Today we're turning to 1 Corinthians chapter 13 for Bible reading. 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and we'll begin our reading at the opening chapter or opening verse of the chapter. 1 Corinthians chapter 13 beginning at verse 1. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or as tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and have all faith, so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long and is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity vanteth not itself, is not puffed up. does not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth, but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail, whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I speak as a child. I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly, But then face to face, now I know in part, but then shall I know even, as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity. Amen. And may God bless the reading of his word. Let's just unite in prayer together. Let's seek the Lord as we come around his word once again. Father in heaven, we thank thee for thy precious word. a word that liveth and abideth forever, that fixed source of truth that shall never change until heaven and earth pass away and shall continue throughout eternity to be the word of God. And we cry, O God, that as we come to consider thy truth again, that thou wilt inform us and instruct us Save us, O God, from the great delusion that has come even to our nation, we pray. Grant, dear God, us understanding in these spiritual matters. Grant, dear Father, God, knowledge, and may that knowledge enlighten our souls, and may we not be carried away with every wind of doctrine, as many are in these days, but may we be fixed in our convictions, and may those convictions be biblical, In, O God, their import we pray. Grant, dear Father, therefore the spirit to help in the preaching and in the hearing of thy word. Fill me, O God, I pray. For I offer prayer in and through our Savior's precious and worthy and holy name. Amen and amen. Well, it was about a month ago that we started to think about the spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit has bestowed upon his church. on Christ's return to heaven. If you can cast your minds back some five weeks, we thought on that occasion about the existence of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We thought about their diversity and also the purpose for the gifts, that of the edifying of the body of Jesus Christ. I remind you that theologians have divided the gifts of the Spirit into three broad categories. Category 1 really is that of gifted people such as apostles and prophets, evangelists and teaching pastors. Category 2 is what is known as edifying gifts. such as giving, governments, helps, wisdom, faith, discernment, teaching, and preaching. And these gifts are present in every age of biblical and of church history. And then we have what is known as, and I would suppose they are the most controversial, what is known as the sign gifts, such as signs and wonders, healings, miracles, and the speaking in tongues. These are gifts that were linked to distinct offices, and they were signs for a particular authentication purpose. They were used to authenticate the message that the apostles were preaching. Now there are two main school of thoughts when it comes to these signs, these miracle gifts, and whether or not they are still existent today. There is what is known as the School of Continuationism. The School of Continuationism. And as the name suggests, those who come from this school of thought, they believe that the Spirit's gifts, the sign gifts, including tongue speaking, healing signs and wonders, miracles, are still in existence today. Denominations who hold to such teaching are those who would be Pentecostal in their leaning, as well as other community churches and non-denominational assemblies. Let me read one statement of faith from one such church, the Vineyard Church. I'm sure you've heard of them. It's known by some of us. Well, the Vineyard Church, in their statement of faith, they state, we believe in the filling off or the empowering of the Holy Spirit, often a conscious experience for ministry today. We believe in the present ministry of the Spirit and in the exercise of all of the biblical gifts of the Spirit. We practice the laying on of hands for the empowering of the Spirit for healing. And if you go about quarreling, you'll be stopped by these individuals and they will ask, do you need prayer for some physical ailment that you have? The interesting thing is that they never stand outside A&E. at the Coleraine Hospital offering their services, but they do it in the middle of their street. But they are a denomination, a grouping of people that believe in all the biblical gifts of the spirit, including the gifts of healing, tongue speaking, and every other sign gift, the miracle gifts, or as it were, the charismata. So there is the school of continuationism. And then there is the school, the second school, is that of cessationism. Those who ascribe to that school of thought and the gifts believe that the charismata, the supernatural gifts of the apostolic church, that they ceased with or very soon after the days of the apostles. Now, secessionism does not imply that God has removed his power from the church of Jesus Christ. It doesn't mean that God no longer does any miracles within the church because every conversion Every moment when a child of God is born again of the Spirit of God, a sinner is born again of the Spirit of God, is a miracle. Every conversion is a miracle. Simply, this school of thought teaches that the