we do about it? Absolutely nothing, and our outlook would be hopeless in the extreme.

And this nation cannot do anything about it until, as we have seen, God steps in, in the

Person of His Son, when He returns in power and glory. Nothing less than this great

event will be needed to convert this hardened earthly people of the Lord. Then their hard

hearts are going to melt; then at last they are going to have their real Day of Atonement,

they will repent when they look on Him and see Him as their Saviour and their Sinbearer.

And I am sure they will then marvel because they have been so blind, when their O.T.

Scriptures made it so clear that He was their Messiah, their Priest-King.

Before we go any further, let us note a promise that Christ made in resurrection, in

Mark 16: 17, 18, because this promise was fulfilled right through the book of the Acts.

Verse 15 reads "And He said to them (that is, the eleven) Go ye into all the world, and

preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but

he that believeth not shall be damned (or condemned). And these signs shall follow them

that believe. In my name they shall cast out devils (or better--demons), they shall speak

with new tongues . . . . ." (they did, on the day of Pentecost and onwards), "They shall

take up serpents . . . . ." (we have seen that Paul did this and suffered no harm from the

snake bite). "If they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on

the sick and they shall recover"--miraculous thing!

Now on the day of Pentecost, in chapter 2:, Peter makes this statement (Acts 2: 22)

"Ye men of Israel hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God (attested

of God) among you by miracles, and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the

midst of you, as ye yourselves also know . . . . ." Do you realize that these miracles,

wonders and signs were Messiah's credentials, as it were? It was a Divine guarantee to

Israel that Christ was the true Messiah. There have been many false Christs, and how

were the people of Israel to avoid being deceived? The answer is that the real Messiah

would not just perform miracles (Satan can travesty and perform miracles, II Thess. 2: 8,

9) but that He would perform the specific miracles predicted by the O.T. Scriptures.

So let us turn back to Isa. 35: 4 "Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong

and fear not; behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense;

He will come and say you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the

deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the

dumb sing". Were not these the very miracles that the Lord Jesus performed day after

day in His earthly ministry, If any, in Isaiah's day, had spiritualized these verses they

would have been hopelessly wrong: They were literally fulfilled, time after time, by the

Lord in the days of His flesh. He did open the eyes of the blind; He did give hearing to

the deaf; He did make people leap as an hart (the impotent man); He did make dumb

people speak! These were the specific miracles, wonders and signs which were the

guarantee that He was the true Messiah. And you will find these divine signs did not stop

at the Crucifixion; they continued right throughout the Acts and then stopped.

Let us turn to Acts 2: 43: "And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and

signs were done by the apostles". Chapter 3: commences with one; the healing of a

lame man, and he is made to do what Isaiah said--"leap as an hart". Peter takes him