Let's turn in our Bibles to 1
Corinthians chapter 12. I have a friend who's been corresponding
with me, someone I've never met. I've just corresponded with him.
And he's persuaded that God has truly revealed Christ to him.
He's been listening for some time now. And this man's a pastor. He's a pastor. And the church
that he pastors is a Pentecostal church. And they claim to possess
the extraordinary gifts that God gave the apostles in the
early church. And my friend leans towards the
opinion that those gifts are genuine, true gifts. But he wants
to preach the truth of Christ to the congregation. He's asked
me several times what would be a good outline to start with
and to preach to the congregation. Well, if God's truly saved a
man, who before majored on spiritual
gifts, in that type of situation that this man is in, and God
saved him. My advice to him is to do exactly
what the Apostle Paul did in 1 Corinthians 12. In those first
three verses, we saw this last time, but I want to review it.
Before he ever even got to spiritual gifts, he began to tell who are
the spiritual. And he did this by preaching
three points. Number one, that everybody that
God gives gifts to were by nature totally depraved. We could not
produce life. We could not produce these gifts.
We could not produce anything. We were dead in sin. And then the second thing he
declared is that the Holy Spirit must regenerate. and must teach
us Christ and must give us faith and must bring us to speak the
truth as it is in Christ our Lord. The Spirit of God is a
necessity and irresistible and must do the work to make us have
life and faith in Christ. And then the third thing he declared
there is, is that the Spirit of God When He's given a man
a heart, He doesn't speak of Himself. He glorifies Christ.
That's who He glorifies. He doesn't glorify gifts. He
doesn't glorify Himself. He doesn't glorify sinners. He glorifies Christ. And so,
those that speak by the Spirit won't reject the true Christ.
If they're speaking by the Spirit, if their gifts are by the Spirit,
they will not reject this gospel when they hear it. He said, no
man speaking by the Spirit can call Jesus accursed. He can't
reject the truth. But by the Spirit, His people
will bow. They'll call Him Lord. No man
can call Him Lord but by the Spirit, He said. So you preach
that message. And if they reject Christ and
they reject His gospel, I don't mean just preach it once. I mean
preach it. Next time you get up, preach it. Next time you
get up, preach it. Just keep preaching it. And if they reject
Christ, they reject the gospel, you'll know those gifts are not
of God. They're not of God. And that's
where He began. That's where He began. That's
where we ought to be beginning ourselves. Now having declared
that, having shown that the only ones to whom God gives gifts
are those that were before spiritually dead, now He's going to begin
to deal with the spiritual gifts. And the first thing that He tells
us here is that it is the one true God who gives spiritual
gifts to His people. It's the one true God who gives
gifts to His people. Now look in verse 4. Now there
are diversities of gifts. There are different kinds of
gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of
administrations. He gave apostles, prophets, pastors,
teachers, evangelists. There are different administrations.
but it's the same Lord. And there are diversities of
operations, the way those gifts operate by God, the way they,
what they accomplish by God. There's different operations,
but it is the same God which worketh all in all. Now there's
differences, he says there. There's differences in these
gifts and these administrations and these operations, but it
is the triune God who works in His people, who gives the gifts
and works in His people. Now, He said there, God the Holy
Spirit. He said there are diversities
of gifts, but it's the same Spirit. God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He said there are differences
of administrations, but it's the same Lord. And God the Father. He said there are different operations,
but it's the same God which worketh all in all. Now, the three persons
of the Godhead are one God. We worship one God in three persons. And those three persons are one
God. They're one. They're one in purpose. They're one in everything they
do. They're one. Christ, when He
walked this earth, said, I and my Father are one. And the one
true and living God is one in the revelation of one message. Now, hear what I'm saying. The one true and living God is
one in revealing one message. There's just one message of this
book. Jesus Christ the Lord, the Savior
of His people. His name shall be called Jesus,
for He shall save His people from our sins. That's the message
of the book. Salvation by the Lord. Salvation
of the Lord Jesus Christ is the message of the book. That's why
the Lord said, when the Spirit comes, He shall glorify me. He
shall receive of mine. I'm going to give Him the words
to speak. I'm going to give Him the gifts to give. I'm going
to give Him the administrations to administer. I'm going to give
Him that and He's going to take of mine and He's going to show
it unto you. All things that the Father hath
are mine, Christ said. He's saying we're one in this.
