WWUTT 1333 Different Spiritual Gifts (Romans 12:6-8)

One Body in Christ and the Call to Humble Service

In Christ, we are one body, his church. We're also individually members of one another. We've been given different spiritual gifts and we're to use those gifts for his glory and the benefit of his church when we understand the text.

You're listening to When We Understand the Text, committed to the sound teaching of the word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. And don't forget our website, wwutt .com.

Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. This week we've been in Romans 12, verses three through eight and I'm gonna start off by reading this section again. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

For as in one body, we have many members and the members do not all have the same function. So we though many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.

If prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

I wanna come back to verse five because this really is the heart of this section we're looking at here, where the Apostle Paul says, we, the church though many are one body in Christ and individually, we are individuals that make up the church, but we are members one of another.

And as I said yesterday, this is something that we must fight to maintain because Satan is attempting to divide and conquer and he's doing a really good job at it. Satan is a very effective adversary.

We should not ever have this idea that he's never able to accomplish the things that he sets out to do. Like, hey, the Lord's on my side. What can Satan do to me, right? Kick up our feet and say, if the devil doesn't like it, he can sit on attack.

That is a lazy, complacent, blase attitude. If you go toe to toe with the devil, you will lose. Even in the book of Jude, where it says, Michael and Satan were contending over the body of Moses and Michael said, the Lord rebuke you.

Even Michael could not do to Satan what the Lord would not allow him to do. And right now, God is giving Satan reign over the earth. Jesus refers to him in John 16 as the ruler of this world. In fact, we have it said in this letter at the end, in Romans chapter 16, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet, but that's not yet.

Right now, Satan is ensnaring people to do his will. That's what it says in 2nd Timothy chapter two, verse 25 and 26. And we also have it said in 2nd Corinthians 11, that he disguises himself as an angel of light.

If we get this attitude that we can fight Satan and win, well, 2nd Peter chapter two and the book of Jude refers to that as blaspheming the glorious ones. When we think that we have in ourselves some ability to fight with Satan and win.

We do not. Without the Lord's help, we would be completely ineffective in that struggle. And in fact, Paul talks about a tormentor of Satan that antagonized him and three times, he asked the Lord to take this agony away, but the Lord would not take it away from him and says, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness.

As Satan continues to have reign on this earth, we will face trouble and that trouble will come at us because of the schemes that the devil concocts. But these things are to make us rely more on God. A day is coming when he is gonna destroy Satan with the breath of his mouth, as it says in 2nd Thessalonians chapter two.

But in the meantime, we must rely upon Christ as our strength. You cannot bind Satan. You cannot say, hey, I rebuke you Satan, I bind you in the name of Jesus and then Satan's never gonna bother you again.

Somebody keeps letting him out if that's the case. Somebody's binding him up and somebody's letting him free again. We don't have that kind of power over the devil. He is a crafty one and he is trying to divide the body of Christ.

When we see wolves rise up from within the body, the apostle Paul warned the church about that in Acts chapter 20, the elders in Ephesus, he said, wolves will rise up from among you. And when we see that happen, that is the devil schemes attempting to divide the body of Christ.

And it is going on now. There are twisted doctrines in the church that are dividing the body. There are people who think of themselves more highly than they ought to think as Paul says not to do. You just think about Carl Lentz, the pastor of Hillsong Church in New York City who recently was outed as an adulterer.

He was in it for himself. He was not in it for the ministry, has never been in it to elevate Christ. And we can see that just from the theology that had been coming out of Hillsong in New York City. Eventually that was seen in his own personal life as well.

That Lentz was only in it for himself. There are a number of teachers even within my own Southern Baptist denomination who are using the church to advance black liberation theology or critical race theory or wokeism and these things divide the church.

They do not unify. They literally divide in the fact that they are breaking up segments of people in the church into various ethnic groups. The white people over here, the black people over here, the Hispanics over here, the white people, the black people, this and so on and so forth.

That's division. That is not being members of one another. That is dividing and saying this group is lesser for this reason, this group is greater because of this. That is not being unified in Christ Jesus.

So we can see the devil's schemes that are playing out in the church around us right now. We have to be on our guard. This is a constant spiritual fight to be against the forces of darkness and to cling to Christ who is our unity.

You cannot manufacture unity. And it most definitely does not come with worldly philosophies and sociology and psychology. Those things will never unify because if Satan is the ruler of this world and those things come from the world, they will only divide the church.

They will never unify it. We only find our unity in Christ. When we are together in Christ Jesus, we are reconciled to each other. We are individuals, but members one of another holding fast to the head who is Christ as Paul puts it in Ephesians four.

So I come back to that verse again, just because of how important it is. It's at the heart of this section that we have been looking at. As Paul says that we have been assigned a measure of faith and we are to use that which has been apportioned to us for the benefit of the body of Christ.

And then he gets specific. Now he's gonna get specific in verses six, seven and eight with what some of those giftings are. And I don't think that this list is comprehensive in the sense that he's listing every spiritual gift that we're given.

