(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, in James chapter 5 there, the part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on is beginning there in verse 14, where the Bible reads, Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And what I want to preach about this morning is the subject of healing. And this is a passage that deals with healing in the New Testament. And he says, If it is any sick among you, let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. And if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. Now a lot of people believe that God can no longer heal people. I've heard that doctrine taught, that God no longer heals. That was for a different age, or a different dispensation, or a different, that was in the Old Testament, or that was just for Jesus, or just for the apostles. But here we are in James chapter 5, pretty close to the end of the New Testament, and the Bible is teaching us that as New Testament believers, if any of us is sick, and obviously we're not talking about just having a cold or having the sniffles here, but if anybody is seriously ill, the Bible does command us to call for the elders of the church, and to have them pray over that person, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. Now can somebody explain to me how this has become obsolete, or why we shouldn't do this, or believe this today? There's really no reason. I mean this is biblical doctrine for us today in James chapter 5. Now before I get into the subject of healing, because obviously God does have the power to heal, and I'm going to go over that this morning. Before I get into that, let me go into first of all some of the reasons for illness and sickness in the first place. You know, before we talk about healing, let's talk about some of the causes or reasons why people are sick in the first place. Now the first thing I want to point out from James 5, when he says in verse 14, is any sick among you? If you jump down to verse 15, it says the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and save there means to heal the sick from his sickness, save him from that illness that was going to kill him. It says, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven. And the part I want to point out there is that it says, if he have committed sins. So is sin always the cause for sickness? No. Is it just automatically to be assumed that if someone is sick, or someone is ill, it must be as a result of their sin? No. But at the same time as we look at this passage, could sickness be the result of sin? Yes, it can. So there are those out there that are prosperity preachers, and that are, you know, these kind of faith healer type people, and the charismatic movement that will basically teach, well if you're right with God, you'll never get sick, you'll be healthy. Well that's a false doctrine. But then sometimes in reaction to that doctrine, people will take the other extreme and say, well sickness is never a result of sin. But here the Bible is clear that it can go either way. If he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Because he did not necessarily commit sins to be in that sickened condition, is what the Bible is teaching. Go to 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, let me show you this a little more. So the Bible is clear that sin can be the cause of sickness. So one cause of being sick is that someone might have committed sin. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 30, says, For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. I'm in 1 Corinthians 11 32, but when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. First of all, let me ask you this, are we talking about saved people or unsaved people here? Saved, because it's the saved that are chastened of the Lord. The Bible says, For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. And so the Bible is clear here that the saved, the children of God, can be chastened and chastised through sickness. He said it in verse 30, For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. Now go to John chapter 11, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and let me show you another cause of sickness. So one cause of sickness could be just sin, somebody's living a sinful life. But here's another place, in John chapter 9, it says in verse 1, And as Jesus passed, this isn't really a sickness, but I'm going to show you another sickness in two chapters. It says in John 9 1, And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth, and his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither had this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. So right here, this sickness, this illness or blindness was not a result of sin, it was just for the glory of God. God had a purpose in causing this guy to be born blind. Go a few pages to the right in your Bible to John chapter 11 and verse 3, we'll find the same concept. This is where Lazarus is sick, the friend of Jesus. It says in John 11 3, Therefore his sister said unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. So every sickness is not a result of sin, but sickness could be a result of sin. Go back to 2 Chronicles chapter 21 in the Old Testament, 2 Chronicles 21. And you see, whenever there's sickness, we should never ever look at someone else and judge after the appearance and say, oh, so and so is sick, they must be in sin. Now the reason why we need to be careful to never do that is because if you remember in the book of Job, that's exactly what Job's three friends did. They accused Job of wrongdoing because of his sickness. And if you remember, his sickness was that he was covered in boils from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet. I mean, he had sores all over his body and they were itchy and they were oozing and they were very tormentous sores all over his body. And his friends looked at him and said, You must have done something wrong. God is punishing you. And the Bible makes it clear that Job had done nothing amiss, that he was a perfect man, he was an upright man that feared God and eschewed evil. Obviously he wasn't sinless, but he was the most righteous man living on the earth. The Bible said there was none like him in all the earth that was as righteous as Job. That's what God said. And yet he was afflicted with a horrible sickness and when the three friends accused Job of wrongdoing at the end of the book of Job, God said, My wrath is kindled against those three friends. So we don't want God's wrath to be kindled at us when we look at someone else and just assume, oh, they're sick, they're ill, they have a disease, that's