of the Spirit is given to every
man to profit withal. 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 another the working
of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits,
to another diverse kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation
of tongues, But all these worketh that one, and all the selfsame
spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. For 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. For by one spirit are we all
baptized into one body, whether we be Jew or Gentiles, whether
we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one
spirit. I'm going to talk about the gifts
of the Holy Spirit tonight, and this is the last message I'll
bring on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. We know that
the Holy Spirit is God. He is God. He is a person. He
came to do a work. And that work of the Holy Spirit
is what I've been talking about, His person and His work. And
every child of God has the Spirit. If any man has not the Spirit
of Christ, he's none of His. We know that he's the one that
gave us life. He's the one that quickened us.
No man. What we just said is no man. I give you to understand,
Paul said, that no man calleth Jesus the Lord, that Jesus is
God, that Jesus is God that came down, Jehovah, come down in the
person of Jesus Christ, can call him a curse. So there's no way
a child of God can blaspheme the Holy Spirit. And that no
man can say that he's Lord, that by the Holy Ghost. And not only
that, but He's the one who made us into union with Christ and
put us in the body of Christ. For by one Spirit, in verse 13,
are we all baptized into the one body. Now, this is being
in the body of Christ, being put in the body of Christ, being
joined to the body of Christ, being one in His body. And that
baptism that he's talking about here is the same thing as we're
baptized into His death. Everything that Christ did, we
were baptized in it and suffered with Him in it. And then He set
us apart. We talked about sanctification.
He's the one that set us apart. Sanctification is not something
we do. It's something God does for us. And it means that God
set us apart. And how did He set us apart?
He set us apart, sanctified us by the truth. Thy word is truth.
And He has set us apart with the word of truth. He has sanctified
us with the gospel, with the truth of God. And He brought
the gospel to us, brought the work of Christ to us, and worked
the curse of the work of Christ in us, and set us apart from
the rest of the world with the gospel and with Christ. And our only interest that we
had in this world is in Christ, and the Holy Ghost made us know
that. And then He's the one who sealed us. He put the mark on
us. He put the seal on us and identified
us as God's children. And that seal is the same thing
as putting a seal on a document that He sealed us. He put the
mark on us. He identified us as God's children
by His Spirit that dwells in us. The Spirit Himself bears
witness with our spirit that we're the children of God, and
He's our earnest. And because we have the Spirit
in us, we know that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us. The Spirit in us is just the
promise of what we've got to come. Like you talked about,
obtain eternal inheritance. In all of them, but the last
couple of weeks ago, I preached on preach not the Spirit, grieve
not the Spirit, be led of the Spirit, and walk in the Spirit.
And then last week, I preached on the fruit of the Spirit. Now,
let's look at these differences, consider these spiritual gifts.
Consider them just a little while. First, I want to say this, that
there is a difference between spiritual gifts and natural gifts.
Agree? The difference is day and night.
You know, most people think, in these spiritual gifts, that's
why Paul said, I have you not to be injured, brethren, concerning
spiritual gifts. Most people believe that they've
got natural gifts, and the Holy Spirit just takes those natural
gifts and elevates them, and hides them, and that's what He
uses. But no, no, God's never used
a natural gift that a human being's ever had. He's going to make
you count everything. He's going to make you understand
that you had no gifts, and if you had anything, you got it
from Him. Hawthorne Paul, he says, if anybody
can Glory in the flesh. I can glory warn anybody I know.
He said that instead of doing that, he's talking about all
the gifts and all his accomplishments and all the things that he did.
He said, you know what? I count them for done. Done. And all they're loving. And I
tell you, that's what the Holy Spirit does. They take natural
gifts and make them better. He discounts natural gifts. We
don't have no gifts that God didn't use and God would use.
