The Purpose of Miracles

A person's life is summed up by the culmination of cause and effect choices that they make.

That's your history. That's my history. That's also our past, what we have become so far, or at the end of our life, what the total of our life could be summarized by.

From now on, from this day on, your life will be summarized by the culmination of cause and effect choices you make beginning now. And that can be a change in your life. The Bible, the Word of God, and this way of life that God has called us to live, is all about choice and consequences. It's about cause and the effects.

Choice and consequences determines a human's value in this physical life. The value that a person has to humanity, to others, what you achieved, what physical meaning it had, what impact it had, positive or negative, on others. It comprises one's legacy. Right now, we have one president who is finishing up a term, and typically, towards the end of a president's term, they want to clean up and leave a good legacy. They want to go down in history, see, go down in the history books as having been a good president. Humans will tend to do this towards the end of their life. They will try to clean up their record sometimes, get a monument made, win some award, do some humanitarian thing to get a statue or go down in history books as doing something. It's doing something great. The physical contribution or the legacy we make is kind of like Solomon. Solomon was an individual who had worldly acclaim. He was a master architect. He had the wisdom that God gave him, but really, he had limited value. He and all that he did, all that he made ended and over time vanished, other than the writing that he has in the Bible, which is really the wisdom of God. But that which Solomon himself did had very limited value over time. It's the same with all humans. If we go to Revelation 21 and verse 8, we can see the end of that which is profane, that which is not holy, that which has no eternal spiritual future. It says, the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. And as we know that all things physical will then be burnt up, along with the works and the memory of them will be forgotten. So that shows that the result of cause and effect on the physical level in the profane, the carnal realm, is very limited and has no future.

Choice and consequence also determines a person's spiritual potential within the eternal family of God. So there is another opportunity, rather than just having it all dissolve and disappear forever and be forgotten. A person's spiritual value to God on an eternal basis is also determined by cause and effect to those whom God has called and put his Holy Spirit in. God assesses the choices that we make and the effects that we make, whether we choose to love others as ourselves or do unto others as we would have them do unto us.

God assesses that and determines the potential value that we would have for his eternal family. The spiritual potential then becomes treasure that's built in heaven that does not fade away. It's reserved in heaven for you and does not fade away. It's a much different consequence, a much different legacy, we might say.

There in verse 7 of Revelation 21, he who overcomes shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my son. That becomes then a link to eternity based on, again, cause and effect. And God is leading his church members towards this thing called life. Life which is eternal, it goes on, it doesn't, it's not transient, it doesn't terminate and then be worthless.

He's leading us towards life away from death. To accomplish this, Jesus Christ is shepherding us, his sheep. He is guiding us, he's nurturing us, he's feeding us, he's letting us learn certain lessons, he's stimulating us to grow up into the mentality of the God family.

In Romans chapter 8 and verse 28, my wife's, I believe, favorite verse in the Bible, says, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. So we have this shepherd that's guiding and directing, he's wanting growth, and as we go through this physical life, he's causing all things to work together for good, including things we learn from cause and effect, including choices that we make, and encouraging us to make choices, to those who are the called according to his purpose.

Christ is not passive. He's not sort of back-waiting. He is very involved. He's not absent. He is living in you. He's not distracted. He and his team of angels are constantly focused on you and me and our development as potential children in their family. That means he gives divine guidance, divine inspiration, divine opportunities, and divine intervention when those things are needed so that all things can work together for the good of those who are called according to his purpose. If we look at the term miracle, within this context, we have choice, we have consequences, we have the opportunity to be the called. Jesus Christ and his team are all about you and me developing and growing up, and all these things are working together.

Where do miracles fit? And what is the purpose of miracles? The title of the sermon today is The Purpose of Miracles. And the definition in Wikipedia of miracle might surprise you. A miracle is a visible interruption of the laws of nature, such that can only be explained by divine intervention.

A miracle is one of the tools that Jesus Christ can use so that all things work together for the good of those who are the called according to his purpose. It's one of the things in the toolbox, as it were. Miracles have a specific purpose. We're not just told in the Bible, here's why I give miracles, here's why I cause miracles. But if we look at the miracles in the Bible, I believe we can find they can teach us something about their purpose. They come in various ways, and yet I believe all have a common purpose.

Again, that purpose is part of all things working together for the called. It says in verse 31, if God is for us, who can be against us? And God being for us sometimes may involve a supernatural intervention into the natural laws of physics.

