Beyond The Basics 8: Spiritual Gifts (part 2)

Our Father, we bless You, we praise Your name.

We're thankful for all that You have accomplished for us in Your Son, Jesus Christ.

As we turn to Your Word this morning, we pray that You would bless our time as we look what it means to

really to be saved and to be gifted by You.

Lord, would You bless our time in Christ's name?

Amen.

Well, you know, as always, I like to read things so that you don't have to.

And, you know, it's funny.

I think we've been on the...

How many know what TBN is?

I know what it is.

That's why I brought it up.

Trinity Broadcasting Network.

That is exactly right.

And we got on their newsletter years and years ago.

And it doesn't matter, you know, if we move, change our names, we've assumed many disguises, and they

still track us down.

It doesn't really matter.

And I just thought, you know, this is interesting in light of what Pastor Mike's been teaching.

The headline of this one, you probably can't see it, says, Ask Me for Anything.

Ask Me for Anything.

And he goes on and he says, in Matthew chapter 7, says, Ask and it shall be given to you

for everyone that asketh, receiveth.

Matthew 7, verse 7 and 8.

Then he's kind of walking through the passage.

And you go, that's interesting.

He's keeping it right in context.

And then he goes back and he says, how do you get what you want?

Well, the answer is in Matthew 6, back a few chapters, right where we are.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

Then he says, wow, here it is, take hold.

And all these things shall be added unto you.

And you say, but I have sought the kingdom of God first.

I'm saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Spirit.

And still no answer to that need, that life or death miracle.

You need a miracle.

Now, dear partner, let us turn that key to that locked door once and for all.

What's the key?

Understanding what the kingdom of God is.

It's going to seek and save the lost, he says.

Then he starts skipping around, Luke 19, John 15,

2 Chronicles 7 .15, on and on it goes.

Now listen to this.

The moment you decide to call or pledge, you become an instant soul winner.

Just by giving to TBN, you're a soul winner.

TBN reaches vast numbers of souls with nine great networks, etc., etc., etc.

Then he goes on to cite how Solomon proved his faithfulness by giving.

But here's the thing.

You become an instant soul winner by giving to TBN.

TBN, the same corporation that puts Catholic priests on the air, that

puts Oneness Pentecostals on the air, who say that they're not Protestants because they're not

protesting anything, who basically stand for nothing.

And, you know, I mean, they've got pictures of, and you hear everyone from Pat Robertson to one of my

favorite Christian evangelists, Tim Conway.

Although they do just call him a comedian here.

But you just go, okay, why is he here?

Why was he on the show?

One final note on them.

We were in Orlando here a month ago, and, you know, you drive by the Holy Land

Experience.

Just FYI, it's owned by TBN.

In fact, if you look at the sign, it says that right on the bottom of it.

It says Trinity Broadcasting Network.

And here they've got, you know, I really wish I'd used a projector this morning because

this is just really priceless.

This picture here, it's a man portraying Jesus.

And there's a Roman centurion, and there are some other people in colorful garb.

And then standing next to Jesus, this portrayal of Jesus, is this

guy in this giant -like camel costume standing there like this.

I don't know what that's all about.

And then, of course, Jan crouches over to the side, you know, with a microphone.

But really weird stuff.

Anyway, the bad teaching experience of the day.

Holy Land Experience owned by TBN.

So we're talking about spiritual gifts.

Does anyone need a copy of the notes?

It just so happens I have a few up my sleeve.

Thank you, Pastor.

Talking about spiritual gifts, and so far what we've talked about is what it means to have a spiritual gift,

the Greek word, because it's important that every week you commit to memory at least one Greek word.

We've also talked about what the purpose of it is.

And really, you know what, if you get nothing else out of the next few weeks, although I think next week we

will take a quiz so that you can discover what your spiritual gift is.

If you get nothing else out of this, what is the purpose of spiritual gifts?

Right there, 1 Corinthians 12, verses 4 -7.

It's for the common good.

It's for the body.

So this whole idea of, and TBN is just a prime example of this, you know, the speaking in tongues

for self -edification, all those things.

