be ignorant. It points out to
us again that no matter how much we may know, how much we have
learned, we always need to learn more of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we need to learn more spiritual
truths. And that's what he's giving them. And he's talking
to them about spiritual gifts. And from what we read, the church
at Corinth abounded in these extraordinary gifts. They had
gifts of wisdom and preaching. They had gifts of healing, gifts
of tongues and these different things. But the problem was,
and it would be great to have those gifts, but the problem
was that the people who had been given those gifts became proud
and puffed up and looked down on the people that didn't have
as many gifts as they did. And the people that didn't have
as many gifts became discouraged. And what had happened is, They
made a bigger deal of the gifts. They became discouraged about
that they didn't have the gifts and they became proud because
they did have the gifts. They spent more time being concerned
about the gifts than they did about Christ. I'm telling you
this, I'd a whole lot rather have the gift giver, I'd a whole
lot rather have Christ than all those other gifts and not have
him. And they became focused on these
gifts rather than Christ. So Paul has some things to tell
them, teach them about these things. He says in verse 2, ye
know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even
as ye were led. Now I don't care how many gifts
you have or what gifts you have now, you don't have anything
to be proud of. Where were you when God found
you? Where were you? You're a heathen. You're in idolatry. And that
applies to every single one of us. You might have been out in
the world worshiping a hunk of wood, or you could have been
in the pew. But without Christ, you're a
heathen in idolatry. Just worshiping a dumb idol.
You may have been religious, but all you were doing is worshiping
a lifeless idol. Look over at Psalm 115. Psalm 115, verse 4. Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak
not. Eyes have they, but they see not. They have ears, but
they hear not. Noses have they, but they smell
not. They have hands, but they handle not. Feet have they, but
they walk not. Neither speak they through their
throat. And they that make them are like unto them. They're dumb
idols, and your worship is just dumb worship. So is everyone
that trusteth in them. That idol is lifeless. Now, what
does that say about you when you were praying to it, when
you were worshiping, when you were offering to it and you worshiped
idols because you were led that way and you were able to be so
easily led that way and worship those idols because you were
spiritually dead? That's why. So if you have any
spiritual gifts now, if God's blessed you with anything now,
obviously it's because of God's grace. Not because of how smart
you were, not because of how deserving you were. It's all
due to God's grace. You don't have anything to be
proud of. And it'd be good for us to always keep in mind what
we are by nature and where we came from, regardless of how
God's blessed us now. And He has. He's blessed us.
But keep us humble if we remember who our first father is. Remember
that we've been given the gift of Christ, that we've been, and
these are gifts, and it'll keep us humble if we just remember
that of all these gifts, we're not worthy of the least of God's
mercies. It was a gift of God's grace
that called us to Christ in the first place. No other gift compares
to that. None. Absolutely none. Christ
is the primary gift. Christ is the primary thing.
The primary person. Get him. The rest of this stuff
will take care of itself. Now, verse three, he goes on.
He says, Wherefore, I give you to understand that no man speaking
by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed and that no man can
say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost and no one who
calls Christ a curse is speaking by the Holy Spirit. He's not
being inspired by the Spirit. And some people, especially at
that time, called Christ a curse because he died a cursed death.
The death of the cross is a cursed death. But what they denied is
that he put that curse away. He did die a cursed death, but
he's not still cursed. He put that curse away. And to
call Christ a curse is to deny what he did. You might not hear
someone today still call Christ a curse, but if you deny the
glory of what he accomplished, you deny everything that he accomplished
in that cursed death, you're calling him a curse. You're preaching
a false gospel, taking the glory away from him and what he's done.
And no man preaches a false gospel under inspiration of the Holy
Spirit. Does not do it. If you deny any part of the glory
of Christ in redemption, you're speaking by an evil spirit, not
the Holy Spirit. Now, an evil spirit can give
you the ability to work miracles. He sure can, but he can't give
you the ability to preach the gospel. He won't give you the
ability to preach the gospel because the gospel is what destroys
Satan's rule in the first place. He's not going to let you preach
the gospel. He may give you the ability to work some miracles.
