Go with me, please, to the Book
of Mark this evening. Mark chapter 16. We began last week on a series
that we're calling Miracles Now. Miracles now. We're reading the Book of Acts
around the church here. We read our chapter every day. If you're in the New Testament,
if you'll read one chapter every day, just five days a week
Monday through Friday, in the course of a year you have read
the New Testament through exactly in its entirety. And we're in the Book of Acts
right now. And the Book of Acts should be
very special to us. All the Scripture should be very
special to us, but every one of these accounts was hand-picked
by the Holy Spirit and recorded. Because there's a lot of things
happened that are not recorded, but these are recorded because
they are what God wanted us to hear and to see and He worded it
exactly the way it should have been worded to convey to us. And it's a living Word. You can get all kind of things
out of it and come back ten years later and read it again
and think man, have I ever read it before? It's a living Word, it's so rich
and that's why you can never exhaust it because it's alive. So there is no end to the
different facets of it. And let's read our text and I'll
go further. In Mark 16, Jesus when He was
raised from the dead, He charged them and charged us in Mark
16:15 to, "Go into all the world, and preach," or proclaim,
the Good News..." How many think that's what every
church and every ministry ought to be doing? Go into all the world, preach
the Gospel, "To every creature. He that believes and is baptized
shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow
them that believe.." He starts talking about casting
out demons and speaking in tongues and ends up by talking
about the sick being healed. And verse 19, "So then after the
Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat
on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and
preached everywhere the Lord working with them," actually
"them" is added by the translator so the Lord working
with, "and confirming the Word with signs following." Everybody say, "Signs." See, He said signs would follow
believers and then He said, it's recorded, that when they went
and preached the Word the Lord worked with and confirmed the
Word with signs. Signs. And as you read the Book of Acts
you see page after page of miracles and signs and wonders. Do we still believe in miracles
and signs and wonders today? Do we? Do you reckon we could believe
in them stronger? We live in a generation and in a
society that is more intellectual. And a whole lot of even
churchgoing people, they don't really believe in the
miraculous. They may believe in some things
positionally but oh man, if something miraculous begins to
happen in their presence, it would scare them. And a lot of people just
wouldn't accept it all. And no matter how much you think
you believe in the miraculous, how much have you experienced? And whole lot of things are
going to be different than how you thought. No question about that. Especially the things that we
haven't had experiences in before, it would not be new to
God, but new to us. We need to stir ourselves up on
this. So we're going to the Book of
Acts and we're asking ourselves, do we really believe that these
things happened? They literally happened. And then asking ourselves can
they happen today? Do we believe that they can? And are we believing for this
kind of thing? What is our part in it? So in the Book of Acts, if
you'll turn over there -- we call ourselves Christians and we
should, but you know Christians are Christ-ians, those like the
Christ. And the Christ life and ministry
was marked by miracles. Wasn't it? And in those that believed on
Him and followed Him after His death, burial, resurrection, and
ascension, and the Book of Acts records it, their lives were
marked by miracles. Miracles. Amazing things. Astounding things. The Book of Acts begins with
Jesus ascending without an airplane. True? This, of course, after He has
been raised from the dead. Somebody say, "Miracles." Do believe that these things
actually happened, these are not symbolic, they're not
figurative, they're not mythical? Jesus walked and lived as a man
on the Earth, He died, He was really dead for days, and He
came back to life, His body revived. And He appeared to the disciples
and to a number of people. He ate with them, He talked with
them, right? He was dead. Really dead. Now He's alive. Not just alive again, but He is
alive, incorruptible, immoral. Cannot die again. Thank You Lord. And the Bible tells us the same
thing that happened to Him is about to happen to us. Hey, hey! Does that excite you at all? Whoa! You know it's challenging maybe
for us to realize but what is happening right now is the
briefest thing we'll ever do. People think, "They're a hundred
years old." That's nothing, it's a flash,
it's here. The Bible calls it like a vapor,
a puff, a mist, then it fades away; it's gone. That's your life. But after this is unending
eternity. No aging, no pain, no crying, no
dying, no sorrow. This is as bad as it gets for
us, for Believers. And the Lord is helping us. We're making it through this
victoriously. And after this it's just all
shouting, joy unspeakable and full of glory. And we got the victory now. Somebody say, "What a deal." If the lost people around the
planet really realize this, they'd all run to Jesus as fast
as they could right now, and everybody would get born- again,
and we'd be done with all this. But the devil has millions
blinded and hence the Lord told us go into all the world and
tell them, proclaim to them the Good News. Let's talk a little bit more
about Jesus being raised from the dead before we leave this. Go to Romans the sixth chapter
please. Romans six. We're asking the question do you
believe in miracles? As you read in these chapters of
Acts, these accounts, these miracle after miracle after
miracle, do you believe they really happened? And can these kind of things
happen again? Jesus was raised from the dead
-- how was He raised from the dead? We're given more than one verse
that tells us how. Romans 6:4, "Therefore we are
buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was
raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father," do you
know that's what was in that tomb when He was raised from the
dead? The glory of the Father filled
up that tomb and Jesus raised up. He was raised up from the dead
by the glory of the Father. "Even so we also should walk in
newness of life." Look down to the eighth chapter. Over to the eighth chapter and
the eleventh verse. Romans 8:11, "But if the Spirit
of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead," let's just stop right
here. One verse said the glory of the
Father raised Him up, this here says the Spirit of Him, of God
