Spiritual Gifts, part 2

All right, we want to welcome you back and for our new visitors here today. We are in a journey, I guess that's the best phrase for it, through Isaiah, of taking our time seeing what it has to say. But every now and then there's a topic of, we think, of significant import.

And so we take a break. We're calling it a university class. You're not going to get credits for it. But it's where we dive deeper into it and we're kind of alternating between a significant theological topic or a practice topic, if you would.

Jeff did one on evangelism. Actually, I taught most of that class because you were there.

That's true.

But you prepared it. We're doing spiritual gifts. In the future we're looking at things like the Trinity. Okay, so there we go into some good theology and maybe prayer life as a practice. But we started spiritual gifts last week.

I knew we weren't going to do the whole thing. We're going to finish it today and with an anticipation of having time at the end that we can ask questions. Typically what we've done is we've taught right up until quarter of, give or take a couple of minutes, cut the camera, and then there's questions.

And some of the feedback I've gotten, I don't know if you've gotten, is man, we wish that the questions were captured on the video. Because some of the great discussions happen after the camera's off.

We're going to leave the camera running until quarter of, questions. I feel very, very confident in any question that you might ask us, Jeff is here to answer them. But we're going to finish our discussion.

I want to open up, Jeff, if you would get to 1 Corinthians 12 .1. We're just going to open up with that verse and then you can open us with a prayer.

All right.

1 Corinthians 12 .1. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.

One of the powerful things we just had our preaching camp a week ago. Dr. Tim Warren was here and he gave us a lot of, a lot of helps preparing and delivering sermons. But I believe a lot of what he had to say, it applies directly to teaching as well as preaching.

Have that one thing that you want. Don't just have a, don't just have a buck shot of information people maybe get. This is the, I think the one thing of our lesson on spiritual gifts. I don't want you to be unaware or ignorant.

Spiritual gifts are given by God for a purpose. And if the one thing is that we're not ignorant, we are aware of them. The motive is so that we can fan into flames. Everybody's desire to not only to know them, but to obediently use them.

That's the target. That's the goal. We did get started last week. We'll finish up what we got. But Pastor Jeff, could you give us a prayer?

Yes.

Father, we think of Paul's exhortation to Timothy to fan into flame the gift that is in you through the laying on of hands. Lord, we are calling on you right now to fan into flame the gifts that are in us.

Since we were baptized into the spirit when we became a part of the church. First Corinthians 12, 13, that we were included in the church. Baptized into one body. So we have these spiritual gifts. We pray that you would then fan these into flame as we're not uninformed, but we're aware of your work in us.

To do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we could ask, think, or imagine. So we pray, Lord, that you would fan gifts into flame through this teaching in Jesus' name.

Amen.

The Purpose and Definition of Spiritual Gifts

Quick review. Some of the highlights. Definition of the spiritual gift we did talk about. We looked at First Corinthians 7, Romans 12, First Corinthians 12. That a spiritual gift is a gift from God. It's given by His grace according to His will.

And then we worked off of that. How would we define a spiritual gift? We came down to the thought that it is an ability given to us by the Holy Spirit. And it's for the ministry of the church. That being said, ultimately, spiritual gifts are for the glory of God.

Not for me. They're for the glory of God. So those were some of the concepts that we talked about. And you have to have those concepts if we're going to be talking about it. I then went into a discussion that I believe scripturally there is a quiver full of gifts that are given to every believer in common.

And these aren't the unique spiritual gifts. This is a quiver full of gifts that are given. And that we receive them at the point of salvation. We receive the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation. And some of the things that He does for us, Romans 8, John 6, were transformed into a new creation.

The old has passed away, all has become new. And it's that Spirit that gives us this life. In Galatians it tells us that the Spirit helps us to call God, Abba, Father. And whether you're coming from a religious background, or whether you're coming from a totally secular background, having this ability and this desire to just instinctively turn to God, Abba, Father.

That's a gift that is given to us. And I want to say as I go on to this, that when you receive this quiver full, it's evidence that you are different than the rest of the world. Because the rest of the world doesn't have these gifts.

It says that the things of God are not known by flesh, because flesh can't understand it. It's given to us by the Holy Spirit. And so that's in 1 Corinthians 2. We get the opportunity to understand things of God.

I firmly believe that we talked about the golden chain. And I think it starts out with regeneration and justification. They basically happen. It's hard to separate them out in time, because unless God gives you the grace, you're not even going to respond.

Because we are totally unregenerate man. So God gives us the grace so that we can't even perceive. And when we perceive, then by faith we become justified. At the end, we become glorified. And there's a massive period of time between the sanctification.

