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Have you ever thought of a Bible verse, or something you thought was in the Bible, gave you great comfort, and you went home to try to find it, and you couldn't find it in the
Bible? John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim's Progress, had that happen to him.
One day as I was passing into the field, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul. Thy righteousness is in heaven.
I thought that I could see Jesus Christ at God's right hand. Yes, there indeed was my righteousness, so that whenever I was, or whatever
I was doing, God could not say about me that I did not have righteousness. For it was standing there before Him.
I also saw that it was not my good feelings that made my righteousness better, and that my bad feelings did not make my righteousness worse.
For my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Great comfort, Bunyan had. Now indeed, the chains fell off my legs, and I was loosened from my afflictions and irons.
My temptations also fled away, so that from that time forward, those dreadful scriptures terrified me no more.
I went home rejoicing because of the grace and love of God, and went to my Bible to look up where the verse was found, that said,
Thy righteousness is in heaven. But I could not find it. And so my heart began to sink again, until suddenly there came into my remembrance, 1
Corinthians 1 .30, talking about Christ Jesus, who God has made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.
From this I saw that the other sentence was also true. I lived here sweetly at peace with God through Christ Jesus for a long time.
There was nothing but Christ before my eyes. I was not thinking of Him now only as concerning His blood,
His burial, or His resurrection, but I was thinking of Christ Himself. And He sat there on the right hand of God in heaven.
Bunyan was comforted about his life because of Christ Jesus. Not actually what
He did, although that was important, but who He was. And if you'll turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 12 this morning,
I'd like to remind you that Christ Jesus Himself should be your comfort, should be the one who you think of.
Did I sin today? Did I not measure up? Christ is my righteousness, and your righteousness is at the right hand of God the
Father. And one thing I know as a Christian is this. If you love Jesus Christ, you'll love the church.
Because Christ loved the church. And so when I think about my Savior Christ Jesus, then
I think about His church and how He loved the church. And 1 Corinthians 12 is a classic chapter about how
Christ loves His church, how He takes care of His church. And we mentioned it last week.
God just didn't say, I've redeemed you, and now I hope you can put together a group of sinners that can extol
My name, that can evangelize the Gentiles, that can proclaim the gospel to the Jews, and I hope you make it.
You're forgiven, but I hope you make it. See you in 40 years or 50 years. But what
God has done with the local church is He's gifted her. He's brought her together, and then
He's given her spiritual gifts, and these gifts help proclaim Christ's righteousness in the world.
Now this is probably, I think, lesson, or message 3 in our spiritual gift series.
And I have to tell you, it's one of those series that's kind of hot. And last week when I was sweating, because I thought it was hot up here, and when you preach sometimes you just sweat, don't you?
At least I do. I sweat if I just stand out in the sun for a while. Getting into it, and then
I was told at the door right over there that I was in fact lying about spiritual gifts, that what
I said last week was not true, and it was proven by not a verse, not a concept, but it was proven by I was sweating, and all liars sweat.
So what I'm going to try to do today, if the deacons can get a few fans up here, I will try to show you my credibility by not sweating.
Calm, cool, collected by the Spirit's power. My desire is to teach you the
Bible. Remember 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 13? It's not just the word of man, it's the word of God, and this does a work in you.
It does a work in me. It's a powerful word that works. And what God tells us, we need to know.
The Corinthians were all messed up from lots of different angles, but the one big problem they had was they were not unified.
The bride of Christ should be unified, because we have one Lord, one Savior. Our righteousness is in heaven.
And so Paul wants the church not to be broken apart. Things get involved between people and issues, and then it was following Paul, following Barnabas, and they started breaking up.
Who's rich? Who's poor? They were breaking apart. Who's got spiritual gifts that are really flashing, exciting?
And who's just got a regular spiritual gift? So Paul is going to help them, and he will help us.
Chapter 12, 13, 14 about spiritual gifts. Now let's parachute right down in about verse 7 or so.
Remember, Paul is telling the church that spiritual gifts are for the good of others. They're not for yourself.
Whatever spiritual gift you have, and if you're a Christian, you have at least one, God gifted you to help other people.
And you can almost think about Christ Jesus, how He was serving others, how He labored for others.
His whole life could be described by pleasing the Father by serving other people.
You can think of Christ Jesus washing the feet of the disciples, serving. You can think of Mark, the
Gospel according to Mark, where Mark talks about Jesus who is a servant who didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give
His life a ransom for many. And if Christ Jesus is our King and Captain, He serves, shouldn't we serve as well?
So now God equips the church by giving gifts to people, and they serve one another.
So if you look down in verses 7 through 10, that's what Paul is highlighting here. And let me just read the verses again.
And he's giving different revelation type of gifts to say in context, remember chapter 14, they're all going to be into tongues.
