4 Gifts of the Spirit, Part 3

Paul starts out I Corinthians 12, by saying "now concerning the spirituals, I don't want you to be ignorant."  And there is so much ignorance in the world concerning the spirituals and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  This past week I was in Louisville, Kentucky for a conference - the midwinter conference.  I left all of my books on the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit; I left all of those at home.  I'd had it.  I'd had enough of it.  I've read every book that's been written in the area that I could get my hands on and a lot of them I wish I hadn't bothered with.  And so I decided to take the week off and, as I sat down on the plane last Monday morning, at 12:35 in the morning, my seat partner who happens to be my golfing partner as well - pastor Jennings of Bremerton - cracked his briefcase and whipped out a book, and guess what it was on?  I said, "no, I haven't seen that particular book on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and I don't want to see that book."  And he said, let me quote you a verse of scripture, and he quoted for me, "now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant" and he handed me...  Fortunately it was a small book, and it wasn't a bad book.  It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either.

How desperately needed and as obvious by the expanding, never-ceasing, areas of Christian bookstores devoted to spiritual gifts and the ministry and person of the Holy Spirit.  And it never ceases to amaze me to realize that what God had given to the body of Christ in the Holy Spirit, Whose purpose was to take the things of Christ, and to show them to us and build up the unity of the body of Christ, for the effective ministry and penetration of the world to carry out the great commission, has instead been used by Satan and diverted and twisted so that, instead of building the body of Christ and developing the unity of Christ, it has instead capitalized on creating disunity.  And that's because of ignorance.  Not ignorance of the gifts, but ignorance of the spirituals in contrast with what Paul has been talking about in the first 11 chapters of I Corinthians, which are the carnalities - the fleshly evidences.  And now he moves into the spirituals - the spiritual evidence.  And we sometimes forget that the scriptures are so utterly practical.  When you read the Phillips translation that I read for you from I Corinthians 12, you just can't help but get the point, can you?  This glorification of any particular gift or the exultation of any particular gift, or the projection of my gift on you, has no place in the body of Christ.  Its counterproductive and it is non-Biblical.  And that's why Paul draws such a ludicrous picture - the illustration of the whole body being an eye.  Just one huge eye - not even little feet - just one big eye.  And its silly!  Its ridiculous!  Its overdrawn.  He wants so desperately that we understand that the whole body is not an ear, or a nose, or a mouth, or feet, or hands.  A body is, by definition, a BODY.  How desperately we need to know, then, something about the gifts of the Spirit.

Now I don't have time to go into a recap, obviously, because its already time to quit according to some people who nervously clock an hour of worship but we're not going to worry about that, and if you get that shook up about it, next week sit closer to the back so you can slip out.  I think it is very critically important that we understand that the corporate use of the gifts is basic to our understanding of spiritual gifts.  They are always given for corporate use.  They are not given to "turn you on" as an individual.  They are to build up the total body to maturity and to the praise of His glory.  And when you speak of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, you have to remember that edification is the purpose for the gifts - the building up.  The context of the gifts is always the unity of the body.  And the controlling attitude for their proper exercise is what the choir just sang: "The greatest of these is love".  So we have to understand that gifts are a fundamental provision of the Lord for the operation of the church.  Some people are so nervous.  They say, "Oh pastor, you're still not into the specific gifts of the Holy Spirit!  I'm so nervous!  When you get to them, oh some people are going to be upset."  Well, I've told you that for six weeks and when we finally get there, some of you will be upset and some of you are ahead of schedule - you're a little upset now - that's alright.  You see, gifts are as the human body consists of individual cells, exercising various functions, so it is the body of Christ consists of many members, each of whom possesses a specific function which is known as a spiritual gift.  And each gift is essential to the proper function and operation of the body.  But no gift is greater.

