don't even know they i don't even know what they would argue maybe evolution it says this the
flood was local so they deny that the flood in the bible was a global flood where the bible literally
even says that the water was above the highest hill how do you how's that local okay not only
that um he it also says here that abraham did not actually hear the voice of god commanding him to
sacrifice isaac so now he's just this delusional psychotic father that wants to take his son's
own life not he wasn't actually commanded that from god you know this this is the kind of
direction that people will head why because you know initially they probably were seeking a sign
or wonder and they got kind of jaded by it or they got lied or deceived or something happened
or perhaps they just have a heart and heart like pharaoh and then where does that lead it leads to
a point where you just reject all the bible and look there are people out there people like hue
ross who deny you know young earth creationalism deny global flood deny a lot of the the things in
the bible as literal history deny adam and eve and look i don't think hue ross is saved and i
don't think people that go down this road are saved and they don't believe the bible and you
can kind of see i'm going to just quote for you for a second but in john five this is what jesus
said for had you believed moses you would have believed me for he wrote of me but if you believe
not his writings how do you believe my words meaning there's a direct correlation to believing
the miracles of the bible and believing in jesus christ and the people who believe in jesus are
the same people who believe in adam and eve are real they're the ones that believe there was a
global flood they're the ones who believe that god spoke to abraham isaac and jacob they're the
ones who believe that moses was visited by god in a burning bush they're the ones who believe that
god literally poured out his wrath and plagues that are not possible by human means on egypt
even his own magician said hey this is the finger of god this the god who literally parted the red
sea and they walked on dry land the god who fed them with mana from heaven i mean this is the
people who believe in jesus and the people who sit here and want to pick those stories apart
and say that that's not history or that's not real denying the miracles you know these people
are not believers they just don't believe in they can tell me they believe in jesus but they're
lying about it there's there's some kind of cognitive dissonance there they're they're kind
of a deceiver and and we have to be careful that we don't go to an extreme where just because
there's signs and wonders that we just deny everything about that look those who believe
in jesus we have to believe miracles miracles are part of the bible you know to be a believer
you have to believe at least one miracle the resurrection of jesus christ that's where it
starts and that's where faith comes in and this is why people that have no faith mock christians
oh you guys believe in a bunch of fairy tales and a bunch of miracles i remember going to the
university of austin not that long ago sitting down talking with students and there was one who sat
down who wanted to be a whale and uh this thing wanted to be a whale i didn't know what it was
and uh i was asking like about christianity and they were like yeah yeah i heard about christianity
i know what the bible says about that and i said well why do you not believe the bible you know
what's your what's your hang up and she's just like well the worst thing is your bible says that
jesus died and rose again and i can't i can't believe that the resurrection that's a miracle
that could never happen and i said you believe when you die you're gonna become a whale right
it's like yeah and it was her name was zen okay it said zen so is so is that a miracle you turning
into a whale no it's not a mirror it's like wait a minute how is me believing that jesus rose from
the dead being a miracle you know so hard to believe but you thinking that you're going to
literally turn into a whale when you die is not a miracle it's like hey what if you just switched
bodies within a whale right now is that a miracle and she's just like no that's not possible right
because it'd be a miracle if it happened right and it's like it's like trying to explain to this
person you believe in miracles your miracles are weirder though number one and number two show me
the religious text that's studied by the entire world that says you're going to turn into a whale
because I'll show you the most popular book in human history that says Jesus Christ rose again
from the dead so let's let's test your religion versus mine here okay and obviously you know
unfortunately for this person you know talking with her it's pretty clear she was exposed to
the gospel heard the gospel multiple times rejected over and over and and it's most likely
someone that will never believe it and you know that's sad that that's the reality but
we also have to understand that that is reality there are pharaohs out there there are people
out there that when confronted with the truth confronted with Jesus Christ even himself
in the flesh they're not going to believe in him and you say well you know if he just
showed up then I believe in him no you wouldn't if you won't believe Moses if you don't believe
Genesis you won't believe John you won't believe Mark you won't believe Jesus Christ in the
flesh because you know what those who seek the truth will find it and those who are seeking
signs and wonders will get deceived and they'll get pushed in one of these two camps those
become a complete atheist that denies all miracles or they'll get pushed into another
camp where they basically only are seeking for just a miracle and a sign and wonder everywhere
they go okay and I don't want to talk about that as well but you know here's the thing
they can discern these miracles and stuff I'm sorry the Pharisees and everybody can discern
the sky but they can't discern the signs of the times right now go if you went to Matthew 24 go
to Matthew 24 this is important that we discern the signs of the times and we understand when we're
at in history because many people in this world believe that Jesus Christ is the next event
spiritually speaking they believe in what's called a pre-tribulation rapture or they believe in the
doctrine of eminency where they say Jesus could come at any minute and they just kind of believe in
a messiah that's just going to come right away i don't believe in that number one because the
pre-tribulation rapture is not in the bible number two you know the bible actually says there's a
couple things that have to happen before Jesus Christ come back you know you read in the
Thessalonians it makes it abundantly clear that there's two things that have to happen for sure
a falling way first and then there's going to be a man of sin being revealed okay and that's the
son of perdition who according to the bible is going to do things like lying signs and wonders
now look at the warning in Matthew 24 in verse 24 talking about that portion of history saying
for there shall rise false christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders
in so much that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect now why is that important
think about what we read in deuteronomy where god already told us hey when someone shows up
saying you know doing this wonder and it even happens but it's kind of a different god it's
not the god of the bible they have that false doctrine don't harken to that person don't listen
to that person and you know that's what the anti-christ is going to do the anti-christ is
