Ron Dunn Podcast - Building Up The Body (Part 4)

Episode Date: September 8, 2021

Ron Dunn continues his sermon series "Building Up The Body"

Now, there are four different places that we're going to read from at the beginning tonight. Romans chapter 12, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, Ephesians chapter 4, and 1 Peter chapter 4. So, now you know why God gave you all those fingers. That's so you can hold places in your Bible. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, Romans chapter 12, Ephesians chapter 4, and 1 Peter chapter 4. We'll take them in order as they come, starting first with Romans

12, verses 3 through 8. Verses 3 through 8. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office. So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, or ministry, let us wait on our ministering. Are he that teacheth on teaching?

Are he that exhorteth on exhortation? He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity. He that ruleth with diligence. He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. Now in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 7 through 11. 1 Corinthians 12, 7 through 11. 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 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 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. Now in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11. And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.

And then 1 Peter 4, verses 10 and 11. 1 Peter 4, 10, 11. As every man hath received a gift, the definite article is not in the Greek text, as every man hath received a gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all

things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen. The gifts of the Spirit. I want you to imagine a room that has several windows. You view that room from several different windows. Every window gives you another view of the room. The light is different. The shadows are different. It's the same room, but each window gives you a different viewpoint or a different perspective of that room. Now, Paul does this with the spiritual gifts, and we might imagine that the spiritual gifts are a room. And Paul lets us look through several different windows, and as we look at those gifts, we're seeing the gifts, the same gifts, but we're looking at them from different perspectives or different viewpoints. And it seems to me in these passages that I've read to you tonight that Paul presents the gifts

through three different windows. He treats the gifts in three different ways, presents them in three different manners. For instance, many of the times he presents simply the gift itself, the abstract gift, and the emphasis is placed upon the gift itself. For instance, in the Romans 12 passage, he speaks of prophecy.

He speaks of ministry. In 1 Corinthians 12 and 28, he speaks of governments, of helps, emphasizing the gift itself in abstract, just the abstract gift. Then there are times when he presents the gift, and the emphasis is not on the gift itself, but rather on the manifestation of the gift,

the gift in operation, the gift working. He does much of this in 1 Corinthians 12. For instance, he says, but the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man and then he goes on to delineate several of these gifts the word manifestation simply means a visible appearance and the emphasis there is that these gifts he presents these gifts in their operation in their visible appearance for instance the word of wisdom. The word translated word is really an utterance of wisdom, emphasizing the effect or the manifestation, the visible appearance of that gift,

an utterance of knowledge. The word for tongues doesn't mean simply tongues, but it means tongues in action or tongue speaking. And so he's emphasizing the manifestation of that gift, the gift, the working of miracles. The word working means the effect that is wrought. And so you could actually say that it is a display of powers or a display of miracles. And so there are times when Paul presents the gift and is emphasizing not the gift itself primarily, but the gift manifested, the gift working. Then there is a third way that he presents the gifts. He presents the gifts personified, the gifts personified. Here the emphasis is not upon the gift itself, nor the manifestation of the gift, but the person who has this gift.

For instance, in 1 Corinthians 12, in verse 10, he says that the Spirit of God gives to one the working of miracles. There, just the manifestation of the gift, the displays of miracles. And then in verse 28, he gives us another list of some gifts, and he says God has set some in verse 28, he gives us another list of some gifts. And he says, God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles. But the Greek word there is miracle workers.

The gift has become personified. And many and most of your other translations translate it that way. It's the Greek word not for miracles in the abstract, but miracle workers, personifying, the emphasis not on the gift but on the person who has that gift. Now, he does the same in Romans chapter 12. If you'll notice the switch in emphasis, he says, having been gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy, or ministry, let us minister.

Now notice the switch. Are he that teacheth on teaching? Are he that exhorteth on exhortation? Are he that giveth? And are he that ruleth? Are he that showeth mercy? And so there the emphasis is on the person who has the gift, the gift personified.

Ephesians 4, he does this, and he gave some to be apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Now, someone asked me not too long ago about that Ephesians 4, 11 passage where he says he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers, that are they not gifts themselves, but they are offices.