The question is, what are these gifts?  Well, we started last week by saying there are a couple of things that the gifts are not.  I spent quite a bit of time talking about the subject that the scripture points out that the gifts of the Spirit are not the same as the fruit of the Spirit.  And I want to reiterate only this much: godliness is greater than giftedness,  The first chapter of I Corinthians tells us that the church at Corinth was not lacking in any gift, but they were a mess.  And they were useless to God in that situation, although they had all the gifts.  And so if you only had the choice, you would be unspeakably foolish to choose gifts over fruit. And some of you know that when you come to me and you tell me about a gift that the Holy Spirit has given you and you're so excited and turned on about it, that my response - very genuinely - is joy coupled with an exhortation.  Now what a joy it will be, since you have the assurance of the Holy Spirit's power and presence in your life to see with you how He bears His fruit in your life. I am not going to major in gifts.  And I do not want my people majoring in gifts.  I want to major in bearing fruit.  Fruit that will remain.  And that's what the challenge of scripture is.  We also said last week that gifts are not the same thing as natural talents.  And I'm not going to take any time to get into that this week.  I want to move on quickly.

It is necessary to say that we need to draw a distinction between genuine spiritual gifts and genuine Christian roles.  You look over the Biblical list of the spiritual gifts, and you recognize that many of them describe what is expected of every Christian.  Some of the gifts are also every Christian's role.  Now this is really important so I want you to hear this very carefully.  And I want to illustrate it in a couple of different ways.  Many of those things that are listed as gifts of the Spirit are, in fact, roles that belong in every Christian's life.  For instance, all of us, as Christians, are commanded to witness.  That's one of our roles as Christians - is to bear witness to the good news - to share the good news.  But we also know that there is a gift that is called the gift of evangelism.  And a lot of us assume that that's part of it.  Just because a person does not have the gift of evangelism does not mean that he shouldn't be ready to share his faith at any opportunity.  Somebody said to me, "now that you're back from your trip across the country and back, I suppose you'll have some interesting stories to tell."  Well, frequently I do, because the Lord puts me, or I put, or somebody puts me in some situations that keep me off-balance, but I said to the Lord, as I got on the plane, "I am exhausted!  And I'm going to be flying all night long and I don't want to talk to anybody."  And when I arrived in St. Louis to change planes, I hadn't talked to anybody.  Nobody.  Boy that felt good.  

But I got off the plane in St. Louis and some guy came up to me and said, "man its early in the morning, isn't it?"  I don't know, it must have been 5:00 or 6:00 - something like that.  

And I'd been flying all night and I was really feeling kind of rummy, and I said, "Yeah, its too early in the morning to even get into a conversation."  

And he said, "What are you doing, traveling at this hour in the morning?  Where are you headed?"  

I said, "I'm headed to Louisville" (down south they say "Louville").  

He said, "What in the world for?"  

And I said, "I'm going to a conference."  

"Oh really?  What kind of a conference?"  

There's no way you can get out of something like that.  Now, it is very clear that at that moment, God was confronting me with an opportunity - not to exercise my gift - but to fulfill my role.  To be His witness.  It has nothing to do with the gift of evangelism.  It has to do with obedience and discipleship.  Maybe you don't possess the gift of mercy. But you are still to fulfill the role of comforting and assisting the unfortunate and the needy.  You may not have the gift of discernment, but you are still called upon to prove all things and to hold fast to that which is good.  You may not have the gift of giving, but that doesn't mean when the ushers come down the aisle you say, "Never mind, pass it past me, I don't have the gift.  I don't have to tithe."  The scripture makes it very plain by the word of God that we are to give financially in such a way that the Bible even describes it with a Greek word which means "burst out laughing".  It means "giving hilariously". Nobody this morning - I listened carefully - is obedient.  Some of you don't know how to give that way simply because you have always had your little pocket calculator out to make sure you didn't get over 10%. Or to somehow make sure you somehow try to get up to 10%.  Some of you get hung up on percentages.  The hilarious giving comes when you have given all that you feel you should.  All that you feel responsible to give.  All that you feel obligated - indebted - to give.  And then you give some more.  That's when the fun comes.  Someone once said, "Give until it hurts and then give a little bit more and it will feel good."  But just because you don't have what the Bible calls the spiritual gift of giving (and we'll get into that) does not mean that you just say "I don't have that gift, so forget it."  