And so, He said, I said that He shall take of mine and He
shall show it unto you. And when Christ receives all the glory,
it glorifies God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. I remember
in college, I remember a friend of mine that left the church
he was in and joined up with a Pentecostal church because
he said that they give more glory to the Holy Spirit and he didn't
feel like the church he was in gloried in the Holy Spirit enough.
Well, the truth of the matter is the only way we can glorify
God the Father and glorify God the Son is to give God the... glorify God the Father and the
Spirit is by giving the Son the glory. Because that is where
God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are glorified, in the
Son. in Christ Jesus the Lord. For it pleased the Father that
in Him should all fullness dwell. And He's the fullness of the
Godhead bodily. You want to see God the Father?
Look at Christ. You want to see God the Holy
Spirit? Look at Christ. You want to see God the Son?
Look at Christ. He's the fullness of the Godhead in a body. We
can see God who is Spirit now because we see Him in Christ.
So we can be certain that these spiritual gifts, when He gives
these gifts, the administrations and the operations that He works,
God is giving them and working them in His people for the purpose
of making us one in Christ. There's one God with one purpose,
with one message, and the purpose is to make us one in Christ.
The gifts of God are not to divide His people. They're not to divide
His people. He doesn't give them to divide.
He doesn't give them to exalt one over the other, one believer
over another. He doesn't give them to make
one feel inferior to the other. Never for the purpose of creating
schisms and for creating new denominations. That's not why
He gave gifts. And He doesn't work that by His
gifts. Everywhere we see that He worked
gifts, you know what He did? For those He saved, He made them
join with brethren and with Christ. He united them. He united them. Sin and sinful flesh and sinful
men divide. That's who divides. Sin divided
Adam and Eve. Remember that? When sin entered,
Adam and Eve, who were once one, when sin entered and God came
and spoke to Adam, He said, the woman you gave me, she made me
do it. They were divided against each other until God in grace
made them one again. And ever since the fall, all
God's people have been divided. We were scattered because of
that fall and because of our sin. And it's God's purpose through
gifting, the whole purpose of God giving somebody an office
of being a preacher. and given the Word to preach,
is that He's going to gather His people through that Word
and make them one. And that's the case with every
other gift. Look at Ephesians 1.9. This is
God's eternal purpose. He got one purpose. One God, one message, one purpose
to make us one in Christ. Ephesians 1.9. He made known
unto us the mystery of His will. according to His good pleasure
which He had purposed in Himself." Well, what is it? Verse 10, that
in the dispensation of the fullness of times that He might gather
together in one all in Christ. Those that are in heaven and
those that are on earth, even in Him. What He is saying to
you, brethren, is we preach the local church. And there is a
local church that is Christ's body. But we also declare, just
what He is declaring there, that the universal church is Christ's
body. All believers, whether in heaven or in earth, are Christ's
body. They are one in Christ. He is
not going to finish sending forth this gospel until He has gathered
them all into that one body. And they are one. He made us
one in Christ when He chose us in Him before the foundation
of the world. God the Father made us one and God the Son made
us one when He came and He redeemed us from the curse of the law
so that we're not separated from God now, we're reconciled to
God and we're reconciled to one another. That's what He said
in Ephesians 2. And then God the Holy Spirit
makes us one when He gives us a new heart and gives us one
common language and one love and one desire and that is to
see Christ glorified. That's our bond, Christ, the
blood of Christ that redeemed us. That makes us one. And it's
the oneness of His people for which Christ makes intercession
to the Father. I'm just trying to show you that
gifts don't divide. Gifts are by one God for one
purpose and that's to make us one. Look here to John 17, 11.