raised Him up. It's saying the same thing. Who is the glory of the Father? There's just One Holy Spirit,
and He is the Spirit of truth. He's also the Spirit of glory. And here's the amazing thing. That same Spirit that filled up
-- let's backup a little bit. The Spirit that hovered over the
face of the deep - when God said, "Light be," and He moved
and it happened - that same Spirit that was involved in the
mighty signs and wonders in bringing God's people out of
Egyptian bondage - and in the prophet Elijah and Elisha, and
Samuel, and Daniel - that same Spirit that was on Jesus
preaching and teaching and healing and delivering and
cleansing lepers and raising the dead - that same Spirit that was
in that tomb, that manifested the glory of the Father - that
same exact Spirit is in you. We have not acted like it. We have not lived in much of an
awareness of this. That the God of glory is in us? Notice. "If the Spirit of Him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you," does He? Does He? Does He? "He that raised up Christ from
the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that
dwelleth in you." Same thing that happened to Him
is going to happen to you. It's going to happen to me. The glory of the Father is going
to envelop us, whether our body is just raised up out of the
grave, we have died and gone to be with Him, or whether we're
alive and remaining and are standing watching this amazing
thing happen. Just about time we see -- the
Bible says the dead in Christ are going to rise first, and
we're watching that and our eyes are bigger than they've ever
been and our mouth is wide open, and about time it finishes, it's
going to hit us. The Bible said it's going to
happen to us. We shall be changed, it's got to
be fast, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we're going
to be changed, not just on an atomic, molecular level, but on
a spiritual level, and will no longer be mortal. No more subject to any type of
corruption. So if you're going to get your
healing, you better get it now because later on you won't need
it. So go ahead and get all your
healings now. And you may as well get all your
money too now because I don't think there's going to be any US
currency in heaven. Might as well get all your money
and your healings now while you can use it. Raised from the dead by the
glory of the Father. Raised from the dead by the
Spirit of God. The same Spirit that dwells in
us. And the Bible said we will be
quickened, so that's what happened to Jesus in that tomb. His body was quickened. Quickened. I mean, what kind of picture
does that paint for you? Quickened. That body had laid there in that
tomb with that huge stone rolled, there was no motion,
there was no movement, there was cold, there was damp, there was
stiff, there was death. And the glory began to fill up
that place. The glory of God is manifested
in the Old Testament all through the prophets and into the new. Sometimes appeared as fire,
sometimes appeared as a cloud, as light, as brightness. But the glory filled up that
dark, damp place of death. And as it filled up and
enveloped the Masters body, it quickened Him. Somebody say, "Quickened. Quickened means to make full of
light. It would be kind of like putting
some electricity to something, only this is much more than
electricity. This is the power that made
electricity. Why are we talking about this? Because God hasn't changed and
He hasn't -- His quickening days are not passed. His glory manifestation days are
not over. The Spirit of God is here. That's exactly what happened. Jesus was raised from the dead
and He went up, He ascended in front of their eyes there in the
Book of Acts. You've read about it. He ascended, He went up and a
cloud received Him out of their sight. How many believe that literally
happened? How did He do that? No airplane. No helicopter. No jet pack. He just starts defying gravity
and goes up, up, up, up. And they're all standing there
like this and they can see Him from the clouds, and they're
still watching and the angel says, "The One you saw leaving
like this, He's going to come back again. Just like that." Hallelujah. With clouds. The Bible talks about cloud of
witnesses. Oh, hallelujah. We're going to see it. This is not a fairy tale. We're going to see it. Now He goes up and the very next
chapter, Somebody Else comes down. The Holy Spirit. Is it true? The Master ascended, He's
sitting at the right hand of Majesty on high and the Holy
Spirit came down. And when He came into the upper
room He made an entrance. He didn't just slip in the back
and sit down in the seat and nobody knew He was there. Turn to chapter two. What are we talking about in
here tonight, friends? What are we talking about? Miracles, signs, wonders. Do we believe in them? Are we really Christians You
can't be a real Christian and not believe in the miraculous. Christianity is miracles from
beginning to end. Virgin birth, supernatural life,
raised from the dead, ascended on high, coming back again. Miracles. Miracles. Miracles. Acts two, are you there? Acts 2:1, what does it say? "The day of Pentecost was fully
come, they were all with one accord in one place." One place. Keep that in mind. Verse two, "Suddenly," suddenly. The Holy Ghost will surprise
you. I said, He'll surprise you. You think they were ready for
this? No. He told them what to do, but do
you think they were expecting this? I tell you, nay. No. They're praying, they believe in
God, they believe in Jesus, they believe He's raised from the
dead, they know He told them to wait until they were endued with
power from on high, I do not think they had any idea this was
going to happen. Suddenly, everything is nice,
orderly and everybody is praying, suddenly, "There came a
sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind," tornado
type, hurricane type, rushing, loud, mighty. Not brisk breeze, mighty. When God says mighty, it was
mighty. It was something, brother. And they know there's not
supposed be a wind blowing like this inside the house. The windows aren't even open,
the doors aren't even open maybe. Where is this wind coming from? And it does get stronger and
louder and stronger and louder. That would do what to you? It can alarm you after the
flesh. But if you'll stay hold with
what you know inside, inside you'll have a witness that this
is God. Just relax flesh. Be still, don't do something
dumb. Just sit tight. God is moving. Rushing, mighty wind blowing. You know that has happened since
then? There's recorded instances of it
back hundreds of years ago and in more recent times and all
along. Well, the Holy Ghost is still
here. He could still come in, can't
He? He can still come in like this. Apparently He likes to come in
like this. Would it be okay with us if He
