In the epistle of 1 Corinthians, Paul has been
dealing with some of the questions asked him
by the Corinthian believers which were relevant
to the problems they were facing in their society.
We've seen that some of those problems are very
relevant for our own contemporary situation as
well. And this is certainly true of chapters
12 through 14 of 1 Corinthians as he deals with
the matter of the things of the Holy Spirit.
We'll read today 1 Corinthians 12, verses 1 through
11. Now about spiritual gifts, brothers. And
by the way, I'm reading from the New International
Version. Now about spiritual gifts, brothers,
I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that
when you were pagans, somehow or other you were
influenced and led astray to dumb idols. Therefore
I tell you that no one who is speaking by the
Spirit of God says, Jesus be cursed. And no one
can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.
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
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 the ability
to speak in different kinds of tongues. and to
still others 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.
The apostle does not want the Corinthians to
be ignorant, as he puts it, concerning these
matters about the Spirit. Frankly, I don't think
the NIV has captured very well the meaning there.
in that first sentence when it says, now about
spiritual gifts, because it seems to be a broader
term here that means the things of the Spirit.
Now about the spirituals, actually says Paul,
about those things relating to the Holy Spirit.
I don't want you to be ignorant. That means that
they lacked understanding of the Spirit. It was
not that they were ignorant of the Holy Spirit
or that they did not know. about the gifts of
the Holy Spirit. For back in chapter 1, if you
just want to review with me, the apostle mentioned
already to them that they were greatly gifted.
Beginning in verse 6, he says, Because our testimony
about Christ was confirmed in you, therefore
you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly
wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.
And so they were aware of spiritual gifts. Paul
says, you as a church do not lack any of them.
But the problem was that they did not know the
proper use and the proper place of at least some
of the spiritual gifts. The Corinthians, as we
read these chapters, would seem to have been
guilty of valuing the spectacular gifts over
some of the others. And in the exercise of their
spiritual gifts, there was very little love that
was displayed. Last week we talked about the
lack of love that was evidenced in their agape
feast and in their observance of the Lord's Supper.
Rather than it being an indication of their unity
and of their love for one another, that feast
actually had degenerated to the point that they
were all selfishly grabbing the food as fast
as they could. And some were being gluttons,
and others didn't get anything, and so it divided
the church. So you see, they knew about the Holy
Spirit, and they knew of the spiritual gifts,
but they were not exercising them properly. And
so Paul writes in chapters 12, 13, and 14 to
deal with this. You know, yet today there is
a misunderstanding of the work of the Holy Spirit
in the church. It would lay to rest a lot of
anxiety in some believers and clarify confusion
among others if we would simply go to the Word
of God and let it explain the work of the Holy
Spirit. In the upcoming weeks as we study these
chapters, undoubtedly there are going to be some
controversial things that we will talk about.
Our goal is not to be controversial. It's rather
to be just the opposite, to allow the Holy Spirit
to use His Word to lay to rest controversy and
division. allow the Bible to speak for itself
concerning this matter of the gifts and the work
of the Holy Spirit. I believe that an understanding
of the Holy Spirit and His work is essential
if our church is going to be unified and if our
ministry is going to be fruitful. And so we want
to understand the work of the Holy Spirit, and
we begin that today by the text that we have
before us. In these verses, we see two of the
works of the Holy Spirit. The first one is that
he reveals Christ, verses 2 and 3. And then he
gifts Christians, verses 4 through 11. Let's
talk about those two works of the Holy Spirit
as we look at our texts today. The first work
of the Holy Spirit is that the Holy Spirit reveals
Christ. In verse 2, we have the apostle's record
of the pagan past of those Corinthian believers.
He says, you know that when you were pagans,
somehow or other you were influenced and led
astray to dumb idols. Now the words and the description
that Paul uses here not only describes the Corinthians,
but these words well describe you and me as well.
Most of us, perhaps, have not gone astray after
literal idols, but there are intangible idols
that are the gods of our generation. So let's
think in those terms today as we look at our
pagan past and the natural spiritual condition
of men. First, let's notice that word, pagans.
The King James puts it, Gentiles. You know that
you were Gentiles. The word here is ethnos. It
means you were nations. And the thought is that
you were not a part of Israel. You were separated
from the covenant people of God. You were not
Jews, in other words. The Hebrew word that would
be the counterpart for this Greek word would
be the word goyim. And today you may hear that
word occasionally as Jewish people speak of non
-Jewish people. It is a term, really, that is
a low -class term. It's somewhat a term of derision,
the goyim, those who are non -Jewish, those who
are foreigners to Israel. So the first thing
that Paul says to them, remember that you are
separated from God's covenant people. Now there
were, of course, some Jews. who had been saved
and were part of the Corinthian church. But by
and large, it was a pagan city, and most of the
people in the church were, in fact, Goyim or
Ethnos. They were just the nations. They were
separated from God and from his covenant people,
Israel. He further says about them that you were
controlled by sin. He uses two verbs here to
suggest this. He says, somehow or other, you
were influenced. and led astray. The word influenced
suggests someone who is blind being hurried along
in a particular direction. And then the word
led astray implies an habitual slavery to something.
