1 Corinthians chapter 12, and
we'll read the whole chapter. We're not going to look at all
of these verses, but we'll read it and then go back. It says,
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you
ignorant. Ye know that ye 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. Now there are diversities
of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of administrations,
but the same Lord. And there are diversities of
operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the
Spirit is given to every man to profit withal, or to profit
the whole. 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
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 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,
or one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all
baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, or whether
we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one
Spirit. For the body is not one member,
but many. But if the foot shall say, Because
I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not
of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because
I am not the eye, I am 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 hath pleased Him. And if
they were all one member, where were 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 again 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. And
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. that there should be
no schism in the body, 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. Now ye are the body of Christ,
and members in particular. And God has sent some in the
church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, After
that, miracles, gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities
of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers
of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing?
Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But covet earnestly
the best gifts, and yet I show unto you a more excellent way." I believe this and the next chapter,
chapter 13, form the very central message of the whole book of
I Corinthians. Because as we said from the beginning,
what Paul's been writing to the Corinthians about, although he's
approached it from several different things, it's about all being
united together in Christ. It is not about this one having
this, or this one having that, or there being some kind of hierarchy
or some kind of divisions among God's people, but rather that
they are all one. And of course, that is the message
that he is coming with them here about. Now he says, and he begins
with a subject that Of all things, you'd think that the subject
of gifts would be the most uniting thing that God's people could
have, would be gifts. But sadly, due to the carnality
of men and the misuse and misunderstanding of what spiritual gifts are,
it's usually one of the most divisive things. because men
missed the point. And just like was happening here
in this church, these people were not ignorant of the fact
that He is not saying, I would not have you ignorant concerning
the fact that gifts exist, but rather what He is saying here
is, I would not have you ignorant concerning what the purpose of
gifts are. Because you see, they had gifts.
In fact, in most of the early churches, and I don't know that
we'll get into this, but as we said last week, because something
appears in the Scriptures does not mean that the Lord has instituted
it and that it is something that is to be copied by others coming
along later. Now one of the things that happens
with the matter of spiritual gifts, and he's going to touch
on this very thing when he gets to the end of this chapter here,
is that people say, well, you know, if they've got these gifts,
then we ought to have these gifts. And if they did this and they
got these gifts, then if we do this, then we'll get these gifts.
Now what was it? It was a... What was the word? G-I-F-T. What is that? Gift. Now let me ask you a question.
If something is a gift, what did you do to get it? Nothing in the world. Because
the word gift is the word charis. And the word charis is translated
in the Scripture as grace. It is grace. It's an unmerited
favor. It's something that's bestowed.
It's something that you can't gain and it's something that
you can't lose because it is a gift. And when something is
given to you, it is given to you for a purpose. Now the sad
thing is, and this is what Paul is going to point out to them,
is that the gifts are not an end in themselves. Now I've been
around a lot of people over the years that supposedly had a bunch
of different gifts and what not of various kinds, and it's always
the ones that people want are the ones that are unexplainable. He doesn't start off with that,
does he? Because the first gifts that
he actually talks about are just old mundane things, as people
would say. But see, people often think, well, you know, man, the
best gift, I want one of these gifts. Now, what's the main gift?
And we're not going to spend a lot of time on this, but the
main gift, if you went and averaged what we would call charismatic,
which that word means gift, If you went in the average church
that really pushes and believes and hypes up gifts in the church,
what is the main gift that you will always find? Exactly. It's always going to be that.