came in like this? Would we say yes? Please. We would think it's great. It would change our life in some
ways you might not think. As we read about these miracles,
was everybody happy about these things? Them all getting filled with the
Holy Ghost on this very day? Now, they came out of the upper
room speaking in tongues. Was everybody happy about this? Was the established Church happy
about this? No. And then lame man at the Gate
called Beautiful got healed, miraculous. Was everybody happy about that? They got thrown in jail for
that. Somebody said, "Well, things
maybe have changed." They haven't. Not in that regard. We like to think they are. One of the big reasons why we
haven't experienced as much persecution is we just haven't
had as much going on. But you get these kind of things
going on... You're going to have revival,
and riot, mass salvations and anger. Hatred. It's all part of it. Jesus said, "Don't think it's
some strange thing if they persecute you like they did Me. I told you if they hated Me
they'll hate you." You would think everybody would
just be thrilled that the Holy Ghost blew in. Oh. But if that really happened,
what are people going to do with it? Are people that have been
immersed in godless tradition for centuries going to throw all
that aside and jeopardize their salary by saying, "Yeah, that
was the Holy Ghost? Made a big sound." Some will. Some won't. My point is has God changed? Does He not do any things like
this anymore? Or are we a part of the same
church as this bunch right here in the Book of Acts? Same new birth, same name of
Jesus, same Gospel message, same Holy Spirit, same Holy Spirit. Are you sure? Same Holy Spirit. If we have the same Holy Spirit,
what else should we have? The same kinds of
manifestations. Right? Speaking in tongues, rushing
mighty winds, fire above your head. People healed. People raised from the dead. Some people dumbstruck. Some people struck blind
supernaturally, not with a disease. Oh! Am I quoting stuff from the Book
of Acts? Amazing things. Now, before we go further, go
with me over to the Book of 1 Corinthians. When we began talking about
this, I know some people have concerns, a lot of preachers
say, "Oh man, you start talking about that kind of thing you
have every kind of weirdness, you'll have every kind of bazaar
thing that people will get into." What is the alternative? Not talk about it and let's all
stay -- what? Mental? Live in our heads? Not experience any of this? There are some great truths that
if you're clear on them, they'll keep you safe. Keep you right. Do you want to hear some of
them? We should not seek after signs
more than we do God. We should not become infatuated
with the miraculous more than we are Jesus and the Word, which is
to say the same. He is the Word manifested in the
flesh. I know because I made the
mistake in the beginning days of my following God, in my youth
and in my ignorance. I had zeal but not according to
knowledge. Man, I believed in the
miraculous, I believed God was amazingly big and He could do
anything and just liable to do anything. And so pretty much anything that
would happen if it was spectacular and amazing I was
one of the first ones to jump on the bandwagon. Yeah. Whoa, let's do it. And thing after thing I
eventually realized that wasn't God. That wasn't God. Just because it's spiritual,
doesn't mean it's God. Just because it's miraculous,
that doesn't make it God. Just because it's a sign and a
wonder, doesn't make it God. "Do you mean Brother Keith there
are spiritual manifestations that are not God and wrong?" Absolutely. "There are miraculous things
that are not God?" Yes, the Bible says so. So you must not just become
obsessed with miracles. Because if you get more obsessed
with miracles than you do Jesus, you're going to get in trouble. You can be led astray. Because even the most seasoned
of us are so inexperienced in these things, that if you try to
discern just with your own little experience supernatural
things apart from the Word, apart from holding to the Head
Jesus, you're going to be deceived. Led astray. Led off. And some people have seen a
little bit of this and they're so scared of that, that's why
they don't even want to talk about any of this because, "Oh,
oh, no. Let's just be nice and quiet and
say hallelujah and read our Scriptures and go home." But I believe we can have the
manifestation of God and that He can help us and we can stay on
track. Do you believe that? I believe that. Move of God after move of God
people have gotten off and have messed it up. If you studied history at all, I
mean from centuries past until twenty and thirty years ago,
move of God after move of God, God begins to move and some
spectacular things begin to happen and oh man, tons of
people just come and show up and it's a happening affair, and
then it just goes off the rails, and off the deep end, and just
fizzles out. And usually a lot of people get
hurt. I am not talking about a time or
two or three or ten, time after time after time after time. And if God was able to do some
wonderful things in our midst and us not get off, it would
just be by His grace. It wouldn't be because we were
smarter than somebody else, or better than somebody else, it
would just be by His grace. And it would be because we held
to Him and we held to the Head, Jesus. Here's something that is of the
utmost importance. The Word is always first place
overall. Everybody say, "The Word. The Word." And when I say the Word I'm
talking about yes the Book, but I'm talking about the Man, I'm
talking about Jesus. But the Book by the Spirit of
God reveals to us the Man and the will of God. But the Word must always be
first. First over everything, all the
time. Friend, I don't care if in the
morning a two hundred voice angel choir wakes you up, and
you see exhilarating amazing things, and if it's more real
than anything you've ever experienced in your life, if any
of it is contrary to one Scripture, you should not tell a
soul about it. Did you hear me? And you should throw it aside
and say I don't care how real it was, how spiritual it was, it
wasn't right. Wasn't right. And so, the more ignorant one is
of the Word, the harder it would be for them to discern what's
God and what's not and the easier they are deceived. Do you remember in Ephesians him
talking about why He gave gifts unto men? For the perfecting of the
saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying,
building up of the body of Christ. Go over there and read that. Ephesians. Why? Notice to what end. Ephesians. Yes its maturity, yes it's
growing up, but notice the results of growing up. Ephesians 4:13. "Till we all come in the unity
of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,"