a punishment from God. That's a good way to get God's wrath kindled against you. So we ought not use this to judge others. But if we're sick, we should look at it ourselves and examine ourselves and say, have I committed some sin? Am I being chastised of the Lord here? Is that the problem? Look at 2 Chronicles 21 verse 12. This is about King Jehoram, the Bible says in verse 12, And there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of David thy father, Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah, but hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go whoring, like to the whoredoms of the house of Ahab, and also hast slain thy brethren of thy father's house which were better than thyself. Behold with a great plague will the Lord smite thy people, and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy goods, and thou shalt have great sickness by disease of thy bowels until thy bowels fall out by reason of the sickness day by day. Moreover the Lord stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and of the Arabians that were near the Ethiopians. Look at verse 8. And after all this the Lord smote him in his bowels with an incurable disease, and it came to pass that in process of time after the end of two years his bowels fell out by reason of his sickness. So he died of sore diseases and his people made no burning for him like the burning of his fathers. Go back to 1 Kings 14, just a few pages to the left in your Bible. 1 Kings 14. So we're looking at some of the reasons why people become sick. One of the reasons was that a believer, a saved Christian, might have committed some kind of a grievous sin in their life and God is bringing chastisement and chastening upon them. That was one reason that people could become sick. Another reason we saw is just for the glory of God. They haven't done anything wrong. Just for God's will to be done, for God's purposes to be carried out. God has a reason for that sickness. That's Job. That's the man who was blind from his mother's womb. That's Lazarus being sick and dying in John 11 just so Jesus could resurrect him from the dead. You know the Bible says, but we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. And sometimes even a sickness can be used for good in our lives. You know there have been times when I've gotten sick and it forced me to stay home and I would have gone off on a trip somewhere and instead I stayed home and maybe I did some extra Bible reading or you know maybe God just thought that I needed to stay home and do that reading. Or maybe God knew that if I would have gone on that trip something bad would have happened. You know who knows? He could have been protecting me from something. And he has reasons for why these things happen. Another reason that we just saw was a heathen, wicked, sinful, unsaved person can go through sickness as a form of God pouring out his wrath on that person. That's what we saw in 2 Chronicles chapter 21. But look at 1 Kings 14. It says in verse 1, at that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick. Jump down to verse 5, and the Lord said unto Ahijah, Behold the wife of Jeroboam cometh to ask a thing of thee for her son, for he is sick. Thus and thus shalt thou say unto her, for it shall be when she cometh in that she shall feign herself to be another woman. Jump down to verse 12, Arise thou therefore, get thee to thine own house, and when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die. So this king's wife comes to inquire of the prophet, the man of God, and her son has become sick and when she gets to the prophet, the prophet tells her the child's going to die. He's so sick and he's not going to recover, he's going to die. Verse 13, And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. So this guy is getting sick, this child is being sick because he's good and because God is doing him a favor by allowing him to die before all the horrible things happen, at least he can basically die before he has to see any of that and be exposed to any of that. And so there are all kinds of scriptures on and on. Go to Proverbs 19, I mean if I wanted to show you scriptures on each of these examples I would have a ton of examples of people who were chastened as Christians and they got sick or people who were punished as unbelievers and the wrath of God was poured out upon them through sickness. Or people who were just good people who just went through sickness through no fault of their own. Job is a good example, James said that they may not have committed sin to be sick and the examples go on and on. But another reason why people are sick is just through abuse of their own body, not taking care of themselves. Not even a spiritual or supernatural reason, they're just sick because of the cause and effect of the lifestyle that they live. Look at Proverbs 19 too. The Bible says also that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good. And he that hasteth with his feet sinneth. The foolishness of man perverteth his way and his heart freteth against the Lord. So many times we fret against the Lord and we blame the Lord on things that we've brought upon ourselves. The foolishness of our own way perverts us and then we fret against the Lord. Well it's not his fault. And some people today are sick and ill and they're saying why is God doing this to me? And in reality it has nothing to do with God, it has to do with the unhealthy lifestyle that they live. The Bible talks about people becoming sick because they ate too much honey. The Bible talks about people becoming sick because they drank too much alcohol. The Bible talks about people becoming sick and vomiting because they ate too much food in the first place. You know if we abuse our bodies it shouldn't surprise us that we become sick, that we become ill. And people today, they go out and they eat a diet of junk food and trash. They don't get any exercise. They don't get any fresh air and sunshine. They don't take care of themselves. You know you're going to get sick doing that. I mean it's just a simple cause and effect. If you push the button the light bulb is going to come on. And if you live a lifestyle that is abusive to your body then obviously you're going to get sick as a result. And I've noticed when I was younger I used to eat a horrible diet of junk food and just constant fast food, sweets and everything like that. And you know what, I got sick all the time. And I've noticed that as I've gotten better about what I eat and eating healthier foods I've noticed that I've gotten sick a lot less. Now I don't think it's a spiritual phenomenon that I'm witnessing there. I