The absence of gifts does not excuse disobedience to the commands.  Christians must be ready to exercise any role in any case of a need.  When a need is there, you had better meet that need.  You do not justify inaction or indifference by saying, "well, I don't have that gift."  I exercise so many roles in my job as your pastor that I am not gifted for.  But they're part of the job description.  They are needs that have to be met. Somebody's got to do it. The need's sitting on my desk - its right in front of me - I'd better meet it.  And gift, or no gift, I have a role to fulfill and I will do it.  And so must you.  Because I do not have a gift, I am not excused from obedience.  We are not allowed to sit with folded hands in indifference and say, "well, since I don't have that gift, I don't have to do it."  There are roles to fill.  These roles require not giftedness; they require obedience.  All right.

Secondly, don't confuse spiritual gifts with counterfeit gifts.  Satan always opposes God.  And if he cannot oppose successfully in a direct confrontation with God, he will always try to confuse the followers by creating a counterfeit.  Paul warns in his letter to the Corinthians, "Satan, himself, is transformed into an angel of light, therefore its no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as ministers of righteousness."  The Bible warns that the great counterfeiter, Satan, can make imitations of anything.  For Christ, there is Antichrist.  For a true prophet, there are the false prophets.  For the true apostles, there are the false apostles.  For the wheat, there are the tares (or the weeds).  For sheep there are wolves in sheep's clothing.  Even for the Holy Spirit and His angels, there are the unclean spirits.  And Jesus says in Matthew 24, "For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that if it were possible, they would deceive the very elect."  Don't get so hung up on the miraculous and the miracles and "whoa, look at that!"  Because that, too, can be counterfeit.  And can come through Satan rather than from God.  We need to base our doctrine firmly on the word of God - not on experiences.  Experiences can come from the pit, and they can come from God.  But the word of God is sure and certain.  Jesus says in Matthew 7 that, "many will stand before the judgment seat and say, 'Lord, Lord didn't we prophesy in Your Name?"  That's a gift of the Spirit.  "Didn't we cast out demons in Your Name?  Perform many miracles?" Another gift of the Spirit. "Then I will declare to them," says Jesus, "I never knew you.  Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness."  They come with their authenticating gifts and He says what will authenticate you before the throne is the fruits, not the gift.  Notice how Christ refers to these counterfeit gifts and to an absence of spiritual fruit.  

I do not doubt, for a minute, that every single gift on the list, whether in I Corinthians 12,13,14, or in Ephesians 4, or in Romans 12, or in I Peter - every one of those gifts is capable of being counterfeited.  And in most likelihood is being so today.  Every one of them.  Satan is a supernatural being and has power, and they can fake everything that is genuine.  He duplicated the works that God did through Moses, way back in Exodus 7 and 8.  Remember how Moses stands before Pharaoh?  And he has some authenticating miracles.  He throws down his staff - it becomes a snake.  Picks it up by the tail - it becomes a staff again.  Oh man, if somebody did that in a special meeting in a church, the next night he'd have twice as many people there.  Because they want to see that miracle.  And so Moses stands before Pharaoh and he throws down the staff and it turns into a snake.  And he picks it up - it turns into a rod.  And Pharaoh's magic men, they say, "Big deal."  And they did the same thing.  You see, Satan is able to counterfeit, and has ever since the beginning.  So don't hook your theology on experience.  If you do, you'll crash.  And there are so many that have.