Paul is giving these verses in 7 through 10 to say that God's gifts are manifold and not everybody gets the tongues gift, the languages gift.
Verse 7, to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
Your gift isn't for you, Corinthians. Your gift, Bethlehem Bible Church, isn't for you.
It's for the common good. For to one is given, you don't earn it, you can't come up with it, you can't get it if you want to, through the
Spirit. Not through human agency, through the Spirit. And then he gives a list of nine gifts.
Nine gifts, and at the very end we see what in verse 10? Various kinds of tongues to another, the interpretation of tongues.
And Paul tries to minimize the importance of tongues. It was important, it was a gift, we'll talk about that in a little bit.
But Paul was trying to say, you want tongues at the top of the list? How do you know you're spiritual? I speak in tongues.
Paul is saying, it's at the bottom of the list here. You know you're spiritual if chapter 12 verse 3 lets you say,
Jesus is Lord. That's the epitome of spirituality. So last time we were right in the middle of these nine revelatory gifts found in verses 7 through 10.
And we'll talk about that a little bit more now, because I think it's important for you as a church to understand.
Remember Moses in Deuteronomy? It was said of Moses that he did signs and wonders.
For what reason did Moses do signs and wonders? Miraculous, supernatural things
God did through Moses. For what reason did that happen? Because these sign gifts pointed to something.
And they pointed to Moses as a spokesperson for God, and his message was true.
And actually, how many books of the Bible did Moses end up writing? Five books of the
Bible. They were pointing to Moses and his ability to be the spokesperson for God.
The miracles that he did, the supernatural signs that he did, were linked inextricably to his writing of Scripture.
Turn with me if you would. Keep your finger just on 1 Corinthians 12. Flip over to Acts chapter 2, just for a quick moment.
Acts 2, the same thing was true for Jesus. Why did Jesus do miracles and healings and signs?
Well, because he's a very compassionate God, because Isaiah talks about that, but also because Jesus wanted to prove who he was.
Sign gifts, supernatural revelation gifts, were to say, yes, I confirm him, he is truly the
Son of God. So take a look at Acts 2 .22. The language there is perfect.
It perfectly describes what's happening. Peter says, Men of Israel, hear these words of Jesus Christ.
And before he gives you those words, he mentions something about Christ. A man attested to you by God.
How do you confirm, attest someone is God's spokesperson? With mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know.
This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
These signs, these wonders, these gifts done by Moses to confirm that he was writing
Scripture. By Elijah and Elisha, that what they were doing was Scripture. Jesus and the
Apostle, what they were doing was true. Scripture was being written.
They were unique. Here's one thing that I want you to understand. When you read the Bible, you should say this to yourself.
Not everyone does these gifts. Now, some of our friends in the charismatic movement want to make every one of these normal, and they want you to expect these to go on on a regular basis.
They weren't normal in the Old Testament, nor were they expected. They weren't normal in the New Testament, nor were they expected.
Supernatural things happen. I believe that. But through the gifts of people, they are not normal, nor are they expected.
They are miraculous, supernatural sign gifts to confirm revelation and the messenger.
I even read 1 Samuel 3. Just listen to this. Now, the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord before Eli, and the word from the
Lord was rare in those days. Visions were infrequent. Where God would speak out loud to people, it wasn't common, it wasn't ordinary.
It was rare. Visions were what? A dime a dozen? No, they were infrequent.
And that's what happens when you take a look at all the Bible. You'll see all the miracles, all the signs, all the wonders put together in three main areas.
Moses, Elijah, Jesus, and the prophets. And so the church of Corinth was early on in church history.
The canon wasn't all put together. And God, in His goodness and His grace and wisdom, gave the church sign gifts so they could point to that is true.
But they torqued the sign gifts to say, now the sign gifts don't point to Jesus and His word, they point to me.
Look at me. Let's go to verse 9.
We've looked at so far the utterance of wisdom, the utterance of knowledge, gift of faith, and we touched a little bit last week on the gift of healing.
That's about when I started sweating, was the gift of healings. Now in review, remember,
God heals today. God supernaturally heals. God heals through doctors. He heals through medicine.
He heals through getting promoted to glory. But we're talking here not about healing.
We're talking about someone that's given the gift of healing. We're talking about healers, not
God's supernatural healing. If you have something going on with you or a person that you love, and you want to pray for them, and God heals them in spite of the doctor's prognosis and diagnosis,
I believe God does that. But the gift of healing that God gives to people at Corinth, and if He were to give it today, should represent exactly what the
Bible teaches about healings. Let me just show you what the Bible teaches about healings. Come with me if you would to Matthew 4.
There's something that happens in the Bible that should happen today if in fact the gift is the exact same, and that is
Jesus healed all the people. 100 % success rate.