And that happens by some spirit, but it's not the Holy Spirit.
The magicians in Egypt, when Moses came and told Pharaoh,
let my people go, and he worked those miracles, the magicians
in Egypt seemed to duplicate some of them, couldn't they?
But they were false prophets. They didn't do that by the Holy
Spirit. It was either a trick or it was some other spirit.
A person can have great gifts and abilities. You can have some
things that may be some of these gifts or look like some of these
gifts or act like some of these gifts. A person can have great
ability and not have any grace. That's the warning to not get
too caught up in these things because you can have something
that looks like these things, looks like these gifts and not
have any grace. Now, we know that without Christ,
We can do nothing. Without the Spirit, we can do
nothing. We can't believe. We can't look to Christ. We can't
pray. We can't go through the trial.
We can't preach. We can't worship. We can do nothing
without Him. Look over Romans chapter 8. The
believer, every believer, has the Holy Spirit dwelling in them.
That's why we can do anything. That's why we can get anything
out of worship. That's why we can get anything out of reading
God's Word is you have the Spirit dwelling in you. Romans 8 verse
9. But ye believers, you brethren,
you're not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that
the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man hath not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his. Someone who is not a believer,
is not one of God's elect, does not have the Spirit of Christ.
But if you belong to Christ, you have the Holy Spirit dwelling
in you. And no one can confess the truth
from the heart that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior Unless the
Holy Spirit is influenced, unless the Spirit is in a person, he
cannot in truth confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. He can't
do it. You can't give Christ all the
glory in redemption unless the Holy Spirit dwells in your heart.
No man can have faith unless the Spirit dwells in our heart
and gives us life. And a man may have a lot of spiritual
gifts or he may have a lot of even natural ability. But a person who knows Christ
has a better message. I'd a whole lot rather hear a
man just plainly talk about Christ if he knows Him. I'd a whole
lot rather hear a man who knows Christ just simply talk about
the Lord than hear a gifted preacher preach who doesn't know Christ
at all. He may have great oratory skills.
He may have a great pulpit presence. He may have put on a great show.
But it's empty, it's worthless. But the man who just knows Christ,
just a plain, uneducated man who knows Christ can talk about
Christ and bless your heart if the Spirit dwells in you. Because
His Spirit is bearing witness with your spirit. If the Holy
Spirit dwells in him, he can speak of Christ. And that's what
we need. Now, verse 4, Paul says, now,
there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are
many different gifts. But they're all given by the
Holy Spirit. And they're given to different people at different
times and different levels because the Spirit is God. So since He's
God, He's sovereign. He can do what He will, when
He will. He gives the gifts to people as He will because He's
sovereign. And He gives those gifts to His
people. Every believer has some gifts,
but no believer has every gift. And we'll see that as we go down
through here. No believer has every gift, but every believer
has some. And if a person's been given any gift that ought to
humble them, not make them proud, because we didn't earn it. It
was a gift. It was a gift that was given
to us of God's grace. And there are many gifts, different
gifts that the spirit can give, but there's just one spirit.
And that one spirit just gives one message. Many different gifts,
but one message. All those gifts are given to
point to one message. Look over in John 16. John 16,
verse 14. Look at verse 13. Howbeit, when he, the Spirit
of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall
not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he
speak, and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me,
for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you."
It's just one gift, or one message. Many different gifts, but one
message. It's the message of Christ. Now
let's read on here in verse 5. And 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. Now, there are many different
offices in the church. You know, there's pastors and
elders and deacons and many different details of the church that have
to be taken care of. You know, in the ministry, the
needs of people, the mission work, things that have to be
taken care of with the building. There's many different things
that have to be done. But we all serve the same Lord. We're
all serving Him. We're all seeking His glory.