Well, if you read the Scriptures, if you study it through, it is for the body, is to build up the unity of the body of

Christ, not for your own personal benefit.

We talked about how the gifts are distributed, that the Holy Spirit does it, which

kind of, his giving of spiritual gifts kind of belies the fact,

counters the idea that you can somehow demand a gift, that you can practice until you get a

particular gift.

That's just not the way it is, biblically.

We talked about how there are some temporary signed gifts.

We talked about how if we trace the development of the gifts in the New Testament, we

would see that as time went on, the miraculous gifts, the signed gifts,

fade from the writings of the apostles.

We did talk about the three eras of history where miracles were, you know, and again, I think it's

always, you always want to tread lightly when you say, miracles were normative in this era, because that

doesn't mean, you know, you're walking down the street and you go, it's another miracle, you know, another day,

another miracle.

It wasn't that normal.

Miracles are still miracles.

But, you know, the clusters of miracles throughout history really are

condensed into a period that spans about 100 years.

So now we're at the bottom of page 36, talking about apostles.

Now, typically, I don't think we think of apostles as spiritual gifts, but they are.

And to just kind of highlight that for a minute, this isn't in your notes, but let's just look at

Ephesians chapter 4,

verse 11.

And talking about Jesus, Paul writes, and he gave some as apostles and some as

prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of

service to the building up of the body of Christ.

Again, the idea of what?

That it's for the good of the body, but it lists in there apostles.

And there is a movement today to say that we have apostles among us.

And I come from a background in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints, the Mormon Church, where we had

12, actually 15 apostles, if you want to get picky.

But we had apostles, messengers, allegedly from Christ.

That's what an apostle is, a messenger.

Let's go ahead and look at Matthew chapter 10, verses 1 to 4, and

I'll ask somebody to read that when they have it.

But again, kind of a novel concept.

I don't think typically we think of apostles as spiritual gifts, but that's exactly what they

were.

Imagine where the church might have gone were it not for the apostles.

Of course, that was God's plan, but I mean, we would be really

hurting without the apostles.

Anyway, Matthew 10, verses 1 to 4.

Who has that?

Pretty.

You know, lately, I don't know why, but I've just had this thing about baby names.

You ever wonder why nobody names their kid Thaddeus?

I mean, what's wrong with that?

It's a fine name, one of the apostles.

We need more Thaddeus, Thaddeis, whatever.

Anyway, I digress.

It's interesting to note, and I have that in your notes there, that in Matthew chapter 10, verse 1,

they're referred to as disciples, and then in verse 2, they're called apostles.

What changed?

Jesus gave them authority.

I mean, they were his disciples, his followers, and then he gave them authority.

Interesting to note, too, that he gave them authority over what?

Unclean spirits and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

It makes you wonder, what would a modern -day apostle look like?

What's that?

Faith healer?

Well, a

modern -day apostle.

Well, what would be the problem with having a modern -day apostle?

What's that?

And there are no apostles today because

Jesus isn't appearing to people.

Is that what you said?

You have to have seen the risen Christ.

I mean, we know that because of Acts 1.

Let's look at that.

This idea that you could be an apostle today, and, you know, the reason I think it's important to discuss

apostles in the context of spiritual gifts is because there are those that say the

spiritual gifts, all of them, must be in the church today because they were in the church at the beginning.

Well, according to that line of thinking, what must we have today?

We must have apostles.

If no spiritual gift can vanish, then we must have apostles.

But there's a problem with that.

Let's look at Acts 1.

And I don't want to just read verse 22, so I'm

going to start with verse 15.

At this time, Peter stood up.

This is after the ascension of Jesus.

At this time, Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren, a gathering of about 120 persons, which still just kind of

is amazing when you think about what happens then in Acts 2 at Pentecost.

There are 120 people.

That's the totality of the church.

And then on the day of Pentecost, 3 ,000 get added to that.

Verse 16.

Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas,

who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.

For he was counted among us and received his share in this ministry.

Now this man acquired a field with the price of his wickedness.

