And today you got guys claiming to have the same gifts as the Apostles, but the Bible itself says only the Apostles had those gifts. Again, we have to clarify. I believe in miracles. I believe in healing. I believe God answers prayer. Amen? But you go right to him, you don't come to me. I'll pray for you, we'll obey the scripture, it says laying on of hands, we'll pray over people, we've done that. But the power is in him. And you don't need me. And this, where we're at in this dispensation, there are no men with the gift of healing by touching people, or as we're going to read, even a shadow going over them. That does not exist right now. And it just so happens that I have only known of, I personally have known of no exception, but I'm sure there might be one out there, but in almost every case, anybody claiming to have that power now, they'll also want your pocketbook. And if that's not a red flag, you lack common sense. When somebody says I can do, I will bring God's power, I will this, I will that, that's the terminology of Satan in Isaiah 14. And when he says that I will is attached to your pocketbook, that's when you should run. Not toward him, away from him. And how many people we know that run toward people like that? With their checkbook out or whatever, Doug? Some pastors use that passages for when they're church building. Yeah. Yeah, we're building it. They usually have a thermometer or something showing how much money they're raising and then they'll say, you don't want to get struck down like Ananias. Well, you know, the only person I would ever say that to, we don't ever ask anybody to do this, but if you stand up and announce, I am going to sell my oceanfront property in Arizona and then I'm going to take all the money from that and put it toward the building fund. And then you lie about that. And you don't really do that. And you give like a token gift. That's what Ananias and Sapphira did. But your problem isn't with me or the church. The problem is God hears your blatant lie. See? But if a preacher ever does what Doug's talking about, yeah, you should just pack up. Head out. So again, the hands of the apostles only, no one else. That's what our text says, is 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 porch. Again, why? Because this is about Israel. This is at the temple. This is God confronting the murderers of Jesus Christ in all their How many of you know that if you're in a car and a guy is driving, and as he's driving, he starts shooting up the town, shoots a bunch of people, kills them, and you just go along for the ride, and then they stop him and they shoot him dead. They arrest you. Guess what? You're going to prison. You don't have to pull the trigger. If you don't do something to try to intervene and stop that man, you are an accessory. and the entire nation of Israel was an accessory to the murder of Jesus Christ. And they are being confronted here in Acts with that sin, called upon to believe on the resurrected Christ, but also save yourselves from this untoward generation. It's something we don't preach. We're not preaching that out in the streets. We go out and preach to turn to Christ so you can be saved from hell, saved from your sins. That's what we preach. So the signs of the apostles served two purposes. Number one, they're authenticating each apostle. When an apostle did these signs, it authenticated them. And so that was the number one purpose of these apostolic sign gifts. And then it exposed frauds. When the frauds claimed to be apostles, they couldn't do the signs. Some people have a misunderstanding about Jesus. They say, well, Jesus didn't do signs. No, he did do signs. The problem he had was he would do the signs and they'd still come back and say, show us a sign. He'd already done signs. They'd seen him heal the lame, make the blind to see, raise the dead. They knew about Lazarus. He was one of the most well-known people in that part of the world at that time. Everybody knew that Lazarus was dead and four days later after his body started to decay and stink, Jesus rose and his body were in the dead. Everybody knew about that and they still come and say, show us a sign. That's why Jesus said, no, the sign you're going to see is the sign of Jonas. I will be raised after three days and three nights from the dead. That's the sign that he told. But he didn't deny signs because that's how he confirmed his claim to be Messiah. So Paul will later confirm his apostolic calling, and we'll see that when we come from Acts 9 on, but he'll establish the purpose of signs we mentioned before. In 1 Corinthians 12.12, the signs of apostleship. He said, truly, the signs of an apostle were wrought among you. Talking about himself. There were people who were actually claiming Paul's a false apostle. Paul's a false teacher and a false apostle. And they claimed to be apostles and said, you shouldn't follow Paul, you should follow us. And Paul just basically said, listen, those guys, they can't demonstrate that they're really apostles, but you've seen the signs of an apostle that have been done in this ministry right in front of your face by me. And that's how they were supposed to know that Paul was the real thing, is not just the signs, he didn't contradict God's word. He didn't change God's word. That's how they knew he was authentic. And he also says in 1 Corinthians 1.22 that for the Jews require a sign. That should explain to you, and we've mentioned all this before, but we have to reiterate it because of what the text is telling us, because look at verse 13. And of the rest, durst, that's basically an old English term, durst, it's the same as like no one dare. No one dared to do so. And of the rest, just no man joined himself to them, but the people magnified them. You see, that's what God's doing right here. He has set the apostles apart for a purpose, and no one else tried to join themselves to them at this point. That did happen later, and that's why others claiming to be apostles were rejected by the early church. And that's how you and I should respond when anybody today claims to be an apostle. If you want to, of course, you can say, okay, where's the signs? And they can't show you that. Well, they'll also, by the very nature of them calling themselves apostles, they're contradicting God's word. So those are two main reasons for rejecting them as apostles. Right there. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Turn over a few pages here. This is the apostle Paul, of course. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, beginning verse 13, Paul's making his case, basically, against the false teachers and false apostles and defending his own apostleship. But he says in verse 13, but we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you. I'm sorry, yeah, I got 2 Corinthians 11, 34. I have a note, I went to the wrong text. Listen to me and then we'll go over to that text. He says, verse 14, for we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, this is chapter 10, as though we reach not unto you, for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ. And how many of you know these people call themselves apostles and they don't even preach the gospel? It's just amazing that anybody follows these people. I turn on a guy, I think he's still, I don't know if he's still around or not, Ernest Angsley, I think is his name. And he would heal people, and he would be healed. I think that's where Doug got it, when he says, Jesus, that's how he'd talk. And I have fun. That's the guy that we'll see him later, that's Benny Hinn. Ernest was more gentle. I think he was afraid his toupee would fall off. I had a friend I worked with, seemed like he had sense, but then he watched this guy, Ernest Angley. So I'd turn it on and watch it, and I'd listen and listen. He never preached the gospel. And I would come back to that and say, does a guy ever preach the gospel? I mean, because it's not a local church thing. These are like meetings with all kinds of unsaved people there. But a lot of them talk about money. A lot of them talk about money. So look over to the next chapter in verse 13, 14. Again, we're told, don't judge. You shouldn't judge other preachers. You shouldn't say something bad about other preachers. Well, I'm sorry, but if they're false teachers, we're supposed to say something. And Paul says in verse 13, read that with me. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ, and no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. You hear people say, well, he just seems like such a true preacher. He seems like a nice guy. He just seems so loving and seems so... That's how, you need to understand, that's how Satan's gonna come after you. He's not gonna come after you with a pitchfork and a tail and, you know. I mean, if he does that, you'll run. You know how he's gonna come after you? The typical TV preacher. He's gonna tickle those itching ears, you know, he's gonna scratch those itching ears. That's how Satan's gonna work. And that's how he does. Look at this over in Revelation, another place. Revelation 2. I'll read verse 1 while you turn there. Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. Now read verse 2. I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars. See that? They put them to the test. We're not supposed to just take somebody's word for it. And you put them to the Bible test. And if they fail it, they fail it. And we say so. Some point to Romans 16, 7 to claim there are others called apostles, but the text doesn't say that. Just real quick, I'll just throw that in there because I know there will be one or two that would... So what about? Well, Romans 16, 7, salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellow prisoners who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. And they'll say that that means they were one of the apostles. That's not what it says. It says they are of note among the apostles. It doesn't say they are one of the apostles. It says the apostles recognize them as of note. And David's men, you remember David's men? And there were the mighty men, and then there were other men who were given honorable mention of note. They weren't among the mighty, but they were taken note of by the mighty men. And that's the same way when it comes to these people in Romans 16, 7. So just take note of that. Put that somewhere back there in that vast expanse of knowledge in the back of your mind for future reference. So verse 14 then says, and believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women. And I just wanna throw this in there, another thing real quick. Despite what some falsely claim, this is the one and only church of Jesus Christ. You say what? Hyperdispensationalists actually teach that the church spoken of here is called the Jewish church. And then after Paul came, comes the body of Christ, the church of Jesus Christ. And I'll explain it in more detail in the future, but just understand this. The revelation of the mystery of the body wasn't understood until it was given to Paul. So that comes after Acts 9. And some people then say, well, it's actually Acts 15 when he actually got... And some say, well, it wasn't fully understood until the end of the book of Acts. And so there's actually splinter groups who split from each other based on where you put this revelation of the mystery. But here's the thing. It existed before the revelation was given. And that's what these people seem to be so dense, they can't understand. Whether it was given right after Acts 9 or Acts 15 or Acts 28, doesn't matter. He was given a revelation of what was already happening, which was the body of Christ, the church. How many of you understand that there was no church before the resurrection of Jesus Christ? You understand that? And so