don't think it's that well I was just really living in sin and God was chasing me and now He's not or you know God was for the glory of God. No, I think it was just a physical phenomenon of just eating a lot of junk food. You're going to get sick. You're not getting any nutrition and you know you ought to go to the Bible and get some advice on what kind of food you should be eating. The Bible has a lot to say about the food that we eat. The Bible has a lot of good advice in that area. You need to search the scriptures. I can't cover it in this sermon. Obviously you know that's a whole other sermon in and of itself. I preach sermons like that where I showed everything that the Bible tells us about what we should eat. But you know one glaring example in the Bible is that the food that's brought up the most in the Bible. If you just want to look at the food that just keeps coming up as being the staple of our diet is bread. Have you noticed that? I mean the Bible says give us this day our daily bread. You know bread is a staple of our diet throughout the Bible. God even when He's just talking about food sometimes He just calls it just bread because that is the mainstay of our diet. But the problem is today you know you go down to the supermarket you buy this white puffy fluffy thing. That's not bread. I mean that doesn't have nutritional value. You know I'm talking about this wonder bread where you can take the whole loaf and like put it into a ball the size of a ping pong ball. It's all fluff. It's all been bleached and stripped and I mean it's not the way that God made it. But if you really get a healthy piece of bread I mean it's got a lot of nutrition in it. I was out traveling the other day and I bought this loaf of bread at the store. You know I was trying to buy the gnarliest loaf of bread I could. The one that just had all the grain and seeds. You know what I mean? Just one you know you could really sink your teeth into. So I bought this really gnarly loaf of bread. It wasn't the white puffy thing. And it was some kind of organic sprouted wheat whatever thing. And I got this loaf of bread and I was making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches you know to eat while I was out of town. So I'm sitting there I'm making my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and I was just curious I wonder what kind of nutrition is in this bread. So I pulled out the bread I looked at the label. One slice of that bread had five grams of protein in it. And you know you know you don't think of bread as being protein right? You're thinking like eggs and milk. I mean one slice of this bread. So I mean if I'm eating four or two I ate two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. You know it's probably what a grown man's gonna eat right? A couple sandwiches. It's like 20 grams of protein just from the bread alone. Let alone it was filled with vitamins. It was filled with good carbohydrates. It had all kinds of good stuff. So you know if we were to get the right kind of bread and eat some good healthy food you know I just wish women would stay home and cook the bread my friend. And you know take off the pantsuit. Take off the you know take off the business outfit and man make some bread for crying out loud. And then we wouldn't have to buy this stupid wonder bread. You know and that's why the Bible says that women should marry, bear children and guide the house. You know and they should be cooking and cleaning and doing the chores and taking care of the house. And that is a full time job in and of itself. You say oh you're preaching your opinion. No I'm preaching old fashioned biblical doctrine. And the Bible says that they should teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, keepers at home, keepers at home, good, obedient, I'm sorry I have a speech impediment, good, obedient to their own husbands that the word of God be not blasphemed. That's what the Bible teaches. And so we have a lot of unhealthiness in our lifestyle today because instead of having women who actually cook real food at home from scratch, they're out doing everything else that they're not supposed to be doing. And look I know you might be in a situation where you know that's where you're at but that's not God's original plan. God's original plan was for dad to go off to work and for the wife to be at home and cook a decent nutritious meal and bake that bread which is supposed to be the mainstay of our diet. And obviously other foods we need in our diet, you know bread's not everything, I just wanted to throw that one out there. And so today if you're going to go out and eat a bunch of fast food, and you say well Pastor Anderson I can't afford to have my wife stay home and cook the bread. I can't afford to buy healthy food. I must go to McDonald's and get the 99 Center because that's all I can afford. And I've heard people say things like this. And I heard a pastor say this, he was in the drive through of McDonald's and he pulled into McDonald's and he ordered the 99 Center, some kind of a 99 cent cheeseburger. And they said I'm sorry we're out of that patty today. All we have is the quarter pounder, we're going to have to substitute the quarter pounder for the 99 Center. Is that okay? And he said is that okay? That's great. And he said give me 20 of them in that case. And he got 20 of them and put them in the freezer. And he said that was a blessing from God. That came from the other place my friend. That does not come from God. And here's the thing, people think oh I'm saving money. I'm saving money when my wife goes out to work and I'm saving money when I eat all these frozen cheapo dinners and I'm saving money when I eat less produce and just go get Burger King and it's a 99 Center. You know what? You're going to spend all of that money at the hospital and at the doctor. You're going to spend it all. That's why our country's going bankrupt today because of Medicare, Medicaid. Why? Because everybody's spending billions of dollars trying to fight illness and trying to fight sickness that has been brought on by an unhealthy sitting on the couch, sitting in front of the TV, stuffing your face with fast food and junk food lifestyle. That's why you're sick. That's why you're not healthy. And you know everybody who is an obese, unhealthy, these are their favorite verses. These are their favorite verses. They say this, you know every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused. If it be received with thanksgiving it's sanctified by the word of God and prayer. Well you better have the faith to move mountains buddy if that's your life verse. If you're