That's 40 pieces of silver.

And falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and all his intestines gushed out.

This is Luke telling us viscerally.

I mean, this is like law and order.

We have to see all this, I guess.

Verse 19.

It became known to all who were living in Jerusalem, so that in their own language, that field

was called haqqadamah.

That is, field of blood.

For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his homestead be made desolate, and let no one dwell in it.

And let another man take his office.

Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time, that the Lord Jesus went in and out among

us, beginning with the baptism of John, until the day he was taken up from us.

One of these must become a witness of his resurrection.

And that's...

Well, I'll just finish reading it.

So they put forth two men.

Joseph, called Barsabbas, who was also called Justice.

I mean, this guy had a lot of names.

And Matthias.

And they prayed and said, You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show

which one of these two you have chosen to occupy this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas turned

aside to go to his own place.

And they drew lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias.

And he was added to the eleven apostles.

He was added, why?

Because the lot fell on him, but also because he was an eyewitness to the resurrection.

Now, why can we not have modern -day apostles?

Because as far as I know, nobody, as Pam was even saying, nobody's seen the resurrected

Lord.

There are people who have claimed to have seen him, but no one has seen him.

So to be an apostle, you had to see the resurrection.

Number three.

They're given absolute authority.

Let's look at Jude 17.

Or for those of you not familiar with it, Jude chapter 1, verse 17.

You know, it is funny because your computer programs always put that chapter 1 thing in there, and I always delete it because I think

it's just annoying.

Philemon chapter 1.

Who has verse 17?

Yes, Pam.

Go ahead, Deb.

So what's he saying?

You know, if we were to put it all in context, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand.

In other words, it's the key, because he's talking about these false teachers coming along, and he says,

ignore what everybody else is saying.

We have the words of the apostles.

They are authoritative.

They are supreme.

They are the ones who you should listen to.

They also have a unique place forever.

Revelation 21, 14.

I mean, some things in Revelation, it's kind of hard to exactly figure out what

they're going to look like.

I mean, I think we have a hint here in 21, 14, but I don't think we'll fully comprehend it

until we're there, and we go, oh, okay.

I really get it now.

Let me back up just a little bit and read a little more of it.

I'll start in, go ahead and start in verse 9.

The heading here in the MacArthur Study Bible says, The New Jerusalem.

Then one of the seven angels, who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, came and spoke with me, saying, And

I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.

And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the holy

city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.

Having the glory of God, her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of

crystal -clear jasper.

It had a great and high wall with 12 gates, and at the gates, 12 angels.

And names were written on them, which are the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel.

There were three gates on the east, and three gates on the north, and three gates on the south, and three gates on the west.

And the wall of the city had 12 foundation stones, and on them were the 12 names of

the 12 apostles of the Lamb.

The apostles are going to be memorialized, apparently, forever.

They're pretty important individuals.

They're a spiritual gift to the church.

They were given great authority by the Lord himself.

And if we went through the book of Acts, we would see that in the early Acts, those who were

sick were healed.

The apostolic period, apostolic period, during the early days of the church, there were a lot of

healings.

But near the end of the apostolic period, when the apostles started dying out, there are unhealed

people.

Let's look at, we don't have to look there, 2 Timothy 4 .20.

He leaves Trophimus sick at Miletus, one of my favorite passages, because it just

sounds like Paul didn't care about Trophimus, I guess.

Maybe Trophimus didn't have faith.

I mean, none of those things are in there.

It just says, I left Trophimus sick at Miletus.

Brutal.

You're just brutal.

You could have healed him and you didn't.

I don't think so.

I think the point of, as we've been talking about, the point of the sign gifts, the point of being able to heal

someone, was to establish their credentials, to,

in a very real sense, say to unbelievers, and to believers, these are the men that God has appointed.

Then later on, as we go through church history, as we go through the book of Acts, we see church stalwarts martyred, actually put to death.

Stephen is murdered in Acts 7.

In Acts 12, James the apostle is executed.