knowledge of the Son of God. Knowledge of the Son of God. Not just knowledge of the
miraculous, not just knowledge of the spiritual, knowledge of
the Son of God. "Unto a perfect," a fully
developed, complete, "man, unto the measure of the stature of
the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children,
tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby
they lie in wait to deceive..." Can you see how essential it is
that we get built up in the Word? Why? Because if you're not, you're
gullible, don't even know how gullible you are. And you know if you read in the
Book of Acts, God was doing amazing things. Well, the enemy was doing some
things too in the Book of Acts. Do you remember Elymas the
sorcerer, that little damsel that was following Paul and his
company prophesying? Several things. Well, the enemy -- if God is
moving he'll try to get in there and introduce a substitute,
right? And lead people off and lead
people astray. And all of it goes together and
the Lord knows what we can deal with. Where we're at and where we're
not at. I would like for us to grow up. I'd like for us to grow up
stable, in the word of God, so that no matter what happened
around us we holler where's the scriptures? Where's the scriptures? And no matter how amazing it
was, it wouldn't shake us. We just go, no, no, no. Because the Scripture says this,
so that can't be right. "Yeah, but that's the most
amazing experience..." It doesn't matter about the
experience or what you saw or what you heard. And if you have a bunch of
people that can deal with some of that, then you have a bunch
of people that God can show up and do some things too. And if the enemy tried to
mislead them in the midst of it, he wouldn't be able to. I wonder why the Lord is having
us deal with these things and talk about these things? Does it stir you up at all? Say it out loud, "Lord, teach us
more." I told you 1 Corinthians but
instead go to Matthew twenty-four please. Matthew twenty-four. We're talking about miracles. Matthew twenty-four. I made some statements but I
want you to see that wasn't just my idea. This is what the Word says. Matthew 24:23, Jesus is speaking
to them and to us. He said, "If any man shall say
unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false
Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs," this is
Jesus talking. And He said they will show signs
and they shall be great. Jesus said it, didn't He? "And wonders," signs and
wonders, great signs and wonders, and it's wrong. It's not God. "Insomuch that, if it were
possible, they shall deceive the very elect." Now, you can tell it's the devil
because it's designed to deceive. Can't you? He's a liar, he's the father of
lies, and actually we're going to see this later, these wonders
are called lying wonders. That's what they're called. It's a wonder, supernatural
thing, but it's a lying sign. It's a lying wonder. Maybe we haven't heard too much
about this have we? But there it is. Just as true as the rest of
Scripture right? Jesus said, "Behold, I have told
you before." I told you about this. Revelation thirteen describes
the same thing. Revelation 13:14. He says he, "Deceives them that
dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had
power to do in the sight of the beast..." Miracles. We have lived in the industrial
age, we're living in the technological age, and people
have put different things and filled their lives with
different things, but more and more people are becoming
disgruntled - technology cannot fulfill them, materialism cannot
fulfill them. Every human being on the planet
is a Spirit being. And deep calls to deep. Something in them whether their
educated head will acknowledge it or not, something and them
knows there's a whole Spirit realm, and there is activity,
and there is experience for my being, that is Spirit. And so there will have to be,
develop, more spiritual activity on both sides, in the demonic
and in the Holy Spirit. And some will reject, some will
embrace the false, some will deny it altogether, some will
try to explain it away, but some will not be tricked and fooled
by lying wonders that don't agree with God and contradict
the Scriptures. But will yield and go with the
flow of the Mighty One, the Holy One. Somebody say glory to God. Second Thessalonians 2:9 it
says, "Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with
all power and signs and lying wonders..." Everybody say, "A lying
wonders." Lying wonders. Are there miraculous things,
spiritual things -- they're real, just as real as can be,
and they'll absolutely make you wonder and awe struck, but
they're not God? True or not? And I know when you start
talking about these things sometimes you could feel people
kind of getting uncomfortable and going, "Man, oh, that makes
it complicated. I don't want to... wow. I don't want be fooled. I don't want to be tricked." We're talking about some very
basic things that will protect you. One we've already talked about. Does anybody remember the one we
are talked about? The Word. Always first. Everything judged and examined
by the written Word. If it's the Holy Spirit it's
going to look and sound like this because He's the One that
said this. He doesn't change. But then another thing -- go to
1 Corinthians now. And this is something that is
hard for the devil to fake. First Corinthians the twelfth
chapter. Actually I may just need to go
to the fourteenth. Let's start here and twelve. Verse one he said, "Concerning
spirituals," gifts is added, "brethren, I would not have you
ignorant." Does he want us to know about
spiritual things? He doesn't want us to be
ignorant of it. "You know that you were
Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as you
were led." See, people used to be a lot
more spiritual as a whole than they are. Even though they weren't
worshiping God, they were fellowshipping with some wrong
spirits. They were having fellowship with
evil spirits. They knew about spiritual
things, they had some strange things happening. That's why so many people
believed and got involved in that. You know, think about it. Why would all these people serve
these false gods and do all these things and bring all their
money and their stuff? They must've had something
happen. They had some things happen that
seemed to validate that these are real. And they are real, they're just
not God. He said, "I give you to
understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus
accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but
by the Holy Ghost." Now, Ghost is an old English
word used in the King James; it's the word for Spirit. I usually just use the word
Spirit. A bunch of us ministers were in
another state some years ago and we were having a conference in a
meeting and I guess it was, man -- they were about seventy of us