And we would say it's a miracle, which it is. Whenever you hear a miracle, we say, great! The days of miracles is not past. Miracles are exciting to hear about, more than anything, because we're very self-centered human beings. And if somebody got a miracle, maybe I'll get one too. They can really lift the hopes, you see. Humans want miracles. Why do we want miracles? Well, typically we would like a miracle to embellish our life. We would like to hear the bank call up and say, it's a miracle!

We'd like our health practitioner to tell us, I believe a miracle has happened. We would like our aging car to surprise us dramatically, etc., etc., etc. But what we're really saying is we want to embellish and to preserve this physical life. That's the way we tend to look at miracles. Why? Because we're humans. This is the only life we know. This is what we strive to protect and enhance. And a miracle or two would really help. And we're not going to be able to do that. We're going to be able to do that. This is the only life we know. This is what we strive to protect and enhance. And a miracle or two would really help. But is that why God provides miracles? Actually, God uses miracles as one of the things that work together for the good of those who are potential heirs of His kingdom. The spiritual development of those children, not the physical perpetuation of them. So today, let's look at God's use of miracles in the Bible. Let's see what and when and why they occur. In doing so, we can have a better understanding of when to expect a miracle. And a deeper appreciation for the help that miracles from God bring.

This Bible is a big book. It's full of miracles. They're wonderful illustrations of divine manipulations of the laws of physics, the natural laws that cause us to be quite inspired by them. In fact, these are faith-building records of God's intervention. I'd like to review some of the miracles that happened in the first part of the Bible.

Let's review some of these. The creation in seven days. The flood. The confusion of the tongues of the tower of Babel. The conception of Isaac and Sarah. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire. Lot's wife being turned to salt. The closing of the wounds of Abimelech's household. The well of water that suddenly bubbled out of the ground for Hagar and her son when they were out in the desert. The conception of Jacob and Esau in Rachel, who was barren. God spoke to Job in a whirlwind.

Healed boils. His possessions were doubled.

Moses encountered a flaming bush. Moses' rod became a serpent. Moses' arm became leprous. There were ten plagues in Egypt. The pillar of cloud and fire went before Israel. Israel crossed the Red Sea when it opened.

God crushed the armies of Pharaoh when it closed.

He sweetened the waters of Marah. He provided Israel with manna every morning, six days a weekend, twice as much on Fridays. The quail were given in huge numbers. They flew in on the Israelites in the wilderness.

Remember the defeat of Amalek and the Israelites and the Amalekites were down fighting. Every time Moses would raise his arms, the Israelites would win. So they held up his arms. They did everything they could to keep his arms up. The thundering and lightning on Mount Sinai. Moses' face glowed bright after he came down from Sinai with the tablets. God told Moses to strike the rock and water gushed out. Another time, Moses was told to speak to the rock and he struck the rock and water gushed out. Miriam became leprous. The complainers were consumed by fire. The earth swallowed korah and the rebellious leaders in an open chasm opened up. It swallowed them up. Aaron was told to stand between the dead and the living and therefore stopped the plague. Aaron's rod butted. There was a scourge of serpents that came. Fire consumed the wicked priests, Nadab and Abihu. Balaam's donkey spoke. God buried Moses in a secret location in a valley in Moab. Israel crossed the Jordan on dry land. And when they did that, God stopped the river Jordan from flowing. The waters piled up on the upstream side quite high and for a long distance.

The walls of Jericho fell. The Midianites were destroyed. Hail destroyed the armies of the Midianite kings, four kings that joined forces together against Israel. The sun and the moon stood still in Joshua's time. There was a sign of a bold sign of a bowl full of dew on Gideon's fleece. Samson had great strength as long as his hair was long. God provided Samson with water from a skeletal jawbone. He could drink all the water he wanted out of a jawbone of a skeleton. The fall of Dagon. The Philistines cursed with tumors when they took the Ark of the Covenant. Cows, a team of cows all alone, brought the Ark of the Covenant home from the Philistines. Fifty thousand died at Beth Shemesh for looking into the Ark.

Uzzah touched the Ark and died. God through Samuel sent thunder and rain. Seventy thousand died after David numbered the troops of Israel. God sent fire on sacrifices. Remember all the sacrifices he sent fire on? Abraham, Aaron, Gideon, Manoah, Solomon, and Elijah. Jeroboam's hand withered. There was a Moabite army who was about to attack Israel, and they woke up in the morning and a flood had come, but they saw the flood as a huge ocean of blood.