going to come and he's going to do lying signs and wonders and all kinds of miracles and he's
going to deceive the whole world and he would even deceive us if we weren't saved that's what the
bible says it's going to be someone that everybody likes everybody wants to believe in everybody's on
team trump i mean i'm sorry that's good i saw there's this there's this twitter account it's
called donnie darkened and it's like all about how donald trump's the anti-christ okay and uh i just
i just for fun just kind of like read through some of the posts and it's like well donald trump he is
you know the 45th president and if you add that up that's four or five that's a nine
okay and he's he's skipped 46 but he's going to be elected 47 and that is four plus seven is 11
okay so we've got a 911 and then if you if you flip these backwards it's actually 119
and if you know anything about you know judaism and jamaatry you know the 119 is a significant
number you know and then they just prove like all these other 119s and and they go through all these
lists they say they show this report like some rabbi has connected donald trump to the lineage
of david he's somehow he's he's in this lineage this special lineage all the way back to king
david that's probably him and a couple billion people on this planet okay david had a lot of
wives okay and then solomon had even more wives you don't think of those thousands of women had
any kids we're probably a lot of us trace back to david folks okay i'm just letting you realize
that but you know they forgot that one verse in the bible or talks about the antichrist not
desiring women and it's like trump failed that one pretty hard okay so sorry yeah i know you wanted
him to be the antichrist but but but here's here's the point that i would like to tie to this is think
about i believe personally in america the vast majority of americans actually kind of like and
support donald trump i think if we had a real election you know it coming up pretty soon that
he would probably win every state maybe not new york but probably like he i mean he goes anywhere
in public everybody cheers for him everybody likes him yeah there's a bunch of brain-dead
you know liberals that live in major cities but they're actually in my opinion the minority
and it's just the propaganda machine that makes you feel like there's a lot more democrats than
there really are and that's just again that's my personal opinion but i'll say this it's
undeniable that virtually anywhere donald trump goes everybody's cheering everybody's excited
everybody's kind of rallied around him and i think when it comes to the anti-christ it's
going to even be more so it's going to be a it's going to be a public figure that virtually
everybody kind of rallies around everybody gets excited about if you study history on hitler you
know hitler is kind of an interesting character in history because essentially they had a fight
between socialism and communism in germany and after world war one germany kind of lost and
economy was bad and you had a lot of these communists and and really just kind of like what
we think is our protesters going around everywhere terrorizing everyone and everyone is sick and
tired of the communism they were sick and tired of all the transgender stuff they were sick and
tired of all this the faggotry and all the weird stuff they were bringing in and so basically they
they had the socialist party kind of get popular and it was it was kind of a nationalist socialist
party but in general you know they were forming little militias and these militias kind of kept
getting more popular hitler ended up actually what's so funny is in the military and he was
being paid to spy on this particular uh movement of the socialist movement and then he ended up
just switching he just he like he's sending in the spy for the government and then he was basically
like hey i like what they're saying and then he just joined the party and then he became like one
of those prominent leaders of the party tried to overthrow the government and they threw him in
prison for a while then after he got out of prison he just kept getting more and more popular because
basically they had their form of militia going around protecting everybody from these communist
scumbags and the whole country was just sick and tired of them so much eventually he gets into power
and their government wasn't so much a dichotomy it wasn't like democrat and republican it was
kind of like three parties and as a result of that he ended up getting enough political power
they have the Reichstag fires they basically have a couple emergencies he has some emergency
declarations takes into power kills all the people that are you know kind of you know in opposition
to him but then he gets all control basically becomes their Fuhrer becomes their dictator
and you would think like that's scary but what happened is because they were in such an economic
upheaval and they had all these communist people causing all these problems in the streets once
he came to power he got rid of all that he got rid of all of these these communist scumbags and
destroyed all of them burned all their books and then he basically put everybody to work gave them
jobs they started building all kinds of things and in fact that's why there's so many really
great products today coming from Germany I mean it's crazy Germany's a small country and it's
like they have tons of cars manufacturing somebody was talking to me about the German we were like
just naming German car manufacturers like Audi and BMW and Mercedes and Volkswagen I mean where is
all the France car manufacturers all the French great you know where's all you look at these other
countries you don't see like this just giant industry Germany was known for chocolate they
were known for all kinds of industrial revolution and really they were pretty advanced for a while
because they were all rallied together unified they had a common goal and a lot of positive things
were happening and so for the most part Hitler was loved and Hitler was loved to the point where he
was being worshiped almost and being praised they were going up and down parading him and they had
all this satanic imagery and symbolism that they would parade up and down the streets and I mean
the German people were literally I mean they would like worship Hitler you couldn't say a crossword
about Hitler and he got to a point where he had millions of people lined up behind him to go to
war and I think it's very likely you can see the same thing similar things happening with the
Antichrist he's going to be a super popular person who's going to fix a lot of problems
and he's going to have almost everybody rally behind him and then on top of that he's going
to do miracles on top of that he's going to have lying signs and wonders to the point where
everybody would want to believe in this guy everybody's kind of on team you know anti-christ
but those who believe in the bible are not they're looking at him and they're saying oh well he
doesn't match he doesn't match the scripture and of course he's described as a man of sin
maybe he's he's tolerating a lot of wickedness a lot of sin in fact hitler one of the things he did
is he needed soldiers so badly that you basically you could commit adultery and there was no
punishment and then as a result instead of like having planned parenthood where we just destroy
all of our children they created government institutions where they as soon as you if you
commit adultery you're still supposed to have the baby they would pay the woman and they would take
the baby and then the government would raise them so they just like hired a couple like some women