that went to the same restaurant together. And when we came in there of
course, we've made an entrance. We just kept coming in. And all of us has our dress
clothes on and other people didn't. Finally, this one lady reaches
up and grabs the coattail of one of the ministers and boy she
picked one when she picked him. He's a fiery evangelist. She said, "What is all this?" And he said, "Were having a Holy
Ghost meeting." She looked at him she said, "Do
you wear a costume to that?" The word ghost has that
connotation in a lot of people's minds. I usually just say Spirit. Even so... "No man speaking by the Spirit
of God calls Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus
is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit." People have tried to take this
and say, "Can you say Jesus is Lord?" Any sinner can say Jesus is
Lord. You can give them some money and
say, "Say Jesus is Lord," and even if they didn't believe in
it -- sure, he's not talking about that. He's talking about people
speaking by inspiration, spiritually inspired, prophecy. And he's giving correction
because the church of Corinth they had stuff going on. They had tongues and
interpretation and prophecies and they had all kinds of stuff. And a lot of it wasn't right. And apparently some people were
standing up supposedly speaking by the Spirit and saying
negative things about Jesus. And he wants them to know that
there's no way anybody speaking by the Holy Spirit is going to
say anything bad about Jesus. And friend, this should open up
a whole realm of understanding to you and I concerning
spiritual things. See, he says this in just a
couple verses afterward saying I don't want to be ignorant
concerning spiritual things. True manifestations of the Holy
Spirit, miracles, signs, wonders of God will always glorify
Jesus. They will glorify the Master. And they don't emphasize a man
or a woman, including ministers -- did you hear me? When we're talking about signs
and we're talking about wonders, you don't want to get it in your
mind, "Oh God, give me this power so I can go do things." Uh uh. No. That's not it. That's not how it works at all. He doesn't give you something
that you can use to go do stuff. If you make yourself available,
He would use you. Totally different mentality. This wanting to have power is
not right; it's seeking one's own glory. Study the life of Jesus. He said, "The servant is not
above his master." And Jesus -- notice every time
He said, "I can do nothing of Myself." I can do nothing of Myself. Is that really true? Then could He heal anybody of
Himself? No. Could He work any miracles of
Himself? I know that sounds strange to
us, but He said it. He said, "I only say what I hear
the Father say, and only do what I see Him do. The Father in Me, He does the
works." He was completely a yielded
vessel to the Father. He didn't get up in the morning
with something on His mind that He was going to do and He was
going to say. He said. "I do always those things that
please Him." Not a matter of seeking power so
you can do something. Having experiences so I can go
do something. It's not about you. It's not about me. It's about Him. I said, it's about Him. Notice, every one of these
signs, every one of these wonders what happened, what was
the result, the attention that it drew. When they heard them speaking in
tongues they heard them talking about the wonderful works of God
and glorifying God, and as soon as Peter got their attention, he
told them about Jesus and they all believed on Jesus. And three thousand of them got
saved. Glory to God. Lame man at the Gate called
Beautiful said they glorified God for this miracle that had
been done on this man. Again and again they glorified
God, glorified God, glorified God, glorified God. Peter said, "Why look ye on us?" Because when that man was raised
up that everybody had seen laid up by that gate there for all
those years I guess, they were looking at them and going, "How
did you do that?" Peter and John. "What did you do? How did you do that?" He said, "Why are you looking at
us? As though by our own power or
holiness we had made this man to walk." And yet, that's what's taught in
many of the seminaries, that Peter and John and the other
apostles had the special power and they can use it and do some
things -- it was necessary to help get the church started,
because they didn't yet have the full Canon of Scripture. But now we have the full Canon
of Scripture and we don't need that. Huh? We don't need it? Friend, miracles are the only
way to get these mass movements of humanity into the kingdom of
God like you read about in the Book of Acts. When we hear three thousand got
saved in a day and then a couple chapters later another five
thousand got saved in a day, those numbers may not be
registering on us like they should. Think about when that was
recorded and what the population was like. Think about what the population
was like in this country just a hundred years ago. I think three thousand and five
thousand would easily be like thirty thousand and fifty
thousand if you compare it to percentages of the people alive
in the population. Especially how they're able to
move around and even the Word get out to people. We're talking about masses of
humanity. We read in the Book of Acts
where whole towns, multiple, turned to the Lord. There's only one way that
happens. It's the miracles. It's the signs. It's the wonders. Not that a man did, not that a
preacher or an apostle or a prophet did, that God did. He did it. And He did it to glorify His son
Jesus. Demonic signs will not do that,
they'll never do that. They'll glorify men, they'll
glorify women, they'll glorify people, they'll glorify entities
and institutions, but not Jesus. And again, that's the Word being
first place just like the first time we said, because He is the
Word. Somebody say thank You Lord. Go with me over to the Book of
Acts now, please. Acts three. Thank You Lord. Somebody say, "I believe in
miracles but I'm not seeking miracles. I seek God." Acts three, we've referred to
this, we've talked about this, but let's read it. Acts three, "Peter and John went
up together into the temple at the hour of prayer," not five
minutes of prayer, "being the ninth hour." That could be one reason were
not having as many of these things. "And a certain man lame from his
mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of
the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them
that entered into the temple," so Peter and John went to the
temple at the hour of prayer. This is a regular thing, the
hour of prayer, day after day after day. And it lets us know they had
laid him daily at the Gate. So no telling how many times
Peter and John have walked by this man to go pray and walked