If you're a charismatic today, and you're a friendly charismatic, I want to be friendly to you.
But what I want to get through your mind is this, that the healings done in the New Testament are not the same kind of healings that are called for today.
This is something unique. This is something special. Why? Because God was penning Scripture. Look at Matthew 4 .24.
The key words are going to be in the next few verses I read to you that He healed all the people.
They weren't selective. They didn't pick a few people out. Verse 24 of Matthew 4,
So His fame spread throughout all Syria. By the way, I don't want to get off on a rabbit trail, but this is going to be a good rabbit trail.
Don't you want the fame of Jesus Christ to spread through Syria today? You would know that would be the work of God.
That the fame of Christ Jesus would be in Syria today. That would be a good prayer to pray. The problem isn't anything else over there except the extolling of Christ Jesus.
And back in those days, it happened. And they brought Him all the sick, those afflicted with various disease and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and He healed them.
Come one, come all, Jesus healed them all. Go to chapter 8, please, and I want you to see the refrain again.
The gift of healing means you can heal everyone, of all things, organically, supernaturally.
And therefore, when you say to yourself, Who can do that today? You should be saying to yourself, We don't need it today, we have the
Bible. And number two, the people that aren't healing today aren't healing all. Aren't healing organically.
Aren't healing like the New Testament. Aren't healing like the Old Testament. It's different. Matthew 8, verse 16,
That evening they brought to Him many who were oppressed by demons, and He cast out the spirits with the word, and He healed, notice this word here, all who were sick.
This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.
Chapter 12, please, I want you to see the refrain. Modern day healers don't have the same gift that the
New Testament people did, nor do they heal the way Jesus did, the apostles did, Moses did,
Elijah did, or Elisha did. Now they may want it to be the same, but it is in fact not the same.
Matthew 12, verse 15, Jesus, aware of all this, withdrew from there, and many followed
Him, and He healed them, what? All. All healed.
Not, well, you don't have enough money, you can't be healed. Every single person was healed.
If Jonathan Nadu, our own Jonathan Nadu was there, Jonathan has no vision because of an accident,
God would heal him. He wouldn't say, you don't have enough faith, you don't have enough money, you've got a sin problem in your life, he would be healed completely.
I find it quite fascinating that the default position for modern day healers is, well, you just don't really have enough faith.
No, the Bible doesn't teach anything about these people and their faith. Jesus healed them all.
Believer and unbeliever, He healed them all. How much faith does an unbeliever have? Chapter 4 of Luke, please.
I want you to just see the refrain again. Here is my point. My point is that the
New Testament gift of healing was spectacular, undeniable, and everyone was healed.
You should be saying to yourself, I would believe a preacher who could heal somebody and put somebody's eyes back into their sockets where they have no eyes.
I would believe that person if he could do that. Luke 4, verse 40.
Let me flip up there. Again, the refrain. It's important for you to see all. A lot of you already know this, but that's okay.
Luke 4, verse 40. Now, when the sun was setting, all those who had any, who were sick with various diseases, brought them to Him and He laid
His hands on every one of them and healed them. And by the way, if you can heal somebody like that, and you can heal that amount of people, what's the response?
What's the next verse? Even the demons have attestation to that. And the demons also came out of many crying, you are the
Son of God. It rebuked them and would not allow them to speak because they knew that He was the Christ. And one last set of verses,
Luke chapter 6, to continue to talk about what the real gift of healing was that was actually given by the
Spirit of God back in the days of Corinth. It was just like the way Jesus could heal, and that is spectacularly, undeniably, organically, completely, and would heal everyone.
Luke chapter 6, verse 17. And He came down with them, stood on a level place with a great crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of the people from all
Judea and Jerusalem, and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases.
And those who were troubled and unclean spirits were cured, and all the crowd sought to touch
Him, for power came out of Him and healed them who had enough faith.
No. They healed them all. The New Testament gift of healing meant that you could heal like Jesus could, and you could heal everyone.
What does that tell me now if I turn on the TV or go someplace, and I say, well, you know what? Not everyone is healed.
That tells me it's not the same gift. Healed them all. Matter of fact, if you look at the New Testament psalm, it's not even
God's will for every sick person to be healed, because as the canon goes on, Epaphroditus in Philippians chapter 2 was sick several years after Corinth.
The letter of Corinth was written, 1 Corinthians. Epaphroditus, sick to the point of death.
Paul didn't heal him. 1 Timothy chapter 5, Timothy had stomach problems and he wasn't healed by Paul.
Paul didn't say you have sin or you don't have enough faith. He just said, have a little wine for your stomach's sake.
62 AD. 66 AD, Erastus abode at Corinth, but Trophimus have
I left at Miletum sick. As the canon was getting completed, there were sick people around, because the sign didn't need to be pointing to anything, because they had the canon.
