WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.360 --> 00:00:05.200 Please open your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 12 . 2 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:23.040 And we’re continuing this section where the apostle was dealing with worship issues and he’s going to talk about the issues involving spiritual things today. 3 00:00:23.040 --> 00:00:26.000 And today I’m going to just read through verse 11. 4 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:30.740 This is one of my favorite chapters, all of 1 Corinthians 12 . 5 00:00:30.740 --> 00:00:35.300 It’s one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, especially the second half. 6 00:00:35.300 --> 00:00:49.060 But it’s a wonderful, is a wonderful chapter and explains a lot that is really important in Christian life and in the way and in the functionality of a local church. 7 00:00:49.060 --> 00:00:55.420 So, I think there’s a lot for us to learn in this chapter as we work through the chapter. 8 00:00:55.420 --> 00:01:00.460 Today, I’m just going to look at the first 11 verses. 9 00:01:00.460 --> 00:01:06.520 This is God’s holy and inerrant word. 10 00:01:06.520 --> 00:01:12.980 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. 11 00:01:12.980 --> 00:01:19.940 You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 12 00:01:19.940 --> 00:01:27.140 Therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is accursed.” 13 00:01:27.140 --> 00:01:32.940 And no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. 14 00:01:32.940 --> 00:01:37.900 Now, there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 15 00:01:37.900 --> 00:01:43.520 And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. 16 00:01:43.520 --> 00:01:50.680 There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. 17 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:56.960 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 18 00:01:56.960 --> 00:02:05.900 For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another, the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit. 19 00:02:05.900 --> 00:02:10.820 And to another, faith by the same Spirit, and to another, gifts of healing by the one Spirit. 20 00:02:10.820 --> 00:02:25.180 And to another, the effecting of miracles, and to another, prophecy, and to another, distinguishing of spirits, and to another, various kinds of tongues, and to another, the interpretation of tongues. 21 00:02:25.180 --> 00:02:35.370 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as he wills. 22 00:02:35.370 --> 00:02:46.720 Father, as we come to this passage, we thank you, Lord, for your kindness and grace and blessing, and giving us your Holy Word. 23 00:02:46.720 --> 00:02:50.700 We thank you, Father, for revelation that you have entrusted to us. 24 00:02:50.700 --> 00:03:06.740 We thank you that it is a guide for our life, and that as the Spirit of God as your Holy Spirit uses that in our life, that we are directed and guided through it to live the life that you would have us live. 25 00:03:06.740 --> 00:03:10.060 We ask, Father, for blessing this morning as we read from this. 26 00:03:10.060 --> 00:03:21.580 It has to do with the gifts that the abilities that you have given us and how we are to use them and what they are for and what they mean. 27 00:03:21.580 --> 00:03:25.660 We pray, Father, that as we study this this morning, we begin to understand these truths. 28 00:03:25.660 --> 00:03:34.060 And Father, that we begin to use these things in a way that is right and pleasing to you. 29 00:03:34.060 --> 00:03:37.580 We ask, Father, for your care and mercy and blessing. 30 00:03:37.580 --> 00:03:43.460 Help us to understand this we pray and apply it to our hearts and lives in Jesus’ name. 31 00:03:43.460 --> 00:03:45.860 Amen. 32 00:03:45.860 --> 00:03:48.960 So, let’s just begin with verse 1. 33 00:03:48.960 --> 00:03:55.320 I don’t know if you caught that or not, but it begins with those two words, “Now concerning.” 34 00:03:55.320 --> 00:04:01.840 And as we’ve worked through 1 Corinthians so far, you might know what that means. 35 00:04:01.840 --> 00:04:10.560 Maybe not, but you might remember that when you see this in 1 Corinthians , he’s introducing a topic, a new topic. 36 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:23.900 Something that he’s dealing with, probably something that’s a response to something that he has learned about the Corinthians, or perhaps even more likely, a response to the letter that they have sent him. 37 00:04:23.900 --> 00:04:25.940 And so, here’s a new topic. 