And there are many different ministries, some greater, some
smaller, but they all have the same message. Now, the Lord may
choose to bless one in a greater way or different way than He
blesses another, but it's the same message. No matter what
generation you preach to, no matter where the geographical
place that you might preach, It's the same message. The Spirit
doesn't give different messages to different people in different
places. The Spirit gives the same message. So there are different
ministries, different abilities, but one message throughout the
whole church, throughout the church on the world, in the earth
now and from the history of the earth. It's always been one message.
You know, there's one Spirit and one Lord. Now, verse 7. But the manifestation of the
Spirit is given to every man to profit withal." Now the Spirit
gives gifts to people, but not to pump them up with pride, not
to make them stand out and have everybody look at them and say
how great they are. God hates pride. He's not going to give
a gift to somebody to make them proud. He hates pride. And the
Spirit doesn't give gifts so a person can profit by them.
Look in Acts chapter 8. I asked chapter 8, verse 9, but
there was a certain man called Simon, which before time in the
same city used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving
out that himself was some great one, to whom they all gave heed,
from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great
power of God. And to him they had regard, because
that of a long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. It seemed
like he had these gifts of the And so they all gave him heed
because he had these gifts. But look over in verse 18. But
now when this Simon saw that through the laying on of the
apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money,
saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands
he may receive the Holy Ghost. So he saw these gifts are the
real McCoy. He wanted to buy them. And Peter
said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast
thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.
Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart
is not right in the sight of God." You can't buy these things
for your profit. The Spirit doesn't give you these
gifts for your profit and your benefit. The Spirit gives the
gift, different gifts to different people, for the good of the body. Really, spiritual gifts aren't
just given to one person. They're given to the body. And
the best way I can explain that, or illustrate that, is this way.
If I buy my wife a ring, I'm buying Janet a ring. I'm not
buying her finger a ring. I'm not buying her a ring so
her finger can say to the rest of her body, look what I got.
Look how decorated I am. I look better than you. I buy
her whole body. The ring, that ring is a gift
to her. Jonathan told me this morning,
Stacey's wearing a necklace that Janet and I got her. That means
Janet picked it out and bought it. We didn't buy her neck, that
necklace. We bought her that necklace.
It wasn't just for her neck, it's for her, because we love
her. The Spirit gives gifts the same
way to the body, for the good of the body, not for the good
of the individual person, but for the benefit of the whole
body. The Lord gives these gifts for his glory, not for our glory. Now, verse 8, Paul begins to
list some of these spiritual gifts. 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 to another
diverse kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of
tongues. And here's all these different kinds of specific gifts
that the Spirit gives. The first one, Paul lists, is
a word of wisdom. And all the writers say that
this word of wisdom is a person has some knowledge of the mysteries
of the gospel. And they have the word of this
wisdom. They have the ability to explain
those mysteries to others. They have the ability to Explain
those mysteries and expound on those mysteries in a way that
they make them seem simple so people can understand them. And
this could also be they've got some spiritual wisdom so they're
able to give good advice to people. And that gift is given to them
for the good of people who listen to them, for the body. The next
was the word of knowledge. That's an understanding of the
scriptures, an understanding of the word and the ability to
explain, to expound on the Word. You know, how often do we hear
the pastor preach and we say, I never would have seen that
from that Scripture. I just never would have seen
it. That's because he's been given this Word of knowledge.
Aren't we thankful the Lord's given somebody the Word of knowledge
so we can hear and understand that was given to him for our
good. The next one is faith. Now, every believer has been
given the gift of faith to one degree or another, from one degree
of faith to another. One person may have more faith
than another. That's true even in ourselves.
My faith might be stronger today than it is tomorrow. It kind
of wavers inside of me. We have one degree of faith today,
another tomorrow. But this faith is the faith that
really rests, really trusts on Christ. Despite the circumstances,
no matter what's going on around us, this is to really see Christ
as all I want and all I need and maybe even be an example
of faith. And I know how the Spirit gives
this gift. It's through preaching, it's
through hearing this word of wisdom and the word of knowledge.