John 17, 11. This is what Christ intercedes
for. This is that high priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ
right here. This is the true Lord's prayer
right here. And look what He says in John
17, verse 11. He says, Now I am no more in
the world, but these are in the world, and I have come to Thee,
Holy Father. Keep through Thine own name those
whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one as We are. Look at verse 20. Neither pray
I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me
through their word, that they all may be one. As thou, Father,
art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that
the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which
thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one even as
we are one." You see the purpose? It's not to divide. God said
in Ezekiel, they shall be one in my hand. It's in God's hand
that He's making us one. And Christ said, other sheep
I have which are not of this Jewish fold, them I also must
bring. And when I brought the Gentiles
and my elect Jews together that I've redeemed, there's going
to just be one fold and one shepherd. Just one fold and one shepherd.
So all spiritual gifts are given for the purpose of making us
one. And by that one God, to make us one in Christ. That's
why he said in Ephesians 4, endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit.
Endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit. Because there's just
one body and one Spirit, even as you're called in one hope
of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and
Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.
So here's my point, brethren. When confusion is created by
gifts, in a church. One's speaking some godly gook
over here, and another one over here is prophesying, another
over here is praying, and another over here is doing something.
It's just confusion. When that's going on, or when
there's schisms created so that one thinks he's better than another
one, and this and that, or when they split off from one another
and create new denominations, that's not of God. That's of
man. That's man's sinful flesh showing
out in front of man to be seen of man. And more than likely,
anybody that's doing that, and I hesitate not to say it's for
certain, those gifts are not of God. If they're dividing,
they're not of God. Because God, when He gives gifts,
He really works in His people. He works His will and His good
pleasure in His child. And His will is to make His people
won. That's what the gift is going
to accomplish where God is working. Anything that divides is man. That's man's flesh. Sin. Alright? This goes right along with the
first thing. Not only is it the one true God that gives the gifts,
He says here God gives gifts for the profit of His church.
Look at verse 7. But the manifestation of the
Spirit is given to every man to profit with all. That word profit means bringing
together. The illustration is like my father-in-law
when he retired. He's an engineer and he likes
to build things. So he started keeping bees and
he built these real nice bee houses. And those bees, they
go out into the world and they gather up. But you know what
they do? They bring it all back to that one hive. And that's
the picture here of profit. It's bringing together. Whatever
God gives you, the gifts He gives you is to bring it all together.
It's to make whole. It's to make one. That's what
profit means. Profit. Look over to Ephesians
4. It shows us what I'm saying here.
It shows you why God gave gifts. Why Christ gave preachers and
gifts. Verse 12. He gave them for the
perfecting of the saints. See, that's for profit, for the
work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
Till we all come in the unity of faith, of the knowledge of
the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ. That means until every last one
of his people are called into the body, and the body is full,
it's complete. As long as there's one more to
be called, the gospel will continue to be preached. You can bank
on that. Don't let a man tell you the
gospel age is over and it's no more. As long as there's one
more to call into the fold, the gospel will continue. It will
continue. But you see there, the purpose
is to profit God's people. That's the purpose. And look
at 1 Corinthians 14, 12. This is what we're going to see
in the upcoming weeks. He says there, even so ye, for
as much as you're zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that you
may excel to the edifying of the church. See that? Seek. If you want gifts, seek that
you get, you're asking for gifts to edify the church. Our purpose
and our motive has to be right. Not to be exalted, not to be
seen of men, not to not to have men glory in us for our gifts,
but to glorify God and to profit God's people, to edify the Church
of God. And now He's going to give us
some examples of how He edifies. Now, as you reread this, you're
going to see that not everybody has all nine of these gifts. Not every believer has all nine
of these gifts. He gives some to one, some to
another, some to another. He does that on purpose. I'm
going to show you that in a minute, but for a reason. But there's
one who had all nine of these gifts without measure. That's
Christ. His Lord poured out the Spirit
on Him without measure. He had all this in perfection
when He walked this earth. But we don't. We have all these
things. Some have some. Some have others.