And now you know they're called charismatic. And that's why people
call them the charismatic gifts. And there's a lot of charismatics
in this world. And one reason we know that these gifts, and
we'll deal with this in a minute, that these charismatic gifts,
and not anymore, is because the Catholics are doing it, the Methodists
are doing it, the Pentecostals are doing it, the Southern Baptists
are doing it. Everybody that's diametrically opposed to a lot
of things, they're all speaking in tongues and they're all laying
hands on one another. And so there's a difference between
spiritual gifts and natural gifts. And the second thing I want you
to notice is this. The Holy Spirit gives these gifts,
and He gives them sovereignly. Look down here in verse 11. That's
part of that verse. He divides to every man severally
as He wills. As He will. You know, we like
to look at somebody and say, boy, I see gifts in him. I believe
that God has given him this gift or that gift. We do not decide
what gifts God gives a man. God's the one that gives these
gifts. It's the Holy Spirit that gives these gifts. I can't decide
I'm gifted, I mean, and I can't decide anybody else is. He's
got to be the one that gives the gifts. He's the one who wills
to give a gift. He's the one which gift He's
going to give. And He's the one to whom He's
going to give it to. And He's the one who decides
when He's going to give the Holy Spirit. And what gifts He's going
to give them. And that's what I tell you, this
idea that the people are searching after spiritual gifts. Christ
is the one who He wills, the Holy Spirit here gives these
gifts to who He will, when He will, and what gift He wants
them to have. If the gift is just sitting and
doing nothing but praying, that's the gift you've got. If the gift
is giving, that's the gift you've got. If the gift is giving, being
an encourager, being a minister, that's the gift you've got. And
I'll tell you, every believer is given and has some gifts.
Look at verse 11 again. Every believer has some gift.
He's given a gift. But all these work at that one
in the self-same spirit. Now watch this. Dividing to every
man, every man severally as he will. He gives every believer
some kind of a gift. Every member of the body has
a part. My little fingers, but part of
my body is my ear. My little toe is as much a part
of my body as my hand. One of them gets more honor than
another. And we take care of the uncomely parts. I mean, we
take care of our feet. We take care of parts that you
don't see. But yet, beloved, every member
has a part in the body. And that's the same thing he's
talking about these gifts. That everybody has one of these
gifts. And this is something that I really want you to understand
tonight. Let's get this together. The gifts that the Holy Spirit
gives are not of the same value. They're not all of the same value.
They don't all have the same importance. And I tell you, that's
why it says in verse 14, it says here, for the body is not one
member but many. Let me show you what I'm talking
about. Look down here in verse 28. The gifts are not of the
same value or have the same importance. Look what he says in verse 28.
And God has set some in the church. Now notice God done this. We
want to get to church and say, well, we want you to be the deacon,
we want you to be the treasurer, we want you to be the clerk,
we want you to write the minutes, we want you to take care of the
building, we want you to do this, and they have the committees
to do everything that needs to be done. And here he says, and
God has set some in the church. What's the first thing he said
in the church? Apostles. That's first. Secondly, Prophets. Thirdly, teachers. After that,
after apostles, prophets, and teachers, that's the primary
gifts that God gives to the church. And then after that, miracles.
Preaching and teaching is more important than miracles. Then
gifts of healings. Then helps. Helps that people
help out one another. Helping the church. Helping the
government. Then the governments and diversities of tongues. And
you see, beloved, all these have an order here. There's first
an apostle, then a prophet. All of them, they don't all have
the same importance. And let me show you over here
in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and verse 5. Let me look at this
for just a moment. People place such importance on things that
absolutely mean nothing. They place such importance on
speaking in tongues. And on being apostles and being
prophets. Mary was showing me something
the other day about a fellow on the computer there. He called
himself an apostle. And lots of black preachers call
themselves apostles. They call themselves apostles.