going to have to pray that God is going to have to perform a miracle every time you drive through McDonald's. You know what I mean? And just completely change the molecular structure of that food and I don't think it's going to happen. Maybe you're a modern day Elijah that can pray that that food will totally be reconfigured on its way down your gullet. I don't think it's going to happen. And then here's their other favorite verse, bodily exercise, profit is little. That's their other favorite verse. And here's the thing, and I agree with that because there are people who man they get so into fitness and it's like that's all they're into and they worship their bodies and they you know they stare in a mirror with their pink tank top on and yeah you know and they, but look, but wait a minute you got to understand people in the Bible days man they worked a physical job. 90% of people were farmers back then and if you look at the people in the Bible they were physically strong men and they're you know they're doing all these these works and they're lifting things and they're doing just a physical job. So I'm just telling you your body was not designed to sit around all day and if you have a job that sits you around all day you do need to go out and get some exercise or you will get sick you know and and you know ideal if you have a physical job you're killing two birds with one stone by doing that physical job and then that that'll help keep you in shape and keep the blood flowing. You know for example my dad I've never really known my dad to be one to work out but he was always strong he was always good at arm wrestling he was always you know just because he had a physical job as an electrician that kept him in shape and you know I think in our society today you know getting a little exercise wouldn't be a bad idea you know to keep you healthy. So anyway those are some reasons why people are sick but let's get into healing. You know people are sick because sometimes they just abuse their body. Sometimes people are sick because they're being punished by God whether saved or unsaved that goes. Sometimes people are not being punished by God sometimes it's for God's glory God's bringing them through maybe a trial or a tribulation and if you remember Job said when I'm tried I shall come forth as gold. He's being refined he's being purified he was being put through hard times to make him a better person and so we should never look at someone else and just assume oh they're being judged by God they're being punished by God. God's wrath will be kindled against us if we're wrong and so we shouldn't go there we should just assume that the person is just going through trials okay and going through tribulations and we should pray for them and love them. But can God heal today? So that being said those are some of the causes for sickness some of the causes for disease. Another cause was if you remember that evil king all the people around him got sick too even though they hadn't necessarily done the wrong all his wives his children all the people that lived around him. So sometimes we could just get sick as a result of some kind of a corporate punishment on a nation or on an area or whatever. But can God heal? Well James 5 God clearly said that if we pray for those that are sick the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and that we could and he said this the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Now that being said do we believe that that me or do we believe that I or anyone else can just basically just walk up to people and just guaranteed every time I can just heal people. I mean I just lay hands on the sick and they just recover every time. I mean I mean you know granted that they have enough faith you know that I can just lay hands on the sick and they're just going to recover every time. Do we believe that? Well let's look at that in the scripture because there are people out there who believe that. There are people who come to town Benny Hinn and the like and they'll come to town and they'll have healing lines and healing services where people will come to be healed and they line up and he slaps them on the forehead and he heals them so called and on and on. Do we believe in that? Well let me ask you this. Did that ever take place in the Bible where a person could just go around just healing people? I mean they just went from one to the next to the next healing people. Did that ever happen? Yes it did. First of all it happened in the life of Jesus okay. The Bible says that Jesus went around he said he healed the sick, he cleansed the lepers, he cast out devils and the Bible talks about people who were striving to touch the hem of his garment and it says this as many as touched were made perfectly whole. Did you hear that? Any person that could get close enough to Jesus to touch the hem of his garment the Bible says as many as touched were made perfectly whole. So Jesus was able to do that. I mean he was able to go around and heal people and he did have people lining up you know lepers and he had all kinds of people that were lame and palsied and sick and people heard about, the Bible says his fame went throughout all Syria and it says and they brought unto him all sick people which were taken with diverse diseases and torments and those which were lunatic and those which had the palsy and those that were possessed with devils. It says he healed them all. So did Jesus perform that type of miracle? Yes he did. And there's a lot of scripture. We could spend the whole morning just looking at every healing in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. It's a lot of healing. Who else had that power? Well the apostles had that power. Let me show you that in the scripture. Go to Matthew 10 first of all. Matthew chapter 10. So we talked about some of the causes of sickness and you say why did you go over that? Well I'm going to come back to some of those causes of sickness in a little while and so that's why I wanted to cover those. Those are going to come into play a little bit later in the sermon but look at Matthew chapter 10. Here are the apostles of Jesus Christ, the 12. Look at Matthew 10 one. The Bible says when he called unto him his 12 disciples he gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. So you notice that Jesus gave that power to the 12 disciples to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease right? Now the names of the 12 apostles are these and he gives all the names and so forth and then it says in verse 5 these 12 Jesus sent forth and commanded them saying go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and