38 00:04:25.940 --> 00:04:41.340 It’s related to the same general topic that began a couple of chapters back, having to do with worship, and how we worship, and how the body interacts in worship, especially. 39 00:04:41.340 --> 00:04:53.960 And so, he says, “Now concerning spiritual gifts,” you notice I don’t know if you look at your Bible, you might notice that the word “gifts” is in italics. 40 00:04:53.960 --> 00:04:56.860 It’s really not there in the in the original language. 41 00:04:56.860 --> 00:05:04.640 Now, “concerning spiritual things, spiritual men, spiritual gifts.” 42 00:05:04.640 --> 00:05:11.180 Brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. 43 00:05:11.180 --> 00:05:18.020 That second thing, we’ve seen before this second part, we’ve seen this phrase before, “I don’t want you to be ignorant of this,” he’s saying. 44 00:05:18.020 --> 00:05:21.000 What does that mean? 45 00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:25.680 It means that what he is about to teach them is really important. 46 00:05:25.680 --> 00:05:29.660 It’s important to them, and it’s really important to us. 47 00:05:29.660 --> 00:05:31.840 This is something that you need to know. 48 00:05:31.840 --> 00:05:33.880 Here’s something that you need to know. 49 00:05:33.880 --> 00:05:36.420 These spiritual things. 50 00:05:36.420 --> 00:05:47.340 Now, the word, in verse 1, “concerning these spiritual things,” that word is used 15 times in this chapter. 51 00:05:47.340 --> 00:05:54.840 I mean in this book, in the book of 1 Corinthians . 52 00:05:54.840 --> 00:05:58.880 And Paul uses it 24 times total. 53 00:05:58.880 --> 00:06:04.580 And it’s used maybe three other times in the New Testament. 54 00:06:04.580 --> 00:06:20.940 So, you’re going to get most of your instruction on a great deal of your instruction for what it means for this idea of spirituality, or what it means to be spiritual from this chapter, because he has a lot to say about it here. 55 00:06:20.940 --> 00:06:28.920 And as I mentioned, the word “spiritual,” the Greek word is pneumatikos . 56 00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:33.740 So, I wouldn’t throw that out if it wasn’t important. 57 00:06:33.740 --> 00:06:39.980 So, pneumatikos , I can say that word and you know something about it. 58 00:06:39.980 --> 00:06:48.560 Just in speaking the word pneuma , you know in English that pneuma might have an idea, something about what pneuma might mean. 59 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:51.160 Things like pneumatic. 60 00:06:51.160 --> 00:06:56.790 If you know anything about pneumatics, you know it has to do with air pressure, that type of thing. 61 00:06:56.790 --> 00:07:03.360 But the word pneuma originally had to do with the wind, with the air. 62 00:07:03.360 --> 00:07:08.040 And the idea of spirit, the idea of air. 63 00:07:08.040 --> 00:07:14.000 It’s something that is invisible, and yet powerful . 64 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:31.840 And it became a metaphor, and then a figure, and then the word is used to describe the spiritual nature of a person, an animal, or a person has a spiritual nature that gives it life, the life force that’s active, that causes the animation. 65 00:07:31.840 --> 00:07:35.080 You can’t see what that is. 66 00:07:35.080 --> 00:07:37.980 It’s not something that’s visible. 67 00:07:37.980 --> 00:07:42.480 The Spirit of God, God is a spirit, it tells us in John 4:24 . 68 00:07:42.480 --> 00:07:46.860 He’s the eternal great Spirit. 69 00:07:46.860 --> 00:07:49.960 And you can’t see God. 70 00:07:49.960 --> 00:07:52.920 God is infinitely powerful . 71 00:07:52.920 --> 00:07:57.360 So, that’s the first part of the word, the pneuma part, the spirit, it means spirit. 72 00:07:57.360 --> 00:08:00.300 It means something that is invisible and powerful. 73 00:08:00.300 --> 00:08:03.960 And then you have that suffix -tikos . 74 00:08:03.960 --> 00:08:19.300 And whenever you have something like that in a Greek word, -ikos , or -ika , or -ikon , it has to do with characterized by or controlled by. 75 00:08:19.300 --> 00:08:21.600 So, that’s what this word means. 76 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:29.390 Something that is characterized by the spirit , or controlled by the spirit . 77 00:08:29.390 --> 00:08:44.120 Concerning spiritual, and I was talking about how precise the Greek language is, and the fact that it has genders, that helps you clarify the meaning. 78 00:08:44.120 --> 00:08:47.920 Last week or a week before I was mentioning that. 79 00:08:47.920 --> 00:08:57.620 Well, this particular word could be either masculine or neuter in the form that it is in the New Testament. 