It's as though the master had his servant in
chains. As he would move in a particular direction,
he would yank the chain, and the slave would
follow him in that direction, being led habitually
in chains. And so Paul uses two words here to
describe us when we were lost. And if you've
never trusted Jesus Christ, these words still
may apply to you today. In fact, they do indeed
apply to you. It means to be blindly hurried
along in habitual slavery to sin. and perhaps
to a false religion, as were the Corinthians.
The picture here is really of a cattle drive
in the Old West. Oh, we've all seen pictures
of those if we haven't seen them in reality in
our travels in the West. As these great herds
of cattle would be brought together and then
driven for hundreds of miles by the cowboys.
Sometimes they would drive them with whips and
lariats. Sometimes they would use singing. Other
times they would hoop and holler at the cattle.
They would use various means to lead those cattle
along, to move them to market, which was the
destination. And the apostle employs that kind
of a picture here. He says, before you were saved,
you were like cattle that were just being driven
blindly along. You were led by masters. And,
of course, he's talking about the master Satan
and sin. Those who are outside of Jesus Christ
are captivated and enslaved to the sin within
them. And though at times they may feel religious
and may even do good works, they are nonetheless
continually, habitually enslaved to their sinful
nature. That's how he describes us as well as
those Corinthians. And then he says you were
led astray to dumb idols. That word means voiceless.
Idols that were unable to speak to you and to
answer you. And he suggests here the emptiness
of their religious experience. They had cried
out to their idols, but their cries echoed back
to them because their paganism, of course, was
not true. It was a false, superstitious, man
-made religion. So Paul says you followed after...
a religion that was unable to satisfy you. And
once again, there are many people who are sincere
people who are following after religious traditions
that do not satisfy the inner man. Though they
may not bow down to idols, or they may, but they
may not. And yet they find that their religious
experience is hollow. It echoes with an emptiness.
and there's no satisfaction within. Now that's
the past of every one of us. It may be the present
of some people here today. But he goes on to
say that the Holy Spirit does a work in the life
of the Christian. He reveals Christ. He says,
Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking
by the Spirit of God says, Jesus, be cursed.
And no one can say, Jesus is Lord, except by
the Holy Spirit. The wonderful message that God
gives to us is that though we were lost, yet
the Holy Spirit, by God's grace, intervenes in
our lostness. He interferes in that cattle drive,
so to speak, and woos us off to the side and
reveals Christ to us. There are many of our gospel
songs that speak about our discovering Christ
or our finding Jesus. And there is a sense, I
suppose, in which that is true. But a far greater
truth is that God found us. He sought us out.
He called us to himself. And he says no one can
truthfully say Jesus is Lord except the Holy
Spirit enables him to say that. Likewise, he
says, the Holy Spirit never leads anyone to depreciate
Jesus Christ. Or to say, Jesus anathema, or Jesus
be cursed. Now, there were those, of course,
in that day as there are today, who cursed Jesus.
And what he says is the Holy Spirit never leads
anyone to do that. The Holy Spirit's work is
to point us to Jesus Christ. Folks, the Holy
Spirit never points to himself. He never draws
attention to himself. It's one thing that bothers
me with some people in their religious experience
these days. Everything is centered upon the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit was given to reveal the
Lord Jesus and to teach us of Him. The Holy Spirit
never brings attraction to Himself, but He always
draws men to Christ to see Him. And that's what
Paul says here. There was, of course, in that
day a... Great persecution of believers. And
he says here, no one can say Jesus is Lord except
the Holy Spirit. Cause him to see Jesus truly
as Lord. The word Lord is kurios. And in that
day, it was a word that also applied to the Roman
emperors. They saw themselves as deity. By the
way, this word kurios is used in the Greek translation
of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint,
for Jehovah. And so clearly it is a word that
involves God himself. It's a word of deity. No
question about that. He says here that no one
can say of Jesus that he is deity, except the
Holy Spirit has caused him to see that. One man
born, I think, in 66 AD, whose name was Polycarp.