that's where, you know, striving to words without profit, and that's what happens when you split and you have all these church splits over silly stuff like that. So keep that in mind. But what we need to understand is this is the church, the one and only church. It is growing at this point. And specific apostles were leading and authenticating their ministry. specific people in that office of the apostle. So then we move on to the authenticity found in verse 15. In so much that they brought forth the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and couches that at the least, this is the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. I mean, today, Greg, you were talking about Benny Hinn. He's one of them. They'll smack him on the forehead or blow on him. Yeah. One, he'd take his jacket off and whip it around, and then they'd fall. I saw once where you talk about a bunch of sheeple and mass brainwashing, and he's got like 1,000 people up there, and he just went like that, and they all fell down. It's just craziness. This isn't just a show. Peter's walking, and they say the sun's over here, and they say one of the kids is sick, and he'd walk past them, and just a shadow touching them, and they'd be healed. You never saw that on TBN. You've never seen that at a faith healer's crusade. I guarantee you. Not one modern quote-unquote apostle has demonstrated this sign. Not one. Then verse 16, there came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks and their checkbooks. Oh, they didn't bring a checkbook. And them which were vexed with unclean spirits, and they were, look at, read those last five, six words, beginning with the word and, read it with me. And they were healed every one. I've heard stories, every story, if nothing else that disproves these claims, how many people leave these crusades or watch those programs and when they turn them off they're still sick? Not when the apostles were in business. Now, these signs will actually only last until the transition that's ended in Acts. We're going to see that Paul left Trophimus at Miletus sick. Because that was at the end of Paul's earthly life and ministry, and by that time, the transition was over. The signs were no longer operative, even in the lives of the apostles. Even Paul. But at this point, in the transition, every single sick person is healed. Every single one. And no modern quote-unquote apostle or anyone claiming to have the sign gifts meets this criteria. Modern signs are unconfirmed. You hear people tell stories, but they're not confirmed like we see in the Bible. You know that your leg is healed? Then I can jump. I can jump. He pronounced this poor woman healed. She drowned in her bathtub a few weeks later because she stopped taking her epilepsy medicine because she thought she was healed. That's Morris Cirella. He's dead and gone to his reward, wherever that is. Just a lot of hype and air. This guy, Sir Montague Loving, says it's a tragedy that she went to this meeting and thought she was cured of everything. Sadly, it led to her death. There are thousands of stories of people like that who went to these crusades. were told they were healed, stopped taking their medicine. Even diabetics with very bad, like type 2 or type 1 diabetes, and they would stop taking their insulin and be dead in a week. No recourse. I mean, there shouldn't be. I'm sorry that there shouldn't be. If someone's that dumb and they go and they do that, you can't protect, you can't legislate intelligence. And you can't outlaw stupidity. I'm sorry, and I've known some people that are otherwise sweet, nice people, but I'm sorry, but that's the way, freedom of religion, you know. I believe in freedom of religion, even when it's stupid. This that you just saw, and I'm going to show you another clip, is not apostolic healing. The healings in the Bible, they were healed immediately. No one died a week later as a result of believing they were healed. This is what you call clown show. And it has sad results. Here's your Benny Hinn, Greg. They come by the thousands to sing, to pray, to weep, to be overcome by the spirit of the Lord. Now, I told you this a week or two ago. They get people who have, like, hearing problems or cancer, they put them in a wheelchair. Then they have them stand up and they declare them healed, and then they show the wheelchair. I mean, they came walking in in the first place. It's all just a shell game, you know? Just to trick people. But this is amazing. You gotta see this. Watch this. ...seeking miracles, and Pastor Benny Hinn gives them what they want. This is it, watch this. These two brothers from Chicago, born profoundly deaf, were declared healed. A third brother, also deaf, was supposedly healed even though he wasn't there. And I break the curse of Memphis on her son. Now listen. That's pretty exciting, but there's one problem. The boys are still deaf. At our request, a school audiologist tested them. The boys continue to have the same hearing loss that we've been measuring for years. No miraculous healing. No miraculous healing. Poor kids. Highly recommend that DVD. I've got it here somewhere. Here it is. We've got this in our DVD library over here. It's like three hours worth of material in this thing. It's a little dated, but it tells you the same things going on today. No new thing under the sun, Ecclesiastes 1 and 9 tells us. If you want your own copy, I went out and found there's like under $10 on eBay, still some copies out there. I don't know if it's still being published, but it's called the Signs and Wonders Movement Exposed. Very highly recommended. But these charlatans, as I started, they have the spirit of Ananias and Sapphira. For monetary gain, they're pretending to be doing something that they're not doing. They're lying. And some of them are struck down and that makes me think maybe they were saved. It's the ones that get by with it