80 00:08:57.620 --> 00:08:59.760 It could be either one. 81 00:08:59.760 --> 00:09:05.460 And so, here it’s being translated as if it’s translated as spiritual gifts or spiritual things. 82 00:09:05.460 --> 00:09:14.400 It’s likely what he’s talking about, but if it was translated masculine, then it would be spiritual men, that would be the idea. 83 00:09:14.400 --> 00:09:19.880 And it’s used that way in 1 Corinthians earlier. 84 00:09:19.880 --> 00:09:25.040 In 3:3 , that’s exactly he’s talking about spiritual men, the idea of that. 85 00:09:25.040 --> 00:09:30.080 Either way, the meaning won’t change much in this passage. 86 00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:43.740 It’s going to be describing the same issue, the same kind of thing, whether he’s talking about a spiritual thing that we’re receiving, he’s really talking about the manifestation of that in the person. 87 00:09:43.740 --> 00:09:49.940 So, either way, it’s going to have the same idea. 88 00:09:49.940 --> 00:10:02.020 So, the question is, how do you know if a person is being controlled by the Spirit? 89 00:10:02.020 --> 00:10:12.100 How do you know, when a person is in a worship service and they give an utterance in a worship service, how do you know that that’s a spiritual thing? 90 00:10:12.100 --> 00:10:16.060 That they’re being controlled, and the word that they’re giving is spiritual. 91 00:10:16.060 --> 00:10:19.720 Now, this issue is important for us today. 92 00:10:19.720 --> 00:10:21.300 It’s really important for us. 93 00:10:21.300 --> 00:10:26.900 And it was particularly important in the early church. 94 00:10:26.900 --> 00:10:34.000 It was crucial in the early church, even more so than today, because today we have all the New Testament. 95 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:38.120 We have the revelation of God, Old and New Testament. 96 00:10:38.120 --> 00:10:41.000 But they only had the Old Testament. 97 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:45.040 They didn’t have the Gospels at this time. 98 00:10:45.040 --> 00:10:46.940 And so, how did they have the Word of God? 99 00:10:46.940 --> 00:10:48.600 Did God leave them in a void? 100 00:10:48.600 --> 00:10:51.300 No, He gave them His Word. 101 00:10:51.300 --> 00:10:55.160 And He gave it through the ministry of the people of the church. 102 00:10:55.160 --> 00:10:56.980 He provided for that need. 103 00:10:56.980 --> 00:10:58.300 He made up for that. 104 00:10:58.300 --> 00:11:08.620 And so, there are certain gifts that they have here, where people are giving utterances that are revelatory. 105 00:11:08.620 --> 00:11:09.800 They needed that. 106 00:11:09.800 --> 00:11:11.700 They needed to have the Word of God. 107 00:11:11.700 --> 00:11:13.100 God hadn’t left them in a void. 108 00:11:13.100 --> 00:11:15.060 The Spirit had inspired the Word of God. 109 00:11:15.060 --> 00:11:20.780 God was using in these churches, and blessing them through it. 110 00:11:20.780 --> 00:11:25.440 But how do you know, who is real and who isn’t real? 111 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:36.680 This, let’s think about this, coming out of paganism, as the Corinthians did. 112 00:11:36.680 --> 00:11:38.440 What was spiritual? 113 00:11:38.440 --> 00:11:42.130 And how did they know what was spiritual in their past experience? 114 00:11:42.130 --> 00:11:48.060 What was what was important to them? 115 00:11:48.060 --> 00:11:54.600 In pagan culture, and he’s going to go there in verse 3. 116 00:11:54.600 --> 00:12:09.840 The person who was spiritual, it was obvious that person when they were controlled by the spirit of God, by a spirit, whatever that spirit was. 117 00:12:09.840 --> 00:12:12.140 How do we know? 118 00:12:12.140 --> 00:12:15.380 And how important this is to us? 119 00:12:15.380 --> 00:12:17.680 Are we controlled by the Spirit of God? 120 00:12:17.680 --> 00:12:20.960 Are we spiritual people, spiritual men and women? 121 00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:26.840 Back in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 , and verse 3. 122 00:12:26.840 --> 00:12:34.520 If you go back to chapter 2, Paul has just said, “I’ve received spiritual revelation from God.” 123 00:12:34.520 --> 00:12:35.620 That’s basically what he’s saying. 124 00:12:35.620 --> 00:12:41.800 Or spiritual given this spiritual revelation, and I’ve passed on the spiritual revelation to you. 125 00:12:41.800 --> 00:12:43.720 That’s what I’m doing. 