But we are given the opportunity to understand the things of God as we're on this journey that the rest of the world is never going to understand. And so, oh, by the way, if you're talking to your neighbor about a truth of the gospel, and they're not believing it, they're not getting it, don't be surprised, because without the Holy Spirit, things of God are just not going to be there.

We get that. It also, the Holy Spirit teaches us how to pray. And it says even when we don't know how to pray, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. We get this. This isn't just given to some uniquely, this is given to all of us.

It also says in Galatians 5, 16, walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. We have the gift of the Holy Spirit within us. By following the Holy Spirit, these things that are of the flesh, we're no longer slaves to them.

We are endowed with this power that we can deny. Walk in the Spirit and you'll not fulfill. Galatians 5, 22 gives us a list of nine fruit. That's for all of us, all nine. Love, depending on which version you've memorized it in, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

Against such there is no love. We get all of that. It also equips us to proclaim the Gospel of God. Jeff, last Sunday, was it last Sunday you gave us the million-dollar packets?

Yep. Okay.

There's still many out there. I encourage you to grab them. What they are is it's the Gospel of John inside with some helps at the end of it. We have an individual in our church who I believe has the gift of evangelism.

I do believe he has that gift. He was coming into the building earlier this week, and there was a 16-year-old young man sitting on the rock, and he went up to him and shared the Gospel of God, and the young man accepted it.

You can tell who that was.

It was Stan.

Stan? Yes.

Can't I tell?

Yeah, you can.

It's too late now. Stan is sharing the Gospel anywhere and everywhere. It just happened yesterday.

God gives him the words to speak at that time, and I think he's given him the gift of evangelism. No fear. This man has the gift of evangelism as well, as witnessed by Tim and by Kyle and by the whole group of young guys.

That's the fruit of his evangelism to God's praise. It also says that he actually gives us the words to say. We get that. These are not the unique gifts. If you're sitting here today and you've accepted Christ and you are John 112, you are called the sons of God, you've got the Holy Spirit, and all of these are yours.

All of these are yours. You just have to claim them and use them. I had an opportunity to do a youth camp devotional, and I took a large pan, if you would, and in the middle of it I had an empty 2-liter soda bottle, and I had a 2-quart pan with a handle half filled with water.

And I took out a $5 bill, and I said, if anybody can pour this water into that, without dropping a drop, I give you the $5. And the guys tried it. Nobody could do it. Nobody could do it. And I said, I'm sorry, guys.

And I pulled out from underneath a wide-mouth funnel that fit right into the bottle. I said, I forgot to tell you. I got a gift for you. Can anybody do it now? And don't you know some kid came running up and took the pan and tried to pour it into the bottle without the funnel.

I couldn't have taught that lesson any better if I tried. The gifts that we have are there for reality, but you've got to use them. You've got to use them. God gives you the grace, but you've got to use them.

Position Gifts, Service Gifts, and Unique Abilities

From that we now go into what I call the unique gifts. Did you pick up on the back of the papers? There are two of them. One of them is a two-sided, and the other is a one-sided. It's just a list. This takes the four major passages that talk about spiritual gifts.

And it lists the gifts that are in them, and you can see the verse where they show up. And this is uninspired. This is just John's feet. I see that there are categories of the different gifts. There are position gifts.

Ephesians is particularly strong. He gives unto the church some to be apostles, some to be prophets and evangelists, some to be pastors, some to be teachers. These are the positions. And these are individuals that are placed and called within the church to sing amazing grace.

That happened exactly this time last week. These are the individuals that God calls and puts them in their position for a purpose. We went through these last week. We believe here at Cornerstone that teacher is a position that is relevant and exists.

And if an individual has been gifted for that position and is not stepping forward, there is a void within the church because God plants those that he places. There is the gift of pastor. And I firmly believe that this, we're talking about the senior pastor.

God has called that senior pastor for the position. And evangelist. I believe he's also called as an evangelist. And I think Stan is called as an evangelist. It's more than just a trait. It's, I think, a calling.

So now we get to the other two that are tougher. Prophet is either foretelling, we talked about this last week, or forth-telling. What's the difference between foretelling and forth-telling?

Foretelling is telling the future. Forth-telling is speaking the Word.

Give me an example.

Well, so-and-so is going to have a million dollars by next week.

So that's foretelling.

Foretelling. Foretelling is just telling the Word of God. Hey, Jesus is coming soon.