And that is an interpretation. And there is some discussion about those mentioned in verse 11 not being gifts, but rather they are offices. And God gave some for the office of apostleship and some for the office of prophet and some for the office of apostleship and some for the office of prophet and some for the office of an evangelist, thereby saying that there is not particularly a gift of evangelism. But the only thing about that is that the office of evangelist and the office of pastor and teacher did not come in as such until the second century. In the New Testament times, in the Scripture times, the work of an evangelist was not an office. The work of a pastor was not an office. Now, we say tonight that my office is that of a pastor, but this Scripture here does not say that it is an office. The word is not found. And pastor was not an office in New Testament times.

As a matter of fact, this is the only place that the word pastor is found in the New Testament. As far as the New Testament is concerned, there are only three offices defined, and two of those are more than likely the same office, the bishop and the elder. And throughout the New Testament, the word bishop and elder are used interchangeably. As a matter of fact, in 1 Peter chapter 5, when Peter addresses himself to the elders, he tells them to do the work of a bishop, to oversee the flock. And most scholars seem to think that the word bishop and elder refer to the same office. It's what we would call today the office of the pastor.

But in New Testament times it was not today the office of the pastor. But in the Testament times, it was not called the office of the pastor, but rather it was called the office of bishop or elder. Now, I have a spiritual gift, but my office is not that, scripturally speaking, of a pastor. My office is bishop or elder, and I exercise my gift through that office. And the other office is that of a deacon. And so, in my opinion, there are only really two offices as such in the New Testament,

that of the bishop or elder, what we would call the pastor today, and that of the deacon. But they are not offices in Ephesians 4.11, because setting up the pastor and the evangelist as an office is something we did, not something God did. For instance, Philip had the office of a deacon, but the Bible calls him an evangelist. And so in my interpretation, my conviction is that these gifts mentioned in verse 11 are spiritual gifts that God gifted these men and that made them what they were. Just like God gave some men the gift of teaching, and so they became a teacher. And God gave some men the gift of exhortation, and so they became an exhorter.

God gave some men the gift of miracle working, and they became a miracle worker. So you see these three pictures and these three emphasis of the spiritual gifts, the gift itself in abstract, the manifestation of the gift as it works, and the gift personified. Now, there are nine Greek words translated gifts in the New Testament. Paul uses basically three of these Greek words to describe the gifts. First of all, he uses Doreop, which is used in Ephesians 4, 7, when he says, speaking of the gift of Christ.

And that Greek word stresses the spiritual and supernatural nature of the gift. It is used only 11 times in the New Testament, and every time it is used, it is speaking of a divine gift. Five of those times it refers to the gift of the Holy Spirit, as we receive the Holy Spirit. But there it stresses the spiritual and supernatural quality of the gift. Now, in the very next verse, Ephesians 4, 8, he uses another Greek word, domata, which stresses the concrete nature of the gift. Not talking now about the quality of the gift being spiritual and supernatural, but the gift that you can see, tangible, concrete. And

then he says, here they are. They are men. They are apostles. They are prophets. They are evangelists. He presents them, you see, in a concrete manner. The third Greek word that Paul uses for gifts is the Greek word charisma or charismata. And it is a word that means a gift of grace or a gift in which the donor gives it because of his grace or his mercy. And the emphasis there is graciously bestowed or freely bestowed. And so Paul uses these three different words to emphasize and give us a different perspective of the gift. They are spiritual and supernatural gifts,

and they are concrete gifts. They are personified in people, and they are also gifts of grace. We don't earn them. We do not merit them. God does not bestow them upon us because we reach a certain level of spirituality. They, like salvation, are bestowed upon us simply because it pleases God to bestow them upon us. Now, the primary word that Paul uses is the Greek word charisma or charismata, and it has almost become in our day a technical term for the gifts of the Spirit. For instance, I met a man the other day and he was

introducing himself to me and telling me about his church and he said, we're charismatic over at my church. Now the first time several ago, someone mentioned that to me. I asked them, now, what do you mean by charismatic? And he meant that they believed in the spiritual gifts, the supernatural gifts. Primarily, they practiced the gifts of healing and the gifts of tongues. But they called themselves charismatic, so that in our day, it has practically become a technical term signifying the gifts of the Spirit. Some churches are charismatic, some churches are not. And then there are those that would say,

well, only where the Greek word charismata is used, then is that really a gift of the Spirit. But I do not think the New Testament ever, ever uses charismata as a technical term for gifts, because Paul uses it in 2 Corinthians 1.11 as a gift of God's physical deliverance to the intercession of other people. In Romans 6.23, he uses it, the gift of God is eternal life.