The Syrian army heard a noise of a great army with chariots and horsemen, and they all ran away. Elijah had many miracles happen to him. He was fed by ravens, fed by an angel. He increases the widow's meal in oil, raises the widow's son. It rains in answer to prayer. He brings fire on Ahaziah's army, divided the Jordan River. He was transported in a fiery chariot in a whirlwind away from those who were trying to find him. Elisha, who followed him, even had more miracles happen to him or by him through him. He divided the Jordan, sweetened the waters of Jericho, increased a widow's oil, raised the Shumanite's child, rendered harmless the poison potage, fed a hundred men, cures Naaman of leprosy, smites Gehizai with leprosy, causes the axe head to float. Remember when that happened? Revealed the counsel of the king of Syria, caused the eyes of his servants to be opened, smote with blindness the army of the king of Syria, and had a dead man restored to life.

An angel destroyed Sennacherib's army at night. Hezekiah was healed and given 15 more years. As a sign, he saw the sundial go back 10 degrees, backward 10 degrees, at his request.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walk unbound. After being fettered and thrown in the fiery furnace, they walked unbound inside the furnace with God. Daniel was delivered from the den of lions, unhurt. The sea was calmed after Jonah was cast into it. Jonah was three days and three nights in a fish's belly. A gourd grew up very rapidly and shaded Jonah for a time.

When you read of these miracles, you can get the idea that God randomly does miracles. He just kind of scatters them around. That's a lot of miracles. He just sort of tosses them out there. Or you can say, well, he gives miracles to embellish people's lives to help them out. He can generate hope that it could happen to you. Hoping for a miracle. You know, one of the revival road shows, I believe it is, says, expect a miracle! We're coming to town. Expect a miracle. You know, if you think like that, one thing that can happen is when there's a lack of miracles, it can be a real faith buster. If we need miracles to increase our faith, then when there aren't miracles, when we really want them, they can really break down faith. An example, I would say, of that is the prayer request that come out from people to the church and they get broadcast. And we have many cards that go out to people and they're asking for prayers. I think there's a concept, the more people you get to pray to God, the better chance you have of being healed. And if you're not being healed, you know, with your own congregation, try 100 or 200 more congregations and maybe we can wake them up. But the downside is very few people who submit prayer requests are ever healed.

That's just the way it is. We publish a six-month or an annual review of all the prayer requests and if you go read through them, it can be very disheartening. I'm just being very honest with you. It can be very disheartening to see what's happening to everybody.

Sometimes a person will try really hard to make it a miracle. You know, I had a problem. I went and I had two or three surgeries. It wasn't, you know, going so well. I took a lot of drugs and now I'm healed! I'm healed, you know. I'm missing an arm and a leg, you know, but somehow I'm healed. So we call that a healing. Well, you know, the body will stitch itself up and certain compounds will go to eliminate other things, but that is not what I would call a healing. It just isn't.

And so when we look at the Bible's examples of miracles, including healing, one thing we find is they're not random. We find that everything is working together for a purpose and there are times in an individual's life when God saw the need to defy the laws of physics and cause a supernatural event for a certain reason.

There's nothing random and nothing careless, and each worked together for the good of the individual that God was using at a particular time. I'd like to analyze some of the Bible's miracles today and find several noteworthy things and some distinct purposes for these miracles as well. The first point is miracles help man believe in his God. See, a God is a supernatural being. You and I cannot perceive God. We only have the five senses. We can't smell him, see him, taste him, hear him, touch him. You just can't. And therefore, who's to say he exists? Miracles help man believe in his God.

You'll see why I phrased it that way in a minute. Notice I didn't say helps man to believe in God, rather to believe in his God. We'll see why later. We trust what we know via the five senses. We have experience with the five senses. We rely on that. It's been a lifelong process for us, and yet we cannot perceive God with those five senses. In 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14, we get a glimpse here as to why that is.

But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.

Not only God himself, but even the teachings of God don't interact with us. It's something from a spiritual source, and we are very human. However, miracles touch our five senses. You can see a miracle. Sometimes you can hear it. You can feel it. You can taste it. I don't know. It depends on what the miracle is. But when a miracle comes, you can sense it with the five senses.

These are physical things. Moses did not know God. We think of Moses as a legendary individual, which he was, but there was a time in Moses' life when he did not know God. The miracle of God was built in his faith. He had no faith. Miracles built his faith and confidence in God. Let's see this in Exodus chapter 3. We'll begin in verse 1 of Exodus 3. We'll go through verse 5 to begin with.