First comes the word of wisdom and knowledge and hearing, then
comes faith. That's how the Spirit gives this
gift, by the hearing of the word. Now, these first three gifts,
they've been given to people in the church throughout the
centuries. Right up to today, including today, people have
these gifts, the gifts of wisdom, the gift of knowledge and faith. But the rest of these gifts that
Paul mentions, it doesn't seem like that the Lord gives these
gifts to people today. He still could. Absolutely. I'm
not saying he doesn't. It doesn't seem like he does.
He could. But mostly they seem unnecessary
for this reason. These gifts were given to people
who would go out and preach to confirm their message to unbelievers. They could work these miracles
and that would show these unbelievers, these men have the power of God. This gift obviously came from
God. I'm going to listen to what he's
got to say. The apostles were still writing the scriptures.
Now, if we want to know if a man has the Spirit of God, if he
has the message from God, we've got the scriptures to go and
compare his message to the scriptures to see if it's his message. Is
his message God's message? I can find out by comparing this.
But then they didn't have this to compare it to, so they had
these miracles. Miracles, if you look over in
chapter 14, miracles were always intended for unbelievers. Look
at chapter 14, verse 22. Wherefore, tongues, these miracles,
tongues, are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to
them that believe not. But prophesying, preaching, serveth
not for them that believe not, but for them which believe. Miracles
will capture the attention of an unbeliever. Just mention them. People are so captivated by them.
The gospel gets the attention of a believer. The gospel preaching
is for believers. You don't need a miracle to know
when you hear the gospel, because the Spirit's in you. It testifies
to you that this is the gospel. But miracles get the attention
of unbelievers. Now, you know, I say that the
Spirit doesn't give these gifts and miracles today, but that's
not to say that the Spirit's not working miracles today, because
He does. How about giving life to dead
sinners? How about seeing just a dead
sinner come to faith and repentance in Christ? You'll never see a
bigger miracle than that. And that's the gift of the Spirit.
And it comes through the preaching of this completed Word. But these
other gifts, the first one Paul lists here is the gifts of healing.
Now we know our Lord Jesus and the apostles and others in the
early church They had powers to heal the sick. They could
lay their hands on them, they'd anoint them with oil, they'd
do different things, and they could heal different diseases.
And this was real. They really did that. This is
not like what we see on TV today, you know, where they try to pretend
like they healed somebody. This was real. And it would be
easy to see how a person, if they had this gift, could really
become puffed up. I mean, going through the hospitals,
healing people. I mean, they'd be falling at
your feet. They'd be praising you. They'd be singing your praises.
And you'd start believing what they're saying and you'd get
puffed up. And this just shows us how depraved human nature
really is and how tied to this flesh we are. Crowds will flock
after someone who they think has the gift of healing. Who
they think could heal some disease. Physical disease. But nobody
clamors after spiritual healing. Because they're so tied to this
flesh. The flesh is all they see. They're not interested in
spiritual healing. And that's the miracle that lasts
eternally. What if someone does have the
gift of healing? They heal some disease in your flesh. You're
going to die in a few years anyway. Spiritual healing, the gift of
the Spirit and spiritual healing is eternal life. But there were
these gifts of healing. And there's the working of miracles. Miracles, all these miracles,
they're just beyond human ability. And people are so interested
in these, looking for these miracles, but they don't care about the
miracle of Christ. They don't care about the miracle of the
Spirit giving life. How about the miracle of the
Spirit even making you interested in the Scripture? That's a miracle,
but people aren't interested in that. It's just these flexible
things. You know, they can give anything. See somebody walk across
a swimming pool, but they don't care anything about the miracle
of life. And then prophecy. Now, this
is more than preaching, although it is preaching, but it's the
ability to tell future events. And you know why that's so popular?
People want somebody to be able to tell them what's going to
happen in the future because of how uncertain our present
day is. And to human beings in this flesh,
our present probably has always seemed very, very uncertain.
So if somebody could prophesy and tell us what's going to happen
in the future, boy, we'd be so interested in that. And while
it doesn't seem that the Lord has given that gift in our day,
He hasn't left us in the dark, has He? There are some things
I know about the future. Now, I don't know anything about
particular events in the future. I can't tell you what's going
to happen in the next 60 seconds. But there are some things I know
about the future. I know one day, I don't know
what the day is, but one day Christ is coming back. I know
it because He promised it. I know that in the day He returns,
the dead will be raised and there's going to be a judgment. And after
that, eternity. And I know that right now, this
is not something I know, well, maybe in the future I need this.
I know right now, I need a savior. I'm a sinner. I need a savior
to put away my sin. We'd be wise, I wish people do
this, spend more time focusing on what the Lord has been pleased
to reveal to us than the parts of his counsel he's kept secret.
If God's keeping those parts of his counsel secret, you and
me aren't going to figure them out. But He has revealed some
things to us. And it's more than we'll ever
figure out. It's more than we'll ever comprehend. Let's just spend
the time, instead of worrying about this prophecy, about things
that happen in the future, the things the Lord has revealed
to us, it'll fill your plate. Just focus on those things. The
others, He's given the discerning of spirits. The ability to discern
immediately who's a true prophet and who's a false prophet. What's
of God and what's of Satan? Peter had that ability. When
Ananias and Sapphira came and offered that money, Peter immediately
knew. God didn't make you do that.
Satan moved your heart to do that. He had that gift. Today,
while we don't necessarily have that gift, John told us in 1
John 4 to try the spirits. How do we try the spirits, whether
they have God? By the word. So you don't need necessarily
that, I mean, I guess it would be nice, but you wait long enough
and compare man's message to the word. You'll know whether
he's of God or whether he's of an evil spirit. Then there's
different kinds of tongues. The ability to speak a language
that you never studied, you never learned. That's what the apostles
had at Pentecost. They preached and every man heard
them speak in his own language. Then there's the interpretation
of tongues. This is one people love. Someone
who's got the gift of tongues can speak in an unknown language.
Ooh, that's impressive. You speak in an unknown language.
But you know, unless someone can interpret that, all that
sounds like gibberish to you. You know, my daughters take Spanish
in school. They speak Spanish. It's a mystery
to me. They could be speaking an unknown
language and I'd never know anything what they're saying unless someone
interpreted it to me. Well, someone can speak in an
unknown language. It's useless unless someone has
this gift of the interpretation of tongues that interpret it
to us so we can understand it. And that'd be impressive. Wow,
that'd be an impressive thing to see, wouldn't it? But I'm
telling you this, it's just as amazing for a group of people
to come hear a man preach from the scriptures and say, I understand
what you're saying. That's a gift of the Spirit.
Because to the world, this sounds just like gibberish to them.
But to you, oh, I understand. That's life. I see what you're
saying. That's a gift of the Spirit. And we ought to be thankful
for the gifts that God has given us, rather than wish we had something
else. Because no one has all these
gifts. See how Paul phrases this? To one is given the Spirit of
the Word of Wisdom. To another, the Word of Knowledge.
To one this, to another this, to another this, to another this.
He's not giving the same gift to everyone. He gives this one
to one, and this one to another, and another, and another, so
that they're all spread out throughout the body by the same Spirit. Who but God could give them.
It has to be God to give these gifts, and He gives them to whom
He will. And then verse 11. By all these, Worketh that one
and selfsame spirit, dividing to every man severally, as he
will. He spreads these gifts out among the body for the good
of the body, for the good of the church, to accomplish his
will. So whatever gift the Lord's given
us, we'll use it. And worry about if he gives that
to someone else, that's his business. Our business is to use the gift
he's given us for the good of his people and his glory. All
right.