Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 12. 1 Corinthians, chapter 12. I'd like to look at the first
three verses. 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, verse
1. spiritual gifts, brethren, I
would not have you ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles,
carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore, I give you to understand
that no man, speaking by the Spirit of God, calleth Jesus
accursed. and that no man can say that
Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Let's pray together. Our Father, we ask this evening
your blessing upon the preaching of your gospel. We pray that
you would bless to our understanding, help us to hear, Lord, help us
to worship and forgive us where we fail you. Oh, for Christ's
sake. Amen. The Apostle Paul had just
finished dealing with the subject of the respect and the honor
that is to be given the Lord's Supper. And now, obviously, he's
been asked about another topic. If you'll notice as we go through
this book, 1 Corinthians, he's dealing with topic after topic
after topic. So obviously they've asked him
about this issue of spiritual gifts. Now, these gifts that
were given on the day of Pentecost They were prophesied. I want
to read this to you out of the gospel according to Joel. Joel
chapter 2 verse 28, it shall come to pass afterward that I
will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your
young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants, upon
the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. I will
show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire
and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into
darkness, the moon into blood before the great and terrible
day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered.
And in Mount Zion, And in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the
Lord has said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. So these gifts, spiritual gifts,
were prophesied. People knew that God was going
to give these gifts of the Holy Spirit. And the Lord, after His
crucifixion, told his disciples exactly what those gifts were
going to be so they could be looking for them. It says in
Mark 16, 17, and 18, and these signs shall follow them that
believe. In my name shall they cast out
devils. They shall speak with new tongues,
they shall take up serpents, if they drink any deadly thing
it shall not hurt them, they shall lay hands on the sick and
they shall recover. And just moments before he ascended
into heaven, The Lord told His disciples that they should not
depart from Jerusalem, but that they should wait for the promise
of the Father. Acts 1-5, He said, Ye shall be
baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. You're going to be spiritually
immersed by the power of the Holy Spirit with these promised
gifts. God's going to send them. 50
days after the Lord had observed the Passover. He was observing
the Passover when after they had observed the Passover, they
ate the Lord's Supper. That was it. 50 days after that
happened, the day of Pentecost came. That's where 50, Pente. Pentecost arrived. And all of
those prophecies concerning the giving of those spiritual gifts
was fulfilled on that day. Acts 2, 1-3 says, And when the
day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord
in one place, And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of
a rushing mighty wind. It filled all the house where
they were sitting and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like
as a fire and it sat upon each of them. They were all filled
with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as
the Spirit gave them utterance. And then to leave no doubt that
the day of Pentecost was the actual day of the fulfillment
of what Joel had prophesied. The Spirit of God moved upon
Peter to reveal what was happening that day was that actual fulfillment
of that day. And he stated that truth in Acts
chapter 2 verse 16. He said this is that which was
spoken by the prophet Joel. So at Pentecost, The Spirit of
God revealed that God's kingdom, up until that time, all the Jews
primarily, you know, Jews believed that just Jews were the only
chosen people of God. But on the day of Pentecost,
The prophet had prophesied the Spirit of God was going to be
poured out on all men, all maidens, and it was going to be all kinds,
all over, over Gentiles. And so on the day of Pentecost,
they realized that the Kingdom of God, His people, His church,
was not limited only to the nation of Israel, It was to be found
to be in all the nations and kindreds and tribes and tongues
scattered throughout all of the world. So these gifts were given
according to the scriptures. They were given for the calling
out of all of God's people. They authenticated these men
that were preaching These men will be authenticated,
proven to be sin of God by those gifts that the Spirit of God
gave them. In Hebrews chapter 2 and verses 3 and 4, Paul says,
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 them. How? How did we know, Paul, that
those men that were preaching were preaching the truth of God. How do we know that? God bearing
them witness both with signs and wonders and divers miracles
and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to His will. So immediately After
the Holy Spirit baptized God's people, immersed them in the
power of the Spirit of God by that blessed promise of the Father,
that blessed giving of those gifts by the Holy Spirit, these