Polycarp became a believer and was a disciple
of the Apostle John. He became bishop of the
church in Smyrna, in what we call today Asia
Minor, and served Jesus Christ faithfully. In
his 86th year, he was arrested by the Roman government.
as were many other believers. The demand of the
government was that these people, including Polycarp,
call Caesar kurios, lord, deity. All they had
to do was take a pinch of incense, throw it on
the fire of the altar, and say Caesar kurios,
and they could go free. But the believers of
that day knew that they would be denying Jesus
kurios, to say Caesar kurios. And they refused,
many of them did, including Polycarp. He was
asked again and again, Polycarp say Caesar kurios,
and he would reply kurios Jesus, Lord Jesus.
Finally he was condemned to be burned at the
stake. And as he was again asked to recant his
faith, Polycarp said, 86 years have I served
him, and he hath done me no wrong. How can I
speak evil of my king who saved me? And with
that, they lit the fires. Tradition says that
he would not burn. And so they killed him with
a sword and then burned his body. Not just tradition
says that. But Polycarp was a great man of God
and died a martyr with the words, Jesus is Lord,
on his lips. One did not say Lord Jesus in that
day flippantly. He did not say it unless he really
meant that Jesus was his Lord. The Holy Spirit
is jealous for the Lordship of Christ in our
lives, my fellow believers. He not only wants
us to be able to say Lord Jesus, but he wants
us to mean it with all of our hearts that Jesus
is Lord. He's the one who directs my life. He's
the one who tells me what to do and I do it.
I think one of the best definitions of Lord is
found in the words of Mary at the wedding in
Cana when Jesus was performing that miracle or
before he did. She said to those around him,
whatever he says to you, Do it. That's a beautiful
description of what it is to have Jesus as Lord.
Is he Lord in your life today? Is he truly kurios
to you? Can you say with depth of sincerity,
Jesus is Lord? The Holy Spirit reveals Christ
that he might be Lord. And then the Holy Spirit
does a different work, too, another kind of work.
In verses 4 through 11, we find that the Holy
Spirit not only reveals Jesus as Lord, but he
gifts you and me who trust Jesus to serve him.
Now notice in verses 4, 5, and 6 that in this
matter of service, the whole Trinity, God the
Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Do
you notice that in verse 4 it mentions the Spirit?
In verse 5 it mentions the Lord, the Kurios,
Jesus. And then in verse 6 it mentions God. And
the understanding here is God the Father. As
we serve, we serve with the... The whole Trinity
being involved in our service for God in this
world. Each of the persons of the Trinity has
a bit of a different function as he relates to
us in this matter of service. Notice that he
says what these functions are. In verse 4 he
says, There are different kinds of gifts, but
the same Spirit. In other words, there are different
kinds of special abilities that believers have.
Gifts. This word gifts in verse 4 is not the
same word that some translations call gifts back
in verse 1. This word is the word charismata.
And immediately you see the word charismatic.
Any person who trusts Jesus Christ is a charismatic.
in the biblical sense, because what it simply
means is that one has a spiritual gift. And the
Holy Spirit gives different spiritual gifts to
us. Now, what are spiritual gifts? Well, they
are special abilities that we are given to serve
Jesus Christ. They are not the same as natural
abilities. Playing the piano, for example, is
not a spiritual gift. Natural abilities are given
to us by our genes. We have them naturally by
our first birth. But spiritual gifts are given
to us when we are born again at our second birth.
An unsaved person does not possess spiritual
gifts. Only Christians do. Natural abilities,
of course, both unsaved and saved have. So there's
a difference there. Natural gifts, natural abilities,
appeal to the soul, to the emotions, to the mind,
to the will. And they affect us on a natural
plane. Spiritual gifts are deeper. For as one
ministers with a spiritual gift, The work takes
place in the spirit of a man, not his soul. It
includes his soul. But it goes into that inner
dimension, that third dimension, the spirit.
Only a spiritual gift can really minister to
the spirit of a man. All of us who are saved
have spiritual gifts. The Holy Spirit gives us
those gifts. Now, our natural abilities can be
channels of our spiritual gifts. In other words,
the Holy Spirit may use a natural talent for
playing the piano to minister to people. The
natural gift can flow through, excuse me, the
spiritual gift can flow through the natural ability
to do its work. But they are distinct. If I were
to define gifts, I would do something like this.
Special, Spirit -given abilities to perform functions
in the body of Christ. and to do so with ease,
fruitfulness, and personal satisfaction. It is
a special, Spirit -given ability to perform works
or functions within the body of Christ, and to
do that with an ease, a naturalness, and with
fruitfulness. God blesses. Results happen. and
with personal contentment and satisfaction. That's
what a spiritual gift is. If you're a Christian
today, you have, in my opinion, more than one.