So, we see the apostles, we see the gift they are to the church, we see the authority they're given, and we see,

over time, some of the spectacular gifts that they were enabled to do, the signs and wonders,

as it's phrased, beginning to fade from the scene.

Let's talk about speaking in tongues.

Speaking in tongues.

Let's look at Acts 2.

Again, it's a really long passage, so I'll go ahead and read that.

Acts 2, verses 1 to 14.

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place, all the church,

all the church and some more, too.

Big crowd, eventually, because this is one of the major holidays where everybody would come in from all over

Asia Minor, everywhere they would come into Jerusalem, all the Jews would.

And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were

sitting.

And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving

them utterance.

So here we have the 120 people gathered outside.

There are all these other Jews in for the celebration.

And the people of the church are given these tongues.

Now, were they speaking random words of gibberish?

Were they speaking in a private prayer language?

Let's just keep reading.

Verse 5.

Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven.

And when this sound occurred, meaning this rushing of the wind, the crowd came together

and were bewildered, each one of them, oh, because each one of them was hearing them speak,

these Christians speak in his own language.

They were amazed and astonished, saying, why are not these who are speaking, or why

are not all these who are speaking Galileans?

And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?

Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and

Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Persia and Pamphylia,

Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene and visitors from Rome,

both Jews and proselytes, meaning God -fearers, Cretans and Arabs,

we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.

So were they babbling, these Christians?

No, it says right there, they heard them in their own languages, and what were they talking about?

They were talking about, they were all filled with the Spirit.

Oh, right, I skipped, I'm on the wrong page there.

Speaking of the mighty deeds of God.

So it was obviously understandable to the people who were listening.

They heard them in their own languages.

And they were stunned, why?

Because these were these dopey Galileans, these uneducated, these country bumpkins

who didn't know all these languages.

How could they do this?

It wasn't like they sent them to, you know, six months intensive training in languages.

Okay, I want you guys to prepare.

It's a short -term mission to Mozambique and we're going to have preparations.

There was none of that.

It was a movement of the Holy Spirit.

Look at verse 12.

And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, what does this mean?

Many heard of the mighty deeds of God in their own language, and they were stunned.

But others were mocking and saying they are full of sweet wine.

And listen, there are always going to be naysayers.

You have this great miracle going on and there are people who have hard hearts.

You might have met a few in your day.

They're going to try to find some kind of objective answer for the work of

God.

And so they say, well, wait a minute.

These guys can't really be doing this.

It must just be the action of sweet wine.

They must be drunk.

Verse 14,.

But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them, Men of Judea and

all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words,

for these men are not drunk as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day.

But this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel.

And he goes on to tell how this is a fulfillment of Joel chapter 2.

So speaking in tongues, there is the...

Let me phrase this correctly.

The only example we have, a graphic example of

somebody speaking in tongues, there are other references to it, but this is the only time we have it explained exactly

how it, the mechanics of it, as it were, how it works.

So the term there for speaking in tongues indicates that it

is a known language.

It is a known language.

Remember, they were from all over Asia Minor, down to Egypt, out into

Mesopotamia, all these different regions.

And each one heard testimonies of the greatness of God in their own languages.

Why?

Because that's what the Holy Spirit brought to these 120 believers.

Gave them this gift so that they could do this.

And it is a signed gift.

Let's look at 1 Corinthians 14, 22.

It is to confirm the message that they are hearing.

Talk about a miracle.

I mean, these people had no respect for Galileans whatsoever, not for their intellect, not for their

knowledge.

Like I said, it was like they took a bunch of, you know, I don't know, rubes from,

let's just pick a state, Nebraska.

And they...

Just a random choice.

And they taught them all these languages, but that's not what happened.

It was people who could not have possibly known these things being worked, being given a gift by

the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 14, 22.

Steve.

So tongues are a sign for unbelievers.

So then what would be, as I note here, what would be private about it?

What would be private about it?

In fact, a great book that we use during our gift, our

gift, our class on...

It was a gift.

Our class on charismatic theology by Dr. Edgar, Thomas

Edgar.

And he says, you know, basically in there, he goes through the history of speaking in

tongues, the use of the word glossolalia.

He goes through it in all of the literature of the ancient world.

And he says, well, you know what?

There is a time where it...

Or there were times where it referred to some kind of a private babbling language.

And he goes, but it was only in pagan history.

It was only in pagan rituals.

Never had anything to do with Christianity.

And there is absolutely no indication in scripture that it is to be practiced today.

Where does it say that this is how we should speak in tongues and when we should do it?

I mean, there are rules given to the Corinthian church, but there's no indication anywhere that it should be normative

for today.

And clearly, if we look at the book of Acts, Acts chapter 2 and the way it was used there, and just ask

ourselves, is that how churches employ it today?

And I think the answer is, no, that's not what they do.

Any questions or comments about speaking in tongues?

Brother Bruce.

One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but one who prophesies edifies the church.

Now, I wish, well, again, whatever that means, and it's a tricky passage, but whatever it means,

well, let's just keep reading.

One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself.

Now, let's keep in mind, what is the purpose of spiritual gifts?

But one who prophesies edifies the church.

Now, I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy.

And greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that

the church may be edified.

It would be the interpretation that does that, not the speaking in tongues.

Verse 6.

But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you, unless I speak to you either by way of

revelation, or of knowledge, or of prophecy, or of teaching?

What's he saying?

I wouldn't profit you at all, unless I gave you revelation, or knowledge,

prophecy, or of teaching.

Yet even lifeless things, either flute or harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in

the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or the harp?

And I think, ultimately, he concludes all this, again, in the...

I'm trying to...

In verse 22, when he says, so then, tongues are a

sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers, for prophecy is a sign, not to unbelievers, but to those

who believe.

Verse 23.

Therefore, if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or

unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad?

But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all,

he is accounted to, or he's called to account by all.

Again, I don't want to dissect all of the first part of 1 Corinthians 14, I will just

simply say that the purpose of gifts is to edify, to build up the church.

And he says, one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself.

So, he was discouraging speaking in tongues, he did that over and over again, he said, you know, what would it benefit you if

I spoke in a tongue, except unless I brought some kind of revelation or teaching

to you.

So, he does not encourage it, and in fact,

I think the overall context of 1 Corinthians 12 to 14 is very clear that the

purpose of signs, sign gifts, was, and spiritual gifts generally,

is for the building up of the church, not so that we could practice private prayer languages, which has nothing to

do with building up the church.

Other questions?

Seeing none.

Permanent edifying gifts, those are the sign gifts, basically healing,

speaking in tongues, forgetting to shut off your cell phone, those are,

I hear that funny noise in the background, and I'm going, oh, I know what that is, it's because you didn't shut off your cell phone.

Permanent edifying gifts, building up gifts, given to the church to be practiced

throughout the church age.

How do we know?

Because we're given instruction on exactly how they're to function now.

We don't have to guess about whether we should have them now.

They're not just described in the book of Acts, but they're actually talked about in other places.

Again, I've already read Ephesians 4, 11 -13, they were given to minister and to

perfect the spiritual work of the saints.

The church exists, in fact, we could say, if somebody says, what's the purpose statement of Bethlehem Bible Church?

I think there are plenty of places we could go, but one of them would be those verses I read in Ephesians chapter 4, that the

purpose of the church, the purpose of the elders, the purpose of the pastors, is to equip

the saints for the work of ministry.

That's the purpose, that's why we're here.

In fact, I think that's the purpose of all spiritual gifts, is we come here together to mutually edify

one another and to worship the Lord.

Number three, these gifts are not for self -edification.

They're not just to build you up.

It's not a question of, I feel better about myself.

I feel more godly.

It is for the benefit of the church.

There are two categories of gifts.

Let's look at 1 Peter 4, verses 10 and 11.

And who has that?

Go ahead, Maureen.

Okay, so Peter gives two categories of gifts.

What are they?

If you look deeply in your notes, like right down below, it says speaking and

serving.

Listen, this is BKC, it's the Bible Knowledge Commentary.