And there's people that call themselves prophets. They get
up and are going to be able to tell you what's going to happen
in the future. And they're going to be able to tell you what's
going to happen in your life and somebody else's life. Well,
look what the Apostle said here in 1 Corinthians 14 5, I would
that you all speak with tongues, the rather that you prophesied
or that you preached. For greater is he that preaches
than he that speaks with tongues. Now that makes a great difference
in, now watch this. Greater is he that prophesied
that he would speak in good tongues, except that he may interpret,
and here's the key, that the church may receive edifying. Now which is more important there,
prophesying or speaking in tongues? Now look with me down here in
verse 18, 1 Corinthians 14. I thank my God I speak with tongues
more than y'all. What tongues he's talking about
here, I have more abilities, I speak in more languages than
all the rest of you. He's not talking about just getting
up and jabbering something. I can speak in Arabic. I can
speak in Hebrew. I can speak in Greek. I can speak
in wherever I'm at. I can speak that language. God's
blessed me to speak that language. He said, I speak more languages
than all of you. And that was a gift that God
gave him. He didn't get sent out to study languages. No, God
gave him that gift. But he said, listen, yet in the
church, when I'm with God's people, I've got to speak five words
with my understanding that by my voice I might teach other
also than 10,000 words in a tongue that people wouldn't know what
I'm saying. That's what I'm talking about. The gifts are not the
same value. They don't have the same importance. And which is
more valuable, tongues or preaching? And which is more valuable, teaching
or working a miracle? When you hear somebody teach
you about Christ, and when the Holy Spirit teach you about Christ,
then you see somebody work a miracle? You can watch people work a miracle,
it won't do a thing in the world for your heart. You'll see somebody
do some kind of great miracle, but it will not have any effect
on your heart before God. The Gospel, the Spirit of God
brings Christ to a man's heart. And here's the last thing I want
to say before I get on into my message. Look what he said here
in 1 Corinthians 13, 12, 31, talking about these gifts. But
Covenant Earnestly, he's talking about the gifts, but Curtis,
Covenant Earnestly, the best gifts, and yet I show unto you
a more excellent way. And the gifts, if you have them,
must always be used in love. Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, and have not charity, regardless of what
I do, what I think, what I say, what I believe. Miracles I work,
healings I do, languages I speak, absolutely mean nothing. Any
gift that I claim to have, unless it's used in love, is just a
sound embrace and a tickling symbol. Now, let me ask you a
couple of questions. Are these gifts that I read to
you tonight, these gifts, Are these gifts meant to be in
use in the church among God's people at all times? Are they
meant to be in use in the church today as they were then? Were
these gifts that we're talking about tonight, are they temporary
or are they permanent? Are they temporary, they were
just for a set time, or they should be in operation today
in the church? Well, I think I can answer that. Look in Ephesians chapter 2.
I think I can answer that. I think
I can answer it a couple of ways. Ephesians 2.20. Talking about all these gifts
that we're talking about. Healing, miracles, apostles,
prophets. There's earning of spirits and
all this. He said here, and are built upon the foundation of
the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief
cornerstone. Now see, there's only one foundation.
You notice that I said built upon the foundation. Built upon
the foundation of who? The apostles. Built upon the
foundation of the prophets. Christ himself is the cornerstone.
That's the one they start building on the rest of the foundation.
Now, beloved, let me tell you something. You only lay a foundation
one time. You only lay a foundation once,
and if the apostles were in that foundation, and if the prophets
were in that foundation, and they laid that foundation, and
we're built on their foundation, and the foundation being the
gospel they preached, the things that they taught. And you lay
a foundation just once, and then you erect a building on it. And
we are built, what does this say? In whom all the building
fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord.
You lay that foundation once and you build on that. You erect
a building on that foundation. You don't need another foundation.
And these apostles and prophets, they were the ones that were
used to teach us, and instruct us, and point us, and teach us
the things that Christ Himself taught and the things that He
inspired them to speak in the New Testament. But when the New
Testament come along, when the Scriptures were finished, we
don't need no more apostles. We don't need no more prophets.