that God doesn't strike down, that makes me think maybe they're not saved. They do not have the spirit found in the real apostles who suffered serving the Lord. These guys are driving around in their limos and their private jets, have several houses worth millions of dollars each, and that's not the apostolic ministry. And that brings us to our close there in verses 17 and 18. Then the high priest rose up and all they that were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees, and were filled with indignation. A reminder, they're sad, you see, because they reject the truth of the resurrection. So the sad you sees are sad, you see. Verse 18, and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. So that's what the reward was for being an apostle. No limos. I guess in this day we'd say no designer chariots with, what are those horses, Clydesdale? I love those things. If I was a fake apostle, that's what I'd have. I'd have Clydesdales with a designer chariot. These guys didn't even have their own homes for the most part, and they would travel around the world and then be martyred. Instead of earthly prosperity, the real apostles sacrificed this life in exchange for suffering. But they did so because they knew eternity to come was what was ahead. What suffering you go through and endure in this life, what's ahead? Darren and I were talking about the judgment day. and how that the wise man, the Bible teaches us the wise man thinks of his life in terms of judgment day. Choices I make, things I choose to do, how's this going to fare out for me? How's this going to turn out for me at the judgment? That's how the wise man thinks. Now, everybody in this room, I'm sure we could all give examples where we weren't thinking like that and we did something really, really dumb. Amen? I'm there. I'm embarrassed by these things in my past, but you repent and confess your sins under the blood, but it could be something that has cost you reward. It could be something that's caused you trouble in this life. So what do you do? Can't go back to the past. What do we do? We now look at the future and be wise. Be honest before God, be honest about who we are and what we are, and then let him mold us and make us and live for that day, that judgment day. But in exchange for their suffering, these apostles knew that they had and they have now received eternal glory. Think of where they are now. Yeah, it stunk. I guarantee you there are times he's positive, I wish the Lord would just take me out. This is getting old. The Apostle Paul basically said that at the end of his ministry. He's ready to go. But you know what? Once they got there and they've been there now for, in our time rendering, a couple thousand years, in glory with the Lord, as we sing, it will be worth it all. So where's your focus as we close this up? This life or the next seems like such a basic thing to challenge you with, but if every Christian got this down, it would transform their lives and change the world if every Christian had their focus on that life and not getting what they can in the here and now. You sacrificed because you know what's to come is so much better than anything we could have in this life. I want to close by reading Philippians 3. Just turn your Bible as you would. Philippians 3. Begin verse 4. Paul says in verse 4, though I might also have confidence in the flesh, If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. He had the credentials, the street creds, circumcised of the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law, a Pharisee. Verse six, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. In verse seven, read that with me. But what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. That takes some meditation. Take that home with you right there. Do some meditation on what that means and how you apply that to your life. Read the even with me from eight through 14, begin verse eight. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but done that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Go ahead and read 13 and 14 both with me. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I just want to encourage you I still hear it around here with our folks right here. Too often looking at the past and letting that just weigh you down. Take whatever time you need with the Lord and put whatever sin you let trouble you under the blood. Those who have betrayed you, those who have hurt you, give them to the Lord and then just let it go. and do what our text tells us to do. It's not Greg commandment ology. It's the word of God. Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth under those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Make that real in your life and be set free, you bunch of slaves. That was our joke last Sunday. You're not a slave. You are set free, but you know what? You will be a self-imposed slave to your past if you don't cut it loose and let it go. It's not something God has put on you as a believer to be a slave, but it's something you can put on yourself. Amen. Father, we thank you for this time in your word and for what you've taught us this morning. We thank you for the testimony and the witness that the apostles were and are in the word of God. We can't wait to see them, to meet them, each and every one of them. But first and foremost, we want to meet you. We want to see Jesus. And we thank you, Lord, that you have won the victory for us. It's not something we have to do, something that has already been done. All because of you, we have eternal life by faith in that gospel. And I hope I can speak on behalf of every saved man and woman in this building and everyone hearing this message at whatever time, that we thank you so much. We give you all the glory for saving us. You alone deserve the glory, and we will praise you forever and ever and ever. We love you and pray this in Jesus' name, amen.