It says, Peter divided Christian service into two general categories, the one who speaks, the Greek word is lale,

and the one who serves, diakone, which, of course, is from where we get

deacon, servants.

This division relates to the distinction God's leaders made between ministry roles,

Acts 6, 2 to 4, where it basically talks about the prototype of deacons and taking the load

off those who were teaching.

These two general ministry functions often overlap.

Both groups function through dependence on God's gracious provision.

The reason for relying on God's words and strength is that God will receive the praise through

Jesus Christ.

The praise and credit for Christian ministry should always be given to Christ.

If I could summarize that, it is fine to say, you know what, thank you for the sermon you gave today, Pastor Mike.

Thank you for the class, Pastor Dave.

Thank you for the conference, Bob Andrzejczyk.

But ultimately, what is, who does the credit go to?

The credit goes to Christ, who has equipped the different people within the church to function as they do.

I think it's great to thank people because certainly they do the work, but it's Christ who's given them the

gift to do these things.

Let's talk a little bit about the different gifts.

What is interesting when you think about it, Peter said, here are the two kinds of gifts, speaking gifts

and serving gifts.

He didn't say healing gifts.

He didn't say, he could have said a lot of different things, but he didn't say them.

And again, I would argue that it is because those miraculous gifts

have passed from the scene by the time he writes this letter.

Speaking gifts, which would include prophecy, word of knowledge, word of wisdom, teaching and exhortation.

Leland Ryken says, at its core, however, prophecy in the Old Testament and

New Testament is essentially the same.

It is proclamation of the divine word, first in oral form and sometimes recorded in writing.

Prophets are channels for God's revelation of his perspective on right and wrong, his

displeasure with sin, his pleas for people to repent, his judgment of sinners and his

promise for future salvation.

MacArthur writes this, the word of wisdom.

Anyway, let me just say something about prophecy quickly.

There are those today who say, because we must have apostles, because the Bible talks about

apostles, we must have prophets.

And for those who were in the class, they already know this, but what's the difference between what people

say qualifies as a prophet today and say an Old Testament prophet?

Anybody know?

Anybody who wasn't in the class?

And then I'll ask the class, who I'm sure remembers everything that was ever said in that class.

No pressure.

Scott.

Yeah, that's the Old Testament standard, right?

But today there are a group of people who say that we don't have prophets quite the way they had them in the Old Testament.

We still have prophets.

They're sometimes fallible prophets.

They can make mistakes.

And we don't have to stone them.

We just tell them, hey, better luck next time.

I don't know what to say about that, except for there's nothing in the Bible that would indicate, there's some smart men who believe that, but

there's nothing in the Bible that would indicate, yeah, we still have prophets, but sometimes they get things wrong.

What good is a prophet who says, thus saith the Lord, and then it turns out, a couple weeks later you find out, oh, well, he was wrong.

Let's move on.

I guess that wasn't God.

Maybe next time it will be.

Not good.

MacArthur writes, the word of wisdom, word of knowledge, is a broad

term.

The use of logos, or word, indicates this is a speaking ability.

In the apostolic age, it may have been revelation at times.

In the New Testament, wisdom, Sophia, is used most often to refer to the ability to

understand God's will and apply it obediently.

Wisdom then refers basically to applying truths discovered to the ability to make skillful

and practical application of the truth to life situations.

Just stopping right there, if someone has the ability to apply what the Bible says, we would call that

wisdom, and as he's describing it here, when I read it, I'm able to

make skillful and practical application of the truth to life situations.

It sounds like someone who ought to be involved in discipleship or biblical counseling, coming alongside people

who are struggling with various issues and walking them through what the Bible says about those things.

Communicating wisdom is the function of the expositor, the preacher, the one who digs the truths out

of the Bible, who draws not only from his own study of scripture, but from the many insights and

interpretations of commentators and other Bible scholars.

It is also the ability of a counselor, or the ability a counselor must have in order to apply God's truth to the

questions and problems brought to him.

It is a feature in the gift of the pastor, who must know, understand, and be able to apply God's word in

order to lead his people as he should.

This is critical to be able to do that.

