Beyond the Basics: Spiritual Gifts (Part 4)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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May 10, 2009

The Meaning Of Life (Part 5)

00:00: Our Father and our God, we are grateful to be here this morning to look into your
00:06: Word, to have a time of fellowship, and Father, to again just rejoice in your goodness to us, just in all that you've given us in creation, all that you've given us in revelation, and Father, all that you've given us in salvation.
00:25: Lord, as we look into these things this morning, I just pray that this time would be one that we would not only be instructed, but be reminded again of just all the blessings that are ours in Christ.
00:39: Father, would you bless this time in Christ's name? Amen. Well, I thought I came across this.
00:46: It's, you know, again, just a service that we provide to you. We read Christianity Today so you don't have to.
00:52: How many of you have ever read Christianity Astray? Well, you know, this is actually pretty interesting.
01:00: I like this article. It's by Dinesh D'Souza. I think he converted to, isn't he a Catholic? Anybody know?
01:06: I think he's a Roman Catholic. But he's talking about the problem of theodicy, which is the problem of evil.
01:16: Why does evil exist? If God is good and he created all things good, why does evil exist?
01:25: And I thought this one was interesting because, you know, I don't often rebuke former members of our church, and especially beloved former members like Nate Milne.
01:36: All of you all know Nate. Nate has a T -shirt that says, Stop Plate Tectonics.
01:43: Have you ever seen that shirt? Stop Plate Tectonics. Which one of you
01:49: WPI people want to explain what plate tectonics are? What is that,
01:55: Bernard? Okay, and so, right, plate tectonics, it's earthquakes, you know, and all the pressure and the fissures and the mountains and the canyons and all that stuff.
02:10: And it's interesting here because he says, Without plate tectonics, Earth's land, the land mass, would be submerged to a depth of several thousand feet underwater.
02:24: Fish might survive in such an environment, but not humans. And his point in terms of discussing the problem of evil and plate tectonics is, he says,
02:32: Listen, in God's creation, if we didn't have things like earthquakes and other disasters, tsunamis and things that kill people, there would be no people.
02:45: So I thought that was kind of an interesting point. So there you go. Everything you need to know in this week's Christianity Today.
02:51: In what? About a minute and a half. So, not bad. Well, we were discussing healing in the
03:03: Bible. And by the way, let me just say, first of all, can
03:11: God heal today? I absolutely think he can.
03:18: Let me start. Let's go ahead and re -read from low those many weeks ago.
03:26: James 5. I don't want to spend much time on this, but just a couple of things.
03:38: And then we're going to talk about healing, spiritual gifts, all kinds of fun stuff.
03:49: James 5, verses 13 to 16. Is anyone among you suffering?
03:57: Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises.
04:05: Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the
04:16: Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the
04:24: Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.
04:30: Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effect of prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
04:40: Well, let me give you a wrong interpretation of this.
04:45: And how do I know it's wrong? It's because it's what I live through. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day
04:52: Saints, the Mormon church, we would, when somebody was particularly ill, maybe they were in the hospital, some elders from the church would come to them, would apply olive oil and pray for them, and we would wait for them to get better.
05:06: Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn't. But that's really not the point here.
05:11: Let me just go to Dr. Dick Mayhew, who's written a book, what's it called?
05:18: Oh, The Healing Promise. The Healing Promise, several years old. But I really like what he has to say about James 5, and I'll just give you some of the highlights here.
05:29: In 5 .14, the word for sick includes or involves the word esthenia, which will bless your soul.
05:35: But the basic meaning of it means to be weak, either emotionally, spiritually, or physically.
05:41: And it's not the same later on in verse 15. The word sick is not the same word as in 14.
05:48: It's a different word, and it means to be fatigued, to be tired. And so he says that the whole concept here is to be severely sick in the physical realm.
06:01: That's why you have to call for the elders, because you can't go to them. In fact, it means sick to the point where death is imminent.
06:09: So it does not describe some kind of generic thing where every time you get sick, you should call the elders, and they come to you.
06:16: And he goes on to describe other reasons that, and he quotes Doug Moo, why he thinks it's physical illness.
06:26: And then he goes on, and really, he says the key to understanding this is further in James 5, starting with,
06:35: I mean, it seems kind of a, let me just read verse 16 in James 5, and then
06:41: I'll continue and see if there's a logical transition here. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed.
06:50: The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.
07:02: Then he prayed again, and the rain poured, and the sky poured rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
07:10: So why is Elijah suddenly in there? We're talking about illness, applying oil, and then all of a sudden,
07:17: Elijah makes a surprise guest appearance. Why is that, Brother Bruce?
07:27: Because his prayers were answered, and so it actually flows quite nicely out of the context because he says, listen, the prayers of a righteous man availeth much, to quote
07:39: King James, can accomplish much. And then he goes on to show what the prayers of Elijah did, right?
07:50: He also notes that, does Dr. Mayhew, that unmistakably confession of sin plays prominently in the process.
07:59: James 5, 15, and 16 strongly imply that an unconfessed pattern of sin in the life of a believer is responsible for the weakened physical condition.
08:13: When sin is the problem, sickness can follow from guilt over sin, as with David in Psalm 32, or directly from the sin itself.
08:22: 1 Corinthians 11, when he's talking about communion, what did Paul say, that some were sick, weak, and some have even died because they ate or partook of communion wrongly.
08:38: So I guess the issue, and I mean, it's difficult. I think MacArthur takes the side that it is a spiritual weakness, but whether it's a spiritual weakness or a physical weakness, it is a genuine weakness.
08:51: Sin is involved, and in those particular cases, the elders are to be called.
08:58: So it's a difficult issue. And one, like I said,
09:04: I mean, here you have the dean of the seminary, who is Dr. Mayhew, and the president of the seminary,
09:10: John MacArthur, and they take different views, so a tough issue.
09:16: But I wanted to just kind of quickly take a little bit of a jet tour through Acts to just kind of look at some of the ways in which healing was accomplished in the book of Acts, because I found this very interesting.
09:32: Let's look at Acts 3, and I would like you to help me by reading some of these. So Acts 3, verse 6.
09:45: And if you have that, would you please raise your hand? Pradeep. So just by saying, just by giving a command, the man was healed.
10:07: There's another example of that in Acts 14. How about this one? By being in the healer's shadow.
10:15: Acts 5 .15. And we'll read verses 14 and 15.
10:28: Who has that? Carl. His shadow.
10:54: Pretty amazing. Verse 16, also the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed.
11:05: Just imagine what that would suggest. Now, let's just for a moment, let's take hermeneutics, how we understand the
11:13: Bible, and let's apply that here. Does that mean that, for example, just even the first two points here, that we should command people to be healed?
11:23: That we should count on the fact that if they're outside, of course this wouldn't work inside, probably, unless the lighting was really weird, that if we walk by them and our shadow is cast upon them, that they will be healed?
11:38: No. How about this one? This is one I really enjoy. By touching a cloth from the healer's body.
11:45: Acts 19, verses 11 and 12. The reason I like this is because there are people who sell online points of contact, cloths that they've prayed over.
11:59: And if you send $19 .95, plus shipping and handling, you will get this cloth and you will be healed.
12:05: Acts 19, verses 11 and 12. Joey. Okay, so again,
12:26: I don't have, let me reverse that. I'll positively say this.
12:31: I believe that the book of Acts is the word of God. Is this what we should expect to happen today?
12:39: Why or why not? We're not apostles. Thank you, Carl. I don't know what could be any more plain than that.
12:46: We are not apostles. We have not seen the risen Christ. We have not been commissioned by him. We have not been sent out to perform miracles and to establish the church, the truthfulness of the gospel.
12:59: And that's what they were doing. Another means of healing in the book of Acts, by prayer and laying on of hands.
13:06: Acts 28, verses 8 and 9. Strangely, what we will not see anywhere in the book of Acts, in spite of all these miracles, we will not see the same hymns sung over and over for an hour before some man in some funky suit comes out and starts healing people.
13:29: We don't see that. I don't know why. Acts 28, verses 8 and 9.
13:35: Pastor Dave. I mean, certainly we see the apostles doing miraculous things, but this is not what we should consider typical.
14:11: All the healing in Acts were instantaneous. There's no recuperative period required.
14:20: Unbelievers were healed. We have examples of that throughout the book of Acts.
14:26: Faith of the afflicted was honored or commended. Faith was sometimes not even necessary, obviously, if you have unbelievers.
14:35: The healings were undeniable. Even the opponents of the gospel, the Sanhedrin, did not deny them.
14:48: People were even restored from death. Let's look at a couple of those. Acts 9, verses 36 to 43.
15:03: That's a lot of reading. Acts 9, verses 36 to 43. Who can handle it?
16:23: Okay, so they got together for memorial service for Tabitha Dorcas. They got together.
16:29: They were just remembering her life and all the great things that she'd done. Tabitha, arise.
16:42: We should not expect such things. There's another one in Acts 20. We're not going to go there. There were even healings in absentia.
16:51: People who weren't there who were healed. There are spectacular things.
16:57: My point this morning is God does what he wants to do.
17:02: What we should not do is then take the narrative passages of Acts and declare that those are what we should expect on a daily basis.
17:13: God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The question is, does he always operate in exactly the same way all the time?
17:23: And the answer is no. Otherwise, we would have apostles today, and we don't. Moving on from healing and stuff like that,
17:35: I want to talk about spiritual giftedness. I thought about handing out this quiz, but I think I'll just do it orally.
17:43: I just want you to think about these and how you would answer them. I thought about having you all write them out, but I just didn't know how to score it properly.
17:52: Okay, first question. It's kind of a true or false. Maybe you could even put it on a scale of 1 to 10.
18:00: First question, I manage details and people well and can really get things done.
18:05: This is a spiritual gifts quiz here. I manage details and people well and can really get things done.
18:15: Second question, people tell me that I'm a good listener who gives helpful advice when they're hurting.
18:25: Third question, if you need something built or fixed, bring it to me. That would be called the spiritual gift of fixing.
18:38: Fourth question, I know how to express an idea through art, craft, or music.
18:45: The spiritual gift of craftiness. Fifth question, I can really spot someone phony and cut through stuff to uncover the truth.
18:56: We call that being a police officer. Sixth question, I have a knack for helping others get back on track when their faith is shaken.
19:09: God helps me to explain the gospel in clear terms and often brings me into contact with those who want to hear the good news.
19:23: People have told me they are amazed by my unfailing trust in God. Need someone to help out a good cause?
19:35: Ask me for a donation. God compels me to give. Next question, people can count on me to help them with projects and tasks.
19:49: Next one, I am good at making others feel welcome and comfortable as opposed to unwelcome and uncomfortable.
19:57: Next question, I feel compelled to pray for issues because I have seen God answer my prayers in powerful ways.
20:05: This is my personal favorite. People seem amazed at how
20:12: I bring insight from the Bible in ways they hadn't considered. Oh, I never saw that in the
20:19: Bible before. Yikes. I am an expert at inspiring and motivating people to pursue big goals for God.
20:31: And I have my own TV show. I am usually very comforting and caring to others, except for on Thursday.
20:40: I see truth others sometimes don't see and make people confront the truth for themselves.
20:53: I think that's called a mom, but I don't know. Next one, the love that God helps me to show others really helps people to grow in their faith.
21:04: I know the Bible and can explain spiritual truths so that others understand. Well, I think that's a pretty good explanation of maybe teaching or something like that.
21:13: People trust me to know the right biblically appropriate course of action in troubling situations. Again, I like that one.
21:19: But a lot of these I just read in, can you identify some of these spiritual gifts? To me, some of these are just flat out what?
21:28: Talents, yeah. Yeah, I mean, is there a difference between a talent and a spiritual gift?
21:35: Steven? Yeah, I mean,
21:42: I have the spiritual gift of singing. Well, no, you don't. You have the command of singing.
21:50: You may have a talent for singing. You may not have a talent for singing, but you don't have a spiritual gift of singing.
22:02: People seem amazed at how I bring insight from the Bible in ways that they hadn't considered. Hey, you can turn on the
22:09: TV and you see that all the time. What's the problem with any of these kind of spiritual gift inventories?
22:17: What's that? They're demonic. Well, yeah. First of all, it depends on us to properly evaluate ourselves, to not be deceived in any kind of way, and to forget to turn off our cell phone.
22:47: I don't know why I always do that. But that part, and then what was the second part you made?
22:53: Second part was about deceiving ourselves. Second part was, you don't remember what your second part was either, but it was good.
23:06: I liked it. Yeah, we really have to evaluate things biblically. We have to evaluate things biblically.
23:13: We're on page 38 of the handout. And if you don't have one, I have the spiritual gift of handouts. So I have that right here.
23:23: Anybody need one? Page 38 of this.
23:31: People help out a little bit. What's the key?
23:37: And if you're looking at this outline, you should get this. What is the key to understanding your spiritual giftedness?
23:44: If we're looking down towards the bottom, identifying your spiritual giftedness, you don't decide, you discover.
23:50: How do you discover? Not by doing some fearless moral inventory. Boy, I still remember something from 12
23:58: Steps. Fearless moral inventory. You don't decide, you discover.
24:04: You discover by? By serving. By serving. I mentioned this.
24:11: We had a new member's class yesterday. I was talking about this a little bit. I think there's this tendency to think that spiritual giftedness either means that you should be up in the pulpit or I think some people take it to the other extreme, meaning, well,
24:28: I am willing to serve. I have the spiritual gift of serving, but my spiritual gift is only in play when someone comes up to me and says, could you serve with this?
24:41: In other words, someone has to seek me out before I serve, and I say, I think that's a little bit wrong.
24:47: If we look at the Bible when it says Hebrews 13, 17, where we're not to forsake the assembly of the saints, fellowshipping and all that kind of thing, so that we can exhort one another to love and good works.
25:03: When we have an exchange of pleasantries on Sunday morning, when
25:08: Ron gets up there and says, greet one another in the Lord, you ever think that either before the service, after the service, during that period of time where we greet for two minutes or whatever it is, that perhaps, maybe, our objective should be to see how we can serve other people within the body of Christ, to find the people that are hurting, to find the people that need some help in some kind of area, and to actually go out of our way to serve them.
25:38: I think the idea of having the spiritual gift of serving is right, it is good, but I don't think it's one that we need to wait to be called on to employ.
25:51: I think we need to find ways to serve. But this idea of you don't decide, you discover, what does that mean precisely?
25:58: Well, if you want to know if you're gifted in teaching, what should you do?
26:07: Look for opportunities to teach. If you wonder if you might be gifted in some other way, well, you just serve and you'll figure it out.
26:16: What are some good clues that you're spiritually gifted in some area or another, Paul?
26:23: Your Christian is an excellent clue that you are gifted in some way. Does every
26:28: Christian get spiritual gifts? We've already talked about that. The answer is yes. What else is a good indicator?
26:58: Peggy says if you try a bunch of things and you serve, people will tell you.
27:04: The elders, other people will say, you know, you did a great job and whatever that was and really appreciate it.
27:11: That's right. Bruce? And I think that's a very good one.
27:17: Your desire might be there. You know, if you're sitting there wondering, do I have the spiritual gift of teaching?
27:23: And you're like, I don't want to teach. I don't want to study. Okay, well, that's a good indicator that you don't have that spiritual gift.
27:32: Don't try to be a teacher. I think I might be gifted in teaching, but I don't want to study anything. Forget it. Not good.
27:42: Sometimes you have to stretch. That's right. That is true. Sometimes you have to go a little outside yourself and find out that you're gifted in a specific area.
27:53: Point B, anybody else? Point B, you don't request. You recognize. You don't request.
28:03: I would like to have the spiritual gift of, though we've already talked about it, the
28:12: Holy Spirit gives those gifts just as he has determined. So we recognize the spiritual giftedness that the
28:20: Holy Spirit has already given us. Can you choose your spiritual gift?
28:26: Well, let's just remind ourselves. 1 Corinthians 12 -11, because it's always good to be reminded of the things that we already know and that we've already mentioned about three or four times.
28:37: But, always helpful, let me just read that real quickly. But one and the same
28:49: Spirit, talking about the Holy Spirit, works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as he wills.
28:57: Not as we will, but as he wills. How long have you had your spiritual gift?
29:07: Since the moment you were saved. Since the moment you were saved.
29:15: Let's look at 1 Corinthians 4 -7. Who has that? 1 Corinthians 4 -7?
29:27: Barbara? Okay.
29:39: So when do we get him? We get them at the time of salvation.
29:46: What do we have that we did not receive? We receive it all at the time the
29:55: Holy Spirit gives it to us. And I think it's pretty clear when we're baptized in the body of Christ that we receive our spiritual gift.
30:01: We've talked about what's the difference between a spiritual gift and a talent. Anyone can have a talent. Britain's got talent.
30:10: I guess America has talent too. Not everybody has spiritual gifts. And the key is, as we've said, serving, employing it.
30:20: Let's look at Romans 12. Two main passages that deal with spiritual gifts.
30:27: There are other places, but the two main ones are what? Romans 12 and 1
30:37: Corinthians 12 -14. I mean, there are other places. It's spaced out a little bit, but those are the main ones.
30:47: Okay, Romans 12. We're going to read verses one and then six through eight.
30:54: Who can read that for me, please? So how is
31:41: Paul suggesting there that you employ your spiritual gift? By employing it.
31:47: By using it. No big mystery. I mean, what would be worse maybe?
31:54: I mean, it gets almost back to the parable of the talents where God gives these talents and in the parable it's the master and then they hide them, or the one man hides them.
32:08: What would be worse than the Holy Spirit giving you a spiritual gift and you not using it for the betterment of the body?
32:18: Now, there are those who, as we look at Romans 5, how to spot the possibly deceived on this issue and other issues.
32:29: What do I mean by that? What do I mean by possibly deceived? Wrong idea of spiritual gifts.
32:45: Okay. Operating incorrectly. Yes, Stephen. Wrong motivation.
32:50: Absolutely all those things. All those things. Those who seek and are more interested in the byproducts, what they get versus God's exaltation.
33:05: I mean, we should never want to do that. Should never come away from giving an offering, serving somebody else, more concerned about how we feel than that God was glorified.
33:21: Should never be more concerned about anything than that. B, those who are more committed to a denomination, organization, or a church than they are to the glory of God.
33:37: More social reasons versus high priority of God's word. C, those who are always dwelling on one particular point of non -central theology.
33:47: A lack of balance, as some do with the Holy Spirit. Do we love the Holy Spirit?
33:52: I hope we do. I know we as a church do, and I hope we as individuals do.
33:59: But some are, I think it's fair to say, obsessed with the
34:05: Holy Spirit at the expense of the Son of God. And that is not what the
34:12: Bible calls us to. And I'll speak more about that in a moment here.
34:19: But those who are overindulgent in the name of grace or Christian liberty, in other words, they view their liberty as a license to sin.
34:30: As a license to be outside of the command and will of God. This is from theopedia .com.
34:39: Kind of like Wikipedia, only for theology. A charismatic, or charismatic is an umbrella term to use or used to describe those
34:48: Christians who believe that the manifestations of the Holy Spirit seen in the first century Christian church, such as healing, miracles, and speaking in tongues, are available to contemporary
35:00: Christians and ought to be experienced and practiced today. And that word ought is vital.
35:10: You know, somebody will say, well, are you going to tell me that God can't do miracles today? And I'm going to say, no,
35:16: God can. Are you going to tell me that God couldn't cause someone to speak in tongues today?
35:24: I'm not going to say that. But first we have to understand what speaking in tongues is.
35:29: Then we have to try to grasp why it was employed in the first place. And we have to ask ourselves, would
35:36: God do that? I don't think he would. You're putting God in a box. No, I'm not putting God in a box.
35:42: I'm just trying to stick with what the Bible says. Now let me just read.
35:50: I picked a few things up. You know, I want to be careful about this. In fact, maybe
35:56: I'll give you my disclaimer here first on page 39. I believe many, many of those in the charismatic movement are our brothers and sisters in Christ.
36:05: The purpose of this discussion is not to bash charismatics, but to examine all doctrine and teaching in light of Scripture.
36:12: This is commendable, as the Bereans were committed, and a standard that all Christians should welcome.
36:18: Now I would like everybody to sign that, notarize it. We have a notary here this morning. Let's all get it notarized.
36:27: It is important to realize that we have brothers and sisters in Christ who don't agree with us on everything, and that's fine.
36:36: And there are many good and godly people who differ on this issue. Listen to this.
36:43: This is from the Sovereign Grace website. How many of you are familiar with Sovereign Grace?
36:49: We sell some of their music out there in the lobby. C .J. Mahaney is kind of the... the
36:55: Pope of the... No, he's sort of the head of the denomination. Now listen to this.
37:01: I'm not going to read the whole thing, but listen to some of these statements, and you tell me what you think of them. Talking about man, this is from their
37:08: Statement of Faith. God made man, male and female, in his own image, as the crown of creation that man might have fellowship with him.
37:17: Tempted by Satan, man rebelled against God. Being estranged from his maker, yet responsible to him, he became subject to divine wrath, inwardly depraved, and apart from a special work of grace, utterly incapable of returning to God.
37:32: This depravity is radical and pervasive. It extends to his mind, will, and affections.
37:39: Unregenerate man lives under the dominion of sin and Satan. He is at enmity with God, hostile toward God, and hateful of God.
37:50: Fawn sinful people, whatever their character or attainments, are lost and without hope, apart from salvation in Christ.
37:58: What do we think of that? I say preach it. Listen to this about the gospel.
38:06: Same website. Jesus Christ is the gospel. The good news is revealed in his birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension.
38:15: Christ's crucifixion is the heart of the gospel. His resurrection is the power of the gospel, and his ascension is the glory of the gospel.
38:24: Christ's death is a substitutionary and propitiatory sacrifice to God for our sins.
38:30: It satisfies the demands of God's holy justice and appeases his holy wrath. How do we like that?
38:38: Now, this is from the Foursquare denomination. Their website.
38:48: Not that there's anything wrong necessarily with everything they say, but just listen to the difference in tone.
38:54: Talking about divine healing. We believe that divine healing is the power of Jesus Christ to heal the sick in answer to the prayer of faith.
39:05: He, talking about God, who does not change, is still willing and able to heal the body as well as the soul and spirit in answer to faith.
39:16: Listen to this about the fall of man, because I wanted to compare some apples with apples instead of apples and oranges.
39:22: We believe that man, created in the image of God, by voluntary disobedience, fell into the depths of sin and iniquity, bequeathing sin's nature and consequences to all mankind with their accompanying loss of intended meaning and purpose.
39:45: What do you think? I mean, you could argue that this is okay, but it's just not as, certainly not as good.
39:59: You know, and their accompanying loss of intended meaning and purpose. The plan of redemption.
40:06: Now, this starts really great. We believe that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
40:12: Why do I like that part so much? It's right out of Romans 5. We like that part a lot. And with his life's blood, purchase the pardon for all who believe in him.
40:23: Okay? Again, I think you can make that case. I think that's a pretty easy case to make. Salvation through grace.
40:30: We believe that salvation is holy through grace, that no human righteousness or merit can contribute to our receiving
40:37: God's love and favor. Not so much on the whole forgiveness of sin thing.
40:46: Repentance and acceptance. We believe that upon sincere repentance and a wholehearted acceptance of Christ, we are justified before God through Jesus Christ's sacrificial death.
41:00: Again, okay. Just not maybe as strong as it could be.
41:09: Now, I also went to BennyHinn .org. Well, you know, because I could.
41:19: Here's step number one on becoming a Christian. Understand that God's desire for you is life abundant and eternal.
41:29: That's step number one. Step number two, realize that you are separated from God and then he starts describing it.
41:43: There is a gap between God and mankind. He has provided a way for us to receive an abundant and eternal life, but people throughout the ages have made selfish choices to disobey
41:53: God Almighty. These choices continue to cause separation from the Father. How do we like that?
42:05: I mean, there's just a constant, you know, it's like, this is God, this is man, you know.
42:12: Actually, this is God, this is man. And then as we kind of go to the four squares, this is God and this is man.
42:18: And then we get to BennyHinn, this is God and this is man. And the greater our
42:24: God is and the greater our sin is, the greater that gap is and the greater our comprehension of sovereign graces, the greater our comprehension of and appreciation and wonder and marvel at what
42:41: God has accomplished on our behalf. Let's go through some important issues.
42:46: I took this out of the Charismatics by John MacArthur. Is the canon of Scripture closed?
42:52: Should we expect to receive more revelation? If the canon of Scripture, the canon being the benchmark, which all
43:04: Scripture must meet, can we have any Scripture added to it? And the answer is no.
43:11: And if it is closed, if the canon of Scripture is closed, then can anyone say, thus saith the
43:17: Lord, or God told me, without citing chapter and verse? Well, I think they can say it.
43:24: The question is, what kind of authority does it have? If someone says, God told me to do
43:30: X, Y, or Z, what's their authority? Themselves.
43:38: How do you know God told you that? I know. How do you know? I know that I know. How do you test that?
43:45: You can't. The ultimate standard of truth, is it objective or subjective?
43:51: Let me give you a hint. Objective means external, outside of us.
43:58: Subjective means internal, inside of us. If I say that God told me something, and I make that the ultimate standard, then what
44:06: I'm really saying is, I have a subjective truth, my own truth that I have in my head, and I hold that above God's revealed truth.
44:19: Canon of Scripture is closed. Is Scripture sufficient?
44:26: Is Scripture sufficient? If so, then why would God send new revelation, such as, thus saith the
44:34: Lord. Why would he do that? Should we have an Old Testament, a New Testament?
44:40: Should we have a Newer Testament? Should we have another Testament of Christ, and call it the
44:46: Book of Mormon? Scripture cannot be sufficient, and then we say, well, yes, but we need other things, we need other truths.
45:03: Third question, how is Scripture to be interpreted? How is Scripture to be interpreted?
45:09: I said this yesterday, when we study the Bible, what is our ultimate objective?
45:16: To find what is true for us? To find out the authorial intent.
45:27: Who wrote the Bible? Holy Spirit through men. What we want to do when we look at the
45:33: Bible is understand what the Holy Spirit, God the Holy Spirit, intended when he wrote the
45:41: Word of God through these men. What was Peter's flow of thought as he was going through 1
45:47: Peter and then 2 Peter? What was Paul thinking about when he wrote the church at Galatia? These are the issues that we need to wrestle with if we're going to understand it.
45:57: What we cannot do, what we should never do, is use a particular passage of Scripture as a launching point.
46:06: Just cut it out of context, ignore the arguments that the original author was making and prove our point.
46:16: I've already given up the answer to this one. Number three, part B. Can the Bible have many correct interpretations?
46:24: The answer is no. If it had one meaning, if God intended one meaning, can it have many correct interpretations?
46:35: No. Can it be applied to several different situations? Yes. One interpretation, one correct interpretation, many applications.
46:47: Can it be hard to understand at some points? As with James 5, yes,
46:53: I think it can be. I definitely think it can be. But we are to strive to find out what the author meant, not what we want it to mean.
47:05: Number four, what about experience? Neo -Orthodoxy, your 25 -cent word of the day, means simply this, that the
47:15: Bible is not objective. It is entirely subjective. It is all about what the Bible means to me.
47:21: This has become pervasive in Christendom, in the evangelical world. You can even read hermeneutical books, books written by experts on how to interpret the
47:32: Bible. There is something called the hermeneutical spiral where I read it, I understand it,
47:39: I read it again, I get a different understanding, and eventually I kind of close in on the meaning. And ultimately the meaning is dependent upon me.
47:49: Listen to this. Neo -Orthodoxy, the Holy Spirit is uninspired within the covers of the written word.
47:56: The Holy Spirit is released through experience.
48:01: The Bible comes to life not through study, but by private revelation, which is exactly what we've been talking about.
48:08: And these are scholars, 20th century scholars, influential scholars, who say what the
48:18: Bible means to you is all that matters. And that is exactly the opposite of what
48:24: Peter was saying in 2 Peter 1, 16 -21, which is experiences beside the point.
48:34: We're to look to Scripture. Yeah, I would not call that...
48:42: Is it possible to be a biblical scholar and not a Christian scholar? Yes, is the answer.
48:48: You can spend your whole life studying the Bible and not be a Christian. Right. Yeah, he says in 2
48:58: Peter that it's not subject to private interpretation. I would argue that has to do with the Old Testament, the prophets, but the principle still applies.
49:10: All right, what else can be put on the same plane, the same level as Scripture? The answer is nothing.
49:17: That's a rhetorical question to help you out. What else is breathed out by God? Nothing. What else is perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, enduring forever, true, righteous altogether, more valuable than gold, sweeter than honey, and able to warn?
49:34: Psalm 19, 7 -11, talking about Scripture. What else is always a right and perfect guide?
49:41: What else should be meditated upon day and night? What else can be compared to the name of God?
49:49: He puts His Word on level with His name. And what's significant about that?
49:56: What is significant about the name of a person? In the
50:02: Old Testament mindset, it would encompass everything that they are, everything that it is a reflection of them.
50:12: So when He says He puts His Word on par with His name, it means everything that He is.
50:19: What else can save? The answer is nothing. How does salvation come? By the hearing of the
50:24: Word. Number seven on page 40. Where is tradition, church teaching, experience, signs or wonders, where are those things extolled as being the equal of Scripture?
50:40: Where do we see that anywhere in the Bible where they say look to these things and consider them on par with the
50:48: Bible? Where would that be? I'll wait. The answer is nowhere.
50:56: We are to tread the ground of the more sure Word. That's how we know things.
51:02: That's how we know about spiritual gifts. That's how we know how we should operate a church. That's how we know we should do everything pertaining to life and godliness.
51:12: The key is Scripture, not experience, not the meanderings of some man or woman, especially not on TV.
51:26: Let's go ahead and close in prayer. Father, we thank you that you've given us the
51:35: Word more sure than any experience, any speculation, any man -made teaching, tradition, anything else.
51:50: Father, would you give us just a longing to study your Word, to understand it, to seek after your intention when you gave it to the apostles, the prophets, their associates, these men whom you called to write
52:11: Scripture. Would you have us go after that meaning and that meaning alone? Lord, in terms of spiritual gifts, we pray for everyone at Bethlehem Bible Church, every believer here.
52:26: Father, you've gifted us. Would you, through your
52:31: Spirit, move in us to serve one another with a greater fervor, understanding that we discover our spiritual gift in this that you have given us by serving, by looking to help to build up the body of Christ.
52:52: Father, would you make this place such a flurry of service and of love that the world around us, the towns of West Boylston, Worcester, Leominster, every surrounding community,
53:05: Father, would just be amazed by the love that we display for one another.
53:11: And that's what it is. Being willing to be obedient to you in serving one another is reflective of the love you have commanded us to show to one another.