I said this last week, but I'll say it once more. I will try not to sweat. The healers today, who call themselves healers, need to get out of their controlled environments, out of their tents, out of their healing rooms, and into the hospitals to heal everyone.
But they can't do it, and they know that. There's a church up the street, it's got a healing room open two hours a week.
Now I just think to myself, that is so unlike the New Testament. You can come and get healed these two hours of the week, but all the other hours of the week you just can't get healed.
I think that's the most unloving thing that I've ever seen on Route 12. Healing hours, two hours per week.
Try to find that in the Bible. If you've got the gift of healing, and you can help other people, wouldn't you go out of your way to help other people and heal other people?
If you have the gift of healing, wouldn't you please heal Karen Binney? Wouldn't you please heal
Karen Uloh? But you can't. So the only thing you can do is, I don't mean you, but you can't either,
I can't either, because we don't have the gift of healing. So then we say, well, it's not enough faith, sin in their lives.
The New Testament gift of healing, let's go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, meant that you could heal like Moses, Jesus, the
Apostles, Elijah, Elisha, and you could heal in such a way that people would point to what you said as true.
Well, what other gifts are in this list? 1 Corinthians chapter 12. These are real gifts that happened then.
They're not happening to me now. What does that tell us? We'll talk about that more in a little bit. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 10, to another, the working of miracles.
This is classic. Now let's think about this biblically. Now when I think of miracles, I might be tempted to think that was that time when
Havlicek stole the ball. That would be a curse actually for other fans who didn't grow up here.
Maybe you think miracles on 34th Street. It's a miracle. Maybe you think, well, a miracle is sin bad.
Hercules kind of thing. But what does the Bible teach about miracles? What does the
Bible specifically say? Now it included healings, but it had four other things that were connected to it.
Let's think about those four other things. If you had the gift of miracles, what would that mean?
Oral Roberts said, miracles are, quote, something that we can't explain, but that makes a profound change for the better in our lives.
Interesting. Except some of the New Testament miracles are blinding people and killing people.
Now I don't know if that makes a better change in your life. I guess if you're a Christian and get promoted, that's fine. But miracles in the
Bible, when you use that word miracles, I try not to ever use the word miracle, because miracles that happened back in the
New Testament that were called miracles in the Bible don't happen today through people. Do miracles happen?
Do supernatural things happen? The answer is yes. I've said this last week, but I believe that miracles can happen today, but not through a person who has the gift of miracles.
Let's look at these four components of miracles that are above and beyond healing.
The first one is exercising demons. Turn to Acts chapter 19. The word for miracle just means power, our might, our strength, dunamis is the word.
Miracles can include healing, but since we already talked about that, there are some other aspects of miracles used in the
Bible. Most scholars think there are four other things that happen if someone has the gift of miracles.
Now if you had a child, and the child was sick, and God intervened and healed, and you said that was a miracle,
I wouldn't correct you until later, until everybody was all healed and better.
No, but I would know your sentiment. But that wouldn't really be a miracle. That would be
God doing something. Yes. Actively, yes. Providentially, yes.
Directly, yes. But it wouldn't be this New Testament kind of miracle. Look at what happens when people have the gift of miracles back in those days.
Acts 19 .11, another component of having the gift of miracles is you could cast out demons. And God, Acts 19 .11,
was performing extraordinary miracles by the hand of Paul. So there's our New Testament word for miracles.
It means power. So that handkerchiefs, or aprons, were even carried from his body to the sick, and diseases left them.
So, so far that's talking about the healing component, physically, organically. But here's the extra part of miracles.
Here's the part of, the person who had the gift of miracles could do this. And the evil spirits went out.
If a person had the gift of miracles, they could cast out demons. No chanting. No incense.
No signing. And every person that they cast a demon out, guess what happened to those demons?
They went out. I remember growing up, it must have been 1973, I asked my pastor, would it be, oh this is really, you could just tell how unwise
I was back then. I asked my pastor, I was 13 years old, maybe 14, would it be okay if I go see the movie
The Exorcist? That's what I asked my pastor, a Blatties exorcist. And he said,
I don't think it'd be a good idea. Actually, that was good advice from my Lutheran pastor. But I do know about the movie where people try to cast out demons and it doesn't happen.
If you've ever seen somebody try to cast out a demon and that demon doesn't leave, you can know it's not their New Testament gift of miracles.
Because every person through whom God gave the gift of miracles could cast out every demon.
They were cast all the way out. Never failed. The casting out of demons with the gift of miracles, there were never any preliminaries.
The demon didn't have to cooperate. And by the way, these were real demons. These weren't the demons of worry and the demons of alcoholism and the demons of codependency and the demons of allergies, which
I have today. Not only could a person with the gift of miracles cast out demons, they also could induce disability upon people.
Let's go to Acts chapter 13. Now maybe some of the people on TBN want to do this to conservatives like me, but they are yet to have done it.
If you've got the gift of miracles, you can cast out demons, you can heal people, you can also blind people.
Now if somebody was preaching and they blinded someone, I would give credence to what that person said and that's exactly the reason for the sign gifts, to point to the
Word and to the messenger of that Word. You say, why does this go on today?
Because friends, we don't need it today. People say, well, show me one verse that says, well, the
Bible says supernatural sign gifts through people have ceased. Well, show me one verse that the
Bible teaches that supernatural sign gifts through the apostles go on today.
See, that's not a good enough argument. Acts chapter 13 verse 8. But Elymas, the magician, that was his name had been translated, was opposing them, seeking to turn the procouncil away from the faith.
But Saul, who is also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze upon him and said, by the way, for those who think the
Bible is boring, you who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the
Lord? And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time.
And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand. Then the procouncil believed when he saw what had happened, being amazed at the teaching of the
Lord. How do you know that person is preaching the Bible when they had no Bible with 66 books?
Because if you could do that in blind people, you would be confirmed as a messenger, validated as God's spokesman.
The gift of miracles had something to do with healings, something to do with demons, something to do with disability.
Next, go back to Acts chapter 5. If you had the gift of miracles, you could kill people.
That's fascinating, isn't it? Maybe when you try on TV to kill somebody, but they don't die, they didn't have enough faith.
Wait, now that would be getting off the subject. Okay, Acts chapter 5. It's getting hotter in here.
Acts chapter 5 verse 1, you know the passage. But a man named Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property.
With his wife's knowledge, he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet.
Peter said to Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?
While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? After it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?
You have not lied to man, but to God. When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last, and great fear came upon all who heard it.
The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. After an interval of about three hours, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.
Peter said to her, Tell me whether you sold the land for so much? Yes, for so much. But Peter said to her,
How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.
Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in, they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
Great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard those things. One last passage to look at here with regards to miracles.
Acts chapter 9, please. People who had the gift of miracles could also raise people from the dead.
Real dead people. I've been at the Morrigan, L .A. County USC Medical Center area.
The person who had the gift of healing could walk over to the box of cremains, the remains of the cremated, and raise them from the dead.
Here's Dorcas being raised. I hope there's nobody here named Dorcas. I guess that was a nice name back in those days.
Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha. Acts 9 .36, which translated means
Dorcas. See, no wonder they called her Tabitha.
That's so much nicer. She was full. It's like Gomer. You know, people say,
I want to name my kids biblical names. Okay. In those days she became ill and died and when they had washed her and laid her in the upper room.
Since Lyda was near Joppa, the disciples hearing that Peter was there sent two men to him urging him, please come to us without delay.
By the way, we'll get to this in just a little bit hopefully. Why'd they call for Peter? Why do you want an apostle?
Why can't you just get anybody? Just get me whoever's got some kind of gift.
Doesn't God do things the same yesterday, today, and forever? Just find me somebody. Let's all pray. It'd be fine to pray, but why'd they go get
Peter? Because Peter was an apostle and Peter could do these kind of things and he had such a gift.
So Peter rose and went with them. Verse 39, and when he arrived, they took him to an upper room. All the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas had made while she was with them.
What a tender scene. But Peter put them all outside, knelt down and prayed. Turning to the body, he said,
Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes and when she saw Peter, she sat up. And he gave her his hand and raised her up.
Then calling the saints and the widows, he presented her alive. And it became known throughout all
Joppa and many believed in the Lord. The Gospel was the number one thing for the apostles, but they also could do miracles.
Well, let's go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and since these gifts aren't for today, they're not the same
New Testament gifts that we have today at least, let's ask ourselves the question and answer it. What are these things?
The next one we have in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, number 6, is prophecy. Prophecy.
What is prophecy? New Testament prophecies were always authoritative and they're always flawless.
Always flawless. Now, when I think of prophecy, I think of some kind of future prophecy. Tell me what's going to happen in the future.
The prophecies in the New Testament, which could include that, were simply something that God said through someone else.
Remember, God in the Old Testament was talking to Moses and Moses said, I can't really talk.
Okay, I'll rise up your brother Aaron and he'll be the prophet to you.
Moses, you speak through Aaron. What you say will come through Aaron's mouth, he'll be like a prophet to you.
That's what a prophet is. Someone who speaks on behalf of another. A spokesperson.
So if a spokesperson for God talks, do you expect to find fallible predictions?
Prophecies with error. No, and today modern day charismatics will say even the very, very best of them,
Wayne Grudem will say, today God gives errant prophecy. A spokesperson for God always gives inerrant prophecy.
100 % accuracy. Why? Because God is 100 % accurate.
Prophecy is perfect, infallible, inspired revelation from God.
That's what prophecy is today. Former Dallas Seminary professor Jack Deer said, in order to fulfill
God's highest purposes for our lives, we must be able to hear His voice both in written word and in the word freshly spoken from above.
Satan understands the strategic importance of Christians hearing God's voice. So he has launched various attacks against us in this area.
Listen, one of his most successful attacks has been to develop a doctrine that teaches
God no longer speaks to us except through the written word. Ultimately, this doctrine is demonic even though Christian theologians have been used to perfect it.
Here's what I do know. I do know that if someone says today that God told them something, it must be new revelation.
It must be inspired. It must be authoritative. And it must be something that comes to pass always and forever.
But we know, friends, that doesn't happen. The church doesn't need new revelation from God because we have a completed canon.
Number seven found in verse 10. The seventh thing Paul lists, a revelation sign gift that he lists that he believes were existing at the time, and I believe they were too.
Distinguishing of spirits. End to another to the distinguishing of spirits, verse 10.
This just means to pass judgment. God gives you an extraordinary ability that you didn't have that you can't learn to say what that person did was of God.
What that person did wasn't of God. Today, we have to try the spirits to see if they're of God, 1
John 4. But before they had all the Bible, they had to have people who could say that guy's not from God.
I'm telling you that. I have the gift of distinguishing spirits, our discernment.
Since Satan deceives, we need someone who could tell us the truth. Number eight.
The eighth gift he lists is tongues. Eight is tongues in verse 10, and then we have interpretation of tongues as well.
Let's talk about tongues a little bit. The Greek word for tongues is language. Josephus said that word is language.
Philo said that word is language. Commentators agree that word means language.
Speaking in tongues means you can speak a language that you never learned. It is a verifiable language.
It is a foreign language. Would that be a pretty neat gift? If you met someone and they never learned
German and they could just start preaching to Germans in German, wouldn't you just go, hmm, how about this?
How about if you never learned German and God saved you, forgave your sins, gave you the gift of speaking in German, wouldn't you think that was pretty miraculous?
I think you would think that. It's never ever used in the Bible, tongues as ecstatic speech.
It's a foreign language. The ability to speak a language that you don't know. By the way, if it existed today, why go to language school for overseas missions?
It just doesn't make any sense. It's like when Oral Roberts, when he said, you know what? I've got to have eye surgery.
I don't think I'll go to the hospital that's in Tulsa that the 900 foot Jesus told me to build.
I think I'll go to California for eye surgery. Now that's wrong on two levels. Why don't you go where your own hospital was, but I've got a bigger problem.
Physician, heal yourself. Same thing here. This is a gift that is given.
And if it's given, verse 11 says it's sovereignly given, and you can't coach people to do it.
It's like a motorcycle. If you think to yourself, okay, if I just give it some gas and kind of just start it.
I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. Or kind of put in a little bit of, what's the stuff that you spray in the engine to get it going,
Charlie? Primer. I just used WD -40. I can't find the primer. It works, doesn't it?
Okay, all right. One person said, if you'd like to speak in tongues, just speak, but don't speak
English. That's right. No, don't speak English, but speak out. Let the words flow. That's it.
You've got it. Hobart Freeman said, determine not to speak a word of English at this time.
Lift up the sound of your voice, and the Holy Spirit will give you utterance in a new language supernaturally.
Do not be concerned about what to say as the language is spoken supernaturally and does not come through the mind or intellect, but through the spirit quickened by the
Holy Spirit. In faith, put your speech faculties into operation. As in speaking any language, and the
Holy Spirit now dwelling in you will give you utterance. The New Testament gift of tongues was a language you didn't learn, given to you by God, and you never had to try to learn it, or try it, or figure it out.
And you say, yes, but you know what? I've spoken tongues. Well, friends, I don't know about your experience, but I know that theology from the
Scripture overrides your autobiographical, anecdotal experiences. What drives us as Christians?
I've experienced it, therefore it's true. I've seen it, therefore it's true. No true truth is found in the text.
And the text says these were supernatural gifts given. Now if you tell me, well, what
I've seen isn't a New Testament gift. It's something else. I'll still disagree with you what it is at the end of the day, but at least
I'll respect you for saying, you know what? It's not this New Testament gift. This gift was revelational.
This gift was a foreign language. This gift was for public consumption because it was for other people.
You say, well, I have a private prayer language. Well, maybe you do, but it's not a language. I want you to turn to Matthew 6 for just a second.
Matthew 6, for those of you that want to speak in tongues, have been told to speak in tongues, I just want to try to disavow you of such a thing because I care for you,
I love you, I want to tell you the truth. You can disagree with me, but I'm just going to point you back to Scripture.
By the way, if you'd like to meet with me privately to talk about this, I'd love to, but at the door right there, that's not the particular good spot to sit down and have a dialogue, have a conversation.
Matthew 6, verse 7, Jesus, of course, is just about ready to teach the disciples prayer.
We call it the Lord's Prayer, but that actually would be in chapter 17 of John. But here, it's a fascinating verse.
And it teaches us good truth about tongues, what tongues is, what tongues isn't, and if you've got a prayer language, what you should do and what you shouldn't do.
And when you're praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.
If you've got a father, do you need to kind of butter him up a little bit before he'll listen to you? Talk a lot?
If I just talk a lot, I'll get my dad to answer. Kind of sales school. I'm going to ask dad six yes questions, and so then when
I give him my seventh question, what I really want, can I spend the night over there? He's so used to saying yes, he'll probably say yes again.
I'd never try anything like that, but I've read about it. Sales manuals. When you go to God your
Father, you can just say, God our Father who art in heaven. You don't have to say all this stuff.
Who talks a lot and repeats stuff? Jesus said. Unbelievers do.
Gentiles do. Take a look at the word again. Do not use meaningless repetition. Now the word theology means
God, theos, ology, a word about. Logos, word.
This Greek word is bata logosete. Bata logosete.
It means to say over and over the words bata. Bata is just an onomatopoetic thing to put on the front, and it means to repeat over and over and over.
Jesus says, when you pray to God, don't pray like this.
Bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata.
Somebody's listening. Doesn't that sound funny? Sounds real funny.
Now be quiet. If I had the gift of miracles, I could just zip your lip right now. Little mister.
No, good job. Jesus says, don't pray like this. Bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata.
What does that sound like to you? It sounds like exactly what people try to say who don't realize that the tongue's gift in the
New Testament is a language gift, sovereignly given. Just like with teaching. If you think you want to be a teacher, but you don't have the gift of teaching,
God didn't want you to have the gift of teaching. And you could never acquire such a gift. Oh, you could be a better evangelist.
You could learn how to teach better. But now with the New Testament gift of teaching. So Jesus says, when you pray, don't say, bata, bata, bata, bata, because it means nothing.
Of course, if you get in your closet and you say, you know, it's hard to pray, and I'm just going to kind of just pray to God.
Well, the New Testament gift of tongues is, it's for other people. And when you're in private, Jesus says, don't use vain repetitions.
It's a bunch of blather. It's a bunch of jabber and gibberish. Don't do that. Bata, bata, bata, bata.
That's no different than saying, great is Artemis of Ephesians for two hours. Except it's worse, because it actually means something when you say, great is
Artemis of Ephesians. Back to chapter 12, verse 10.
Again, if you want to say tongues is for today, but it's different than the New Testament, I would respect that opinion, even though I would disagree, because it is patently and blatantly obvious that these
New Testament revelation gifts to point to the messenger and the message are different than what people say the gifts are today.
Then what he gives at the very end, since you have a real language, the ninth gift is the gift of interpretation.
You don't translate bata, bata. You translate a real language.
And so now this person who didn't know another language, they were certainly no Noam Chomsky, a linguist, and they could say, yes, indeed, that is a language, and let me tell you what that person says.
This guy never learned Greek. He's speaking Greek to these Greek -speaking people over here. I'm standing over here. What's he talking about?
The person with gift of interpretation could tell me. That points to what? What the person is saying is true.
Now look at verse 11. Verse 11 says these are sovereignly given.
That means even in the day when they were true and they were real, and they were like this, you couldn't hanker after them.
You couldn't say, I want that. This should push away all the thought that says,
I'm not spiritual unless I speak in tongues. I'm not a Christian if I don't speak in tongues. I'm not spiritual if I don't have some of these miraculous things.
No, because if you don't have those miraculous things, it's because God didn't want to give you those miraculous things. All these are empowered.
This is the fifth spiritual gift's truth. Sovereignly given by one and the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually as He wills.
Originates with the Holy Spirit. In eternity past, God knew what your spiritual gift or gifts were.
And as S. Lewis Johnson said, He looked into time and was looking forward to you getting on earth so that you could use them to promote
Christ Jesus and His free atonement. We don't use these gifts to manipulate others or tell people they don't have the gifts.
In the time that I have left, which isn't a whole lot of time, I have some questions that I'd like to ask my charismatic friends.
I'm not mad. Actually, I'm not sweating. I've not sweat this whole time. Questions that I'd like to ask you about charismatic gifts.
Now, let me just say this first. When I say cessationism, what does cessationism mean? It comes from the root word, to cease.
That these apostolic gifts that Jesus demonstrated, the apostles did, Elijah, Elisha, those kind of gifts have ceased.
The canons together, it's ceased. The opposite realm of cessationism, ceasing, is, it's an easy one to know, continuationist.
That the gifts in the New Testament, these exact gifts, continue today. Cessationism, continuationism.
So I have some questions for my continuationist friends. These are my questions.
One, won't you admit to some cessationism? If you're charismatic today, won't you admit to some cessationism?
And I think you will. Here's how you'll admit to it. Is the canon closed? Yes. You're a cessationist to some degree.
Are there apostles today? No. But I was asking a question like it could be yes.
No New Testament apostles today. You're acting like a cessationist.
Only the wildest charismatics think that we should be adding to the book of maps back here and before.
And only the wildest charismatic thinks that there are real apostles today. So they've admitted both some cessationism in canon and apostolic ministry.
If you're a charismatic here today, I would imagine that you believe that the Bible is the sufficient, infallible authority.
That they are the perfect guide for the church. I believe that if you're a charismatic here today, you would affirm sola scriptura.
And so I would say to you, then you're on your way to being a cessationist because you believe in something ceasing.
Like the writing of the scriptures for the canon and the apostolic ministry. I could ask you another question.
It's out of order. But why does the church appoint elders today and deacons? Why don't we appoint apostles and prophets today?
Wouldn't we want to appoint apostles and prophets today? Absolutely. But since they're not for today, they were there at the foundation of the church while the
Bible's being written, we only appoint elders today and deacons today. Unless you're the lunatic fringe of charismatic theology, you believe in some cessationism.
You say, well yeah, but there's no verse in the Bible that says the gifts have ceased.
Could I just really implore you and beg you to reconsider that question? Because I could say there's no verse in the
Bible that states tongues and signs and wonders will continue through the church age. There's no
Bible verse that says the canon is closed. There's no Bible verse that says the apostles are gone.
But like the doctrine of the Trinity, you study the Scriptures and you put it together systematically and then you say,
I believe in a triune God even though the word Trinity is in the Bible. You say to yourself, why do
I need someone pointing to the sign that I already have? Question two for my charismatic friends, are the sign gifts that happen today really the same kind that happened in the
New Testament? And then when you answer no, you're a cessationist.
These miracles have ceased through people. God can directly do them, of course, but through people? Do we really have the same kind of gifts?
How about the time where the guy needed to be transported over to Azotahs and the Spirit of God just picked him up and teletransported him over ten miles.
Is that gift for today? No, it happens to be like John Wimber who said he rose somebody from the dead because a man fell, hit his head, was unconscious for three minutes, came to with a bump on his head, they prayed, eventually the bump went away.
That's not a miracle. Thomas Edgar said the only miracle there is that people would actually think that's raising someone from the dead.
Question three, since we have the completed canon, what is the purpose of sign gifts today? If you're a charismatic, what is the purpose of sign gifts today if we have the completed canon?
I have another question for you, honest question. Since the Bible is our final and only authority, then why do you try to prove your point via what you've experienced or what other people have experienced?
Question five, and I better close here. What does it say about sign gifts if for 1800 years
God sovereignly did not see fit to use them in church history? 1800 years, do you know who was doing sign gifts for 1800 years?
Cults, Mormons, Janus, Clement of Rome in 96
AD writes to the church of Corinth, nothing about tongues. Origen talked about signs of the apostolic age in 185, no, he didn't do it.
Chrysostom, they're gone. Augustine, they're gone. Through Edwards, they're gone.
Only the heretics like the Shakers, the Seminole priests, like I said the Mormon church and shamans and Buddhists and Hindus and voodoo practitioners practiced some of these gifts up until the
Azusa Street 1900s. What does it say about the sovereignty of God not giving those gifts?
All right, one last question. My charismatic friend, why do you regularly use
Hebrews 13 .8 to prove tongues? Jesus Christ is the same today, yesterday, and forever.
Friends, that verse has nothing to do with God does what He did in the old days, what
He does now, and what He does in the future. God does not change, but here's the context. Remember your
Christian leaders, Hebrews 13 .7. God gave you these leaders, fallible, yes, but He gave you good
Christian leaders. Remember them, but don't forget the next verse. Remember Jesus Christ who never changes.
Your leaders might change, your leaders might fail, but remember who Jesus is. And friends, there's no tongues in heaven, there's no healings in heaven, there are no miracles in heaven, so how can
Jesus be the same yesterday, today, and forever if in fact the translation of that text is the interpretation, what was done in the old is done in the new and done in the future.
No, that verse has nothing to do with anything except your leaders are frail and fallible.
Follow them, imitate them as they imitate Christ, but don't forget you're Captain Christ Jesus. Let's pray.
Thank you, Father, for our time today in the Word, and I just pray that you bless the congregation. I pray that you bless people here who might disagree with me and force them back to the
Word. And Father, we are thankful today that you do heal, and you do mighty wonders, and Father, that you do them at your own good pleasure.