and they would just raise all the the bastards and the adultery babies and just put them right into
the system so they were just kind of like maximizing people well you know that doesn't really match the
jesus of the bible setting up an adultery program to raise all these random children you know that's
pretty wicked okay hitler himself had all kinds of affairs and did all kinds of weird you know
wicked things so obviously hitler was super wicked very sinful i'm sure that the anti-christ is also
going to be praising a lot of wickedness a lot of evil but but what's the point the point is this
people that are chasing a sign the anti-christ is going to deliver the anti-christ is going to
deliver those who are seeking the truth the anti-christ is not going to deliver and we need
to encourage people and when we talk to people we go out and preach gospel we encourage them to seek
the truth not a sign seek what the word of god says not some kind of a wonder go to providence
chapter number 30 go to providence number 30 when i would go down to houston often to preach almost
every thursday virtually for several years on my way back there was this church that i had always
passed by and they have this giant billboard and it's right off the 45 and it's just like
kind of right on the right side and it just says in big letters signs and wonders are done here
with an arrow and then it's just like pointing to their church and i said you know this is what i
thought like that's so silly because if if you were really doing signs and wonders at your church
you wouldn't need a billboard no one no one would ever need a billboard jesus didn't need a
billboard do you know there was i don't know if there was any billboards i doubt there was a single
billboard in jesus day and yet the the fame of him spread abroad they didn't even have tiktok and
twitter and facebook or any of these type of things and and word was spreading about jesus
christ like wildfire why because he was really doing miracles because he was really healing
people and i tried to explain this i said look if there was anybody in this room that could just
indiscriminately just lay a hand on someone and they would instantly be healed no questions asked
every single time no doubt whatsoever by sunday night we would have a thousand people here and by
wednesday night we'd have like a million people trying to knock down this door you wouldn't even
have to spread it on facebook or anything like that's how quick that stuff was spread and with
the with internet today it would be even crazier it would be even faster if that could possibly
happen now that doesn't mean that god doesn't heal people and i'm not saying that god doesn't
still do miracles a day but what i'm trying to say is that if your church is just performing all
these signs and wonders at every single service you don't need to advertise that you can everybody's
going to be knocking down your door everybody's going to come in you know why they have to
advertise that because no one's coming to the church and here's another thing they're not going
to try and entice you with truth what are they trying to entice you with some kind of a sign or
some kind of a wonder or something you know that's like the exact opposite of the bible we're not
supposed to be going out and trying to attract people with signs and wonders we're supposed to
attract them with the gospel of jesus christ with the truth that's the real power and yet there's
many generations that are very wicked very sinful and they're going to want these signs look at
proverbs chapter 30 verse 11 there's a generation that cursed at their father and does not bless
their mother there's a generation that are pure in their own eyes and not and yet is not washed
from their own filthiness there's a generation know how lofty are their eyes and their eyelids
are lift up there's a generation whose teeth are as swords and their jaw teeth as knives
to devour the poor from off the earth and the needy from among men now this is what I find
interesting is the Pharisees and Sadducees are described as a wicked and adulterous generation
and they're also described as not believing in Jesus and just basically wanting signs and
wanting wonders well what's kind of interesting is why like why are those two things connected
why is a wicked and adulterous generation not interested in believing in Christ and why do
they want the signs and the wonders it's because they want to be wicked and adulterous and they
don't want to actually repent and because of a result of that they're looking for excuses
to stay wicked to do evil things and so oh well then show me a sign and even when you show the
sign it's like well show me another sign well well you know it's never enough because they just want
an excuse not to change okay whereas Nineveh as soon as they hear the preaching they just
change right away didn't they and so this wicked and adulterous generation is ones who often won't
believe in Jesus Christ this fits John chapter number three when it talks about those who are
not seeking the Lord Jesus Christ they're not seeking the light because men love darkness rather
than light why because their deeds were evil neither they come to the light lest their deeds
should be what reproved and a lot of times the reason why people don't get saved is just because
they don't want to live a christian life and that's sad you don't have to live the christian life to
get saved but you know what many times people refuse and reject the free gift of salvation
just because they don't want to be reproved for their sins just because of their wicked and
adulterous life they don't want the light to be shined on their life they think what well as the
bible describes here in verse 12 that they're pure in their own eyes that describes the pharisees
they were willing to justify themselves they thought that they were righteous because of their
actions not only that notice that they were wishing evil on their their father and mother
for a second time i'm not going to go to these places but you know jesus christ rebuked the sad
the sadism the pharisees for what not honoring their father and their mother they would say it
is corbin they would not end up honoring their father and mother not taking care of them and
he rebuked them what they were basically cursing their father and mother not really obeying their
father and mother secondly they thought that they were pure in their own eyes they didn't think they
needed jesus christ they believed in themselves they thought they were righteous they thought they
were keeping the law and yet jesus christ said to constantly rebuke them go to matthew 23 for a
second lofty in their own eyes meaning they're proud meaning they think very highly of themselves
and then another one that says their teeth are as swords to devour the poor meaning that they use
their tongue they use their words deceitfully to steal and to take advantage of poor people
now again this is the pharisees in the bible you know a lot of people just kind of throw that
accusation around they love to just call people pharisees and and they usually have the exact
opposite interpretation of what a pharisee is it's so funny you tell someone not to break one of
god's commandments in the bible and they'll call you a pharisee and it's like well the pharisees
didn't believe in the bible jesus rebuked them for not believing moses jesus rebuked them for
having a loose interpretation of the law jesus christ rebuked them for being hypocrites and not
doing what they say and jesus christ also rebuked them for basically being the most evil people on
the earth and all all the while projecting how great they are okay being the most sinful and