Now Paul said he wasn't forbidden to speak with tongues. And I
don't know of any reason I would. I mean, if God gave somebody
that gift, I certainly wouldn't want to tell them they couldn't
have it. I mean, if God gave it to them. Now, because somebody
says they have that gift doesn't necessarily mean they do, does
it? I mean, if I said, well, I've got the gift to preach,
that doesn't necessarily mean that I do, just because I said
I did. You know, that's not how it works. I mean, a gift is something that
comes from God. And He gives it, and who can
say anything about it? I mean, if somebody who speaks
about the gift of healing, if somebody had the gift of healing
and you had an illness and they had the gift of healing and they
could touch you and you'd be healed, what could you say about
that? Now, if they've got the TV cameras
rolling and they want to make a big production about all these
different things and they want to make it into something that
it's not supposed to be, I'll say something about that. And
so, you know, the gifts that are spoken of, given to the body
of Christ, they're given for a purpose. Now, what he's specifically
talking about here is to the Corinthian church. Now, because
these particular gifts existed and some of them were made manifest
in the Corinthian church, there's no reason for us to jump to the
conclusion that, well, we ought to have those gifts also. Because
if God is purposed to give us gifts, He will give us the gifts. I mean, you know, that's just
the way that a gift is. It's something that comes from
a source that you don't have anything to do with. Now concerning
spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. He says,
I want you to listen to what I'm saying about this. Don't
go off half-cocked. Now, you know that you were Gentiles. He said, you don't have any room
to boast about anything. He said, you're a bunch of heathen,
pagan, worshippers running off after every false god that there
was out here. That's just what you were. And
he said, if God had left you there, that's exactly where you'd
be right now. So don't go around and say, well,
we've got this or we've got that, because you wouldn't have anything
if it was not that God, who's rich in mercy, had brought to
you the gift of grace. Because you were carried away
unto these dumb isles even as you were led. Therefore, wherefore,
I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit
of God calleth Jesus a curse, and that no man can say that
Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." Now what he's pointing
out here, he's not talking about the fact that because somebody
says, as I've heard some say, well, you can't even say the
words unless the Lord gives you the ability to do it. Well, that's
true. I mean, you can't get up in the morning if the Lord doesn't
give you the ability to do so, but that's not exactly what he's
talking about here. But what he's saying here is
that if a man is coming speaking in the Spirit of God, and if
the Spirit of God is working in him, said he is going to be exalting
Jesus Christ. He is not going to be seeking
in any way to speak against Christ. He is not going in any way to
hinder, but the substance of what he is saying is going to
be Christ. He is not going to curse Christ,
and if he is speaking of Christ, it has to be by the Spirit of
God. If he is enabled to magnify Christ by word and deed, then
it is of Christ. So we're not trying, he's saying,
and this kind of comes back to the business of, I'm of Paul,
I'm of Apollos. He says, no man speaking by the
Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed. And no man can call Christ Lord
except by the Spirit of God. So if John is a follower of Apollos
and I'm a follower of Paul, but if he comes speaking to me of
Christ, then where did he get that from? He got it from Christ. So you see, that's what he's
saying here. And no man can say that Jesus
is Lord but by the Holy Ghost. I mean, we're coming together
now. He's not talking about just saying it. He's speaking about
the fact that there's a demonstration of it. Now, he says, now there
are diversities of gifts. There are differences. There
are three times this word is used. It is really the same word
in all three of these verses. It says diversities, differences
and diversities. That all just means they are
different. There are different manners in
which the Lord is pleased to give. Now, there are diversities
of gifts, but the same Spirit. The gifts are different. But
the Spirit is the same Spirit in all of them. Now how can we
know if the Spirit is in someone who claims to have a spiritual
gift? Because they will always be speaking
of Christ. See? That's the only reason the
Lord gives a man a spiritual gift, is so that he might speak
of Christ. Because he's not going to be
cursing Christ, and if it's by the Spirit of God, he's going
to be calling Christ Lord. No, he's not just going to be
showing you he can do something to impress you. See, we're not
interested in impressing one another. We're not interested
in one another patting one another on the back and seeing who can
get what today. But it's about, is Christ glorified? That's what he's talking about.
There are diversities of gifts, but it's the same Spirit. See,
the Spirit of Christ is the same. It doesn't make a difference
if it's in Live Oak, or it's in Brantford, or it's in O'Brien,
or if it's in Jacksonville, or if it's in India. Same Spirit. He's always going
to be doing what? Magnifying Christ. It's always
going to be Christ. It's not going to be, you know,
prophecies and things of mysterious stuff and all that kind of thing.
I'm not saying there might not from time to time be some thing,
but the essence of the message is going to be Christ. You're not going to have to come
away scared from being around people who speak by the gifts
of the Spirit, it is going to be Christ. You are going to be
comforted. You are going to rejoice. It
is going to be a thing that is glorious because Christ will
have been exalted. Not our emotions, but Christ. There are diversities of gifts,
but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of
administrations, but the same Lord. There is a difference in
the service of these things. Now the word there for administrations
is the word that deacon comes from, diakone. And what that
word literally means is service. There are different operations
of the Spirit of God where God's people can serve one another.