by him when they left. Right? But today, something is
different. He, "Seeing Peter and John about
to go into the temple asked an alms." He didn't ask for a healing, he
didn't ask for a miracle, what did he ask for? Alms is a gift to the poor. Can you help the poor? Something to eat, for something
to eat. Can you help me? Lifted up his hand, lifted up
his cup, whatever he had. You got something to spare? He's lame. And verse four, "Peter,
fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us." Look at us. Fastened his eyes on him. I submit to you, the Spirit of
God came on them. Came on them. We don't know how many days, how
many weeks, how many months or years they walked right by this
man, walked right by him leaving, walked by him, walked
by him. I mean after a while everything
just looks like a normal picture. But today -- Somebody say,
"Today." We talked about the Holy Spirit
does some things suddenly. He said he fastened His eyes on
him, he looked at him. I submit to you, more is going
on with Peter than just natural thinking and talk. He's not responding to the man's
natural request. He looked at him, he fastened
his eyes on him. Your eyes are the windows into
your Spirit. You're sitting there right now. I don't really see you, I see
the house you live in. You don't really see me, you see
the house I live in. I'm inside here. You're inside there. You're looking at me through
those two windows we call eyes. Something was going on in Peter
and John's Spirit. Didn't we just get through
reading that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead
dwells in us? Well then, if He could raise
Jesus up from the dead He could do something else, couldn't He? He looked at him and he said,
"Look here," maybe the man was looking down, he's begging. But he said, "Look here. Look on us." And the man looked up and he
caught his eyes. I believe somebody besides Peter
was looking at the man. I believe the God of Peter, the
Holy Spirit inside Peter, looked right straight through Peter's
eyes and looked into this man, and I think it caught him. And he thought whoa, he might
not have known what was happening but he knew something
was happening, whoa. That's no ordinary look right
there. "Then Peter said, Silver and
gold have I none," doesn't mean he never had any, maybe his wife
had the pocketbook that day, I don't know. "But such as I have," I don't
have anything on me but such as I have, "Give I you: In the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth," get up, get up, "and walk." This man has never taken a step
in his life. He's a full-grown man. Lame from his mother's womb,
some kind of deformity. Some lack of development,
something missing, something wrong. Do we still have the same name
of Jesus? Do we? Is our God still able to do
things like this? Do we still want to do things
like this? Yes. In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth -- do like hearing that my friend? And the name of Jesus, the
Christ, of Nazareth, get up, rise up and walk. "And he took him by the right
hand," He didn't wait for his confession, he didn't wait for
his response, he grabbed him by the right hand, "and lifted him
up," as he was pulling him up something happened in the man's
ankles and in his feet his, "bones received strength. And he leaping," leaping,
leaping he's never used his legs and his feet and his ankles. It's miraculous. Leaped, "Up stood, and walked,
and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping,"
how do you go from never having taken a step to leaping? "And praising," Peter? No. No. How can you tell this is a real
manifestation of the Holy Ghost? It removes bondages. It destroys yolks. And it glorifies, "God." Glorifies God. "And all the people saw him
walking and praising God: And they knew that it was he which
sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they
were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had
happened to him." Wonder, that's what we're
talking about, miracles, signs, and wonders. What do wonders make you do? They make you wonder. You wonder, wonder how. How did that happen? How did that happen? How can that be? He was like this, now he's like
this. Like that. How can that happen? Somebody in here say, "I believe
it. I believe it." Do you believe it happened just
like this? This is not a fairy tale, this
is not a myth, this is not just some figurative story, it really
actually happened. The man was real, Peter and John
were there at the place, they said the words, it happened. Can it happen again? Can it happen again? Do you believe it can happen
again? Glory to God. Somebody say glory to God. Mmm, mmm. "Peter saw it," verse twelve,
"he answered to the people, You men of Israel, why marvel you at
this? Or why look you were so
earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had
made this man to walk?" If it had been them doing it
they would've probably done it a long time ago. Right? I'm sure their heart went out to
the man, I'm sure they cared, why didn't they heal him the day
before or the week before? Why didn't they heal him three
months ago? Because they could not. They couldn't. No matter how much they wanted
to. You hear somebody talking about
they've got the gift and they can do it, then why don't they
go clean the hospitals out? Why don't they do it? No, it's not true. I said, it's not true. Jesus said He could of His own
self do nothing. The Master said that. Right? There's no such thing as any man
or any woman that has any kind of power that they could just go
heal people at their whim. It's not true. But God can use people as He
wills. We can make ourselves available
to Him. We can be ready. And one way we can be ready is
right here. The one thing that this man did
right on this day, backup to verse five. When Peter fastened his eyes on
him and said look up, verse five what did he do? "He gave heed unto them," and he
went into a spiritual mode, "expecting to receive
something," at this point he might not of known whether it
was money or what it was, but he was expecting to receive
something. Somebody say, "Expecting to
receive something." Say it out loud, "Expecting to
receive something." Close your eyes and say,
"Expecting to receive something. Something." Now you may not know exactly
what it is and you don't need to try to tell God how to do, but
you should know that He is a wonderfully good God and He
always wants to do something. He always wants to do something
wonderful. Something good. Something gracious and merciful
and amazing. He always, always, always,
always, always wants to do something wonderful. Mmm. What is our part? If you believe it, if you are
fully persuaded of it, then you'll be expecting. If you're really expecting
something wonderful to happen, you can't stay depressed. You can't stay sour and down and