revelation gifts such as visions and dreams, words of knowledge, words of wisdom, prophecies, as well as the sign gifts, healings and the speaking in tongues, that they ceased. They no longer are being exercised and no longer are prevalent within the church of Jesus Christ. It is with the proponents of the second school of thought on the Spirit's gifts, the school of cessationism that we in the Free Presbyterian Church side with. We are cessationists. Now the question that should come into your mind is why? Why are we cessationists? Why do we not believe in the miraculous signs, signs that were most evident in the early years of the New Testament church? Why do we believe that they have now ceased? Well, that's what we want to consider today, and I trust that the Lord will help us as we do so. I believe that we can make good argument for the cessation of these gifts on a number of grounds. Now, the first ground, although not the most important, is still a ground upon which we can argue for the cessation of the miracle and the sign gifts. Really, it is the ground of history, the ground of history. Those who have studied church history on this matter of the gifts, the Spirit's gifts in great depth are unable to find any evidence that suggests that these gifts continued beyond the life of the apostles or those upon whom the apostles conferred their gifts to. B.B. Warfield, he quotes a bishop, Cain, who on reviewing the evidence of the early centuries found that the power of working miracles was not extended beyond the disciples upon whom the apostles conferred it by the imposition of their hands. You see, God gave the apostles these 11 men and then the Apostle Paul, the ability to perform miracles and signs to authenticate the validity and the truthfulness of what they were preaching and what they were teaching. They were used as authentication for what they did. And history records that whenever they died, the gifts ceased along with them. The gifts of speaking in tongues, the gifts of healing and of miracles and of signs. Now if you go through the book of, especially the Acts of the Apostles, you'll find that The Holy Spirit makes a close connection between the apostles and also the signed gifts. You turn to Acts chapter 2 and the verse number 43. Acts chapter 2 and the verse number 43. This is the day of Pentecost. This chapter is known to us well. it tells us there verse 41 we'll read the context then they that gladly received his word were baptized and the same day there were added on to them about 3,000 souls and they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers and fear fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done by the Apostles and underline those words, many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. Now don't forget that the membership of the New Testament church had reached 3,120 souls. And yet I want you to notice that it was only the apostles that did the signs and wonders. It wasn't these individuals who had been added to the church that did signs and wonders, but rather it was simply the apostles that did it. It seems to be that the Holy Spirit wants to inform and bring to our minds that it is a certain grouping of people within the church that are being given the ability to perform the raising of the dead, the healing of individuals. Peter and John go up to the temple, they touch the man who had been lying there at the beautiful gate, and in the very next chapter, this is a sign, this is a miracle. And what is happening is that what they're preaching is being confirmed by what they're doing. And God enables them to do it. It's not by their own power, they admit this. This is power that is given to them by the Spirit of God and by God Himself in order to raise this man up from the dead. But it's simply confined to the apostles. You turn to Acts chapter 5 and the verse 12. Acts chapter 5 and the verse 12, and we see this emphasized again. Acts 5 verse 12. And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people, and they were all with one accord in Solomon's ports." Now you need to remember that the membership has swollen at this stage by another 5,000 people. So the church of Jesus Christ, this New Testament church, consists of at least 8,120 people. Acts chapter 4 verse 4 tells us that another 5,000 souls were added to the church, the number of the men. And so we have got a membership, I would say, of exceeding 10,000 people at least, because that's only the men. And yet I want you to notice that it is only the apostles that are doing the signs and wonders in Acts chapter five and the verse 12, by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people. It's not that every individual has been given these gifts. Then if you turn to Hebrews chapter two, Hebrews chapter two, This again is emphasized to us in Hebrews 2 3-4. Hebrews 2 3-4. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him? Who heard him? The apostles. God also bearing them witnessed both with signs and wonders and with divers or various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will. These gifts are confined to those that heard Christ, who were discipled by Christ. These are the apostles again. It seems to be that the Holy Spirit through these references is emphasizing that a specific grouping of people were gifted with the gifts of healing and miracle and speaking in tongues. And as you read through the rest of the New Testament, you'll find that the practice of apostolic gifts seems to decline even during the lifetime of the apostles. Now, yes, in the book of Acts, we have many signs and miracles being performed. And yet, as we make our way into the epistles, the pastoral epistles of Paul, you'll see that as the writing date of these books gets later and later, that the mention of these miraculous sign gifts becomes less and less. In actual fact, Corinthians is the only book, outside of the book of the Acts of the Apostles, that speaks about the gift of tongue speaking. Go into the pastoral epistles, and you'll have no mention of such a sign gift. When writing his pastoral epistles, Paul makes no mention of this gift, and so it seems that as time progresses, and as the church matures, and as the canon of Scripture comes to a close, and as the apostles die, it seems to suggest that the miraculous gifts are faded out of use within the early New Testament church. Now if you go beyond the biblical narrative and you go into the writings of the early church fathers, individuals like John Christendom and Augustine, these individuals, early church fathers, just after the apostles, they spoke about the ceasing of the sign gifts. Let me read one individual, Augustine. In the late 300s, early 400s AD, he said this. In the earliest times, the Holy Spirit fell upon them that believed, and they spoke with tongues which they had not learned as the Spirit gave them utterance. That thing was done for a sign, and it passed away. this thing was done for a sign and it passed away the reformers men like martin luther and john calvin agreed that the gifts ended after the first century the sign gifts and they were only given to confirm the message when it first appeared let me quote luther and calvin and what they said calvin or Martin Luther said this, this visible outpouring of the Holy Spirit was necessary to the establishment of the early church, as were also the miracles that accompanied the gift of the Holy Spirit. Once the church had been established and properly advertised by these miracles, the visible appearance of the Holy Ghost ceased. In his Institutes on Christian Religion, John Calvin wrote, the gift of healing disappeared with the other miraculous powers which the Lord was pleased to give for a time that it might render the new preaching of the gospel forever wonderful. Luther and Calvin were most certainly cessationists. They were not continuationists. Moving on into church history, we find men like Edwards and Spurgeon and Warfield believing in the cessation of the signed gifts. Jonathan Edwards wrote of the extraordinary gifts. They are given in order to the finding and the establishment of the church in the world. But since the canon of scripture has been completed, and the Christian Church fully founded and established these extraordinary gifts have ceased. Charles Spurgeon, those earlier miraculous gifts have departed from us. B.B. Warfield, these gifts were distinctly the authentication of the apostles they were part of the credentials of the apostles as the authoritative agents of God and finding the church their function thus confined them to distinctively the apostolic church and they necessarily pass away with it to say that the sign gifts have not ceased and that they continue to this day the speaking of tongues healings, miracles, visions, signs. To say that the gifts have not ceased is to go against the testimony of reformed theologians and church leaders who have asserted down through church history that the miraculous and revelatory spiritual gifts have ended with the apostolic age. And so those who purport and who propound that the gifts and the sign gifts and the miracle gifts are still existent today are going against the teaching, the common teaching of biblical Christianity and church historians and theologians down through the ages. There is a second ground. upon which we can argue for the cessation of the gifts, and that is of church creeds. It's not the most important. We're coming to the most important in a moment's time. But the church creeds also bring to our attention the thought that these gifts have ceased. The Westminster Confession of Faith, that is our own confession, We find reference to cessationism within the chapter in Holy Scripture. It is chapter one of the Westminster Confession of Faith. It is the very first point. Let me read that point to you. Although the light of nature and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God as to leave men excusable, yet they are not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and of his will which is necessary to salvation. In other words, what you see in creation is not sufficient to bring you to saving faith in Jesus Christ. It brings you to the knowledge that there is a God. that there is a creator, there is a designer, that there is one possessed with knowledge and with wisdom who created and brought all things together in perfect harmony and order. We thought about that on Wednesday night. But it is not sufficient, the revelation of God in creation is not sufficient to bring us to a knowledge of our sinnership and our knowledge that there is a savior who can deliver us from our sin. It goes on to say, therefore, it pleased the Lord at sundry times and in diverse manners to reveal himself, and to declare his will unto his church, and afterwards, for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more establishment and comfort of the church against the corruption of the flesh and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the whole thing unto writing, which maketh the whole scripture to be most necessary." In other words, God gave the Bible. God has given us his word, and then they go on to say these words, those former ways of God revealing his will onto his people. How did God reveal his will to his people? By visions, by dreams, and other various manners. Those former ways