Do you understand what I'm saying? That's what our Lord Jesus Christ
said in John 17 and 20. He said, I pray, not for these
only, but for them which shall believe on Me. What? through
their word. I'm a direct fruit of the Apostle
Paul's ministry. And the things that he taught,
the things he said about Christ and the prophets. And that's why John says this,
that which we have seen with our own eyes, that which we have
handled with our own hands, Declare we unto you that we have seen
Him, we have seen Him with our eyes and with our hands, and
we're telling you about Him as the Word of Life. Christ, we've
seen Him, we've had Him, and that's what He said. And you
know, beloved, one of the tests of any writings that was put
out in the 1st and 2nd century, when they were writing the New
Testament, one of the tests before any writing was ever considered
real or authentic, that it come from an apostle, that this come
from an apostle. If this didn't come from an apostle,
we don't want it. We're not going to believe it.
We're not going to have it. And that's why they said, can it
be traced to an apostle? And I, you know, when Judy was
in college, he brought me up a thing in that was the gospel
of somebody else. It was supposed to have been
written by, claimed to be written by another apostle. He brought
it in and let me read it. And it was obvious just that
quick that it was not a bit more inspired than the newspaper. He made some of the most outrageous
claims about Christ being a little boy. Some of the things he'd
done as a little boy, places he went, things he'd done, and
how he'd done mistakes with birds and stuff when he was a little
boy. The Scriptures don't tell anything. We don't need Christ
as a baby. We don't need Christ as a little
boy. We need Christ as a risen, exalted Savior who's put away
our sins once by the sacrifice of himself, and now sits at God's
right hand, and with an accomplished salvation. And when our Lord,
the only time it mentioned him, as a boy, when he was twelve
years old, he says, Wist I not be about my father's business? And let me show you something
else over here in Hebrews 2. Talking about temporary or permanent. Talking about these
apostles and these gifts. Trying to establish Now we don't
need apostles anymore. Look what it says here in Hebrews
2 verse 3. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord
and was confirmed unto us. Now listen to it. Confirmed unto
us by who? Them that heard Him. So when we're reading Romans,
or we're reading Galatians, or we're reading Hebrews, or we're
reading 1 Corinthians, we're reading eyewitnesses. Men who
walked and talked with the Lord Jesus. Paul said, I was one born
out of new time. He met Christ on the Damascus
road. But people who knew Christ heard him preach. heard His life,
knew His life, knew His sinlessness, knew His perfection, knew He
came from God, and then was preached unto us and confirmed unto us,
confirmed to us by those that heard Him. And oh, why should
we neglect this great salvation? Because it was spoken, first
of all, by the Lord. We don't want to neglect something
Christ said, do we? And then not only was it spoken,
but they come along and confirmed what He said. John himself said,
I was an eyewitness of these things. And these things I've
written unto you that you might believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through His
Son. He said, that's why I've done this. And then it was confirmed
to us, that's why we don't want to neglect it. And look this,
and then look what it says, God also bearing them, them who witnessed
him, and heard him preach, and bore witness to him, and God
bearing them, witnessed that they were sin of him, used of
him, and seen the Lord, and done that, both with signs and wonders. God witnessed to do these men
work, with signs and wonders, and with different miracles and
gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his people. Now, if the witness
has been borne, and it's been confirmed, and the apostles,
and the teaching is done, then why in the world do we need more
apostles? Are they not gone? Huh? God bore them witness. Now having
had their teaching, we don't need the gifts of apostles anymore.
And I'll tell you this, beloved, after the days of the apostles,
you go through history, look any way you want to, these gifts
did disappear. These miracles, gifts, signs and wonders, they
disappear. People say all the time, well,
come and see signs and wonders. If I want to see signs, I'll
look in the heavens. I'll see God's glory up there.
I'll see the sign of His creation in the stars. If I want to see
signs, I'll look at the earth that He made and see His glory
in the firmament and His handiwork. I'm not looking for But oh, they
say signs and wonders. And after the days of the apostles,
these gifts did disappear. Now, here's where we're at today,
and have been for years. And I know this because I was
involved in this. When I first came to Tennessee, I was a tongue-speaking,
bench-jumping Pentecostal. Called a wholeness preacher.