By the way, this may be one gift you might be interested in. 1 Corinthians 7.7, he uses it as a gift of celibacy. Some men are able to remain unmarried and. Some men are able to remain unmarried and some men are not able to remain unmarried and it just depends on the charismata that God has given you. Anybody here want to volunteer for that gift? I hope nobody here that's married

say that's my gift. I need to get unmarried. Now the interesting thing about these words in Romans chapter 5 verses 16 17 and following Paul uses these words Doria and Charismata interchangeably you see for instance uh he will he's speaking about the gift of Christ the gift of righteousness and uh he will use Charismata and it's translated free gift then he'll turn around and talk again about the gift of christ and he'll use the word doria so i'm laying this foundation and saying this in order to say to you that the new testament does not take charismata as a technical term for

the gifts of the spirit the word is used simply to signify and emphasize a certain perspective and quality about the spiritual gifts. Now, what are the gifts? Now, different people have different classifications. Some people find 17 gifts. Some people say there are only 7. Some say there are 9. I think I found 21 or so I found one that I've never heard anybody else mention it and I'm going to mention it tonight if time allows I feel like

that's my discovery now I have not sought to classify these gifts. Now, most people do. I have not classified these gifts for several reasons. Number one, the Bible doesn't classify them. Number two, no list in and of itself is exhaustive and complete. For instance, in 1 Corinthians 12, that passage that we read a moment ago is not a complete list because in verse 8 he puts in two more gifts that were not mentioned earlier. They overlap. For instance, he mentions the gift of teacher in Ephesians 4 and the gift of teaching in Romans 12.

He mentions the gift of prophecy in 1 Corinthians 12 and the gift of prophecy in Romans 12. So they overlap, and no list by itself is exhaustive and complete. As a matter of fact, every time you find a list of the gifts of the Spirit, they are simply presented as an illustration of a deeper truth. Paul never sat down to say, all right, now I'm going to give you a complete list about the gifts and explain to you what each one is and what each one does and how you can have each one. He never does that. He simply presents these spiritual gifts as an illustration of a deeper and a greater truth.

And nearly every time it is illustrating the truth of the unity and the diversity in the body of Christ. It's true in Romans 12, it's true in 1 Corinthians 12, and in Ephesians 4 it is presented as the unity of the Spirit built up for the building up of the body of Christ so that we may all be one. So I have not attempted tonight to classify and arrange these gifts. And what I propose to do is simply to take them one by one and share with you what these gifts are. Now, before we get into the actual naming of the gifts,

I think that it would be well for us to listen to Paul's words of advice in Romans chapter 12, verses 3, 4, 5, and 6 and following. And this is Paul's introduction to these gifts of the Spirit. Let me read these verses again. He says, For I say, through the grace given unto me, that every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man, the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us,

whether prophecy, let us prophesy, etc., etc. Now briefly, Paul gives four words of advice before he launches into these spiritual gifts. And I think it is good for us, before we name and discuss these various gifts, to remind ourselves of what Paul said. He said basically four things. Number one, everybody has a gift. Have I said this before? Okay, sounds familiar. Everybody has a gift. Have I said this before? Okay.

Sounds familiar. Everybody has a gift. Number two, the gifts differ. The gifts differ. God never says that anybody or everybody is to have the same gift. They differ. Number three, there is to be no pride or boasting in the gift. They differ. Number three, there is to be no pride or boasting in the gift. A man ought not to think more highly of himself than he ought, but he ought to think soberly. You see, we realize

that if God has given us a gift, it is a gift of grace, just like salvation. Nothing to boast about in being saved, is there? Nothing to boast about in being saved, is there? Nothing to brag about in being saved. And it is a gift of grace, emphasizing that God gives it to us not because we deserve it, not because we have earned it, but simply because it pleases Him. And that causes us to not be able to have pride or to brag about it. And so Paul says there's to be no pride. You're not to think that you have a spiritual edge on somebody because you have a gift they don't have. You're not to think that you are more spiritual and your Christian

experience is more meaningful because you have a gift that somebody else doesn't have. There's to be no pride, no boasting in it. Number four, he says stick to your gift. Stick to your gift. Now let's look at that. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, if it's prophecy,

let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith. Our ministry, let us wait on our ministering. Now, you'll notice he says on ministering, on teaching, on exhortation. Now, that is the translation of a little Greek phrase that means in teaching or in ministering or in the sphere of exhortation. It's a little Greek preposition that indicates a realm or a sphere. And here's what Paul is saying. Paul is

saying, if you have the gift of ministering, you are to minister in the realm of that ministering. And if you have the gift of teaching, you're to do it in the realm of teaching. And if you have the gift of exhortation, you're to do it in the realm of exhortation. You see, a man's ministry is determined by his gift. First Peter says, as every man has received a gift, so let him minister the same to one another. And so my gift sets the boundaries of my ministry. And there's always a temptation for us to overstep that boundary and want to exercise somebody else's gift. And so Paul is saying, if you have the gift of teaching, you stick in the realm of teaching. And if you have the gift of ministry, you stick in the realm of ministering. Don't be trying to jump over here and get somebody else's gift.

