Lesson # 10 The Spiritual Gifts (Temporary vs Permanent) Fundamentals of the Faith by John MacArthur

1 Corinthians 12 and the Purpose of Spiritual Gifts

So this is lesson number 10 on the subject of the spiritual gifts. The verse is 1st Corinthians 12 7 which says, but to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. And the accepted position basically is that each believer, every believer has at least one spiritual gift.

Starts out, God gives spiritual gifts to believers for the purpose of ministry within the church. The English term comes from two Greek words charismata and pneumatica. The root of charismata is charis which means grace and speaks of something undeserved or unearned.

The second word pneumatica means spirituals or things given by the Spirit of God. In this lesson you will look at various spiritual gifts and how they should be used in the body of Christ. So if at any point you have a question just just raise your hand.

I figure with this lesson we're either just going to go through it all in one class. I think three classes is the most we've done for any one lesson. But I figure we're either just going to finish it this morning or this might be the one that takes four lessons.

It'll be one or the other I'm feeling like but we'll see. The nature of spiritual gifts. Number one, A says who is the source of spiritual giftedness? According to 1st Corinthians 12 verse 11 who is the source?

The Holy Spirit. Okay so that's the thing that everyone's gonna agree on. Baptists, Charismatics, Pentecostals, you know Presbyterians. Everyone will agree that okay yes the Holy Spirit is the source.

And then 1st Corinthians 12 28 says that God is the source. So comes from God but we usually think in terms of God the Holy Spirit. B, who possesses spiritual giftedness according to 1st Peter 4 verse 10?

All believers. So as I said a moment ago it's generally accepted if not universally accepted that every true believer has at least one spiritual gift. And then C, what is the purpose of the spiritual gifts?

1st Corinthians 12 4 through 7 says that the purpose is number one for the common good. Number two 1st Corinthians 14 verse 12 is for the edification of the church. And then number three 1st Peter 4 10 and 11 the purpose is to serve one another.

Okay so do we agree so far that the purpose of the spiritual gifts for the common good, the edification of the church, and to serve one another? Yes. Everyone agree so far. Okay so then you agree that the spiritual gifts when a gift is given to a believer by the Holy Spirit the purpose is not to edify yourself.

It's to edify the church not to build yourself up but to build the church. Other people can build you up through their spiritual gift but we don't use our gifts for ourselves. Okay number two the provision of spiritual gifts.

A, spiritual gifts are referred to in Scripture and there's basically three passages Romans chapter 12 1st Corinthians chapter 12 and then there's one other passage that's not listed in this section. What's the other passage?

Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4. So these would be the the main three. 1st Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4. So it starts out with Romans. So Romans in each of the list gives is slightly different so it'll give different each list is giving different gifts.

Marcus. Do you want to get through this in one or four? I'm okay. Whatever that's I'm okay.

With either. Four. We go one for four. Well and so when you want comments like if you say are there any questions or comments. Yep. I don't come out with a comment if you're looking for questions. Okay.

This is a comment. Okay. That occurred to me and something brand new. This is why why I bring it up. Let me see if I can dig it back up. Oh the building up of one another rather than building up one's self.

Yeah. I can see that's leading towards you know tongues. You know what.

We're gonna you know what. I'll be quiet there. Okay. So you suspect that I'm saying that to prepare to lay the groundwork later on for saying that.

It's the Holy Spirit laying the groundwork. Yeah. But I just wanted to make the point now on this because and maybe I'm starting too soon and we'll hit it later but it's not it's not for us like I took a survey out there when I was out in Wisconsin and if you take a survey and ask them all these questions and they say well based on your answers it appears that your spiritual gift is this.

Your spiritual gift needs to be determined by someone else. Right. They need to say you know what you do that makes me want to read or memorize or live for the Lord or witness or you know what you do?

What? What do I do? Well that's your spiritual gift. Yeah. Your spiritual gift is determined by other people not yourself.

Right. Yeah you can't come into a situation say well you know I have I have the gift of pastor teacher so you need to make me pastor the church. Well if people recognize that gift then yeah a local church will make you pastor if you're given that gift but that yeah that is for other people to decide.

