Looking for that perfect Christmas gift for the family? Why not a chicken? Stick a bow on top, put the chicken under the tree, and who knows, you may even have a couple eggs to fry up for breakfast Christmas morning.
Give the gift that keeps on clucking. A chicken. Okay, maybe it's not the perfect gift for your family, but it is the perfect gift for a poor family in Asia. A chicken can break the cycle of poverty for a poor family. Yes, a chicken.
A chicken's eggs provide food and nourishment for a family, and they can sell those eggs at the market for income. When you donate a chicken or any other animal through Gospel for Asia, 100% of what you give goes to the field. And the best gift of all, when Gospel for Asia gives a poor family an animal, it opens the door to the love of Jesus. So give the perfect gift for a family in Asia this Christmas. Give them a chicken.
Call 866-WINASIA or to see chickens and other animals to donate, go to CritterCampaign.org. This is Rodney from the Masculine Journey podcast, where we explored manhood within Jesus Christ. Your chosen Truth Network podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Sit back, enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network.
This is the Truth Network. Today, Pastor Russ Andrews will walk us through Scripture to answer these questions. Join us on Finding Purpose, a local triangle ministry glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living.
For more information and to connect with Russ Andrews and Finding Purpose, you can visit us online at findingpurpose.net or connect with us on Facebook. Now let's listen to Russ Andrews as he teaches us how to be a Christian without being religious. Now, let's answer this question that has haunted so many believers. What is the unpardonable sin? Well, I have to be honest, when I was a young boy and I read about this unpardonable sin, I remember getting Webster's dictionary and I looked at the word blaspheme because it says whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven of that sin.
And blaspheme means to curse. I used to go around thinking, gosh, Lord, help me not to curse the Holy Spirit. I was so worried that I'd curse the Holy Spirit.
You ever worried about that? So what does it mean to blaspheme the Holy Spirit? It simply means that you resist the conviction of the Holy Spirit your entire life.
All the time he's knocking on the hearts of unbelievers and they never open the door to their hearts. You see, the one sin that God cannot forgive is the sin of unbelief. If a person refuses the conviction of the Holy Spirit his or her entire life, then God has no choice.
He cannot show mercy to that person and that person will remain eternally under God's wrath. John 3.36 says, who believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him. This is a hard truth, but did you all know that we're born under God's wrath? We're born under his condemnation? We're not born as children in the terms of being saved? John 1.12 says, yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
You don't become a child of God in the sense of belonging to his heavenly family until you place your trust in Jesus. One study Bible explains it as follows, to commit this sin one must consciously, persistently, deliberately, and maliciously reject the testimony of the Spirit to the deity and saving power of the Lord Jesus. And Billy Graham adds to this, if a person keeps doing this until death, there's no hope of forgiveness and eternal life in heaven. So here's the thing, God sees our hearts and he takes our faith very seriously, as did Jesus. Look at verse 14. Later Jesus appeared to the eleven as they were eating. He rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusing to believe, those who had seen him after he had risen.
These eleven disciples had spent three years with him. They'd heard his teaching, he explained the gospel to them as clear as it can be explained. He told them time and time again that the Son of Man must suffer, he would be betrayed into the hands of wicked men, he would be executed, and on the third day the Son of Man would rise. Furthermore, these disciples saw all the miracles he did, and now they have just heard three eyewitness accounts from both Mary Magdalene and the two disciples. These witnesses told the disciples that they had seen the risen Christ and yet, like that man with the water rising, they stubbornly refused to believe, and yet they'd been given so much. This is why Jesus strongly rebuked them, because they had so much and yet they refused to believe. I believe Jesus' rebuke was severe for three reasons. First, they were refusing to believe in the resurrection, which is the ultimate proof that Jesus was and is who claimed to be the Son of God. You see, all of Christianity rests upon this one fact that Jesus arose bodily from the grave. This is the key point of the gospel, the resurrection, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
You must believe that. Secondly, in Luke 12 48, Jesus established a very important principle. He said, from everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
These 11 men had been given so much, and yet they still refused to believe. Aren't many people here in America guilty of the same? We have churches on nearly every street corner. We have multiple Christian radio stations proclaiming the gospel 24-7. Our country had the privilege of hearing the greatest evangelists of all time for 75 years in Billy Graham. He lives in this state, or did. He now lives where?
