Preaching and Preachers

'Demonstrations of the Spirit and of the Power'very special situation to deal with. The significanceof that comes outin this way. There is a great difference between the miracles workedby the Apostles and the 'miracles' it is claimed certain men performtoday. One big difference is this, that you never find the Apostlesannouncing beforehand that they are going to hold a Healing Servicein a few days' time. Why not? Because they never knew when it wasgoing to happen. They did not decide, and it was not within theircontrol: what invariably happened rather was this. There was Paulfor instance dealing with this man-youfind the same thing in the caseof the man at Lystra recorded in the fourteenth chapter-andsuddenlyhe was given a commission to heal him. Paul knew nothing about thisuntil he was impelled by the Spirit and given the power; and so did it.So the first difference between the so-called miracle workers today andthe Apostles is that the Apostles could never predict or foretell orannounce the working of miracles, and never did so.There is a second difference also. The Apostles, you notice in theBook of Acts, never failed. It was never a case of making an experiment;there was no tentative element. They knew. They were given acommission, so they spoke with authority. They issued a command,and there was no failure; and there can be no failure when this is theposition. That is clearly the general picture given in the Book of theActs of the Apostles.But there is something yet more direct and specific even than allthis, namely the great statement of the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians2, the crucial statement in which he describes his own preaching atCorinth. 'And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in muchtrembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticingwords of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and ofpower: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but inthe power of God' (verses 3-5). That is the vital and controlling statementwith respect to this entire matter. Here is a man who wasgreatly gifted, who had exceptional natural powers; buthe deliberatelydetermined not to use them in a carnal manner. He 'determined notto know any thing among them, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified' ;3 II