There are different ways in which that happens. The Lord might
have someone to serve the people of God by preaching, or He might
have someone to serve the people of God by simply speaking a word
privately to someone who would be in need of some encouragement
or whatever, but it is a word of service. And so He says here,
there are differences of service, but the same Lord. And there
are differences of operations. Now the word operations is the
word energeo, which is the word that we get energy from. And
so sometimes there are going to be the Spirit of God, you
know, He may speak through one guy and people may say, well,
you know, that was kind of dull, but it helped me. And then another
guy come along and they might say, well, you know, I didn't
get a whole lot depth-wise out of what he said, but he really,
you know, he really got me excited. It got me lifted up in that way. That's what it means. I mean,
the Spirit of God is in both things. You know, a man doesn't
have to be dry and dead to be telling you the truth, He may
be, as far as the flesh is concerned. I mean, see, the Lord's hand
is not short and saved by many or by a few. He can do whatever
He wants to do and how He wants to do it, because the power is
not of the men that have it. It is of the Lord. And He's the
one that's going to have the glory. And that's why there is
a diversity among God's people. And that is something I believe.
that is kind of lost today in the modern thinking about how
the church comes together. We want everything to be kind
of all the same. I mean, we kind of like to cut
things out with a cookie cutter and say, well, that's what it
is. Well, we expect this today because this, this, this and
this. That's not necessarily how the Word of God and how the
Spirit of God is going to move among God's people. There are
diversities. And that's a good thing, that
there are people with different gifts, mindsets, thoughts, abilities. All of these things are useful
to the people of God. And they shouldn't be stifled
and they shouldn't be ignored. And it shouldn't be neglected
because the Lord gives gifts to His people, and that's what
He says. Now, there are diversities of operations, but it is the
same God which worketh in all. If Christ is glorified, God is
working. Is that true or not? I mean,
if Christ is being lifted up, then the Lord is at work, because
that's the purpose of the Spirit of God is to testify of Christ. If Christ is not being lifted
up, it's not of God, is it? I don't care what it sounds like
or looks like or whatever. If you come away and your thought
process is not what a glorious Savior we have, what a glorious
Lord, is Jesus Christ, then the Lord wasn't in that. I don't
care what else you felt. You know, I've been in things
and people come to me and say, oh, wasn't that wonderful? And
I say, man, that's the most terrible thing I've ever been in because
nobody said anything about Christ. Look, it's not that we don't
come to get how we're going to feel and jump around, but it's
about Christ. And when Christ is there, When
the Spirit of God is in the midst of a people, Christ will be magnified. That's just all there is to it.
It doesn't make a difference where it is or who they are.
It doesn't make a difference if they're educated or ignorant
as an animal. It doesn't make any difference.
Christ is going to be the central theme of all things that the
Spirit of God causes to come to pass. It's just going to be
that way. Same God worketh all in all,
but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man. Now, he didn't say the Spirit
is given to some men, did he? Now, he's speaking about believers.
He said the Spirit is given to every man. Now that includes
women. I mean, it's not talking about
a sexist way of looking at this. But it's given to every person
for what reason? For the benefit of the body.
It's given to every man to profit withal. It's for God's people's
benefit. The Lord gives His people gifts. Now, see, a lot of people make
the mistake of saying, well, Paul lists all the spiritual
gifts. You couldn't list all the spiritual
gifts in a book four times its size. Because the Spirit of God
has such diversity, He gives people gifts that have never
been written down. I don't know what they are. But
I know this, that the Lord uses His people to benefit His people
in multitudes of ways that we can never comprehend. And things that He does among
His people, for His people, through His people, that are not listed
here. But He's the one that's working
in His people for that reason. But He's just hitting some of
the highlights here. And so the Spirit is given to
every man to profit the whole body. Alright, now he's going
to mention some things, some examples here. For to one is
given by the Spirit the word of wisdom. The word of wisdom. To another, the word of knowledge. To another, faith. To another,
gifts of healing. A lot of people spend a lot of
time trying to define what all these different gifts are as
if these are the gifts. And if you're going to have a
spiritual gift, it's got to be one of these. You know, I've
heard people say, oh, I've got the Word of Knowledge. Well,
maybe you do. You know, maybe you have a Word
of Knowledge. Now, of course, you know, again,
a lot of people try to take these things and they want to make
them into miraculous gifts. Now, there are things that God
does that are miraculous in the sense that you can't explain
it, neither can I. You can't stop it, and I can't
either. It's just something God is going to do. But every gift
does not operate in the same realm and fashion, and a gift
of knowledge, a gift of wisdom, are not specifically miraculous
gifts. Now, I've heard them described
as such. Some say, well, a gift of knowledge. That means like
you've seen these guys that get up there and they say, somebody's
here tonight and they have an ingrown toenail. And the Lord
sent me here and He wants me to pray for somebody with an
ingrown toenail. And, of course, the other three
or four people, oh, it's me! You know, I've had this thing
for three weeks. And they say, oh man, he had it in knowledge.
