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1 Corinthians - Part 31
"The Variation 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 12:8-11 |
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Turning again to 1 Corinthians chapter 12 for our reading tonight, I hope you remember in our first study in entering this chapter we looked at verses 1 to 3 at 'Testing the Spirituals', or testing the spiritual things, or testing spiritual gifts - how to know whether spiritual emanations and spiritual fruit is from the Lord God, the Lord Jesus Christ, or whether it is from some kind of deceitful spirit, or whether it is from the spirit of self in the person who is claiming to have that gift. We spent quite a considerable time on the first three verses, and then two Monday nights ago we took up verses 4 through to verse 7, and we looked at the intention that the Spirit of God had in giving these spiritual gifts to the church - the intention, what they were given for. They were intended that Christ might be seen in the church, and that His fruit might be manifest and His power in the life of those who He left behind to serve Him in the great commission. We saw that we must always testify the truth concerning Christ if we have these spiritual gifts.
Tonight we're turning our attention to 'The Variation of Spiritual Gifts', and Paul gives us quite a detailed list in verses 8 through to 11 of these gifts that he's dealing with particularly in the Corinthian context. Let's begin at verse 1 so that we understand the flow of the apostle's thought:
"Now concerning spiritual gifts, 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: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. 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". Now here are our verses for this evening: "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", or different, "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".
A man once asked a preacher of the end of his service in a rather cynical tone what a miracle was, and whether miracles were around in our day. The preacher gave this man a full, as far as he was concerned, and complete explanation of the matter, and during the explanation the questioner began to fidget, and his body language was communicating that he didn't think much of the answer he was getting. He interrupted the preacher and demanded: 'Won't you give me an example of a miracle?'. 'Well', said the preacher, 'Step over here in front of me, and bend over, and I'll see what I can do'. As the man bent over, the preacher gave him a terrific kick in the seat of the pants, and he said: 'Did you feel that?'. He said: 'I didn't half feel it!'. 'Well', said the preacher, 'It would have been a miracle if you hadn't!'.
To a certain extent we need a kick in the seat of our pants with regards to understanding spiritual gifts and all that concerns with them, and the reason why I say that is that there's so much misunderstanding abroad - and as I've been reading over these last days or so, I have begun to see that there is a lot of misunderstanding even within evangelical conservative circles. This is not just a theological issue, it is a pastoral issue, because many people are plunged into distress and despair because of their expectations of God that may be wrong and misdirected. They may have a misunderstanding with regards to who has these spiritual gifts, when they have them, how many they have, and even the purpose of these gifts. They can fall so easily into discouragement or disappointment as a result of feeling that they have missed the mark and God has not blessed them as much as He has blessed other people. We need to address, or redress we should say, the imbalance that there is in Christendom at large today with regards to the issue of spiritual gifts - but on the other hand, we also need to sound a note of caution with regards to a section within the church that does not believe in the miraculous at all! It denies that God can do anything supernatural, that God can intervene in an unnatural way whatsoever. They will say that the miracles are finished, God cannot or does not do anything extraordinary in this dispensation or in this age.
As far as I'm concerned, that assumption is absolutely ridiculous, because if you're going to have a God, you've got to have a God who is allowed to be God and has the ability of God! To my mind a God who cannot do what He wants, and a God who cannot do the miraculous, by definition is not God at all. We must assert this evening that the claims of Christianity stand or fall depending upon the miraculous. Mark what I say: Christianity is not simply a dogma, it is not a theological creed, but it stand or falls on the authentication of the miraculous. Let me prove this to you, turn with me to chapter 15 in this book - Paul, proving the resurrection, says in verse 19: 'If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead'. What he is saying is: if the miracle of the resurrection did not happen, and if the anticipation of our physical resurrections in a future day will not ever happen, we are of all men most miserable and the gospel that we preach is a farce. So our belief stands or falls on the authenticity of the miraculous as a reality. We must state categorically, before we go on to look at any of these spiritual gifts tonight, that we believe in a miracle working God - and He is still the miracle working God!