And I wouldn't have known wholeness if I'd met it in the middle of
the road, darlin'. Wouldn't have known it if I'd met it in the
middle of the road. But many say that these gifts, the reason
they disappeared is because we aren't spiritual enough. We aren't
dedicated enough. Well, don't the Bible, didn't
I just read it to you, that the Spirit gifts and bestows the
gifts as He will? Could He not will to bestow gifts
today? If He wills for us to have these
gifts of miracles and healings and signs and wonders, don't
you think that He doesn't have the power to do that if He choose
to do it? But would it do us any good?
They watched Lazarus raised from the dead. And the third day after
he was raised from the dead, he sat to supper with the Lord
Jesus, and Mary, and Martha, and some other people. And the
Jews was outside there figuring out how in the world we're going
to kill him and Christ both at the same time because they're
going to believe all Christ because he raised Lazarus from the dead.
They wanted to kill Lazarus. So miracles does not do anything
for anybody. If we ever find one of them preaching
the gospel, I'll stop and listen to what they've got to say. And
oh, beloved, let me tell you something. There wasn't any church
in the New Testament that was in a bigger mess and more confusion
and more things going on in it than the Corinthian church. I
mean, that was the biggest mess of any church in the New Testament.
And yet, they had the gifts operating in them. So if that's because
we're a mess, why don't we have them? Because we're the big mess,
huh? And oh, we have all these people
running around now, Benny Hinn and some of these other fellas,
and they're all getting up there talking about, raise your hands
to Jesus, put your hand on the radio, just getting in contact
and slaying people and healing people and getting people out
of wheelchairs, throwing their They're purchasing away and all
that, and they're trying to work up the Holy Spirit and the gifts,
and trying to work up a revival. And then they look at folks like
us and say, the Spirit of God's not among you. And they blame
it on our lack of will, our desire, our lack of spirituality. But
of all that I want, and all the gift that I want, you know what
I want more than anything in this world? I want Christ and
the love of Christ in my heart more than anything in this world.
If I lose my tongue, I wouldn't lose my ability to call on Him.
If I lose my sight, I wouldn't lose my ability to see. And if I lost my hands, I wouldn't
lose my ability to come to Him. If I could speak in tongues and
have that, I'd lose my tongue, wouldn't I, didn't I? Oh, my. And what we're talking about
is special gifts to prove the authority of the apostles. And
these gifts were given at the beginning, when Peter and John
and him started preaching the gospel. The first thing happened
after Christ ascended. They walked by the beautiful
gate at the temple, and there's a lame man laying there, and
he's begging for money. Simon Peter looked at him and
said, silver and gold I have, I wonder what I give thee. I
give thee in the name of Jesus Christ. And what did he give
him? He jumped up and weeped and praised
God. And now he had that miracle there.
But you know what? It wouldn't have done that fellow
any good at all had not God saved his soul and washed him in the
blood of Christ. And Peter used that opportunity
to do what? He began to preach the gospel.
Started right that day, right there in front of all them people.
And says, you know what just happened right here? You say,
you know who made this fellow whole? He said, it wasn't me.
It wasn't my holiness, it wasn't my power, but this man stands
before you whole, because of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom
you crucified, and God hath raised him from the dead, and set him
at his own right hand, and there's not no other name, no other name,
under heaven or under hell, whereby you must be saved, other than
Jesus Christ. And so you see, they, these,
you've got to use these men and these gifts to open the doors
to the gospel. to the gospel. And when we talk
about this, we're not denying God's power, God's ability to
work miracles. Micah had brain surgery on Tuesday
and went home on Thursday. Now that's a miracle to me. Operate
on your brain, take out a tumor the size of a baseball, and 48
hours you're at home going about your business. Incredible to me. And we are
denying God's power, God's ability to work miracles. Every one of
us are evidences of the miracle work and power of God. We're
not denying God's answer to prayer in an unusual way. But these
gifts were only in use in the days of the Apostle. Now, let's
talk about the temporary gifts and the permanent gifts. Let's
look at the temporary gifts real quick. Back over here in 1 Corinthians
12. 1 Corinthians 12. Let's look at these temporary
gifts. And I believe this is so. I believe
this is so. I believe you'll agree with me
when we look at these things. First of all, he said he sent
some apostles. Now, we've seen that it was built
on the foundation of the apostles. God bore them witnesses. There's
no more apostles. The apostleship was a temporary
gift. It was a temporary gift to the
church, the apostles were. And when John was gone, there
was no more apostles. No more apostles. No more apostles
on the earth. Don't need no more apostles.