126 00:12:43.720 --> 00:12:54.840 But in chapter 3, and verse 3, he says, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual men, but as to men of the flesh, as to infants in Christ.” 127 00:12:54.840 --> 00:12:59.720 So, what does he mean there when he says that they’re not spiritual? 128 00:12:59.720 --> 00:13:07.280 Remember that -ikos word, being controlled by or characterized by the Spirit of God. 129 00:13:07.280 --> 00:13:16.900 He’s saying, “The way you’re living your life, and the decisions that you’re making, and the way you’re thinking, and the way you’re practicing, you’re not being controlled by the Spirit of God. 130 00:13:16.900 --> 00:13:18.820 You’re not spiritual.” 131 00:13:18.820 --> 00:13:41.180 And so, chapter after chapter, we’ve gone through 1 Corinthians , he’s given evidence of the Corinthians’ behavior, and how they’re living their life apart, really, from spiritual control, it’s not characteristic of the Spirit of God. 132 00:13:41.180 --> 00:13:44.430 It manifested itself in so many ways. 133 00:13:44.430 --> 00:14:06.440 So, the spiritual man is the one who walks by the Spirit, as in Galatians 5 , “Walk by the Spirit,” and the person who shows the fruit of the Spirit. 134 00:14:06.440 --> 00:14:21.940 In pagan culture, the Oracle of Delphi, or what was really common in one of the common religions in Corinth was Dionysian worship. 135 00:14:21.940 --> 00:14:44.700 The Oracle of Delphi, the woman that gave out those utterances, when she gave out the utterances, manifested wild, frenzied action, behavior and speech that was hard to, wild speech, basically. 136 00:14:44.700 --> 00:14:57.460 And the fact that she was so out of control of herself, meant to them that she was being controlled by the god that they were worshipping. 137 00:14:57.460 --> 00:14:59.860 And the same thing in Dionysian worship. 138 00:14:59.860 --> 00:15:05.040 They would have these orgy-like worship services. 139 00:15:05.040 --> 00:15:11.580 It was literally a drunken orgy, a lot of it with all sorts of things that they took. 140 00:15:11.580 --> 00:15:18.940 And they would work themselves up into a frenzy of wild dancing and action and weirdness. 141 00:15:18.940 --> 00:15:26.580 And then when they gave themselves over to all of that stuff, then they were being controlled by their gods. 142 00:15:26.580 --> 00:15:35.880 And they would give utterances which were taken to be prophetic utterances and being controlled by their gods. 143 00:15:35.880 --> 00:15:46.720 And then you have Paul’s instruction, and how radically different it is. 144 00:15:46.720 --> 00:16:13.260 Compare this, they’re looking and I think the early church was looking for these spectacular, out-of-control, exotic kinds of things as evidence of the spirit, the worship of God, as evidence that God was controlling. 145 00:16:13.260 --> 00:16:22.820 But Paul is saying a lot different in this section as we’ve worked through this section and over the next couple of chapters, he’s saying that God doesn’t work that way. 146 00:16:22.820 --> 00:16:30.740 God works in an orderly way . 147 00:16:30.740 --> 00:16:34.720 It’s quite different. 148 00:16:34.720 --> 00:16:42.920 It’s so much different. 149 00:16:42.920 --> 00:17:00.420 How unexciting by comparison, I suppose, are the fruits of the Spirit, the fact that God works love and faith and goodness and patience and all the qualities of the fruits of the Spirit in us. 150 00:17:00.420 --> 00:17:02.640 That’s the way God works. 151 00:17:02.640 --> 00:17:07.880 God works in us and changes who we are and our character and nature. 152 00:17:07.880 --> 00:17:24.680 And yet, you look at history, and you can see how powerful those things are, incredibly powerful, far more powerful than a frenzied action and speech. 153 00:17:24.680 --> 00:17:42.820 So, if we can manifest love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness, if we can show gentleness and self-control, the fruits of the Spirit, then we are manifesting something that is true of the Spirit of God. 154 00:17:42.820 --> 00:17:56.040 We are a spiritual person and to the degree that God is using us to work those things out in us, to that degree we’re acting in the Spirit. 155 00:17:56.040 --> 00:18:05.740 So, the word that’s used here is that word spiritual, spirit, spiritual things, spiritual things that are coming from God. 156 00:18:05.740 --> 00:18:08.940 How do we know that they’re coming from God? 157 00:18:08.940 --> 00:18:17.980 Well, the first thing, in verse 2, “You know that you were when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were led.” 158 00:18:17.980 --> 00:18:19.980 And that verse is saying a lot. 159 00:18:19.980 --> 00:18:23.720 It’s saying you were led into these things. 160 00:18:23.720 --> 00:18:28.260 You were being controlled and led into these things. 161 00:18:28.260 --> 00:18:42.120 The language is used in Greek to describe someone who is bound over in chains to a prison, or to be executed. 162 00:18:42.120 --> 00:18:45.860 So, that’s kind of interesting. 163 00:18:45.860 --> 00:18:46.440 You have that. 164 00:18:46.440 --> 00:19:00.140 And so, the idea here is that that kind of binding, that kind of bondage that leads them to the idolatry. 165 00:19:00.140 --> 00:19:02.140 And they’re doing what they want to do. 166 00:19:02.140 --> 00:19:05.420 So, they’re totally blind to the bondage. 167 00:19:05.420 --> 00:19:12.800 Not only spiritually bound, but they’re also blind, so they can’t see the chains binding them. 168 00:19:12.800 --> 00:19:18.120 That’s what they want to do. 169 00:19:18.120 --> 00:19:22.540 So, verse 2, this is their history, that’s what they’re coming out of. 170 00:19:22.540 --> 00:19:28.420 And then verse 3, “Therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says Jesus is accursed.” 171 00:19:28.420 --> 00:19:37.010 And so, you have this statement in verse 2, and then you have this statement in verse 3, and they’re connected by the “therefore.” 172 00:19:37.010 --> 00:19:53.780 And so, basically what he’s saying here is that because of that connection, he’s saying, coming from that background, you need to know this. 173 00:19:53.780 --> 00:20:03.640 I don’t care how frenzied the action is, I don’t care what it is that you’re looking to to think that a person is spiritual. 174 00:20:03.640 --> 00:20:14.030 If they say that Jesus is accursed, Jesus is anathema, He’s accursed, then they’re not speaking by the Spirit of God. 175 00:20:14.030 --> 00:20:19.020 It’s not they’re not being controlled by the Spirit of God, you can know that. 176 00:20:19.020 --> 00:20:31.020 Now, I don’t know, it could very well have happened that that was an example that had been given to Paul, which initiated part of this discussion. 177 00:20:31.020 --> 00:20:34.640 That could very well have happened in their worship service. 178 00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:38.700 It’s hard to imagine that, but that could very well have happened. 179 00:20:38.700 --> 00:20:46.960 Perhaps Paul points out that on the cross, Jesus became accursed for us. 180 00:20:46.960 --> 00:20:48.180 He’s not accursed. 181 00:20:48.180 --> 00:20:50.620 It’s a very different thing to say. 182 00:20:50.620 --> 00:20:54.320 He became accursed for us and that he took on our sins. 183 00:20:54.320 --> 00:20:58.570 Maybe they in some twisted thing of that, somebody could have said something like that. 184 00:20:58.570 --> 00:20:59.880 Or they’re speaking in the Spirit? 185 00:20:59.880 --> 00:21:03.060 No, they’re not. 186 00:21:03.060 --> 00:21:11.640 In fact, it’s interesting historically, just a few years after this, this becomes the test of who is real. 187 00:21:11.640 --> 00:21:16.090 Because Rome puts them to the test in that Roman persecution that comes. 188 00:21:16.090 --> 00:21:25.500 They if they had to deny their history, and they had to say that Jesus Christ was accursed. 189 00:21:25.500 --> 00:21:35.560 And if they said that Jesus Christ was accursed, then they wouldn’t be tortured or executed. 190 00:21:35.560 --> 00:21:45.920 And so, it became a test for who was real. 191 00:21:45.920 --> 00:21:49.220 So, it’s an interesting verse. 192 00:21:49.220 --> 00:22:04.960 And it’s saying, whether this happened historically or not, there’s more here than just the fact that the words themselves, or that it could have happened historically. 193 00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:08.760 There’s a truth here that we need to pull out for us. 194 00:22:08.760 --> 00:22:13.080 It’s not just describing the words either. 195 00:22:13.080 --> 00:22:15.300 People can say all different kinds of things. 196 00:22:15.300 --> 00:22:18.060 You can say, “Jesus is Lord.” 197 00:22:18.060 --> 00:22:23.540 You can say those words and not be of the Spirit of God. 198 00:22:23.540 --> 00:22:26.480 It’s not a contradiction to what he’s saying here. 199 00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:44.960 You need to, for example, in Matthew chapter 7 , Jesus points out that there are many who will come to me in that day and say, “Lord, Lord, have we not done these works, cast out these demons, done these works in your name?” 200 00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:50.740 And Jesus says, “Depart from me, you worker of iniquity, I never knew you.” 201 00:22:50.740 --> 00:22:51.380 That’s not the point. 202 00:22:51.380 --> 00:22:52.800 The point is, it’s not just the words. 203 00:22:52.800 --> 00:23:09.380 Same thing in 1 John , when he’s talking about if anyone says to you that if they say to you that Jesus has come in the flesh, that He actually had a physical body, then that’s good. 204 00:23:09.380 --> 00:23:10.040 That’s of God. 205 00:23:10.040 --> 00:23:12.300 That’s of the Spirit. 206 00:23:12.300 --> 00:23:15.020 Well, you could say that and not be of the Spirit. 207 00:23:15.020 --> 00:23:15.820 That’s not the point. 208 00:23:15.820 --> 00:23:27.060 The point is, you’ve got an issue with people denying that Jesus came in the flesh, and then you have these people who are affirming truth. 209 00:23:27.060 --> 00:23:30.060 And the truth is of the Spirit of God. 210 00:23:30.060 --> 00:23:33.640 So, the affirmation of truth is of the Spirit of God. 211 00:23:33.640 --> 00:23:37.620 It doesn’t mean that you can’t say things hypocritically, that’s not the point. 212 00:23:37.620 --> 00:23:51.160 The point is that the exercise of a spiritual gift, the genuine exercise, when it’s genuine, it demonstrates the lordship of Christ . 213 00:23:51.160 --> 00:23:55.100 It points back to Christ as the Lord. 214 00:23:55.100 --> 00:24:00.400 And if that doesn’t happen, then what is happening in that service is not of the Lord. 215 00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:16.880 If it’s not magnifying the lordship of Christ, if it’s not glorifying Christ, if it’s not working to the work of God in any way like that, then it is not of God. 216 00:24:16.880 --> 00:24:26.960 So, if it’s from God, then it’s going to be coherent and understandable in speech and it’s going to magnify the lordship of Christ. 217 00:24:26.960 --> 00:24:30.260 Verse 4, it says, “There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 218 00:24:30.260 --> 00:24:34.860 And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. 219 00:24:34.860 --> 00:24:40.670 There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.” 220 00:24:40.670 --> 00:24:49.180 There are all these different things that’s coming from God. 221 00:24:49.180 --> 00:25:03.280 The usual word that talks about gifts of the Spirit, the charisma , that idea, that’s found in verse 4 here. 222 00:25:03.280 --> 00:25:09.420 All the rest of the time, it’s this idea of spiritual, effects of the Spirit, and the control of the Spirit. 223 00:25:09.420 --> 00:25:15.240 There are varieties of charisma , charismatic gifts. 224 00:25:15.240 --> 00:25:23.080 These are, the idea is with that particular word, the first part of that word means grace. 225 00:25:23.080 --> 00:25:25.820 A gift that has been given. 226 00:25:25.820 --> 00:25:30.840 It’s a gracious grace from God that is given to His people. 227 00:25:30.840 --> 00:25:35.440 We receive spiritual gifts when we come to faith in Jesus Christ. 228 00:25:35.440 --> 00:25:41.420 He endows us with abilities and things, the means to be controlled by the Spirit of God. 229 00:25:41.420 --> 00:25:51.660 And there will be effects in our life that are useful to God and to the building up of His body. 230 00:25:51.660 --> 00:25:55.940 The point here is, there is a lot of variety . 231 00:25:55.940 --> 00:26:05.200 There’s gifts and services and workings, all of these coming from the Spirit of God, and they come to all these different people. 232 00:26:05.200 --> 00:26:09.440 But the thing you need to keep in mind is it’s the Spirit. 233 00:26:09.440 --> 00:26:10.840 It’s the Lord. 234 00:26:10.840 --> 00:26:11.540 It’s God. 235 00:26:11.540 --> 00:26:14.460 There is one source for all these things. 236 00:26:14.460 --> 00:26:20.440 There’s great diversity in the body of Christ in gifted gifts and abilities and all these things. 237 00:26:20.440 --> 00:26:21.660 There’s great diversity. 238 00:26:21.660 --> 00:26:29.440 God has blessed you, and when He saved you, He’s given you abilities to be used in the body of Christ. 239 00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:34.520 There’s all these different things, but there’s only one God. 240 00:26:34.520 --> 00:26:38.260 There’s one source, and there’s one purpose. 241 00:26:38.260 --> 00:26:55.160 There’s the purpose of glorifying the Lord, but the main the purpose is singled out here in particular is of building up, of edifying the body of Christ. 242 00:26:55.160 --> 00:27:01.460 Verse 7, “For to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” 243 00:27:01.460 --> 00:27:05.340 And here’s a really important, some really important things. 244 00:27:05.340 --> 00:27:08.640 You’re given grace from God. 245 00:27:08.640 --> 00:27:15.560 When God saved you, He saved us by grace, and we understand that generally. 246 00:27:15.560 --> 00:27:18.820 But He gifted us with abilities. 247 00:27:18.820 --> 00:27:22.180 And that comes to you as a grace. 248 00:27:22.180 --> 00:27:26.000 First of all, it’s not something that you deserve. 249 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:29.900 Grace is not something that’s deserved. 250 00:27:29.900 --> 00:27:32.360 You can think that you deserve it. 251 00:27:32.360 --> 00:27:36.900 And secondly, it is not for you. 252 00:27:36.900 --> 00:27:43.960 When you are given an ability or a gift, if God has blessed you with a talent, with physical talent, just a natural talent. 253 00:27:43.960 --> 00:27:51.380 Or if He’s blessed you especially with a spiritual gift, it’s not for you. 254 00:27:51.380 --> 00:27:56.080 It’s ultimately for the Lord, but it’s for the building up of others. 255 00:27:56.080 --> 00:28:02.900 God blesses you with a gift, and you have a unique gift, and that gift is for me. 256 00:28:02.900 --> 00:28:09.300 It’s for me, and it’s for the body of Christ, and it’s so that Christ can be glorified. 257 00:28:09.300 --> 00:28:16.740 It’s not for the glory of the person and the building up of the person who has the gift. 258 00:28:16.740 --> 00:28:22.360 That’s why there’s no reason to be jealous of somebody who has a unique gift from God. 259 00:28:22.360 --> 00:28:27.520 We don’t need to be jealous of their gift because the gift is for us. 260 00:28:27.520 --> 00:28:29.720 It’s not for them. 261 00:28:29.720 --> 00:28:35.220 God has entrusted that to them to be used in the body of Christ. 262 00:28:35.220 --> 00:28:36.560 And it’s an entrustment. 263 00:28:36.560 --> 00:28:38.400 It’s a stewardship. 264 00:28:38.400 --> 00:28:49.760 They take the gift that they’ve given, and then they offer it back to it just like in Jesus’ parable, when they say, “I took what you gave me, and this is the benefit. 265 00:28:49.760 --> 00:28:58.200 I invested it for you, and this is what it has produced, and I give that back to you.” 266 00:28:58.200 --> 00:29:02.160 And that’s a wonderful thing to be used of God. 267 00:29:02.160 --> 00:29:06.480 It’s a grace to be used of God in that way, but it’s not for the individual. 268 00:29:06.480 --> 00:29:08.940 It’s for the body of Christ. 269 00:29:08.940 --> 00:29:16.880 It’s for building up other people. 270 00:29:16.880 --> 00:33:21.920 So, the gifts are entrusted to you not for you, but for the common good . 271 00:33:21.920 --> 00:33:43.260 And so, he in verses 8 to beginning in verse 8, he lists some of these: word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, the gift of faith, and gifts of healing, and effecting of miracles, and distinguishing of spirits, and various kinds of tongues. 272 00:33:43.260 --> 00:34:00.520 I think, these gifts were active in the early church, and some of them were probably being abused and imitated in the early church. 273 00:34:00.520 --> 00:34:05.970 But I don’t think all of these gifts are necessary once the Word of God has been given. 274 00:34:05.970 --> 00:34:08.360 That God still gives gifts. 275 00:34:08.360 --> 00:34:11.120 He gives what is necessary, what we need. 276 00:34:11.120 --> 00:34:15.260 And I’m not sure any list of gifts is complete. 277 00:34:15.260 --> 00:34:20.880 I don’t know what all God gives, only way of spiritual gifts. 278 00:34:20.880 --> 00:34:28.820 But some gifts were really important, gifts of administration so that things can be ordered rightly. 279 00:34:28.820 --> 00:34:31.480 Gifts of teaching are certainly important. 280 00:34:31.480 --> 00:34:35.300 Gifts of encouragement are important, are vital. 281 00:34:35.300 --> 00:34:42.720 And we don’t we can’t continue without the gifts being exercised, or we were certainly hurt. 282 00:34:42.720 --> 00:35:01.680 We become sick, as a spiritual church, if these gifts aren’t being exercised rightly. 283 00:35:01.680 --> 00:35:08.020 So, the Corinthians weren’t behaving spiritually. 284 00:35:08.020 --> 00:35:16.650 Going back to chapter 3, their behavior is carnal, as we’ve explored the chapters, we’ve seen that. 285 00:35:16.650 --> 00:35:19.220 Their behavior was factious and divisive. 286 00:35:19.220 --> 00:35:27.080 They were called up in various immoralities that we’ve talked about earlier. 287 00:35:27.080 --> 00:35:50.680 One of the main things is that it’s come up repeatedly is a selfishness, a self-focus, where people were asserting their rights, and they were claiming rights for themselves, instead of giving over to the other person out of love. 288 00:35:50.680 --> 00:36:03.900 And so, because of their selfishness and factiousness and immorality and the way their own self-focus, they couldn’t recognize the working of the Spirit of God rightly. 289 00:36:03.900 --> 00:36:08.780 They couldn’t recognize the spiritual things. 290 00:36:08.780 --> 00:36:18.440 They’re looking for something spectacular and grand, and they don’t see the powerful that is in the small things. 291 00:36:18.440 --> 00:36:23.480 It’s one of the reasons that I read that chapter from Elijah. 292 00:36:23.480 --> 00:36:39.380 Elijah had just performed an extraordinary work in bringing fire, he didn’t do it, of course, he prayed, and God sent fire down from heaven, consumed the altar and everything on it. 293 00:36:39.380 --> 00:36:43.200 And then the prophets of Baal were put to death. 294 00:36:43.200 --> 00:36:46.340 And he had this great victory for the Lord. 295 00:36:46.340 --> 00:36:51.040 God is omnipotent and all-powerful, and Baal certainly is not. 296 00:36:51.040 --> 00:36:53.720 And anybody could see that and recognize it. 297 00:36:53.720 --> 00:36:57.560 It’s just absolutely ridiculous to continue believing in Baal. 298 00:36:57.560 --> 00:37:05.440 But they continued to believe in Baal, and that was devastating to Elijah. 299 00:37:05.440 --> 00:39:10.480 There’s a lesson he needed to learn about how the Spirit works, a lesson that we need to learn as well. 300 00:39:10.480 --> 00:39:15.460 Sometimes he works in unexpected ways and in small ways. 301 00:39:15.460 --> 00:39:20.180 He doesn’t always work in the grand, showy ways that we think. 302 00:39:20.180 --> 00:39:29.260 He works within, and He changes us eternally as we hear His Word. 303 00:39:29.260 --> 00:39:36.110 And through the power of the Spirit, He puts it to work in our life. 304 00:39:36.110 --> 00:39:46.740 It tells us in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 7 , that “Grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” 305 00:39:46.740 --> 00:39:53.380 That means that every one of us has received special grace from God to be used of God. 306 00:39:53.380 --> 00:39:57.340 How different is this from the pagan thing that was going on. 307 00:39:57.340 --> 00:40:05.100 First of all, it wasn’t just to the few, it’s to every child of God. 308 00:40:05.100 --> 00:40:22.140 And secondly, it doesn’t to show ourselves in frenzies out-of-control behavior, but it is it works to produce and to build up and to edify the body of Christ, the local body of Christ. 309 00:40:22.140 --> 00:40:29.020 And so, God has given abilities to you, and they’re not to magnify you. 310 00:40:29.020 --> 00:40:30.600 They’re not to magnify me. 311 00:40:30.600 --> 00:40:32.980 They’re not to build up my name. 312 00:40:32.980 --> 00:40:38.880 It’s to build up the name of Jesus Christ. 313 00:40:38.880 --> 00:40:43.440 So, we don’t we don’t own ourselves. 314 00:40:43.440 --> 00:40:53.600 The Christian life is not about us and our rights, but the abilities that God has given us, it’s for His people. 315 00:40:53.600 --> 00:40:59.400 It’s for the building up of His people and His local church. 316 00:40:59.400 --> 00:41:02.840 And that’s the main application of chapter 12 . 317 00:41:02.840 --> 00:41:10.580 But especially as we looked at these first 11 verses, this gets richer and better as we explore it. 318 00:41:10.580 --> 00:41:15.920 So, we’ll do that beginning next week. 319 00:41:15.920 --> 00:41:19.720 Father, we thank you for your kindness to us and mercy in Christ. 320 00:41:19.720 --> 00:41:31.760 We thank you for gifting us and giving us spiritual graces, recognizing that none of these things is something that we deserve. 321 00:41:31.760 --> 00:41:44.260 We can’t it’s wrong for us to be envious of any gift because they’re grace, and there’s nothing that we deserve. 322 00:41:44.260 --> 00:41:59.120 And Father, we pray that as we begin to understand this better, that you would put these gifts to use in our life in ways that we are able to see that the Spirit of God is manifested. 323 00:41:59.120 --> 00:42:00.700 The Spirit of God is seen. 324 00:42:00.700 --> 00:42:03.080 The invisible is seen. 325 00:42:03.080 --> 00:42:14.680 Just as the wind blows and you can see its effects, the Spirit of God is seen as it works in us, building up your church. 326 00:42:14.680 --> 00:42:18.540 Use us in these ways, we pray, in Christ’s name. 327 00:42:18.540 --> 00:42:20.540 Amen.