For if you go to Ephesians four, you find a different listing of gifts and callings. If you go to first Corinthians 12, you find some of those gifts being the same across the lists, but then there's others that are added as well.

So I don't think the list is necessarily comprehensive. I think it's kind of like the category markers. You know, what would be the titles at the tops of these categories? And then you can find respective gifts within those categories.

Might be something more like that. Regardless, he gets more specific here. And he says, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. So God has shown us all grace. Everyone who is in the body of Christ, we have received the grace of God.

That is shown in the fact that we have turned from sin to Jesus Christ. We see him as savior and Lord. And you can only know Christ as Lord if God has given you grace to be convicted of your sin and to turn to Jesus for the forgiveness of those sins.

We know that the grace of God is demonstrated in the life of the person who knows that the Christ died on the cross for us and rose again from the grave, ascended into heaven, is seated on high at the right hand of the throne of God and worships him as Lord.

The person who knows that has the grace of God. So according to the grace that is given to us, let us use those differing gifts. Paul has been given a specific gift. It is the gift of apostleship. He mentions that right at the beginning of the letter and says it's by the grace of God that he's been called as an apostle.

It's by the grace of God that you are saved. But then it's also by the grace of God that you've been given a specific gift. If you don't like your gift, if you're looking at somebody else's gift and you're saying, I would rather have that gift, you're snubbing God for his grace.

Don't do that. Be grateful for the gift that God has given to you. It may not be as cool or as hip or looks as good online as like the discernment guys. Hey, we can have our discernment ministry on the internet.

It's a little more difficult to have your charity ministry on the internet. That one doesn't gain as much popularity or as much attention as the discernment guys. So I wish I had the gift of discernment, but don't be that way because then you're just in it for yourself.

You're not in it for how can I benefit the body of Christ? How can I do this to glorify God? And then great will be your reward in heaven. Now that doesn't mean it's bad to receive praise or recognition here on this earth, but let that come from somebody else.

Let someone else see the work that you do and give praise to you for that work. But don't be waving your arms going, hey, look at me or where is my recognition? Because that's not what we're in this for.

We're not doing this to receive praise from men. We are doing this for the glory of our father who is in heaven. When we work to benefit others, to put the needs of others ahead of our own. So having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them for the benefit of the body.

Prophecy, Faith, and the End of Apostolic Gifts

If prophecy in proportion to our faith. Now there are some who say that prophecy, every time we see that word prophecy in scripture, it's in relation to revealing some sort of future thing that is going to take place.

I'm not one of those persons. I don't think that's what it means. Now there are people who are in the cessationist camp and the continuous camp who both say this about prophecy. The cessationist believes that the apostolic gifts have come to an end.

They were for the apostolic age when Jesus had told his apostles to go out and share the gospel and they confirmed their apostleship through miracles, through prophecy, saying things about the future that would come to pass, through healings and speaking in tongues and things like that.

When the last apostle died, when John died, then those apostolic giftings ceased. They do not happen with the regularity that we see them happening in the book of Acts. But then you have the continuists who believe that those apostolic gifts are still prevalent in the world today, especially in the apostolic Pentecostal and charismatic churches, right?

That they're still doing those miraculous healings, speaking in tongues, flopping on the floor, revealing prophetic truths and all these other kinds of things. You cannot ever verify that any of those claims are legitimate.

We do not see these miraculous healings happening on a scale in which we see them in the book of Acts. And even though the continuous says they're still happening and there are faith healers and things like that, you can't ever verify that those things are ever actually legitimate.

So you have the cessationist and you have the continuous and both the cessationist and the continuous are people from both camps. We'll say that whenever we see that word prophecy in scripture, it's about revealing some sort of future thing that's gonna take place that hasn't happened yet.

That's not the way that I see the word prophecy. I think that the word prophecy has a context just like the word salvation has a context. Sometimes salvation means justification, that the moment you come to faith, you believe you are saved.

There are other times where salvation has a context referring more to sanctification or that process of being made holy. So it just kind of depends on how that word salvation is used. For example, in Philippians chapter two, where Paul says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

He's not talking about their do works in order to be saved. He's talking about growing in that salvation that you have in holiness, in godliness, in Christ likeness, as you continue to pursue the commands that God has given to his church.

That's salvation in one context. And then of course you have salvation in the sense that I believe in Jesus and therefore I'm saved. So prophecy has a context as well. The word does not always mean prophetically revealing some event that has yet to take place.

When I preach as a pastor, I am prophesying. I am prophesying what Christ has done, what he is doing now and what he is going to do as we have it revealed to us in scripture. Whenever we prophesy, we should prophesy what has been proclaimed through the prophets and the apostles, that which has been revealed and written down in the pages of scripture.

We're not talking about new revelations that God is giving because then you would be talking about something that would be equally as authoritative as the Bible. And God is not revealing new truths equally as authoritative or more authoritative than the Bible.

This is a closed canon. If God were revealing new truths, then he would be giving apostolic confirmation. And as I said, you don't see that. If you're gonna reveal some new truth that I can't find in the pages of scripture, then raise the dead and I'll believe it.

And no one's doing that. No one is telling the dead to rise and they're coming back to life like Peter or Paul did in command of Christ who said, take this message and I will give you the power to raise the dead.

That was for the apostles. We do not have new apostles today, that office of apostle that was given in the New Testament. The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, eight that he was the last apostle to be appointed.

And Hebrews chapter two, verse four says that God bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. That was during the apostolic ministry, which we're not in anymore.

Not in the sense that the gospel is being proclaimed and therefore affirmed by miracles. It's already been affirmed. We have it in the scriptures. So what we read in the Bible and what we proclaim from the scriptures, that is the prophecy that we are to be committed to today.

That is what I believe is the context of the word prophecy as used here in Romans 12, two. It's not talking about revealing future events. It's talking about the prophecy that a pastor is called to do or an evangelist is called to do or some teacher having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.

If prophecy in proportion to our faith, just like it takes faith to hear teaching and believe it. You must have the faith to believe the teaching that is being given to you. So you must also have faith to prophesy.

A person without faith who is prophesying is proclaiming heresy. So if we are going to prophesy that which God has proclaimed in holy writ, then we must have faith to believe what it is that we are reading and therefore proclaiming.

Service, Teaching, Exhortation, and Mercy

If service, verse seven, if service in our serving, again, it takes faith to listen and believe. So we must have faith to serve as Christ has called us to serve. We are told to serve. Now, as I said, I think that these are kind of more like category heads.

There are different kinds of service. There's not all just like all service must be done this way. There are various ways that we serve, but however you are appointed to serve, serve in faith of the one who appointed you, namely Christ is who I'm referring to there.

The one who teaches in his teaching. And again, we must have faith to believe. We must have faith in the thing that we are teaching. Teaching is not just some, hey, I have an ability to stand in front of people and talk.

No, you have an ability to rightly divide the word. You know how to use scripture to interpret scripture. You know how to help a person understand what the text is saying. That is a gift of teaching. And you must have faith in what is being taught in order to teach it adequately to the glory of God.

Verse eight, the one who exhorts in his exhortation. Now there are different applications to exhortation here. The Greek word is parakaleo, which is the same word that we get the word paraclete from. If you ever heard the Holy Spirit described as a paraclete, it means that he is our advocate or our counselor.

So one who exhorts encourages another, but it could also be to admonish someone, which means to correct with goodwill. It means to entreat or beseech someone, maybe summon somebody. All of these different things apply to exhortation.

So you're talking about somebody who's very persuasive. They tell somebody to do something and they do it. I tell you to repent and that person does it, or I tell you to become a missionary and they do.

There are some who just have a gift to be able to be that persuasive, more so than I can be sometimes. I can tell somebody to do something and they just shrug their shoulders at me. Someone who has a gift of exhortation can tell that same person to do the same thing that I just said, and somehow it's more compelling and they're more convicted by it.

There are those who have that persuasive kind of a gift, and they're the kind of person that you want on your ministry team, right? And when this person exhorts and in his exhortation, it means that he's not just a person of words, he's also a person of action.

He will do what he tells others to do. So as he has that gifting to persuade, he also demonstrates it in his life. And he does this to please God and not man. We have the next gift that's mentioned here, the one who contributes in generosity.

Again, it's doing it for the benefit of others, not to receive praise from other people, but you give to generously benefit someone else, not to benefit yourself. The one who leads to do so with zeal.

They're not dragging their feet. They don't do so begrudgingly. They lead because they want to glorify God, because they want to guide the people of God in a right direction. They do this zealously not to benefit themselves, but to compel the body of Christ to follow what Christ has said.

The one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness, not begrudgingly again. We've seen that with like the last several gifts there. The one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes with generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

In all of this, there is a genuineness of attitude. It's not doing this reluctantly. We do so with a willing heart because it excites us to serve God in this way. We know where we've come from. We know we were as dead men and women in our sins and our transgressions in which we once walked, but God has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

He has shown his mercy to us. By his grace, we are saved. And in light of this, we love to be willing to serve. What gift are you gonna give me, Lord, that I may serve you and benefit this body that you've called me into?

This little thing you're giving to me, that's what you want me to do? Doesn't matter how small, I will do it because I know that I am saved by the grace of God through Jesus Christ, our Savior. That's what we see here in this calling that we are given, not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but to humble ourselves, to glorify God in our service to his body.

Closing Prayer and Program Sign-Off

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this calling. We thank you for forgiving us our sins by faith in Jesus Christ. And as you've called us into this body to serve to the glory of God, I pray that we do so and with a right heart and a good attitude, one that loves God and loves his people.

Let that be demonstrated in our lives until the day of glory. May the light in our eyes never dim. Our enthusiasm is never abated. We do all things to the glory of our God and King, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.