Now you might think that why I believe I have the gift of mercy and you might so but really that is for other people to determine not not yourself. But going back to the tongues thing obviously whenever you're talking about spiritual gifts there is a tendency for the subject of tongues to dominate the conversation or when people even mention the term spiritual gifts like tongues is the first thing that people that that I think is is natural.

It's it's come well I don't know if it's natural it's it's common but that's not what you see in Scripture and I think that's that's kind of the problem that that is always the issue and you just don't see that in Scripture that that was like the issue back in those days.

But we'll touch on it again in a moment I'm sure but Romans chapter 12 verses 6 through 8 gives a list of some of the spiritual gifts. None of these passages are exhaustive. Romans 12 lists prophecy service leading exhortation giving mercy and teaching.

And obviously depending on your Bible translation some of these terms use a different word. But it's talking about the same thing. 1st Corinthians 12 8 through 10 gives a slightly different list. It mentions the spiritual gift of wisdom knowledge faith healing affecting of miracles prophecy we saw that already discerning of spirits.

The book says distinguishing of spirits. But I prefer the term discerning of spirits various kinds of tongues and then interpretation of tongues. And then 1st Corinthians 12 28 just half the verse 28 be mentions healing helps administrations various kinds of tongues and miracles.

So now it gives a list of all the spiritual gifts and a definition which is very helpful. Actually I would I'm not even sure it lists all of the spiritual gifts because the C 12 13 14 15 I think is the total here and I've heard some people debate is it 15 is it 17 is it 18.

Hospitality is another gift. Some people believe that's a gift of the spirit. I don't you know I don't want to get into the minutiae of it and argue about every little thing because this is one of those strange occurrences that you know the Holy Spirit that's where we have our unity.

Right. So these are the spiritual gifts given by the Holy Spirit and yet there's so much division when it comes to this subject. So you can see that something is wrong. I think I know why something is wrong but obviously there are some good people who disagree and let me just say this statement this disclaimer right up front.

So if a charismatic or a Pentecostal is watching this video anything that is said from this point on just know that. Hey I believe there are many good Christians that are charismatic. Okay so I'm not against you.

You would be welcome to attend here. Obviously we would have some disagreements on some of these things but I by no means intend to put down someone else who believes differently but at the same time we still want to find out what the truth of Scripture is.

What is the Scripture actually teaching. So okay so now that I got that out of the way you heard me. Say it. Right. Okay. Larry.

Question is that we how is that phrase worded. That we agree on the essentials. But there may be I can't think of quite how it goes. Little things that we may differ on. Yeah but the essentials you know.

Right. Word of God Jesus right the.

Phrase is in essentials unity in non-essentials Liberty and but in all things charity. Right. So let me repeat that again in the essentials unity in non-essentials Liberty but in all things charity.

So the idea is that yes we all believe in the deity of Christ the virgin birth the resurrection of Christ the scripture is our authority. We believe that Christ is coming again. You know we we all agree on the the foundational teachings of Christianity and we have unity there.

And then secondary issues like if someone has a different view of tongues or prophecy then we're not going to fight and divide about that. And that sounds great. But there are a few problems with that.

Number one is people say okay I believe in these seven or ten essential teachings and then I'm kind of free to say whatever I want about anything else. Well no the what matters is what does the scripture teach.

So it doesn't give you a license to just kind of go off in the left field. That's one potential problem. And then really I would argue do we actually have unity that the scripture is our authority. Because if you're getting extra biblical revelation if you're getting these words from God and these prophecies from God and they don't align with scripture or you're going by feeling is the scripture really the final authority for a Pentecostal or a charismatic.

For some of them I believe it is and they do test everything against the Word of God. But for some of them it's not and they tend to clearly go against the scripture because you know the spirit tells them something else that the Bible says something different.

So I'm not lumping them all together again. There are many charismatics Pentecostals who do test everything against the scripture and I believe the scripture is their authority. And we do have unity. But many within that movement the scripture is clearly not their authority.

So okay any questions on that if you need clarification. Okay but just because somebody has a different view of the spiritual gifts that doesn't mean hey this guy's not a Christian this guy's not saved because he is a different view than me if he has a different view of who Jesus is.

That's another story like we were talking about with Mormonism. You know the Mormon Jesus is the spirit child from this man who lived on another planet near the star Kolob you know and Jesus is the spirit brother of Satan that's a different Jesus.