Exodus 3 verse 1, Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. So he's a false priest from a different country. And Moses is up there tending his sheep for 40 years. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in the flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked. Use of the five senses. He looked. And behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Defy the laws of physics. So Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn up. So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Well, here am I. Wow! Now we've got sight and sound. Miracles, see? Then he said, Do not draw near this place, take off your sandals from your feet for the place where you stand, is holy ground. So Moses here begins to interact with somebody he had no knowledge of. Let's notice how early in the relationship this is. Go to verse 13 of chapter 3. Then Moses said to God, Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel, like you told me to, and I say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me. When they ask, What is his name? What shall I tell them? He didn't even know the name of God. That's how early the relationship between God and Moses was. And so God tells him what his name is, and they go on in that relationship from there. They needed a few more faith builders. We find in the next chapter, the first seven verses of chapter 4, then Moses said, But suppose they won't believe me or listen to my voice, and they say, The Lord hasn't really appeared to you. The Lord said to him, What is that in your hand? He said, A rod cast it on the ground. So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent. And Moses fled from it. You know, you can just feel yourself almost being bitten by a snake. That's why he ran. I don't want to be bitten. There comes touch, sight, sound, and touch. And Moses ran. But the Lord said to Moses, Reach out your hand and take it by the tail. And he caught it and became a rod. That they may believe. Notice what this is about. That they may believe. Miracles for building belief, faith, trust, that the God of their fathers has appeared to you. Furthermore, the Lord said to him, verse 6, Now put your hand in your bosom. Put his hand in his bosom. When he took it out, it was leprous like snow. Then he said, Put your hand back in your bosom. So he put it back in, drew it out, and it was restored like his other flesh. How does an invisible God expect you and me to believe in something that remains invisible? And to dedicate our whole life to something that we will never see, hear, taste, touch, or smell. And yet devote ourselves to that with passion. In 1 Corinthians 15 and 45, this paradox is put before us, and it's shown that the faithful are able to accomplish this. It's part of how God set up salvation for the faithful. That's why faith is so important. We have to believe in something, not just believe in it, but we have to act on it and devote our whole lives to something we will never detect with the five senses.

How can we believe in the spirit world? Spiritual resurrection. Verse 45, And so it is written, The first man Adam became a living being. The last man Adam became a life-giving spirit. We're told to believe that Jesus Christ has life and He can give life. He can resurrect us and give us eternal life. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural. That's the problem. We are natural. We're human. And afterwards, the spiritual, that which we can't see.

The first man was of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord of heaven, from heaven. And as was the man of the dust, so are also those who are made of the dust. And as is the heavenly man, so are those who are heavenly. As we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man. It's a challenge to believe that. That is the challenge that is summed up in the term faith. To believe in the spirit world. Consequently, miracles can assist in that. Supernatural events make an impact. They make an impact. So point one is, miracles help man believe in his God. Point two, miracles are created by two different gods.

To help man believe in his choice of gods. Miracles are created by two different gods. Satan is one. You recall that Satan sent catastrophes on Job. The first chapter of Job, he wiped out his children, his possessions, his animals. The second chapter of Job, he did not lose faith. He did not disobey God or sin in any way. And so, Satan then received permission to put boils on him.

In Matthew 24 and verse 24, there's another way that Satan will manipulate physics.

In order to get people to believe in him, Christ warns us about this. He says, for false Christ and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders. Whenever the Bible says wonders, it's talking about miracles. It's talking about supernatural events, laws that defy physics. Just look in there and read. Whenever you see wonders, it's talking about these things we would call miracles or supernatural events. So these false prophets will show great signs and miracles to deceive, if possible, the very elect. Concurrently, we read in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 8 that there will be a lawless one, the great religious false leader at the end of time, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 8.

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, lying miracles.

So see, miracles can come from two different gods. Satan is defined as the god of this world in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 4. Miracles also can come from our god.

An example of this is Revelation chapter 11 and verse 6. During the same period of time when the lawless one is performing these lying wonders, lying miracles and great signs, God has two witnesses. Revelation 11 and verse 6. These have power to shut heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy, and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues as often as they desire. So you're going to have false miracles, or you're going to have miracles from Satan's side, you're going to have miracles from God's side, sort of balancing the equation, it would seem. In Daniel chapter 4, we find one of the unique things in this Bible. Today, the Bible study by Mr. Delamater was about the history of the English Bible, how we have it today. One of the curious things for me, one of the most curious things in the Bible, is the fourth chapter of Daniel, in that you have God and right and right, and then you have God and righteousness, and this is His word, and then you have the false Babylon-ish system, and the old image in Daniel that Christ will destroy at His coming, and the head of gold was Nebuchadnezzar. And this Nebuchadnezzar, who represents Babylon and all of his systems, wrote Daniel chapter 4. All of it. He wrote a chapter in the Bible himself. It's all there. It's all his words. Let's go read it.

Interesting about Daniel, the fourth chapter.