preachers on that day began to manifest the blessing of the
gift that had been given. They began to preach the gospel
in languages that they had never learned before. God had a people
in that group at Jerusalem. And God was going to cause them. They had to hear the gospel just
like they have to hear the gospel today. And so here's what happened
in Acts chapter 2. When the day of Pentecost was
fully come, they were all in one place, suddenly there came
a sound from heaven rushing mighty wind filled the house where they
were sitting. There appeared the cloven tongues. They were
filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues
as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem
Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven. They were
there but they couldn't hear the gospel. And now when this
was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded
because every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and
marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which
speak Galileans? How hear we every man in our
own tongue wherein we were born? And then it gives a list. Parthians,
and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia,
and Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus Asia. All these people, they
began to hear the gospel. How? These Galileans that spoke
the language of Galilee. That's all they spoke. They began
to preach, but the Spirit of God had given them a gift. to
speak in other languages. When it says other tongues, it's
talking about other languages known to somebody, but just not
known to them. I've said before, I don't speak
Russian. But when I hear somebody speak
in Russian, that's Russian. I don't know what you're saying,
but I recognize it. They listen to these men speaking.
They said, these guys are Galileans. I recognize the dialect. I recognize
the sound of those words. But I don't know what you're
saying. But now we're hearing these men preach in our own language,
the marvelous works of God. God was going to call out. Now
it wasn't going to be just Jews anymore. It was going to be everywhere. God got His people. So we find
the Spirit of God pouring out that marvelous blessing of these
spiritual gifts. And He gave these gifts. But
every time we find a work of God being manifested, Satan always
produces a counterfeit. And he sends forth impostors,
messengers of Satan. And what their goal is, is to
deceive God's elect. That's the reason. If you want
to know why are there all different denominations. Why? Why is there this one and this
one and this one and this one? And when you listen to what they're
preaching, they're not preaching the same thing as I've said before.
Everybody can't be right. Somebody's lying. And if somebody's
lying, how are you gonna know? Well, Paul's gonna deal with
that. Just a few minutes, he's gonna deal with it. But now,
there's going to be deception. There was deception then, there's
gonna be deception now. And the Lord stated that, Matthew
24, 24. For there shall arise false Christs,
false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch
that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."
That's what the Lord said. The Lord was saying, if it was
possible, not possible, but if it were possible, what they're
going to be preaching would sound so convincing. There's going
to be many false Christs. What do you mean when you say
false Christs? Well, it means that what they're
preaching is they're saying, I'm preaching the true Christ.
I'm preaching the true gospel. He said there's going to be a
lot of them. So with the surety of the spiritual gifts being
given to confirm the legitimacy of God's preachers, and with
the surety that imposters would surely arise and be in the midst
of God's people for the purpose of deceiving the elect of God,
the Apostle Paul now gives this warning. for God's people, that
they might deal carefully with what they're hearing. And with
watchfulness, it must be given, watchfulness must be given. Concerning
was to be given, when those gifts were given, they wrote, Paul
wrote this in that time when those gifts were being manifested. And here's the bottom line. I'll
speak, make a comment or two in just a few minutes on this,
but there's people today that's still saying that, you know,
they've got these gifts and they've got this, you know, this ability
and they're going to speak in tongues and they can handle snakes
and, you know, they can heal people and stuff like that. Well,
we're going to find out what God has to say about finding
out how do you know? How do you know? Now, here's
what Paul says, verse 1. Now concerning spiritual gifts,
brethren, I would not have you ignorant. I desire for you to
understand the purpose. I want you to know the purpose
and the benefit of these marvelous gifts that were given by the
Spirit of God. And I want you to be able, I
don't want you to be ignorant about them, I want you to be
able to know, to discern between True and false. He says in verse
2, you know that you were Gentiles carried away under these dumb
idols even as you were led. Now Paul reminds the believers
at Corinth of their former state. We need to be reminded where
the Lord has brought us from. We need to be reminded the pit
out of which we've been dug. And he tells them, he said, you
were Gentiles. Now when he uses this title Gentiles,
he means you were pagans, you were heathens, you were unbelievers,
you were idolaters. I want you to remember something.