How did he know I had ingrown toenails? Well, you know, that's
not what Paul's talking about here. What he's talking about
here, he says, for to one is given by the Spirit the word
of wisdom. Now, word of wisdom, that word
there is sophist. which is the word we get, the
term sophistry, which has to do with philosophy, it has to
do with understanding, it has to do with wisdom, it has to
do with the application of truth, with understanding. And so to
one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom and to another
the word of knowledge. Now the word knowledge there
is gnosis, G-N-O-S-I-S. knowledge to know something,
the Gnostics. That was an early group that
a lot of them embraced Christianity, and their thing was they knew
things, and they thought that the understanding of the things
of God was in what they knew. Now, does that sound familiar?
I mean, you know, a lot of people think that because of what they
know, as far as like doctrine or whatever, that that's really
the most important thing it could ever be. Well, it is important
to know things, isn't it? I mean, truth is very important,
and the Lord gives some people a word of knowledge. It's good
that we have knowledge. Paul said that we might not be
tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. Necessary to
know sound doctrine so you're not turned aside by false doctrine,
is it not? But you see, that's not the end
and be all of the Spirit's work. Because it's good to have a word
of knowledge, but it's equally as good to have a word of wisdom
to know how to apply that, how useful it would be to another
faith. by the same Spirit. Now, wait
a minute, I thought we all had faith. Well, of course you do,
but that's not exactly what he's talking about here. He's talking
about an application of faith. You know, the Lord gives His
people faith, but He gives people faith by measure. Everybody doesn't
have the same amount of faith according to what this is. There
are some who are given the gift of faith. There are some whom
the Scripture speaks of as faithful men. That is, they apply the
faith in a more readily open fashion. Now, is that so? Do
we pat them on the back and say, Oh, brother so-and-so, he's so
faithful. Now, if a man has great faith,
why does he have it? Because God gave it to him. And
why did He give it to him? He gave it to him to benefit
the body. Not so we might enshrine his
name. I've been corresponding with
some fellows on the internet here lately. You know, sometimes
they'll bring these guys up that have done great things, and I
don't have any problem with talking about people who've done great
things, but brethren, let's not lose sight of how come those
men did the things they did. It wasn't because they were just
great men. It was because God, who is rich
in mercy, raised them up at a time that seemed good to Him, and
He caused them to have the heart of a lion, to do whatever it
was they would do. Because they would be just as
meek as a lamb in the right situation if He didn't do it. If you don't
think so, look at the apostle Peter. I mean the Apostle Peter
is boldly proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ on the day of
Pentecost in the face of all these Jews and what have you.
But remember this, that the same Peter just two or three nights
or just a few nights before was denying that he even knew the
Lord. Why? What was the change there? Was it something to do with Peter?
It wasn't anything to do with Peter. It had to do with the
Lord and the gift that the Lord was pleased to give. So to another
faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the
same Spirit. Now, you know, some people, they
think about healing And they always think of it in
the realm that God wants you to be healed. Now, basically, I mean, if you
go to a meeting in a lot of these places and they say, does anybody
need to be healed? Well, there are plenty of things
you probably need to be healed from, you know. And the Lord
may heal you. And if he does give glory to
God, if he heals you on the spot or whatever, but he may send
you to a doctor. You know, I mean, is a man any
less healed because the Lord used the skill of medical knowledge
than he did to do it in some miraculous way? Not really. Now,
the miraculous healings that took place in the Scriptures
were done for a purpose. The Lord didn't heal everybody,
did He? But he healed the people that
he appointed to be healed. And he did it for the purpose
of bringing glory to his name and getting their attention,
did he not? I mean, that's why he heals people. You know, he
doesn't just eat... I heard people say, oh, the Lord's
in the healing business. Well, the Lord's in the wounding
business. I mean, a man can't get sick if the Lord doesn't
send sickness to him, can he? So he can't be healed if the
Lord doesn't send healing. I mean, that's just the hand
of the Lord in all things. And so it's foolish to think
that we all go out here and the Lord wants us all well and, you
know, the Lord's given this gift of healing and now we'll just
believe we'll all be healed. Well, why would we ever die?