of course who do they pray on the most the poor and it's funny a church like ours what's our main
goal and mission to go to the poor people to preach in the gospel and to keep the law and to
not be hypocrites on the things that we preach and it's like oh you're a pharisee you don't even
know what a pharisee is the pharisees are the liberal christians today are the ones who don't
believe the law who are not preaching the law not preaching the miracles not doing what god said
and going out and preaching the gospel and here's another thing they devour widows houses let me
show you that in matthew chapter number 23 look at what it says in verse 13 but woe unto you
scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men for you neither
go in yourselves neither suffee them that are entering to go in does this sound like they're
preaching the gospel no they're not preaching the gospel they're not telling people how to be saved
and they're not allowing people to get saved verse 14 woe when you scribes and pharisees
hypocrites redevour widows houses and for a pretense make long prayer therefore you shall
receive the greater damnation so when we talk about signs and wonders we kind of have two extremes one
people end up maybe initially seeking that or whatever but then they just get so turned off
they become a sadducee or an atheist and they just they don't believe anything in the bible
they just reject all of it then there's the other side of the equation that i want to talk about
for a moment here's the side where they only are seeking signs and wonders and what ends up
happening to these people is they get taken advantage of by predators there is a lot of
poor people widows and innocent and simple-minded people that are going out seeking signs and
wonders and you know what happens they get taken advantage of by wolves by the real Pharisees by
the Sadducees you know today probably the most like picturesque of the Pharisees and these type
of people are the TV preachers of the day the TV preachers of the day by and large are these
pharisaical type individuals who are devouring widow's houses where they're going around putting
on the show having these long TV episodes I mean they'll have these things called prayerathons
where they're just praying on TV for hours and and people are calling in and donating money
and they're getting widows they're getting poor people to call in and donate 50 bucks or 100 bucks
just to give to this televangelist ministry and think about it whenever you've seen a
televangelist ever go out and preach the gospel door to door when's the last time you see a
televangelist getting an army of soul winners to go and preach the gospel they're not preaching
the gospel anybody they're not sending anybody out to preach the gospel what do they need two
million dollars for what do they need 10 million dollars for all they're doing is a tv show they
don't need that i mean it makes sense if you gave a church a bunch of money to then empower a bunch
of soul owners to go out and to go to different parts of the country in the world and missions
trips and doing all these things preaching the gospel hey let's pour as much money as we can on
that fire but you know what is the televangelist doing he's not going out and preaching the gospel
he's not actually saying what the bible says on these issues and you know what they're doing
they're devouring widows houses on a regular in fact many of them have even been literally caught
just complete scam okay now i'm talking about signs and wonders i do believe there are some
you know means by which demonic people can do real actual supernatural miracles through
demonic means but a lot of people are using trickery and deceit like a guy named peter george popoff
who's heard of this guy anybody all right a few people all right george popoff he's a german oh
german-born american televangelist now he was debunked as a charlatan and a faith healer in 1986
basically there was a guy that that came to try and see what was going on but this this george
popoff or peter popoff he would have these big church services and he's having people come in
he's healing them or whatever and what he would do that was pretty famous is he'd have someone
come down the aisle and he would he would say stuff about them he'd be like you live at 2466
eighth avenue don't you your name is cindy lou or whatever you know your name is whatever and he's
like you've got a hurt arm or you know you and like he's never met these people they never met
and they're just thinking like oh wow you know god's speaking through this peter popoff guy
well some some guy that was skeptical like got together with a bunch of individuals and they're
trying to figure out like how he's doing this or like what's going on so they got a they got some
like secret radio technology and they're intercepting all the area the radio waves and basically peter
popoff's wife is sitting in the back with all the prayer cards that have been turned in the church
and she's reading them in the guy's ear he's like hey the lady that's coming up to you her name's
debra your name must be debra and they're just sitting there just listening the radio is and
they're catching his wife just basically and he even admitted it later he said like well sometimes
the holy spirit's working really well and then other days he's not working as much so we kind
of have to help him out a little bit you know oh okay fraud and it's like but look people are
coming in they're expecting some kind of a sign some kind of a wonder they're not seeking what
the truth and as a result of that they get taken advantage of they get destroyed they get ripped
off this guy's some miracle healer healer he had a bunch of tv time he promoted miracle spring
water that he would sell you he even had i saw one he had like miracle salt or something you could
you get this like miracle salt and sprinkle it on things or whatever but he basically got exposed
lots of times on tv for all of these like fake things he's doing and all these charades but you
know what even after that people still support his ministry so support people like him and look he's
one of many he's one of dozens of these so-called televangelists who want to go out there and do
all these signs and wonders and try to prove to people how they have this power of God you know
it's not any different than Simon the sorcerer who was bewitching the people but as soon as they got
the gospel they're like well this guy's a bozo you know this guy's not legit this guy's not really
of God go to mark chapter number eight for a moment go to mark chapter eight so when it comes
to signs and wonders we shouldn't seek after signs and wonders we should seek the truth otherwise
we're going to get taken advantage of by peter popoff and even worse by the antichrist himself
and here's another thing i don't need you or me to perform a miracle to believe God's word
we should just believe God's word the first time we hear it and it's like oh i wonder why people
don't want to believe the preaching right away it's because they're a drunkard and when they
hear preaching against drinking alcohol instead of just repenting at God's word well if God came
down here from heaven and told me not to drink alcohol then i would do it he did it's the bible
well but Jesus didn't bring up you know alcohol in the new testament you know what the whole
bible is Jesus Christ he doesn't have to repeat himself on every single situation you know what
there's lots of people that are out there committing adultery fornication living wicked lifestyles not
serving God and instead of just repenting at the preaching they're waiting for a sign or a wonder