You know you were. You were carried away, carried
away, blindly taken in heart and spirit. You were addicted
to the worship of dumb idols. That is little g-gods that could
not hear, that couldn't speak, that couldn't say because they
weren't really anything. They were idols. They were figments
of your imagination. They were just a man's silly
creation. That's all they are. They're
just a, you know, I wouldn't embarrass my mama
for anything, but she made a statement to me, and I know this is so,
but she grew up Roman Catholic. And you come into a Catholic
church, and there's a statue. There's a statue. This is going
to be, that's Mary. That's over there, St. Jude.
And you'd come into that church and you'd gin your fleck. You
know what that means? You kind of bow to it. Paul said, that's a dumb idol. It's a dumb, it's nothing, nothing. Listen to Habakkuk. Habakkuk
2, 18-19. But I mean, when you did that,
I mean, you were sincere. You were sincere. You believed.
I mean, this is right. This is right. This is the right
thing to do. Paul said, you were carried away
with it. You were blindly taken in heart
and spirit. You believed it. You really believed
it. Listen to back up to 1890. What
profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven
it? What profit is a graven image
that has been made by someone? What prophet is a graven image
that someone has made? He says the molten image and
a teacher of lies. He said it's just an image that
lies. It's lying. You think, you think. He says the maker of his work
trusteth therein to make dumb idols. The maker trusts in his
own dumb creation to think it's a god. He says, woe unto him
that saith to the wood, awake, or to the dumb stone, arise,
and it shall teach. He said, you're telling a piece
of wood or a rock, awake, arise, and teach me. Teach me of my
need. It can't, Paul said it can't
because it's laid over with gold and silver. There's no breath
at all in the midst of it. Paul says I want you to remember
you were Gentiles carried away with these dumb idols even as
you were led. You were Gentiles led. What do you mean? It means that
from your spiritually dead heart, you were formerly blind. You were controlled. You were
led. You were led. Controlled by your own carnal
and irrational nature. A nature that you couldn't resist. A nature that never changes.
And the only hope that you have I only hope any man has. It's
for God to give him a new nature, a new man created in regenerating
grace. A nature that wars and resists
against the old. Now Paul says this is the way
you thought. You were carried away. You were
led. You were led by that old nature. You could not resist it. resist it. Now let me ask you
a question. You that believe, you have a
new nature now that you can't resist. You have a new nature
that you cannot resist. Now, for a believer, you tell
a believer, I want you to disbelieve that Almighty God has everlastingly
loved and chosen you in Christ. You say, I can't disbelieve that. Let me tell you, let me say it.
Disbelieve that Christ died only for the sheep. Try to disbelieve
that. You can't. You can't. You had
an old nature that you couldn't resist. God's given you a new
nature that you can't either. You cannot make yourself. That
which is created, that which is of God, that which is born
of God, sinneth not. It can't sin, because His seed
remaineth in you. Here Paul says, I want you to
remember where you came from. You were Gentiles carried away
into these dumb idols even as you were led. So the Apostle
gives the believers the foundation that they needed to rest on.