There is prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah. There are, I think, Nathan approaching David is both foretelling and forth-telling. He's doing both. Proclaiming God's truth for a situation is forth-telling.

Whether there are foretelling prophets today becomes a discussion of cessation versus continuation. We'll get into that discussion a little bit later. But we do definitely have the position of prophet who is a forth-teller, somebody who proclaims truth.

Often that's the senior pastor. It could be somebody who has the ability to exegete God's Word because you're taking God's Word and proclaiming and applying it for a situation. Apostle we do not believe exists today.

What was an apostle?

Someone who saw Christ in His ministry and witnessed Him resurrected from the dead.

Why were there apostles? Oh, I put you on the spot.

Yeah, well, there's a lot of reasons, but to witness to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and to inscripture His Word in the New Covenant. So, overseeing the New Testament, right?

Absolutely. And I think encapsulating all of that around it is so that what takes place in Acts takes place at the church is established. Whether it's the scripturating, did you say?

Inscripturating. I turned it into a verb.

Yes, you did.

Ephesians 2 .20.

Go ahead.

The church is built on the foundation of the Apocalypse.

Yes.

These are the positional gifts. We read them last week in Ephesians 4 .11. What I'd like us to do right now is to read the other three major passages. We're going to highlight what they are. Let me just say this.

I believe, and again, this is not inspired, and I'm willing for discussion on it. Service gifts are capabilities that are given to individuals, uniquely given to believers to benefit the whole. And then there are these unique abilities, and that's just me speak, because there are things in there that are common gifts to everybody, but they seem to be given in unique quality and quantity to some for a reason.

Then there's the sign gifts. The sign gifts are perhaps to validate the church. They validated the church back in the day, and whether they're existing today or not is the question of cessation, but if you have missionaries that are somewhere where the church is being introduced, sign gifts may be actually given to validate the establishment of that church.

So I think there's an argument that these sign gifts exist today in God's purpose, in God's purpose. And then there's tongues, and that's another topic all unto itself.

What?

As far as sign gifts, I've heard reports in Africa, you know, people grew up with witch doctors.

And stuff like that,.

And sign gifts have been manifested to verify.

That Jesus Christ is God,.

Not, you know, what these witch doctors proclaim.

Yeah, and that's the argument from experience as opposed to the argument from where it stands in Britain. That's the argument of experience. It's doing what it did in the book of Acts in a setting where it's needed.

So I totally agree with you. 1 Corinthians 12, 4 to 11. We're going to read these passages so we have them, then I can speak off of it. So Bob, I'm going to ask if you would get 1 Corinthians 12, 4 to 11.

You're then going to tag on verse 28 at the end of it. It's on my page there. And Romans 12. Sue, if you would get Romans 12, 6 to 8. Sandy, you got 1 Peter 4, 10 and 11. So if you could read those passages, I would appreciate it.

Sorry, 1 Corinthians...

1 Corinthians 12, 4 to 11, and then after that, verse 28.

1 Corinthians 12, 4 to 11. There are different kinds of gifts but the same spirit. There are different kinds of service but the same Lord.

There are different kinds of working.

But the same God works all of them.

In all men.

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom. To another the message of knowledge.

And I apologize.

I do this so roulade about the readers. While he's reading, you can actually look on this and the little numbers in the parentheses are the verse where they show up. So he just got done reading in verse 8.

To some are given the gift of wisdom and to some the gift of knowledge. So you can see in 8, and if you look now, you're going to see in verse 9 you're going to hear the word healing. You can actually follow along on here.

Be a Berean. Verify that what I got here is what the text says. I apologize. Continue.

I didn't finish 8.

Yeah, go ahead.

To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom. To another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit. To another faith by the same Spirit. To another gifts of healing by that one Spirit.

To another miraculous powers. To another prophecy. To another the ability to distinguish between Spirits. To another ability to speak in different kinds of tongues. And to still another the interpretation of tongues.

All these are the work of one and the same Spirit. And he gives them to each one just as he determines. Verse 28. And in the church, God has appointed.

First of all apostles,.

Second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles,.

Also those having gifts of healing,.

Those able to help others, and those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.

That passage out of Corinthians gives us some of the positional gifts, a lot of the service gifts, and then it works into, it starts out with that unique ability and that just gets me interested. He gives the gift of wisdom.

Well, everybody gets the Holy Spirit so that we can understand Scripture, but there appears to be an exceptional gift of wisdom that some within the church may have. And wisdom is taking knowledge and applying it according to God's will.