of God revealing his will onto his people being now ceased. And so whenever you get an individual, whether it be on television, or whether it be in some church within the local vicinity, and there are churches who believe in this, who stand up and they say, I've got a word from God, I've got a prophecy from God, I have a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom for you. Those individuals who would say, God spoke to me in a dream, God spoke to me in a vision, those people are denying the sufficiency of the scriptures. That's what they're denying. The sufficiency of the Scriptures. And they are putting their own dream, vision, word of knowledge on a power with the holy and inspired Word of God. That's what they're doing. Westminster divines believed in the completion of Scripture. And therefore, the completion of scripture necessitated the ending of all other forms by which God reveals himself to man. Again, the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 1.6, the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His glory, man, salvation, faith, and life is either expressly set down in Scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture onto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit or traditions of man. In other words, the Bible is our only rule of faith and practice. Even in the days of the Westminster divines, it seems to be that there were individuals who were saying, I've got a new revelation from God and by His Spirit. And as a result, they put in print, they put on paper that nothing is to be added to the Word of God. This book is enough for you, child of God. It's sufficient for life and for godliness and for your growth in grace and for you going on with God. You don't need to hear a word from some so-called prophet who is doing the rounds in these days. Now, Presbyterians aren't the only people who believe in the cessation of the Spirit's gifts. The Baptists do as well. The 1689 Second London Baptist Confession, it contains a statement, let me read it, it says, the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man, salvation, faith, and life is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture, onto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelation of the Spirit or by traditions of men. It's almost the exact carbon copy of what we have in the confession of faith. And so the Baptist confession makes no room for additional revelation from outside the Holy Scriptures, no matter what the modern day prophet claims to have received from God. If it's not according to the book, if it isn't in line with the book, if it isn't from the book, then it is to be rejected. It is to be rejected. Holy Scripture as our rule of faith. There is grave danger and there is great peril when a Christian strays from the doctrine of the sufficiency of the scripture. The prophet Isaiah appeal to bring all things to the law and to the testimony is so relevant today when men and women claim to have been given a prophetic word from the Lord. God told me to do this, God told me to do that. God told me to bring this word to you. What saith the scriptures? That's the watchword of the Protestant. What saith the Scriptures? Not what saith the church, not what saith the traditions of man, not what saith society, but what saith the Scriptures? What does the book say? What does the Word of God say? The third and most important ground that we can argue for cessationism is in the ground of Scripture, Scripture itself. Ancient and modern writers have likened the miraculous sign gifts of the Spirit as to the wedding garments of a young bride, important for its purpose, but not her permanent clothing. In other words, the young bride, she marries, she wears her wedding dress, but she doesn't wear it for the rest of her life. It's upon her for a specific purpose, for a specific day, for a specific time period, But then as life moves on, she changes her attire, and so it is with the signed gifts. They were required for a specific time, a specific era, in order to establish the truth of the gospel, in order to win the hearts of ignorant and unlearned men with regard to the things of God, God working through the apostles, preaching the gospel, the gospel affirmed by the healing of the sick, the raising of the dead, the speaking of tongues. But as the churches ground it in the truth, these sign gifts, they are no longer necessary because the Bible is enough. The Word of God is enough. This view, this view that they were only for, the sanguists were only for a time is backed up by what we have here in 1 Corinthians and the chapter number 13. 1 Corinthians, yes, chapter number 13. Within the chapter, we find a contrast being made. We find the contrast of those things that are going to remain until Christ returns Alongside then, those that which was temporary and confined simply to the days of the apostles. The revelatory gifts of prophecy and tongues and of knowledge, we're told in 1 Corinthians 13 verse 8, we're told that these things will vanish away. Charity never faileth, but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. The question is, when? When? will these things cease? When will tongues cease? When will knowledge, the word of knowledge, when will it vanish away? When will prophecies fail? Well, verse number 10 tells us when it's going to happen. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. And here then comes the argument, what is meant by perfect? Those who argue that the gifts continue right through and will continue to do so until the return of Jesus Christ, they believe that that which is perfect is speaking about Christ. When He has come, when He returns to this earth, then that which is in part shall be done away. But I want you to notice that it does not say, but that when He is perfect has come, It doesn't say that, it says, but when that which is perfect has come. It's not speaking about a person, the verse here. Christ is perfect, but I believe it's speaking about a thing. Something is going to come along that is perfect. And when it does, there will be no need for tongues. There will be no need for miracles. There will be no need for, as it were, a word of knowledge. There will be no need for prophecies. So what is this perfect thing? Well, those who argue for secessionism believe that this perfect thing is what you have in your hand today, the word of God. The Word of God. What do we read in Holy Scripture? That the law of God is perfect, converting the soul. The word perfect here in our text, it speaks about something that has been completed, something that is finished, something that is brought to an end. The idea is that there are other books to be added to the canon of Scripture, Whenever Paul is writing here in 1 Corinthians, still other books, other epistles to be written, not only by himself, but by John and by Peter. But there's going to come a time when God is going to close the book. God is going to bring it to an end. He's going to complete the canon of Holy Scripture. And whenever he has done that, That which in part will vanish away, though we see through a glass darkly, we're going to come to a point that we're going to be able to see face to face the whole truth as it is in Jesus Christ. There's going to be a time when the book, the Bible, the Word of God is that which will be sufficient to take the church of Jesus Christ forward. And so there's coming a time when they're going to put away the childish things, the tongue speaking, The performance of miracles. Going to put the childish things away because they've become now a man, a perfect, a mature man. When I became a man, verse 11, I put away childish things. The church reaching maturity was able to put away these temporary gifts. that were only intended to be, as it were, an interim measure until the perfection of the canon of Scripture, the library of the Bible, that's what we're speaking about. One preacher put it like this, whilst they existed, the revelatory charismata were signs that the Scripture was incomplete and insufficient. Every prophecy, every tongue, every interpretation was a statement saying, Scripture is incomplete and insufficient. Such gifts have now stopped as soon as the Scripture's canon was finalized. To have them continue after that would undermine the sufficiency of Scripture, so that when every pretended prophecy in tongue and interpretation in modern charismatic movement is saying, this is what they're saying in effect, the charismatic movement thinks that the Scripture is incomplete and insufficient. You see, what lies at the heart of the charismatic movement, and this craving for signs and wonders, is a dissatisfaction with the Word of God. The movement does not believe in the sufficiency of Scripture. They need signs and wonders. What did Jesus Christ say about his generation? who sought such signs and wonders. He said, this is an adulterous generation who seeketh such things. And so they need some miracle to be performed, some sign, some tongue to speak in order to excite them and to stir them and to encourage them to go on with God. But all that the Bible-believing Christian needs is the comfort of the Scriptures. That's sufficient to keep me going on, to keep you going on. The New Testament teaches that the result of God's completed revelation is an all-sufficient scripture. And therefore our cry is like that of the Reformers, sola scriptura. The Scriptures alone, what did Paul say to Timothy? Oh, Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect Now the question that you and I need to ask and the question more importantly that the charismatic movement needs to ask is how could a man of God be perfect, truly furnished onto all good works if God is still making his well-known through visions and revelations as some women and men claim today? How could you be perfect? if God's still giving his word by way of prophecy, by way of visions, by way of dreams. But Paul said the man of God can be perfect, mature, throughly, thoroughly furnished onto all good's works as they look into the inspired word of God. What did Paul say to Timothy? Preach the word. There's no hint that Paul charged Timothy to seek some additional revelation by a dream or by a vision. He doesn't suggest for him to listen to the prophecies and the words of knowledge of other believers or to preach his own dreams or visions. He's simply to preach the word handed down to the saints through the apostles, just the word, just the word of God. The completion of God's revelation to man It's spoken of there in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 and 2, God, who at sundry times in a diverse manner speak, in times passed on to the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken on to us by his Son. The finality of this New Testament's revelation is made clear in these words, verse 2, hath in these last days spoken on to us by his Son. They are words that ring with finality. The word spoken, it's in the... the Aorist tense that speaks about the giving of the New Testament as something that is completed, it's final, nothing else to come, nothing more to come. This is it. God has spoken and that's it. And so there is no ground, no ground for continual revelation by dreams and visions as proposed by the charismatic Pentecostal movements. You think about the sign, the