But though we state this very clearly and unapologetically, it is important that we understand in the context of these verses tonight what these gifts in Corinth were, why they were given, when God did these miracles through these gifts, why He did them, the purposes of them, and those whom He gave these gifts to. Because only when we understand that in this Corinthian context, and then indeed go to the very start of the Bible and look right throughout to cite all the examples of miracles right from the very beginning, then we begin to understand a clear picture of why God did miracles in the past, why He gave miraculous gifts to the church, and whether or not we have those same gifts with us today, and if we do to what extent they are here.
Only when we do this in a panoramic biblical sense, understanding miracles right throughout the Bible, will we really be able to weigh up what these gifts meant in Corinthian days and what their relevance is to us here in the 21st century. So we're asking the question first of all: what is the purpose of the miraculous in scripture? Why are there miracles in the word of God? Now bear with me, we'll get onto the gifts very soon, but we have to lay this foundation first of all. Turn with me right to the very start, the second book of the Bible, the book of Exodus and chapter 4 - Exodus chapter 4 and verse 5 with regards to Moses. The Lord said in verse 4: 'And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail', this is the serpent, 'And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand' - and here's the explanation why the Lord was doing this - 'That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee'.
Now here's one of the very early miracles in the word of God, and we see that the reason - in fact, the God-given explanation - for this miracle was to attest that Moses was sent from God on a divine mission. There's something to note right away: the miracles are often performed to attest the divine messenger on the divine mission. We know when we go to Deuteronomy that the Lord Jesus Christ prophetically was going to be attested by the same thing. God told Moses that there would be a Prophet would come from among them, a Prophet with a capital 'P', who would likewise be attested by the miracles that He would do. Of course you and I both know that when we enter into the gospel age, we find that the Lord Jesus Christ, His basis for who He said He was, it was attested by the mighty miracles, signs, and wonders that He did when He was upon the earth.
Turn with me to Matthew's gospel chapter 12, Matthew chapter 12, and we find here that the basis for the request of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law for Jesus to perform a miracle was founded upon their knowledge that only miracles could attest His claim of Messiahship. Matthew 12 verse 38: 'Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee' - now we know that the Lord Jesus reprimanded them, and answered: 'An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas'. But nevertheless, the Pharisees and the Scribes understood this principle: that a divine messenger was attested by the authority of the miracles that he could do.
Now we know this when we go to John's gospel chapter 3 and we see the story of Nicodemus, turn with me to that, because when Nicodemus came to Jesus by night you remember in verse 2 he said: 'Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God' - why? - 'for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him'. It was proof of who the Lord Jesus Christ said He was. Now here's the first thing to establish in the whole of Scripture, why miracles are there, why God in His providence allows these things to happen: they serve to validate the authority and the message of the divine messenger. If you have a pen, you make sure and write that down.
Here's the second principle that we find within the word of God: most miracles that we find right throughout scripture revolve around the giving of new revelation. What I mean by that is simply that when God has something new to say to His people that has never ever been said before, He uses great miracles to attest that there is a new message, a new revelation on its way. If you look, even at a casual glance of Old and New Testament Scriptures, you will see that those miraculous signs and wonders seem to be all collected around three historic eras in the history of the Bible - three brief periods of history. The first is the one we read from in Exodus, and it spans right through to the book of Joshua, and it is the era of Moses and Joshua - the giving of the law, and the leadership of Joshua. There were mighty miracles done: we could mention the ten plagues; we read out of the story of the deliverance, the Exodus from Egypt, and there were mighty things done in those days to show the Israelites as well as the Egyptians who the true and the mighty God was, but also to attest to Moses' leadership in the children of Israel. Then when we come to Joshua, he performed great miracles because his leadership had to be attested also in the eyes of the people.
There's the first historical era. We move on and we find there are fewer miracles until we come to the time of Elijah and Elisha - and what a charismatic time that was, if we can use that phrase! There was something new that needed to be told to the children of Israel and Judah - what was it? It was this: that God would not tolerate them worshipping other gods! Through the various kings, and even through a false religious system of syncretism, what was happening was that the children of Israel were beginning to worship the god Baal - to an extent, the very existence of the future of God's people on the earth was at stake. So God had to come in in this miraculous way, through Elijah and Elisha, and do great wonders to show who God really was. Proof of that is 1 Kings 18 - you remember Elijah and the prophets of Baal, and at the end of it all when God proved Himself to be the God who answereth by fire, all the people cried: 'Jehovah, He is God! Jehovah, He is God!'.