Verse 1, Nebuchadnezzar the king, to all peoples, to all nations and languages that dwell on the earth, peace be multiplied to you, and I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders, miracles, that the Most High God has worked for me. How great are His signs? How mighty are His miracles? His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and His dominion from generation to generation. You see the impact that the miracles of God had on Nebuchadnezzar?

It enabled him to come to know, to a degree, God, who was a faith builder in that sense. Now what caused this pagan icon to come to this conclusion? In part, the dreams He had, the interpretations of the dreams, the fiery furnace that He threw people into and they came walking out, various things like that. When you see things like that, it sure makes you think, doesn't it? But it's different when it happens to you personally, to you personally, and this is what He deals with in chapter 4. We'll summarize, dropping down to verse 30. The king spoke, you know what happened, he was the great king and he said, you know, something great. So he spoke saying, verse 30, is not this great Babylon that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty? He's authentically stating his lofty, vain words here. And while the word was still in the king's mouth, he writes, a voice fell from heaven. King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, the kingdom has departed from you. And they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen, and seven years will pass over you until you know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he chooses. Now this is up close and personal. And this miracle is going to involve all the five senses. You're going to be eating grass for seven years. You're going to be smelling whatever you smell, and feeling, and touching, and seeing, and hearing.

Verse 33, that very hour the word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from men and ate grass like oxen. His body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair had grown like eagle's feathers and his nails like bird's claws. And at the end of the time I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me. And I blessed the most high and praised and honored him who lives forever. You see how miracles, God, can use miracles to develop faith, to develop understanding in individuals like Moses, Nebuchadnezzar, you and me.

In 2 Corinthians 12 and verse 12, it says, Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in signs and miracles and mighty deeds. God did things in people's lives through the apostles. As they first were coming into contact with God, he would do certain things in individuals' lives that were miraculous, and it caused them to build faith in a new way of life that was brand new at the time. It just was different than anything had ever been. There was no previous understanding of this kind of God or this opening of a new covenant like he had done at this time.

So point two is miracles are created by two different gods. Point three is some miracles can sustain a life so we can progress. You know, if a person is just coming to the knowledge of the truth and then their life is snuffed out, or if a person is growing and starting to develop potential for the kingdom and then boom, oops, sorry, lost one, God could intervene. God could intervene if he deemed it necessary.

Elijah was spared from being killed. He was fed by ravens. In the end of his life, he was transported by a kind of a fiery chariot. He was not found because somebody was looking for him, probably trying to kill him, we assume. So he was transported.

Jesus Christ escaped the masses miraculously. He was surrounded. They were going to kill him, and somehow he just got through him. Why? Because he needed to complete his ministry for a longer period of time. The masses finally found him and killed him, but at the appropriate time. The apostles had a work to do. Sometimes the prisons were opened miraculously, and they walked free. Sometimes later on, when their time had come, the prisons closed, and they were all killed.

I'd like to play a video at this time. It takes us over to Kenya. Last year, there was an election that took place about this time, and following that election, there was a lot of violence that impacted various tribes, and some tribes went out to eliminate other tribes. At the feast this year, my wife and I interviewed some people who had gone through very dire circumstances during that conflict, and I would like to hear them tell you about certain miracles that took place so that their lives could continue as they grow in the early parts of their relationship with God.

They announced the news that the president, Kibaki, had taken the seat. The people around, they started screaming, thieves, thieves, referring that they stole the elections. They were burning goods, they were burning shops, they were also burning some vehicles. They killed the father of our congregation reader, and they shot others with allos, and when everybody in our fridge, when they saw what had been done, everybody tried to rush away. We could see them coming. We knew it was our turn now to die. The presence of everything was higher. Hunger, no food. People were dying, fighting each other. So we had no peace. Our house was terribly stoned by our neighbor. My dad called the police, but the police said that they were busy. They could not come at that time. So they were closely killed on us. Everyone was very willing because we were waiting just to die. They were burning tires on the road, throwing stones. We were neighboring other tribes, fighting. It showed us the way to the police station. We stayed there for almost six hours, waiting for rescue. You know, by then we were thinking we were going to die. And when you are thinking you are going to die, then you only see death as the next thing that will have to happen to you. We prayed as a family for God, who is our uncle and our strength. And we were all scared. They are just coming either straight to us, or they are surrounding, or they have left the house. They are coming straight just to kill us. When we hear bullets saying, to our God protect us. We, as Christians, we had the faith. We had the faith. God came in to help us. Yeah, we were praying for God's help. We asked God, now this is the chance that you are going to show yourself how you are wonderful to your people. So I asked God to spare us. All of a sudden, as I went to play, God did something. People have surrounded you and coming after you. Oh, and there was so many. And in a second, all the fires went out. Because I remember the word of God that says that He will protect us. And God protected us because He never harmed us. Jesus really cared for us. Yeah. So thanks to God because it's not our power. God spared our village. And that amazes not even ourselves. It amazes even the passersby. About 200 kilometers from Nakuul to the border of Uganda. Nobody was ever spared except my village.