and you know what it's not going to come to that wicked and adulterous generation it doesn't matter
how many miracles Jesus performed it didn't matter how many things he did the Pharisees discounted
all of them oh that didn't happen or this guy they're not going to believe in the miracle
no matter how many is given to them look at mark chapter number eight look at mark chapter number
eight look at verse 11 and the Pharisees came forth and began to question with him seeking of
him a sign from heaven tempting him and he sighed deeply in his spirit and said why does this
generation seek after a sign you know if jesus really wanted us to seek after signs why do you
think he'd be so annoyed that people are constantly asking for it he was anointed by it he says verily
i stand you there shall be there shall no sign be given unto this generation go to luke chapter
number 11 go to luke chapter number 11 i'm going to go through a few verses here real quick luke
chapter 11 now of course many people sought jesus not for the sign of the miracle because they
already believed in him and they also believed he could heal them right lots of people son of
david have mercy on me right they they already believe in him they already know that he's the
lord and the messiah that's why they're seeking after him you know the woman who catches his
garment and she's healed of that infirmity she already had faith in him and he constantly
reminds us of that because he's saying thy faith hath saved thee right it wasn't that they were
seeking the sign it wasn't you seeking a sign saved you it's thy faith hath saved thee thy
faith hath healed me why because those who believe in jesus christ those who have faith in jesus
christ yeah he may perform miracles and signs and wonders and show that unto those people
but the people that are coming first i want a sign before i believe no sign is given to you
and whatever sign you even get you'll still reject it you won't even think it happened
just like pharaoh pharaoh's like yeah give me a sign i gave you one but you still didn't believe
it and i gave you another one you still didn't believe it i gave you another one you still
didn't believe it and it's like how many signs you think about luke chap number 16 when the rich
man's in hell and he's looking at moses and he's talking to him he's saying like hey if one rose
from the dead and talk to my brothers then they would believe, right? Oh, sorry, nope.
If they have Moses, let them hear him. He said, hey, even if one rose from the dead,
they wouldn't be persuaded. They're not going to repent. You know what they need? Moses.
And you know what they have? Moses. You know what's going to change this world? Not signs
and wonders, Moses. The preaching of God's word, the preaching of the gospel, the preaching
of the cross, the preaching of the death, burial, and resurrection. I think some people
think, oh man, if I could just do a bunch of miracles, then we could change America.
No, you don't need any miracles. John the Baptist was the greatest man born among women
according to Jesus Christ, and the Bible says he did no miracle. But you know what? He was
a Baptist. Hey, why are you a Baptist? Well, the greatest man ever was a Baptist. Isn't
that a good reason? That's a pretty good reason. I mean, this guy is so Baptist, it's like
his last name. Have you ever seen another Bible that's like John Baptist? This is like,
who's this guy? Right? It doesn't say Methodist. It doesn't say Presbyterian. It's a Baptist,
right? And you know what? John the Baptist was a preacher of God's word. And John the
Baptist was that spirit of Elias that came back to turn the hearts of the fathers to
the children and the children's hearts to the fathers. And he didn't do it through
miracles. He did it through the preaching of God's word. And instead of seeking signs
and wonders, we need to seek the word of God. We need to seek the truth today. But so many
people, they don't want the truth. They want a sign and a wonder and to live in their sin.
And you know what? We need people to wake up and say, "Hey, you need to hear the preaching
of God's word." And if they don't respond to the preaching of God's word, don't think
a sign or a wonder is going to change their opinion. It's not. It's not going to change
their opinion. Look at Luke chapter 11. Look at verse 27. "And it came to pass as he spake
these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice and said unto him, 'Blessed
is the womb that bare thee, and the past that thou sucked.' But he said, 'Yea, rather blessed
are they that hear the word of God and keep it.' And when the people were gathered thick
together, he began to say, 'This is an evil generation. They seek a sign, and there shall
no sign be given it but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was the sign of
the Ninevites, so shall also the son of man be to this generation.' Notice he's tying
these things together and he's saying, 'Look, you know who's the greatest person? The person
that hears the word of God and does it. And you know who's the wicked person? The person
that's seeking signs. The person that's seeking signs and wonders. And you know, I've heard
this even from our crowd or people like us. They'll say, 'I'm just waiting on God to
give me a sign. I don't know if I should get more into church or go soul winning or go
on a missions trip or I don't know if I should dedicate my life to the Lord. I don't know
if we should actually raise our family the way God said. I don't know if I should do
this thing. I'm looking for a sign. Here's your sign. It's the King James Bible. You
know, it's wicked to not follow God's word and ask for a sign. You just follow God's
word and you know what? If signs come, great. If they don't, who cares? Because you know
what? John the Baptist didn't do a miracle and he was great anyways. And you know what?
You should stop seeking for signs and start seeking for the truth of God's word. And when
you're confronted with something in the Bible, you better just believe it. Don't cower at
God's word. Don't scoff at God's word. It's always right. Go to John chapter number 2,
John chapter 2. There's been generations that actually repented of the preaching of God's
word and you know what? They were great. The generations that are looking for a sign, they're
wicked and adulterous. They're wicked and adulterous. Don't be looking for the sign.
Be looking for the truth. I think a lot of people today are looking for signs. They're
constantly wondering, "When is Christ coming?" or "What's going on?" And if they knew, like,
"Oh, in two years Christ is coming," they think that that would somehow change their
life. You know what will change your life? The Word of God. Going to church, reading
the Bible, praying, going somewhere. That'll change your life. You don't need to know when
Jesus Christ is coming because if we needed to know, He would tell us. We don't need to
know. No man knows the day or the hour. And maybe once we get that close, you know, we'll
have a better idea. We'll, we'll have more of intuition. He told us that it's not going
to take that day. He's not going to overtake us as a thief in the night. So obviously when
it gets really close, we'll probably have a pretty good idea. But you know what? We
don't need to figure out what the day is. We need to stop worrying about all the signs
and we start worrying about what God's words actually says. Look at John chapter two, look
at verse 18, then answered the Jews and said in them, what sign show us thou unto us seeing
that they'll do us these things. Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple and
in three days I'll rise it up. What is it, what is the sign he's going to give them?