Now I bring this to your mind, not because I want you to make you so paranoid about spiritual gifts that you run around and say, "is that genuine, is that false, is that counterfeit", that you get all shook up, but I want to remind you that God knows all about these counterfeits, and He can give us adequate power to prevent confusion and fear.  And I want to remind you that Satan's power is limited and its controlled.  But I also want to remind you - I think Bob Tuttle says it best in his book "The Partakers".  He says, "Satan is on a tether."  You know what a tether is - that's a line that holds you to a central point; you can't go any farther than that.  He says "Satan is on a tether.  If, however, we slip within reach or range of his tether, yielding to some particular temptation, he'll have us for breakfast."  Now, I don't want you to become excited and shook up and paranoid about it, but I want you to be wise and discerning.  And I don't want you to be running around being gift-admirers, because you can be spending a lot of energy and time and gasoline chasing gifts that are spurious and false.  We are called to be fruit inspectors and fruit bearers.  Psalm 1 says, "The righteous are like a tree - firmly planted by the streams of water which yields its fruit in its seasons."  John 15, Jesus says to His disciples, "You didn't choose Me.  I chose you and I appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain."  Philippians 1, Paul prays that church at Philippi will be filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.  And in that passage I read before from Matthew, where Jesus is talking about the last days, He says, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord', will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who's in heaven."  Not gifts - obedient discipleship. "Many will say to Me, 'Lord, Lord, didn't we cast out demons in Your Name, and in Your Name perform many miracles, and prophesy" and so forth...  Now there's a claim to authenticity on the basis of gifts.  And Christ, in one fell swoop, says, "If somebody comes among you and claims because of these sign gifts that they somehow are powerful and filled with the Spirit, that's not what you look for."  "Then I will say, I never knew you, depart from Me you who practice lawlessness."  In a church not too far away from here, a pastor friend of mine was facing a direct confrontation with a man in his congregation who manifested a particular gift.  It was a gift that was a rather dramatic gift, and it was a very spectacular gift, and it was a very impressive gift.  At the same time, this man had an incestuous relationship with his own daughter, who then brought up this to the attention of the pastor, and when confronted the man with the gifts who said "I know that what she says is true, but I'm only being honest to my nature."  Now, you see, gifts don't authenticate a blessed thing!  It is the fruit that authenticates.  And if you're all shook up because you think I'm referring to the gift of tongues, I don't have to be that subtle with you people.  It wasn't the gift of tongues.  But it might have been.  It might have been any gift, because Satan can counterfeit these gifts and that's why the claim to authenticity is not experience.  Its the word.  It is not demonstrated by the gifts.  It is demonstrated by the fruit.

And so Jesus says in Matthew 7, "There are going to be a lot of false prophets that will come in the way, but you will know them by their fruits.  Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are figs from thistles.  Every good tree bears good fruit, but the rotten tree produces bad fruit.  And a good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree produce good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire.  So then," Jesus says, "You will know them by their fruit."  Therefore, it is mandatory that we are able to distinguish between spiritual gifts and counterfeit gifts.

Now, I Corinthians 12:4 says, "There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.  And varieties of ministries, but the same Lord.  And varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons."  And the first thing we have to notice about that is that gifts unify.  Now, I know, you heard me right.  The word teaches gifts unify.  We look around us on the church scene and we say, "that's not the experience to the church today.  If anything's tearing the church apart, it's gifts."  Although its not the gifts, its bad teaching about the gifts.  Or it is the exaltation of gifts.  Or it is the projection of gifts.  But its not gifts.  The church at Corinth demonstrated anything but unity, although them demonstrated all of the gifts.  But this problem in Corinth was not caused by the gifts.  It was caused by ignorance concerning the gifts, and the place they fill.  And so Paul is at some real pains here to show that just as God is three Persons in One, so it is that there is diversity and unity principle operating in the church.  And he does it this way: he says there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.  There are differences of administration, but the same Lord.  There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God.  Father, Son, Holy Spirit.  Diversities, differences, diversities.  The purpose of the Trinity is to bring about and manifest the unity of the Godhead.  The purpose of Paul's statement here in tying in with the principles of the Trinity is that there is unity in diversity - not independence, but interdependence.  You see, I am not independent of you.  And you are not independent of me.  And what you do, and how you live, does affect me.  And I, you.  Because we are interdependent.  And so it is so critically important that we understand that.

Now next week, we'll start here with verse 7 - the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.  And we'll notice three very important things in that little verse, and move on to some of the abuses of gifts, how do you find your gifts, and then we'll get into the list itself.

So go into a world that is really excited about seeing something spectacular, as men and women who participate in what is the most spectacular things of all: new life in Jesus Christ.  Go out, then, not to demonstrate your gifts, but to walk in obedient discipleship.  And rejoicing in HIS power, that will enable you to meet whatever task He sets in your path.  God the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit will bless, honor, keep, and prosper you in your ministry and me in mine, until by His grace we're together again.