You know, we've got the written word of God. We've got the foundation
that they laid. We've got the truth that they
taught. And then prophecy. You know, what did he say down
here in verse 10, verse 12, to another working of miracles,
to another prophecy. Prophecy. You know what prophecy
meant in the Old Testament? It meant two things. It meant
a foretelling. Thus saith the Lord. You're proclaiming
what God told you. You go tell him this is what
I said. And it also meant foretelling. Telling something that's going
to happen. Well, they had that same gift in the New Testament.
You can find where prophets in the New Testament Not only would
we come out and say what God said, but then be able to tell
you what was going to happen. Diogobus told Paul what was going
to happen to him in Jerusalem, and what was going to happen
here. And Paul told them on the ship, if you don't, you know,
this is what's going to happen to this ship. So they had this
ability to foretell what was going to happen long before it
happened. They had these gifts, but since
we have the scripture, We don't need nobody else foretelling
anything. We don't need no new revelation.
We're not looking for no new revelation. The revelation ended
when he said, Amen, even so, come Lord Jesus. And he said,
OK, Amen, come Lord Jesus, even now. And that's why we're not
looking for anybody to tell us anything's going to happen. Come
let me tell you what's going to happen. I know what's going
to happen. Because I know what man is and
I know this, that Christ is coming and everybody
knows Christ is going to be saved and everybody don't is going
to be lost. And I know this world is getting wickeder and wickeder
and wickeder and wickeder and that time is running out. I know
that. I can tell you what the future
is. I'm going to be another day older tomorrow. And I'm going to get up and I'm
going to be what I am tomorrow. And by the grace of God, He'll
keep me another day. And I know that when I get to
the end of the way, I know what my end's going to be. It's going to be with Christ
forever, eternally. And that's what's going to happen
to you. And you don't need to know anything else besides that.
Know Christ right now? I probably need to know right
now. And then he talked about here the gifts of healing. You
know, in verse 9, to another faith by the same Spirit, to
another the gifts of healing. I believe the gifts of healing
are gone. When's the last time you seen anybody heal somebody?
Huh? When's the last time you saw
somebody heal somebody? Or even heard somebody heal somebody? These were gifts that God used.
in the Apostles' Day to set forth the glory and power of the Lord
Jesus Christ, not only His power to hear physically, but His power
to hear spiritually. And that's what they were for.
And if you ever find anybody that claims to have gifts of
healing, let him first and foremost say, And you get somebody out
of that hospital that's got a, their bill is running up a thousand
dollars a day, and heal them and get them out of that hospital,
and then I'll believe that you got the gifts of healing. Now
wouldn't you say that's right? Get them out of the hospital.
Get them out from under that doctor's care. And then miracles,
miracles. To another of the gifts of miracles,
the working of miracles in verse 10. They're gone. They're gone.