There can be no unity with the the Mormon Church Pentecostals and charismatics and Baptists have a lot more in common than they do. What divides us. So okay. Yes.

The last part of that statement. But let it be done in charity or love. So how we approach others that may have a different view. We have to do it in love.

Right right and I I've heard sermons where people are just roasting just roasting Pentecostals and clearly there's no love there. But hey if I believe the scripture teaches something that I'm gonna want to convince them and if they love me and they think I'm wrong then they should pray for me and want to convince me.

Right that that's the right way to go about it. So okay but there's all sorts of side trails. We can go down with this subject obviously. So all right we're gonna move on to the definition of the spiritual gifts.

Like you said this might be a four-parter. So if you have anything to say this is the to do it. You don't always get a chance to talk during the church service. So this is this is the time. Okay be understanding the gifts.

This is temporary gifts. For a better understanding of how the spiritual gifts function we have classified the gifts into two categories temporary or special gifts. And then the permanent gifts. The Holy Spirit gave temporary gifts to confirm the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets.

These gifts were prevalent in the early church but ceased to be evident as the church became established. So we're going to talk about the temporary gifts first. And obviously this is where people today disagree.

I believe I believe with pastor MacArthur about this that these gifts were temporary. But let me say this people have the wrong idea and they say that well you don't believe. You're saying that miracles don't happen today.

You're saying the Holy Spirit isn't at work today. That's not what's being said. I believe in miracles. I just don't believe that there is a guy that you can go to who is a miracle worker. I think God will do what he wants to do.

He may heal somebody through answered prayer. But there isn't a guy that you can go to and he can. You know and you know that you're healed. Like there's no Elijah on the earth today. There's no Jesus on the earth.

There's no Moses today. There's nobody who is doing those types of miracles. But again people disagree. So these are the temporary gifts. Miracles. What's the definite definition of the gift of miracles.

This gift is the ability to do wonders in signs. Christ performed many miracles as recorded in Scripture. Paul used this gift to affirm his apostleship as described in 2nd Corinthians 12 verse 12. Now how many of you listen to the sermon.

Okay so a couple of you one of the points made in the sermon back then if three guys came into town in the first century and they were all preaching different messages different Gospels. How would you know who to listen to.

How would the early church have known which preacher is speaking the truth if they're all preaching different things. Now today we can know because we have the Scripture we test everything against the Word of God.

Back then they the New Testament wasn't written yet. So how did they know. Well when Paul came to town and preached the gospel and Paul was able to work miracles. Okay that's the proof we're listening to him.

So the whole purpose of miracles is to authenticate the miracle worker. You remember when Moses met God at the burning bush one of Moses complaints or not complaints excuses when it comes one concern that he had is that Lord they're not going to believe me.

Who am I. And God told him to put his hand in his cloak and it came out as leprous. Remember throw down your staff and it turned into the serpent. God gave Moses the ability to work miracles to prove that Moses truly spoke for God.

Same thing with the prophets same thing with the Apostles. Today we don't need that because we have the faith once for all delivered to the Saints. We have the Word of God. So there's no more of a need for miracles.

Except maybe on the mission field. You know when someone goes to a new area where there there is no scripture the people have never been exposed to Christianity. Maybe you would see that God works in such a way in that situation.

But in the United States we already have the truth. So there's no more need for what's the purpose of the miracle. Just to put on a show just to do something amazing. Just because no it's to authenticate the messenger.

Okay so Paul. We know Paul preached the true gospel and the early church knew that. Why. Because he could work wonders. Alright. So that's the definition of the spiritual gift of miracles. And who had it.

The Apostles and the prophets. And obviously Jesus the mediator of the New Covenant. And Moses the mediator of the.

Old Covenant yes sometimes these temporary as they're called here are called the cessation gifts and I'm imagine that that's from 1st Corinthians 13 verse 8 where it says love never fails. But whether there are prophecies they will fail.

Whether there are tongues they will cease whether there is knowledge it will vanish away. So but the thing of it is is prophecies. If I'm correct and by all means correct me if you feel I am incorrect that the gift of prophecy is not telling the future.

The gift of prophecy is the accurate handling of God's Word and the accurate interpretation and application of God's.

The gift of prophecy. So that has not ceased. Well hopefully right. The way John MacArthur defines prophecy and the way a lot of people define the spiritual gift of prophecy is it refers to preaching.

That's the way he defines it in this book. And you I'm you know I'm not a hundred percent convinced. Like for example the gift of knowledge is mentioned as a permanent gift and yet we've heard of people receiving a word of knowledge.

Right. So all I'm saying is not to get into a big thing about every every one of these. Not everyone agrees with these classifications. So when it comes to prophecy yes I do believe prophecy is preaching.

So when a preacher stands up on Sunday morning or wherever he is and he's preaching he is prophesying. But I don't use the term prophesying because most people when they hear the word they think of something else they think of you're receiving a direct word from God or you're foretelling the future.

So prophecy can refer to that but it can also refer to foretelling or preaching. So hopefully that doesn't get too complicated. But it's the it really matters how you define these things.

Yeah. Definition of expounding or a definition of exegeting. Yeah but that.

Wouldn't be a spiritual gift. No one has the spiritual gift of expounding. Or at least that's not how it's described. People do have the spiritual gift of prophecy. And if you want to say that's preachers.

Fine. But I'm okay with that. Yeah obviously there are some people who are preachers who are not. They don't actually have that gift. And again that's for other people to decide. Right. So all right. Miracles.

We any questions on that before we move on. Number two healing. So this is the temporary gift of healing. Peter have this gift. See Acts chapter 3 6 through 8 and chapter 5 15 through 16. Can we get some volunteers to look up these verses.

Okay Lance is going to look up Acts 3 6 through 8. And who would like to look up Acts chapter 5 Mary 5 Acts 5 15 and 16. Okay so Peter had this gift which affirmed his message and helped to establish the foundation of the church.

So the Apostle Peter had the gift the spiritual gift of healing. Remember that one time where actually that's probably what Acts chapter 3 is. Well let me say this healing today again. I do believe that God is still at work.

The Holy Spirit is still at work. I believe that God still heals. But God would do that through maybe answered prayer. There is no man like Peter in the church today that you can go to and his shadow falls on you and all of a sudden you're you're good to go all right.

Read Acts chapter.

3 6 through 8. Lance. Then Peter said silver and gold I do not have but what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength so he leaping up stood and walked and entered the temple with them walking leaping and praising God.

Okay so you see that.

Peter had the spiritual gift he could tell this man rise up and walk right. And it happened. Peter didn't pray and was hoping that God did it. Maybe God wouldn't do it. Peter said it and it happened. I don't believe that anyone in the church today has that ability.

Here's the thing I'm open to it. Just show me with the tongues thing I'm open to it. God can give me the gift of tongues and change my mind. Then you would have to have someone interpret it. But I am open to possibilities.

You know people talk about putting God in a box. You've ever heard this. Oh that's got that preacher. He just puts God in a box. You know what are people saying when they make a statement like that. You're limiting God.

You're saying that God can't do something. Well I don't know any true believer who would say that God can't do it. It's just a question of whether or not God is doing it. And from what I've seen these healing services these Crusades it's happened locally.

So there'll be an event and they have a healing tent. And a pastor friend of mine he he went to one of these things and a woman was walking by on the road with her cane and this very serious limp and she's all excited telling him to go to the healing tent and he's thinking well like like you you're not healed but nobody got healed so but again I'm open to it.

I know God can do it and God has done it. It's just whether or not that's the common experience in the church today. Yes I'm thankful that there are.

Some things I can't think of all for that God can't do he can't lie he can't change. But I also and I also like the Bible verse even though I'm taking it out of context that says come let us reason together.

The Lord you know he gave us brains. Yeah I've heard it said so ridiculous that oh well can God create a rock so heavy that he can't lift it up and I just say yeah let us.

Reason together. Let's not spend our time you know talking about stuff like there are those things that he cannot do right. Yeah he's holy right. God cannot live and.

He can't and he cannot tolerate sin. I'm more and more impressed all the time with how much he hates sin because I mean all right I was a cop I hated I hated thieves or I hated theft anyways. And when you start to think that if God gave his son well that's pretty serious isn't it.

Yeah you know. And why is it so serious. It's because sin is serious. And if he gave his son and you're going to just ignore the fact that he gave his son to pay the penalty for your misdeeds your sin you're gonna say oh no.

He didn't really need to die. Yeah so I.

Would say that God hates yes God hates sin God hates sin more than I do but God is also more merciful and patient than I am too so. But okay. Mary if you'd read let's see what is it. Yeah acts 5 15 and 16 so that they brought the sick out.

Into the streets and laid them on beds and couches that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits and they were all healed.

Yeah that's pretty.

Remarkable when Peter's shadow falling on the man could heal him. You mentioned the term cessation or John MacArthur would be considered a cessationist. You're familiar with this term concerning the spiritual gifts and the office of Apostle.

A cessationist is somebody who believes that the spiritual gifts not all of them but things like tongues and miracles they have ceased that they're not happening today. But I listened to John MacArthur sermon he said he was open to the idea of tongues happening or miracles happening.

You know on the mission field he believes that there are healings today with answered prayer. So one of the things that people have the wrong idea of that we're saying all the spiritual gifts have ceased.

That's not true. And I'm not even sure that going around saying I am a cessationist is even the best idea because I think that any number of these things could happen on the earth at any given moment.

Again I just don't think it's the common experience in the church back in Acts chapter 3. In Acts chapter 5 it was pretty common. But as time went on and the church became established and the Word of God was being written and once the Word of God was finished and they had the faith once for all then the miracles are not necessary anymore like they were before.

Tongues, Interpretation, and the Problem of Counterfeit Gifts

Tongues and interpretation of tongues. So this is number three. This gift is manifested by the speaking of a language unknown to the speaker see Acts chapter 2 1 through 11. This gift had to be accompanied by the spiritual gift or the gift of interpretation.

That's according to first Corinthians 14 27 through 28. So this is the the big thing that people get focused on the gift of tongues. So the the Greek word for tongue do you know what it is. Glossa. Right.

And you know what that means. If you look up the Greek word translated tongues it either means like the organ in your mouth like your actual tongue or it can refer to languages. So when the Bible uses the phrase people from every nation tribe and tongue it's saying people from every nation tribe and language.

That's what the word means. So I think it's really unfortunate that the Bible translators even translated it tongues if they just translate. Honestly if the King James translators train and I would make some people upset by I'm questioning the King James translators I'm not questioning them.

Okay I'm just saying if they translated it as languages I don't think we'd be in the situation we're in because you would read it. Yeah. Oh it's four languages. If you read Acts chapter 2 is said each one heard them speak in his own.

What language. So clearly in Acts chapter 2 they heard them speaking in intelligible languages. So the gibberish that you hear today the people call tongues again if that's what you believe then hey you know we can we can talk about that.

I'm not against you I just the word means languages. And that's really not debatable in Acts 2 they heard him speak in their own language. So to me it's a.

Very clear issue. I had identical twin step-sons and before we could understand.

Them they had a language and they understood each other. Yeah yeah you know. And if you do go back to the rise of the Pentecostal movement so there's 1901 1905 these were the two big dates. You've probably heard of the Azusa Street mission.

That's really where it all got started. The early Pentecostals. And I think most of you know this the early Pentecostals taught that if you don't speak in tongues what you're not saved that's what they taught.

So that would mean that all of us and really the majority of Christians on this earth are not even saved. That was that was the original doctrine. Now most care in fair and I want to be fair most charismatics that I know actually all the charismatics that I know they do not hold to that teaching.

But then if you get them in a one-on-one conversation and they start speaking really I don't want to say honestly because that I'm implying that they're dishonesty. But they do seem to imply that at times.

So that idea is that there's almost like two classes of Christians. But obviously that's problematic. If to say if you don't speak in tongues you're not saved. I would argue that's a different. You're adding to the gospel.

Okay. Joyce. Right. Well I think that's exactly what it does do that people feel like well what's wrong with me. I don't have this gift. And of course not everyone is going to have every spiritual gift.

So even if that was a gift for the church today you wouldn't necessarily have it because not everyone has all the gifts. But yeah and then it does put pressure on people to fake it. And you can go on YouTube and there are channels that make it pretty abundant.

They believe that this is a learned practice and that you can they can teach you how to do it. But again I.

Don't want to make it all about tongues. But Larry well as you had said earlier that the gifts of miracles and healings were to confirm the word preached but that all the healing that took place the way I understood it in the message was that the healing Jesus did and the Apostles did were to unbelievers not to believers right.

And the gift of tongues was to unbelieving Jews not to unbelieving Gentiles right. And so I had never heard that before. Yep and that. So I found that very interesting that it was never meant for Gentile right.

Believers especially. Yeah yeah right it's to the Jews. And there's we don't have time to get into it. There's an Old Testament prophecy that it'll be a sign of judgment to Israel when people are speaking in foreign languages in your city streets.

So Acts chapter 2 when people are speaking all these Gentile languages. Right there in Jerusalem that was a sign against the Jews. And of course many of the Jews thought that the Apostles were drunk because they couldn't understand them.

But then remember there is another outpouring similar to Pentecost when the Gentiles did start speaking in tongues. But that was a sign to the Jews that we need to accept them. They've received the Holy Spirit to.

That wasn't normative that. Okay. When someone gets saved from now on they will speak in tongues. No the Jews didn't want to accept Gentiles into the church. Don't we know this. This was like the big issue in the first century.

The Gentiles are dogs they're not God's people. They didn't want to accept them. But when they saw the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and Gentiles speaking in tongues they couldn't refute it. So that was a sign to the Jews.

But yeah it's it was never meant for a guy like me a Gentile to speak in touch. Like that's that was never the point. So and again people who do speak in this unintelligible prayer language as it's now been sort of redefined they they tend to do it in private oftentimes to build themselves up.

But the purpose of spiritual gifts is not to build yourself up. It's to build others up. And when it's done in public Paul says. And to the Corinthians if you're going to do this in church there's a rule and Paul says there must be an interpreter.

And these rules are just being broken today. Brad.

That's one thing that's a little bit confusing to me is the interpreter thing because in one place it says that everyone heard them speak in their own language. So here you have a speaker speaking in a particular language but different people are hearing their own language right.

So to me that's not somebody having to explain what someone else is saying. You're hearing it.

Yourself in your own language right. No I get what you're saying. Does anyone have an answer or a response to that. Yeah yeah. It's a miracle. Yeah. I mean I. Yeah give me a second on that. Stacy. Well I was just gonna say it is an.

Interpretation. Because if you have a group of people that understand this language you're interpreting it for yourself. Yeah but there's a whole group of you that are right able to interpret that right.

Good good point in Acts.

Chapter 2 you get the idea that the Apostles were speaking with other languages it was tongues and each one was just hearing them in their own language. But in Paul's words to the Corinthians it sounds like there's a guy doing it there's another guy translating it and then so there's a middle name.

Where in Acts chapter 2 it sounds like there isn't that middle man right. Is that what you're saying. That might be an assumption on our part. You know. Maybe there was a middle man in Acts 2 or maybe there you had the interpretation.

Can be just you hearing it. So I don't have the perfect. I'm not exactly sure the answer to that but I can see why there's confusion. And again in fairness there are some verses in 1st Corinthians 14 that are puzzling that that's why people think this.

Because Paul seems to say. And again that's a bigger conversation I get. I get where they're coming from. But if you look at 1st Corinthians 14 I did a whole sermon on that. It's online. You can listen to it.

The the key and figuring it out is Paul uses the word tongue singular and tongues plural. And when he uses one he's referring to the true gift and the other referring to a counterfeit. Because there's not multiple types of gibberish.

There's no there's multiple anyways you can listen to that sermon if you want.

Clarification. Larry going back to building yourself up which we're told not to do. Typically in my past whenever I've done anything to build myself up it's in response to tearing somebody else down. Yeah yeah.

So we have to be careful about puffing ourselves up or having a higher opinion of yourself than you ought.

Sure yeah. But and then isn't there a verse building yourself up in your most holy faith. Isn't there a verse. This. So whatever we say there will be somebody who has a verse to come back. Right. Isn't this the way it works.

But I don't think that verse is referring to spiritual gifts. So it's about context. Amen. Okay so where are we at. Or where are we moving away from tongues. Okay it's not going to come up again. Is it.