as you go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Verse 8 heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils. Freely you've received freely give. Look at Luke 6 just a few pages to the right in your Bible. So we see that these 12 disciples were given the power to heal and they were told to both preach the gospel of Christ and to go and heal the sick as they were at it and there were 12 of them. Look at Luke chapter 6 verse 13. It says and when it was day he called unto him his disciples and of them he chose 12. So when the Bible says disciples there it's talking about more than 12 isn't it? He's got a big group of disciples, a big crowd of disciples. Of those disciples he chose 12. So are all of the 12 named apostles? No. It says of those disciples he named 12 whom also he named apostles. Go to Luke chapter 9 verse 1. It says then he called his 12 disciples together. So these are the 12 that he named apostles and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases and he sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. Is everybody understanding so far? Pretty simple. Look at chapter 9 verse 10. It says and the apostles when they were returned told them all that they had done and he took them and went aside privately and in a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. Look at chapter 10 verse 1. I just wanted to show you that scripture to show that they're being called apostles as they're sent out. Luke 10.1. After these things the Lord appointed other 70 also. So this is in addition to the 12. He appointed the 12, he sent them out to preach and to heal in the villages and towns whither he himself was wont to come. Now he's appointed 70 others also and he sent them to and to before his face into every city and place whither he himself would come. Look at verse 17. I just want to show you that these 70 are the same as the 12 in the sense that they are apostles and that they have power over devils to cast them out and to heal diseases. Look at verse 17. The 70 returned again with joy saying Lord even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And so we see that the apostles are doing the same thing that Jesus had done. They're able to just heal people just en masse. Just going around healing and preaching. Okay? Now go if you would to Acts chapter 19 verse 11. Acts chapter 19 verse 11. Now how many apostles were there? Well we know he originally appointed 12. Alright? Then later he appointed 70 other also. Now some people think that there are just only 12 apostles period. But that's not true because in the book of Acts first of all there's the apostle Paul but then there's also Barnabas. Now Barnabas was now one of the 12. Yet Barnabas is called an apostle. That's why I believe that Barnabas was one of the 70 because that was a pretty big group and so he was part of that crowd of apostles. Let's look at some more about the apostles. Look at Acts 19 verse 11. And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul. Now let me ask you this. Was Paul an apostle? Of course. All of his epistles he says Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ. Over and over again the Bible tells us that Paul was an apostle. And the Bible says God wrought special miracles. Now are these normal miracles? These are special miracles right? Let's keep reading. So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons and the diseases departed from them and the evil spirits went out of them. Now this is really similar to where they touched the hem of Jesus' garment and they were healed. They're taking clothing from Paul's garment and bringing it to the people and those people are being healed of their diseases. Then certain of the vagabond Jews, this is verse 13, exorcists, and I believe that's the only time that word is used in the Bible, okay, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus saying we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches. Now I submit to you these guys had the faith. I mean they saw what Paul's doing. They saw the miracles and they saw that all of Paul's miracles were being done in the name of Jesus. And they said you know what? We're going to do the same thing. Now I don't think that these guys lacked faith. Do you? I mean they obviously believed it was going to work and they're doing it in the name of Jesus. And so they come and it says in verse 13 that they call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus saying we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are ye? And the man on whom the evil spirit was leaped on them and overcame them and prevailed against them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus and fear fell on them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. So is this something that anybody can just start doing according to this scripture? Because Paul's doing these special miracles and people just say well I have the same faith. I believe on Jesus too. I'm going to do this in the name of Jesus. And they go out and start trying to cast out devils. They come to one guy, seven of them come to one guy, try to cast out that devil. That guy beats them and wounds them and rips their clothes off and they're running away fleeing scared and naked. So God's obviously trying to illustrate to us here this isn't something that everybody just automatically has the power to do just because they believe in Jesus. Because these guys right here it seems like they believed. I mean I don't see any indication that they didn't. Now if you would go to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. And while you're turning there I'm going to read you a few other scriptures. The Bible says in Acts 2.43, and fear came upon every soul and many wonders, wonders are miracles, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. So who did the wonders and signs in Acts 2? The apostles. Acts 8.18, and when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money. So again very consistently through the book of Acts we see the apostles performing these miracles. And when other people tried it, it didn't really work out. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 11. The Bible reads, I have become a fool in glory. Ye have compelled me for I ought to have been commended of you for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles though I be nothing. Verse 12, truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience in signs and wonders and mighty deeds. So we see here very clearly that there are signs of an apostle. And Paul is using the fact that he did these miracles and performed these signs and wonders as evidence that he's an apostle. Right? He's saying yes I am an apostle and I even did the signs of an apostle among you. So if you follow this through the New Testament it's very consistent. Matthew 10, he's given the apostle power to heal the sick and to do miracles. Luke 6, Luke 9, Luke 10, he's given the apostles that same power. They're amazed that they have that power. They say wow, even the devils are subject unto us. Then we get into the book of Acts. The apostles are doing the miracles in chapter 2. The apostles are doing miracles in chapter 5. The apostles are doing miracles in chapter 8. The apostles are doing miracles in chapter 19. It's really, really consistent. Then when you get to 2 Corinthians 12, Paul is using that as evidence. Now if every believer was able to perform these type of signs and wonders and miracles, why would that be the signs of an apostle? Why would that prove that Paul was an apostle just because he could do some miracles if everybody could do them? Because those are the signs of an apostle. Those are special miracles, as the Bible called it, in Acts chapter 19. Go back to chapter 11. You're in 2 Corinthians 12, go back to chapter 11. The Bible warns us that there will be false apostles. There will be people who claim to be apostles. He says in 2 Corinthians 11, 13, for such are false apostles, deceitful workers transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. So are there impersonators? Are there posers? Yes. He says in verse number 14, and no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light, therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. Let me ask you this, are these imitators or imposters, these false apostles, are they just misguided souls or are they actually working for the devil? The Bible warns us that satanic people, I mean people who are of Satan, Satan's ministers will masquerade as an apostle. Isn't that what the Bible just taught? And this is what we see in Revelation 2, you don't have to turn there, but in Revelation 2, Jesus said, I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience, and thou thou canst not bear them which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not and has found them liars. So we see again evil people masquerading as the apostles of Christ. So the question begs itself then, what is an apostle? What denotes an apostle? We'll go back to Acts 1 and I'll answer that for you. Go to Acts 1, we're going to look at just two more scriptures this morning, Acts 1 and then 1 Corinthians 15 is where we're going next. Look at Acts 1, because we remember Jesus chose an elite group out of all his many multitudes of disciples and followers, he chose 12. Later on, in his ministry, he chose other 70 also to fill this role of being an apostle. But look if you would at Acts 1, the Bible says in verse 21, and let me just give you the context, this is where Judas Iscariot has committed suicide, he hung himself, and the Bible says that Peter and them, they all assembled together and decided to basically ordain one to be a replacement of Judas in that group of 12. Look what it says in verse 21, wherefore of these men which accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, so he's saying they had to be there all the way along, beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be, and here's the key right here, a witness with us of his resurrection. And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justice, and Matthias. So both of these guys that they picked, they'd both been baptized by John the Baptist, they'd both been following Jesus the whole way through, and they had both been a witness of his resurrection. They'd both seen Christ after he rose from the dead, okay? And it says they prayed and it said, Thou Lord which knowest the hearts of all men, show whether of these two thou is chosen, that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell that he might go to his own place, and they gave forth their lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles, okay? Now go to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians chapter number 15. So we see that the apostles were a group that Jesus sent out. They were a group that Jesus laid hands on and gave special power over devils and power to cure the sick. Later on we see that the apostles in the book of Acts were known as witnesses of his resurrection, okay? And that also jives with what I'm going to show you in 1 Corinthians 15 here. Look at verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures, and he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. So wait a minute, we're looking at witnesses of his resurrection, Jesus wrote from the dead, he did not show himself openly to all the people. The Bible is very clear about that. He did not show himself openly to all the people, but unto chosen witnesses, the Bible says. And it says in verse 6, after that, so first he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve, after that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, okay? So that's a pretty big group of believers. Now look, we're not talking about unsaved people, Jesus didn't show himself to the unsaved. He appeared unto Cephas, then to the twelve, and then to over five hundred brethren at once. Now these guys weren't all in the same family. When it says brethren there, we're talking about the fact that they were saved. And it says, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, most of those five hundred people are still alive today, but some are falling asleep. More indication that they were all believers. Because sleep is used about those that believe there, okay? He says, after that he was seen of James, then of all the apostles. Now let me ask something, are there any apostles who did not see Jesus after he rose from the dead? No. He was seen of all the apostles, okay? So all those apostles, all those people whom Jesus gave that special power to, and who Jesus laid his hands upon and gave them that power and sent them out to do those miracles and to preach the kingdom of God, all of them saw Christ resurrected from the dead in his physical body that he showed. His flesh and bone body that he showed after he rose. All of them. He was seen of all the apostles, but watch this. And last of all, he was seen of me also. So is Jesus still appearing to people today and he's still appearing to them and giving them this power and making them apostles? No. The Bible says, last of all, he was seen of me. Now Paul's not writing this a week after the road to Damascus. He's writing this many decades later saying that he was seen of me last. Meaning that no one