So somebody who has this gift of wisdom, perhaps if we're in a congregational meeting, or maybe there's a class where there's a difficult passage of something. I was with friends yesterday and we were looking at John 17, 22, where Jesus says, Father, as you have given me glory, so I have given them glory, that they may be as one.

And it's like having the wisdom to understand, well, what is this glory that the Father gave to the Son? Because didn't he always have glory? And how do we get that glory? And then that message really says that somebody who has the gift of wisdom can take that truth and exegete it and let us understand what it is.

And so it is with these gifts. He also talks about the sign gifts and then he introduces tongues. That interesting discussion. Romans 12. Sue?

Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. If prophesied, then let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. For ministry, let us use it in our ministry. He who teaches in teaching, he who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives us with the gravity, he who gives with the gravity, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness.

There are things in here like, aren't we all supposed to have mercy? But again, within the body, there is those individuals who have this super amount of mercy that maybe can remind us. An individual is caught in a situation and there is a desire to exact some sort of, and somebody who's got the mercy may remind us, let's go back to the cross, let's go back.

Somebody has that kind of a gift. What a gift of giving. That is a unique gift that we're all to give, that we're all to give abundantly and according to the heart. But some are given this unique gift.

There's a church in the area that has an individual who has been blessed by God and he gave this church a lake camp for one dollar, just to make it legal. Some people are, wouldn't you love to have that kind of gift?

Some people have that unique gift. And again, these listings are here. The reason I put them on that page, we're going to eventually ask the question, how do you know which one is yours? Because I think in the authority of scripture, I can write everybody's name on this page on at least one line.

The question is, do you know what your line is? Sandy, you've got 1 Peter 4?

As each one has received a special gift, employed in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God. Whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen.

If you go through these lists of gifts, sometimes they match up with each other. Sometimes there's lists in one that's not in the other. Peter's got one that I found to be intriguing. They're all intriguing.

But within this list, we have things like teaching and we have things like exhortation. We have the pastor and the teacher. We have these kinds of things. And it says, he who has the gift of speaking.

And I see that to be even outside of the realm of being a preacher or a teacher or something. Somebody who has the gift of speaking. And this to me is an indication that God endows individuals to be in an interaction with somebody else and to be able to speak the truth of God with his love in a way that that person needs to hear.

So these are gifts that are given. There are physician gifts. There are service gifts. Unique abilities you may all be called to give or you may all be called to show mercy. But there are those who have that extra, extra measure.

The sign gifts here in our situation, I don't know that the sign gifts would be active. They're to establish and to affirm. But here's a question. If you really believe that you have one of these sign gifts for some reason, should you be out in the field?

That's just a separate question. That's, I think, tongues are its own issue and we can talk about that. I want to go to the back page of my notes, talk about the question of sensation versus continuation.

And the question is, and it's raised, are the sign gifts still active or were they uniquely for the first century church? And I think part of it comes down to the word teleos in the Greek. 1 Corinthians 13, 9 to 12, just for time I'm going to highlight it.

For now we know in part, but when perfection comes, the partial will be done away. Now I know that that talks about what we see, what we perceive, but there has been the application that these things that are being done for the church, they're done in part.

When the perfection comes, we no longer need the part. Those who are doing miracles and those who are doing healing are a pattern of the better that's in heaven. But they're revealing and they're validating that the church is there.

And it says when the perfection comes, what is this perfection? And there are three options that I found in researching. One of this is eventually at Christ's parousia, the second coming. And so then all of these are going to remain applicable until the parousia, when Jesus is actually going to reign on earth.

Another one is at the establishment of his church. Once the church has been established, we have the book of Acts and the churches are established. That's the definition of perfection. So the signed gifts are needed because they are there.

And so now the word of God can be proclaimed and can be applied using these other gifts. And the third is, well, once the canon is complete, we've got everything that God needs for us to know by reading the canon of scripture.

Ephesians 2, it's already been quoted in part by Rich.

Yes.

Now the church has been established and it is built on the foundation. That is built. It's not it is being built. It is built. So Ephesians 2 might lead you to think that we already have the foundation.

We have Christ as the cornerstone. We have the apostles and prophets as the foundation. And so now the church is being built. That might lead you towards the concept that the church has been established.

Tetelios has been achieved. So cessation might be perceived at that point in time. Then 1 Corinthians 14, 5, it talks about tongues and prophecies continue that the church may be edified. And the realization is that the church is still in need of edification.

Absolutely. And so that perfection has not yet been achieved. And so Tetelios has not yet occurred. And so the signed gifts are still valid in their application. And taking these scriptures and going into the testimony like Rich was talking about where there are testimonies in tribal locations where there are witch doctors.