despondent and despairing. I believe this is why the Spirit
of God stirred and spoke through Brother Oral Roberts and it
became popular all over the nation and world, "Something
good is going to happen to you," to me, "today." Something good. Why? Well, that put you in a state of
expecting something good. You may not know the details and
yet you don't have to, you just believe God is a good God. Oh, He's a good God. Oh friend, every morning when
our eyes come up we ought to go alright, alright, something good
-- God has got something good setup for us today. And I'm just going to go ahead
and start expecting it right now. If you expect nothing, you
receive nothing. If you expect just a little,
little, same old same old, you get the same old same old. If you could start expecting
something good, without even knowing what it is -- can you do
that or not? Expecting something good and not
even know what it is? Did this man know what was about
to happen? No, he did not know. The Bible didn't say, you go on
to read the story, he wasn't healed by his own faith. The Bible said it was the faith
which was by Jesus. Wasn't just Peter's faith or he
would've done it the day before or the year before. Something happened to Peter and
John that day when they looked. Something came up in them, it
was the very faith of the Master that would not be denied, and he
looked at him -- he didn't wait for his confessing, he jerked
the man upon his feet. Does God still do things like
that today? Yes. Here's something we can do right
now. Right now. We can start expecting to
receive something good. Say it out loud, "Expecting to
receive something wonderful. Expecting." Oh friends, let's stir ourselves
up. I'm talking about me stirring me
up, you stirring you up, that before you ever get to the
parking lot over here, you're getting in your car coming to
the service going something good, something good, something
good -- next Friday, help me out. Next Friday. Miracle and healing night. You telling me nothing good is
going to happen on miracle and healing night? No, it is. It is. Can you see when they were in
one place, in one mind, one accord they were together, they
were focused. You see Peter and John were
together on this, weren't they? They were together on this. They were focused. They were expecting, the man was
expecting, the miracle is a fact. Miracle. He didn't recover over a period
of months and years and much therapy and learn how to walk. I mean, he's lame from his
mother's womb, leaping and walking. And all the people's mouths
hanging open going, "How? How? How?" Tell me how. Does anybody know how? God. The Spirit of glory. The Spirit of the living God. The Holy Spirit that blew in, in
the upper room. The Spirit that raised Jesus
from the dead. That same Holy Spirit, He, the
wonderful Holy Spirit, is in us. He's in our houses. He's in our services. Come on. He is in our midst. If we learn how to believe and
our faith comes up and our expectation comes up, we'll see
more. We'll have more. It's just that simple. We're not waiting on Him. Humanity is not just waiting on
God to do something. He hasn't changed. Somebody say thank You Lord. Thank You Lord. Go with me to the fourth
chapter. These signs are for unbelievers. First Corinthians 14 talks about
that the tongue, like they heard on the Day of Pentecost, they
did not learn how to speak but other people could understand. He said that tongue is a sign
not for Believers, but for unbelievers. Jesus, we may talk about this
more later, but Jesus reprimanded and reproved people
who required a sign of Him before they were going to
believe. And Jesus told the man on one
occasion He said, "Except you see signs and wonders you won't
believe." And that was a bad thing. But the man was able to change
and believe before he saw things, and got a miracle. So we must not say I want to see
something or I'm not going to believe, that's evil, the
Scripture says. And you and I should believe
without seeing anything. Right? We should believe in the
goodness of God and the faithfulness of God and the
reality of Jesus and redemption and His coming again without
seeing one thing or understanding. It's a choice. Somebody say, "I believe." But these signs like we were
talking about is for the unbelievers are God's tools for
sweeping people into the kingdom in mass. Now, there's no question we're
living in the latest days anybody has ever lived in. True or not? I mean people talk about the
last days, they were talking about the last days hundreds of
years ago. But we're definitely in later
days than them. Right? There's more human beings alive
on the planet then there's ever been. And truly if they could say back
centuries ago the harvest is great and the laborers are few,
what's it like now? And we should acknowledge our
inability, our helplessness as human beings to reason the
millions into the kingdom. Can't do it. We must have the same
manifestations, the same kind of things happen to sweep people
in, in mass. And if the Lord is coming soon
and we know it's closer than it's ever been, and we have all
these billions of people on the planet, do we have time to
waste? Do we have time to spare to
reason and wonder and talk? Or do we need some amazing
things happening in the Earth, shaking whole communities,
villages? Shaking whole cities? Shaking people to their core and
they have to do something in it because it's there, it's in your
face. You can't explain it. Nobody else can explain it. You have to do something with
it. The Bible said that when they're
gathered around wondering, verse thirteen, Peter takes off
preaching. Do you see how this works? Signs and wonders and preaching. He said, because they're
wondering how - they're wondering, wondering, wondering,
wondering. God has got their full
attention, doesn't it? They're all standing there with
their mouth open and He said, "Alright Peter. Preach boy, preach. Preach. I got them for you, go." He said, "The God of Abraham,
and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers," that you've
read about and heard from the law and the prophets for all
these years, "has glorified His Son Jesus," that is what has
just happened with this man being healed. He has glorified not Peter and
John, glorified His son Jesus. "Whom you delivered up, and
denied Him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined
to let Him go. But you denied the Holy One and
the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; And
killed the Prince of life," and he went on and preached further
to them. A And then in verse nineteen he
said, "Repent," repent. And if you skip on down the
Bible said that they did. They turned and they received. We know thousands came in that
day. Chapter four though is still not
over. They get apprehended, they get