Oh, this happens all too frequently. I'll confess the sins of preachers among preachers. Here is a preacher who is an evangelist. Every time he preaches, he gives an invitation and people are saved. He goes to hear somebody who's not an evangelist. He's a teacher. That's his gift. He simply unfolds the Word of God, teaches the Word of God. He may not even give an invitation. He may be in a conference and he may not even give an invitation. And the evangelist gets all upset.

And he says, look at that fellow there. He preached for an hour and a half, had all those people there and he wouldn't even give an invitation. And so he wants this fellow to act as an evangelist. And then here is a pastor who is a teacher. He believes in building up the body and teaching the word and so he goes to revival and here's an evangelist and the evangelist preaches john 3 16

how to be saved and when it's over the teacher walks away and he says that fellow all he did was just teach the abcs he didn't tell him a thing about victory he didn't tell him a thing about the fullness of the spirit and the teacher preacher begins to criticize the evangelist preacher, and we say to the evangelist, you ought to be like I am, and the evangelist says, you ought to be like I am. Paul says, you have a gift, stick to it and exercise it, and don't be trying to get somebody else in on your gift, and don't be trying to get in on somebody else's gift. Everybody has a gift, they differ. No pride in that gift. No spiritual edge. Whatever your gift is, that's your ministry. Stick to it. All right. Now,

let's just go through these gifts of the Spirit. That's a long introduction, isn't it? All right. First of all, we will go through the list found in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. And the first one mentioned is the word of wisdom. The second one is the word of knowledge. These are very closely akin to each other. The word of wisdom, the utterance of wisdom. Remember now, the emphasis is on a spoken word, an utterance of wisdom. Wisdom in the New Testament has to do

with practical insight, practical wisdom. It is insight into the ways and the purposes of God. The New Testament word wisdom never refers to simply an intellectual type of wisdom, but it always refers to that practical wisdom that gives that possessor the ability to live his life wisely, living his life according to the insight he has into the ways and the will of God. And so God has given some people in the church a gift that will cause them to be able to utter a word of wisdom. Now, if you'll check out Acts chapter 15, when they had the big Jerusalem conference, and there was a real danger there of the church splitting over the method of salvation. James, who was in charge, spoke what I consider to be a word of wisdom. He gave advice and counsel that solved the situation.

I've been in churches, in meetings, in group meetings, where there was some dissension or perhaps there was some tight-going darkness, not really knowing what to do, and suddenly somebody will open a Bible and he'll read a verse of Scripture and suddenly everything just falls into place. God has given him an utterance of wisdom.

Or it may be, he just may speak it, may not read it out of the Word, but he is able to make an utterance that gives practical insight into the ways and the will of God, and suddenly you know what you ought to do, and you know the direction you ought to take. I believe we have people in our church that have been given to an utterance of wisdom in a meeting in a conference in a difficult situation someone just speaks out a word and it is wisdom it is practical insight and immediately you see the way you should go the second gift mentioned is the word of knowledge and the word of knowledge

and utterance of knowledge. Now, this is not knowledge that you acquire by study. Now, let's emphasize this. All of these have to do with a supernatural endowment of God. You do not acquire these by your study, by investigation. Now, I think that you can deepen and enlarge your capacity for the Spirit to use you by study and cultivation, but you do not receive these by study. The word of knowledge.

There is given to some the ability to make an utterance of knowledge. A word that reveals knowledge, a word that reveals information, a word that reveals facts hitherto unknown to that person. God gives him the ability to make an utterance of knowledge. I think that this is what Jesus did in John 4 when he spoke to that woman at the well. And he said, go call your husband. She said, I don't have a husband.

He said, you're right about that. You've had five. The fellow you're living with now is not your husband. Now, who told him that? That's a word of knowledge. He knew something that was not disclosed to him. When Ananias and Sapphira came in, in Acts chapter 5, and Peter said, How much did you sell the land for?