You may have one major gift, but I believe that
God the Spirit blends gifts along with our personalities
so that each of us is unique in His service.
So the Holy Spirit gives the gifts. Now in verse
5, we find the work of God the Son. There are
different kinds of service, but the same Lord.
In other words, the Holy Spirit gives us the
gifts. God the Son then places us in service
where he wants us to be. This ties together beautifully
with Ephesians chapter 4, where Jesus is seen
as giving gifts to his church. He gave some...
apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastor
-teachers. The Holy Spirit gives you the gifts.
The Lord Jesus puts you in service where he wants
you to be. He gives you the opportunity. He defines
for you that place where you employ your gifts.
And then notice the work of God the Father. It
says there are different kinds of working, but
the same God works all of them in all men. The
thought here is of the results of one's service.
God the Father gives that. He determines the
fruitfulness of one's service. This word for
working here means the effect of a process or
the effect of something that's done. So the Holy
Spirit, to summarize, gives you the gifts. The
Lord Jesus then places you where he wants you
to serve him. And then God the Father is involved
in making you fruitful, giving you results in
your ministry. And sometimes the results are
meager, sometimes they are explosive. But whichever,
we serve God the Father, that's His choice, and
we give the glory to Him either way. And so you
see, the whole Trinity is involved in this matter
of our spiritual gifts. Now, beginning in verse
7, going through verse 11, he names a number
of the gifts. We don't really have time to talk
about them in detail this morning. I'll just
have you note them for your interest. For instance,
in verse 8 he says, To one there is given through
the Spirit the message of wisdom. And so here
is one of the spiritual gifts, the gift of wisdom.
To another the message of knowledge. Another,
the gifts. To another, by the same Spirit, the
gifts of healing. To another, miraculous powers.
There were some miracles done that did not involve
healing. For example, the blinding of Elymas,
the sorcerer. These are miracles. To another,
prophecy. To another, the ability to distinguish
between spirits, to tell what's true and what's
false. to another the ability to speak in different
kinds of tongues, to still another the interpretation
of tongues. Now at a different time, we're going
to go into these and try to explain them briefly.
I would encourage you to do some study on your
own, though, in this matter. We have a very helpful
workbook that's available through our bookstore
regarding these gifts of the Holy Spirit by a
fellow named Tim Blanchard. You can buy that
workbook and work your way through. his questions,
and the material, and you can come to some conclusions
about your own spiritual gifts. But I want you
to notice here that there are a variety of gifts,
and that within our church this morning, in every
believer, these gifts are found. Now, as we look
at verses 7 through 11, there are at least three
insights that I want to share with you before
we close. regarding this matter of spiritual
gifts. The first one is found in verse 7, and
again in verse 11, where it says, Now to each
one the manifestation of the Spirit is given.
In verse 11, he says, And he gives them to each
one, just as he determines. So please do not
think that you are a Christian who has no spiritual
gifts. Such an oddity does not exist. Every Christian
has spiritual gifts. You may not know them at
this point, but you have them. They are within
you. And I would encourage you to pray and to
seek to discover your spiritual gifts. Now, frankly,
there are some people who get so hung up on this
that they become no earthly good. Because they
almost get paranoid about this matter of spiritual
gifts. That's not God's will. One of the ways
that we find our spiritual gifts is to get involved
and begin doing things. And when we find an area
of service where we have results and where we
feel a lot of personal satisfaction in doing
it and there's ease in doing it, then that's
a strong indication to us that that's an area
where we have a spiritual gift. For some people,
that may be teaching. With some people, it may
be helping a teacher in a class, the gift of
helps. For someone else, it may be going to a
person who's needy and just encouraging them
with a word, the gift of mercy, showing mercy.
For somebody else, it may be the ability to make
money and to give it to God's work and to give
it so freely and generously that God has glorified
the gift of giving. But my friend, if you're
a Christian today, you have a spiritual gift
or gifts. It's important to find out what they
are. Now, another insight in verse 7 says that
these gifts are given for the common good. In
other words, the spiritual gifts are never given
just for personal edification. They are given
for the good of all, the profit of all. The gifts
that we have are given so that we can make a
positive contribution to the Lord's work and
to His church. So remember that. Your gifts are
not just given for you, but they are given for
everyone to profit. And then insight number three
in verse 11, and we also see it out of our text
in verse 18 as well. The gifts are given sovereignly
by the Holy Spirit. In verse 11 it says, and
he gives them to each one just as he determines.