You know, I mean, every healer I've ever known died. I mean,
I don't understand why people get so worked up about that. I certainly would rejoice that
God's people would pray for me if some illness overtakes my
body. And I would pray for other people
that are ill. But I want God's will to be done.
I want myself to be in reconciled to His will. Nevertheless, Lord,
I will be done. You know, we're going to claim
it, but if we're going to back God into a corner and we pray
hard enough, God will have to heal them. That's just stupid.
God doesn't have to do anything, but He does what He wills. And
He may heal. And he may give someone the gift
of healing, just like the apostles had the gift of healing. Now,
they didn't have it all the time, did they? Because Paul, evidently
he had some thorn in the flesh, some infirmities. Timothy had
some infirmities. Why didn't Paul just say, well,
next time I'm over there, Timothy, I'm going to lay my hands on
you and heal you? No, he said, take a little wine
for your stomach's sake, and you're off to infirmities. So
you see, these things are specific for specific times, and the Lord
may raise up somebody for your specific case in order to teach
the church and to give glory to Christ. He may raise up somebody
and give them you know, a gift of healing so that the Spirit
of God works through them in that way? I don't know. I certainly
wouldn't fight against that. But He may do that. But that
doesn't necessarily mean that that works all the time. Or that's
what He purposes it for. So He said to another, gifts
of healing by the same Spirit, the same Spirit that gives Word
of knowledge, the same Spirit gives the gift of wisdom, He
gives the gift of healing, the gift of faith, the same one,
all for the same purpose, to another prophecy, to another
the working of miracles. Now again, I mean, if the Lord
wants to work miracles, It's fine with me. It's good. But you know, miracles are... Most of these guys, a miracle
is no miracle at all because they already told you ahead of
time, come down here and we're going to show you miracles. Well,
you know, if you can plan it out, it ain't a miracle. I mean,
if you know it's going to happen, it's not a miracle, is it? It
might be magic, You know, I mean, some of these guys on some of
these magic shows on TV, they probably do pretty good in some
of these preaching outfits, I mean, with some of that kind of stuff.
But it's not about that. The working of miracles, I don't
know what it might be, but it could be, to another prophecy. That is, what would the prophecy
be about? is going to be, well, I believe
that next week you are going to get a new Cadillac. No, that
is not what he is speaking about. I mean, the gift of prophecy
has to do with prophetic things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Gift of prophecy, understanding
those things. To another, discerning of spirits.
That is, a spiritual mind to recognize some things that are
perhaps not on the up and up. You know how the back of your,
the hair on the back of your head stand there like an old
dog, you know, when he gets something. Well, that don't sound just right.
Well, the Lord gives people spiritual discernment in that way. They
say, wait a minute, that, Dave, you're going down the wrong path
with that. You know, that's not a thing that's going to ultimately
redound to the glory of Christ. It's an awareness of such things
as that, the discerning of spirit. So another different kinds of
tongues to another interpretation of tongues. Now I think what
he's specifically talking about here, although in a later chapter
we're going to talk about some other things concerning this
speaking in tongues, But what he is talking about here specifically
in this case is about speaking in other languages. Now when
you look at the gift of tongues that was given on the day of
Pentecost, the Scripture says that every man heard in his own
tongue. He heard in his own language.
Now the Lord gave people that did not know how to speak a language,
He gave them the ability to speak in these languages. And the Lord
gave people the ability to hear in their own tongue. Can he still
do that? Of course he can. And does he
do it? I believe he does. I believe there are situations
in other countries and whatnot and in situations where you have
ethnically diverse groups of people that the Lord does do
that. I've read instances of it. Can the Lord do it now? Sure He can. Will He do it now?
I don't know. Could He cause you to start speaking
Chinese? Well, of course he could. I mean,
if you can speak English, he can cause you to speak Chinese.
But there's a purpose for it. Again, it all comes back to what?
To glorify Christ. That's the only reason for it.
To build up the saints and to cause Christ to be magnified.