And so these signed gifts are actually miracles and healings validating that this church that Jesus is, Jesus is who he is. And witch doctors, I mean, Moses and Aaron were confronted by false... You know, they throw the staff down and it turns into a snake.

And so these false guys throw a staff down and it turns into a snake.

Well, what happened?

Aaron eats the other snake. If you want to look at the scriptures, I am not going to tell you, and I'll let you speak if you want, dogmatically. But it appears, if I look at these scriptures, we're looking, when does perfection occur?

Is it going to be when the church is established? I believe the church is still being established on the strength of 1 Corinthians 14. Is it when the canon is established? You can argue that because we're told don't add anything to this.

And that what is in here has been established as complete. You could argue that one scripturally. When Christ's return comes clearly, you can say because what we are to be, we don't even know. That's a very loose paraphrase.

That we are continually growing into His image and likeness. I believe that our position is that we would accept continuation in circumstances.

Yeah.

I would say we're going to go by what the scripture clearly teaches, and that's what we hold dogmatically. But there's room for difference on this particular point. Because if you are reading this as the completion of the canon, and you think you're handling that faithfully, then you have biblical reason to be a cessationist.

Now when I look at 1 Corinthians 13, 8 through 13, I think there's a number of clues in the text that this is referring to the return of Christ. So when I see Him, I'll be like Him, and I'll know fully, as opposed to looking through a dark glass.

It looks to me that this is the return of Christ, the parousia, not the completion of the canon. So for me it would be an issue of burden of proof.

Right?

If the scripture is teaching these spiritual gifts, and someone were to come and say, no they've ceased, well now that burden of proof is on the person making that claim. So I'm going to sit back and say, I think I'm open to this, that the Lord is doing these things, especially on the mission field, establishing the church, etc.

Because I don't think I can fulfill the burden of proof from this text. So that's where I'm at with it. I don't see, see the argument then goes to experience. And from my experience, I don't see the kind of apostolic miracles happening in America today that we saw in the first century.

Right?

That are recorded. Obviously Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, all these people who claim to be validated by their supernatural signs, it's laughable how far removed what they're doing, you know the leg lengthening trick, or something like that, over against Acts chapter 3, where the man crippled from birth is just in the sight of everybody,.

Undeniably,.

Walking and leaping and praising God. So I think qualitatively...

Didn't have the special water either.

Didn't have special water.

Sprinkled it. Or the coat, to knock him over. There you are.

You've seen him do that trick? I think it's a far cry from what was happening there.

So, but,.

Now we're talking at the level of experience. I wasn't in Thailand when Francis Chan says,.

You know,.

Recently he saw a bunch of blind eyes opened, and that's his experience. But he didn't get it on video, so it doesn't move me much.

Right?

So when you get down to that level of experience, it's really hard to make a judgment.

So,.

We sit in the text. This is what we know for certain. And then I'm not going to say beyond what is written.

Because we're just living in America.

Yeah.

You're familiar.

Yeah.

Ron Harbonkey and this...

Yes.

Ron Harbonkey.

Yeah.

And Daniel Kolenda took over this position.

Right.

And he's witnessing to dark parodies in Africa where people are...

He's claiming,.

Are still seeing miracles.

Right. Eyes open,.

People healed.

Okay, okay.

So I'm glad you brought that up. There is a difference between God performing miracles and somebody having the gift of miracles.

There is a difference.

Between God miraculously healing and somebody having, you know, the gift of healing.

Yes, Bob. Question. Okay. Yeah.

Would you still believe it if you saw it on video?

Yeah, that's a great point. I've actually watched a Daniel Kolenda, Ron Harbonkey video about resurrection from the dead. And they interview all these people. They have some video footage of it. A guy who had been dead for two days.

But there's also people that say that he could have been in a deep swoon because of this drug that was administered. Not to mention that nowadays, AI, you can fake anything on video.

So, yeah. If somebody... I had an experience of being... I believe in a satanic presence. And by the grace of God, I was motivated to say, in the name of Jesus Christ, go away. And that satanic presence ended right away.

Do I have a gift?

No.

Did God perform a miracle?

Yes.

Somebody who has been relieved, completely relieved of cancer. God has done a miracle. And the doctors say, we got no idea how that one happened. Well, I do. But it wasn't somebody going in with the gift of healing.

God still performs miracles at his will, Bob.

Sue has seen it. She's seen a dead person and seen him resurrected from the dead. Come back to life. He remembered himself.

That's you, right?