In heaven. We have thousands of Christian bookstores that are full of Bibles, commentaries, and millions of other Christian books. We've been given so much, and yet so many stubbornly refuse to believe.
And how about Raleigh, North Carolina? We probably have more Bible studies per capita than any other city in the world. This is why Jesus said in Matthew chapter 13, why He spoke to the religious people in parables. Though seeing, they do not see. Though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah. You'll be ever hearing, but never understanding. You'll be ever seeing, but never perceiving.
For this people's heart has become calloused. They hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them. But blessed are your eyes, I'm talking to you folks, because they see in your ears because they hear. If you have eyes to see and ears to hear, it's because God chose to give you eyes to see and ears to hear.
You can take no credit in and of yourself. I personally believe, 2020, that God's patience with America has run out. I hate to say that, but it's what I believe in my heart. Can you not see, even feel, that God has lifted His hand of blessing for my nation? Our only hope is this. As God continues to break us by His judgments, we as a nation repent and turn back to Him, who I believe established this nation 244 years ago. We better hope that our nation, beginning with Christians, as God judges our nation more severely, repents, turns back to God.
He's our only hope. Third, I think another reason that Jesus rebuked the disciples, think about it, is because they refused to do what they were getting ready to ask others to do, believe their testimony, their own eyewitness accounts. Jesus is getting ready to send them out to share the gospel. They're going to be sharing with people who didn't have as much knowledge or information as they did. They're going to be expecting them to believe something that they refused to believe.
Do you see the irony? They said, this is why Jesus came down on them hard. Now, we've determined that the internal evidence of salvation is the inner witness of the Holy Spirit, so what is the external evidence that a person has truly been saved? You know what it is? It's a changed life.
Fate must be accompanied by works. Listen, there must be some outward evidence that you've not only encountered the risen Christ, but that you're actually following Him. I said, you know, a few weeks ago, I think it was here, don't just say you're a Christian.
Everybody thinks Americans are Christians. When somebody asks you, are you a Christian, just say, well, I'm really, I'm a follower of Jesus. I'm following my Lord and Savior. That's what a disciple is. And by the way, you can't just say, I believe in God, I'm a Christian, and then go out somewhere and start using profanity or continue to get drunk and participate in activities that are clearly not Christ-like. People must see a change in you, so let me ask you, if I were to go around and ask your friends, can your friends tell that you're following Jesus, what would they say?
Is your life the picture of one whose heart has been changed by the gospel? See, people will see a change in you. Your language change, changes, your thoughts change, your desires change. It'd be like, you know, becoming a, you're a state fan and you become a Carolina fan. People are going to know that. Your colors change. You'll be wearing red, you'll be wearing Carolina blue.
You'll be with the right school. I'm kidding. See, these are serious questions that, and listen, your eternal destiny doesn't really matter about what you think the answers are. It's what God knows the answers are. How would God answer those questions about you?
Because He sees your heart. James 2, 18 and 19 says, But someone will say, You have faith, I have deeds. Well, show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.
You believe that there is one God? Good. Even the demons believe that and do what? Shutter. Now, what about signs and wonders?
Do they still happen? And guys, this is, I'm going to talk a little bit about this, but this is not the major point in this text. But we do need to look at it. Look at verses 17 and 18 again. And these signs will accompany those who believe. In my name, they will drive out demons. They will speak in new tongues. They will pick up snakes with their hands.
And when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all. They will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well. I've decided I'm not going to spend a great deal of time on this. There's a lot I could say.
But to do justice on this subject would require a 45-minute sermon. And I've only got five minutes or so to talk about this. But let me just go and tell you one thing. Don't be picking up snakes. Okay?
It ain't going to work. If you go to Africa and pick up a black mamba, you've got about 30 minutes to say goodbye to your family. Because a black mamba can... I read up about a black mamba. By the way, when I was in Africa with my sons, we came up on a black mamba on the path. I didn't know it was one, but our God got up and went out there and killed it. They kill the black mamas when they find them. Because they have enough venom in them, and they can strike you 12 times repeatedly, very rapidly, enough venom to kill 25 men. And they're known as the kiss of death.
So if you get bitten by the kiss of death, you can kiss your life goodbye. By the way, I did read a story about a traveling evangelist who was invited to preach at a church in Appalachia, Kentucky. And he got there, and it was just a simple, you know, white stone church building.
You've seen those kind of small buildings. The sanctuary would hold about 100 people. And he was down there on the front row. The church was packed because everybody heard there was a traveling evangelist in town. And the senior pastor was up there introducing him. And he decided to walk on up and stand beside the pastor as he was being introduced. And he was looking out at the congregation. But at that time, a deacon walked in with a basket full of deadly snakes.
And he immediately was terrified. And he tapped on the minister's shoulder and said, hey, where's your back door? The minister said, we don't have a back door. He said, well, in that case, where do you want one?
Kenny said you need to share that joke, so I did. All right. So back, seriously, what about signs and wonders?
There are two basic views. One is that they ceased with the apostles. So that at what we call the end of the apostolic age, being that Paul was the last apostle. Those who hold this view that the signs and wonders stopped with Paul are known as cessationists.
Can you pronounce some of these words? Some examples are Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, B.B. Warfield, Norman Geisler, and John MacArthur. They believe that these signs and wonders and miracles ceased. Pretty good group, isn't it?
We haven't heard the other group. Other Bible scholars believe that these signs and miracles have continued and will continue until the return of Christ. They are known as continuationists. Some examples are Justin Martyr, Augustine. Yeah, he's on both lists. John Wesley, A.W.
Tozer, Martin Lloyd-Jones, Wayne Grudem, who's a great commentator, and John Piper. I should also say that, and I've studied more about this the last 48 hours than I'm going to probably study ever again. I should also say that many of these scholars actually have variations of these two views, and some of them actually changed their views over time, like Augustine, and also apparently Charles Spurgeon changed his view. He began as a cessationist, and then he started seeing miracles in his church, and he became a continuationist. So what can I add to these incredible scholars?
Not much, but I will say this. After spending this week studying the Scriptures from which they both based their views, I come down more on the side of those who adhere to continuationism, but I hold to this loosely. I do not consider this a category A belief.
You follow what I'm saying? Category A is Jesus died on the cross. He arose from the grave.
He was born of the Virgin Mary. This is the inherent word of God. There's a category. You must believe those, but when you get down in here to some of these grayer areas, we can't be dogmatic. So if you listen to Kenny, Jim Briggs, and Grant, we would all be a little bit different on this cessationism and continuationism. All you need to know is I'm right.
They're wrong. My sister gave me this. I think it was my older sister. She gave me this thing that I got on my desk. I don't quite understand it. It says, once I thought I was wrong, but I was mistaken.
Now why did she give that to me? I'm a general. Okay, so John Piper writes this, and I'm going to show you why I come down on this side a little more than the other side. John Piper says, I am one of those Baptist General Conference people who believes that signs and wonders and all the spiritual gifts of 1 Corinthians 12, 8 through 10 are valid for today and should be earnestly desired, he says. He bases that on 1 Corinthians 14, 1. They should be earnestly desired for the edification of the church and the spread of the gospel. He goes on to write that he agrees with Martin Lloyd-Jones based on what Martin Lloyd-Jones preached in 1965 when Lloyd-Jones said, it is perfectly clear that in New Testament times the gospel was authenticated in this way by signs, wonders, and miracles of various characters and description. Was it only meant to be true of the early church? The scriptures never anywhere state that these were only temporary.
Never. There's no such statement anywhere that they ended. And so some of the sensations, I believe, are arguing from silence, and that's never a very strong argument. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean that they're not happening somewhere. So I personally believe that to say that signs and wonders ceased with the apostolic age is to place God in a box which we cannot do. Now I think we would all say on both sides that everyone agrees that miracles happen, but what exactly is a miracle?