Okay.

Serving gifts.

Those are just a couple of the speaking gifts.

Serving gifts, leadership, service, giving mercy, faith, discernment, helps.

I'm going to give you a brief snapshot.

How do you know if you have these things?

How do you know if you have these kind of gifts?

Steve?

Would you say that again?

That's very wise of you.

Get involved in ministry.

Serve.

You know, you want to know what you're good at, or maybe you think, you know, I don't know what my spiritual gift is.

Well, the short answer is, serve.

You'll find out.

You absolutely will find out.

Okay, number, Roman numeral number seven there.

How do we deal spiritually with sickness today?

We call Pastor Mike and we hold a healing service.

Let's look at 3rd John, verse 2.

1st John, or 3rd John, chapter 1, verse 2.

Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health just as your soul prospers.

Now, that is really intriguing to me.

He prays for their good health.

Why?

Why don't you just say, you know what, hey, tell you what, you guys ever get sick, drop me a note.

I'll come down there and heal you.

Or, you know what, I'll send somebody else, or, you know, my brother -in -law,

whatever his name is, you know, I'll come over and heal you.

Why not?

Or go to the, you know, special healing service on Friday night.

I would argue again that it's because those gifts had waned.

They had faded because they were no longer needed to establish the truth.

And what we do for people who are sick is we pray for them.

I'll never forget, though, you know, along those same lines, I had a seminary prof whose wife

had cancer.

And this was years later.

She survived the cancer.

But he said, you know, during that period of time, I had so many people come up and say, oh, we're praying the Lord would

heal her.

We're praying for, you know, the doctors to be able to heal this and heal that.

And he said, listen, he says, please don't pray for that.

He says, please don't pray for that.

He says, you love my wife, and I know that.

And he goes, I think I love her more.

And he says, what I know for a fact is God loves her infinitely more than I do.

And I want to pray for her best, for what God,

precisely what God wants for her in her life.

And he says, it may be a healing, but I don't know that.

He goes, don't pray for her healing.

Pray that God would be glorified and that she would be strengthened in whatever the situation is.

And I just remember sitting there.

I mean, he preached quite a little mini sermon on it.

And I was just like, I don't know if I could pray that, you know, if it was my wife, but I get what he's saying.

Saying, listen, I mean, I was just, I've been reading about marriage.

It's funny what you do when, you know, there are weddings in your future.

And just the concept, you know, when we die, we love our husbands or our wives.

I have a wife.

We love our mates.

It's Massachusetts.

You have to be clear.

We love our mates immeasurably.

It seems to us like nobody could possibly love them more than we do.

And yet when we get to heaven, what happens?

That's our dear brother or sister in Christ.

It's not our wife, our mates, our spouse anymore.

But God says, this is my son or my daughter.

He loves them as much in the future as he does right now.

That relationship never changes.

His love is perfect.

Our love, however strong it may be, is never perfect.

Ever.

I think it's fine to pray for people's health.

I think it's fine even if you want to pray for their healing.

But understand one thing.

The God who has brought this situation into their life loves them infinitely more than you do.

It's always a good thing to keep in mind.

All right.

What's the other thing we do?

James 5.

Another tricky passage of Scripture that I really don't want to explain.

If you want to read further on James 5, I would highly recommend Dr. Mayhew's book.

I think it's something to do with healing.

It's a great book.

He did a great, much better job on this than...

I mean, he actually makes sense out of this passage, which a lot of people struggle.

I mean, he has a really simple explanation.

But let's just read this and talk about it a little bit.

James 5, verses 13 to 16.

Who wants to read that?

Fred.

Yes.

So I'm going to keep this a little bit brief and then we can talk more about it next week if we so desire.

Anybody have any thoughts on this passage, first of all?

I think it's interesting, first of all, to notice that the first word there, and I haven't looked this up in the Greek.

I apologize for that.

But if you look at verse 13, has anyone among you suffering?

It's not exactly the same as sick.

Right?

I mean, I guess it could be sick, but...

Has anyone among you suffering?

Then he must pray.