He said, I want you to understand, you were at one time, you were
Gentiles, heathens in your mind. And so knowing that that old
nature is still there, I want to give you something to think
about. He said, now you know that these
spiritual gifts were prophesied. You know that. And you know that
on the day of Pentecost that God Almighty by His Holy Spirit
came and poured out, baptized, many there with the Spirit and
gave them those gifts and those gifts manifested. And you've
witnessed them. Paul himself was one that possessed. Paul was on the isle of Melita
and a venomous snake bit him. That's in Acts 28. Bit him. And they looked at it. They saw
that snake. That's a venomous snake. Surely he's escaped the
wrath of the water. But now, he's going to get what's
coming to him. They watched him, he just shook
it off. Threw him in a fire. Paul declared that he despised
not the gift of tongues. Scripture says, according to
1 Corinthians 14, 18, he spoke in more languages preaching the
gospel than anyone. had that ability by the Spirit
of God. Snake bit him, didn't kill him.
He spoke in languages that he'd never learned before. He prayed
and laid hands on the father of a man named Publius in Acts
28. And the man was healed. Paul
had, by the Spirit of God's blessing, he had those gifts to authenticate
this man is of God, but knowing that Satan gives the ability
to perform great signs and wonders. That's what the Lord said in
Matthew 24, 24. For the sole purpose of deception, 1 Thessalonians
2, 9 says, even him who's coming is after the working of Satan
with all power and signs and lying wonders. And remember,
remember the sorcerers and the magicians back in Egypt Whenever
Moses came in and he threw the rod down, he became a serpent. Remember that? Well, they cast
their rod down too and theirs became a serpent too. Moses'
serpent ate their serpent. But they made a serpent too. We know that that deception is
in the world. Paul now is going to give the
acid test to discern the falsehood that had entered in then and
continues until today. Here's the bottom line. Turn
on the television. Here's somebody that's going
to send you some miracle spring water. This guy right here is going
to put you on, heal you right here. Throw your cane away. He's going to heal you. He's
going to heal you. He's going to speak in tongues. Now here's
what I want to know. Who's telling the truth? How am I going to know? Now I
can have a good reason. to doubt it. But if I can't back
up my reason with the Word of God, then I have nothing to argue
with. They can just say, no, I am of
God. How do I know? How? How do I really know? Wherefore, verse 3, 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, but by the Holy Ghost. Now, just as Paul answered the
question then, the same answer applies today. Many profess to
possess the gifts of the Spirit. And though, as I said, we can
No, they're lying. I need some scriptural proof.
So, here's the first proof. No man speaking by the Spirit
of God, speaking under the influence or direction of the Holy Spirit,
calleth Jesus. Now, Apostle Paul was very specific. He didn't say the Christ. He
said Jesus. No man calleth Jesus. Jesus of
Nazareth. the man, Christ Jesus, God in
human flesh, the man himself, made of a woman, made under the
law, no one can say that Jesus of Nazareth is accursed, that
is, that he is anathema. Now I want to explain what that
word means. One deserving nothing but destruction. because of his own personal rebellion
against God, and therefore found to be under divine displeasure,
accursed, anathema. Paul said in Galatians 1.9, if
an angel from heaven... How horrible is it to not preach
the gospel? I'll tell you how horrible it
is. If an angel from heaven... or an angel from heaven, preach
any other message, any other gospel, false gospel, than the
gospel that we've preached to you. Let him be accursed. Let
God send him to hell. Is it that bad if somebody is
standing in a pulpit and preaching a message that's inconsistent
with this? If they die in that state, God's going to send them
to hell for it. No man Speaking by the Spirit of God, calleth
Jesus. Now, the Pharisees, they possessed
that attitude toward Him. They didn't believe Him to be
God. They accused Him that He was not being confirmed by the
miracles and signs and wonders. He said, you're doing that by
Beelzebub. You're doing that by the power
of Satan. He spoke of Him. He's an imposter. He's a liar.
He's not sinned. He's not accepted of God. Crucify
Him. Crucify Him. On the cross, it's
recorded, the people stood beholding, and the rulers also with them
derided Him, saying He saved others. Him, He cannot save. If He be
Christ, the chosen of God, Matthew 27, 43, He trusted in God. Let
Him deliver Him now, if He'll have Him. For He said, I'm the
Son of God. What is Paul saying? I'm going
to say it in a way that we all can understand. When he says,
I give you to understand no man speaking by the Spirit of God
calleth Jesus accursed. What does that mean? Here it
is. Here's the acid test. How does a man speak concerning
Christ? Does he blaspheme or worship
the Christ of this Bible. Does he speak in agreement with
the proclamation of the gospel of free and sovereign grace in
Christ? Or does he not? What saith ye
about Christ? For a man to declare that Jesus
is accursed is to refute the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I told you I had someone in my
family once say, when they were told the gospel of God's grace,
they said, your God is my devil. That's what they said. That's
a quote. Your God is my devil. Men that
stand in pulpits and declare that the gospel of God's free
grace, the gospel of Christ, is a lie, is to call Jesus accursed. They're saying, that's not of
God. He's not of God. That's not the God I worship.
Paul says, how can you tell whether or not someone that's claiming
these gifts is preaching the truth? What do they say about
Christ? If they're not preaching this
gospel, they don't have the gifts of God's Spirit. That's how you
tell the difference. Is it legitimate? What are they
preaching? Is it real? What are they saying
concerning Christ? That's how you can tell. You
listen to a man's message and you'll find out if he's a fraud.
And they're frauds. They're frauds. Do they proclaim
salvation to be all of grace? Or are they proclaiming salvation
by man's works? If it's proclamation by man's
works, then they are proclaiming that Jesus is accursed. For of Him, it was said, He shall
save His people from their sins. He laid down His life for the
sheep. They're saying He laid down His life for everybody.
He's a liar. That's what they're saying. So how do you know? Listen
to the message. If the message is inconsistent
with the gospel, they're liars, they're frauds, they're impostors. And then no man, speaking by
the Spirit of God, called as Jesus, and no man can say that
Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now, obviously, He
is the Lord of glory. He is. He is God Almighty. He is the God of creation, providence,
and salvation. He is Jehovah. He is the triune
God. the Jehovah set forth in three
persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And this scripture declares,
it doesn't mean that it's impossible for someone just to merely verbalize
the words and say, Jesus is Lord. But it means that no man can
except by a new work of the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit, no
man can by a new heart, say, He's my Lord. That's who I believe. That's who I'm trusting. No man
can say of himself that Jesus is the Lord. He's the Lord, except
but by the Holy Ghost. Whenever the Lord asked Peter,
whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am, Peter says, Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Flesh and blood didn't
reveal that to you, Peter, but my Father, which is in heaven. No man can say, no man can say
it, I cannot of my own free will make myself believe and possess
the Lord Himself. I can't do it. No man can say. that Jesus is Lord, that He's
my Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. You can't do it. No. What will
they do? They'll be carried away to their
own dumb idols. Paul said, just like you were.
But God Almighty, who is rich in mercy, has given you a new
heart. So, this declaration of truth
settles the issue. All who claim to possess these
gifts of the Spirit, to heal, to speak in tongues, Handle snakes. Here's where they're tested.
Right here. Do they believe and preach the gospel of Christ? Do they preach the message of
this Bible? Do they proclaim Him who alone
is the eternally chosen surety of the sheep. The one who came
into this world to save His people. The one given power over all
flesh that He should give eternal life to many as the Father has
given Him. The one who prays for His people,
giving Him out of the world. How do they speak of Christ? You listen. It doesn't matter
what a man claims that he possesses. Listen to what he preaches. If
he's not preaching this gospel, the gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace in Christ, he's a liar. He is a messenger of
Satan sent by Beelzebub himself for one purpose, to deceive God's
elect. But blessed be God, it is impossible
to deceive God's elect. Satan is bound from being able
to stop God from calling out his people. I've said so many
times, I think of this so many times, Brother Scott said, who's
running this show anyway? Almighty God. How do we know? How do we know preaching that
can be believed? What do they preach concerning
Christ? May the Lord bless this word to our hearts for Christ's
sake. Amen.