brought before the council and the high priest. These are the same guys that
killed Jesus; Annas, Caiaphas. And verse seven in chapter four
they said, "By what power, or by what name, have you done this?" You would think anybody would be
happy. A lame man got healed. They're not happy at all. "Peter, filled with the Holy
Ghost," somebody say, "Filled with the Holy Ghost." Filled with the Holy Ghost,
filled. He, "Said to them, You rulers of
the people, and elders of Israel, If we this day be
examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what
means he is made whole; Be it known unto you all, and to all
the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, Whom you crucified, Whom God raised from the dead... by Him does this man stand here
before you whole." Whoa. Verse twelve, "Neither is there
salvation in any other: for there is none other name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Now when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men," never been to school, had no degrees, "they
marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had
been with Jesus. And beholding the man which was
healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it." Verse sixteen, "Saying, What
shall we do to these men?" Oh they wanted bad to do
something to them. They said "Indeed a notable
miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that
dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it." Everybody knows the guy. He sat right there at the gate
and everybody that went to the temple saw him coming and going. Everybody in town knows him. Everybody knows he couldn't have
faked that. Everybody knows. What can we do? What can we do? How about get saved? And join them? But they didn't. They threatened them and in
verse twenty-three, "And being let go, they went to their own
company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had
said unto them. And when they heard that, they
lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord,
You are God, which have made heaven, and earth, and the sea,"
and they went on praying about quoting Scriptures in the Psalms
about the Christ and how the heathen have raged. And in verse twenty-nine they
said, "Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant to your
servants, that with all boldness they may speak Your Word..." Now a lot of people would prayed
God don't let them get us. Oh God, where can we hide? Don't let them get us. They said no, Lord we like this. Crank it up. We want more. This is what we were made for. Oh, yeah. Miracles, signs and wonders. Whole town being shook up. Thousands getting saved and
people getting angry. Oh, yeah. We want more. Help us to preach bigger and
louder and bolder and stronger. And we want you to please,
"Stretch forth Your hand," and do some more of these miracles. Give us some more of these. Now, if it wasn't right for us
to pray that way, the Lord would not have recorded this prayer in
the Scriptures for us to learn as example for us to go by. "Stretching forth Your hand to
heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of Your
holy Child Jesus. And when they had prayed, the
place was shaken..." Somebody say, "Miracle. Miracle. Miracle." Are they living in miracles? Jesus ascending and going out of
sight. The Holy Spirit coming down. Mighty rushing wind. Cloven tongues like as a fire. Speaking in tongues. People lame all their life
jumping up and leaping. And now the whole place is
moving, shaking. And it's not an earthquake, it's
not a storm. The work place literally means
spot. It was a spot phenomenon. It wasn't happening other
places. It was only happening where they
were meeting. Shaking. Somebody say, "Shaking." Say it again, "Shaking." Shaking. God never changes. If He ever blew in, He can still
blow in. If He ever manifested fire, He
could still manifest fire. If He ever healed lame people,
He'll still heal lame people. If He ever shook places, He'll
shake them again. Remember just a few chapters
later a jailhouse shook. Do you remember that? He's a shaking Holy Ghost. He'll shake stuff up. They're praying. The Lord must have liked their
prayer. Must've been pleased with their
prayer. They're praying, "Lord, let Your
ministry gifts, let Your preachers preach, let us all
with boldness beyond what we've ever preached before. And Lord stretch forth Your
hand. Do some more of these amazing
things like this man getting healed. Signs and wonders!" And they start feeling things
shaking and moving around. Whoa! Whoa! And they realize this ain't no
earthquake. This is the Holy Ghost shaking
the place. Shaking the place. Why did He do that? Why did He do that? They're praying, He's
responding. Read the next verse. What did it say? "The place was shaken where they
were assembled together; and they," were what? They were what? What did they ask for? They, "Were all filled with the
Holy Ghost, and they," started speaking. There is shaking, and there is
filling, and they're speaking. And it's all happening at the
same time. Shaking. Peter is preaching like a house-
a-fire. John, Matthew, all the apostles. They're full of the Holy Ghost. They don't know what to do it
themselves. Bold! The whole place is shaking. They're having a time, brother. They're having a time. Do we have to just look back and
long and go, "Wasn't that something? Oh, to have been there. Oh, why couldn't I have lived
centuries ago?" No. No. No. Jesus said, "The works I do,
same works I do you will do. And greater works than these
shall you do because I'm going to the Father." Why? "Anything you ask in My name, I
will do it." It's not God that has changed. Men have become mental and
intellectual and unbelieving and reason themselves out of the -
"Oh, no, that's hocus-pocus. That's magic. I don't know what that is. That's for ignorant people that
aren't educated." No. No. No. It's for those that believe. These signs will follow them
that believe. Do I have anybody in here that
believes in these kind of things? Would we say Lord, we are 100%
open to these kind of things? I mean, You want to come blow
in, make a big sound like a wind, hey, we are Your people. We are Your big wind people. Us. Lord, You want to manifest some
fire, yeah. Fire on my head. Fire on my hands. Fire. Make me the fire man. Fire. Fire. Lord, You want to heal some
people in this place? Yes. Heal people, heal people, yes. Lord You want to shake this
place? Shake 'er. Shake it up. Shake it up. You won't hurt us, we know You
won't hurt us. Shake us. Shake us until we don't know
what to do. Shake us. Shake us. Stand on your feet everybody. Stand on your feet. Come on, lift your hands. Praise the Lord. Let Him hear your heart. Tell Him, "Lord, shake us. Move on us. Blow on us. Have Your way." Thank You, Lord.
