Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter
12. I would like to look at verses
4 through 11 this evening, but before we look at the scriptures,
Let's ask our Lord's blessing upon his word. Our Father, this
evening, how thankful we are for your mercy to allow us the
privilege, the blessing, to be able to assemble ourselves together
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask, as the word is
preached, blessed to our hearts, Lord, cause that word to go forth
in power. Accomplish your purpose. Thank
you for your mercy to those in our midst that you've delivered,
Lord, having gone through operation for Ruthie and for Patty and
for others that have been having the physical problems. Thank
you for your mercy. Bless us this evening and forgive
us for Christ's sake. Amen. When the spirit of God was pleased,
to manifest preachers that God had called to preach the gospel. When he was pleased to pour out
his spirit upon all men, meaning all kinds of men, not just Jews,
But for all those that were from Cappadocia and Bithynia and all
those different provinces there in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost,
the Spirit of God gave gifts to verify who these preachers
were. And of course, as soon as the
gift of the Holy Spirit was given, there were fakes. Satan always
sends forth impostors for the confusing of the saints. That's
the purpose. That's the purpose of all false
religion is to devour, to fool, to beguile God's saints. We've looked at that many, many
times in Proverbs chapter 12. That flood that came out of the
serpent's mouth after the woman, but the earth helped the woman
and drank it in. And that's why you see there's
all kinds of religions and denominations all over the world. Why? Because
of that. Well, whenever the Lord was pleased
to pour out His Spirit, there had to be a way that you could
tell who's telling the truth, who's not. Somebody can say,
well, I've got the gift of healing. I got the gift of tongues. I've
got this gift, that gift. How could you know? And here was the acid test, verse
three. We looked at this last week,
1 Corinthians 12, three. Wherefore, I give you to understand
that no man speaking by the spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed. No man can say that Jesus is
the Lord, is His Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now here's what
you need to ask. You know, I mean, many of these
gifts have ceased. But, I will say this, there's
still people today that claim to have the gift of tongues,
the gift of healings. How do you know? do they say concerning Christ? Do they call the Lord Jesus Christ
a curse? Now, they're not going to come
right out and say, I say that He is a curse. But what they
say concerning the Lord Jesus gives you the exact understanding
of whether or not they're of the Lord or no. Now, when we
say I give you understanding, no man speaketh by the Spirit,
calleth Jesus a curse. That was the attitude of every
believer before he was converted. Every believer, now listen, listen
to this word, blasphemed God. Now what, when you hear that
word blasphemed, you know, you think, Man, that must have been
some kind of just, I mean, vile, wicked speech, ugly, just nasty. Here's what blaspheme means.
To speak irreverently of Him. To speak irreverently of the
Lord. To cast a dispersion on His Word
concerning what He has said. concerning His work, concerning
His office as the Redeemer of His people, as the substitute
of the sheep, being made sin, that God's people might be made
the righteousness. To speak irreverently of Him,
and to say in a disrespectful way, or in a lying way, contradictory
way, what He has said concerning His gospel, concerning His purpose,
concerning His people. They call Him a curse. That's
what they're doing. They denounce Him as being an
atrocious imposter. That's what the Pharisees did. They said, you're not of God. You're of the devil. He's a white
bearer. He's a liar. He's a fake. But after conversion, No man
can speak that way. I said last time, no believer
can disbelieve God. Disbelieve that He is God. Oh,
I mean, we fail. Lord, we believe. Help our unbelief.
But I'll tell you this, you're not going to find a believer
that doesn't believe that He's sovereign. You're not going to
find a believer that doesn't believe that God elected them.
in Christ before the foundation of the world. You're not going to find a believer
that can believe that Christ did not die for anyone but his
own people. You won't find one. They believe
God. God has given our heart to believe. So now we know that the Spirit
of God was pleased to pour out his spirit, these special gifts
to prove who are the Lord's people. That's how they were proven by
those gifts. And the gifts were proven to
be legitimate because of what they preached about Christ. They
preached the gospel. If they didn't preach the gospel,
they weren't of God. They were not of God. Listen
to this. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation which at the first, began to be spoken by
the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him, God
also bearing them witness as He did the Lord Jesus Christ,
both with signs and wonders and divers miracles and gifts of
the Holy Ghost according to His own will. Now, concerning those
gifts, that's what I'd like for us to look at for a few minutes
tonight, verses 4 through 11. Let's look at verses 4 to 6.
Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of administrations,
or ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of
operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. Now, let's notice first that
what the Holy Spirit has distributed to men is called a gift. A gift. A divine ability given
for the benefit of the church. Benefit of the Lord's people. It's a gift. A gift that is recognized
as having been given with no merit. on the part of the recipient
of that gift. It wasn't because they were better,
or higher, or smarter, or more capable. It was a gift. The Spirit of God gave the gift
to whosoever He would. And the scripture says in verse
4, there are diversities of gifts. Different distributions of spiritual
endowments to different people. It was gifts that had the desired
effect upon that particular person to whom the Lord gave the gift,
and the Lord's purpose was accomplished. There was diversities of gifts,
but they all flow from the same fountain, the Holy Spirit. So there were different kinds.
We know that. We'll look at them in just a
second. And then it says there were differences of administrations
or different ministries or different offices. That's verse 5. Here's what Ephesians 4.11 says.
I'll read this to you. And He gave some apostles, some
prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. But it
was the same Lord that called those different administrations. And they did what they did with
those gifts to serve the purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ. There
was different differences of administrations. God called men
and put them where He would, and He did it for the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then there was diversities
of operations. There was varieties of manifestations
of that divine power or working of God. That's what verse 6 says. There were different qualifications,
there were different abilities, there were different interests
of service in the Lord's kingdom. The Lord may have called an apostle,
or a pastor, or a prophet, or a teacher, or something. He may
have given different types of gifts. It may have been tongues
or healings or something. But in this diversity of operations,
and it's an amazing thing to see how even now, as I said a
while ago, there's some of these gifts that have ceased. We'll
actually look at that in chapter 13. I won't go into it. I thought
about dealing with it tonight, but I thought, well it deals
with it in chapter 13, so we'll wait for chapter 13. So some
of these gifts have ceased, but there's some of them that God
still gifts His people. There's diversities of operations
or varieties of manifestations. It's amazing to me to watch and
to see, even in the body of Christ right now, the different interests
that you find in different people. The Lord is blessed to me. Now
here, everybody, I'll deal with this in a second, everybody has
been gifted. Every believer has been gifted.
But there's different interest. Some people, some of you do some
things that just, you just had a heart to do it. You just wanted
to do that. You just, you wanted to feel
that and it, it just, you just see it. as it manifests itself
in the body. It may not be while you're sitting
in this congregation tonight. It may be something else. It
may be some ministry or service or work or an interest that you
have. And it's for the glory of the
Lord and the good of the body. And you're the one that does
it. And it may not even be something that anybody really knows that
much about, but it's just something that you, there was a diversity
of operations. It was that the different qualifications,
abilities, and interests of service is what it means in the Lord's
kingdom. One does this and one does that.
I don't know, but it works. It just, it just, the Lord has
gifted his people and blesses the body with that, type of service,
but it's the same God, that's what Paul said, that worketh
all in all, God Almighty who orders all the steps of his people
as he will, where he will, when he will, so however diversified. However numerous, however extensive,
it's the same Spirit of God glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ through
the power and work of the Father who's committed the safekeeping
and salvation of the church unto His Son. That's how it works.
God just gives these blessings, these gifts. And then in verse
7, it says, but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every
man to profit with all. That's what I was talking about
here. Every believer is blessed with the gift or manifestation
of God's good pleasure for the profit or advantage of the whole
body. Everybody. I mean, there's people here that
all God's people pray. All God's people. love the encouragement
of the believers, but there's just something about everyone
that's different. And it's a beautifully coordinated
body, and the Spirit of God that dwells in all believers, He manifests
Himself in those gifts, To a believer one way, to another believer
another way, but it's always for the body. He doesn't teach
them a different truth. We all believe the same truth.