in all that time had seen him. And the Bible's clear that the next time we see him is when he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him. And they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him, even so, amen. And so Jesus Christ was seen of Paul, last of all, watch this, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles and am not me to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. So here we see that the apostle Paul is making it clear again with Acts 1, backing it up, that an apostle was one who was a witness of his resurrection. And it was one who had gone back to the days of Jesus, not somebody who came on board afterward, one who had been in the days of Jesus, Jesus had given him that power and sent them out two by two, first twelve, then seventy. Paul was like one born out of due time. He was a special apostle because he was not in that original group. And he says, you know, I'm like one that was born out of due time. Because he was this late comer to becoming an apostle. Because Jesus appeared to him after he rose from the dead and commissioned him, gave him power, he witnessed the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus and so on and so forth. And so all that to say this, there are no living apostles today. Now the Mormons, they got their apostle, don't they? And they're living apostles on this earth and so forth, and they'll tell you that Jesus when appeared to the Indians. No he didn't. He appeared last of all unto the apostle Paul. And sometimes when I'm out door to door soul winning I'll talk to these Pentecostal Charismatics and they'll tell you, I've seen Jesus, he appeared to me. And I always ask them this, what did he look like? I mean you saw him, right? Oh yeah, well what did he look like? And I always ask this, what about, do you have long hair? Oh yeah. I say well that wasn't him then. You know, because the Bible says it's a shame for a man to have long hair, okay? And that a woman's hair is a glory to her but that it's a shame for a man to have long hair. And you know, the Bible's pretty clear that men are supposed to look like men and have short hair and wear pants, okay? And not look like, you know, a guy with long flowing hair and a dress that we see painted. And you know the guy who painted it was a homosexual, that's why he painted it that way. I mean those Renaissance painters, look it up, Michelangelo and them, I mean that's why they painted it that way because they were queer, okay? And so yeah, they're going to paint him to look like that. But the bottom line is that Jesus Christ is not today appearing unto people in that way He's not ordaining new apostles today. It's just not happening, my friend. And do I believe that Jesus can heal? Do I believe that God has the power to heal? Absolutely. I do not believe though that there's a person on this earth who has that power that the apostles had where they can just go around just healing the sick and just line people up and heal them. I don't believe it. Now here's the proof. You say prove it Pastor Anderson. Okay, here's the proof. Those who preach this doctrine of line up and be healed, they all preach a different salvation than what the Bible teaches. Now here's the thing. If that healing line was of God, there'd be somebody doing it who preached the gospel that I preach, which is a biblical gospel. You say, well what is that gospel? John 3.16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. But the Pentecostals don't believe that. They believe it's temporary life. Now I'm saved. Now I'm not. Now I'm saved. Now I'm not. The Bible says I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. And today Pentecostalism and the charismatic movement and the healing line movement, they all teach you can lose your salvation. All of them. All of them. They all believe that you can lose your salvation, which is basically just they believe in work salvation because they believe you have to live right to stay saved. You have to live right to keep your salvation. Look, you don't have to live right to get your salvation. You don't have to live right to keep your salvation. It's by grace through faith lest any man should boast, not of works lest any man should boast. And so when you see these people preaching another gospel and false doctrine in regard to salvation, that should tell you right away they cannot be of God. They are of the wicked one. They are false apostles. And look, the Bible, and you say, well, are the miracles that they're doing, are they real? Well, I submit to you that probably a lot of it's not even real. A lot of it is probably just smoke and mirrors. A lot of it is probably just a magic show. I mean, wasn't there a magician that made the Statue of Liberty disappear or something? I mean, you know, these guys can do a lot with illusion and actors and whatever. So I submit to you a lot of it's just a showbiz, you know, it's just a fake thing. It's just like the psychic reader. They got all kinds of tricks and so do these, you know, faith healer guys. But the Bible is real clear that the devil can perform miracles. Remember in the Old Testament when Moses went to Pharaoh and he threw down his rod and it became a serpent? Remember when the magicians and sorcerers of Pharaoh came down and threw down their rods? Their rods became serpents too, but then this is the best part. Moses rod ate their rod. His serpent ate their serpent. And then he picked it up and turned it back into a rod and it weighed three times as much when he was done. Now I don't know if that part's true. But I love how, don't you love how his rod ate their rod? You know, that just shows the power of God. I mean, yeah, the devil has power, but man, God will chew that up and just spit it out. You know, I love it. I love that story. But not only that, the Bible talks about how in the end times, you know, the Antichrist, he's going to do all kinds of lying signs and wonders. So the devil has some power of illusion and the devil has the power to turn water into blood. He turned water into blood also in the Book of Exodus, the sorcerers did. Of course, they couldn't turn it back into water so everybody could have something to drink, but they did turn the water into blood. And so there are lying signs and wonders out there, but let's not let that make us think that God can't heal though. So in the New Testament, it's not, oh, just, you know, just basically just touch so-and-so's clothes and you'll be healed, okay? We don't have those kind of apostles today. But what we do have is prayer today. And the Bible does tell us that the prayer of faith shall save the sick. And