They said, So much. He said, No, you missed it by a whole lot. What you sold the land for was such and so. Now, how did he know? I believe he had an utterance of knowledge. A preacher friend of mine was preaching on the radio. And as he was going through his message, all of a sudden he stopped in his message and said,

put down that gun. And then he went on with his message. A few days later, he received a letter in the mail, and this man said, Pastor, as you were preaching the other night on the radio, I had in my hand a gun, and I was just about to pull the trigger and take my life, and I heard you say over the radio,

Put down that gun. And he said, I laid it down, I listened to the message, and take my life. And I heard you say over the radio, put down that gun. And he said, I laid it down, I listened to the message, and I was saved. I believe that's an utterance of knowledge. Now, let's look at the next one. The gift of faith. To another, in verse 9, faith.

Now, every Christian has faith. And so this does not, this does not apply to that saving faith that all of us have, but rather it is a special gift of faith. And of course, the word faith has the idea of leaning your whole personality on God, trust, committal. And the gift of faith is a special gift, a special supernatural ability to believe God and to accomplish things through faith that nobody else could accomplish.

It's a wonder-working faith. I believe George Mueller had this kind of faith. As he, for some 20 years, provided for an orphanage without ever once asking for money, without ever once letting anybody know what his needs were, he simply prayed and believed God.

One of the great stories that comes out of his biography is one day it came time for those children to eat. There was no food at all in the house. And so he asked all the children to go ahead to the table, just like food on the table.

The plates were turned face down. I guess that was to keep bugs off or something. And he said, I want all the children to turn your plates face up, just like you're going to receive food. And he said, now let's all bow our heads and thank God for the food, not a bite in the house. While he was praying, or when he finished praying, there came a knock on the door. He went to the door, opened it,

and standing there was a man. He had a wagon. He said, I am what we would call today a caterer. And I was supposed to prepare a food for so many people for a wedding today. And I prepared the food.

I went to the place. I had the wrong day. It's tomorrow. I can't do a thing with the food. I passed by your orphanage. I thought you might could use it. That's faith. The gift of faith.

I believe praying Hyde had a gift of faith that he exercised through prayer. He started saying this, praying and believing that God was going to give him one soul to win every day for a year. And that year he won at least one soul every day. The next year he said, I'm going to pray for two a day. And he won two a day every year, two a day for that entire year. The next year he said, I'm praying and believing God for three a day. And every day of that year, he won a minimum of three people.

The next year, he said, this was the year before he went home, he said, I'm going to believe God for four souls a day. And every day of that year, he won a minimum, an average of four souls a day. That's faith. That's faith. The gift of faith is God supernaturally endowing us to have the capacity to believe beyond what others can believe. Now all of us can believe. All of us have faith. But God supernaturally endows some to believe beyond what anybody else can believe and to take the Word of God and to trust God and believe God for it

and move mountains and see wonders work. That's the gift of faith. I really think if God would give me any choice of the gifts, I'd want that one. The gift of faith. I believe God has given it to some in this church. There are some in this church that just have an unusual ability to believe God and to trust God.

Next is mentioned gifts of healings. Now, this is a double plural in verse 9. The gifts of healings by the same Spirit. Now, because there have been in years past so many frauds and so many misuses of this, this gift has kind of fallen in disrepute. I read several, oh, it's been a year or two ago, a little booklet on the gifts of the Spirit, and this man interpreted the gifts of healing as the doctor's ability to administer. And so many people are just afraid to believe that there really is gifts of healing as the doctor's ability to administer. And so many people are just afraid to believe

that there really is gifts of healing, see, because it has been abused and there have been some phonies and frauds that it's given it a bad name. But there is a gift, or there are gifts of healings. Now, it's a double plural, as I said. The word gifts and the word healings both are in the plural. Now, I think this indicates that there are gifts of cures, gifts of healings. There are various kinds of healings, and there are various gifts for those healings. Now, this is given to a man or a woman, and this person has the ability to administer God's healing to that person. You say, how is it done? He doesn't specify.

Some say you've always got to lay on hands, but that's not scriptural. Some say you always have to anoint with oil, but that's not scriptural. There are times when they anointed with oil. There are times when they laid on hands. There are times when they anointed with oil. There are times when they laid on hands. There are times when they didn't. There are times when Jesus healed long distance, person to person. And then there are times when Jesus healed with a direct confrontation. One time he took mud and put it in their eyes.

Another time he told a man to go wash in a pool. Can you just imagine the fellows getting around in those days saying there's only one way to heal? There were the poolites and there were the spitites. And they said, oh no, you can't heal unless you put clay that you spit on in their eyes. Another man says, no, you've got to go to a pool of water. A man who has the gifts of healings,

there is no prescribed way to heal. Now, are these gifts given today? I see no reason in the Bible where it says they are not given today. I know some that say they have the gifts of healings. Now, I don't believe that this is an evidence or a sign that we ought not to use medicine, ought not to go to doctors. Paul prescribed to Timothy a little wine for his stomach's sake. And some have said we ought never to go to a doctor, we ought never to take medicine.

I don't see anywhere in the Scripture where that is taught. Gifts of healing, supernatural abilities for a person to administer, be the channel through which God's healing flows to a person. But there's no prescribed way to do it. Now, I have to say here that I do not believe that the Scripture teaches that it's God's will for everyone to always be healed in perfect health. Now, I know the Scripture that's always used is that by His stripes we are healed, and that is true. But it also says that Jesus Christ has abolished death and we still die, and people are still

sick. abolished death and we still die and people are still sick timothy had a stomach disorder i do not think that we have come into everything yet that the redemption bought for us in the revelation it says that then he shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more sorrow no more pain no more dying and even those that believe that all healing is for us now and that every christian ought to always be perfectly healed even they will have to admit there is a limitation to that because they do not profess that to be able to heal cavities or bad eyesight. So even if you say that all healing is for us now and it's God's will for everybody to be healed perfectly right now,

you will have to admit, I believe, that there is limitation even there. And I do not see plain scriptural teachings to us that we are to expect God to give perfect health and healing to everybody. In 2 Corinthians chapter 12, when Paul talks about his thorn in the flesh, he goes on down and uses a word, infirmities, which has to do with physical disorders. And so Paul says, I will rejoice and glory in physical disorders because I know then that grace is going to be ministered to me. But while I do not believe

it's God's will for everyone to always have perfect health, I'll tell you what I do believe. I believe it's God's will for more people to have perfect health than do have it. And I do believe that if we had a gift of faith where we could intercede, or I do believe if we believed in God healing, I am convinced that more people could be healed than are. Gifts of healing. I think that's enough to say about that. All right. The next one, miracles.

Number five. The next one is miracles. Now, as I said earlier, the word working has to do with the effect, the display. And so a good translation of that would be displays of power. Displays of power. And notice now, you would think that healing

would be working a miracle. But Paul separates them, makes a distinction. There are gifts of healings which are miracles. But in addition to that, there are displays of powers. And this is the ability to

go beyond the natural. I think this is more than likely what Paul, in one sense, exercised or what he experienced when that serpent came out of that wood and grabbed him on the arm and bit him, and the people wondered because he did not die. That was a display of powers going beyond the natural. Every time Jesus raised somebody from the dead, that was a display of powers going beyond the natural. Every time Jesus raised somebody from the dead, that was a display of power going beyond the natural. And so, there is the gift, the ability to display powers, miracles. Next is the gift of prophecy. And you're going to have to listen faster than you're listening. Next is the gift of prophecy.

To another is given prophecy. Now, the word prophecy literally means to speak forth. It's a combination of two words. One that means forth and the other that means to speak. To speak forth. And there are two characteristics of prophecy. One is foretelling. Foretelling. foretelling, predicting the future, the ability under immediate divine inspiration to foretell something that's going to happen. Now,

this is not a result of your having read the newspapers and taken a poll and made a good judgment on what you believe is going to happen. That's not what it's talking about. It has the idea of immediate inspiration. And you speak and there is a foretelling. Now, there are two occurrences of this in the book of Acts. I'll give you these references. We'll not take time to read them. Acts 11, 27, where the prophet foretold a famine. Acts 21.10 where a prophet foretold Paul's imprisonment. Now that's one aspect of it. And normally because that is the most spectacular, it has overshadowed the other aspect of it. And the other aspect of prophecy is foretelling. Now, to be honest with you,

as I read the new testament and study i find that the major emphasis in prophecy in the bible is on forth telling rather than foretelling the major emphasis is on forth telling rather than foretelling. Now, what is this prophecy, foretelling? To speak for God under immediate inspiration, giving a divine utterance under divine impulse, spiritual impulse.