He speaks only of Christ. He doesn't gift his people to
puff them up, to magnify themselves with their gift. They don't go
around bragging. I mean, boy, I tell you what.
You know, kind of raise your eyebrows if someone started coming
around and said, well, I don't know if anybody, everybody doesn't
know what I've done this week, but I'd like to stand up here
this week and kind of share with you. You'd think, well, why don't
you go sit down? You know? You know, they don't do that.
They just, you know, it's for the Lord's people. And it's to
profit with all. It's for the, you know, just
like the, we have, every one of us here, we've got a body.
Every one of us here has the natural ability to see. I have an eye. We all have the
natural ability to hear, to smell, to sense pain. And these abilities,
these natural abilities, they're not given to the individual organs
merely for the profit of that organ. is not given for the boasting
of the eye to say, I'm the only one that can see. The ear doesn't
say, well I'm the only one that hears anything or smelling or
any of the other natural senses, but every one of these senses,
this eye and this nose and all of the senses is for my whole
body. I appreciate my eye telling me
if there's something, Kevin, out there in front of me that
my foot won't trip over. Or my eye or my ear to hear something
to cause me to be alert, to look and let my eye tell me what.
It just works. The Manifestation of the Spirit
is given to everyone to profit with all, to profit all, to build
up. Verse 8, For to one is given
by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge
by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to
another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit. To one is
given by the Spirit the word of wisdom. Now, that word, wisdom,
right there, The gift to know the deep and hidden mysteries
of the gospel. That is, things yet to be revealed
and the ability to faithfully set them forth. Now this is what
I'm going to hear again when we get over into 13. I'll keep
mentioning this. Some of these gifts have fulfilled
their their purpose, and the Lord has removed them. But there
was a time when we didn't have all the scriptures. And you couldn't
turn to Ephesians 1-4 and read, you know, that before the foundation
of the world, that Almighty God chose a people. You couldn't
turn over 2 Samuel 23-5. and realized that there was things
that we didn't know in 2 Thessalonians 2.13, we're bound to give thanks
to God that chosen you to salvation. How would we know that? The Spirit
of God gave the spirit of wisdom and taught men some things that
were yet to yet revealed. They didn't know. You think about
Paul, Peter, and John, and when they wrote that, when Paul wrote
that down in the book of Ephesians, that we were predestinated unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. How did he
know that? How would Paul know Those secret
mysteries of God, unless He had been given the Spirit, the gift
of wisdom, to know of electing grace in particular, redeeming
grace, effectual regeneration, and keeping grace. How would
we know? To some, the Scripture says,
is given the word of wisdom. To another, the word of knowledge. Now, here's a... Here's another
gift, and that word knowledge, there's a difference between
the gift of wisdom and the gift of knowledge, and it appears
to be this. Wisdom, as we just considered,
is the gift to proclaim that which has not been previously
known. But knowledge is that gift of
God to perceive and to understand and to impart the truth of that
which has been revealed by the gift of the Spirit of wisdom,
to understand it. Whenever I will look in these
scriptures, every God called pastor, to look in these scriptures,
and some of these scriptures are hard to understand. They're difficult. And you read
them, especially for me, in the book of Proverbs. I've told people,
that's the hardest book I have ever preached out of in my life.
Proverbs has been a, but it's been the most blessed. And before
I will even remotely try to read those scriptures, ask the Lord. Lord, help me. Lord, teach me
these things. Here's something that has been
revealed that was not previously known. There's the scriptures
right there. They're written down. Lord, would you give me
some understanding of these scriptures? That's what I'm talking about
when I say that spirit of knowledge. To be able to understand it,
ask the Lord, give me a right Sense. Give me the sense. That's
what we read in Nehemiah last week. They read the law and gave
the sense of it. What does it mean to search those
scriptures, to look up those words, and ask the Spirit of
God, Lord, help me to take what you've said, to know what it
means, and to set it forth. and to teach your people. And
Lord, may it be for our good, your glory, for the profit with
all. Then verse 9, to another faith
by the same Spirit. Now, faith, and it's not speaking
of that faith that is common to all believers, faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. All believers are saved by grace
concerning the salvation of their soul. But this faith, or this
gift here of faith, is the God-given ability on an immediate impulse,
is the only way I can explain what it's saying, by the direction
of God, to do that which God Almighty requires now. Now, hold your place and turn
to Acts 3. Turn to Acts 3. Acts chapter 3 verses 1 to 7. It's the faith, the gift, the
grace of faith. Acts chapter 3. Now Peter and John went up together
into the temple at the hour of prayer About the ninth hour,
a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid
daily at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, to
ask alms of them that entered into the temple. Who seeing Peter
and John about to go into the temple asked alms. And Peter
fastening his eyes upon him with John said, look on us. And he
gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.
Then Peter said, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have,
give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, rise up and walk. He took him by the right hand,
lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received
strength. And he, leaping up, stood and
walked and entered with them into the temple, walking and
leaping and praising God. Now, at that moment, Peter and
John's going into the temple. They're going into the temple
to pray. And here's a man that asked them for some money. Can
you spare a little bit of money? And immediately, Peter looked
at him and he told him, he said, silver and gold have I none.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, get up. Get up and walk
right now. That's it. To another faith by
the same Spirit. Peter believed God before now.
But at that moment, right there, at that instant, the Spirit of
God gave this man that gift to believe God, and that man stood
up. The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians
13, though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all
mysteries, and all knowledge, and though I have all faith,
that's what he's talking about right there, to believe God,
to do that which God has called me to do, so that I could remove
mountains, and I have not charity." He said, I'm nothing. So, how
many times have we, who truly have faith in Christ, found ourselves,
when confronted with difficulties, we've witnessed our lack of faith. Lord, help me. Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. That
gift of faith, in the midst of a trial, in that moment right
there to believe God and to speak is a gift. That was a gift of
God's Spirit to manifest that these were men of God. That was
the purpose of that. And then to another, latter part
of verse 9, to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit,
the ability to lay hands on or anoint with oil those afflicted
and be healed. I mean, it was Peter coming,
went and healed a woman that was taken. To be able to do it,
not instantaneously as he just did that gift of faith, but just
the ability to do it. And then verse 11, to another
working of miracles. though we've just considered
healing, which is obviously a miracle, and it was mentioned just before
in verse 9, the word miracle here seems to indicate the ability,
and here again, the only thing I can tell you is that looking
these words up and looking at the meanings of them is how I've
come to the conclusion of what they're saying. It's not trying
to or make something up. This is what the meaning of it
is. It is this miracle. It's a word
that indicates the ability of a work that is mighty, violent,
and a wonderful work that is beyond the expectation of the
norm. Meaning, raising the dead, laying
hands on by the apostles and the gift of the Holy Spirit be
transferred. I mean, to be able to lay hands
on someone and transfer the Holy Spirit to them, that's what Simon
saw Peter do. He wanted to buy it, to purchase
it. I'm going to read about that
in just a second here. So that verse 10, to another
the working of miracles, that is... miracles that are violent,
mighty, and a wonderful work beyond the expectation of the
norm. To another latter part of verse
10, prophecy, the ability to know and set forth that which
the Holy Spirit has revealed, we know is what we've looked
at before, is called prophecy. But this word prophecy here,
and this is from, I looked this up in Strong's, Concordance has
got the number 4396. Here's the number of the interpretation
of that word prophecy. We know what prophecy is, to
be able to foretell the future, things that have not been yet
revealed. That's prophecy. This word prophecy
means an inspired teacher, which is a preacher. One called of
God. That's a gift. To another, to
be able to preach is what he's saying. To another, the discerning
of spirits. Now I want you to hold your place
and I'll wrap this up. Acts chapter 8. Acts 8. Here's a gift that was given.
The discerning of spirits. I was telling you a while ago
about when Peter laid hands and the Spirit of God was transferred. Acts chapter 8, verse 18. When Simon saw that through laying
on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered
them money, saying, Give me also this power, that on whosoever
I lay hands he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto
him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that
the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither
part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in
the sight of God." Now you know that you may suspect by what someone
says or their act, you may wonder whether or not to be able to
know, to have the gift of discerning of spirits when Peter says Thou
hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is
not right in the sight of God." That takes the Spirit of God
to teach you that. I mean, you know, we don't know. We don't know another man's heart.
You know, remember the tares were sown with the wheat, and
the servant says, you want us to go rip up the tares? And the
master says, no, you leave them alone. We'll get them in the
harvest. You may be ripping up wheat that
has yet to be converted. You're thinking that you're doing
a great service. No, you just leave them alone
and let them grow together. Thou hast neither part nor lot
in this matter for thy heart is not right in the sight of
God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if
perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee for
I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the
bond of iniquity. That takes the spirit of discernment. the discerning spirit. And then
another latter part of verse 10, another diverse kinds of
tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. Now when one was
given the ability to speak the gospel in a language that they
had never learned, often they would also interpret what they
said. They could speak it and interpret
it. But, if the Spirit of God did
not give, and just go ahead and turn to 1 Corinthians 14. If the Spirit of God so chose
to give someone the ability to speak in an unknown tongue, I may not, as I've used the illustration
here, I don't know how to speak Russian. But what if the Spirit
of God had given me, and there was some Russian here during
that time, and there was going to be, the Lord was pleased to
preach the gospel to them in Russian. And there was others
here. There was Russians and there
was Germans and English and stuff like that. But no one, no one,
but those Russians understood Russians. And I was given that
ability to be able to speak in an unknown tongue, and I could
speak it, but I couldn't understand it. I was given the ability. Now let me tell you what the
Spirit of God has revealed concerning that. It says to another diverse
kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of those tongues. Sometimes they could speak it
and interpret it. But look at 1 Corinthians 14,
verse 27 and 28. If any man speak in an unknown
tongue, let it be by two or at most by three, and that by course,
and let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter,
let him keep silence in the church and let him speak to himself
and to God. What's he saying? If you have
not the ability to interpret, the Lord may give one the ability
to speak in an unknown tongue, but he can't interpret it. He
can speak it, but he doesn't know how to interpret it. If
the Lord doesn't give another one who has the ability to interpret
the tongues, if there's not one there, then be quiet. You know
how people today, they say, which they don't. They have the
ability to speak in these unknown tongues. You listen to what they're
doing. Now who's interpreting that?
You tell me what they're saying. Paul says if there's not an interpreter
there, then be quiet. Don't say anything. The Spirit
of God does all that He does by order. If he sends a man that
can speak in an unknown tongue by the gift of the Holy Spirit
and God gives him the ability to interpret it also, fine. If the Lord sends him and he
doesn't have the ability to interpret it and there's not an interpreter
there, then be quiet. Apostle Paul says, speak to yourself,
speak to God. And then lastly, back in 1 Corinthians
12 verse 11, we'll stop with this one tonight. Verse 11, but
all these worketh that one and the selfsame spirit dividing
to every man severally as he will. All these gifts, achievements,
abilities were given for the glorious purpose of spreading,
confirming the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. These gifts
were not possessed by all believers, but they were given to whomsoever
they were given by the same Spirit in the way that the Spirit of
God was pleased to do it. Not to puff up, not to give somebody
bragging rights or anything. They were given to spread the
Gospel and to confirm These men are of God because they preached
the gospel. And those gifts manifested. These men are of the Lord. Lord willing, next week, we'll
continue in this one, in these gifts that were given. And we'll
go right on into chapter 13, which also deals, it's a chapter
on love, but it's dealing with these gifts. And these gifts
that are, I admit, gifts that are greatly abused today and
cause great confusion. So hopefully, prayerfully, Spirit
of God might teach us all concerning these things. And when we see
people claiming to be able to do these things, use these scriptures. Let these scriptures be our guide
and teach us. These men are false because of
what they're preaching. They say they're healing. What
are they preaching? Are they magnifying the Lord?
Are they benefiting God's church? May the Lord bless these words
to our heart.