In other words, your first response, if you're sitting there, and you're not feeling well, whatever the situation is,

then you should be praying.

Is anyone cheerful?

He has to sing praises.

Then he goes to verse 14.

Is anyone among you sick?

Then he must call for the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him, and he will instantly be

healed.

I don't see that.

They are to anoint him with oil.

I mean, we get the idea that this is an ongoing situation, that it is chronic.

And the prayer offered in faith, and there becomes a sticky point, because whose faith is it?

Is it the person who is sick?

Is it the elders?

We'll restore the one who is sick.

I've heard all kinds of explanations for this.

It has to do with spiritual infirmity.

It has to do with a lot of things, which I think it well could be, the spiritual infirmity.

And if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another.

The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much, or the King James says, availeth much.

It's funny how the King James just sticks in your head.

Verse 17, though, is interesting.

And I think this is what Mayhew uses to explain it.

Elijah was a man with a nature.

I mean, this Elijah thing just comes out of nowhere.

Well, it's an explanation of what he's just written.

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.

Now, did Elijah cause that?

Obviously, the Lord did.

But Elijah prayed for it, and it happened.

This is divine sovereignty and human responsibility.

Elijah prayed, and it did not rain for three years and six months, three and a half years.

Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

What we have here is a situation where someone is suffering, someone is sick, and it may

be a spiritual issue.

Look at verse 16.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

It may be an illness, a matter of suffering brought on by unrepentant sin.

It may be an issue where the person knows that they're doing something wrong.

They can't conquer it on their own, so they bring in the elders of the

church to help him.

This is a difficult situation.

Maybe I'll just kind of come a little more prepared with the Mayhew thing, and we'll walk through that.

Very tricky.

But the key issue, the main thing I want us to understand is, and I'm sure that you do get this,

healing is not something that we can demand of God, not as

we often see on TVN, or that we can throw around

as we would see on TVN, and it's not something that necessarily is even the will of God.

Just think about this theology for a minute that says, listen, if you have enough faith, you can be healed of anything.

Then why, the question would come back to me, why would anybody die?

Why would those people die?

Every single person on TVN who says, you don't need to be sick, will one day die, and almost all of them will

die of what?

Some kind of sickness.

It's lunacy.

It is absolute lunacy.

We live in a cursed earth, a fallen earth, an earth filled with disease because of sin.

We're all going to die.

And ultimately, the only question is not how we die, meaning of what disease or what heart

attack or whatever weakness or infirmity comes upon us.

That's not the issue.

It's not the method.

It's the way that we bring glory to Christ in our conduct

leading up to it.

Well, we'll pick it up here in James 5 next week.

Dottie.

Dottie raised a great point.

She had a daughter who was ill with tumors, and they prayed for her

healing, and she was healed.

She went to glory.

We read Isaiah 53.

I mean, it's interesting, and we will talk more about this next week.

It's interesting how you can read the same passages of Scripture and come to different conclusions depending on

whether you believe in the sovereignty of God or not.

And Isaiah 53 says, you know, by his stripes, by the suffering of Christ, we were healed.

Well, so the question is, does that mean that we are not to suffer in the current world?

Or does it promise us in eternal life, in heaven, that we have God's

promise that there will be no suffering, that he'll wipe away every tears, that our bodies will not suffer

tumors, aches, pains, ingrown fingernails, anything?

There's no suffering, no disease, no infection.

That's eternal life, and that is the ultimate deliverance, and that is the ultimate healing.

Thank you, Dottie.

All right, let's pray.

Father, thank you for this morning.

We thank you for your grace.

We thank you for the love that you have poured out on the church in the realm of spiritual gifts.

We thank you that you have equipped your church to serve one another, to edify the body, to

glorify you.

Lord, make us a people who will actually do this, who will look for ways to serve, who will look for ways to be involved in

one another's lives, who will bring glory to you in how we look at every aspect of

life, even illness.

Father, would you just so give us, gird us

with eyes that would see everything through the prism of your sovereignty and your sovereign love

for us.

In Christ's name we pray, amen.