Very few miracles were performed until we come then to the era of Jesus Christ and the apostles. Again those miracles that our Lord Jesus performed right throughout the Gospels, that the apostles performed in the Acts of the Apostles, and even miracles that were done right throughout the early stages of the epistles and the latter stages of the realm of the early church, they were to attest the claims of Christ as Messiah and the apostles as the foundation of the church. Let me show you this from John chapter 20, turn with me, verse 31 - verse 30 says: 'And many other signs truly', miracles, 'did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book' - and there are many written in it, but there are many more that couldn't be written in it - 'But these are written', those that are here are written, 'that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name'. The purpose of these signs was that we should believe that Christ was who He said he was.
But let me just have you note that in between these three historical eras there are very few miracles recorded during those centuries. As we come into the Gospels we find that the Jews, and we'll tease this out in a later study, the Jews needed a sign to show that Christ was who He said He was. He said He was the Light of the world, so what did He do? He gave blind eyes sight. He said He was the Bread of life, so what did He do to attest that? He fed 5000 people and more women and children than even that. To Martha He said: 'I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall He live' - and then what did He do to prove it? He rose her brother Lazarus from the grave.
Now we enter the realm of the apostles, and Paul tells us of the apostle's miracles, and he tells us that they were given on the grounds to prove their authority, that they were preaching the same new message of Christ and these men that were writing the New Testament Scriptures were indeed the messengers sent from God. Now we have to prove this, because so many people disbelieve this teaching in this day. Look at chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians and verse 12 - this is a Bible study, so let's get your fingers working - chapter 12 and verse 12, he says to them: 'Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds'. Their miracles, as apostles, attested their claims of who they said they were.
So please mark down these principles - the first thing is this: miracles serve to validate the authority of the messenger and the divine messenger, and this proof was needed right up to the apostolic age, that these men who claimed to be apostles from God were who they said they were. A man illustrated it like this to me recently: when you plant a seed, you put little sticks around it to tell you where the seed is, but once the plant starts to grow you don't need the sticks any more because the plant's stem becomes strong enough on its own. Just what these gifts were at the very beginning, they were little sticks to say: 'This is a work of God, and is attested in this miraculous fashion'.
Now although we're laying down this foundation, please do not misunderstand or misquote what I am saying this evening: God can perform a miracle whenever He chooses! But what we are saying is these great authenticating miracles, performed by men as recorded in the Bible, began when the Gospel began, when God was telling us a new thing about Christ. It filtered into the apostolic age, but as we read throughout the Scriptures we find that those particular attestations of the authenticity of the Gospel began to phase out in their frequency and in their power. As the Gospel became more established, these things became less and less frequent.
Now maybe you're saying: 'Oh, I don't believe that!'. Well, turn with me to Hebrews, because everything I'm saying tonight is from the word of God - the book of Hebrews, chapter 2 verses 3 to 4: 'How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began', mark that, 'at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?' - when did that happen? At the first! When He began to speak by the Lord and those that heard Him - there it is in black and white! You can look at the history of the early church, and one example is Iraneas who in AD176 said these words, and I quote: 'Many in the church possess prophetic gifts and speak through the Spirit in all kinds of tongues' - AD176...but by the time you come to AD400 Chrysostom, a church father, states this: 'Of miraculous powers, not even a vestige is left'.
Now we must come to look at these gifts this evening and understand whether or not they're still here today, in what capacity they are here, and how we can apply these Scriptures to our own lives. Now if you remember our previous studies, especially in verses 4 to 7, although Paul told everyone that they have a gift to profit withal, it doesn't mean that everybody has one of these gifts. Now you say: 'Is that a copout?' - no, it's not, because even in verse 28 he tells us of more gifts: 'God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues', and so on, and there are two other portions of Scripture - specifically Romans 12 and 1 Peter 4 - where we have other lists of other gifts. So what we have before us this evening in verses 8 to 11 is not an exhaustive list of the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to men. It's important that we understand that, in fact what seems to be here rather are categories of spiritual gifts - it's not that one man has one of these gifts, but many men could have had many of them, one man could have had a conglomeration of several of them, or a bit of this or a bit of that, divided severally as the Spirit wills it says in verse 11.
But I think, and you'll see it as we go along, that what we have here are the categories of the kinds or the types of gifts that are available. So these may not be individual gifts of themselves, but rather generalities of types of gifts. Now, why am I saying that? Well, if you look at verse 8 you will see in your Authorised Version: 'For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit', and then verse 9, 'To another faith by the same Spirit'. Now, in the English, you've got two 'anothers' there - in verse 8 you've got 'to another the word of knowledge', in verse 9 'to another faith by the same Spirit' - but that word 'another' in the Greek in verse 9 is different than that in verse 8. In fact, 'another' in verse 9 means literally 'heteros' (sp?) in the Greek 'of a different kind entirely, of a different sort'. So there's a distinction made here between the word of wisdom with the word of knowledge, and the next gift in verse 9 which is another kind of gift, Paul says, the gift of faith. Now when you move down to verse 10 we find this word 'another' used again, 'of a different kind', 'diverse kinds of tongues; to another interpretation of tongues' and so on. So we see Paul is telling us that there are three categories of gifts here, and several of them are of different kinds - but all of them, as you look at them tonight, they are of the more dramatic kind, I'm sure you would agree, the more charismatic kind. That probably is because this was the kind that the Corinthians were obsessed with, they wanted the most powerful gifts because they thought the more powerful their gift the more spiritual that they were seen to be. What I want you to see this evening is: Paul's main point is to try to illustrate the variety of the kinds of gifts, and to emphasise that no matter what gift you have, and no matter what extent of it you have in your life, all of these gifts have one common source, and that is the same Holy Spirit.
Now let's look at these gifts, keeping in mind the principles that we have already established: that miracles were always in the Scriptures to validate the authority of the message and the messenger, and often they brought evidence of fresh manifestations of the power of God around a new revelation that God wanted people to know. So let's look at the first gift: the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge in verse 8. What you have to appreciate in your study of the book of 1 Corinthians, and indeed any epistle, is that the New Testament church did not have the New Testament as you have it in your hands tonight - they didn't have it for guidance. So when somebody had a problem, the oversight didn't get together and look up the Scriptures and turn the pages the way we would do today, they didn't have a Bible in our sense, they didn't have the apostles doctrine written down the way we have - and therefore the Holy Spirit had to give to the church gifts that met the needs of such a dire situation.
When we look at this word of wisdom first of all, the word for 'word' is 'logos' which means 'utterance' - so we know that both these gifts, the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge, involve the communication of some truth. In other words, into any given situation where there was a need for guidance, instruction, wisdom or knowledge, this gift was given by the Holy Spirit to individuals. Maybe to a certain circumstance there would be an old or even a young brother with this gift, who would stand up in the meeting and who would make known the mind of God to that circumstance, that situation - it was revealed to him supernaturally, and he would utter it to the gathering. Wisdom from God, direct from God, inspired from God, because they had not the word of God as we have it.
The word of knowledge was a little similar, and it's not knowledge, as some commentators would say, that we get from studying the Bible, but it's more than that: it is divinely imparted knowledge for the moment, a need of the hour where knowledge was given specifically to man from God. It can be seen in such statements of Paul like in 1 Corinthians 15, with regards to the issue of resurrection, many of them thought that the body would rot in the ground, he said these words: 'Behold I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye...', you know the rest of it, but the point is: for their need and their circumstance God revealed to Paul a mystery through the word of knowledge. Another phrase and statement used in 1 Thessalonians 4 where the people were worried what was happening to their loved ones after they died, and when the Lord would come who would go first, and what all would happen and what sequence it would be - Paul said: 'For this we say to you by the word of the Lord', from God, a word of knowledge from the Lord.
An example of it in the Acts of the Apostles is found in chapter 5 in the instance of Ananias and Sapphira - you remember they sold the fields that they had, and they brought the money to the church but they kept a little bit back for themselves. Peter was able to see this, God communicated to him something for that particular moment, and he used it - knowledge inspired by God - in that instance, and he was able to say: 'How dare you? How can you lie to God?'. If you look at chapter 13 we have this mentioned: 'though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge'. Let me just say that primarily this gift in its fullest sense existed only in the early church who did not have a New Testament. Now that is not to say that this kind of gift, in the sense of wisdom given to men - some more than others we would have to say - scriptural knowledge given to men, some more than others, is not from God. In fact, James says: 'If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not'. So we would have to say that many are gifted in wisdom and in knowledge, many are gifted in the grasping of the meaning of God's revelation which is a mystery to the natural mind, and unsaved men do not understand it. But what do we do now when we come up against questions of morality and guidance and all the rest and doctrine? We go to the word of God, because we have a more sure word of prophecy!
Now I believe that men who really walk close to God can be given wisdom from God and knowledge from God, but people today are not supernaturally inspired of God to give forth new revelation that the church of Jesus Christ does not already have. So we're saying, in the primary sense, in this contextual sense, this gift is not needed today because it has been replaced by the Holy Scriptures. That is the gifts of the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. It may be here in kind, but it is not here in the primary sense that it was in the early church.
Then Paul goes on and says: 'To another', and note the difference of another here in verse 9, 'To another there is a different kind of gift which is faith'. Now there's a great deal of misunderstanding around this area, and I would have to say that I don't go along with a lot of the commentators in their interpretation. This faith is not saving faith, 'by grace are you saved through faith', that is not what this is - and it is certainly not 'the faith once delivered to the saints' that Jude speaks of, which is the doctrine that we have and the whole gamut of our belief in our creed of the gospel. Neither is it the faith that we exercise day by day in the promises of God as we seek to live the life of faith. So many have said: 'Well, this must be, then, a special gift of faith to individual men whereby they do great exploits for God and they move mountains for God because they are especially gifted of the Spirit'. Well let me just show you from this passage that this gift of faith seems to be very closely associated with the gift of healings and the gift of miracles - notice in verse 8 there is the gift of wisdom and the word of knowledge which are connected, and then we come to a different kind of gift: faith, then you have healing and miracles and prophecy and discerning of spirits, and they're all connected in the one type of group before we come, in verse 10, to the other different kinds of gifts which are diverse tongues and interpretations and so on. So they are linked, for some reason, with the gifts of healing and the gift of miracles. I would say that the reason why that is such is that this gift of faith is the operating instrument given by God whereby men in this age did do mighty miracles and did do great healing.
If we look at chapter 13 and verse 2 he mentions it again: 'though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing' - there's a connection there, this is faith that can remove mountains, that can do great miracles, that can do great healing. Now follow me here, because the connection here I feel in the Greek is that this gift of faith is faith endowed, special faith which was necessary for the exercise of these workings of miracles and healings. Now maybe you're thinking: 'Are we saying that men don't have extraordinary faith today?', no, of course that's not what we're saying. We're not saying that, but many commentators and authors - nearly all of them - would be saying: 'Well, here's where we can find the gift of faith in the life of George Mueller, or the life of Hudson Taylor - they were men of God who really proved God, who seemed to be able to grasp hold with tremendous effect the promises of God, and get things from God'. Now I'm not denying that they had extraordinary faith, but I do not believe that they had the gift of faith mentioned in this passage - and what's more, they did not believe that they had the gift of faith found in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and it would seem very strange to me that God would have given these men that gift and they not know it!
Let me quote to you from George Mueller himself, he was saying with regard to the subject of the gift of faith in 1869, late in his life by the way, he says these words: 'Think not that I have the gift of faith of which we read in 1 Corinthians 12 verse 9, the faith which moves mountains. The faith which I am enabled to exercise with reference to the orphan houses and my own temporal necessities is not that faith. That faith can remove mountains, it is the selfsame faith I have that every believer has, and the growth of which I am most sensible to in my life, for little by little it has been increasing - for the last 43 years I have seen it increase, because it is nothing but taking the promises of God, applying them to the Scriptures, and in faith bringing them to the Lord and claiming them - it's nothing more than that'. I would have to say, and I may be wrong, but I would have to say that many have used this verse as a get-out clause that they ought not to live by faith - and I'm not talking about an income, I'm talking about all the promises of God that are given to all of us. In fact, here's a verse that I cannot get round if there is such a gift of faith with us today, it's this, James chapter 5: Elijah was a man of like passions as we are, yet he prayed and the rain fell, and he prayed and the rain stopped. The effectual fervent prayer, not of a gifted man, but of a righteous man availeth much.
Now secondarily we might say that there are men with great faith, there are men who perhaps are gifted in the sense that they can really pray and bring down God's blessing, but I think that's something that's open to all of us. Let's move on to the next one: the gifts of healing, or better the gifts of healings - both are plural. Now the Gospels and the Acts are littered with these gifts, the healings of the Lord Jesus and the apostles, but what I want you to note is that in the Greek language both of these words are plural: 'the gifts of healings'. That would lead me to believe that Paul is talking about categories of gifts here, not just one gift called the gift of healing - and incidentally, it tells us a great deal that many of the people who claim this gift don't even realise that there are gifts of healings, they think it's just one selfsame gift.
Now let me just say this categorically: no Christian that I know of today has the gifts of healing. Now let me tell you why that is: because no-one today can heal like Jesus healed, no-one can heal like the apostles healed, because the way they healed was they spoke one word, or they touched someone and instantaneously they were totally healed. They didn't die after a year, they didn't just have reduced pain, but they were healed completely and all who came to them were healed. Not only did they heal men, but they were able to raise men from the dead! Now I don't care what anyone says, there is no-one around that I know of that can heal like that. There are no faith healers that can walk about like the apostles, and when their shadow falls on a sick man, he is made whole. If you inquire of anybody who claims to have the gift of healing, you'll find that they have a certain formula that they incantate people with with regard to those who are sick, and they ask them first of all: are you a Christian? Then maybe after that they say: 'Now have you faith to believe that you're going to be healed?' - can I say: no New Testament healings required either of those two things. There were unbelievers healed, the healings were not produced by any virtue of the person healed, but entirely by the gift of the healer - and I'll tell you this: the men that were raised from the dead, the healer didn't get much faith from them! Don't you believe anybody that tells you: 'Oh, you're not healed because you haven't enough faith' - that is a get-out clause for them!
Now I know I may be stepping on toes here tonight, but I don't really care because it's important that we understand the truth of the word of God. We're not saying that men are not gifted to pray for people, we're not saying that their prayers aren't answered in some way even when they pray for the sick - that's not what we're saying. We're saying that there are not men with the gift of healing so that they can turn to whomsoever they will and heal them and they're made whole, completely whole; there are not men who can raise the dead, otherwise they should be up at the Ulster hospital in the city raising the sick, should they not? But they're not, because they haven't got it!
As you read the Scriptures, as time passed it became clear that these gifts of healings started to wane. Individual gifts, Paul was sick yet he never healed himself, he didn't ask another brother with a gift to heal him. He told Timothy: 'You've a sore tummy, go and take a drink of wine'. It says in 2 Timothy that he left Trophimus sick in Miletus - that was some friend, he had some power then had he? Why did he leave him sick if he could have healed him? Sure, his dear friend and fellow worker Epaphroditus who was seriously ill and could have died in Philippians chapter 2, he said, Paul: 'God have mercy on him, not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow in his decease'. It was the divine intervention of God, praise God He healed him, and God can heal - but it's not men that heal! Even those men that had this gift, let me say, they used this gift sparingly and only for one intended purpose - do you know what that was? To confirm the power of the gospel, and it wasn't there to make Christians healthy, it was to attest the claims of Christ and the apostles!
Now listen: a Christian can ask God today for healing of any illness, and God - praise His holy name - can heal, does heal, and we have seen Him heal - but He is under no obligation to heal! The charismatics would tell you it's your right in Christ to be healed - nonsense! If it was our right in Christ none of us would get to heaven, we'd all be living forever! We wouldn't be able to endure the fellowship of His sufferings, God never give any blanket promise to heal during any age, not even the apostolic age! Praise God, He heals - don't you go out of this place saying: 'David Legge doesn't believe that God can heal', what I don't believe is that there's men running round our country that can touch you with one touch and you're healed completely. I don't believe that. If there is one, give me his phone number because I've got the cold! If he works, it'll work, will it not work? If it really works, could we not prove it here tonight with some of you folk that are sick? Now come on now, it's alright when the bright lights are flashing and the music's going - yes, you may have been prayed for and you've been healed, praise God...that's not what we're talking about, we're talking about an individual man who can heal whoever he likes - that's what this gift was in the Scriptures, don't make it something it's not!
Fifthly, the effecting of miracles - do you know what a miracle is? It's a supernatural intrusion into the natural world, it breaks the boundaries of natural law, and it can only be explained by divine intervention. Now this gift is in the plural again, it's literally the workings of miracles, or the effectings of miracles. We read of the Lord Jesus feeding the 5000 and all the rest, that was the miracles: turning the water into wine. In the Acts of the Apostles we read that Dorcas was raised from the dead, Elymas was smote with blindness by the apostle, Eutychus was raised from the dead as well. In Acts 19:11, we read that through Paul God wrought special miracles - yes, by the hands of Paul it quotes. Now listen, this was not God doing a miracle, this was God doing a miracle through men at their own will. I categorically declare: I believe in miracles - but I believe that miracles are possible when God believes that they are necessary, and God is the one who determines where they are, what they are, when they are. Listen: if you are claiming the effectings of miracles, that means you can go to someone and perform a miracle.
That's the effectings of miracles, then prophecy - the gift of prophecy is second only in importance to the apostles. Verse 28: 'God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets', and we know from Ephesians that they are of a foundational character in the church of Jesus Christ. There's only twelve apostles, yes there's others who may be named such, but only twelve original apostles - and the early church prophets, not the prophets in the Old Testament now, but New Testament prophets were those who God spoke direct revelation through from God to the church when they didn't have a New Testament as we have. We would have to say that there are no prophets in this sense today. What we have today is what you have standing before you, a teacher who, in contrast, doesn't give directly the word of God through this divine revelation but ministers from the already revealed completed Scripture. Now what happens when you have men who claim to be prophets today is: they are implying that God is still revealing Himself through His word spoken through them. They're saying: 'There's something you don't know, it's not in the Bible, but God has told me and I need to tell you otherwise you'll not know it'. They're implying that God's completed revelation of the Scriptures that we believe it is not completed at all.
Let me show you something from 2 Peter 2, and this verse indicates that prophets were replaced in the early church by teachers, 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 1, Peter says: 'But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you' - he doesn't say there'll be false prophets among you, why? Because there aren't any prophets any more! It is teachers now, even false ones, but men who take the word of God, preach what God has already revealed, and we would have to say that some have that gift today - and if you're saying that prophecy is just simply preaching the word of God, well it's not entirely the biblical sense of prophecy, but maybe that's all we have with us today: taking up the word of God and preaching it as God has revealed, but we don't have prophecy in its primary New Testament early church sense - no way! Otherwise we'll have to get a wide margin version of the Bible (I have one, like), but an interleaved version of the Bible and write down all your prophecies when you make them and stick them in because God is telling us more than He has done within His holy word.
Quickly, let's move on, discerning the spirits. Now listen, people say: 'Well, people have discernment today' - well, that's true in a measure, but that's not this type of discernment. This discernment is not being able to tell who is speaking by the devil and who is speaking by the Spirit of the Lord. We were told in the first three verses how to test the spirits, if a person says 'Jesus is accursed', it cannot be of the Spirit of God. In 1 John we're told there in chapter 4 ways that we can know through people's doctrine whether their spirit is of the Lord or not. But this is different, this is a higher realm of gift here, because what the Spirit is giving to a man when He gives him the discerning of spirits in this sense, is the ability to tell what spirit a man is of even when everything he seems to be saying is biblically and scripturally correct.
Maybe you don't believe me, well in Acts chapter 16 there was a girl who followed Paul, if you turn with me for a moment it will be worth your while. Acts 16 verses 16 to 18: 'And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour'. Now, was what she was saying untrue? No - this gift is being able to discern, seeing into the very spirit of a person, whether they're of God or not. Now I know that people can tell false doctrine today, and maybe that's in this kind of gift - but can we discern like this? I wish we had somebody who could discern like this in the fellowship, but I don't know of any.
Then we come to tongues - we're not going to spend too much time on this, because when we come to chapter 14 we'll be going into it in great detail - but 'tongues' is the word 'glossalia' which is in Greek meaning 'natural languages'. It's not some 'heavenly language' as people tell us at times, it's not some ecstatic language. In Mark 16 the Lord Jesus said it was one of the signs 'they shall speak with new tongues' - that doesn't mean new in language, but new to the speaker, the person that is speaking with it - it's like me speaking Chinese to you from the pulpit here. It's certainly, let me say categorically, it is not the weird nonsensical gibberish that is both nauseating to decency and insulting to our intelligence that we hear in many circles today. The record says in the Acts of the Apostles 2 that at Pentecost, when the multitude came together, they were confounded because every man heard him speak in his own language. They came from all different parts and from different linguistic backgrounds, but they heard Peter preach and they all heard in their own language! They understood because it was their language, not a heavenly language!
The world that they lived in was without written Scripture in the New Testament sense, and the Gospel needed a quick and speedy evangelisation which was only possible through this gift. But I'll tell you: what is claimed today, it's no wonder the world thinks we're all crackers! It is nothing but babble in the babylonish sense! Even if there was a gift of tongues with us today, I can tell you it's not that. Then there's the interpretation of tongues, we'll look at that later on, when another brother or even the same person can be given this gift to rise and interpret what is being said.
Now let's conclude all this in a couple of minutes: we are saying that these gifts in their primary sense, we would have to say that they are not with us today in the fullest nature of these gifts, but in a secondary sense. The kind of gifts that we have before us, the Holy Spirit, if He wills as verse 11 says, can distribute to us in our day certain gifts as we need them - verse 11: 'But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will'. Now it's important that we notice this: in their primary New Testament revelatory sense, these gifts are not with us, but as they are kinds and categories of gifts - we say there are men with wisdom, God-given wisdom, God-given knowledge; there are men with great faith, there are men who do great exploits for God, not miracles as such but exploits; there are men who can discern - they're similar to these gifts, but they are not these gifts in the primary sense...but let us not limit the Spirit of God. Listen to Paul's point: he says these are His gifts, given according to His will, He distributes them, it's His energy that empowers them, and it is His priority to do as He will with them - and that's why there's such a variety of them in the forms that they are given here.
Paul's point was this: how can you Corinthians boast? How can you envy, how can you have rivalry among yourselves when it is the Spirit of the living God who gives these things? Now let me sound a word of caution as I finish tonight, and I know I've given you a whole lot to think about, but my final appeal is simply this: we must never become doubters of the miraculous - never! We must never limit the Holy One of Israel, but - but - let us always be biblical in the beliefs that we have - and I hope tonight that we have laid down the biblical foundation, we've answered any of the questions, we'll go into more detail in later weeks. But no matter what any say, let us hold fast to the word of truth.
Our Father, we believe tonight that Thou art the God of miracles, we believe that Thou art the Almighty One who can do all things. We believe that the Holy Spirit is sovereign in His gifting of the church, but we also believe Thy word, and as we look around us at the confusion within the church and many who claim to have the gifts of the Spirit, all we can see is confusion and dishonour to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We believe in the God of revival, and we believe that when revival comes upon a people that there are supernatural things that are done, but they are all done decently and in order and according to the word of the Spirit. Lord, we pray that we will be men and women of Thy word, that we will be filled with the Holy Spirit, unctionised and given the gifts of the Spirit that You should ordain that we have - but that we will always be a people, although we never deny Thee or Thy power, who test the spirits to see whether these things are of God. Lord, protect us from false doctrine and error, and deliver us from the enemy and the wiles of the lies that he sows - and may we always be a people that walk in the path of truth, for Jesus' sake we pray. Amen.
Don't miss Part 32 of the 1 Corinthians study series: "Bodyworks"
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Transcribed by:
Andrew Watkins
Preach The Word.
November 2003
www.preachtheword.com
info@preachtheword.com
This following sermon was delivered at The Iron Hall Assembly in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Pastor David Legge. It was transcribed from the thirty-first tape in his 1 Corinthians series, titled "The Variation Of Spiritual Gifts" - Andrew Watkins, Preach The Word.
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