It is the God-given ability to stand up and under immediate inspiration to declare the counsel of God and to speak for God and to declare the mind of God. And it, as I said, does not necessarily mean foretelling. The prophets in the Old Testament, they foretold events to come, but their major ministry was going to the people and giving God's message of judgment

and telling and calling them to repentance. Now, in 1 Corinthians 14, he says that the gift of prophecy to the believer is to edify, exhort, and to encourage. To the unbeliever, it is to show him that God knows his heart and to bring him to conviction. Prophecy. You could almost translate this word, not quite, but you could almost translate this word not quite but you could almost translate this word preaching and some translators in the in

these modern versions have translated that and you could almost translate it preaching but not quite because there are many different aspects to preaching but prophecy is the is just the speaking of the divine counsel it's not necessarily explaining it or clarifying it. It's just giving the message under divine impulse, inspired speech, delivering warnings, exhortations, encouragements. Number seven, and that's the Lord telling me to wind this up. Number seven is the discerning of spirits.

And we're just going to have time tonight to go through this list on 1 Corinthians 12. We'll take Romans 12 and the others next Sunday night. Number seven, discerning of spirits. The word discerning means to distinguish or to divide or to pass judgment upon. Now, in the early church, as in the church today, Satan imitates the work of God. An instance of this is Acts chapter 19 and verse 13. Now, not every miracle is of God. Not every prophecy is of God.

Not every tongue is of God. Not every prophecy is of God. Not every tongue is of God. Not every teaching is of God. There are spirits in the world that are working, evil spirits. The gift of discernment was the God-given ability to know whether or not this was of the Spirit of God or this was of the Spirit of Satan. It was the ability to distinguish between the Spirit of God working and the Spirit of Satan working. Now, Hebrews 5.14 says that all of us ought to develop the faculty of discernment. And I believe that the more and more you come to know Jesus and the more you know of his word, the more able you are to discern spirits. But there is a supernatural gift given to some, and when they meet a man and he gives a testimony, or he preaches, or he lays hands and heals,

or he exercises any other gift or ministry, there are some that have the gift of being able to discern that that is Another spirit rather than the Spirit of God This is a necessary gift and It was more needful before the word was written than it is now But it is still needful and I see no indication where God no longer gives this gift gift of discernment. Just being able to size up a word and to know intuitively if it's of God or of the devil.

All right, number eight, the gift of tongues. Now, I preached a whole message one night on this, so I'm just going to say a few words about this. Tongues, a supernatural prayer and praise language that is given to some. Paul had the gift he mentioned in 1 Corinthians 14. It is a gift, Paul indicates, where the intelligence of the speaker, the mind, is bypassed, and God gives him an utterance a tongue primarily used for prayer and praise next is the interpretation of tongues the word interpretation we get our word hermeneutics from this word and we get our word Herman from this word to there's a Herman here tonight. You are an interpreter, whether you knew it or not.

Or to interpret, or to explain. And it is a gift that God gives to some to be able to interpret and explain, understand the speaking of tongues, the language of tongues.

Now, this is the only gift that the Bible ever tells us to pray for. And Paul in 1 Corinthians 14 tells those that have, that speak in tongues, that they should pray for interpretation. Now, that can either mean one of two things. They are to pray that they would receive the gift of interpretation or that they would pray that there would be an interpretation to their tongues. And the tongues are not to be exercised publicly without interpretation. Now, Paul in 1 Corinthians 14 discourages the exercising of tongues publicly,

but he says if you do it, it must be done with an interpretation. By the way, this leads me more to believe that the tongues that Paul is talking of in 1 Corinthians 14 is not the foreign languages of Acts 2, but rather an ecstatic utterance. Because if a man was simply speaking a foreign language, you would not need a supernatural endowment or ability to understand it. You could learn the language, or there could be those there that knew the language. But to be able to understand and interpret this tongue, there must be a supernatural endowment, a revelation from God. All right, that's the last one mentioned there.

There are two more mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12. Verse 28, And God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, and then helps. The word helps simply means laying hold of or lending a hand to. Very graphic and picturesque word. Now, there is an overlapping here.

This is akin to the gift of ministry that we'll see next Sunday night in Romans chapter 12. But this is the gift of helps. And it means to come to the aid of another, or to support someone, to lay a hand to, to lend your hand to somebody. And it covers practical service of whatever nature there is. I have an idea that perhaps God gives this spiritual gift in more abundance than He does any other. Because no body of Christ, no church could function properly without a great many people who had a gift of help.