But it's in part. It's in part. Now listen to this.
Verse 8, For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom,
to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit. The word
of wisdom is to have a knowledge of the mysteries of the gospel
and be able to explain, to declare them plainly. That's to be wise
so that because you know the mysteries of God, you're able
also in wisdom to give a man a word and season to help him,
to give him good advice, give him good counsel, because you've
got a word of wisdom. Now, we didn't have that to begin
with. That came from God. Paul said 1 Corinthians 2, 7,
we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. The wisdom of God. The wisdom of God in a mystery. Even the hidden wisdom which
God ordained before the world and our glory. So to know this
you have to be given wisdom. And then another is given the
word of knowledge. Knowledge of scriptures. Knowledge to be able to look
into the types and the shadows and be able to preach Christ
from those. Declare Christ to you from those. That takes knowledge.
Listen, 1 Corinthians 2.12, we've received not the spirit of the
world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the
things that are freely given to us of God, which things also
we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches. You want
me to tell you what man's wisdom teaches? They go over to a book
like Ruth, and they go read through it and they might preach, they
might pick out that passage where Ruth said, I'm not going back,
your people will be my people and your God will be my God.
And they'll preach there about faith and about how a believer
ought to forsake everything and follow the Lord. But then when
it comes to other things like handfuls of purpose, dropping
handfuls of purpose, they'll preach how, you know, you ought
to be going out to the world and and helping people and doing
this and that and what have you. But everything they preach, when
they look into the shadows and the types, they don't preach
the shadows and the types, they just preach history or some moral
platitude out of it. But to have knowledge of the
scriptures, to be able to look into the scriptures and have
the key of knowledge, which is Christ, to be able to see Christ
in the scripture and preach Christ from it. Because the other stuff
is good, it's helpful if you first have preached Christ. But
if you haven't preached Christ, you haven't profited a man any.
You're just making him immoral. You're making him think he's
better because he's out doing these things. You've got to shut
a man up to Christ. Shut sinners up to Christ is
the goal. And so you have to have a gift
of knowledge to do that. He said, but we don't speak as
the world teaches. But we preach what the Holy Ghost
teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.
We compare the Word with the Word. We show you all the Old
Testament is declaring Christ, is declaring Christ concealed.
The New Testament is declaring Christ revealed. They both declare,
one word declaring Christ. Both of them. So you go to the
Old Testament, which is spiritual, you look for Christ. I get a
kick out of this sometimes when men say, you know, you spiritualize
the Scriptures. Well, Christ said God is a spirit
and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.
And Paul said the Word is spiritual. How else are you going to preach
it but preach it spiritually? If you preach it right. And so,
That's what we do. We prepare spiritual things and
we go to the New Testament. We get some spiritual things
there and show how they support the spiritual things in the Old
Testament and vice versa. That's preaching, preaching in
truth. But why are these gifts given? Why was those two gifts
given? To profit the Lord's people.
The Lord said this in Isaiah 54, The Lord God has given me
the tongue of the learned. He gave it to me. I didn't have
it. The Lord gave me the tongue of the learned that I should
know how to speak a word in season. to him that is weary. He wakeneth
morning by morning, he waketh my ear to hear as to learn."
It's God teaching. Now look at verse 9. To another,
1 Corinthians 12, 9. To another, faith by the same
Spirit. To another, the gifts of healing
by the same Spirit. Now, the faith spoken of here
is not just the faith that all believers have. We are all given
faith in Christ. We all have that gift. By grace
are you saved through faith, and that's not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, lest any man should boast. But the faith
talking about here is that faith that knowing, so that one knows
that every promise God makes in Christ is yes and amen. He will not fail to bring to
pass his word, and that faith is strong enough to believe God
so that when mountains of opposition and mountains of trouble and
mountains of trial come up, that one is able to say like Caleb.
Remember Caleb and Joshua when the whole crowd of Israel said,
we can't go into that land. We can't go in there. It's exactly
like God said it would be. There's giants in there. There's
too many mountains. We can't overcome what's all
in there. And Caleb stood up in faith and
said, It's exactly like God said it would be. And God's promised
us. And God will make good on His
promise. That's faith to remove mountains. To be able to say,
these obstacles are nothing. God's going to make good on His
promise. And that's the gift that God gives so that He benefits
the body, profits the body by it. And then the gifts of healing. Now we never read in Scripture
where anybody other than an apostle was given this gift. to heal
people. Only the apostles. The apostle
Peter healed a man that was lame from his birth. One night Paul
was preaching and reached midnight and a boy fell out the window
and died. Paul raised him from the dead.
Now folks that want to talk about healing cancer and healing this
and that, the hospital down here is full of folks that are dying. If you want to impress me, go
down there and heal them. But don't have your own little show
and have everything rigged up so you can fake it. Go down there
to people you don't even know and do it. If you want to impress
me. Then I might say you got true gift of healing. But Apostle
Peter and Apostle Paul, they did have that. And the apostles
had it. And it was God who did it through
his apostles. That's what they all would declare.
God has done this. The name Christ Jesus the Lord.
He's done this which you now see and hear. But today God still
heals sinners. He does it as we pray to Him
to heal. He does it as we give Him thanks
for healing and what have you. But the primary way God heals
in our day is by healing sinners through this gospel. That's the
primary way He heals. And that's what all that physical
healing, that's what it pictured. We're lame from our birth. We're
dead in sin. We're the ones that got to be
raised from the dead. And that's what primarily those
physical miracles pictured that spiritual miracle of healing.
And He does that through this word, through this gospel. Alright,
now look here at verse 10. To another, the working of miracles.
To another, prophecy. To another, discerning of spirits.
To another, different kinds of tongues. To another, the interpretation
of tongues. Now, the working of miracles.
God caused His apostles to work miracles for a reason. It was
to confirm the gospel they preached. It was to confirm the gospel
they preached. Look at Hebrews chapter 2. See, It needed to be confirmed. You
think about this. Here they had gone all these
years with the law of God, looking for the Messiah to come, but
most everybody thought it was going to be a physical kingdom.
And they thought they were going to remain under that law and
they were going to remain under those customs and all this. Well,
here comes Paul and Peter and the apostles and they're declaring
to these men that Christ is the one of whom all the law and the
prophets spoke. And He's the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believes. And they come forth
preaching this message that was such a radical message. And they
got no new scriptures to support what they're saying. Because
the New Testament hadn't been written yet. So, they have to
have something to confirm that God's with them to get people's
attention that, hey, this is real. This is true. And so, He
confirmed it by, God confirmed it by miracles. Now look here
at Hebrews 2. Verse 3, How shall we escape
if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord Jesus? and was confirmed unto us by
them that heard Him, by the apostles. God also bearing them witness,
both with signs and wonders and with different miracles and gifts
of the Holy Ghost according to His own will. You see, that was
the purpose of it. Now, do we need those gifts today
to confirm the Gospel? We got the whole Word of God
now. We got the whole Word of God. We can look in here and
look at where He worked these miracles and point to those.
We don't have to have them ourselves, those extraordinary miracles.
And we can declare the whole Word of God now. It don't have
to be confirmed. Everybody now, the Gospel, the
Bible is written in just about every language. And Christ is
at least known in the head by just about everybody in this
world. So we don't have to have it confirmed by those physical
miracles. But we do have it confirmed when
God works the miracle of grace where He calls a sinner out and
unites him with His people. We have that. And then look at
this, the gift of prophecy. The Spirit made some to know
what was going to happen in the future. So they could prophesy. Remember Christ said, when the
Spirits come, He'll show you things to come. Remember John
wrote Revelation. Revelation is not the revelation
of all these mysterious things to come as much as it is, as
it says in the first of the book, this is the revelation of Jesus
Christ, is what it is. It's what Christ is working.
But he was given this vision to see what was to come, what
was now being done, and then what was to come, and how the
end would be. And so he wrote it down. And
that's how these New Testament Scriptures were written. God
giving men gifts of the Spirit so they could have an infallible
Word to write down for us. So we would know this is of God.
This is of God. And it was needful to finish
those New Testament Scriptures. But now, do we need that gift
now? Look at 2 Peter 1. Do we need
that gift now? You remember Peter, he saw Christ
transformed on the Mount of Transfiguration. He saw Him in all His glory there
on that mountain. You remember that rich man in
hell? Remember what he said? He said,
Lord, send somebody back from here to my brothers, to my house. They'll believe me if somebody
rose from the dead. What did God say? They got the
Word of God. If they don't believe the Word
of God, they won't believe if a man rose from the dead. Now
look here. So do we need to see Christ transfigured? Is God going to work that for
everybody? We don't need that. We got something better than
that. Better than prophecy. 2 Peter 1.19, we have also a
more sure word of prophecy. More sure than just regular prophecy. A more sure word of prophecy.
Where unto you do well that you take heed as unto a light that
shines in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star
arise in your hearts. And he's talking there about
the scriptures. He says, He says, knowing this
first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation,
for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man,
but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
You see that? So he's saying, what we have
now is the complete Word of God. We got something better. We got
God's Word. Fully written, fully complete. And another thing is this, we
can't have prophets now. We can't have them. Look at Revelation
22. I'll show you why. We can't have
anybody declaring what's going to come to pass in this day.
Why? Because God's already told us
everything in this book. And for a man to come along now
telling you something that's not in this book is adding to
this book. are taken from this book. And
you can't do that. Watch this. Revelation 22, 18.
I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy
of this book. And he's not just talking about Revelation, he's
talking about the whole Bible. If any man shall add unto these
things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written
in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words
of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part
out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the
things which are written in this book. You see, that's why we
can't have prophets. We got a more sure word of prophecy
right here. And to speak prophecy now is
to add to something and say there's more. The Mormons, their whole
religion is built on a false prophet. They claim to see things
that weren't written in the books. He wrote a whole other book.
That verse we just read applies to that man. Applies to that
man. and anybody that claims to have
the gift of prophecy in this day. But that word prophecy there
is also used in scripture to mean preaching. And we have preaching. We have preaching. Paul says
later, He that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation
and comfort. Preacher is, he's a prophet. Christ is the prophet and he
makes his preachers to speak his word. That's how we prophesy. We preach his word. Then he says,
discerning of spirits. Discerning of spirits. You remember
Peter, Ananias and Sapphira, they came and they offered, acted
like they were offering everything they had sold. They had sold
some stuff and they acted like they were offering all the money
to God. And Peter was given the ability to discern their heart.
If they hadn't given everything they sold, they kept back some
of it. And he was able to discern that. And then when Simon Magus,
remember Philip didn't have this ability. Philip baptized him,
but later Peter comes down there and he finds out Simon Magus
is just following for the gifts. He was a sorcerer before and
he wants to be a sorcerer now. He was telling people before
he was some great one. He wants to do the same now.
But he wants to use Christ to do it. He wants to use the gifts
of God to do it. He tried to buy these gifts from
Peter with money. Peter was given a sermon to tell
him, your heart is not right. Your heart's not right. Now we
don't have that. I can't know your heart. I don't
know your heart. You don't know my heart. But
this is what we do know. We've got the Word of God and
we can hear a man preach and we can take it to this Word and
we can discern whether he's telling the truth or not. We can take
those first three things Paul declared there and we delight
in those things. And we can hear another man preach.
Is he preaching those things? And according to this Word, He's
not. The Lord said if they speak not according to this Word, there's
no light in them. That's the reason they're preaching
what they preach. There's no light in them. So we can discern
that. See, I'm trying to show you that
some of these gifts were extraordinary in the beginning to confirm the
Word, to establish the Scriptures. But now that we have the Scriptures,
we still in some measure have degree of these gifts, but they're
just executed in a different operation than they were before.
And then the gifts of tongues. Now this is so clear that you
wouldn't think there'd be any mistake about this. To preach
the gospel of Christ. Now get that. To preach the gospel
of Christ, the truth of Christ, in a language that you'd never
learn. That's what it was to speak in
tongues. Look over at Acts 2. This is just so clear. I don't
know how people can... It's just willful, willful rebellion. Acts 2. Acts 2. And look here in verse
6. Now when this was noised abroad,
the multitude came together and they were confounded because
that every man heard them speak in his own language. And he lists all those different
kinds of people that were there. In verse 7 they said, Behold,
are not all these which speak Galileans? Shouldn't they be
speaking the language of Galilee? And how here we have a man in
our own tongue wherein we were born? We hear them in our own
language. Look down at verse 12. What were
they preaching? What were they preaching? I'm
sorry, verse 11. We do hear them speak in our
tongues the wonderful works of God. It was a clear message. It was Christ. See, God's given
this, He gave this gift to prophet men, His church. He didn't give it to him to speak
something that others can't understand. Later when Paul talks about if
you're speaking in a tongue and there's some there that can't
understand what you're saying, he's not talking about that stuff
that men call speaking in tongues where they just speak in nonsense.
Nowhere in Scripture does it say anything that even hints
at that. Nowhere. Paul gives an analogy
of if I spoke with the tongue of angels, but that's just an
analogy. He was not saying that God has
given men gift to speak the language of angels. Language is spoken
is for a reason Paul says and if the trumpet gives an uncertain
sound what good is it? Whatever has a voice has a voice
to communicate to edify And so that's why God gave those they
had all those different Languages there that day and God gave them
the ability to speak in all these different languages languages.
They'd never learned But the message they preached was Christ
Jesus the Lord they preached the gospel. They didn't preach
Nonsense that preached the gospel And every man heard him preach
the gospel. It was for edification. And then he says, and some is
given the gift of interpretation. Some who had never learned a
language could interpret that language and relay it to others. You've seen when I go to Mexico
and preach, Cody will stand there and I'll say something and Cody
will translate it. He's interpreting what I've said.
And they were given that ability to do it, to understand, to hear. Well, in our day, What we have
is illustrated by that. Here we were all speaking a different
language. One of us was saying, I believe
I'm saved because I was baptized. Somebody else was saying, I believe
I was saved because of the works I've done. Somebody else said,
well, I believe I was saved because of my superior knowledge. All these different languages
we were speaking. But God sent the Gospel and taught
us in our heart and gave us one language. Now we say, We're saved
by the Lord Jesus Christ. We got one language now. But
see, He did it for our edification to teach us, no, you're saved
by that one Lord. And others can interpret that.
You've given a heart to interpret that, to understand what's being
said. And you can hear the tongue that's being spoken. You can
hear Christ when He's exalted. And you can hear Christ when
He's not being exalted. You can hear Him when He's not
preaching Christ. You've got a gift to interpret this language
of the gospel. And then there, this is not an
exhaustive list of gifts. There's other gifts. You know,
Galatians said, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
Against such there's no law. That's all gifts given by God. All gifts given by God. But you
see here what he's saying is whatever the gift is, it's given
to one, this one's given to another, this one's given in measure to
another, we just have a measure. Christ has given us a measure.
But whatever the gift is, it's given and worked by the same
God for one purpose, to profit His church. And it's all according
to His will. Look there in verse 11. All these
worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit. You see, all these different
gifts are worked by that one and that same Spirit, dividing
to every man severally in measure as He will, as He will. Now lastly, I'm going to just
read the illustration Paul gives of the human body comparing it
to Christ's body. And we'll see that the things
I've been telling you are written here. They're in His illustration.
That all the gifts are of one God. Therefore, they're for unity. For that one purpose, to unite.
All these gifts are to edify His people. For edification. Wherever God gives a gift, He's
going to edify His people. Now watch. We'll read this and
you'll see that this is so. Verse 12. Four, now he's going
to give an illustration supporting everything he said. Four, as
the body is one and hath many members, and all the members
of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. He's using a human body. It's
got a bunch of different members in it, and they all serve a different
purpose, but it's just one body. So is Christ's body. For by one
Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews
or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free. We've all been all made
to drink into one Spirit. For the body's not one member,
but many. If the foot shall say, because
I'm not the hand, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not
of the body? If the ear shall say, because
I'm not the eye, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of
the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?
If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath
God set the members, every one of them, in the body as it has
pleased Him. You see, it's not... I don't
have the gift to necessarily call up people all the time and
just talk to people and encourage people. That's not a gift I really
have. Some others may have that gift. And they use it. They call
and communicate and encourage one another. But because I don't
have that gift, I'm not going to say, well, I'm not of Christ's
body. He's given every member something that the others don't
have. And why did He do that? Look
here. Verse 19, If all were one member, where would the body?
But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye
cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee. nor gend the
head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more, those
members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary. Why are they necessary? Why do
you have to have some sick sinners, sick believers? And why do you
have to have some that's going through certain trials and downcast
and downtrodden and have difficult understanding? Why do you have
to have that? They're necessary. They're necessary. Why? Verse
23, those members of the body which we think to be less honorable,
upon these we bestow more abundant honor, and our uncomely parts
have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no
need, but God hath tempered the body together, having given more
abundant honor to that part which lacked. Do you see that? He has
done it so that you use the gifts He has given you to help that
one. It's the beautiful body of Christ that He's made. It's
even more amazing than the human body. Because just like your
human body takes care of that, you know, if you slam your thumb
with a hammer, everything about your body hurts. And your other
members of the body are going to take care of that body. Your
eyes are going to watch out so that if you don't put that thumb
somewhere, it's going to hurt. And your hands and arms are going
to make sure you're not putting that thumb somewhere it's going
to hurt. And your feet are going to take you away from that place
if it's something that's going to hurt that thumb. Every member
is working for that part that's hurt. And that's why he gives
some of these gifts, some other gifts, so we can work together
for each other's profit. That's what he's talking about.
Now look, here's the other reason he does it. Supports my first
point about the body being one. Verse 25, that there should be
no schism in the body, no division, but that the members should have
the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer,
all the members suffer with it, or one member be honored, all
the members rejoice with it. You see that we're different
in the body, but we're one body. And we have different gifts,
and different administrations, and different operations, but
it's all of the one Spirit, And it's all to create unity and
it's all for edification so that we help one another. Now let
me give you two things to take home and I'll be done. Number
one, if anybody claims to be using gifts and they're dividing
men or exalting one over another or making some to fill in fear,
that's not what God's worked. That's not what God's worked.
But number two, take what God's given you and use it for the
good of the church. Use it. Use it to minister to
your brethren. Use it to feed them and help
them, whether it be spiritually or physically. Use it, whatever
He's given you, the ability, and help them one another. And
that's the purpose. That's what He's done, to edify
and to unify His people. All right, brethren. Let's stand
together. Our Lord, help us to see that
to have gifts, to bear fruit, is because you went to that cross
and redeemed us. Lawfully took care of everything
that we owe to the law. That you married us and that
you produced the fruit, you give the gifts. Make us to remember,
Lord, that it's for unity. One God, one spirit, one purpose. to make us one in Christ and
make us, Lord, use these gifts to edify one another. Work in
us that which is well-pleasing in your sight. Make this body
one. Make this body care for one another
and have the same care for one another. Lord, make us to hurt
when another hurts and to rejoice when one rejoices. Thank You,
Lord, for showing us these things in Your Word and teaching us
the truth of these things. Forgive us of our sins. Keep
us, Lord, in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen.