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1 Corinthians - Part 30
"The Origin And Intention Of Spiritual Gifts"
Copyright 2003
by Pastor David Legge
All Rights Reserved
(Permission is granted to distribute this transcript in its entirety, with no alterations)
I Corinthians 12:4-7 |
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We're turning to chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians, beginning to read at verse 1. Last week we looked at verses 1 to 3, the introduction of this portion of Scripture which really runs through to chapter 14, regarding spiritual gifts. Now it's an extremely controversial one, as I'm sure you're aware, if you're not already you will by the end of this evening - but it's also so important, because God has given these gifts through His Spirit to the church for the edification of the church, for the furtherance of the gospel, and they're absolutely essential for the life of the church of Jesus Christ. So on the one hand we are cautious, but on the other hand we are also realising the awesome need that there is for these gifts - but we're wanting to do everything biblically, as we understand the word of God. Tonight we're looking specifically at the origin and the intention of these spiritual gifts, verses 4 through to 11.
So let's read from verse 1 through to verse 11 or so: "Now concerning spiritual gifts", or as we saw last week, it could be just read, "concerning spirituals, or spiritual things, or spiritual manifestations", the italics is added by the translator to help us, and it does so, but it could legitimately be left out. "Concerning these spiritual things in general", Paul says, "brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed", or as your margin says 'anathema', "and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost". We saw last week what that means: it is not just saying 'Jesus is Lord' from your lips in some kind of general profession, but it is actually realising that Jesus is Lord as God and as sovereign authority not only over the universe, but over the life of the believer - so it is the personal lordship of Jesus Christ in your life that Paul is talking about here. Now here's where we take up tonight, verse 4: "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord", that word 'administrations', as you see in your margin if you have a good margin reference, is also translated 'ministries'. Verse 6: "And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will".
Pride was a problem in the church of Corinth, and if you have been with us through these studies thus far you will remember the many times that we came across Paul castigating these Corinthians for being puffed up. He told them on many instances that 'knowledge puffeth up' - knowledge, and they had much knowledge, they had many gifts, but their problem was they became proud, and that pride give birth to a party spirit within the church in Corinth. The personal pride that gave birth to party spirit was because of the personal giftedness of the leaders, specifically, within this church. Let me show you how this is so, if I can turn you right back to where we began in chapter 1, we see in verses 7 to 13 that this was specifically the reason for the factions that were in this particular church. There was pride that had crept in, that pride had produced party spirit, but ultimately the reason for it was because they each followed a man that they felt was the most personally gifted.
Verse 7 begins: 'That ye come behind in no gift', there was little lack of gift in the church of Corinth, 'waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions', schisms, 'among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?'.
They were proud, proud because of their knowledge yes, but proud because of the gifts that they had, and particularly the tremendously gifted leaders, specifically of these factions: the faction of Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and even one that took the name of the Lord Jesus. Such pride in human giftedness was what led to the schisms, the contention, and ultimately the separation that took place within this little assembly. Now this is a great irony, in fact it is a contradiction of what God has ordained in the origin and the intention of spiritual gifts - because we know from Corinthians, and indeed from the rest of the New Testament, that the reason why God gave spiritual gifts was to unify the church, to make the church one. He's exhorting them here in verse 10: 'I beseech you, brethren, to be of the same mind, to all say the same thing'. So these gifts should have unified the church, but because they took pride in it personally and individually, it segregated the church and caused schism within it.
If you remember last week we read from Ephesians 4, and verses 12 and 13 of that passage says that the gifts that the Lord Jesus gave to the church when He ascended on high were 'For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ'. These gifts are given, yes so that we might show the characteristics of Christ, so that we might stand in the stature as a perfect man in the fullness of Christ, but that we might be unified through these gifts. The great irony is, that here it seems is a church which majored on gifts, which came behind in no gift - chapter 1 verse 7 - but was splintered into four different factions on the grounds of spiritual gifts!
Now the question is rightly posed: why is that the case? In fact, in our contemporary situation we ask the same question: why does this still happen today? So-called gifts are too often the reason why many churches split; and even individuals crack up because they seek God for the gifts, and they don't seem to get the gifts, and they think there's something wrong with them, something wrong with their salvation experience or their sanctification - and more often than not today, it is spiritual gifts that still cause schisms within the local assembly. Why is it so? That what God has given and ordained to unify the church is often, and in Corinthian society was, what caused schism, separation, and party spirit factions?
Well, here's the reason, and it's very very simple: it's simply because the motivation for the exercise of spiritual gifts can very easily become selfish. The use of spiritual gifts can easily become carnal in motivation. You will know, if you're familiar with this first epistle, that one of the biggest problems of the Corinthians was not only their pride but their carnality. They were not spiritually minded, they were babes in Christ, they had not yet matured in their faith. Because of that, even though God had mightily gifted many of them, they were using their gifts in a carnal way, they were using their gifts that fed their old nature which loved to be proud. That led to the party spirit, and then it led to the factions, because the Corinthians had a misunderstanding about the source and the sphere of spiritual gifts. That's what we're going to look at tonight: the source and the sphere of spiritual gifts. Their problem, ultimately, if you were going to sum it up, was that they were too self-conscious and they were not God-conscious enough.
Now that is fundamental, because the problem that the Corinthians had with regards to gifts is the problem that the church of Jesus Christ in many sections has today with gifts: they are too humanly self-conscious, and not enough God-consciousness among them! What I mean by that is that rather than focusing upon the Giver, God, they majored on the gifts: getting the gifts, the power that the gifts could give them, and then they took it a step further and they began to adore those who possessed the gifts. So rather than focusing their attention on the Giver, they were majoring on the gifts and the gifted: those among them who were manifesting these gifts. Now this is where the problems enter any church: when you lose focus on the One who is the God of all grace, who has gifted the church, and you start to focus on the necessity of these manifestations, so-called, of the Spirit among us, and also on those who seem to be especially gifted of God. We see it all around us today - I don't know whether you've ever seen any of the adverts for meetings that go like this: 'Come hear a man who has healed the sick, raised the dead'. One that I read said: 'God showed him hell, and then took him to heaven to see the Lord, and he will be speaking at Seagoe Hotel, and the cost will be...so many pounds, so many pence'. This is the claim that many are making in our society: that they can do great miracles, that they have been to hell, that they've been to heaven, that they've seen the risen Lord, that they've raised the dead, and many don't know whether to believe them or not - many are believing them - but because they see these men, mere men, with great gifts, great supernatural abilities, there are bowled over and they follow them.
One of the neo-charismatics today, neo-pentecostalists, is a man by the name of Rodney Howard Brown, you may have heard about him. He calls himself the 'Holy Ghost bartender', or the 'Holy Ghost hitman'. In a book I have been reading recently he talks of an experience that he had, after which he cited it to be an experience of the Holy Spirit, but after which referring to his own physical hand he said these words, and I quote - the power he is talking about: 'It felt like my fingertips came off. I felt a full volume of the anointing flow out of my hand, the only way I can explain it is to liken it to a fireman holding a fire hose with a full volume of water flowing out of it. The anointing went right through her', that's the person he was standing in front of, 'and it looked like someone had hit her in the head with an invisible baseball bat, and she fell on the floor'. Howard Brown suddenly then began, in this experience, to get nervous, and he referred to his hand again like this: 'I better look out where I point this thing, this thing's loaded' - despite his own caution, records tell us that he ended up 'shooting' (I quote) every member of his ministry team with his own hand.
This man, it would seem, is claiming to be especially gifted of God in such a way that others are not, so that great crowds of people come along to see these marvellous gifts, to see a man that is especially gifted, uniquely over others. Kenneth Copeland is such a man that was in Belfast recently, hundreds went to hear him. He makes similar demands, he claims to do mighty things in the name of God. Another goes by the name of Benny Hinn, who recently claimed that Jesus Christ would bodily appear at his crusades! Now I don't know whether people are simply intrigued by such claims, but I fear tragically that many are captivated by the power that these men claim to have - and apart from the Scriptures being absolutely ignorant of any suchlike happenings, not only in the Acts of the Apostles, but today in so-called end times prophetic days - we would put this down probably to hypnosis, or demonic activity, and we'll look at these things in the weeks that lie ahead - but apart from the fact that the Scriptures don't talk about any of these things at all, what this does do is betray the extreme way that these men emphasise themselves, their gifts, those who are gifted rather than the Giver.
Now I know that these are not true spiritual gifts in the Corinthian sense or in any sense that we believe in them today, but what I want you to see is that even though perhaps it's an extreme example I'm giving to you, their emphasis is wrong. It's all in the gift and the gifted, and Paul is telling the Corinthians and warning them about the exact same thing: when the gifted is emphasised above the Giver the gift cannot be inspired by the Spirit of God. Whether the man has a genuine gift or not, the manifestation of the spiritual thing cannot be of God. Did you hear me? Even if the man is gifted of God, even if he is given a spiritual gift of God, if he is carnal and if he is operating that gift in his carnality, if he is pushing himself and his ability rather than the Lord, it cannot be of the Spirit! We've got the word of God for it.
The Corinthian problem is the Christian problem today, or as one has put it well: 'The problem of Christendumb at large'! They believe everything that a man says because he seems to be gifted. The problem is: misconception on the origin and the intention of spiritual gifts which leads to misuse and abuse of the same. Now let's look at how Paul warned them about this tonight, and how he warns us. He tells us first of all of the source of spiritual gifts. Now please notice: there is the difference between natural gifts, I mean natural talents, and spiritual gifts. Now it's not that natural talents aren't from God, but the fact remains that an unbeliever has natural talents - an unbeliever can equally be an artist, or a scientist, or a musician, just like a believer. In fact they could be an atheist or an agnostic, and be the most outstanding musician or artist in existence. Now, if a Christian excels in these particular things, that's tremendous, but it has got nothing to do with his salvation. Now he may use those things for God, he may generate them into the work of God, and God may bless him in it, and God may even hone those things - but the fact of the matter is, he possessed those talents before his conversion.
However, what we're talking about tonight is our spiritual gifts that come to us directly as a result of our salvation. They're not natural talents, they're supernatural gifts that come from the Holy Spirit. The word for 'gifts' is the word 'charisma' that the charismatic movement's name comes from. But 'charisma' in Greek simply means 'the plurality of gifts', essentially it means 'the gift of grace', or 'free gift'. Now, right away we realise that there's no way that any believer, no matter how spiritually gifted they are, should be taking any pride in their spiritual ability with their gift - why? Because it is free, it is a gift of grace, they have not earned it, God has given it to them unmerited, just out of His favour, His love and His mercy He has given that gift to that person.
Now that word 'charisma', in 16 of its 17 New Testament uses it is connected with God as the Giver - not the gifted, not the gift, but it refers to God as being the one who bestows these gifts. So all of the times except one that this word is used, the emphasis is not on the gifts or the gifted, but upon the Giver of these gifts. So Paul comes in to instruct these believers in verses 4 to 7 that the Spirit of God gives a variety of gifts to be used in a variety of ministries that have a variety of effects, but the common source and the common purpose is one: it is all for the One who has given the gifts, the Giver of it! And if it is not for Him, it is not from Him! I think that's clear enough, isn't it?
Now let's see how he does this - here's the first thing, verse 4: 'Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit'. So he's saying there: different gifts from the same Spirit. Now, one thing that is essential to unity is diversity - we must never fall into the mistake of thinking that unity is in some way uniformity, that we all have to be the same. In fact, the wonder of unity is that we can all be different and unite together. This is just what Paul is alluding to here: there are different, various kinds of gifts - the word 'diversities' in the Authorised could also be translated 'varieties of gifts', basically the word is 'apportionments', 'allotments', or 'distributions'. It has the sense of another giving the gift, not just the variation of it or the diversity of your individual gift, but the fact that it has been apportioned to you, allotted to you, distributed to you by another. Where's the emphasis? It is on the fact that it is God who distributes His gifts. He may do it in many forms, many varieties, to all different types of His children, and He has a multiplicity of gifts, and they're given to every believer - but the emphasis is on the fact that He gives them! They are His gifts, and He gives them to whom He wills!
Now there are a number of lists of these gifts, and maybe you're just dying to know what they are, but we're not going to have time to deal with those tonight - neither the ones in our passage in verses 8 to 11, or the others in other New Testament books - but God willing we'll leave these to the next study. What I want you to see tonight is the origin and the intention of these spiritual gifts: God is the origin, God should be the emphasis. There are different gifts from the same Spirit, and then he says in verse 5: 'And there are differences of administrations', the margin says 'ministries', 'but the same Lord'. So God gives His gifts to be used, they are a variety of gifts, but they are to be used in a variety of ministries.
Now let me tell you what I'm getting at here: even Christians with the same gift could be led to manifest that gift in many different ways. In other words, if you are a gifted teacher: you could be a gifted teacher to children, you could be a gifted teacher to young people, you could be a gifted teacher to adults. Another may have special ability with the original biblical languages of Hebrew and Greek, or you might have a particular biblical speciality like prophecy or history or something along that line. If you're an evangelist, spiritually gifted in that way, again it could be with children. You could be gifted to powerfully address a large crowd of people, or you could be the type of evangelist who is gifted personally, one-to-one witnessing to a friend or a neighbour or someone you meet in the street. So the emphasis here is the variety of the gifts, and also the variety of ministries or services or administrations of that gift. So what Paul is saying to these Corinthians is: you're following, some of you, Apollos, some of you Paul, some of you Cephas, some of you Christ - and you think that your particular leader is the greatest out of them all, and you're trying to copy that leader and all be clones of that leader, but the fact of the matter is this: it's foolishness trying to be all the same, because we're not all the same.
Even when we have the same spiritual gifts, God has administrated to us to use those gifts in a variety of ways. The word 'administrations' could be translated, as I said, 'ministries'. It comes from the same basic Greek term as 'serve', or 'servant', or the word we get 'deacon' from - one who serves. It's the same word used in Mark 10, Jesus said of Himself: 'Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve'. So just as this church, as the universal church is the body of Christ, it is to serve one another and serve the world around it by the Spirit of God, through the gifts that His Spirit has given to His people to serve one another. They're not given to us like badges of prestige, or like degrees of achievement, but they're given to us to be tools for building the church and for helping one another. Now this is crucial and fundamental for this study tonight, and indeed the studies in the weeks that lie ahead: it is intrinsic that we understand that spiritual gifts are not given for self-edification. I don't care what anybody says on this term, it is not given - any of them - for spiritual self-edification.
Let me illustrate it: for example, if you are teacher, and you study the word of God and then you write lessons - and you decide: 'Well, nobody is worthy to receive these lessons, I'll just keep them in my filing cabinet and read them for my own benefit'. Or say you record messages of yourself preaching, and you only listen to them in the car on the way to work, at home in your own bedroom or study - that is to prostitute a gift that the Spirit of the living God has given to you, because it's not given for your self-edification alone. Maybe you have the gift of discernment, but you keep the Spirit-given insights to yourself that you have - that is to be an unfaithful steward. You're not given gifts from God to serve yourself. Say you have the gift of helps, helping believers around you, those in the neighbourhood in need. Well, it's self-explanatory, isn't it, that you don't have the gift of helps just to help yourself? It's to help others, and Paul is telling them that a gift exercised only in a private way is a perverted gift, because God gives us these gifts in order to serve and minister to others.
Turn with me for a moment to 1 Peter 4, now this is so important, 1 Peter 4 verse 10. Peter says: 'As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God'. This is a free gift of grace, and it's given to you to minister the same one to another - we are stewards of God's gifts, and that means ultimately that whatever you have from God is loaned to you, it doesn't belong to you it belongs to God! It's not given to you just for your self-gratification or edification, but for the benefit of the body.
So there are different gifts from the same Spirit, different service for the same Lord, and then thirdly in verse 6 we read: 'And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all'. There are different powers or energies from the same God. Now that word there 'diversities of operations', could be translated 'effects', it is the Greek word 'energema' which we get 'energy' from. There are differences of energies or powers, literally what is worked out or energised. Now what is Paul getting at here - he's not talking about there can be different powers from the one God, or different energies from the one God, he's talking about the effects of the gifts that God has given as they are used in the Spirit. He's telling these believers that the One who provides the spiritual gifts also provides the energy and the power to make those spiritual gifts effective. You might have more power than another believer in a particular gift, but it is the same God that gives you that power. Just as the gifts are given supernaturally, Paul is saying so those gifts are energised supernaturally.
Let me just pause for a moment, because I think here is a fundamental lesson that many who serve the Lord have missed, neglected, or even - God forbid - forgotten. It's simply this: you might have the gift of the Spirit, and praise God we believe that that is given to you at conversion; you may have the gifts of the Spirit and be laden down, like the Corinthians, with them; but the big question is this: does the Holy Spirit have you? Are you filled with the Spirit? Do you realise the gifts that He has given to you, that He might maximise their effect? That's what Paul's talking about. Now the only way that that can happen, as we were singing in our first hymn, is if our lives are free from all sin - and one of the reasons why there are diversities of energies in the gifts that are given are because there are hindrances to those gifts in our lives, and we must set them aside. Those things that we ought not to do, we must cease doing them; and things that we ought to be doing, we must start doing them, and set in order the things that are lacking.
How can this be done? Well I believe God, at conversion, potentially, in His Spirit gift He's given to all of us, has given us all potentially what we will need in our Christian life - but I do not believe that those things are worked out. I believe that the way that they are worked out is in no other way but communion with God Himself. It is in that school of learning with God, in that pilgrimage and that walk along life's pathway as a Christian, that you will learn to give your life entirely over to the sphere and the fullness of God's Spirit, and the power of His gifts will be maximised in your life. Communion with God is where this power is realised, and I believe many have not come to terms with this - no matter how well-trained you are, how well-experienced you are, it doesn't matter how you exercise the talents, the skills, the intellect that maybe even God has given you - if you do not know the Giver experientially, mark that now, you will not have the power! Those gifts which God has empowered potentially will not be effective in your life, because the God who both bestows the gifts also empowers the gifts, because the gifts of the Spirit are the Lord's exclusive remit - it is His area.
Also, if you will, a person gifted in the same way as another, and exercising the same gift, will not always have the same results. Isn't that a fact? Even himself: you preach one place and two get saved, you preach for a year in another place and nobody gets saved. You're using the same gift, but there's not always the same results - now here's the Corinthian problem: the natural man, the carnal man, is more concerned about uniformity than unity. He is more concerned that he have the dramatic gifts, he's more concerned about being successful than being spiritual. But Paul is more concerned about the glory of God, the Giver, than any of all that. I ask the question tonight: where are the men today that are jealous for the glory of God and the glory of God alone? There are many gifts, but Paul says there is one Giver, there's one Source of those gifts, and it doesn't come from your natural ability, and you shouldn't be following men because of how great they are - it comes from God.
I want you to see this in passing, because it's important: he stamps this truth with the authority of the triune Godhead, the Trinity. He shows us the Trinity in the administration of gifts to the church. Look at these verses, verse 4: 'there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit' - there's the Holy Spirit. Verse 5: 'there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord' - that's the Lord Jesus. 'And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all' - that represents the Father. What he is saying here is the triune Godhead is operative in the gifts that are given to the church, God is so concerned about these gifts that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are operative in it. I ask you, just as a footnote, how could you not believe the Trinity? I mean, how could you not, it's so clear, isn't it? The Spirit, the Lord, and God - but not only that, if that's not enough for you, can you not see the illustration that Paul is making here? He's talking to the Corinthians about the divine unity of the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - yet he's telling them that these gifts are from the same God. He, by telling them about the Spirit, the Lord, and God, is saying: 'Look, here is a unity in diversity itself - they're all different, but they're working in unity'.
Maybe you think I'm pushing the boundaries here with the doctrine of the Trinity, but let me prove to you that I'm not. Ephesians 4, Paul stamps this passage on the gifts of the Spirit with the same stamp of the Trinity - if you don't know what the Trinity is, it's the Godhead, it's three persons, separate persons, individual persons, but one substance, they're all God - one God only, three persons. Ephesians 4 and verse 4: 'There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling', so the Spirit is mentioned in verse 4. Verse 5: 'One Lord', the Lord Jesus Christ, 'one faith, one baptism', verse 6, 'One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men'. He is illustrating again: here is the Trinity, which is in itself a diversity but a unity, and you're to be like that as the church of Jesus Christ in the manifestation and the variety of gifts that God has given to you.
Let me say this, as strongly as I can: any that do not believe in the diversity and the unity of the Godhead show that the gifts that they claim to manifest, wherever they're from they cannot be from God. Now have you got that? I don't care whether you believe in tongues, I don't care whether you're from the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mormons, God says that His gifts are displayed in the same unity as the triune Godhead. Do you think He would give His gifts to anybody that didn't believe in that? In fact, spiritual gifts are so important that the whole Godhead is involved - isn't that phenomenal? When the church of Jesus Christ meets in its biblical fashion, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are intrinsically involved in their gathering. Can I ask you a question: imagine if the Godhead were involved in spiritual gifts and you weren't?
That's their source, lets look quickly at their sphere - the sphere, and Paul tells us this in verse 7: 'But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal' - all of the church. The manifestation of the Spirit, now he's reinstating this emphasis: God is the source, it's not a manifestation of your particular talent, of who you or what you can do, it's of the Spirit of God who is the source of all spiritual gifts. Again 'manifest' is the opposite to anything that could be claimed to be private. Something that is private and unseen, whether it be a so-called private prayer language in tongues, cannot be described as manifest, can it?
Now here's the lesson: the sphere of these gifts. One: it is personal to each. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man. Now I want you in the moments that remain to really get to grips with this: that God has gifted you - you personally. Individually you have a gift, and that gift has been given to you by the Spirit of God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit have been instrumental in it; Christ has died and rose again and ascended on high in order to purchase it and give it to you; it has been given to glorify the name of God, Father, Son and Spirit, and for the blessing of the body of Christ, other believers around you. The terrible fear that I have is for some, this truth that they have a spiritual gift has only ever been in their dreams. They fantasise - people talk to me like this - about being useful for God, about being a powerful servant for God: 'I would just love to be a gifted Christian, to be used in a mighty way to further the kingdom of Christ'. Listen: the Spirit of God has gifted you! He has gifted you to glorify God and to bless the Christians around you, and who knows, even non-Christians in their salvation - and OK, it might be a small gift, it might be a so-called big gift (I'm not even sure whether you can compare them like that). But what I want you to see, if you've never seen it before, is this: God has already done the gifting, but you must do the using.
Now, this is the real question: are you conscious of the gift that God has given you? Do you know the ability that He's given to you supernaturally? Oh, you can play the piano, or you can paint the walls, or you're good at putting things together or maybe taking them apart - I don't know what it is - those are talents, I'm not saying God can't use them...but do you know what your spiritual gift is? It might be that of helps, where you use those individual things in helpful ways - but are you aware of it? Are you conscious of it? Here's the next question: do you use it for the Lord? If you don't use it for the Lord, why do you not use it? It is personal to each of us, and it is responsibility beyond words to make sure that before God we seek Him to find out what our gift is, and we use it - sometimes I wonder about these little schemes and seminars to find out what your spiritual gift is, because if you have a couple of them, well you could set up a blind alley and think you've only one, and you've left the other three or whatever it is alone. You may be a person, and I think most of us are like this if not all, who is a conglomeration of many things - it's hard just to separate them, but the fact of the matter is: even if you're the most impoverished believer in the word, you feel, you have got at least one spiritual gift given by the Spirit to use for the edification of the body and the glory of God.
It's personal to each, but it must be - here's the second point in the sphere of these gifts - profitable to all. It's given to every man by the Spirit to profit withal - that literally means it's for the common good, it's from the verb in the Greek that means 'to bring together'. Bishop Hall illustrated it like this, and I'll read his illustration: 'As many vapours rising from the sea met together in one cloud, and that cloud falls down divided into many drops, and those drops run together making rills of water which meet in channels, and those channels run into brooks, and those brooks into rivers, and those rivers into the sea - so it either is or should be with the gifts and the graces given to the church. They all came down from God, they were divided severally as He willed to various Christians, and they should flow through the channels of their special vocations into the common streams of public use for the church, and ultimately return into the great ocean of His glory from whence they originally came'.
Do you see it? Each individually we have them, but they're all to work together for the good of all and the glory of Christ who is the body. Right: do you have a gift? Yes, the Scriptures say you have. Do you know what that gift is? Do you use that gift? If not, why do you not use it? You might be sitting here thinking: 'Well David, if I don't use my gift, and if I don't even know what it is, what does it matter to you or anyone else?'. This teaches that it does matter - apart from harming your own growth, Paul says there is a blessing that you're harming and hindering to the body, to other believers who could benefit and come into the good of the blessing of the gift that you have to give.
There is a story of mountains of salt told, which resided in a place called Camana in Venezuela - I don't know whether it's a legend, or whether it's supposedly true - but apparently this mountain of salt never ever diminished though chunks were taken away in much abundance by merchants and businessmen. It never seemed to diminish, it always stayed the same and replenished itself until one day that mound of salt was monopolised by one businessman to the benefit of his private pocket. Then, the story is told, that the salt began to decrease until after a while all were allowed again to come and take from its resources, from which it began to increase once again - I don't know whether it's apocryphal or not, it probably is, but one thing's sure: it surely illustrates the fact that the body of Christ is harmed by the lack of use of gifts, and the selfish misuse of gifts - but when all use those gifts together, all gain from it.
I ask you again: what is your gift or gifts? Do you use your gifts? Here's another question: have you stopped using those gifts? You're no longer doing what you used to do, and for some it's because you got hurt using those gifts in the past, and you've decided: 'I'm not going to get bit twice, I'm not going to get my fingers burnt once more. I got criticised, I got hurt, I got wrangled in church politics, and I don't want to ever take that chance again' - is that you? Because of that you're robbing yourself of the blessing of using your gifts and benefiting others from it. Listen to one lesson I learnt many years ago: 'The only way to avoid criticism is by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing'. Do anything for God and you'll be criticised! Stuart Briscoe said that the qualifications of a pastor, or indeed any Christian leader, is the mind of a scholar, the heart of a child, and the hide of a rhinoceros! Do anything for God, stand out for God, you'll be criticised - but you will be blessed, and others will be blessed in the body, and the body will be edified and God will be glorified.
The great violinist, Niccolo Paganini, willed his famous violin, when he died, to the city of Genoa which was the city of his birth. He only gave it to them on one condition, and it was that the instrument never was played upon. It was an unfortunate condition, for the peculiarity of the wood was such that the longer it was not used the more it rotted. When it wasn't handled it wore, and wore, and wore - and as soon as it was discarded after Paganini's death it began to decay. From that instrument used to come exquisite mellow toned violin music, but today as we speak it is worm-eaten, it is useless - lying in its beautiful case, valueless except as a relic. It is the mouldering instrument that is a reminder that a life that is withdrawn from service to others loses its meaning.
Friends tonight, God doesn't intend for us to practice our spiritual instruments alone in insulated soundproof rooms. He wants us to take our seats in the orchestra under His Spirit's direction, and to make music that builds others up - a sweet, sweet sound in God's ears. The tune is not as the Corinthians was - 'I'll do it my way' - but it is the Messiah.
What I want you to do after this meeting is to go home, and if God leads you to do it, to lock yourself in the closet and ask God to show you your spiritual gift or gifts. Get before Him and deal with, perhaps, the reasons why you're not using your gift; why maybe God is not blessing the gift that you are using. Men and women with gifts, if you know you've got it and you know what it is, will you get alone with God and get God to empower you in it? Then what will happen? The saints will be blessed, and God - the Source of your gift - will be glorified! Is it the gifts for you, is it maybe even the gifted? Paul says it should be the Giver, that's the important thing.
Our Father, we thank Thee for the gifts that Thy Son has purchased for us. We thank Thee, our Father, that it was through the blood of His cross, and through His resurrection and ascension. He has given us those gifts to be used not for our own self-aggrandisement or gratification, but for His glory, for the help of our brothers and sisters around us, for a world that is lost and dying and in need of His salvation. Lord, we pray tonight that all of us may seek not so much the gifts, or the gifted, or to be gifted, but always the Giver first - and to seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto us. Lord, help us to deal with the old man that is in all of us that would seek glory, adoration, and the praise of men. Help us always only to be all and all for Jesus, in His name we pray, Amen.
Don't miss Part 31 of the 1 Corinthians study series: "The Variation Of Spiritual Gifts"
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Transcribed by:
Andrew Watkins
Preach The Word.
November 2003
www.preachtheword.com
info@preachtheword.com
This sermon was delivered at The Iron Hall Assembly in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Pastor David Legge. It was transcribed from the thirtieth tape in his 1 Corinthians series, titled "The Origin And Intention Of Spiritual Gifts" - Transcribed by Andrew Watkins, Preach The Word.
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