you know, if someone is sick and someone is ill and we pray for them, God can miraculously heal that person. I believe that from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. I'm not just saying naturally, I'm saying God can step in and perform a miracle and that person can be healed of their infirmity through the power of prayer. I still believe in a prayer and a faith that can move mountains and prayer that can heal the sick and prayer that can cause God's power to be shown. One thing you have to keep in mind as you're reading the Bible is that you're reading a story that covers thousands and thousands of years. And it may seem like, man, the Bible has a lot of miracles in it as you read the Old Testament. But if you took the time that the Old Testament took, okay, and then divided up how many miracles are in there, miracles aren't really happening that often. Because we're reading about the miracles but they took place over the course of thousands of years. And obviously the greatest concentration of miracles in the entire Bible is when Jesus showed up. I mean, He did more miracles than the whole Old Testament combined. You know, I mean, He just was doing signs and wonders nonstop and His apostles that He sent out, you know, the residual effects there, they did a ton of miracles. I mean, that's the concentration of miracles throughout human history is right there, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts. I mean, that's where it's concentrated. Were there miracles before that? Yeah, guys like Elijah who performed maybe like seven miracles in a lifetime. You know, guys like Elijah who performed about twice as many. Other guys who performed maybe one miracle. And then there's a guy like Joshua, you know, he prayed that the sun would stand still. And that was a unique miracle that took place. But it's not like these guys are just rolling out of bed and doing miracles every single day. You know, Moses wasn't part in the Red Sea every day. I mean, he lived 80 years before he even showed up. Yeah, just to get to work in the morning, you know. But anyway, you know, he showed up and yeah, he did some miracles, but they came very late in his life. And let me name for you the greatest man who ever walked on the face of the earth outside of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The greatest mortal man was John the Baptist. That's what the Bible said. Jesus said, among them that are born of women, there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist. And you know what else the Bible says? John did no miracle. That's what it says. John did no miracle. He was just preaching. So it's not that, you know, if you're a believer, man, you better be doing miracles or else you don't have the faith. Are you saying John the Baptist didn't have the faith? John the Baptist had a lot more faith than you or I could ever shake a stick at, but he did no miracle. So miracles are few and far between in the Old Testament. They're probably few and far between today and the day that we live in, okay? They were concentrated around the time of Christ, but does that mean that you and I will never see a miracle in our lifetime? No, I believe that we could see a miracle in our lifetime. I believe that God could answer prayer in a miraculous way. I still believe that God could part the Red Sea. I still believe that God could make the sun stand still. I believe that God can move mountains through the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man. I believe that. I don't believe that, oh, that was back then and that can't happen anymore. No, it can't happen. We don't have apostles today, but I believe we could pray and people could be miraculously healed. They could be cured of their sicknesses through the power of prayer and that God could even do other miracles today. Now, it's going to take a righteous man, it's going to take the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man, but it is possible. With God, all things are possible. God still performs miracles today. I believe that today the Baron can be miraculously made to give birth to children today through the power of prayer. I believe that God could perform all manner of miracles and let me tell you something, we may be living in the last days. I don't know. Perhaps Christ will come in our lifetime. We do not know the day or the hour. We can see the times and the seasons. We can see the signs of the times. We can see some of the things starting to come together of a one world government that's prophesied in the word of God in a cashless society and some of the things involving the anti-Christ, but we don't know how far away it is. It could be very far away. It could be many decades in the future or it could be around the corner that these things begin to come to pass. But I'll tell you this, when that stuff starts coming to pass, you're going to see some miraculous things take place. So it's not that God's done performing miracles. It's not that God is just through with it. No, James 5 is as applicable and as relevant as today's newspaper. Don't be one of these people that tries to relegate, oh that was a different dispensation. Don't give me that garbage. James chapter 5 is a New Testament doctrine of praying for the sick and I believe in it today. I believe James 5 is something that we ought to practice and live by today, the prayer of faith to save the sick. And again, we're talking about saving the sick, not talking about the salvation of the soul. We're talking about people that are so sick they're in danger of dying. They need to be healed. They need God to step in and help them and God says that if we pray for them, even if they've committed sin, God will forgive that through prayer, through confession and through forsaking their sin. And again, not talking about personal salvation, but talking about the healing of the sick. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word there God and we thank you for your great and mighty power that you've displayed throughout the Bible. And God, I believe that you still have that power today and I believe that you will use that power at this present time and also in the future. And God, although I'm not an apostle and I'm not one that was a witness of your resurrection, Father, please help me to use the power of prayer. Dear God, help me to spend time on my knees praying for those who need prayer. And God, I pray that we would be able to see your miraculous power in our lifetime at some point, dear God. I pray that you would show us your power and your might at some point in our lifetime, dear God. And in Jesus' name we pray.