Miracles, oh, they had such power in those days that Peter could
walk by and his shadow would heal people. And Paul had such power that
they would take things off of his garments and take them and
give them away to people, and God would bless that garment
that folks would be healed in. And those were days to show us
and establish the gospel. But we got the gospel now. We
don't need miracles. And we're not seeing anybody
working in miracles. And discerning of spirits. You
know what this discerning of spirits is? It's not discerning
whether somebody's in a bad mood or not. That's not what he's
talking about. You know what kind of spirit he is today? He
got up on the wrong side of the bed. Well, getting up on the
right side of bed is not our problem. But you know what discerning
the Spirit is? It's like with Paul. That woman
was following him around, calling, these men do the mighty works
of God, these men do the mighty works of God. And Paul turned
around and got tired of that and said, come out of her, you
devil, you spirit of divination. He could recognize a demon. He
could recognize a devil. He could recognize a wicked heart. He could, you know, they could
see things. And know things about people
that you and I have never... That's discerning the kind of
spirit that a person has, whether it's a demon or not. And then
there's the gifts of tongues. Those are gone. They're gone. We don't need tongues. We've
got the Bible. And we've got people that preach
us in the languages now where they go. Now let me show you
the permanent gifts quickly. And I'll wind this up. I try
not to hold you off as long on Wednesday night. But look what
he said here in verse 8. For to one is given the spirit
of wisdom. That's a permanent gift, wisdom,
the word of wisdom. The word of the gospel, that
word of the gospel, the word of wisdom, the wisdom of Christ
being the power of God, the wisdom of God being just and justified,
the wisdom of God's blessed work, and then the word of knowledge.
Knowledge. Knowledge of the scriptures.
Knowledge of man, some knowledge of God, some knowledge of the
Holy Ghost, some knowledge of God, some knowledge of Christ,
this knowledge of how God saves a sinner, the knowledge of the
new birth, this word of knowledge. And then he says here, another
one, the teaching. I forget where it's at in here
somewhere, but the gift of teaching. The gift to teach is still very
much alive in the church. And oh, how much we need teaching.
And then he talked about, to one is given the word of wisdom,
and then there in verse 9 it says, and another faith. To another faith by the same
Spirit. Faith is a permanent gift. Wisdom
is a permanent gift. Knowledge is a permanent gift.
Teaching is a permanent gift. And faith is a permanent gift. When the Spirit gives you faith,
and faith, Beloved, faith, hope and charity. These three are
the greatest. And then ministering. I believe
it's back over there in that other one that talks about ministering.
It talks about governments and administrations and ministries.
And then verse five said the difference of administrations,
ministry, ministry still goes on. You can see this in Romans
chapter 12, verse eight, but you look at yourself, ministries.
And over there I said helps. What's helps? It's people that's
helping in the church, does the things that's necessary in the
church, helps the preacher, helps clean the building, help prepare
things, help with keeping things going, help with keeping the
building, help keeping the ministry going. So many ways of helps.
And then the gift of administration. Somebody has got to be able to
be in charge. Administration, you know, somebody's
got to administer what goes on in the church. And then government. You got
to have government. You know what it'd be like without a government?
It'd be chaos. And how many places you go where
there is chaos. Everybody's trying to do things
at the same time. You remember back years ago with all that
free willism and all that? Everybody had to get up and testify.
Everybody had to come down at the same time and pray. And you
know what that was? That was no administration and
no government. It was just chaos. Now, isn't that right? Looking
back on his chaos. Now, would you rather have the
administration and the government? These are permanent things. We
sit here and we rejoice in the truth and the gospel and rejoice
in one another. And we worship God. And we've
been encouraged and been taught by these things. And thank God for teaching, preaching,
Wisdom, faith, knowledge, administrations, helps, and governments. Who would
we be without them? Chaos. O our blessed, gracious, glorious
God, our Father, Lord, You inhabit eternity, the high and lofty
The one who humbles himself to behold the things in heaven and
would humble himself to come here to be among us and dwell
among us. Father, we bless you and praise
you. Magnify you glorious power and grace given us in Christ.
Thank you for this evening. Thank you for the service, the
hearing, the presence of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for the
scriptures read, prayers prayed, songs sung. And help us, Lord,
in your blessed, blessed grace to always, always, always do
things in decency and in order to the glory of our God, out
of love for our Savior. In His name we bless you. Amen. Amen. RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR