(Spiritual Gifts): Spiritual Gifts 2 — A.W. Tozer

Spiritual Gifts and the Danger of Ignorance

Now Let me read again. In first Corinthians 12 now concerning spiritual gifts brethren. I would not have you ignorant remember that Ignorance is an ugly word. It's almost a swear word in our day. But all it meant was not in form.

Everybody's ignorant on something. The most learned man is ignorant on something. Einstein couldn't keep his own bank account balance and turned his checkbook over to his wife. That's well-known fact.

He couldn't run a motorboat. He was running an outboard motor grounded it on a sandbar on the bank. He said I guess I was thinking of something else. So it isn't Disgraceful to be ignorant, but it could be dangerous to be ignorant of certain things.

We've all got to admit. We're ignorant well of most things. Specialized in certain things. But he said about spiritual gifts could be dangerous to be ignorant. We know that once you were Gentile Pagan Christians Carried away under these dumb idols.

Paul wasn't using slang dumb to Paul was an idol that couldn't speak. God spoke. I just couldn't Even as you were led. Therefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus a person.

That no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. Now in order that you might not be ignorant, but no I'll explain says the Apostle There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.

There are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit the outworking of that indwelling spirit is given to every man to profit with all.

For the one that is for the profit of all. For the one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom. And to another the word of knowledge for the same Spirit. To another faith for the same Spirit to another gifts of the healing by the same Spirit to another they're working all miracles to another prophecy to another discerning of spirits to another diverse kinds of tongues another interpretation of tongues.

But all these worketh that one and the self same Spirit. Dividing for every man severally as he will. Now that's the general text for the last Sunday sermon and several to come There up to the time brother Paris read head comes, but I want to point out to you That we cannot live our Christianity in a vacuum that it is a total impossibility.

Christians Must Understand Their Times

That we should become Christians and then enter into a Glass ball. And be suspended and have everything Exhausted from it and that's suspended in a vacuum live our lives. We must live our lives In relation to something we call our time.

And everybody did it including Paul and Christ John James Peter and Luther and Wesley and Knox and all of them. No Christian ever tried to live if he knew the word of God and was not ignorant of it to live in Disassociation from the times in which he lived.

Now the word our time or times. The word is used by Christ and it's also used by his apostles. The word times he I am here means Conditions prevalent at any given period. We Familiarly talk about hard time.

People are balancing whether they'll vote for one or another. Hoping that by voting for one they can stall off hard time. Then we talk about evil time and the Bible talks about perilous time and then The political parties all promises good time.

So we have hard times good times perilous times evil times and just plain wonderful times. But the word times always means condition. Could be financial could be religious Could be political could be social but conditions prevalent at any given period with particular Emphasis upon the relation of these conditions to God and to the scriptures.

Jesus’ Rebuke of Religious Leaders

Now Christ Jesus our Lord excoriated the religious leaders of his time because They did not know the times in which they live. Let us look here in Matthew 16 Pharisees also with the Sadducees came. Contempting him desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven.

He answered and said unto them when it is evening You said will be fair weather for the sky is red and in the morning You said will be foul weather the day for the sky is red and lowering. All you hypocrites You can discern the face of the sky you cannot discern the signs of time.

The wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign but there shall no sign be given unto it the sign of the Prophet Jonas and He left them and departed. It's quite significant that he turned his back on these signs seekers and these Pharisees and Scribes who were the religious leaders of their day.

They wanted miraculous proof that Jesus Christ was who he claimed to be and Our Lord rebuked them. Not only sharply I would say almost brutally By saying you read the sky and your good weather prophets.

But you're wiser in weather than you are in religion. The signs are all around you moral signs of the time and religious signs of the time and political signs of the time. And yet you demand That I perform some miracle as a proof that I'm who I claim to be that I'm the Son of God.

Paul’s Warning About the Last Days

Now there's an apostolic warning for Sometimes that I want to read to you. I don't like it. I wish it didn't have to be here. And I think you will bear me record that I've preached on this very rarely maybe not frequently enough.

But the old man of God Paul Was about to die not to lie down calmly and surrounded by newspaper men and doctors issuing bulletins and friends. Not to die that way. But to be led with his hands tied behind his back and to kneel down and have a Roman soldier knock his head off with A sword.

That's how he died. He was about to die and he knew it and said the time of his departure come. But before he went he wrote his young Timothy a letter and in it he said this. This know also that in the latter days perilous times shall come.

For men shall be lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy Without natural affection cruise breakers false accusers incontinent fears despises of those that are good Traitors heady I minded lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.

For all from such turn away for of this sort are they which creep into houses and Lead captive silly women now. Paul didn't say that all women were silly. So don't any of you women suddenly develop a phobia against the He said silly women, but of course, they're silly men, too.

But he said that the way they would work would be to lead captive silly women didn't say they'd lead captive wise women and there are many wise ones. But these silly women are not only silly. They're laden with sin Led away with divers lusts ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Then in the fourth chapter he said I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ. And shall judge the quick and the dead it is appearing in his kingdom. Preach the word the instant in season and out of season reprove and rebuke and exhort With all long-suffering in doctrine for the time will come When they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts.

Shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. That is they shall they having itching ears. Shall you to themselves teachers? You'll notice the punctuation. That's actually what it says they Having itching ears will heap to themselves teachers.

Teachers don't have itching ears. They may too, but that's not what the apostle said and They shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned under fables. Now in these days when we're preachers are told that we should hurt nobody's feelings.

And that we should remember to be cultured and aesthetic at all times. I Just want to point out that the illustration that Paul used here is taken from no more Fragrant a place than the swine pen. Well, they had a disease in those days.

Which pigs got that made their ears itching and the only way they could get any relief was going to rock piles and rubbing their ears vigorously against the rocks and Paul this learned man this man who is said to be one of the six great mentalities of all time said so by the scholars to be and Who is a cultured man of everyone lived.

Actually said about the last times that things should be in a good position that the only proper illustration would be The pigs who have the disease that makes their ears itch and he says they shall heap to themselves Teachers because they have itching ears.

Now that's what Paul said and he gave us a preview of some times. I wonder if they could be these times. He said for instance that they should be lovers of their own selves. I ask you to notice whether This these are times of selfless service or of self love.

You answer that yourself. I ask you whether these are times of Boasting for their verse 2 says there shall be boasters that is he's talking about the church now. He's not talking about the world Paul and mucking with the world.

This is the church's religious world. He says there are boasters these days would be boasters in those days. And if those days are these days I'll leave it to you boasters then he said there should be disobedience to parents verse 2 and there isn't anybody from J Edgar Hoover down to the corner policeman or the schoolteacher, but what would say that's The day in which we live then lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.

I asked you my brethren who gets paid the most. The president of the United States or the pleasure givers. You know who the president of the United States is a piker compared with the clowns that give players.

To the world and to God's dear saints who expect a wave of her fan in heaven forever. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. You decide that ever learning but never seeming somehow to come to a knowledge of this truth.

Sound Doctrine Replaced by Religious Fables

Printing more Bibles than ever have been printed in the history of the world. Editing more religious magazines than were ever heard of having more Bible schools and seminaries and Christian colleges that were ever known.

Ever learning and yet somehow never seeming to come to a knowledge of the truth. They will not endure sound Doctrine that is doctrine that is a grave and sensible and they want it spiced up itching ears with religious leaders to scratch them and Turning under fables for for What it says turning under fables that is the gospel is now preached by means of fables.

We call it fiction and men are getting rich and buying outboard or other crab and cruisers and homes in Florida. Writing religious fables for the feeble-minded. And today these conditions are upon us my brethren and strange Voices are being heard and strange Directions are being taken by the Church of Christ after this first second world war that is about 1946.

I would take it or five. I risked a little prediction and told the congregation That we were in for a strange development a series of strange developments. My only error was that I misjudged the distance they would go and the multiplicity of them.

Now specifically, there's the voice of the bolster heard in religion and the voice of pleasure and the voice of the Ear-scratcher and the voice of the fable and the voice of family rebellion. Now if this was out in the world among what's called juvenile delinquents, I wouldn't have much to say about.

But if you think this is an extreme statement you come to me after the service and tell me so and I'll appreciate it. We won't be any hard feelings at all. I could be I could be over I could be extreme in this statement.

But I'm ready to be corrected but am I Reasonably near to telling the truth when I say that so completely has. Have we parents lost control of our children? That if you find an obedient teenager these days He is a paragon and a wonder and is looked upon as being something unusual.

Instead of being the most normal thing in the world. Even in religious circles We have made jokes of it. Men have made money drawing cartoons about little bald-headed fathers Who were kicked around by their children?

But it is a long way from being a joke. The crime of the middle-aged and the elderly began in their teenage or younger still and the Rebellion and the the Opposition to law and morality and righteousness which is found everywhere began in the home.

Success, Crowds, and the Intoxication of Religious Activity

Now Conditions will become worse. He used to say during the war you remember they had a phrase they used I thought it was rather a quaint one it said. They used to call them communicators. Communicate from MacArthur communicate from Eisenhower communicate from somebody in charge said this we have done this and we have suffered this setback and we have made this advance and we believe that Conditions will worsen before they get better.

Remember that phrase Conditions will worsen before they get better. They expected him to get better. But they figured honestly the only proper honest thing they could say was that they were in a tight spot and they expected to have To do some more running Before they finally could get to a place where they could stand and make a successful defense.

That's what they meant, but they call it worse. Well now let me tell you Christians you Christians that conditions are going to worsen before they get better. Christians are deceiving themselves and each other by Intensified activity and by increased publicity for religion and this is moving and growing and increasing like a cattle stampede and it grows by imitation and by the intoxication of success.

Old was it Lord Bacon. Yes, I think it was Lord Bacon who said That there be some things which the more skillful you can do them the worse man you are. And the intoxication of success. Is the intoxication of it the imitation of men who point to success as a proof that they are right?

When success in a wrong thing only proves that the man is more wrong than if he failed him because he's skillfully able to do wrong and Then the encouragement of crowd there isn't anything that can make a little man big quicker than crowds.

Take a tiny little man and surround him by a crowd and he manages by that peculiar psychological osmosis the of the power of the crowd leaks through the thin hide of the little henpecked brother and For a moment.

He's a big man because he's surrounded by people and he's safe. It is the same psychology as the little fellow with the big glasses and no chin. Who gets in the big car that his dad bought him takes the muffler off and roars around the corner on two wheels.

He somehow manages to gather from those eight great roaring beautiful cylinders. Something of its power what he doesn't have in himself. He gets from his engine now. I pity such a fellow as that and I can only hope the day will come when he'll be able to stand on his own Two feet and not have to borrow power from a machine.

I didn't intend to say this and I'll make some of you furious. But you get over it probably and I hope it won't be serious enough to bring on a heart attack. But it is my conviction that the reason the secret society used a big long sesquipedalian rumbling two-ton words to name some little fellow a butcher maybe or a teller in the bank who Has become for the time grand exalted high potentate you ruler of the local unit the reason they do that is That there are so many of their members that can't open their mouth at home and that can't.

They have call their soul their own and between the tax collector and the auditor and their wife and their teenage children. They haven't got anybody they can talk back to except the goldfish but they become members of the this or that society and Strut about in the doorman's uniform and calling themselves the high grand exalted Potentate and you let mama talk to the potentate and you'll see him take that uniform off and put on Bib and do the dishes like any good boy.

Well, I think that's the psychology back of it. I don't know but that's the psychology back of a great deal of religious activity the intoxication of crowds and the intoxication of success and The power of suggestion.

Do you ever notice how the suggestion has a has a power. If if they sing about it and talk about it enough mrs How's my good right out and buy that they know that and so they do it is mostly harmless.

I suppose because all Advertised products are good. They're never as good as they say they are but they're good at the average. So you don't go wrong in buying advertised good. That's just a little lesson on the side.

But the point is rather than that the power of suggestion is still a tremendous thing and if a Successful happy group is doing something then we all want to imitate now brethren, we're in this we're in these times and We as a church and I as a pastor These brethren with me and you as a congregation we can do one of two possible things we can be opportunists and Take our cue from the leaders and sacrifice eternal values For temporal success and I've been around long enough that I don't even have to end that paragraph, you know What I'm going to do God helping me.

The Church as a Distinct People in the World

Or we can do a second thing we can go into the mount and get our pattern and Come down from the mount and recognize ourselves as and maintain the character of a called-out assembly a Disinherited minority but because of our beliefs and our lives and our moral lives.

We're disinherited and rejected that we can Maintain our character as an art on the water floating on it in relation to it, but not down in it. What relation then should we take to the world the same relation that Noah's Ark took to the flood water?

Noah's Ark could not escape its time. It floated on the boiling seething brackish waters of judgment. But it never splashed a single Drop into that earth and It never became a part of that seething judgment beneath it.

It floated clean and always there was the thickness of the hull Between the people of God inside and the brackish waters below. So we can think of ourselves in that way. And we can think of ourselves as a royal priesthood in a holy nation.

The Priesthood of All Believers

I believe in ministers and I believe in ordination of ministers. I'm on the ordaining council In this district and I've been helped to examine many a young man. I was ordained myself. Spurgeon said no man ever ladies empty hands on his empty head, but that was Spurgeon.

I believe in ministers and I am not against them, but I'm saying this to you my brethren that We are not the the ordained minister is not only a priest. He is one but he's not the only one all the people of God are priests.

And this is a royal priesthood and the simplest and humblest one of you listening to me now that would think this the least Applicable to you if you're a true Christian. You're a priest of the most high.

God is surely as the minister or the bishop and we can think of ourselves as a company of priests a company of priests. We need not go to a priest to get entree Into the presence of God we are priests and we can enter into the presence of God without the mediator ship of an earthly priest.

God gives certain gifts and the church has traditionally taken those gifts and Has recognized them and has called men out laid their hands on them and said here We believe this man is so gifted of God that he's going to we want him to preach to us and help lead us.

That's been traditional in all the denominations and I'm for it and I believe in it. Let us not pick this man one man out and say this gifted brother whom we now ordain to the ministry is the priest the rest Of us are just followers.

Not by a long shot my friends. Every one of you has as much Entree into the presence of God as the most famous preacher that lives in the world today. And you have just as much right in there. And you can come justice certainly.

Let's suppose a man has a family of 12 children. Once in a while. They do yet have them. Well, you had the family of 12 children. Let's suppose the oldest boy now reaches 25 27 years of age. And he's been to college and he has made good somewhere in the political world or somewhere in some one of the very many worlds within world.

And he becomes famous and he's made pictures from the paper and he's known and he's a big fellow. And when he comes back home as Yogi Berra went back home to California to see his mother or Joe DiMaggio Used to well-known fellas.

All right, they've made good in their field. Now let's suppose that there's a whole string of other ones on down 27 25 23 21 on down the line to the little guy now when it comes to entree to the father's heart or place on the father's lap or Food to eat or clothing to wear a roof over their head or a kindly blessing.

Does this famous fella who's known over the world? Did he get it all? No, he gets his share and he gets no more than his share. But all those little steps down to the littlest tiniest one that can climb up on their lap and go to sleep.

They're all have on tray into the presence of the most high God so you and I my dear friends are All priests of God and we must recognize ourselves as being such not Alliance people on normal not Presbyterians not mad not Luther's Lutherans not any denomination, but anybody within any denomination.

That is a true child of God. Now our position closing very quickly. There's some things we must stand against and not in the name of false charity. Smile at the altars of Dale for any of you who thinks that I'm against too many things.

Let me give you that text in Exodus, which God gave to me nearly 30 years ago Said That Thou shalt not bow down to their images nor Do after their works nor follow their God but thou shalt Destroy their images and idols and quite break down their image.

Now that is the root etymological meaning of the word iconoclast. Somebody that breaks idle some fellow who's been down on his knees to an idol for 40 years. Doesn't take kindly to the fellow that comes around kicks the idol over and breaks it Well, he said you've disillusioned me.

Well, you poor fellow. Shouldn't you be disillusioned now while you have time to do something about it? Instead of waiting to be disillusioned when Gabriel blows his horn.

But brethren.

The things we're against do not constitute our creed. Our glory does not lie in breaking idols. Our glory does not lie in opposing things. The scripture says ye shall receive power when the Spirit comes upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me.

Christian Power Is for Witness and Good Works

And power means ability to do. Not ability to destroy. It's a positive and not a negative word. And when Jesus and the Apostles promised his church power He meant of course they were to have power to stand against evil.

But that wasn't the primary meaning of the word. It was that they should have power to do good. The man who tells truth has to stand against the lie, but he's not conscious of standing against lies. He's conscious of telling truth.

The man who's honest in his business has to stand against dishonesty, but he's not conscious of standing against dishonesty. He's conscious of being honest and the man who is decent must stand against indecency.

Then he doesn't congratulate himself. Always in stand that he's standing against indecency. He stands for decency. And that's his power. And so the Bible gives us power to do and witness. We are to tell what we have seen and heard and felt and experienced that all centers around the person of Christ.

He shall be witnesses under me. Witnesses somebody that was there and saw it. A witness is somebody that tells it. Witnesses called to the to the bar for the court and he's put in the witness chair. And they say what did you see?

He says I didn't see anything, but my mother-in-law told me they'd dismiss him in three seconds. They don't want to know what his mother-in-law told him there. What did you see? They say did you hear what did you hear that night?

Well, I'm stone-deaf. I didn't hear a thing. They write it on a pad. I'm stone-deaf. Well, you can't talk to witness like that. So the Christian that hasn't seen anything and hasn't heard anything. He he has no right to break anybody else's idols.

I'd rather worship Bale. Than to break down Bale's idols and never worshiped Jehovah at least they had something Wrong and false, but the Prophet who did not know Jehovah had no right to call anybody to Mount Carmel.

He had to be able to give them something better and you'll remember that when the 400 prophets of Bale were put to confusion. Everybody cried Jehovah is God, Jehovah is God. They cried not against the destruction of the daylights, but against somebody they'd found.

They'd found God and they said now we know we found Jehovah. The emphasis was not upon the destruction of Bale, but upon the discovery of Jehovah. So my brethren. No man has a right to break an idol. Unless he has a true God.

No man has any right to stand against something bad unless he has something good to put in it place. No man has any right to criticize someone who's going the wrong way unless He has the right way himself.

The Church Must Offer Christ, Not Mere Criticism

Now we must not sit on our hands and react. Somebody said them pastor said to mr. Moody. Mr. Moody, I don't like the way you evangelize. Moody said, how do you do it? He says I don't. Well Moody says I like my way better now.

We must not sit on our hands. Well, that's our trouble. We're in a we're in a place where there's there's we're so pressed in on the inside from all. Directions were pressed all directions almost anywhere you go.

We are running old Bale somewhere. And so the result is that a lot of us we sit on our hands and react. Brethren, I won't do it by God almighty. I'll help me. I won't do it. I believe that we have a message that the biggest thing in the world and I have no apology for it.

I believe that we have a Christ that can meet any need anywhere and we need not kneel Before I learned it nor before the communists nor before the Catholic nor before the one-worlder nor before the great Religionist which takes all religions and makes them one.

We need not kneel before the psychologist. Who's supposed to be able to know all that goes on in silence? We need not kneel before anybody. We kneel only before one and that one has been raised from the dead and set at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

And he wears the only triple crown there is I repeat Where he is Lord of heaven earth and hell. He is Jesus Christ our Lord. So you and I Have got to demonstrate something. There's no possible use for us to talk.

How about badly astray? Evangelicalism is if we don't have something to put in its place. So, all right, you don't like what I'm doing don't like what I believe. What do you got if you get something to give them listen to this being let go there went to their own company and They reported all the chief priests and elders that said unto them.

The Apostolic Church’s Boldness and Grace

And when they heard that they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and They said Lord Thou art God Which has made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in the midst. They weren't listen to seminars on Whether Christ was virgin born or not or on the deity of Christ.

They simply said Lord Jesus thou art God which has made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in the midst. Who by the mouth of thy servant David has said Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things.

The kings of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ for by a truth of the truth against thy holy child Jesus Whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together.

For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before it is done and now Lord Said Lord, we're just about through now about ready for the amen now Lord they said Behold their threatened and ran under that service that with all boldness they may speak thy word By stretching forth thine hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of the Holy Child Jesus.

And when they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. And they spake the word of God with boldness. Went out against anybody they were out in favor of somebody and that's somebody who's been raised from the dead and They were out preaching him and the multitude of them that believe were of one heart and one soul.

Neither Said any of them that ought to think they possessed were their own but they had all things common and with great power gave the Apostles Witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace upon them all.

The church that has great grace upon it Can break idols? Because they've got something to show to put in its place their place Brethren. For us to take the stand we do and have no great grace on us and no great power on us.

Is to put ourselves in the position of the seven sons of Siva. We told the devil to come out of a man. And the devil turned around and said we know Jesus and we know Paul, but who are you when they tore his clothes off his back?

So may God help us. We're for something Not against them. We're against something only because we're for something. What we're for is so infinitely greater than anything that we can possibly be against.

That 95 of our message and thought and prayer Should have to do with what we are for.