Now, let me just put this in. All of us at times are to exemplify and express certain characteristics of these gifts. For instance, all of us are to help, not just those that have the gift of help. All of us are to give, not just those who have the gift of giving. Somebody might say, well, I don't have the gift of giving, so I'm not going to give. I got a letter from a lady in another state the other day, and she was talking about spiritual gifts. And she says, I know what my gift is. And she misspelt it. I knew what she meant. She was talking about the gift of discernment, but she misspelled it. She said, I have the gift of dissension. I know several people that have the gift of dissension. I take that back. I believe God gives that gift, or the devil gives that gift more in abundance. Gift of helps. It would be

impossible for any church to carry on its work to minister without great many people that had the gift of helps. As I said, all of us are to help, but there are some in the church that have an unusual ability just to help. You know, there's some people that when they try to help you, they just mess things up worse. You know anybody like that? Now stop looking at your wife. But there are some that say, let me help. And all they do is gum up the works, just make it more difficult. But there are others, now get this, who have both a desire and an ability to help. They just want to help. They don't want to preach. They don't want any big sensational spot in the church. But they're always there to lend a hand, just to lend a hand.

And they have both a desire and the ability to help. And when they exercise that gift, they do it well, you see. All right, there's one more that we'll mention. And it is the gift of governments. And notice it's in the plural governments in verse 28 this is a very interesting word it means steering or piloting and it was used of a the steersman who would pilot the boat or pilot the ship into the harbor it has the idea of guiding and it occurs only here in the New Testament and some translators

translated administration and that idea is there it is somebody who has the ability to take hold of a program or a project and to steer it successfully you see he might be a superintendent of a department or he may be on the committee on committees the Lord save us from a committee on committees but if we had one he might be on that and he would have the ability to steer and to guide the idea of administration and by the way there are people in our church that have the gift of administration.

And I thank God for them. I tell you, I know what my gift is not. And it is not administration. Now, you know, I want to show you the beauty of the gifts. You know, I enjoy just talking to you tonight about the gifts. I am so tired, and I believe God is grieved, that the only time today it seems that gifts are mentioned

is in argument and debate and over controversy. I think that's of the devil. And it just mars a beautiful picture. And I just love and enjoy so much being able to just discuss the gifts without controversy, debate, argument. I just refuse to do it. I think it grieves the heart of God.

It's such a beautiful thing, the body, the gifts. You see, there might have been a time when I thought I was a failure as a pastor because I could not administer. I was no administrator. And there are some that feel that way. Isn't it wonderful to know that what I lack God makes up in the life of other people. And so I don't have to go around saying I'm a failure because I cannot administrate.

I just, I don't like it, I don't have any desire for it, and I just mess it up. I'm not a stirrer in that sense of organizing and administrating. But there are men in this church that I believe have the gift of governments, the gift of administration. And they'll come and they'll take these jobs, these plans, these programs in the Church, and I don't have to worry about it. I remember several years ago when we went through our last bond program. Now, many pastors, when their church goes through a bond program, boy, I mean, they're the ones. They're at the head. They're steering it. You know, they've got to hold the wheel, and they're administrating the whole thing. Well, I had neither desire nor ability to do that. But we had some men

in our church that had the gift of ministration. And I want you to know, I just sat back. I never worried about it. And that thing just went through beautifully because God had gifted men to do that kind of work. And I don't see any reason why my arm should try to be a leg and an ear and an eye, and I don't see any reason why the pastor should try to exercise every gift in the book. He doesn't have it. God doesn't want it to work that way. Isn't that beautiful? What I lack, you have. And what you lack, I have. Oh, I tell you, it thrills me.

I get excited because I know my limitations. I know my limitations. So Paul says in Romans 12, he says, there are two mistakes you can make. Number one, you can overestimate yourself, thinking you've got all the gifts, you're something, and that's a sin. You don't.

But he says another sin is to underestimate yourself thinking that you don't have anything or maybe this little piddly gift you have isn't as spectacular and sensational as this other and so you get inferior but you see when you understand the body there's no room for superiority and there's no room for inferiority there's no room for superiority, and there's no room for inferiority. There's no place for overestimate, and there's no place for underestimate. Because I have need of you, and you have need of me. And all of us working together in the body of Christ. Now, next Sunday night, we'll take Romans 12, and go through that, and then that other gift that I found.

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