So there you can see some examples of people who were right in harm's way and fully expected very disastrous things to happen to them. And yet, God stepped in. A miraculous thing was described there. And this man didn't even know it. As he told me, he said, they were coming in. They had burned all the villages up a 200-kilometer route. And mine was the last to go. They were burning the perimeter. They were, the people were fleeing inward, even leaving their children. They were coming to the town center as they were coming in, slashing and killing. And so he said, I just, I knew it was my time to die. I went in to pray. And he said, I prayed for deliverance and then came out. He said, the fires were gone out. He said, we didn't know what that meant. Well, maybe now they're not bothering burning. They're just coming straight for us. They're just going to slaughter us now. And he said, at that time, you just, you're just resolved to die. You know, it's just going to happen. He said, they didn't come and they didn't come and they didn't come. He said, the funny thing is, God performed a miracle, but I didn't know it till the next day, because I spent the entire afternoon and night waiting for them to come kill me. And it wasn't till the next day that I realized they weren't coming. He said, only then did I realize that it was a miracle. He kind of felt bad about that, but they just didn't understand, because there's no communication. There's just no news. And then to find out that of his tribe that was living in this other tribal area, of his tribe, none of his tribe's villages were spared except his. And 25 people in his village, including his next-door neighbor, were killed during the initial part of that of that torching and burning. But when it came to him, he was the only member in the village, everybody else got spared.

There is a time for protection during growth. There is a time for persecution when one matures.

I know that you're familiar with what Jesus Christ prophesied would happen to the church at the end time. What other prophecies say will be the breaking of the power of the holy people, that there will be great persecution. Some will be saved, some will not. It can be a faith bust, or if you think that God is going to protect you and perpetuate your life with miracles if persecution comes. Miracles have a specific purpose, and sometimes miracles can sustain our life so that we can progress. I'm sure that some of you have had miracles that have sustained your life. I know I have once my wife and I, with our children at night, we're trying to be rammed head-on by somebody. We don't know why it was in the late December period, but somebody actually crossed the highway and came hunting for us in two lanes on a divided highway. Every time I would move, they would move. It was just a matter of, we're all going to perish here. I remember Mr. Armstrong one time driving through a mess that he couldn't get through back in the early part of his ministry, a mess of a tangle of cars, I believe it was. The steering wheel was ripped out of his hand, and it drove him right through. There's a time when an individual's life needs to be spared so that we can progress. There's a time when a miracle is not needed. The person doesn't need to progress anymore. There's a scripture that says, none consider why the righteous are taken. They're taken to avoid the terrible times that are to come. It can be in their own life or the chaos in the world. The fourth point is faith-building miracles are for those without faith.

Faith-building miracles are for those without faith. Do you need a faith-building miracle? If so, you have little faith. Jesus Christ performed many miracles for those who had little faith. Joseph, a man with little faith, had miracles in his life. Moses had no faith. Miracles built it. Same with Aaron, same with the Israelites, same with Joshua, same with Job, same with young David, who went out and killed a lion, basically with his bare hands. He developed a belief in God, and he went as a young man, an older boy, and killed the great Philistine warrior in a miracle.