The gospel, the death, burn, resurrection. Then said the Jews forty and six years was
this temple and building and wilt thou rear it up in three days. But he spake of the temple
of his body. Notice that they didn't perceive the miracle. They didn't perceive what he
was actually going to do. In their mind they're thinking like, when is he going to destroy
this building and build it in three days? Kind of construction company, are you? But
he was talking about the temple of his body. So they're not going to actually missing
the real sign, aren't they? The sign's going to be given and they're still not going to
get it. They're still going to miss it. And it's why because they didn't believe. Go to
John chapter four, but those who believed, they're going to, they're going to pay attention
and recognize that sign. They're going to know, Hey, my, my Lord has risen. He is risen.
Look at John chapter four and look at verse 46. So Jesus came again in the Cana of Galilee
where he made the water wine. And there was a certain old man whose son was sick at Capernaum.
When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judea in a Galilee, he went unto him and beside
him that he would come down and heal his son for he was at the point of death. Then said
Jesus on them, except he sees signs and wonders, he will not believe. You need a sign and a
wonder to believe? But no one saith unto him, Sir, come down, e'er my child die. Jesus saith
unto him, Go thy way, thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken
unto him and he went his way. Now, when he is asking the signs of wonder, I don't think
he's talking to this guy. I think he's just talking to the crowd. The crowd's not really
believing in him. This man does, right? This man has faith in the Lord and his faith is
increased when Jesus gives him this. Hey, go home. Your son's healed. He showed up.
Did Jesus do some, you know, do some kind of a sign or come down the aisle. He hits
him in the head, you know, he just said, Hey, your son's healed. And then he believed him
and he went home. And notice what the Bible says, verse 81. And he was now going down.
His servants met him and told him saying, thy son liveth, then inquired he of them the
hour when he began to admin. And they said unto him, yesterday at the seventh hour, the
fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour in the which Jesus said
unto him, thy son liveth, notice this, and himself believed. When did the son get healed?
The miracle didn't happen first. The faith came first. Then the miracle came, didn't
it? And many times we have to understand I'm not, I'm not against Christ doing miracles.
I'm not against Christ doing signs. I'm not against Christ doing wonders. He doesn't.
It's all over the Bible and he can and he will. But you know what he's not going to
do? He's not going to just give all these signs and wonders to unbelievers. He's going
to give them to a lot of believers, isn't he? And the believers are going to accept
the signs and accept the wonders and you're going to see all kinds of miracles. Go through
it to Mark chapter 16, go to Mark chapter 16. In John six, there's a lot of passage
I want to bring up too, but for sake of time, I'm not going to go there. You get the point.
Now let me explain something else here. You know, the apostles went out and did a lot
of different miracles and Jesus even told them that they were going to do miracles.
Jesus says in Mark chapter 16, look at verse 17 though, "And these signs shall follow them
that believe in my name, shall they cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues,
they shall take up serpents. And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them.
They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." So then after the Lord had
spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God. So
at the end of the great commission, he also tells them about how there's going to be certain
miracles or signs that are going to happen. But notice the language here in verse 17,
"And these signs shall" what? "Follow them that believe." Does it say that the signs
are going to happen first? It says these signs before them that believe, no it says that
they follow them that believe. And consistently in the book of Acts, what you'll see, you'll
see a bunch of people believing in Christ and then all of a sudden what? They start
speaking with other tongues. They start speaking in new tongues. You see that the apostles
do all kinds of special miracles and do all kinds of special things in the text. The Bible
says about Paul that he did special miracles, meaning that there's something special about
what Paul did. Peter's shadow was healing people. And I don't think that even when
we talk about Christ, I don't think that the Bible is saying that only people who believe
got healed. I think he healed everybody. The Bible is very clear on that. And you can even
see in some cases, like, where are the nine? It's like one guy came back, you know. So
I don't think that everybody got healed in the Bible, necessarily had faith. But we see
specifically a lot of people that were seeking Jesus just because they already believed him,
they trusted him. He healed them, and he's signifying, hey, it was your faith that healed
you, it was your faith that you believed and everything like that. And when it came to
Peter healing certain people, you know, he didn't necessarily care about their faith,
he's just healing them as some kind of a sign and a miracle. And it makes sense that
God was allowing them to perform these type of miracles and to do these special things
so to increase the gospel and allow the gospel to go out there further. Now, there's one
other passage and I thought I wrote it down and I'm struggling to find it. Give me one
second. I think it's in Acts chapter number five where it talks about thy holy child Jesus.
There's a passage I want to bring up. I'm sorry, it was in Acts four. Okay, Acts chapter
four. Look at verse number 27. Acts chapter four, look at verse 27. "For of a truth against
thy holy child Jesus, whom thou has anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles
and the people of Israel were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel
determined before to be done. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings and grant under
thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word." What is it that the
apostles and the early disciples are praying and asking for? Boldness to do what? To preach.