Wayne Gruden gives a very interesting definition. He says, a miracle is a less, now listen carefully, a miracle is a less common kind of God's activity which arouses people's awe and wonder and bears witness to himself. You see it's all about Jesus. It's all about the gospel. It must bring glory to God.
Because listen, the working of the universe to me is a miracle, but this is not what we mean by signs and wonders or miracles. Jesus said, and these signs will accompany those who believe. In my name, they will drive out demons. They will speak in new tongues. They will pick up snakes with their hands, and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all.
They will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well. This happened to Paul on the island of Malta. He was bitten by a viper, and he just shook it off, and when the islanders saw that nothing happened to him, they wanted to hear more about what he had to say, so he presented the gospel to them. Because the sign authenticated him as a messenger of God, as a true messenger, and Paul didn't take any credit. He just pointed to Jesus and the gospel. You see, what was the purpose of these signs? First, it was to bring glory to God. Second, it was to confirm the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and third, it was to authenticate and support the messenger in order that people might be saved. You see, it's always about the gospel.
Anything that is done to bring glory to man is not a true sign or wonder. Benny Hinn and those like him are charlatans. Their so-called ministries are all about them. That is why they live in multimillion-dollar houses and fly around in luxury jets.
When you all see Russ flying around in a luxury jet, the elders come and confront me, okay? I wouldn't be able to buy one. You see, I believe the main reason God performed so many wonderful miracles during the apostolic age as recorded in Acts was simply because, here's the main reason. They did not have the completed New Testament canon of Scripture. When the canon was completed, signs and wonders were not needed to support the authenticity of God's messengers as much, okay? What needed as much?
Why not as much? Because they had the complete and inherent word of God. But that also does not mean that signs and wonders completely stopped. I have, listen, I have read numerous accounts of Jesus appearing to Muslims all over the Middle East, and I would call that a miracle.
I would call that a sign and a wonder. Those accounts have been documented for us by godly authors like Joel Rosenberg. Our own Allie Dixon, I don't think she goes to church any longer, but you all remember Allie Dixon?
Well, she served alongside Tom Doyle who wrote this book right here, Visions and Dreams. I started reading this last night. I thought I'd already read it. Everybody in here should read this book.
And you want to know why? Because it will pour fuel on your faith. Not that the word of God can't do that, but it just pours fuel on your faith.
And I started thinking, I've been reading about signs and wonders since I was a teenager. In Brother Andrew's God Smuggler. Anybody ever read that book? It's a wonderful book about the miracles that God did with Brother Andrew as he smuggled Bibles into the former Soviet Union. And the only way you can explain them are they were miracles. The same thing with Corrie Ten Boom in the Hiding Place. How did they get that Bible into the prison?
God basically made it invisible because they were searching everybody, but they didn't search Corrie Ten's sister who had the Bible right there. I've also read about miracles and signs and wonders and the insanity of God, which is a book about what's happening in the underground church around the world. But back to this book right here. I actually met the author Tom Doyle here in Raleigh about four or five years ago because Allie invited me to come hear him. And so I went and heard him. He's just a pastor who God called him to go to the Middle East. And so he resigned from his church and went to the Middle East. And he writes about real Muslims who have had visions of the risen Christ, just like the Apostle Paul. They've seen the risen Christ.
And here's what he says. These days, I'm taking this from the preface of this book, Jesus is introducing himself to Muslims. I'm talking about right now, folks, in the Middle East. This phenomenon is not limited to a few isolated locations. It's not happening in just one or two African nations.
These are modern day signs and wonders. There's not just one of several hundred people groups affected in India. He's not simply visiting some lucky town in the Middle East. What we see is Jesus presenting himself to Muslims everywhere. Dozens of Islamic countries and countless Muslim cultures have been invaded by Jesus' love. Our new brothers, he writes, and sisters in Christ live in Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Gaza Strip. They make their homes in Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and the West Bank.
And everywhere, they are bold and willing to die for Christ. I'm telling you, you've got to read some of these accounts. I couldn't put the book down last night.
I'm about halfway through it, and I'll finish it probably by tonight. Why would Jesus be appearing to Muslims rather than to us? Well, the answer is obvious. They don't have access to the gospel as we do. Most Muslims do not own Bibles. So for them, the canon of Scripture is not really complete.
It's not complete until you possess it. I'm trying to think of the name of the ministry in Iran. Jim, what is it?
What? Elam, which is the ancient name of Iran in Persia. They are smuggling Bibles into Iran right now, hundreds of thousands of Bibles. Did you know that in Iran, Christianity is growing faster than any other place in the world? Not in America.
In Iran, in a Muslim country. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13 verses 8 through 12, and I'm almost done here. But where there are prophecies, they will cease. Where there are tongues, they will be stilled. Where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
But when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I taught like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child.
When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror. Then we shall see face to face.
Now I know in part. Then I shall fully know, even as I am fully known. When will science and wonder cease? When perfection comes. When Jesus appears. Then and only then will we see Him face to face. And then these signs and wonders will cease because the ultimate sign and wonder will be with us. 1 John 3, 2 says, Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Are y'all ready for that day? Okay. So what should we be doing until He appears? Well, that gets to the last question, and this is a very short answer. What was His last command? Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. That was the command He gave them then, and it's our command today. Matthew 28, 18 through 20 is the Great Commission. It just simply means as you're going about your life, share the gospel. What should we be doing when we sit around our Thanksgiving table in a few days with family members and friends who may be lost? Share the gospel. That's what Chris is doing over there from his sick room. He's sharing the gospel.
When you come to life's end, it's all that matters, and we don't know when our last day is, and you don't know when the last day is for some of your friends. We need to get busy. I believe the Lord's return could be in my lifetime, which means that's probably about the next 20 years. We've got a lot of work to do. We have a great Savior, and He will give us all we need to do to carry out His work.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. Lord, we love You so much.
We need You so much. I ask You, dear God, to help us to have the boldness that these Muslim Christians have. They're not fleeing from their country when they get saved. They're literally, some of them, many of them, are actually being executed.
They're being killed by the only family members because they feel like they've become heretics to the cause of Islam, and yet they're willing to stay there because they love You so much. Lord, help us to have that same kind of love here. We get so lethargic in America as we have so much. We have so much religion.
We have so much money. We have so much comfort that we're choking on it, and I'm beginning with myself. Lord, I pray that You would wake our nation up, and I hate to say this, whatever it takes, whatever that means, because it may hurt me, my family, and everybody in this sanctuary, and we don't want to be hurt, but if that's what it takes, Lord, then bring it on. We need a revival in this country, and Lord, often people do not respond from grace.
They respond more from judgment. Things have to be stripped away from us, Lord, so that You can get our attention. Thank You for the way You've been stripping away all the idols that we have in this country, like sports and religion and Hollywood. Lord, we need You more than ever before, and I pray to God that You would not give up on America, and I know that You won't.
I know that You chase in those You love because You want to draw them to Yourself, and I know that You love this country so much. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for Your love. It's in Your name that I pray. Amen.
Would you all stand for the benediction? And I want to wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving. Try to eat as much as I am because I'm going to load up.
That sounds good after I just said we got too much. Isn't that amazing where my mind just quickly goes back to what I want to, you know, feed my stomach? Lord, it's been so patient with me. In Jude 24 and 25 says, to Him who is able to keep you from falling.
Isn't that a great thing? He's able to keep us from falling, and when we do fall, you know what He does? He picks us up. And to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy. In other words, He's going to present us to heaven with great joy. To the one, to the only God, our Savior, the glory, majesty, power, and authority. Being a Christian is not about being religious, but about having a dynamic, alive relationship with Jesus Christ. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Pastor Russ Andrews, a local triangle ministry glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. You can discover more about finding your purpose in life by checking out the resources at findingpurpose.net or connect to Finding Purpose on Facebook. Pastor Russ would also like to extend a special invitation for you to join him and over 300 other local triangle men to study God's Word together every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in downtown Raleigh. Find out more at findingpurpose.net. This is the Truth Network.
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