Young Daniel, the young disciples. Many miracles are performed when people don't have faith, especially at the beginning of a relationship with God. I'd like to give an example from the Herbert W. Armstrong autobiography, Volume 1, Chapter 17. This took place in the spring of 1927. He said, "...it was humiliating to have to admit that my wife had been right, and I had been wrong, in the most serious argument that had ever come between us. But to my utter, disappointed astonishment, I found that much of the popular church teachings and practices were not based on the Bible. They had originated as research in history had revealed in paganism." In Chapter 18, along about early August 1927, a series of physical illnesses and injuries attacked my wife, Mrs. Loma Armstrong. First, she was bitten on the left arm by a dog. Before this healed over, she was driven to bed with tonsillitis. She got up from this too soon and was stricken violently with a back set. But meanwhile, she had contracted blood poisoning as a result of being struck with a rose thorn on the index finger of her right hand. For two or three days, her sister and I had to take turns day and night soaking her right hand in almost blistering Epsom salt water and covering her wrist and forearm with hot towels, always holding her right arm high. The back set from the tonsillitis developed into quincy. Her throat was swollen shut. It locked her jaw. For three days and three nights, she was unable to swallow a drop of water or a morsel of food. More serious, for three days and three nights, she was unable to sleep a wink. She was nearing exhaustion. The red line of blood poisoning, in spite of our constant Epsom salt efforts, was streaking up her right arm and had reached her shoulder on the way to her heart. The doctor told me privately that she could not last another 24 hours. And this third sleepless, foodless, and waterless day was scorching hot summer in early August. Mrs. Armstrong was anointed by a minister. He writes, he merely claimed God's promise to heal. He asked God to heal her completely from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. Now remember that. As soon as they had left, Mrs. Armstrong asked me to bring her a robe. She arose, put it on, and we walked out into the street and back with my arm around her. She slept soundly until 11 a.m. the next day. Then she rose and dressed as if she had never been ill. She had been healed of everything, including some long-standing internal maladjustments. Those are faith-building miracles. I had one happen to me when I was 12 years old. I was given 40 minutes to live.

Mr. Armstrong came and prayed. It's interesting. I didn't realize this until today when I was reading the autobiography. But when he prayed, he asked God to heal me from the top of my head to the bottom of my foot. Along with my ruptured spleen, I happened to have a very painful planter's wart. I believe they call it on the foot. It's an eruption on the foot. It's too painful to hardly walk on. And the next day, my mother picked at that and it fell off in her hand. Mr. Robin Weber, at age 13, a year later, came down with spinal meningitis. He was just coming into the church with his family. They had shown up in Pasadena, but Robin had never even come to school because he came down with meningitis before he could get to school. He was the second of two sons. Jack and Tommy's first son died at about age 13. Here was Robin, their only remaining child, and he was about to die of spinal meningitis, lethal disease.

Robin was anointed and he was healed. You see, it was not God's time for us to die. It also was a time for God to tell us who he was, and those things really have impacted our lives.

There are anointings and healings that are amazing stories that build faith to newcomers. And again, the Bible is a record of many miracles for faithless people, for faithless people, and few or none for faithful people, people of faith. I didn't say by faith people of faith, but for people of faith. Did you ever hear any miracles about what happened to old David? None of those come to mind, do they? David, the man after God's own heart, died of a nasty disease. Nobody wanted to be around him. He couldn't stay warm. He had to have somebody sleep with him to give him some strength. He was a man who cried out in his old age and died. Old Daniel, the old apostles, hear any stories of them? At first, Moses got three miracles for him. I don't know of any other miracles that ever happened for Moses. Rather, he became an agent of miracles for other people in order to learn about God, including Pharaoh, the Israelites. Same with the disciples. They had a miracle or two or three done for them. They caught fish in nets. But once they became full of faith in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost, miracles for them enabled them to either carry on the work or build other people's faith by other people being healed. Remember, young Paul struck blind on the road to the masses. That'll get you real quick. Take away your sight. He was healed of blindness. Healed of blindness. Old Paul, 2 Corinthians 12, let's listen to old Paul. Same malady. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7, Unless I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing, which we believe was his failing eyesight, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. Pleaded. Remember the purpose of God's miracles? A necessary part of all things working together for the good of those who love God and who are called according to his purpose. And if God is for us, who can be against us? So when God told him, no, what did that mean? It meant it was better for him than healing. Paul was better off without a miracle, God said, than he would have been if he had had a miracle. What was God's purpose for Paul? Perpetuating his life or developing him as a child of the family of God? Let's see how all things work together for good here in verse 9. And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. So there's more here to be developed in not healing you than in healing you. So, sorry, Paul, but you're healing your miracle. It's not in your best interest. Paul's conclusion?

Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities, my diseases, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Verse 10, Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distress, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Paul was glad when miracles did not happen to him. He was happy about that. Why he had grown in faith, he didn't need miracles. He was better without them.