sign, gift, the Spirit's gift of healing. Just think of that gift. You remember the Apostle Paul? He was an apostle. But he doesn't use this gift to heal Timothy of his sickness. Rather, he counsels a little wine, Timothy, for thy stomach's sake. He doesn't heal Trophinus or Aphrodite. These are men who were crippled with infirmities. If he had possessed the gift of healing, one of the sign gifts, the question is, why does Paul not use these? And then bring it closer to the life of the Apostle Paul. Why did he not use the gift of healing with respect to his own thorn in the flesh? Why does he pray? For this thing I sought the Lord thrice. Concerning the thorn in the flesh, he doesn't use. And so it seems to be that even in apostolic days, signs and wonders wear on their way out as God brings the canon of Scripture to a close. You think about that instruction that James gives in James chapter 5. We're still thinking about the gift of healing, that the vineyard church they believe is still existent today. Why then does James say in James 5 verse 14, is there any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church. That's what James says Why did he not say let him call for the healers of the church? Those that have been given the gift of healing No, he says let them call for the healers of the elders of the church and what are they to do? They are to pray They are to pray and to anoint with oil. That's the instruction. They are not to lay hands and bring healing, as it were, upon, but they are to pray to God that God, if it be His will, that He would bring the healing. And so it seems as the canon of Scripture comes to an end, there is the moving out, there is the ceasing of these sign and miracle gifts. But I think of those words of prophecy that so many seem to be propounding today that they have received of the Lord. And then I bring them to what I read there in the last chapter of the New Testament. Words of warning. Revelation 22 verse 18 and 19. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words the prophecy of this book if any man shall add on to these things God shall add on to him the plagues that are written in the book and if any man shall take away the words of the book of this prophecy God shall take away as part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book I asked the question why would then God give new revelations, additions to Scripture to people today, knowing that such brings plagues upon those that they are given to. Why would God do that? To add to the book These are what they are. They are additions to the book. I tell you, brethren and sisters, what we are seeing today is not some kind of new revelation from God, but it is simply subjective experiences that are outright deception and only adds to the charismatic confusion of our day. So what should our response be? What should our response be to those supposed dreams and visions and revelations of today's self-proclaimed prophets? Well, our response should replicate the response of those who stood in the street before the water gate in the days of Ezra the scribe. We should cry as they cried. Bring the book. Bring the book. That's what our cry should be. Not bring us some new prophecy, not bring us some new dream, not bring us some new vision, but simply bring us the book. What book? The Word of God. The Bible. Within it. is all the counsel and the comfort that you and I need for time and for eternity. And so while others chase after signs and wonders, let us run after Christ. And let us receive from the book a greater appreciation of who He is and what He has done. Tongues have ceased, prophecies have ceased, knowledge has ceased and vanished away because that which is perfect has come, the Bible, the Word of God. May we find our lies and ground our convictions in what we have in the book and let us not stray from our belief in the sufficiency of the Scriptures to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. May God help us and may God let us never be caught up in the confusion that exists today. Let's bow our heads in prayer together. Let's pray. This message has been more teaching and formative today than devotional. But brethren and sisters, we're living in a day when there is much confusion and we need to be armed. We need to know why we're not gibbering in our prayer meetings, pretending to speak in tongues. We're not Individuals that run after signs and wonders and some new revelation from God that were just simply a people of the book. You understand these things. May God deliver others from such delusions and may God bring them to a point where they're content and satisfied with just the opening of the book and the preaching of the word. our loving and our eternal Father in heaven. Again, we come before thee in our Savior's name. We thank thee for thy word, a complete word, a perfect word, a word that's able to make us wise on to salvation. O God, may we be much in the book. May we be found in the word in these days. Grant, O God, thy hand even to be upon our lives, we ask. Lord, deliver men and women from the folly and the delusion of the charismatic movement, we pray. And may, dear God, there be a separating, a separating unto Christ and unto his word. We recognize, O God, that many are the false prophets of the days. We are told that that will be the case. As the return of Christ draws nigh, false prophets shall arise. and say that here and there is Christ. O God, help us and may we be faithful and may we be true even to thy word. So answer prayer and help us, O God, as we join around the table to remember thy sacrifice. We offer prayer in and through our Savior's precious name. Amen and amen.