They didn't ask for boldness to do miracles, they asked for boldness to preach. But then
it also says, "By stretching forth thine hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may
be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus." So they're wanting the miracles and the signs
and the wonders so that they can do something for the preaching. It wasn't just to do the
signs and the miracles and the wonders, it was so that they would preach the gospel and
people would be saved and it would be more powerful, more effective. Right? It says in
verse 31, "And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together,
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness,
and the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul, neither said
any of them, that out of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all
things common." And here's an important verse, verse 33, "And with great power gave the apostles
witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus." Notice the phrase here, "And with great power
gave who? The apostles." Did everyone get the special miracles and the special signs
and wonders in the book of Acts? No. You know who got it? The apostles did. And it makes
sense that when we're talking about in Matthew chapter number 16 is what's being alluded
to here and through the book of Acts where the apostles were doing great wonders and
signs where, hey, Philip the evangelist got people saved, but then they needed John and
Peter to show up to lay hands on people so that they would receive the Holy Ghost. Why?
Because John and Peter are apostles and they have something special going on where they
have this special anointing. And again, what is their special gifting? It's related to
the fact that they're giving the gospel, they're giving the witness of the resurrection. They
literally saw the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. And for God to really spread the gospel fast,
he wants to give those people special ability to perform signs and wonders so that their
word will spread faster and people will trust it. Okay. But this is the paradox about all
of it though, is haven't we seen consistently though, those who are seeking the signs and
wonders though, they end up still not believing. And the people who did believe, they end up
trusting the miracles and the signs and the wonders. And look, obviously there's a correlation
here. Their fame was spread abroad and I think this is how you can understand this. The miracle
was not to get people to believe. The miracles were so that the whole town would hear and
show up. But then the people that got saved, it wasn't because of the miracle, they got
saved because of the preaching of God's word. The miracle got them in the door, the preaching
of the word of God got them saved. And if he didn't give them the miracle, less people
would have showed up, right? So he wants to get everybody gathered together because those
who are going to end up hearing the word and getting saved will have that opportunity.
But it's not like you need a miracle to get someone saved. You just have to preach the
gospel of Jesus Christ. And oh, well, if I had this superpower, if I could heal people,
if I could do the sign and wonder, then more people would get saved. No, it's the preaching
of the gospel that gets people saved. Obviously that might give you a broader audience faster.
But you know, with today's technology, with today's ability to travel the world, with
your ability to go and knock on countless doors, you don't need that. You don't need
the gospel of Jesus Christ. To go out and just preach the truth. I want to go one more
place. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 14, we'll finish, okay? What's the first point? Seek
truth, not a sign. What's the second point? Repent at preaching, not at a sign. And you
know, if we have a third point, here's my third point, you don't need a sign to get
someone saved, you just need the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you know, that's the message
that Jesus kept saying, "Hey, I'm not going to give you a sign except for what, Jonah?
Except for the fact that I'm going to destroy this temple in three days?" He keeps pointing
back to pictures of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's the only
thing they get. Hey, the only thing you're going to get is the resurrection. And until
you can believe that one, you're not going to understand any of the rest of it. You're
not going to see any of the rest of it. It's not going to make sense to you. You're going
to deny the miracles. You're going to deny whatever events are taking place. And when
we go out and preach the gospel, we don't need miracles. You don't need to be one of
these faith healers. You don't need to go around and, you know, I see all these things
on TV. They're like, hey, is there pain in your arm? All right. All right. Give me a
scale of one to 10. It's like a three, man. All right. I'm going to, I'm going to pray.
And they're like, be healed. And they're like, oh, man, it's a zero now. Whoa. And then they
walk away. And I'm thinking like, okay, well, even if that, let's just say that was real,
give them the gospel. Like, why in the world? How does that help anyone? Hey, I know I'm
burning in hell right now. But there was this one day where my arms started feeling better.
That was cool. It's like, you'd rather have your eye ripped out and get the gospel than to be
completely whole and go into hell and to be cast into the lake of fire. Because you know what?
Obviously God cares about our physical well-being and he wants us to be healthy. He wants us to be
perfect. I think that's his perfect will for all of us. But the reality is almost none of us are
100% healthy at any point. Who in here would just say, "I am absolutely 100% healthy. Like there's
nothing wrong with me at all. I have no scratches. No anything. Just 100." What's going on? You know,
we all have our issues, right? To some degree. We're all probably suffering from some ailment.
None of us are always in perfect health, perfect shape, or whatever. We'd all love to be there.
But the reality is that you know what? We all suffer from injuries, deterioration, just old age.
Okay, and apparently that sits in about like 30 or something. I don't know. It's just like,
man, I can already feel it now. I remember my grandpa, he would always wake up super early,
and it was just the saddest thing. I would just be like, why do you wake up at four or five in the
morning? He's like, it just hurts too much to sleep. It's scary. He says his back hurt from
just sleeping. I'm just thinking like, maybe that's my problem. You know, my back hurts too
when I'm sleeping. I'm thinking like, this is bad. But you know, that's just the reality that we're
going to have some infirmities. Many men have got infirmities. Jacob had to walk with a halt leg,
you know, for the rest of his life. You know, many people in the Bible suffer. You know, when
you think about Timothy, Paul's like saying, "Drink a little wine for thy stomach's sake,
and thine often infirmities." You know, I was just recently thinking about this. It's like,
he had maybe a little bit of a sass to that. You know, he's thinking like, man, you're just always
sick. You're often infirm. He's like, what's wrong with you? Like, why are you always sick and always
down? He's got to press through the drink a little wine or something. Come on, you know, man up. But
you know, the reality is none of us are always going to be perfect. Most of us have issues,
sicknesses, illnesses, suffering from some kind of a cold or we're suffering from something,
you know, that's going on. And it's just life. Okay. And it's not that God doesn't care. God
has every single hair on your head counted and numbered. He knows them all. He cares about you
and we're supposed to cast our care upon him. And I think that God wants us to be as healthy as
possible. But at the end of the day, you know, what he cares about is going to heaven. Because
pretty soon this body, it's not going to be recoverable. It's going to turn back into dust.
It's going to just basically be nothing anymore. And you know, he's going to give you a new body.
Okay. So look, I'm all for prayer. And you know, we have a prayer list. We pray for people to be
healed and we ask for God to give us favor and blessing. And I believe that God can heal from
the beginning of the fall all the way to the new heavens and the new earths. You know, God can
heal and do all kinds of things. But you know, he also made our bodies to heal themselves too.
So sometimes he just lets, you know, the body heal itself. Right. And that gives us character.
He teaches us lessons and things like that. But 1 Corinthians 14 brings up this sign issue. And
I want to look at one more verse. Look at verse 22. 1 Corinthians 14 verse 22. "Wherefore tongues
are for a sign not to them that believe, but to them that believe not. But prophesying
serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe." What is the Bible saying?
The Bible is saying, you know, there's no point in me preaching the sermon today in Italian.
There's no point in me getting up here and preaching the sermon in German or in Greek.
Now, if it was in Spanish, some of you might get it. I'll be able to be like, this guy's a gringo.
Okay. Because I can't speak Spanish that well enough to preach a sermon like this.
But would it really make sense? Let's say we are all bilingual. Let's say we all spoke three languages.
But wouldn't it make sense to just preach in the language we all understand the best or the most?
It wouldn't necessarily benefit to just preach a sermon and use like all three languages or like
alternate. You know, you have this thing like Spanglish, right? Where people are kind of like
alternating between English and Spanish. That doesn't make the message more effective because
you're using a different language to communicate it. But that could be effective if when we go
into Mexico, we preach in Spanish, right? If I go into the Mexico missions trip and I preach in
French, it's not going to work out that great. It's going to work out great when I can speak
in Spanish and they understand Spanish and I can get them saved. When you go to France,
you speak French and you can, you can get them saved in French, right? So that what the Bible
is saying is tongues are for those that don't already believe so that you can give them the
gospel in their language and then they can get saved. They can understand it. Plus many cases,
this was a miracle. At least at the beginning, when we talk about the apostles, they were
literally preaching in foreign languages they've never learned in their life. Like how does this
white guy speak Swahili, you know, or whatever. Obviously it was not that language. It was the
Medes and the Pers and you know, all the other, the Elamites and the Mesopotamian people that their
languages click languages or whatever, who knows. But that would be kind of a sign. If someone's
never studied Mandarin and all of a sudden give the gospel perfectly in Mandarin, that could help
someone want to actually hear the message and want to get saved. And I'll say this,
when a white person shows up in an all-black country, they're more interested in hearing the
gospel for me than you who are black. You know, you talk about white privilege. Yeah, I got white
privilege when I go to black countries, because you know what, I show up and they're thinking like,
who's this white guy, right? And they want to hear that message. But what it is also saying is this
preaching is not for people that don't believe. Meaning, you know what, there's not really any
benefit to you going to people that don't believe the Bible and then showing them the miracles and
showing them the Bible. Just give them the gospel. That's the one thing they get. Don't show them a
sign, don't show them a wonder, don't preach to them, you know, all the nitty-gritty parts.
Well, what I'd like to show you first is Leviticus 20 13 and then Judges 19. This is my way of
teaching you the Bible. Then I would just like to read Deuteronomy 28 for a while and warn you what
it'll be like if you reject God. You know, that's not really an effective message, right? It's not
necessarily effective to go to Proverbs and rip them. Oh, you got, you got alcohol. Let's go to
Proverbs for a minute. Hmm. You know, that's not going to necessarily be as effective, right?
Preaching is for people that already believe, folks. That's why when people get confused,
they're like, you're not going to reach anybody with your preaching. You're right! That was what
the Bible said. The Bible literally said that my preaching is not for you. If you don't believe,
not for you. Oh, you're going to turn people away with that kind of preaching. I hope so,
because if my preaching is bringing people in, I must be doing something wrong, okay?
The preaching is not for those who don't believe. It's for those who believe. And then we go out
and we preach the gospel in all languages for those who what? Who don't believe to try and get
them saved and to get them to become a believer. But you know what I'm not going to do? Signs and
wonders and miracles. We shouldn't seek for signs and wonders and miracles. Nuts to those people.
And you know what? We need to expose the charlatans and the frauds that are out there
doing these type of things, because you know what? If they're not preaching the right gospel,
let them be accursed. And you say, "Well, how do you know this guy didn't do the miracle or whatever?"
I don't care if he did the miracle. Every miracle he did was great, but you know his gospel's wrong.
And the Bible says, "Have nothing to do with that person." Don't even engage them in whether
the miracle's right or not. Just engage them on the doctrine, because the Bible says even if the
sign did come to pass, nuts to them. It doesn't matter whatsoever. And you know, we need to try
and win these people over. There's a lot of people that are being deceived and tricked today,
and they need the gospel. They need us to preach and knock on their door. We don't need to give
them a miracle. We need to give them the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let's go to prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for your word. Thank you for giving us the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And thank you for giving us the ability to just have faith and not have to see some kind of a
miracle or some kind of a wonder. I pray that you would just help our church to reach as many
people as we can to find as many people as we can to preach them the gospel, that we wouldn't get
sucked into some kind of a lying or deceitful means. And I pray that we could take people
that are currently being deceived and being lied to and we could show them the truth of God's word
and we could win them over with the truth. And I pray that you would help us to have the right
attitude when we hear preaching to just change our mind and not seek after some kind of a sign.
In Jesus name we pray amen. All right for a final song this morning let's go to 323
more about Jesus, 323 more about Jesus, song 323 more about Jesus.