And that is a point of spiritual maturity. There's a time when we need miracles, brethren, but we should grow out of that need for supernatural events, and we should replace it with what is called faith, a belief and a trust that this way of life is what needs to be led and the promises of God are true. We don't need the heavens opened or things to jump up or personal miracles in order for us to believe that. Only when one is physically infirmed, has unfulfilled needs, Paul says, is persecuted, distressed. Can they be really strong in faith and show that faith and trust that God will fulfill his purpose, that all things will work together for the spiritual well-being of an individual. In Hebrews 11, which is what we call the faith chapter, it's actually not so much faith as it is belief, not the faith of God, but what is shown here is a lot of belief by people. People believe like Rahab the harlot believed the spies. She didn't have faith in God. She didn't become a righteous person. She just believed the spies report, and that's why she's listed there. Hebrews 11 is very important of those who trusted and those who believed in various ways. Many of them were belief in trust in God and what he promised. Included are many miracles that happened to them. But don't get the idea that Hebrews 11 and its miracles means if you have faith, you can get a miracle too. All you need to do is believe because that's not what the chapter is talking about. You know, the common denominator of miracles in the Bible is they happened at the beginning of relationships with God when faith was little. Mrs. Loma Armstrong was healed miraculously in 1927. She died a rather agonizing death 40 years later in 1967. And we could not believe in 1967 that God would not heal her. That was a head scratcher that went on for years. We didn't realize what Paul came to realize, that she was a righteous woman, she was a faithful woman, she didn't need to be healed for her spiritual development. In fact, we are told in James when we have trials that they are good for the testing of our perseverance. She kept on believing and obeying right on through anything that happened to her. And so you and I must do as well. Those with faith don't need supernatural miracles. When I say need them, we don't need them in order to grow, to develop, or be in God's kingdom. We sure like them, but we don't need them. I don't need to be healed of a ruptured spleen. I did when I was 12. I really needed that in order to develop faith in God and ultimately grow up to the place I am today as one of His potential children. But now at this point in my development, I don't need a miracle. You can understand that. Nor did many other legends in the Bible or in the church or in our congregation here. The lesson of Hebrews 11 is verse 1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Faith, you see, is all about not getting a miracle, not seeing something, not receiving something. The real message of Hebrews 11 is having faith and trust without seeing. In verse 35, we see the mature individuals who did not need miracles. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, not accepting deliverance because they were faithful. They had that much faith they could be tortured, that they might obtain a better resurrection. They didn't need a miracle. Still others had trials of mockings and scourgings of change and imprisonment. They didn't need miracles. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword. God didn't intervene. He didn't need to because all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose. These were strong people.

They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins. We thought, Jesus said, wait a minute, you don't have to worry about what you're going to eat or what you're going to drink or what you're going to put on. See? But these individuals were able to go beyond that and say, you know what, even though I don't have anything to wear, even though I'm out in the wilderness, I have no place to live, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth. All these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise. They never saw it. It's still undetectable by the human senses to all of us. And that's the lesson of the Bible. We have to show God that we really believe in Him and in His way, no matter what. And once we develop that level of faith, we'll be able to walk through anything. And God is for us who can be against us.

In conclusion, humans only know this physical life. We tend to want miracles to enhance it, keep me alive, bless me with stuff, heal me if I get sick, release me from trouble. But God is spiritual and He's eternal. And we're here for a different reason, a different purpose. We're here to be brought to glory by loving Him, loving His way, embracing it in any situation, and going through some testing to see if we really do embrace it. I'd like to finish up by reading 1 Peter 1, verses 3-9, because this gives an overview of God's support for us. Here's how God looks at supporting you and me. Rather than trying to figure out if angels are helping us and miracles are coming, let's see what this life is all about from God's perspective. 1 Peter 1 and 3. 2 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us or engendered us Himself to a living hope. That's it, a hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. See, this is what He's about. You, verse 5, who are kept by the power of God. Sometimes a miracle may need to take place for you to be kept by the power of God. Otherwise, God living in you and His faith in you is going to keep you by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time. Anything here about somebody magically paying off your car loan or healing you if you're sick or, you know, perpetuating your life? Nope, that's not what it's about. It's salvation that will be revealed later in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, that's why God doesn't give you any gold that perishes, He's after faith. Though it is tested by fire may be found to praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Nothing now, nothing in the near term. It's all trusting God for the future. Verse 8, whom having not seen you love. Remember how we started out? The five senses was all we knew. We didn't know God. Look how far we've come. We can now go through all these trials, testing the genuineness of our faith and loving Christ whom we have not seen.

That's a long way, brethren. That's a lot better than anywhere you'll find a miracle with a person who's just starting out. That's way down the road. That's way on the way to the finish line. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your lives, the salvation of your lives, the end of your faith, that goal. It's there. It's coming. So God performs miracles whenever He chooses, and for whatever purpose. But His will is stated as being that no man should perish, but all should come to repentance. And all things will work to good for the good for those who are coming to repentance. I hope you will come to see God's miracles as a means of Him accomplishing His will. Let's be thankful whenever we see another person's health miraculously healed. Whenever we see an individual's faith being aided by a miracle, it's dynamic. And let's become assured that without miracles, our God is true and faithful for all that He has promised.