We are not commanded in Scripture, we are not
permitted in Scripture to seek spiritual gifts
for ourselves. It does say at the end of chapter
12 that the church as a whole is to emphasize
the best gifts, to value them highly. And some
have felt that that verse, I think it's verse
31, would suggest that we are to individually
covet the gifts. It says, but eagerly desire
the greater gifts. That is written to the church
as a body. As believers, you and I are gifted
as the Holy Spirit wills. Now, what does that
mean? That means that nowhere am I told in Scripture
and nowhere am I authorized in Scripture to get
down on my knees and say, now, Lord, This is
the spiritual gift I want. That is not your choice
or mine. Our gifts are given to us sovereignly
by the Holy Spirit, and they are given at the
moment of our salvation, when he causes us to
come alive, to be quickened in our spirit. At
that moment, he brings not only his own presence,
but he brings these gifts, these abilities at
that instant. Now as we conclude this morning,
there are a couple of things I want to say. Number
one, we should be knowledgeable about the gifts,
and I've suggested some ways you can do that.
Secondly, we should be investing our gifts in
the local church. There are some people who,
may I affectionately call them church tramps,
they go from one church to another, and they
never really settle down in a church. I recognize
as students, There is a tendency to want to see
a lot of churches, and there's nothing wrong
with that. I think it's healthy, in fact, for
you to be able to see different kinds and styles
of ministry. But there comes a point when one
needs to say, Lord, I thank you for the variety.
My heart is satisfied in this particular ministry,
and now I'm going to commit myself to it. Now,
when one gets out of college and gets married,
there sometimes is still that same tendency.
They want to say, well, I want to try this church
and go there and try it over there for a while.
You know the problem with that? It doesn't give
the individual who does it edification, number
one. He gets a little taste here and a little
bite there, but there's no continual feeding
along a certain line. There's not the personal
edification there ought to be. And secondly,
The church is robbed of the gifts of the individual
who does that because no church profits from
them. The spiritual gifts are given to us that
we may get involved in a local church at God's
leading and commit ourselves to that ministry,
to work to build it, to work for the glory of
God, and to invest our gifts for spiritual profit.
And I want to challenge some of you to think
about that today. Some of you have been coming
for months, and we thank God for that. We want
you to keep coming. But I want to challenge you
to pray earnestly, if you haven't already, that
God would show you what he wants you to do regarding
the commitment of your life to his work and to
his body. He's given you spiritual gifts to employ
in the church somewhere, if not a grace church,
somewhere else. The important thing is for you
and for Jesus' sake. that you make a commitment
and begin to build and work and grow. May God
give us wisdom as we discern his will for each
of us in this matter. Let's pray. Now, our Father,
I pray that in this matter of the spirituals,
you would help us not to be without understanding.
Give us insight as to what you teach in your
word, and then I pray that you'll give us conviction
to follow through with what we understand and
commitment that will enable us to invest our
lives in your work to bring glory to yourself.
I pray for some friend who may be here today
who's still lost and whose religious experience
is so empty and who is led astray to various
impulses of sin. who's outside of the family
of God. I pray that that person today, Lord,
would trust you and come into your family. Oh,
save those outside of Christ today within the
hearing of my voice. Then for those of us who
are in your family, give us understanding of
your will for our lives that we may truly then
say, Jesus is Lord by the Spirit. And we pray
this in Jesus' name. Amen. To close our service
today, I'd like for us to turn in our hymnals
and sing together number 92, which expresses
some of the thoughts we've talked about this
morning. And if the Spirit of God is leading
you today to make a commitment to this ministry,
Or perhaps a commitment to follow Christ faithfully
and you've been away from him. Perhaps the Spirit
of God has revealed Jesus Christ to you and you
know you need to trust him today as your Savior.
If we can pray with you and counsel with you,
we'd love to do that. And as we sing, I'm going
to ask you to slip out from where you are and
come here to the front. Now that may seem like
a big deal, but it's not. It seems like a fearful
thing to do, and yet once you take one step,
you'll never remember the rest of them. The Spirit
of God will help you. He'll strengthen you. May
I say to you what Mary said to those people at
the wedding that day. Whatever He says to you,
do it. Let's stand and sing together, number
92. How I praise Thee, precious Savior, that
Thy love... We're glad this morning for this
couple, the Abshires, who are coming to be a
part of our fellowship. Come on, fellas. We rejoice
in that. Whatever God is saying to you, do it
now as we sing that second verse of that hymn,
Channels Only. Empty that thou shouldest fill
me. Let's sing it together. Empty. Let's bow
our heads together. We were to pray the words,
Jesus, fill now with thy spirit. We have to be
able to say also that our hearts are fully surrendered.
I hope today that your heart is...